The door opened again before I could say anything.Axel.
“Why doesn’t anyone knock anymore?” I threw a hand up.
“I need to talk to you,” he said in a gruff voice.
“Can’t you see he’s busy?” Simone bit back. “Come back in an hour!”
Axel narrowed his eyes at me. “It won’t take long.” His jaw was tight.
“Why don’t you go freshen up, sweetheart? We just need a few minutes.”
“You know what?” She leaped from the chair with a floored expression. “This is obviously not important to you. And that big oaf doesn’t give a shit either.” She pointed at Axel. “You both make me sick. Go about yourbusinessand”—she got up in my face—“go ahead and ruin the best thing that ever happened to you.”
My tornado of a sister was gone in the blink of an eye. If her reaction was half of what I could expect from Miranda, I might not survive the day.
Axel sat down in the chair Simone had been sitting in. “Miranda is in the building.”
“That’s what you came here for? I know she’s in the building. She had an eleven thirty appointment with my mom.” I went back to my chair.
“I know. I’m keeping track of everything.” He shook his head. “I was worried you might unravel. Seems I was right by the way you were about to comfort Simone.”
“She’s my sister!” I threw my hands up.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re going to catch a helluva lot of heat for that picture.” He jerked his chin to the evidence on my desk. “Good job upping the ante.”
I pressed the back of my head against the chair. “It’s what you told me to do.”
“Glad to know you can follow orders.”
“Did you dig up anything at Jason’s? Please tell me all this shit isn’t for nothing.”
“I did. I found his laptop and hacked into it, but I haven’t gone through all the USB drives yet.”
I exhaled a relieved breath. “Well, get on it and stop all this bullshitting. My life is about to implode.”
“I’m on it. Just hold it together.”
I waved him off.
Hold it together. I was doing the best I could.
The real test would be when I saw Miranda.