14. hunter #2
“I don’t care what you do with the heels.”
Malakai finally looked away from her long enough to glance at me. “Can I have them?”
Echo’s head turned slowly in his direction.
He lifted both hands before she had to say anything. “For science.”
I ignored him and opened the first page of the folder. “Friday changed again. Desmond expanded the main table, and the Voss family added another two names. Ronan’s checking why one of them appeared this late. Until he knows, nobody changes the placement.”
Malakai’s attention shifted cleanly. That was another thing people missed when they decided his mouth meant he was not listening. He leaned back in his chair and held out a hand for the list. I passed it over, and his eyes moved down the page once before stopping near the bottom.
“Elias Voss wasn’t on the original.”
“No.”
“He doesn’t come to student dinners unless his father wants somebody counted.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Echo had gone back to her laptop, but I could tell she was listening from the way her typing slowed. I left her out of it. If she was going to sit in our spaces, she could learn what happened in them without being spoon-fed every detail.
Malakai read another line. “And Camille’s still beside you.”
“For now.”
He glanced up at that, then back at the seating list. “Desmond really wants the room to believe something.”
“He wants the room talking before I get there.”
Echo’s fingers stopped over the keyboard for half a second.
Malakai noticed too. He did not comment. He handed the list back and reached for the drink beside Echo’s elbow instead. She caught it before he did and moved it to the other side of her laptop without looking at him.
I went through the rest of the changes with him, then the security issue at the south lot and the lower house trying to borrow Quorum access it did not have.
Echo worked while we talked, interrupting only once when Malakai tried to steal her drink again.
By the time I finished, he had somehow shifted his chair closer to hers without either of them acknowledging it.
I closed the folder and looked at Echo.
She was reading now, chin propped briefly against one hand, boots planted beneath the table. Malakai had gone back to his own work at some point, though he had dragged it over beside hers rather than returning to the seat he had abandoned. Their papers had started bleeding into the same space.
Yesterday, I would have called it Malakai entertaining himself. Today, I knew better.
My phone vibrated again. Ronan this time.
That Primrose identifier you sent me is old. Very old. Give me an hour.
I read the message twice before locking the screen. Across the table, Echo looked up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Her eyes narrowed because she did not believe me, but she let it go and returned to the page in front of her.
I looked at the folder, then at her, and thought about the access error waiting downstairs.
Primrose had been a weak thread ten minutes ago.
Now Ronan had recognized enough about it to ask for time.
Camille arrived less than twenty minutes later with two people behind her and enough confidence to make it obvious nobody downstairs had considered stopping her.
I heard the heels first, sharp against the old library floor, followed by a quieter pair and the low murmur of someone answering a question I couldn’t make out.
Malakai looked toward the stairs before Camille cleared the last shelf.
Echo did not. She had gone back to whatever she was reading, one boot hooked around the lower rung of her chair while she wrote something in the margin of a printed article.
She only glanced up when Camille came directly toward our table.
Camille had brought Talia Mercer and Evan Voss with her, both familiar enough with Quorum business to know why they had been included and smart enough to stay behind her while she handled the conversation.
Talia carried a slim folder beneath one arm.
Evan had his phone in his hand, though he locked the screen as soon as he saw me watching.
Camille stopped beside the table and looked at Malakai first, then at me.
Her attention passed over Echo without settling long enough to acknowledge her.
“My father changed the transportation arrangements for Friday. Desmond already approved the additional security, but Elias wants the west entrance cleared before the first cars arrive. There’s also a problem with the Morrow placement because apparently nobody told them the upper dining room was closed to outside guests. ”
“Not here.” I closed the folder in front of me and left my hand resting over it.
Camille paused. “It’s Friday logistics, Hunter. I’m not asking you to open the family books in the middle of the library.”
“I know what you’re asking. We’re not discussing it here.
” There were rooms fifteen feet away where we could have had the conversation privately if I wanted it.
I did not. Camille had come looking for me without warning, brought an audience with her, and started talking before she had bothered to find out whether I was available.
I had no intention of rewarding that by rearranging the afternoon around her.
She gave a short laugh and shifted the strap of her bag higher on her shoulder. “Fine. I can catch you later.” Her gaze moved toward the papers on the table as if she were deciding whether there was something else worth saying before she left, then finally landed on Echo.
The change was immediate.
Echo had stopped writing. She sat with her forearm resting beside the article, pen still between her fingers, watching Camille with the same quiet attention she gave people when she had not yet decided whether they were worth engaging.
Malakai noticed the shift at the same time I did.
He leaned back instead of moving closer to Echo, giving her the room to decide what she wanted to do with it.
Camille looked from Echo to me, and whatever conclusion she reached made something amused settle across her face. “Oh. Okay. I understand now.”
I knew that tone well enough to already dislike what came next.
Her eyes moved over Echo openly this time, taking in the altered Aldrich uniform, the boots I had returned, the books spread across the table, and the fact that she was sitting inside a space most students would not have entered without permission.
“Seems pretty temporary if you’re not even allowed to overhear family business.
I don’t know what you did to get yourself into this position, but I doubt it was worth much. ”
Malakai’s chair shifted against the floor.
I looked at Camille. “Stop.”
Echo set the pen down before Camille could answer me. There was no rush in the movement, and that made Talia’s attention sharpen more than if Echo had slammed both hands against the table. Echo closed the article, pushed her chair back, and stood.
She was slightly taller than Camille in the boots.
Camille noticed.
So did everyone else.
Echo rested one hand against the edge of the table and looked at her for a moment without smiling. “Does my presence threaten you?”
Camille’s expression tightened. She took one small step backward before she caught herself, more reflex than decision, but Echo saw it. Her gaze dropped briefly to the space Camille had created between them and came back to her face.
“I’m not threatened by a transfer student I’d never heard of until this week,” Camille said. “I’m trying to save you the embarrassment of mistaking access for importance. There’s a difference between being allowed into a room and belonging in it.”
Echo tilted her head slightly. “You came all the way up here to discuss business with a man who told you he didn’t want to discuss it, then decided I was the problem when he wouldn’t make an exception for you. That sounds exhausting.”
Malakai shifted beside her, and I caught the beginning of a smile before he looked down at the table. Camille saw enough of it to make her face harden.
“Cut it the fuck out.” I stood before either woman could take another step. My attention stayed on Camille because Echo had not started this and did not need me pretending otherwise. “Your business is done here. Fuck off.”
Talia looked toward the stairs immediately. Evan did not move, but his phone disappeared into his pocket. Camille stayed where she was, staring at me as though the wording itself had surprised her more than being dismissed.
“You’re throwing me out because she got offended?”
“I’m throwing you out because I told you this wasn’t the place for the conversation and you decided to make it one anyway.
” I stepped around the end of the table and stopped far enough away that there was no ambiguity about where the line was.
“You came looking for me. I told you no. That should have been the end of it.”
Camille’s gaze moved past me to Echo again. The humiliation was starting to overtake whatever restraint she had walked in with. “Are you fucking this nobody?”
Malakai’s head came up. Echo did not react at all beyond folding her arms.
I stared at Camille for a second, trying to understand why she thought the answer would improve this conversation.
“What answer is going to make you leave? The reason she’s here is none of your business, and she knows more than enough about the family business.
I didn’t come up here to discuss Friday with you.
You came looking for me, I told you this wasn’t the place, and instead of listening, you decided to start shit with her. We’re done.”
Camille’s mouth tightened. “You’re making this bigger than it is.”
“You brought two people upstairs to discuss something you could have sent in a message, ignored me when I told you to stop, and then insulted someone sitting at my table because you didn’t like being told no.
” I held her gaze until she stopped trying to interrupt.
“There’s nothing complicated about what happened. ”