Page 27 of Brutal Prince

It’s usually at this point when us jocks hit the road, not before we snuck some finger sandwiches from the kitchen. But on this occasion I noticed Harrington stayed put. His stare was almost violent and penetrating, the way his eyes followed Vanderbilt and Buchanan around the room.

I was about to follow Darryn and Ridge out when Vanderbilt stopped me, asking to speak to me in private after the open-floor discussion. If I was going to stay until the end I may as well get a feed, so got out of my seat and stepped into the kitchen to grab some finger sandwiches and pastries.

I took my place next to Cody who barely acknowledged me when I sat down, even when he smelt pastry.

“Intimidation techniques?” I asked, handing him a pastry and couple of tuna sandwiches.

He stuffed them into his mouth. “Merely studying the behavior of my prey before I pounce.”

I chuckled.

“Besides, Becca Gobal is in his apartment as we speak hopefully taking a look at his laptop.”

“Fuck, that’s quick.”

“No time for fucking around.”

“I thought he’d have the laptop with him?”

“Yeah. We weren’t sure. But I haven’t seen it. Have you?”

I shook my head.

“If he’s brought it with him, it’ll be in the kitchen.”

“I didn’t see it.”

“And it’s not by his chair, so chances are he left the dirty work at home and Gobal is at this very moment finding out when the next fuckfest is.”

“You’re a sly dude, dude.”

“Yep.”

“Let’s hope he hasn’t got a difficult password.”

“Oh, he’ll have a password, alright. But she reckons she knows what it is.”

“And?”

“Montblanc.”

“Predictable.”

He laughed loudly. “Yeah, I know, right. So, I’m just making sure he stays put and doesn’t decide to hit the road early.”

“He won’t ‘cos he wants to speak to me after the open discussion.”

We fell silent to listen to what the topic of discussion was. The two men found beaten to death by the science labs and Sweeney’s body parts found on the shore of Lake Superior.

I glanced at Cody to see if he was flinching, even a tiny amount. Instead, he held his gaze taking in the debate. Cody was guilty as sin, yet you wouldn’t think it.

The discussion droned on for about an hour, until Buchanan rang the bell to signal an end. Thank fuck.

As everyone was leaving, including Cody, Vanderbilt waved me over to him.

“The client wants you back again,” was all he said and I knew what he meant. “He likes the size of you.”

“Great. Not. Who will be the girl?”

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