Page 9 of Bully

Chapter 4 – Tamen

“You’vegotanenormousset of balls; I’ll give you that.” Dane’s annoying voice called out as he entered his office, cutting my study session short. Or at least what I was trying to make into a study session, but his firewall was ridiculously strong these days.

“I told you Peyton would let him do something stupid.” His annoying best friend Maddox’s voice followed behind my brother, and I rolled my eyes, already regretting my stupid plan in the first place. “She has a weird soft spot for T.”

“It’s hardly weird.” I called out, trying once more to break through the impenetrable force field protecting Dane’s computer from me. Once upon a time I had no problem getting into his shit, but it seemed my big brother had reinforced his electronics. I wondered why. “I’m a very likeable mate.”

Dane snorted, “Get up.” I tried another combination of code to break through, out of spite, and Dane cringed at the electronic alarm it set off like it pained him somehow to have his force field scratched by me. “God, for fuck’s sake, stop messing my shit up.”

I groaned and stood up, shoving his chair back as I raked my hands through my hair. “Since when is this locked to me?”

“Since you made your permanent residence in Boston.” Dane chided, sitting down in his chair and glaring at me. “What are you doing here?”

“Trying to watch your MILF porn, duh.” Maddox added unnecessarily and both Dane and I turned to glare at him, but he just smirked. “What? MILF’s are hot.”

“How is my Little Hacker?” I squinted at the ugly bear, and his face darkened at the mention of his wife. “Ooh, trouble in paradise.” I tsked my teeth, “Can’t say as I’m surprised.”

“I’ll take the trash out.” Maddox rose to his feet from where he had just sat down on the couch, “Free of charge, Dane.”

“Enough you two.” Dane sighed, “Christ, you both make it physically painful to be in the same room as you when you get like this.”

“Get like this?” I questioned, “We’ve never stopped or been anything other than this. Aren’t you used to it by now?”

“Maybe when I was fifteen years younger.” Dane gave one last glare at Maddox, who returned to his seat and then turned to me. “You have to stop creating enemies simply for the sake of having them. Isn’t it exhausting hating everyone?”

Sloane’s golden eyes flashed through my mind’s eye, and I blinked it away. I couldn’t quite explain it, but her hate and anger warmed my soul every time she threw it my way the other night.

It was a rush and left me counting down the seconds until I’d be in her presence again for that same high.

“No.” I replied, to keep him from digging into my mind. “I prefer it that way.”

“You know who else enjoyed hating everyone?” Maddox quipped and my blood ran cold before he uttered his answer. “Rupert.”

“Knock it off.” Dane snapped, triggered by the mention of our father’s name as much as I was. “What were you trying to do before I caught you?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide it.” Scoffing, I pretended it was no big deal. “I was just trying to get some background on someone.”

“And your normal avenues for information are—” Dane paused, “Inadequate?”

“Unsafe.” I surmised, hating even mentioning it, but the fact of the matter remained. I wanted information, and I was desperate enough to not go back to my suite empty handed. “I can’t mix the two.”

“So, it’s personal.” Dane raised his eyebrows. “I’ll help.”

Maddox snorted, “Seriously? Since when do you get involved with Tamen’s love life?”

Dane glared at his friend momentarily, “Because if he’s interested enough to bother me and deal withourshit, then it’s obviously something worth knowing about. Someone worth knowing about.”

“To be fair, I didn’t plan on the bear being involved.” I droned, “Do you two hang out every day? Like bro dates? Do you guys cut your lawns together in your jean shorts and white tennis shoes?”

“Never mind.” Dane shook his head. “I’m not interested.”

“Of fuck off, you wanker.” I snapped, annoyed by the whole thing. “You make it too easy.”

“So do you.” Dane sighed, turning to his computer and typing in a random set of hieroglyphics to get into it. “Who is it?”

“Sloane Archer.” I stated, feeling the anxiety building in my gut from just saying her name in their presence. Lucky for them, they were both already happily leg shackled to two of the scariest women in history, so I didn’t worry about them trying to steal Sloane.

It took no time at all before he had a dozen tabs pulled up with her information. I stood at his shoulder and was acutely aware of Maddox moving in to watch too as her beautiful face popped up on the screen. It looked like a DMV photo, but still her beauty was jaw dropping.

---