Page 45 of Villains Never Die

“Then go find someone and watch TV over their shoulder or something. I hearThe Officeis excellent.”

But you can hear us.

“Unfortunately. Now go find something else to do. I have to go to work.”

The sun was up, the strange moment that suspended itself around me and Rook had faded, and I had things to do.

Chapter Seventeen

Gray seemed different as he sat across from me at my desk. Tense and impatient. He stared too hard at me as he tapped his fingers on the desktop.

“What?” I asked, only glancing up a moment before I resumed flipping through paperwork.

“Something weird happened this morning.”

“Define weird.” I shuffled things around and began signing checks for god knows what. I sent Gray a list, he took care of it, I just slapped my name on the money.

“I came in like I usually do before security change at six. There’s no security in the parking garage.”

“There is never security in the parking garage because you and I are the only ones who can get in.”

“That’s the weird part…I saw Rook drive out this morning as I was coming in.”

My pen stopped moving mid-stroke.

I fought the frown that tugged at my lips. “We had a business meeting.”

“At five in the morning? In the penthouse?”

I laid my pen down slowly and met his eyes. “What are you insinuating, Gray?”

His hand squeezed the arm of the chair. “As your employee or as your friend?”

I gestured for him to go on with both of them, curious. He had never offered his advice as a friend before.

“As your employee—be careful who you trust. I sure as hell don’t trust him. As your friend?” A smile almost cracked his hard outer shell. “I think company is good for you.”

“Company?”

“You’re alone all the time. It’s good for you to have someone other than me.”

“It’s not as if you’re a social butterfly,” I pointed out. When Gray attended an event or spent an evening at Avalon, I expected him neither seen nor heard. I didn’t think he had a thriving social life.

“I have the phone numbers of three different women from the last gala,” he said. “I promise you I’m not alone or lonely. You and Rook are a weird choice, but let’s be honest, boss…you’re not exactly a normal guy.”

I pressed my lips together and resumed signing. “Are you saying he’s boyfriend material?” I laid the pen down again and sneered at the idea.

“I’m saying he can handle you,” he said. “Most people can’t. And I know where the llama came from, by the way.”

I sighed at the thought of the wooly camelid. Maybe Gray had a point. Rook and I had a violent introduction, and we still barely tolerated each other, but he took it all—my attacks, my sarcasm, my cum.

“I trust you’ll be discreet about this.”

He leaned back in the chair and nodded. “Always.”

***

Later that day, Gray, who had been at the new warehouse making sure it was perfect for Bartos’s collection and preparing for the Russian shipment to be delivered the next day to my existing warehouse, walked back in and laid a folder on my desk.