Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Guy’s grin lessened, but he rolled his eyes and gave us both a middle finger. “Fuckers.”
Matt jerked his chin up to me. “Where’s your man tonight?”
The official answer: “Working.”
The unofficial answer: a meeting with Japan investors. Why I wasn’t supposed to know that, I didn’t know, but Kash let it slip he had to call overseas, and I got a text later telling me not to share with anyone the location of “overseas.”
Matt didn’t care. He didn’t question. He only nodded, all easygoing. “Right on, right on.” His hand was resting on the booth next to my shoulder and he bumped me with it. “Fill me in. How’s the school thing going?”
Matt barely went to class when he got his degree, so he didn’t really go to college. How he got that degree, well … I was assuming money had something to do with it, but I wasn’t going to ask. Graduate school, what I was doing, was a phenomenon to him.
I got it. I did. He gave me enough teasing, lumping me in with Cyclone and Peter, that I knew there was a part of him that was bothered by it all. I didn’t know why or how it related to him, though I had a guess. And I didn’t like what my guess was, but as he asked me this question, I could tell he was genuine in asking. He’d been authentic the other times he questioned me, too, and that was warming my belly in a way no alcohol could obtain.
I smiled at him. “It’s going good, actually.”
And it was.
I was up to date on my assignments. I thought there’d be more papers, but there weren’t. Turns out computer grad school was actually about computers, so the assignments we had were easy for me. I had to put in extra time reading the textbooks so I knew I would get everything correct on the quizzes, one of which we had coming in the morning.
I wasn’t supposed to know that, but moving through our student database, I had hit a few extra buttons that I shouldn’t have and I got the screen that showed me the complete schedule of pop quizzes in my IT Strategy and Management class. I didn’t print anything out. Didn’t copy it. Just got one good look at the screen before I was pushed out. That was enough.
I didn’t share with anyone that I’d had that peek. I was prepared, because I actually did the readings. Some of the students in the class didn’t. They skimmed. Melissa told me her secret was to read the first section, the last section, and every third paragraph the rest of the chapters. Hoda, I didn’t know what she did. After I came back from Burriotle, she didn’t say anything to me the rest of the day, and it’d been like that for the past two days. Melissa, on the other hand, loved everything about that day and proceeded to share this with Fitz every time he was with me.
The rest of the guys in the class thought Fitz was cool, though only one or two of them told him this. Melissa was the one who told me the guys thought Fitz was cool, because the guys mostly all stuck to themselves. They lingered around a few of their computers. The spokesman was the extroverted “leader” of them, Dax, but the rest just talked with one another. And Melissa, she was on the in with them.
Me. Liam. Hoda. We weren’t.
I hadn’t figured out why yet, but I would. It was a mission of mine.
Erik was supposed to come inside with me tomorrow, so I’d see their reaction to him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted Hoda’s ice to continue or not. I still hadn’t said anything to her about Holden Mansour, but she was here. I texted Torie and she looked at the schedule and texted back it was an affirmative. Holden Mansour was scheduled for an eight-to-two a.m. shift in the security room.
I’d only been in Naveah for thirty minutes, so I hadn’t had time to even look, but it was during her slotted time.
“Aw, fuck.” Guy slid farther down in the booth, his gaze locked on the crowd beneath us.
I looked, and “Aw, fuck” was right.
“Fucking hell.” From Matt. He took his drink, slammed it back, and held up the emptied glass. The VIP server rushed over. “Keep those coming, and can we bar those girls from coming up here?”
Bar?
I turned surprised eyes on my brother, until I saw them, too. I’d missed them before.
Victoria, Fleur, and their friend, whose name I recently found out was Cedar Barlow—which, though I’d never share it with those girls, I thought was a cool name. They were making their way up here. Victoria was wearing a slinky cream-colored dress, Fleur had on red, and Cedar was wearing a black one. As they maneuvered up the stairs, I dipped to the shoes, because though I was normally not a shoe girl, I could hear my inner Chrissy Hayes wanting to know.