He frowned again. It was the usual ‘you’re being silly’ frown.
“No, really,” I said, my voice suddenly low and deathly serious. “You need fucking help.”
My ex-boyfriend sighed mightily. “Brooke, I’m the one who’s helping you. Why can’t you see that? There’s nothing wrong with being a little cautious. Nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for—”
“You washed my car.”
He nodded firmly. “You’re welcome.”
“My ex-boyfriend washed my car in the dead of night…” I said, saying it all out loud. “And then sat there making a map of the parking lot. Marking down everyone who went in and out of my complex.”
I wanted to hear it. Needed to know if it sounded every bit as batshit insane as it did in my mind.
It did.
“Brooke—”
“YOU WASHED MY CAR!” I yelled loudly. “YOU DON’T EVEN LIVE THERE AND YOU—”
In the blink of an eye he was gone, retreating just as fast and silently as he came. I was left standing at my desk, screaming at nothing. A few of the temps looked up at me in confusion, from the row of cubicles opposite my office.
“Go scratch your ass,” I muttered under my breath, while stepping forward to close the door. Just as I got there however, a young, spiky-haired man with an immaculate goatee stepped into my doorway.
“Chloe needs to see you in her office.”
Twenty-Five
BROOKE
I shoved past Chloe’s assistant so rudely and abruptly, I made a mental note to apologize to him later. Fists clenched, I marched straight down to her office and flew through the doorway without knocking.
“Your brother—”
“—is a complete asshat,” Chloe finished for me. “I know.”
Her response was so unexpected, it threw me back a step.
“Wait, what?”
“I heard your entire lover’s quarrel,” she said dismissively. “Or at least most of it. The entire office did, too.”
“That was not a lover’s quarrel,” I seethed.
“Oh no? Were you at one point lovers?” she demanded. “Was that not a quarrel?”
My upper lip curled back so far, I think I snarled. “That was so long ago I—”
“Once a lover always a lover,” Chloe said, with the wave of her arm. “Can’t change that. Believe me Brooke, I know he’s an asshole. And I couldn’t care less what you two were arguing about. That’s not why I called you in here.”
Once again, her words threw me for a loop.
“N—No?”
“Fuck no,” said Chloe. I realized now she wasn’t even looking at me. Hadn’t looked at me since I’d gotten here, she’d been scanning her desk the whole time.
“Then what—”
“Have you seen the Martinez file anywhere?”