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With a grunt, Sadie drops all her weight, breaks out of the hold, and spins, stopping shy of a counterstrike to my kidney. Afterward, she holds her ready position and studies my face before responding. “Nothing out of the ordinary that I’ve ever seen. Why are you asking?”
I almost sag in relief, but then disgust tightens my gut again. My earlier self-accusation was right. I would rather imagine Birdie doing something illegal than think of her taking another man’s dick. Being intentionally vague, I answer, “She could be having trouble with a man—or men,” I add, grumbling.
Sadie glares as though I’ve grown a second head. Spatch barks at someone on the gym’s other side, and Sadie snaps out of it, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. Look, I’m probably breaking some girl code by discussing this with you, but if Birdie has a man, she’s doing a good job keeping him a secret. At least with me, she doesn’t hold back when it comes to the men she’s dating.”
“Bordel de merde,” I murmur, invoking my mother’s favorite swear words. Aside from the whispered curse, my reaction must have been as visible as it was visceral. Sadie grins in satisfaction. With a bit of sass and a wink, she says, “Although there hasn’t been one in a while. Are you asking for you or as a friend.”
“C’est des conneries,” my mother’s second favorite curse. Talking to Sadie was a mistake, and now, I’m busted. “Neither. Both. Shit.”
Sadie’s grin widens. “Well, I’ll be damned. The grumpiest man alive and the sweetest human to ever walk the face of the earth.”
At the look in my eyes, her humor quickly dries up. “What’s going on, Bash?” she demands.
“I don’t know,” I admit with a sigh. “A bad feeling, mostly.”
Her brows dip lower, and Sadie lifts out of her ready stance. “Bad feeling about what? I didn’t know you two regularly crossed paths outside the war room.”
“We don’t. I was just in the right place at the right time to see the wrong thing. Birdie was hanging out alone, dressed like a kid, and waiting to meet a man near my house. She chased me off before he arrived, and within seconds of him showing up, she pissed him off, and he got physical.”
Sadie looks to the floor, deep in thought. Her eyes have narrowed to angry slits when she lifts her face again. “I hope you’re not suggesting she’s dealing or tricking. Or that I knew about it and did nothing.”
“Hell no,” I say with my hands up in surrender. Dropping them in defeat, I deflate and confess, “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
“What is it you’re expecting from me?” Sadie asks.
The question gives me pause, but thankfully, Spatch hasn’t noticed my lack of focus yet. “Look. All I know is that something is off with Birdie, and you know her better than anyone.”
Spatch blows his whistle again and shouts a new command, indicating our next move. I wrap my hands around Sadie’s throat and apply moderate pressure in response. My mind, however, returns to last night and visualizes that bastard’s face. What did you want with Birdie, asshole?
Sadie breaks out of my hold and attacks. Muscle memory takes over where my mind failed to activate, but the instinctual reaction happens a split second too late. I’m on my back before I know it, with Sadie leaning over me, breathing hard.
Her neck is red, suggesting I held her throat a little too tight. Aaron’s going to have something to say about that. Sadie massages her neck where my thumbprint is visible. “I can’t imagine Birdie being into anything bad, with a man or otherwise. At the same time, I’ve never known your instincts to be wrong. I’ll talk to Birdie. Unless you’re planning to?” she asks suggestively.
“No. You go ahead. Like I said, I’m just looking out for a teammate.”
Sadie nods and then lunges for my throat, giving me a taste of what I gave her.
Birdie
Eight fifteen rolls around, and all my reports and updates are ready for my weekly meeting with the CEO of Knot Corporation. His position within the company has nothing to do with why I’m pacing the floor in front of my desk. The nervous laps have everything to do with me failing to come up with a decent story to explain last night’s events to my boss.
I wouldn’t be worried, except that I’d swear Knot is telepathic. Or, at the minimum, is the best at reading people I’ve ever seen. Bastien may have developed a suspicion after witnessing last night’s events, but in the same span of time, Knot could have written a book on his observations.
Thanks to Bastien, controlling my expressions and body language during this meeting is paramount. As much as I didn’t need to run into Bash last night, I definitely don’t need Knot digging around my personal life and finding my off-the-clock hobby.
At eight twenty-five, I take a deep breath and step through my door, armed with my custom tablet. You can do this, Birdie.
The lie doesn’t help, so I opt for distraction instead. In my head, I review the Linux coding I modified to run on the device. Newsflash, it doesn’t help during the twenty-foot walk from my office to the CEO’s.
Knot’s door stands wide open, depriving me of the last second I needed to steel myself before entering his office. He’s on the phone, his authoritative instructions for the caller, giving me an excuse not to make eye contact. I cross the gleaming floor and slip into one of the guest chairs as he wraps up the call.
Without looking up, Knot reaches for a small stack of papers to his right. “I’ve got two more DOJ requests for your services. If this trend continues, I’ll have to clone you.”
I laugh nervously but bite my lip to stop the sound. My foot taps the floor at the speed of a Sterling engine, so I uncross my legs and tuck my feet under the chair. I finally glance at the papers as my boss lifts his dark brown eyes, the same color as his shaved head.
He studies my face briefly but then barrels ahead into logistics for an upcoming support contract. Half an hour later, we’ve covered personnel, ongoing DOJ projects, and surveillance updates on our domestic work.
“I guess that’s it, then,” Knot says with a tap of his pen after wrapping up the last topic.