Page 23 of Psycho
Except, he was a psycho.
He was a psycho and Lucas was crazy. Maybe that made them perfect for each other? Still, he didn’t want to fuck this up before it even got started. And if anybody was going to fuck it up before it started, it would be August.
He was almost to the parking lot when a hand tapped him on the arm. Bianca.
He pulled his headphones from his ears. “What’s up?”
She pushed a lock of dark hair behind her ear, her tone conspiratorial. “Did I see you leaving Special Agent Crazy-Pants’ office at lunch looking a little mussed?”
August raised a brow, a strange rush of adrenaline filling him at Bianca’s casual insult of Lucas. “I don’t know. Did you?”
“I’m serious,” Bianca said, smiling and nudging him.
August didn’t smile back but did his best to not let the real him bleed through. “So am I.”
Bianca rolled her eyes and laughed. “Seriously? Spill. What’s he like? Is he really as out there as people say? Are you trying to hook up with him? Is that your type? Hot and crazy?”
Yes.
“Hook up?” August said, closing his now shaking hands into fists. She remained oblivious to the heat rising under his skin.
“Yes, you automaton,” she teased. “Are you trying to hook up with him?”
“Why do you care, exactly?” August asked, making no attempt to hide his growing annoyance, even though his father would have cautioned him against it.
Bianca shrugged. “We kind of just assumed you were asexual, but you and Captain Crazy actually makes sense.”
“Don’t.Call. Him. That.”
Bianca’s eyes went wide at the icy warning in his tone. “I-I didn’t realize you were so…close. I apologize.”
August needed to pull himself together. If his father thought he couldn’t handle being in a relationship with Lucas, he wouldn’t let him keep him. He took a deep breath, forcing his face into a serene expression. “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I was looking over a student’s dissertation and, clearly, I didn’t realize how tired I was until now. I’ll see you around, okay?”
He didn’t wait for Bianca to say goodbye, just turned and walked the few steps to his Mercedes G-class, clicking the alarm off and throwing open the door. Only once he was locked inside the cab alone did he finally let himself go, gripping the steering wheel and shaking it hard, a raw scream falling from his lips.
The fucking audacity. She had no right to talk about Lucas that way. He wasn’t crazy. He was perfect. He was sweet and sexy and strong. They were the ones who were gossips, constantly looking down their noses at others, feeling they were entitled to make snide comments because of some sense of superiority.
He threw the SUV into reverse and stomped on the gas, tires screeching as he jerked the wheel. As he turned onto the street, he engaged the Bluetooth button. “Call Adam.”
“Calling Adam,” an electronic voice repeated.
Adam didn’t answer the first time. Or the second. The third time was the charm.
“Somebody better be fucking dead,” Adam growled into the phone, breathing heavily.
“Somebody almost was.”
That seemed to bring Adam up short. “What happened?”
“Somebody said something mean about Lucas and I just… I wanted to break her in half.” He couldn’t stop his voice from shaking.
Adam’s voice took on a certain hesitancy when he said, “What did she say about him?”
“She called him Special Agent Crazy-Pants and Captain Crazy.”
“Those aren’t even good insults,” Adam said.
“I wanted to punch her in the face. I’ve never felt angry like this before.”
