Page 19 of Twice the Rivalry

Now there was an idea, Code thought with a smirk. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he said. He looked around the room and saw that most everyone was eating, and while normally he would join them, he wasn’t about to leave Glitch in his space alone for longer than he had to.

When he walked back into his office, she was sitting in his chair at her area, typing away. He scowled. She didn’t even turn around as she said, “Apparently you think I’m going to stand all day. You want your chair back, you better find me one, and I don’t mean some dinky chair that is going to kill my back.”

“Jesus Christ,” he snarled, setting his plate down on his desk and stalking out to find her a chair. Not that they had much to choose from. After a few minutes searching, he found an older office chair in their storage space. It would have to do for now. If she wanted something better, she could buy one herself or talk to Savage about it. When he pushed it in he barked, “Here. Now give me back my chair.”

She glanced at it and turned right back to her screen. “Oh good, you found a chair for yourself to use,” she said sweetly. “Don’t let me keep you.”

He stared at her, his temper flaring. “Woman, get out of my chair,” he snarled, his grip on his temper slipping.

She paused, and when her head turned and her gaze clashed with his, she gave him a cool look. “Caveman, I have a name,” she informed him, “and unless you plan on using it, we’re going to have a problem. Now, I’m working, and while you’re standing here arguing with me over a stupid chair, you’re making me run behind. So instead of bitching and complaining, you can sit in that chair, and steal this one back when I eventually get out of it. Got it?”

He held her glare for a moment, and tried to remind himself that a chair was not worth the argument. But that look in her eyes, the one that dared him to try and move her, made him lose all sense. He stalked toward her, grabbed her under the arms, and lifted her out of the chair so fast, she let out a small squeak of surprise, but then she did something that made him freeze, giving her an advantage.

She smiled. It was a gorgeous smile, no hint of anger or guile in it, and it lightened her face in a way that hit him straight in the gut. Straight white teeth showed between full lips, and her bright blue eyes flashed with something like excitement and anticipation. It was disarming, and that was the exact moment he knew he screwed up.

She used that moment to twist her upper body, while also using her legs to kick out and catch him right in the groin. He groaned in pain, immediately dropping her. She landed on her feet in an easy crouch while he went to his knees, cupping himself and trying not to barf all over the floor. “I wondered if you were going to be stupid enough to haul me out,” she said as she sat back down in the chair, regal as a queen. “Nice to know you do have some balls after all, caveman. They might be small, but maybe before I’m gone they’ll finally grow into man sized. Now, I have some work to finish, and while this has been fun, your food is getting cold and I’m sure you have some work of your own to do.” She turned back toward her computer, and what looked to be a second screen that he wasn’t sure where she could have gotten. Though the pain in his balls could be messing with his head. Then she turned and added, “Oh, and just so we’re clear, I’m not letting you have this chair the rest of the day. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.” She gave him a saucy wink and turned back around, dismissing him.

It took another half minute for him to be able to get to his feet, balls throbbing, and body shaking with anger. “You’ll pay for that, woman,” he gritted out as he pushed the other chair over to his keyboard and lowered himself gingerly into it. The old chair creaked under him, but he forced himself to ignore it and focus on the screen in front of him.

“Whatever you say, caveman,” she said easily behind him, fingers flying over the keyboard. “Now, hush, I need to concentrate.”

He had half a mind to turn on some loud music and really piss her off, but that would just be petty. And he hated too much noise in his space, so it wasn’t a great plan to begin with. He looked at his plate of food and scowled at it a few feet away on the far end of the desk. He rolled the chair over to grab it, but he already knew it was going to be cold, and he wasn’t about to get up and walk out to warm it up.

He shoveled the food into his mouth as he waited for his system to boot up, and tried not to think about the woman sitting only a few feet behind him. This room was pretty damn spacious, but with her in here, it was far too cramped. He could smell the sweetness of her soap, and it worked its way into his senses. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to ignore it.

She was a pain in his ass, and he couldn’t wait until she was gone.

With that thought firmly at the forefront of his mind, he got to work and tuned her out as best he could.

CHAPTERELEVEN

GLITCH

She narrowed her eyes at her screen, trying to figure out where the hell her team was. The location trackers they had on their bikes said they were currently on their way to Louisiana. Considering they only left yesterday, they were making really good time. Which meant they had probably driven through the night. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it made her worry. She shot Simba a message.

Glitch: Destination?

They tried to keep all messages as short as they could, or in code in case someone tried to hack her system, or got ahold of their phones. Not that either would happen, but still, it paid to be cautious. At least in her mind anyway.

Simba didn’t reply right away, though that wasn’t uncommon. If they were still riding, it could be a few hours before she heard back. So she pushed aside her worry and focused on her other tasks. Mainly, she needed to check in with her lawyer on the scholarships she set up, along with the people responsible for her investments.

As she sent out her emails, she half listened to Code working behind her. She heard him cursing under his breath, and she wanted to ask him what he was bellyaching about, but she put him out of her mind and focused. She had other things to do today, and one of them was making that cheesecake for Karissa. It was one of the few things she loved to make, but it was time consuming and if she wanted it done by dinner, she would have to get working on it as soon as she had a moment.

When she finished with her emails, she sat back and looked around the room. She hadn’t really focused on the room much since she arrived, but as she looked around, she realized that the space was just as big as hers back at their clubhouse, but it wasn’t set up as well as it could be. She took it in critically as she turned in her chair to look at Code’s space.

He had four screens mounted on the wall, with the ones on the ends tilted so they were easily viewable for him. It was an interesting set up, but she could see where he could improve. Not to mention his desk was old and rickety and looked like it could fall apart at any moment. She frowned at that. If your job required you to be at your desk all the time, it only made sense that your station should be the best it could be. So she figured that either the club was strapped for cash and they were making due, or Code was. Or, maybe, to play devil’s advocate, he just didn’t care, and considering what she knew of him so far, that was a definite possibility.

The rest of the space, however, was mostly bare. No photos, no mementos, just bare walls. She wasn’t big on knickknacks either, but her space at least had painted walls, while these were plain white and sterile. The space had no windows and minimal lighting. It was a typical hacker’s cave, but still, she could see so many ways it could be improved. She had half a mind to just change things, but she also knew how protective people were of their spaces, so she was going to have to approach this carefully. As mad as she was at him, she wouldn’t mess with his space beyond what she needed to function.

She wasn’t heartless. Well, mostly.

Still, the small table and chair weren’t going to work for her, so she was going to have to figure something else out. She wasn’t an idiot though, and if she paid for anything out of her own accounts, whoever might be looking for her would be able to locate her. She could cover her tracks, but why take the risk? Instead, she glanced behind herself at Code, and an idea hit her. It would piss him off, but then again, he was already pissed at her, so why not?

She turned back to her computer and got to work. She had to be careful not to set off any alarms, and when she finally worked her way into his credit card, she realized that the man was definitely not doing too bad, but there were quite a few charges on his account that she couldn’t figure out. If she had time, she’d look into it further, but right now, she was running on a tight timeline before he realized what she was doing.

She paid for what she needed and then quickly, but carefully, backed herself out and covered her tracks. Then she shut down her system and stood, stretching her arms above her head. Code froze, turning to look at her warily. She gave him a smug smile. “Worried I’ll attack you when you’re not looking?” she taunted.

“More like I don’t trust that you’re not going to fuck up my shit again,” he bit out.

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