Page 165 of Everything That Kills Me
As he expected, Jack spun his chair so that Zeph was facing him.
“Are you bored?” Jack pinned him with his gaze.
Zeph was more worried about Jack getting bored. He’d exchanged his high-octane lifestyle for… Well, a far less intense one.
“Pictures of dicks and no sign of the real thing?” Zeph gave a sad sigh. “The story of my sad, lonely life.”
Jack growled. “I was away three days! You’re pushing—”
The door flew open and Lake burst in. “Oh my God. Zeph, please come and speak to Patricia. She is on the war path and I haven’t done anything.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s on the war path,” Jack suggested.
“Hide me!” Lake pleaded.
Jack gave a heavy sigh. Zeph knew he had no patience with most of the staff at Navy Blue PR. Lake flung himself under Zeph’s desk and crouched at his feet, his head pressed against Zeph’s shins. Zeph didn’t think he’d ever seen Jack’s eyes open that wide. He hoped shock wasn’t replaced by fury. Jack had a possessive streak that might turn Zeph on, but he didn’t want him to go after Lake. Though the idea of the two of them under his desk made him smile.
Patricia appeared at the door. CEO of Navy Blue PR and in her forties, she was always immaculately made up, wore elegant clothes and was cutthroat sharp in almost every way. “All well?”
“Can all ever be well?” Jack asked.
She smiled. Jack was one of the few people she ever smiled at. But that was because her six-year-old daughter Cindy absolutely adored Jack. It was a shock to everyone, especially Jack.
“Very true. While we have idiot clients like Ethan Ward who insist on sharing their genitals with the world, all cannot ever be well. Other than that?”
“We’re up to speed with security for the concert and the fashion show,” Jack said. “I’ve dealt with the Higgins issue, sacked Milo and have everything in place for Paris.”
“Excellent. You can come out now, Lake.”
Lake crawled from under Zeph’s desk and stood up. “I was looking—”
“Don’t insult my intelligence. If you weren’t a social media whizz and didn’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of films and TV shows and everyone involved with them, you’d be of no use to me whatsoever.”
“No use?” he whimpered.
“Little use. Go and do what I expected you to have done yesterday. I want it on my desk in the next hour.”
Lake slid out of the room and Patricia sighed. “I wish you two would work full-time but even part-time you’re more use than him.”
The door burst open again and Cindy came in pulling a little suitcase.
“I’m thinking about locks on the doors,” Jack said under his breath.
“Baby, I told you to stay in my office.” Patricia turned soft in an instant.
“But I heard Jack.” Cindy let go of her case and threw herself at Jack, leaping up at him, expecting him to catch her, which he did.
Jack’s jaw tightened and he patted her back. “Cindy Blue, how are you?”
Zeph smiled. Jack spoke in rhyme to her. She tried to do it back.
“I am fine. Like a…wine.”
They all laughed.
“Think you could watch her for a while?” Patricia asked. “Just one phone call. I had to bring her because the nanny’s sick.”
“No problem.”
