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The anger slid away, and Hastings was faced with the expression he hated. The smooth one that showed the bearer was ready to blow whatever smoke you asked for up your ass. Or drop to his knees and service him if there was a chance to get on the good side, or in the good graces of one of the Rhodes’ billionaires.
“I had no idea who you were,” he fairly cooed, all anger pushed from his expression. “We should work together and find out what happened. My son’s life and learning what happened are the most important things to me.”
“Because it’s an election year.” Hastings didn’t hold back on his derision. “Evan doesn’t even have your last name. That’s how little he thinks of you, so if you’re going to try to use him and what happened to portray a concerned father, I won’t help you. Besides, I’m working with her to get to the bottom of this.”
Hastings reached behind him and opened the door before stepping back into the office.
“What we don’t need is a senator getting in our way.” The moment he had enough space, he slammed the door once more then spun on his booted heels to find the woman behind the desk staring at him with a confused expression.
She didn’t shy away from holding his gaze. Quite the opposite. As he stared back, she simply lifted her left eyebrow at him.
“Mr. Rhodes, I already told you what I know and what I’m not willing to provide you. Why are you back in my office?”
He walked to the desk, quite aware of the way she ran her gaze over him. He knew the look. She appreciated what she saw.
Yeah, sweetheart. The feeling is mutual.
“I’m not going anywhere until I learn what happened to my friend, Curls. So I suggest you just accept that and help me get the answers I need.” He stepped back and sank into a chair.
“Curls?” Ice coated her tone.
He pointed at her head. “You haven’t seen fit to introduce yourself, so I’m making up names.”
She pushed a hand through those very curls, and he grunted at the flash of a metal bar through her eyebrow, which had been hidden. A jeweled heart shape with a dangling gem in a sharp aqua hue.
What else do you have pierced?
“And you picked something on my body?”
He loved the sass in her tone, even if it was not as warm as he’d like. “Feel free to do the same.”
“Oh,” she said with a nod. “I already have. Ass.”
His lips twitched as he tried not to smile outright. “Because you like how mine looks in the jeans I’m wearing?”
Her mouth pursed ever so briefly. “If that helps you sleep at night.”
“Exercise helps me do that.” His pocket vibrated as her desk phone rang. Disappointed they’d been interrupted, he dug it out and swiped to accept the call as he put it up to his ear. “What?”
“I forgot to tell you something, Hastings.” Bradford’s low tone crossed the line with ease.
“What?”
“The woman who I hired to manage the place, she’s just starting, so when you get there please be nice to her. She’s doing this for me as a favor.”
“What do you mean just starting?” An uncomfortable feeling curdled in his gut.
“Like my old manager up and quit, so she’s filling in. I know you’re arriving there today, but so is she. So please, give her at least a day to settle in before you try scaring her.”
Across from him, that lone piece of furniture separating him from this woman, she murmured to whomever she spoke with, eyes on the computer before her.
“Who is she to you if she’s doing you a favor?” He hated the jealousy that kicked alive in him. “Aren’t you married now?”
“I am. And had you been able to come to the wedding you would have met her. She’s one of my wife’s adopted sisters. Violet.”
Fuck.
“Got it.” The words were forced. Hastings ended the call and waited for her to do the same.
She met his gaze with her extremely dark eyes, but this time he noticed something else that had eluded him previously. There were streaks of color in them which in a way matched the ones in her hair.
“Understood.” She hung up the phone and reclined in her chair, steepling her fingers.
“Important phone call?”
“Enlightening, Mr. Rhodes.” She rocked twice before leaning forward. “I’m sorry about your friend. I’m about to head to the hospital to see if I can see him. Would you like to come with me?”
“You know Bradford is my brother.”
She adjusted the blue and yellow dragon cup on the desk so the handle was perpendicular to where her hand would be. “I’ve met both him and Livingston. Which means you are the one who went and joined the military.”
He rose when she did. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
