Lilith circles her finger at me. “I’m still trying to figure out how you fit in to all of this if you don’t work for Zane. Were you being evasive about that or is this top-security, on a need-to-know basis kind of information?”
Before I can answer, Echo says, “Colt’s with Storm who are doing some work with Zane. Stop thinking every man is being evasive.”
Lilith arches a brow. “Well, so many of the fuckers are. The last thing you need is another one in your life. I’m just looking out for you.”
Echo shakes her head as if she’s frustrated, but she smiles as she says, “Colt and I are working together. That’s all. I’m celibate, remember?”
“Oh, sweetie,” Lilith says. “You do recall how your marriage began, right?” Before Echo can get a word in, Lilith looks at me. “It all started from a work thing. Echo was hired to write the code for a game that Heath was in charge of developing. I recall she’d sworn off guys at that time too. Six months later, she had a ring on her finger and a man in her bed who evaded questions like he was a fucking spy.”
“You’re a game programmer?” I ask Echo, surprised at this information.
“Was,” she says. “Long story short, Heath and I ended up starting a crisis management firm together.”
“What types of crises did you manage?” I ask.
“The kind that rich people had,” Lilith says.
“You’re a fixer?” I say.
“Heath was the fixer. I sourced any information we needed to get shit done,” Echo says.
“Here in Brisbane?” I’m confused because I thought I knew all the people in this line of work. The club has ties to these people, but I’ve never heard of Echo or her husband.
Echo nods. “Yes. We ran shit quietly.” At my continuing look of confusion, she says, “Have you heard of Grey?”
Fuck, everyone has heard of Grey. Grey Eminence. They fix the fuck out of the shit wealthy and famous assholes get themselves into. Storm has no ties to Grey, so it’s not surprising I haven’t heard of her.
“Yeah. Are you still involved with the company?” I ask.
“Fuck no,” she says. “Although he has called a few times and asked me to hack some info for him.”
“I hope you told him to squeeze the fuck out of his own ball sack before slicing it the fuck off and dying a slow painful death,” Lilith says, her eyes wild.
I chuckle. “Fuck, remind me never to piss either of you off.”
Lilith ignores me, her attention completely on her friend. “Well? What did you tell him?”
“I told him that maybe if he hadn’t screwed me all the way from Australia to the Arctic I would have agreed to help him, but since he did screw me that far, the answer was no,” Echo says.
“Good,” Lilith says before glancing at me. “FYI the asshole screwed her further than the Arctic. I’m still figuring out how to exact revenge.”
I don’t doubt her for a second.
“You need to let that go,” Echo says.
This gets them into a discussion where each debates the sense in their differing viewpoints. I tune out and eye the coffee machine. I’m halfway through making coffee for us all when Echo notices.
Leaning her ass against the kitchen counter, she crosses her arms and says, “I’m into this.”
I meet her gaze. “Having coffee made for you?”
She smiles and I feel it all the way down to my fucking toes. This woman knows what she’s doing with a smile. “Yes, that too.”
I grin. “For a celibate woman, you’re far too fucking flirty. You need to tone that shit down.”
She keeps fucking smiling. “I’ll think about that, Mr Caveman. Also, I have three sugars in my coffee.”
“Three?”
“Yeah, three,” she says. “Don’t fuck that up.”
Keeping my eyes pinned to hers, I rumble, “I fucking like a woman who isn’t afraid of sugar.”
“And I fucking like a man who says shit like that.”
“Jesus,” Lilith says. “Can you two just get a room already?”
“Pretty sure celibacy is all about not getting a room with a guy,” I say.
“I’m considering my life path,” Echo says. “I’m not convinced celibacy is all it’s cut out to be.”
“Spoiler alert,” Lilith says, “it’s not cut out to be anything good. I have no idea where you picked that thought up.”
They go back and forth about celibacy while I tune out again and finish making coffee for us all. I’m almost done when I reach across the kitchen counter for the cloth to wipe up a spill and in the process bump my bruised hip into the counter edge.
“Fuck,” I curse as pain spreads across my body. I’m used to bruises and cuts from fights, so I’m not feeling these bruises much, but I bumped my hip hard enough to fucking feel that.
“You need Advil,” Echo says, moving into action.
When she exits the kitchen, I eye Lilith. “You a sugar addict too?”
“No.” She moves closer to me so she can take the mug of coffee I hand her after establishing she doesn’t want it sugared. “What’s with the caveman reference? Have you been uncivilised towards Echo?”
“Only if you count grilling her as to why she was standing outside Zane’s headquarters looking shady as fuck.”
“Shady as fuck really is a good way to describe some of the shit she does.”
As she sips some coffee, I say, “So visiting Echo at three in the morning, that’s a thing with you two?”
“You make it sound like that’s not a thing people do.”
“It’s fucking not. Not that I’m aware of anyway.”
“Well people have no idea what they’re missing out on then. I have a key for this place, and I use it whenever I want, whether that’s at lunchtime or three in the morning.”
It doesn’t surprise me that Lilith has a key. Hell, it’d surprise me if she didn’t. These two appear to be all over each other’s business.
Echo comes back into the kitchen and hands me a box of Advil. She then fills a glass with water and hands me that too. “Hopefully this will help.”
“Thanks,” I say and swallow a couple down.
“Neither of you told me why Colt’s staying here tonight,” Lilith says.
“Zane and Liam decided I need around-the-clock security because of stuff going down at Stone Security,” Echo says, her tone conveying the same annoyance she had earlier when she discovered this. “Colt’s the poor guy they assigned that job to.”
“Clearly Liam hasn’t seen the way you eye-fuck Colt whenever you get a chance,” Lilith says. Glancing at me, she adds, “I’ll give you a heads up, Echo’s brother is kind of protective. And when I say kind of, I mean in an ‘I’ll beat the shit out of you and make your life hell if you marry her and screw her over’ kind of way.”
Echo’s eyes widen. “What?”
Lilith turns to her. “What what?”
“What have I missed here?” Echo asks. “What did Liam do to Heath?”
“Nothing he didn’t deserve.”