Page 46 of Overstaying His Welcome

Later, I’d show him just how much I appreciated him being strong enough to push his discomfort aside. This wasn’t about us anymore. It was about Tank and Chance. About the team as a whole.

We had to work together.

Or else we were at risk of completely falling apart.

CHAPTER 13

COHEN

Being outvoted sucked.

I mean, yeah I get that this was a good thing. I’m glad to know my boss was happy and in love.

It just stung that he’d kept it a secret for so long.

I mean — what did it matter? We were all gay or bi. Maybe even pan in some cases. We weren’t going to judge him for his relationships.

Hell, we knew he’d flirted with men through the years. It wasn’t a secret.

I struggled to figure out why Chance was so different.

As everyone got to work making sure things were ready, I focused on staying with Memphis and Arick while they dug through Chance’s finances. I couldn’t help with the digital aspects, but I could recognize patterns with the best of them.

Plus, I didn’t want to be around the others just yet. My brain was too fucked up at the minute. If left to wander, I’d come up with some stupid shit to say.

I already felt like I’d spoken out of turn. The way Godric corrected me before wasn’t good. I needed to get my head in order.

That meant working.

Focusing on what I knew best.

“Do we have anything else to look into? I thought this was a dead end?” I asked Memphis as he and Arick kept clicking away on their keyboards.

It was amusing to watch them work side by side. I was in the middle of their cubicles, meaning when I looked one way I could see Memphis, and then the opposite side held Arick’s set up.

They were like night and day too. Memphis had massive screens and barely any decorations around the space. If it weren’t for the coffee cups and a single picture of Sinclair, I’d think him a robot.

Sometimes I still wasn’t sure.

Meanwhile, Arick’s space was covered in pictures and drawings from his son. It was colorful and inviting. I smiled simply from looking at it.

Since he’d come to work for NightShade, Arick had found a permanent nanny to watch over Sol during work hours. Thankfully the older gentleman was a former Green Beret who still kept his skills up. No one was going to come near Sol ever again.

“It’s a dead end for the financials, but there’s always something else to look into,” Memphis said. “Since Lune used Tank’s first name from his life before, we suspect he might have known him back then.”

I nodded, picking up where he was going. “You’re digging into Tank’s life?”

Arick choked, then coughed to clear his throat. “More like looking into any associates he might have had way back when.”

“Associates? I’m not sure if that’s what you can call friends of a child. Tank has gone by, well, by Tank, for forever. It’s not like he waited until he was an adult to change it from what I know.”

“Well, we don’t know all that much do we? He hid an entire relationship from us. What if there’s more? I’m not willing to risk everyone’s safety for more secrets.”

Memphis seemed a little bitter too. Good to know.

I ignored the look Arick shot our way. He was newer here. He didn’t know how all the dynamics worked. Besides, even if he did, the rest of us had a right to feel how we did. And if it felt like betrayal to some of us, then so be it.

The room was quiet aside from the click of keyboards and the shuffling of a mouse every now and then. I sunk into the peace, happy to have a moment to think things through.

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