Page 13 of Hunt

But I wondered, did I succeed under their eyes or fail? It was hard to tell.

As I was about to close the door to their penetrating stares, I asserted to stamp my place, “I don’t want to date you anymore. I prefer not to date liars,” I told Gunner again without looking at him.

Gunner scoffed breathlessly as I closed the door on them. “You don’t have a choice.”

Fearful that they would drag me back into that room again, I ran to the trolley parked in the way of the elevator door so it could shut. My cheeks were burning, and my heart was thudding against my ribcage, but I saved the trolley, pressed the button, and the doors slid shut. I took deep breaths to cool the heat surging across my skin and my rapidly beating heart.

I sincerely don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can survive working here with them, my enemies, the men who’d slit my throat without hesitation for imprisoning their leader.

I told myself to take it one day at a time. As the elevator opened onto the ground floor, I quickly wheeled the trolley out and back to the kitchen, where I’d search for Betty to update my details and apologize profusely for using a fake ID.

A fake ID to cover the other phony ID.

6

Several seconds after Riley left, Mikael flung Ronan’s office door open and poked his head inside. “And?”

I shrugged and looked to Ronan for input since he watched her face as it was revealed who I was. We expected a dramatic reaction, but instead, she seemed baffled, perplexed as to why I had my face covered in the first place. Where I stood, there seemed to be a hint of disingenuousness that irked me, but that could be because she was eager to escape us to return to the kitchen.

“If she were Annika, why didn’t she freak out after realizing that the masked weirdo she’d been fucking was her foster brother,” Ronan stated cringing, then addressed me. “You fucked her knowing that she might be your foster sister. Let that sink in.”

I shot him a dirty look. “I’m not seeing a problem.”

A steely expression set on Mikael’s face. “There won’t be a problem from this onwards because you won’t be touching her, will you?” He was a man who wanted to get to the root of the problem quickly, and if we had the key to discovering who murdered my father, then he’d like to open her up and fish out the answer. But we had to tread delicately, or else we could screw everything up.

I argued, “You said you wanted us to continue as normal.”

Ronan chuckled, “Going by the black scowl on her face, I’d say she won’t let you touch her.”

“That won’t stop me,” I snarled stubbornly. “Are you going to keep fucking her?”

“Are your ears glued on?” Mikael hit. “I said, don’t touch her.”

“That’s contradictory to what you said previously,” I argued back. “You said act normal. Acting normal is sneaking into her room at night, climbing into her bed, and sliding between her sweet legs. Jumping her while wandering through the campus garden at night.”

Mikael screwed his face up and looked to Ronan while pointing his thumb at me. “He’s fucked. He needs therapy to learn to respect boundaries.”

Ronan sneered. “The therapist will need therapy after spending an hour with him.”

Mikael took a deep breath and then exhaled, showing his shrinking patience. “She’s the staff, Gunner. The rules have not changed. We do not fuck the staff. We need to let her relax, chill a little, let her drop her guard, then we’ll pounce. Got it?”

“That’s the plan?” Ronan asked, sounding disappointed because he wanted to continue his crusade for her body.

“Yeah,” Mikael prompted. “Act normal around her, but I don’t want you touching her because that’s the fucking rules. Become her friend and her confidant and then milk her dry.” He nodded toward Ronan’s desk. “Did you show her that pic Gunner took of the geek girl?”

“Nah,” Ronan replied, “We didn’t have a chance.”

“I’ll do it,” I offered. I had a pic of that peculiar girl who confronted me on my phone, so I’ll approach Riley and ask her. There was something off about her as she was more than just a protective friend; she seemed to have it in for me, being a Kaiser. Usually, I wouldn’t care what someone thought of me, but if she whispered into Riley’s ear every five seconds, we might have another problem on top of the already existing problem.

“Not like that, you won’t,” Mikael growled, examining my clothes. “We don’t have scruff on the fucking club floor. Grab a jacket, fuck, dude, you look like a fucking sick corner drug dealer.”

“You overdid the adjectives, bro,” I hit back as I stepped to Ronan’s cupboard, removed a black dress jacket, and pulled my sweater off.

“Yeah, well, you need special descriptives,” Mikael argued. “Go easy on her, Gunner.”

“What?” I scowled at him in confusion. “I’m going to ask her a question, that’s all. Don’t turn it into a big deal. I’m not going to kidnap her…” I cocked my eyebrows at Mikael who wore an expression like he didn’t trust me and expected nothing but trouble. If he expected trouble, then I didn’t want to disappoint. “Now there’s a thought,” I added, getting a reaction from Mikael. “Now, where would I store her?”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Mikael hissed, cracking a smile because he knew I was joking. Or was I?

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