Chapter Ten
Just as Charlotte had predicted, less than a week after we had extracted the information about Venezuela and The Coconut Club from Garcia, another metal business card had arrived at our door – this time hidden in a carton of Chinese food.
I wasn’t sure why The Guild chose takeaway deliveries as their mode of contacting us, but I wasn’t about to be questioning it.
That was a first-class ticket to trouble.
“We have got to stop meeting like this.”
I flinched, my stomach turning over as I pushed inside my office, a familiar deep voice greeting me. I had hoped that I had arrived before him, but alas…
“Hangman,” I replied, my tone frosty. It annoyed me beyond reason how easily this man affected me. Already I could feel my pulse quickening, my back growing damp with sweat.
We’d parted ways only a few days ago – though the three of us had kept in contact through a covert group chat – and yet he seemed to be even bigger than I recalled.
He was lounging in my desk chair, slumped back, thighs spread in a manner that spoke of his blatant cockiness.
I tried to ignore him, to keep my eyes off him, and dropped my laptop bag down beside my desk.
“Get out of my chair,” I muttered, crouching to hit the switches on for the equipment.
The vast wall of screens flashed and flickered to life, the once quiet room suddenly loud with the whir and hum of technology.
Before I could get back to my feet, I felt Hangman’s boot nudge my behind.
It was only gentle, no more than a tap, but my face grew hot and I scowled up at him.
A mistake. He was closer than I realised and crouching had me at perfect cock height.
Against my will, my traitorous eyeballs were drawn to his crotch.
Shit. He hadn’t seen that, right?
I forced myself to meet his gaze, faltering when he grinned knowingly at me. Of course he’d seen it. Fucking hell… I jumped up to my feet, brushing myself off as I pretended to busy myself with a tangle of wires.
“It’s nice to see you again. Surely you’re not here on your own today?” he asked, reaching his arms above his head and resting them on the back of the chair.
I fought against looking directly at him, knowing that position would pull his t-shirt taut over those impressive abs…
“Aquarius is just getting changed. I thought I’d get a headstart here.”
Hangman stared at me. “So I’ve got you to myself for five minutes, then.”
I simply rolled my eyes at him, finally turning to face him and crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re still in my chair.”
Without missing a beat, he tapped his palm against his knee, inviting me to perch on it. A bitter laugh burst free from me, but it was like water off a duck’s back. Hangman gazed up at me.
“Get. Out. Of my chair,” I muttered between my teeth.
“Are you planning to make it worth my while?”
God! What was it about this toffee-nosed fucking—
“No.”
“Shame. I guess I’ll just be making myself comfortable until boss lady tells me otherwise, then.” He pinned me with a heated expression. “You’re not in charge here, right?”
A prickle of rage and embarrassment coursed through me. He was goading me, the sensible part of my brain knew that, but I couldn’t deny that it was working. Damn this sexy fucking arsehole.
“Although, I am disappointed,” Hangman continued with a sigh. Before I could respond, he spoke again. “I had it on good authority you were a good boy, but you’re not being very well-behaved right now, hm?”
Like a cord snapping, I lunged forward. It gave me a thrill seeing Hangman flinch, knowing I had taken him by surprise. I leant in over him, resting my hands on the arms of the desk chair as I brought my face as close to his as I dared.
“Good behaviour is earnt,” I growled beneath my breath, heart thundering as I held his eye contact. “Now, get the fuck out of my chair.”
As if on cue, the door to the office flew open and both Hangman and I turned to see Charlotte standing in the doorway. She blinked, quickly assessing what she had just walked in on before a sultry grin crept onto her face.
“Am I interrupting something?”
I sighed heavily, standing back up straight and scrubbing a hand down my face. They were just as bad as one another. Lord help me.
“Nice to see you, Jugs.” Hangman smiled, immediately heaving himself from my chair. “All rested and recuperated?”
“Absolutely,” Charlotte replied, bumping her knuckles against Hangman’s as he offered them to her.
I glanced between them. They were like a pair of jocks, and I was the nerdy loner they had decided to take pity on. That spelled trouble for me, most certainly. I sat in my chair, wheeling it away and trying to ignore how my stomach flipped over when Hangman cast me a knowing smirk.
“Can you believe we’ve got to head back to South America?” Charlotte grumbled.
“I’m not surprised, but it is a bit of a ball ache. Never mind. Hey – maybe we’ll get lucky with some poor weather again, hm?” he chuckled.
Charlotte’s lashes fluttered. “If only, right? Although, I think we’d have something else to focus on this time.”
I groaned beneath my breath, turning my attention to the computers before me, fingers flying over the keys as I prepared ahead of the mission. I could feel both Hangman and Charlotte watching me.
“Wait, you’re joining us this time, Relay?”
“Unfortunately,” I muttered. “We don’t have any solid intelligence to go off this time, so Aquarius and I decided I would join you both in Venezuela so I can assist in real-time.”
“Interesting,” Hangman all but purred.
My body grew tense and I cleared my throat.
“Give me half an hour here and I’ll be ready to leave. I’m just backing up my data and making sure I have set up access ports for everything I might need.”
“That made absolutely no sense to me, but I’ll take your word for it,” Charlotte chuckled, nudging Hangman with her elbow. “Want to go grab a coffee whilst he does his thing?”
“Sounds good, lead the way.”
The door clicked at my back, and I slumped in my chair with a heavy sigh.
I rubbed my fingers into my temples. I had only been in their joint company for ten minutes and I was already developing a stress headache.
We weren’t yet sure how long we’d be stationed in Venezuela, but judging by the spotty intelligence we had to work off, I couldn’t see it being a quick turnaround.
Spending time cooped up in a hotel room for weeks on end wasn’t my idea of fun.
I shook myself off, sitting forward and getting back to work.
It couldn’t be helped. It wouldn’t be the first time Charlotte and I had spent an extended trip abroad together like this and I was sure it wasn’t to be the last, either.
Hangman’s presence was certainly a fly in the ointment, but I’d deal with that situation as it developed. That’s all I could do for now.
An hour or so later, I had all my tech packed up into four heavy holdalls and I was waiting on the concrete as Hangman loaded them into the cargo compartment of the huge stealth jet.
It was so much bigger than it looked in the schematics I’d spent hours studying at my desk, though it wasn’t exactly designed for carrying much in the way of luggage.
“Fucking—” Hangman grumbled, shoving his shoulder into one of my bags as he attempted to squeeze it into the limited hold.
“Hey, hey,” I complained. “Be careful with that! This tech is worth more than your entire jet.”
“Yeah, so you keep telling me,” he huffed. “You couldn’t have packed a little lighter?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I need all of this stuff. I don’t pretend to know how to fly a jet, I’d thank you if you didn’t presume you know anything about my job.”
“Boys, boys,” Charlotte interjected with a laugh. “Come on, we haven’t even taken off yet and you’re already bickering like an old married couple.”
“That’s not—”
“You could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife. Just hurry up and fuck each other so we can all move on.”
I spluttered. “I don’t—”
“It’s not for want of trying, Jugs,” Hangman muttered, slamming the cargo hold closed.
“Perhaps I’ll have to share some of my tips and tricks with you to—”
“Can we go now?” I interrupted with a scowl. “We’re on the clock and last I checked, talking about one another’s private lives was something we were explicitly instructed to avoid in this business.”
There was a moment of silence as they both stared at me, but just as I began to wonder if I had perhaps overstepped, Charlotte and Hangman both spoke at once.
“Man, he really is wound tight, isn’t he? What a killjoy.”
“C’mon, Relay. Don’t be like that.”
I groaned, scrubbing my hand down my face for what felt like the thousandth time that morning – and it was only 3AM. How was I going to survive sharing a hotel room with the pair of them? This was going to be hell.
Despite their teasing, both Hangman and Charlotte got to work ahead of the flight.
Whilst Hangman prepared in the cockpit, Charlotte helped to strap me into a rickety fold-down seat, heaving the jet’s door closed before getting herself settled.
The passenger compartment was plunged into darkness, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dim emergency lighting.
The jet’s engines roared to life, sending a hum of vibration through my body and I grew tense.
I wasn’t a nervous flyer, but I wasn’t used to this mode of transport.
Before Hangman had joined us, Charlotte and I would have employed the use of a private jet or chartered a commercial flight.
This jet was top of the line, I knew it was as safe as it was possible for an aircraft to be, but it didn’t feel safe and that set me on edge.
“Hey.”
Charlotte’s voice came through the earpiece, and I glanced across the cabin at her. She was watching me, her pretty eyes focussed on me over the edge of her oxygen mask.
“It’ll be okay. Take off and landing is a bit rough, but once we’re up in the air it’s no different from any other flight, I promise.”