Page 92 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

Maddie walked into the bar and it felt like a weird throwback to six months ago when her life had been simple, or at least simpler. When she hadn’t known about the Omega Project, when she hadn’t even had any interactions with BlackWater and when her biggest life issue was whatever drama her slutty little sister was creating across the papers.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” Burke said and she grinned as he passed her a beer.

“Missed me?” She asked him sitting down.

“Not for a minute.” He said laughing.

“Ha that’s a lie.” She said.

“What’s with the bodyguard huh?” Burke said glancing at the BlackWater agent that had tailed her in and was now lurking not so subtly a few metres from her.

“Urgh long story.” Maddie said.

“Good to see you’re causing as much of a headache at BlackWater as you did at Homewell.” He said laughing.

“Hey I did not cause a headache at Homewell.” She stated.

“Keep telling yourself that. So I’m guessing you got that whole stitch up situation sorted then?” He asked.

“Yeah you could say that.” She muttered.

“So that’s a no then.” Burke said.

“It’s an ‘it’s complicated’.” She replied taking another swig.

“Not gonna share with your old buddy?” He said nudging her and she shook her head slightly.

“You know if I could I would.” She replied.

“Sure, but Cole Black would beat your arse for it right?” He joked.

“Yeah he would.” She said smirking and thinking that Burke had no idea how accurate he was about that particular statement.

“So what’s it like then? Working at BlackWater?” He asked.

“Intense. It’s so different from Homewell. Although the gym puts ours to shame.” She said.

“Yeah?” He replied.

“Honestly, it’s mind blowing how good it is.” She stated.

Burke grinned. “So you don’t miss it then?”

She shrugged. “I miss you but weirdly I feel like I fit there, like it’s more me.”

“Wow, they’ve really got you.” He stated.

“Yeah you could say that.” She said.

“What about Cole Black? He still a prick?” He asked.

“Yeah but I don’t really have much to do with him.” Maddie half lied because he was still a prick, it was just now she knew she liked him like that. “I’m on Brandon Black’s team.”

“Wow with the big boss.” Burke quipped.

“Yeah but he’s cool, I mean he’s still a Black right but he knows what he’s doing and he manages the team really well.” Maddie said.

Burke smirked before taking a sip of his beer and she frowned.

“Why the smirk?” She asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve heard that man’s a dark horse.”

“How so?” She said curious, Brandon did not seem the dark horse out of the two of them.

He shrugged but didn’t say anything else.

“So your sister’s been busy huh?” He said laughing.

“Urgh, hasn’t she just.” Maddie said taking another sip of her beer.

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