Page 92 of Beautifully Ruined
So, I spur myself on, stumbling past that. “But yes, partners in everything. Every. Thing. I’m his left-hand woman, I’m his life blood. The electricity to his computer, the Thelma to his Louise. Tom to his Jerry. Night to his day. The umbrella to his storm.”
I can’t stop.
Cade sends me a look of pure pleading. It’s so loud I can hear him scream in my head to shut the fuck up.
I’m in agreement. I want to, but the words keep tumbling out.
Finally, Cade kicks me under the table, and the sudden sharp pain brings me back to the world, slamming down into it.
I blink, look once more at Thomas. “We’re partners. In case you missed that.”
He doesn’t laugh.
He just eyes me and then Cade. “I think I managed to grasp that.”
“Just send her home.” Cade picks up his glass and takes a sip. “I’ll deal with her later.”
“Hell, no. I don’t think she’s lying, but even a man like me could be fooled because I’m pretty fucking sure she’s naked under there, and I could end this here and now by stripping off that coat and handing her to my men. Because she just might not be your partner, but a gift who won’t shut up.”
“I’m not a gift for anyone,” I snap.
Cade smiles, and it’s real. “Hear that? She’s no gift. She’s my partner, in life, and behind the keyboard. But this is a me deal, not an us deal.”
“But you’re partners,” he says to Cade. “So surely, it’s a deal for you both.”
Cade’s smile disappears. “You know what I mean. This job is my job, not ours.”
“Nonsense. I’d love to see her skills in action, too.”
Thomas opens his laptop and slides it over.
Cade makes a move to grab it.
Thomas glares at Cade. “Just her.”
The computer is placed in front of me, and I stare at it. I can barely operate my computer beyond the basics. So, what the fuck am I meant to do? Show him I can open an email or Google something?
But I can’t not touch it. I have to come up with something, anything. I?—
“Fuck.” Thomas picks up his ringing phone. He doesn’t get up, but his expression changes as he listens.
Then he hangs up and snatches up the computer.
The girl rushes up and puts it in a bag that she slings on her shoulder. Still, she keeps her gaze locked on Thomas, and it gives me the major icks.
“I need to go, Cade.” There’s a beat that passes. “I’m sure someone like you knows the address. The password is Orchid. Be there tomorrow night at midnight.”
Cade nods, and I start to let out a breath when Thomas looks right at me.
The expression in his eyes is proprietary, wrong, intense, and he lingers on me long enough that Cade starts to tense.
And Thomas smiles. “Both of you.”
Chapter Seventeen
CADE
We both sit therein the now empty bar. There’s someone else here, I see him peek his head around the corner from the back room behind the bar.
