Page 68 of Cocky Brutal Sinner

When the doors open to sage green walls, my eyebrows shoot up. This can’t be right. The last time I went to James’s office, it was just as shiny white and silver as the rest of the building. Did I get off on the wrong floor?

“Mr. Bishop?” Another receptionist sits at a slightly smaller desk, looking at me with concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just green.”

“Ah,” she says, smiling. “Mrs. Keller chose the color. She said it would be calming.”

Of course. I should have known it was Maura’s influence. Now that I’m walking into the office, I spot a few of her paintings hanging in the reception area.

The receptionist sends me off to James’s office, which is just as green. It doesn’t do much to calm me down, not with James sitting at other side of his massive desk, looking at me like a principal trying to get a kid to confess to TP-ing his house.

“Good morning, Beau,” he says.

“Hey,” I reply weakly, sinking into the chair opposite him. He doesn’t make me wait.

“I was at the St. Regis last week,” he says. “Maura and I were having dinner in the café downstairs. It’s the place where we first met, and we go back occasionally. We saw Brinley crossing the lobby from the elevators looking really upset, Maura called out for her, but she didn’t hear us, and then a minutes later the elevator doors opened again and out walked you. Looking around like you were meaning to catch up to someone.”

He steeples his fingers and looks at me, letting the words hang in the air. I shift uncomfortably in my chair, because I don’t know what to say. Should I just confess everything right now? Or wait to see what James knows?

James nods, like I’ve given him an answer. “I texted you a little later, asking where you were. You told me you were visiting a supplier in Scarborough.”

I remember that lie. It was smooth and believable, the kind of excuse that would have worked on any other day. Maybe I should have anticipated why James was asking, but after fighting with Brinley, I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly.

James’s expression doesn’t change, but the weight of the lie hangs in the air between us.

“So,” he says finally. “What’s going on?”

I put on my most charming smile and chuckle. “Can’t a guy get a hotel room? Haven’t you ever just wanted to get away for a bit?”

“Beau.” James levels me with a look, reminding me that he’s not like the other guys. He can’t be redirected with charm and jokes. He already knows I lied, and I just don’t see a way to explain myself out of this, not with the evidence laid out so clearly.

My anxiety slowly morphs into something like acceptance. This day had to come eventually.

“Brinley and I have been dating for a while now,” I sigh. “We kept it secret for obvious reasons. Nobody knows.”

He nods, accepting it. Anyone else would probe. How long? How did it start? How serious is it? Not James.

No, James drops the one truth I’ve refused to face in all of this.

“You need to tell Luke. I can’t sit on this secret forever, Beau. Luke’s my friend, too, and I won’t lie to him. I get that you might need a little time to decide how to share the information. If you can’t find a way to come clean on your own, I’ll have to tell Luke myself after poker night.”

“I hear you,” I mutter. I’m not going to promise James anything right now, but I know he’s a man of his word. There’s no way to change his mind—he’ll make sure Luke knows, one way or another.

I push to my feet, because I know this conversation is over. What else is there to say, now that James has just blown up my life?

Then he lobs one final bomb.

“The guys are getting close to finding out who’s behind Toronto Tea,” he says, almost casually. “Brinley must be worried about that—it can’t be easy watching your brother’s friends go on a manhunt.”

The phrasing is deliberate. Pointed. James is trying to see if I’ll react, if there’s something more here than just a secret relationship.

Good thing that five years of lying to the people I love has given me an expert poker face. I keep my face completely neutral.

“The Peppermint thing has been stressful for everyone,” I say with a shrug. “Me included.”

James tilts his head slightly. “You know, Luke won’t just confront Peppermint when he finds out who they are. He’ll publish it. He’ll make sure the world knows.”

I swallow around the dryness in my throat. I hadn’t even thought to worry about Luke taking Peppermint public. Him knowing at all was bad enough.