“Because you’re not looking in the right places, dumb ass.” Bo chuckles.
Royce frowns. “Bull. ’Sides, coming from you, King of the Chicklets . . . ,” he scoffs. “I wouldn’t believe a word you had to say about the subject. Park, on the other hand—at least he found a good one.”
This time I scoff, “Shit. You’re looking at the wrong guy. I couldn’t hold on to a good woman if my life depended on it. I think I have a sign in invisible ink written across my forehead, one you can only see under a black light, that says ‘Cheat on Me’ or some shit.”
Royce shakes his head. “Not true. I don’t believe for a minute Sky cheated, and the sooner you accept it and give the poor thing a chance to explain, the better off we’ll all be.”
I grind my teeth and wish I had another shot of tequila to wash down the instant lump in my throat.
Bo glances away and pretends to be interested in the server placing food down at a table near us.
“Is that what you think too, Bo? Wendy already hit me with her suggestion today, you might as well get it out on the table right now.”
Bo shrugs. “You sure you’re ready to hear what I think?”
“I’m certain I don’t want to be surprised by you dropping the bomb later. We’re all here, and sharing is caring, right? Lay it on me.” I feel like a peacock whose feathers have been ruffled. Frustration, irritation, and sudden anger are burning a path through my veins, looking for any way to be let out.
Wendy puts a hand to Bo’s forearm and glances up at him. He tilts his head. “Okay, fine. I think you’re scared.”
Not something I expected him to say.
“Scared? Of a hot blonde? Seriously? That’s your play?” I huff out a harsh breath and wait for him to continue.
He plucks at his goatee and taps his bottom lip with his thumb. “You’re scared of what it means to love someone the way you love her. Scared that she’ll do exactly what Kayla did . . .”
I widen my eyes and slam my drink on the table. Thankfully I drank most of it, so it doesn’t slosh out of the glass. “She did do what Kayla did. Sky stayed the night in Johan’s hotel room—”
Bo lifts his hands. “I get that. I do. Except you can’t prove she cheated based on his word alone. Look, all I’m sayin’ is the girl I met, the girl I hung out with in New York, was wild for my best friend. All in. Your dream girl. Then she comes to Lucky’s and spends time getting to know all of us. Opens herself up to our family. Talks about moving to our town. What reason would she have to give that up?”
“She likes hard cock? Girl likes to fuck. Know that firsthand. And she’s damn good at it. Maybe she wanted a reunion with Johan’s dick.” The thought of Sky getting anywhere near Johan’s puny pickle has me squeezing the pint glass so hard I just may break it.
Royce’s head drops down toward the table. “Aw man, you had to go there.”
A powerful burst of anger speeds through my system, making me hot all over. I grind my teeth so hard I hope I don’t crack a molar.
They don’t get it. They don’t freakin’ understand what she did!
“Yeah, yeah, I went there. Because I need to know that my team, my family, is there for me. Me! I should be your priority, not the woman who fucked me over!” My voice gets raspy and raw, and I suck down the rest of my beer. “I need another fuckin’ beer.” I stand up and head to the bar, needing a minute of peace. Some time to cool down before I explode on the outside the way I’m imploding on the inside.
Fuckin’ hell. Are they backing her up?
They’re supposed to be my friends. My family. Not hers. Then I remember, Sky doesn’t have any family.
Images of her flutter through my mind as I wait for the bartender to come take my order.
Sky’s nervousness over meeting my parents.
Later, Skyler laughing at my mother and father bickering.
My girl exchanging phone numbers with all the guys over beers and pulled-pork sandwiches.
Sky and Wendy talking wedding plans.
My girl promising to attend the wedding . . . with me.
Sky telling me she was thinking about moving to Boston.
What if she’s telling the truth?
Johan is a master manipulator. He could have easily built up the time he spent with her. Lied to me. My heart starts a rapid-fire beat, and my stomach clenches. I clutch at it and take a couple of deep breaths. I need more beer. And another shot of tequila.
“Beer or tequila?” the bartender asks.
“Both. A round of four pints and four more double shots of tequila. And you can send a waitress over. We’ll need to eat.”
“Good idea, band is about to start.” He lifts his chin at the seven piece standing up on the stage.
The guitarist is strumming a lick, and the keyboardist is warming up his fingers. As I wait for the refills, the horn players run some scales, and my heartbeat starts to ease once more. It’s probably more from the liquor making its way into my bloodstream, but whatever it is, I’m thankful.
Royce comes and stands in front of me. “I’m sorry, brother. What you’re going through can’t be easy, and it’s not my place . . .”
I shake my head. “Naw, man, it’s cool. I need to hear it. If not from the people who care about me, then who?”
“You gonna take our advice?”
I shrug. “Not sure what I’m going to do just yet. All I know is, for the rest of the night, I just want to let loose with my team. Is that okay?”
He grins wide, his white smile extra bright against his dark skin and his white shirt. “Yeah, that’s all right.” He puts his hand around my neck and leans forward so that our foreheads almost touch. “No matter what, though, you always have me, Bo, Wendy. We’re your people. We got your back. Still, it’s our job to kick your ass sometimes. Help you see things in a different light in the event you’re blinded. Say like when you think a good woman stepped out on you.”
I laugh even though he’s still pushing, but I get why. “You like her for me.” I lift my gaze to his dark one.
He does a half shrug. “Yeah, I like her for you. Think she’s the whole package. ’Sides. I wanna see my boy happy. I’ve never seen you happier than you are with her.”
His words hit hard, slamming into my subconscious and mixing up the messages my past is telling me about my future. “I was happy. More than that. I was in love.”
He squeezes my shoulders hard. “Brother, you’re still in love. It’s why it hurts so bad.”
And he’s right. Regardless of what I believe Skyler may have done with Johan, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m head over heels in love with the woman. And I didn’t even get to tell her to her face. Maybe if I had, she would have waited for me to get there to deal with her ex. Maybe then she wouldn’t have thought she was alone.
“Christ!” I run my hand through my hair. “Brother, I’m a fucking mess.”
Royce turns me around to face the bar where the bartender has placed the four beers and four double shots. “Yes, you are. It’s okay. We got you.”
He grabs two of the beers in one hand, two in the crook of his elbow wedged against his body so he can grab two of the shots. I grab the last two in my good hand and bring them over to the table.
The second I put the drinks down, Wendy catapults into my arms. The side of her face presses against the side of mine, her breath in my ear. Her coconutty scent fills my nostrils, displacing the dank greasy smell of the bar and replacing it with something more pleasant, comfortable even, as I’ve become more familiar with her scent.
“I’m sorry, Park. I never want you to feel like we aren’t Team Parker. No matter how much I like Skyler, you’ll always be my priority.” Her fingernails dig into my back as she tries to imprint herself on my skin.
I rub her back and enjoy her hug for a moment, letting the feeling of having this woman’s care and concern seep into my aching, tired body. “Thanks, Wendy. I’m sorry too. To all of you. I was a schmuck there for a moment. I’m
working through it all.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything,” Bo mutters under his breath, but it’s loud enough we can all hear him.
Unfazed, I continue. “How’s about for the rest of the night we just have fun. Eat, drink, and be merry. Yeah?”
Wendy eases back, her eyes a little watery, but she holds her tears in check, for which I’m thankful.
“Shots up.” Royce holds the tequila high over the small table.
The three of us follow suit.
“To never letting anything get between what we have. We’re Team IG, all the way!”
“Team IG!” Wendy cheers, and Bo follows.
“Now that I can drink to.” I smile, letting go of all the baggage I entered the bar with. The band starts up with one of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits, “Billie Jean.”
Wendy screeches out her excitement with a yelled “Woo-hoo!”
Roy pushes even more to the side so he can see fully. The keyboards kick off, and by the time the chorus hits, we’re all singing along at the top of our lungs.
Team IG, all the way.
7
The door to my conference space opens with what seems like a thundering creaking sound, hitting my hungover mind like a hammer banging against my temple. I grind my teeth through the pain and swallow down the bile that wants to come up.
Eloise Gagnon enters. “I believe I’m next for my interview,” she says in a small voice while opening the door more fully.
I nod. “Yes, come in. Have a seat, Ms. Gagnon.”
“Eloise is fine.” She smiles slightly, but there isn’t much sincerity behind the gesture. Almost as if she’s done it out of habit, because it’s what someone does upon meeting a new person.
The woman is petite and thin, very little curve to her form, which is shown clearly through the jeans and long-sleeved V-necked shirt she’s wearing. On her feet are a pair of simple ballet flats. Her brown hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail at her nape. The black-rimmed glasses actually add to her appeal rather than take away from it. She looks young, just out of college, but her file puts her closer to my age.
“I’m Parker Ellis. I assume you know why I’m here?” I ask the same question I’ve asked every employee so far.
“Yes. To discuss productivity, but I imagine it has more to do with the fact that there’ve been some pretty serious product leaks.”
I narrow my gaze. “And what would make you think that?” My spidey sense has taken notice.
She shrugs. “Makes sense. Company loses a lot of money because of our competitors launching a similar product before us, so it would stand to reason that we have an internal problem of some kind.”
I lean back in my chair, dragging my fingers along the pencil I’m holding until it falls to the table’s wood surface with a whack. Once it’s down, I pick it back up and repeat the process. It’s a technique I mastered back in Harvard during a course on interrogation techniques. I had a real ball-busting business analysis class. I’ve found the practice tends to annoy people, which can cause them to slip up and reveal information they were trying to hold back.
Her gaze flicks to the pencil as I repeat the same process over and over. She flinches when it smacks the table again, but I pretend not to notice by making a show of skimming her file.
“And what do you do here?”
“I’m one of the coders.”
“Oh, then you work with that new hire, Wendy.”
I lift my head to watch her facial expressions. A look of disgust comes across her face, then disappears in an instant. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Sounds like you have some feelings about the new hire. Anything you care to share?”
She purses her lips. “Just not sure why they hired her when I could have taken on the extra load, worked with Kidd directly.”
“Kidd?”
“Yeah, the director of the department. We always used to work together perfectly.”
Interesting. There’s something in the way she speaks that has needle pricks prodding at my temples, but the pain from last night’s escapade is clouding my thought processes a little.
“So, you’ve worked with Kidd for a long while?”
“We started at the same time. I was just out of college, and he was just out of high school. He’s brilliant. Didn’t even go to college, and his knack for the coding language is as good as his sister’s. We were the best team. Perfect in every way.” She frowns and then looks away. “Then Alexis separated us, and I got relegated to the boring side of the business. Maintenance. No longer working on product creation.”
“That must have made you feel bad. Did something happen?”
Glaring, she turns her face back toward mine. “No. I guess I wasn’t as good as they were. No longer capable of hanging with the big boys. But I’ve worked my way back up to the coding team. And now I have to compete with Wendy. The new IT girl.”
Oh, I see what’s happening. Her negativity is about Wendy. A zap of pain bolts through my head, and I grind my molars and try to breathe through it. God, my head hurts.
Too much booze.
Next time we have an IG team “Kumbaya” get-together, we need to do it after the job is done. The fluorescent lights above feel like they’re burning right through my retinas.
I swallow down the dryness in my throat and reach for the water bottle.
“You okay?” Eloise asks. “You look green.”
I suck back most of the water, letting the fresh, cool feeling coat my empty stomach. “Just tired.”
She snickers. “Looks like you tied one on last night.”
I breathe through my teeth, allowing her to catch me in a little bad-boy behavior to see how she responds.
“Be careful. She might fire you. She can be a real bitch if she wants to.” She leans over the table, moving closer, and scowls. “Don’t let her bombshell body and movie-star face get to you. That woman is a she-devil underneath all that fashion and glamour.”
Damn. That was harsh.
“You don’t sound like you care for Alexis much. If that’s the case, why do you work here?”
She squints. “Because Kidd is amazing, and I’ve learned more under his mentorship than I ever did in all four years of tech school. I’d do anything to keep my position here.” She waxes rather poetic about a man who, for all intents and purposes, is her boss. There’s a tinge of something more there, something I can’t grasp in my tired, hungover brain.
I need to sleep.
For a year.
“Was that going to be all, Mr. Ellis? I really have a lot to do. I’ve been reviewing the errors in Kidd’s coding.”
“Errors?” Wendy mentioned yesterday there were errors in the coding that matched Kidd’s style.
She nods and runs her fingertip in a circle on the tabletop. “I think it’s his new girlfriend.” She leans forward as if she’s going to tell me a secret. “Ever since he started seeing her, his work has suffered. I’m trying to clean up the errors, so no one finds them. Eventually, he’ll get rid of this woman and start thinking more clearly again.”
Whoa! That’s a damning statement if I ever heard one.
“Let me get this straight.” I rub and press my fingers to the back of my neck and work them up the back of my skull, trying to relieve the tension a night of drinking laid upon my dome. “You’ve been going into Kidd’s work and cleaning it up?”
She nods. “Yeah, it’s a mess. He’s making really obvious mistakes. Things that could put the system at risk for a security hack.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The alarm bell is ringing in my head.
“Like I said, I’m fixing it, so don’t worry. I’m taking one for the team until he gets his head out of his bum regarding that girlfriend of his.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Yeah.” She sneers the next word. “Victoria. She is no good for him. He needs to kick her to the curb, fast.”
“Actually, I don’t think she’s going anywhere, si
nce he said he asked her to marry him and she said yes. Planning a wedding next summer. I’m surprised you didn’t already know that.”
Eloise’s chair flies backward and falls to the ground in her haste to stand. Her entire body is ramrod straight, her nose and chest flushing red.
I stand up and lift my hands. “Hey . . .”
“He’s marrying that tart!” Her voice is a barely restrained screech.
I try to swallow, but my mouth is the Sahara desert right now.
“He’ll never get better! She’s ruining a genius!”
“Calm down, Eloise.”
Eloise.
Eloise.
Her name pounds a beat in my head. I know that name. It’s unusual, but I’ve heard it before. Recently.
“It’s more that Eloise wanted all of my time and attention. That’s my ex.”
Kidd.
Could this be his Eloise? His ex?
“I’ve got to go.” Eloise shakes her hands like she’s flinging water off them.
Before I can stop her, she’s out the door.
I fall back into my chair, and Spartacus jumps into my lap, pressing his small paws directly into my aching stomach.
“Jesus, buddy. I’m already green around the gills. Don’t make it worse.” I finger behind the cat’s ears, petting him.
Spartacus meows, then settles into my lap, ready to take a nap.
“Glad someone’s getting some sleep,” I state dryly, and finish off my bottle of water, drinking the rest down in one long, blessed go. Once done, I fling the bottle into the recycling bin, making a three-pointer. I pinch the bridge of my nose, let the chair dip back, and close my eyes, trying to figure out how all of this information relates.
Eloise is fixing Kidd’s errors in the system. Covering up for him. Why?
Because she’s in love with him? Maybe.
Kidd stated he had an ex named Eloise. It’s not that common of a name. And they work together. Kidd is getting married, and Eloise freaked out. Maybe Kidd is accidentally leaking the information, which is why there’s no payoff money in anyone’s financials. Because it’s unintentional.
I pick up my new cell phone and bring up Wendy’s contact info.
Montreal (International Guy Book 6) Page 8
