Page 74 of Prey

“Who?” I asked, trying to figure out which person he was looking at.

“Riley,” he snarled as if I should know who Riley was. “The girl, I think, is Ann,” he swallowed before finishing her name, “ika.”

“Seriously?” Ronan stood up and stepped to the window, a glass of whiskey in his hand. “Which one?”

“The girl…” he pointed his finger, stunned, mouth gaping in awe. “She’s wearing a uniform. She works here? Why didn’t you tell me you had Riley Laws on the payroll.”

“Pretty sure that we don’t have a Riley Laws on the payroll, but I could check with Betty,” Ronan screwed his face up and glanced at me like he was wondering if Gunner was losing the plot.

“Gunner, point out which girl Riley Laws?” I stated sternly so he’d calm the fuck down.

“The pretty girl in the kitchenhand uniform,” he outlined.

“Why the fuck are they on the floor?” I growled, annoyed as that was a breach of our high standards, and my hand reached for my phone to call Betty to sort it out. “Kitchenhands are supposed to stay behind doors.”

“The girl with glasses and long, brown hair tied up,” Gunner added as I pressed the phone against my ear.

Ronan groaned and landed back down on his chair as the color drained from his face. “That’s Petra Black.”

Betty picked up. “Betty, why have you got kitchenhands on the floor?”

“Sorry, Mikky. There's a problem with one of the servant doors. I'm sorting it out now,” she replied swiftly, and the kitchen staff was driven off the floor in seconds. With that small problem diverted, I was left with an impending hazard with these two.

“Petra Black?” Gunner questioned, looking back at Ronan, who was starting to look a little sick.

“Don’t tell me…” Ronan began, “Are you the masked man who knocked the teeth out of some guy who hurt her?”

“Yeah,” Gunner replied darkly. “How do you know?”

“Wait. Whose teeth did you knock out, Gunner?” I thought it was more important to avoid another lawsuit than worry about a kitchenhand that’s caught the attention of these two.

“It was one tooth, and he fucked her, then forced her to walk home in the dark,” he stated proudly.

“Okay,” I resigned, still not happy about this.

“What do you mean, Petra Black?” Gunner snarled.

“That’s the name on her ID. Obviously, it’s a fake ID-”

“What?” I scratched my forehead in frustration. “We don’t hire underage staff. Does Betty know there is an underage girl here?”

“It’s on me. I wanted her to work because I met her as someone else,” he explained as Gunner’s suppressed rage grew.

“You know she was Riley?”

“No. I knew her as the girl who swam in the forest pool. That’s how I met her. Sort of.”

“Forest pool?” Gunner was frothing at the mouth like he was about to snap. “Have you fucked her?”

“I didn’t fucking know she was Riley,” Ronan argued back with fists clenched, ready to deal fight off the angry pitbull terrier. “Calm your shit down. She used a fake ID and said her name was Petra fucking Black.”

“Alright, timeout. Sit the fuck down, Gunner.” He was pacing, pent-up, confused energy about to explode. Once he was seated and calmed, I collected my thoughts and sipped my whiskey. “You both fucked the staff and broke the number one rule. I should sack the both of you.”

“I didn’t know she was staff,” Gunner informed us. “I knew she had a job, but she wouldn’t tell me where?” He folded his arm tightly across his chest and cocked his dark head, holding back his frustration. “Even if she told me, I wouldn’t break it off with her.”

“Are you falling for her?” I asked Gunner as disappointment swept across Ronan’s face.

Gunner shrugged, trying to play down his feelings. “I mean…she’s a nice girl.”

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