Her smile.
Her ink.
The goddamn doodles she left everywhere. I was a man possessed, and I couldn’t have a straight thought without her tainting it. She haunted me during the day and came to me at night. I couldn’t escape her. And I wanted to. Fuck, I wanted to forget about her.
That was what she wanted. She told me to stay away. So I did.
Through the fog in my head, I could hear Tom stuttering a lackluster answer to Gorsuch.
“…train our bodyguards to make the safest decision at any given time. We’ve dealt with many situations where high-profile media personalities were under threat in the past. Isn’t that right,Ransom?”
My name was more spat than said. I shot him a sidelong glance. If looks could kill, I’d be slumped on my crème leather upholstery chair, suffering eighteen gunshot wounds.
I finally ripped myself out of my haze and pinned Gorsuch with a vicious glare.
“Look, you’re here, which means that you’ve pretty much already decided who you’re going with. Rightly so. We’re the best in Chicago, and we have federal contracts to testify to that fact. We’re not going to sit here and list the reasons why you should hire us. Now, here’s the part where you want to call us out on our hubris. That’s fine. Take your business elsewhere. Just put aside the money for the lawyers, settlement fees, and mediation for when something happens on campus and dozens of lawsuits get shoved up your ass.” I buttoned my blazer with one hand, to the stunned face of the provost. “Have a nice day.” I walked out.
“Excuse him. He’s…uhm, clinically insane.” Tom darted up behind me, following me out of the boardroom.
The gray hallway closed in on us. Had it always been this fucking narrow and dim? Not that I was missing Los Angeles and its traffic, pollution, and plastic people, but Chicago could be miserable sometimes.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tom whisper-shouted under his breath.
I waved him off, not breaking my stride to my office. “It’s a small job, and he’s making you sweat for it. Fuck it.”
“A job is a job,” Tom insisted.
“No,” I explained with patronizing patience. “A job is a contract between two parties, based on mutual respect. I’m not kissing anyone’s ass.”
“You’ve never kissed ass.” Tom jumped before me, blocking my way to my door. We both knew I could punch him square in the face and get to my destination. But the truth was, work could wait. I’d done nothingbutwork for the past seven months.
“What’s eating you, Ransom?” His eyes searched mine frantically.
“Nothing.”
“You haven’t been yourself.”
“Myselfis a total pain in the ass, and that’s exactly what I am right now.”
She’s twenty-one. Twenty. One. What is it about her that made her impossible to forget?
“Look…” He sighed. “You’re giving me unhinged vibes, and seeing as you’re my business partner, it makes me feel some kinda way. Come over to dinner tonight? Lisa would really like to see you. The kids miss you, too.”
Biggest load of horse shit I’d ever heard, but my social calendar was wide open. Plus, seeing Lisa and the kids might wrestle me into something resembling chivalrous. Or at least not total dipshit behavior. Gorsuch trailed out of the boardroom, shoving a bunch of papers in Tom’s chest on his way out.
“Don’t fuck it up,” he muttered.
I arched an eyebrow to Tom. “See?”
Tom shook his head, looking exhausted. “Just be at my place at six. Look presentable. Oh, and don’t drink!”
“I haven’t drunk in months.”
“Yup.” Tom retreated, walking backward to his office as he watched me. “I’m well aware, assface. You’ve been insufferable to a fault.”
One kid sat in my lap, and another on my shoulders as I tried watching a football game in Tom’s living room.
“Have they always been this heavy? This needy?” I asked as a tiny finger found its way into my nostril, its owner giggling in delight.