Page 5 of After The Storm

“Any idea what he wants?” he asked as they began to walk down the hallway toward the other side of the main house.

She flashed him that gorgeous smile of hers and shook her head. “You know I’m not privy to those kinds of things. I’m merely an assistant.”

The way she said that told him she knew full well what Nick wanted him for and knew everything that went on at the estate. Merely an assistant. Right.

“Okay, if that’s the way you want to play it,” he said with a chuckle.

They walked along in silence, neither one of them having anything to say. He didn’t mind, though. Never much of a talker, he preferred quiet more often than not anyway.

As they began walking up the stairs to the main level of the house, she finally broke the silence. “It might be nice if he gave you an assignment, though. You’ve been stuck here for a few weeks now, haven’t you? He’s given the last five cases to Marius and Dax. Those guys have been out nearly constantly for almost a month.”

Looking down at her, he smiled. “For being merely an assistant, you seem to know a lot about all of us and our comings and goings.”

Tess stopped on the second to last stair and screwed her face into a grimace. “You have a bad effect on me, Roman. Do you know that? You say so little that I end up filling the space with things I shouldn’t be saying.”

He looked back at her but kept walking into the main entryway. “Don’t blame me. I was just walking along and you started talking.”

She stepped up into the foyer and huffed at him. “You strong silent types are the worst. Now I hope he keeps you here and forces you to spend all your time with Xavier and Gideon. How’s that sound?”

Turning to look at her in horror at the very idea of being confined with those two sports obsessed frat boys, he shook his head. “You went too far with that, Tess. I’m going to blame you if that happens.”

Giggling, she nudged him in the side with her elbow as they continued toward Nick and Persephone’s office. “I was just kidding. Don’t freak out. Nick wouldn’t do that to you. He likes you. Plus, I think he promised Persephone when they started this that he wouldn’t do anything to cause anyone’s death in the house, and I’m pretty sure you or one of those two would end up dead if he stuck you together.”

“You should assume it would be one of them. They’d be easy targets since they never leave that damn game room,” he said, not trying to hide his disgust for the two men.

Tess didn’t respond and remained silent until just before they reached the office. She touched him on the forearm, and he looked down to see her frowning.

“You might be happier here if you spent some time with any of the other men, Roman. They’re really not bad guys once you get to know them.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not unhappy, Tess. I just like to keep to myself. Doesn’t mean that I’m miserable.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Nobody uses the word miserable unless they are, Roman. Give someone here a chance.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, wishing for more of the silence from a few moments ago.

“You might find out you like them,” she said quietly before giving him one of her sweet smiles.

As she walked away to go to her desk, he thought about what she said and immediately pushed the idea out of his mind. He didn’t want to spend time with anyone at the estate. Letting people get close only ended up hurting everyone involved. He’d had enough of that in his lifetime to know things were better if he kept to himself.

Pushing open the office door, he walked in to see Persephone sitting at her desk on the left side of the room talking on the phone and Nick sitting on the other side at his desk looking at his laptop. Focused on something, he didn’t see him until he tapped on the edge of his desk.

Nick looked up, surprised, and smiled. Extending his arm, he said, “Roman, good to see you. Take a seat. I want to talk to you about an assignment.”

As he sat down, he wondered why he always said that when he had a case for him, even though it wasn’t like any of them could turn down an assignment. Unless they were on death’s doorstep with some kind of disease, each of them was expected to do their job. But Nick always made it sound like they’d discuss the possibility and then decide if he wanted to go.

Roman sat down and waited to hear what his next case would be. The last one had involved a schoolteacher being terrorized by some rich teenager’s parents. It wasn’t exactly full of danger for him, but that mother and father had been pretty nasty to that poor teacher. All she’d done was given the kid detention for mooning her. She hadn’t deserved to have her brake lines cut or to be stalked like prey just because his parents worried he’d be shunned by a good school for the blemish on his high school record. Roman had been happy to see them taken away in handcuffs at the end of things.

Leaning back in his office chair, Nick folded his arms across his chest. “So that woman you helped out in Ohio couldn’t say enough nice things about how you handled her case. I guess those parents were a little crazy.”

“I’d say they passed crazy going about one hundred and ten miles an hour. They tried to kill her, for God’s sake. And over what? One detention because their punk ass kid likes to show his ass to schoolteachers.”

The leader of the Project Artemis team chuckled at his remark. “Yeah. I guess that’s the definition of overzealous. Well, this one I have for you today is a little different. No teenage boys showing their asses on this case.”

Since his last three cases hadn’t exactly challenged him much, Roman sat up straighter in his chair, immediately interested in this new assignment that sounded far more like something he could sink his teeth into. “Oh yeah? I’m all ears.”

Nick leaned forward and began tapping on his keyboard. “You’re going to be heading to The Big Easy. I don’t have many details, but let me bring up what we know.”

New Orleans? He had never had a chance to see the city, although he’d served with someone from there who had claimed it was the greatest city on the planet. Even better than New York and Paris, according to him.

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