Page 42 of The Tangle of Awful

“What a fucking stalker,” I grumble. “What about her ex, Wes? Anything on him yet?”

My phone chirps a reminder at me. Irritation burns in my gut. I don’t want to leave just when I’m getting good information, but duty calls.

“Still working on him. From what I can tell so far, he’s a couch-surfing guitarist for a band trying to make it big, but aside from that, he’s inconsistent on social media, never has money in his account, and doesn’t have a job.”

Aubrey really knows how to pick them.

“Thanks, man,” I say with a sigh. “I appreciate the digging you’re doing. Anything I can do to repay the favor?”

“Babysit Grandpa,” he blurts out without missing a beat. I can almost imagine his smirk behind his mask, knowing that answer would rile me.

“Fuck no.” I grin at him. “Anything but that.”

“You could get my father off my ass.”

“About?”

He’s quiet for a long, uncomfortable few seconds. “He wants me to see a therapist.”

Pops isn’t wrong there. Jude is beyond screwed up. He wears a mask, for fuck’s sake.

“About what?” I ask, deliberately playing dumb to see what he’ll say.

He sighs heavily, the air swooshing under his mask and making a whistling sound. “Apparently, I’m ‘wasting my potential’ locking myself away like Beast when I could be out there finding my Belle.”

“Pops wants you to get out there and fuck a librarian?”

He snorts. I don’t have to see his mouth to know I earned a rare smile. “Something like that. Therapy will supposedly help.”

“I’ll see what I can do to get your dad off your back,” I assure him. “Sorry to cut and run, but I have shit to do, unfortunately.”

Jude’s eyes narrow to slits from behind his mask, but I don’t fidget under his scrutiny or this prick will peel apart my life too. I certainly don’t need that shit right now.

He turns back to his computer, effectively dismissing me, and goes back to work. I bark out a quick bye and then text Dempsey on my way out of the freak house.

Me: We need to talk.

I used to look forward to my daily errands, but I’m beginning to resent them with my entire being. I can’t exactly ignore them either, which means as much as I don’t want to hear Dempsey’s take, I need his help.

Hugo

Sometimes I have great ideas—ideas that make my family a lot of money. Other times, my ideas are based solely on my dick’s needs alone and nothing else being considered.

Hiring Aubrey was a terrible fucking idea.

Not because she sucks at her job or anything like that. If it were that simple, I’d just tell her she’d be better suited for the donut shop she considered applying at. No, this is completely out of her control.

It’s not her fault she’s sex on two of the hottest legs I’ve ever seen on this planet.

Thankfully, Vaughn distracted me most of the day, going over important campaign event dates, meetings, and media appearances we have planned for the next few months until voting day. I’d only lose my mind on the rare times I’d pop out of the conference room to take a piss or grab another cup of coffee.

“Hey, Hugo,” Garrick, a junior attorney at our firm, says, grinning wolfishly at me as he joins me in the conference room now that Vaughn left for the day. “Are you trying to get me fired?”

I rub at the back of my neck, chasing away thoughts of Aubrey to focus on this doofus Dad hired. “What?”

He smirks as he saunters in. Garrick is about ten years younger than me, single, and is not shy about bragging about his sex life. My gut clenches, knowing I’m not going to like what comes out of this guy’s mouth.

“The sexy little vixen out there greeting all our clients. Come on, man, anyone with a working dick can see she’s hot as fuck.”

---