Chapter 12
“ W hat’d I say?” Briggs demanded once Chloe was out of the room and the door was closed behind her, his voice soft and threatening.
“I think Vance contacted?—”
“What’d I say?” he snapped over me.
I worked my jaw before admitting, “Wait for her to come to me.”
“And did you?” he unnecessarily asked, since he clearly already knew I hadn’t. Without bothering to wait for me to respond, he took a step closer, his tone dropping even lower. “Rush watched you follow her down the hall.”
My body stilled at that as I wondered why Rush had been watching Chloe closely enough to know that, but I didn’t comment on it. I just stood there, subtly vibrating with a lethal mixture of anger and jealousy and regret as Briggs continued.
“He told me she looked spooked by something. By the time I followed you, Gray was already heading that way too.”
A curse ripped from me. “What is it about this girl that has everyone so twisted up?” At the hint of surprise on Briggs’ face, I said, “Gray and Rush? By the end of next week, Evans is gonna be following after her just the same as them; like she isn’t a threat inside the company .”
“She isn’t a threat.”
An irritated laugh tumbled from me as I scrubbed my hands over my face, then held them out to Asher before gesturing to the door. “It’s an act—she’s lying . She isn’t really that bubbly girl she walks around pretending to be. From those first minutes near her, I knew it was forced, and I’ve seen the cracks in her mask, Briggs.”
I roughly placed one of my hands against my chest. “For more than a dozen years and more missions than I wanna remember, you’ve trusted me with this . Uncovering moles has always been what I do. But you won’t listen to me now because this is about Lainey’s housemate?” A breath of frustration left me as my hand fell heavily to my side. “Briggs...”
“I’m not listening to you because you’re wrong,” he stated, his gruff tone leaving no room for argument. “Whatever mask you think you’re seeing, I told you, it probably isn’t what you think.”
“Then tell me what it is.”
Briggs’ head slanted, ignoring my plea. “Just know you’re making something out of nothing—Chloe’s fine.”
Exasperation burst from me as I drove a hand into my hair, grasping the short strands tightly. “Briggs,” I began, silently begging him to hear me, “there’s something about this girl that is setting off every red flag. She’s hiding something, and she can lie almost as easily as she breathes. I don’t trust her.”
He nodded before asking, “You trust me?”
My shoulders sagged because I already knew where he was going with the question. “Yeah,” I mumbled.
“Then trust me on this.” Just as I started arguing, he shot me a cold look to stop me and said, “I have my own thoughts about Chloe’s personality and why it might be an act. But they’re just assumptions, and you don’t need to be made aware of them because her life isn’t for me to share, and none of it changes the fact that she’s not a threat. As for the lying?” He gestured from me to the door. “Looks like she’s been living with a lot of shame that’s weighing her down. And what happened when she finally started admitting it to someone?”
Pain seized my chest and guilt stole through my body as I remembered the look on Chloe’s face just minutes before. The shame, as Briggs said. The worry every time those hazel eyes had met mine. And the outright shock, pain, and humiliation when I’d used her past against her.
It didn’t matter that I was sure she was a threat or hiding something. I knew better.
I’d done my share of questioning people throughout the years, and not once had I reacted, no matter what insane or horrifying things I’d been told. Even if someone implicated themselves in the process, I’d never turned it around and used it against them.
But this girl...she had me just as twisted up as the other guys. Maybe even more so because I was torn between wanting to get rid of her, losing hours of my day to thoughts of her and that infuriating coconut and vanilla scent, and hating that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. So, when she’d confessed to a relationship with our suspect, I’d been horrified by my reaction.
Jealousy had exploded in my chest, so strong and powerful that it’d been impossible to ignore or brush away as anything other than what it was. But I hadn’t wanted it—I couldn’t be jealous when it came to Chloe Whitlock.
More than that, I couldn’t let myself want someone the way I was reluctantly realizing I wanted her.
So, I’d taken my fear and frustration with myself and turned it around onto her, using it as fuel for the words that had clearly hurt her. And no matter how many times I’d tried telling myself it was a necessary step in the process of eliminating a threat, I hated myself for it.
“I’ll, uh...I’ll apologize,” I finally murmured, then started for the door.
“I told Gray to take her home.”
Briggs’ words had my steps faltering as that jealousy flared, but I just forced myself to nod.
“Since Chloe’s not only an employee, but also apparently part of our Donut, you’re getting two write-ups for this,” Briggs continued before I could make it past him.
“Understood.”
“Thatch,” Briggs ground out when I kept walking and waited for me to face him again. “This won’t happen again.” At my accepting nod, he added, “If you need to figure Chloe out for your own peace of mind, get to know her. No more accusations. No more making her feel ashamed for anything—especially for her past. No more making her cry.”
I felt a muscle in my jaw flex as my guilt burned hotter. Not that I didn’t deserve it. Not that I didn’t want to drown in it. But there was still that part of me that didn’t want to care. That was so sure we couldn’t trust her.
And that part of me was still hyper focused on the knowledge that the new girl had to go.
As sick and dark as the jealousy lingering in my veins felt, I told myself it was for the best Gray had taken her home, because breaking her heart might truly be the only chance I had at getting rid of Chloe Whitlock.
I’d waited it out at Kaia’s birthday party for another hour before finally heading home, knowing if I’d left too early, it would’ve made Asher even more mad since Lainey had planned the entire thing.
But all the while, I’d been lost in thoughts of Chloe...and Gray.
Desperately trying not to think of how he might finally be winning her over and what they might be doing, all while I kept replaying the two of them standing together. Too close. Her bright smile aimed at him as he’d touched her skirt and made her laugh.
By the time I made it home, I’d felt like I was going insane between knowing I needed to let them happen and feeling like I might kill Gray if he touched Chloe.
I’d never cared about a girl enough to be truly jealous. Growing up, sure, there were times I’d felt something like jealousy. But that was different. That’d never been real—I’d been a kid. Then once I’d started going on missions with Monroe, the guys, and the other members of our Special Forces team, I’d known I never wanted to get close enough to a girl for her to matter.
Partly because I hadn’t known if I’d survive each mission. Mostly because, well, the things we saw changed all of us—I hadn’t wanted to put that on anyone. But even if it hadn’t, even if I wasn’t still haunted by that time of my life, we’d somehow found ourselves tangled up with a mafia family in this new line of work. Why would I want to put anyone in that kind of danger?
And yet, there I was, pacing my living room as jealousy ate at my chest, all while I reminded myself of all the reasons we couldn’t trust Chloe.
I came to an abrupt stop when I realized I’d forgotten about Rush and his apparent attraction to Chloe too. Dragging my hands over my face, I tried forcing away thoughts of her and why my closest friends all seemed so captivated by her, just as there was a harsh knock on my door.
Looking in that direction, I contemplated not answering for a handful of seconds before finally heading over there.
Just as I reached the entryway, Gray’s muffled, “I know you’re there,” sounded through the door.
Surprise poured from me as I took the last few steps and flipped the locks to let him in.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re the worst?” he drawled as he pushed into my condo before I could get out of the way.
“What?”
“This close,” he said as he continued deeper inside, holding up his hand to show me his index and thumb nearly touching, just as he had the day before. “ This close with Chloe, and I had to come to a screeching halt because of you.”
Wasn’t about to apologize for that.
“And what’s with you?” he asked on a huff, glancing over his shoulder and giving me an incredulous look before slipping around the corner, into the kitchen. “Since when do you take information a person’s giving us and use it against them ?”
I drew in a steadying breath before following him into the kitchen, my head shaking when he held up a beer in question. “What are you doing here, Gray?”
He paused from popping off the cap, his expression telling me I should’ve already known the reason. “Work.”
Lifting one of my hands in a placating motion, I defended, “Just wasn’t expecting you to show up here—or anywhere, really—after I heard you were taking Chloe home.”
Using the bottle to point at me, he said, “Again, night might’ve ended differently if it weren’t for you.”
Again . . . I wasn’t about to apologize.
“I don’t even know why you’re trying with her,” I found myself saying, ignoring that voice whispering Gray was the key to making Chloe quit. “I don’t know why you hit on every girl you meet when you’ve been hung up on Monroe since she first got placed on our team.”
Gray’s hand paused with the bottle only halfway to his mouth. A deep, decade-old longing flashed in his eyes.
“She’s never gonna give you the time of day when you chase every girl that passes you,” I informed him, and not for the first time.
Another few seconds passed before Gray gave a subtle shake of his head and finally took a quick drink. “It’s never gonna happen anyway,” he muttered as he lowered the bottle.
“If you’d?—”
“It wouldn’t change anything,” he said over me, already knowing what I was going to say. “I could’ve ignored every woman from the day I met Monroe through today, and it wouldn’t have changed a thing. We’d still be right here.”
I was sure that wasn’t true—Briggs and Rush were too. But I didn’t push any further. Besides, I was only pushing him because I hated who his sights were on now.
“Why are we talking about Mallory?” he asked on an irritated laugh, then stalked out of the kitchen, leaving me to follow. “Chloe told me everything she knew about Vance, but I didn’t have my tablet. Grab yours so we can transfer my notes onto there.”
“Everything?” I asked, jealousy fueling my shock.
If Gray heard it, he didn’t give any indication. He just gave me a knowing look wrapped up in all that typical Gray arrogance as he twisted to continue walking backward into my living room. “Crazy how far you can get with people when you’re nice to them—when you don’t make them feel like they’ve done something wrong.”
My eyes rolled as I tried ignoring the guilt that had been lingering so close to the surface. Knowing I had nothing to say because he was right, I just went to get my tablet and laptop before joining where he was waiting on the couch, already talking.
“Nerd swears this Vance guy doesn’t harass or assault women—that he has no need to because women throw themselves at him. And, for the same reason, he doesn’t blackmail them. But she doesn’t even realize he’s been doing all those things to her.”
At the news Gray casually tossed out, I nearly dropped the laptop as I was passing it off to him, but I managed to keep it in my shaking grasp until he took it from me.
“Explain,” I ground out as I sank into the large, plush chair next to the couch.