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Eli and Sweeny are now straight up cackling.

Assholes.

I fire warning glares at both of them. “If you eventhinkabout her, I’m ending both of you, got it?”

They lift their hands in mock surrender, still chuckling, and I shake my head.

“I’m ordering food,” I snap, moving toward the island.

I take as long as possible to order lunch for all of us, mostly so the conversation veers away from Callie. At any moment, she’ll walk out of that room, and I don’t want this to be any weirder for her than it already will be.

As hoped, the redirect sends Eli and Sweeny to the half bath across the room to freshen up after traveling all morning. Luke joins me at the counter.

“This look good to you?” I hand him my phone to review the takeout order before submitting it.

He scans it for a few seconds before his expression changes.

His gaze shoots to mine with alarm, then something close to anger.

I furrow my brows at his weird reaction to my lunch order. “We can change it if?—”

“Why the fuck is Orin Cantea texting you?” he hisses, shoving the screen at me.

Shit.

Orin must have messaged me while Luke was looking at the menu.

His gaze shoots to the other side of the living room to make sure we’re still alone.

“I had to fix the Callie-Chair thing,” I whisper back. “It’s fine. I’ve got it handled.”

“Nothing is fine when it comes to that predator! You’ve been fighting him off for years and you sell your soul to himnow?”

I snatch my phone back with a hard look. “I said, it’s handled. I gave him some scoops in exchange for fixing the narrative about you and Callie, so what?”

“So what?! He does nothing for free and you know it.”

“He didn’t do it for free,” I fire back. “I told you, I traded information.”

“Like what?”

It’s my turn to check for spies. “I told him about Penchant.”

Evenhedoesn’t know about Jana, since he was already gonewhen that whole thing went down. Hell, his abandonment and the pressure it brought was whatmadeit go down.

His eyes widen. “Casey…”

“What? What else was I supposed to do?”

“Let our own PR manage the situation!”

“You don’t even know what the situationis, so don’t lecture me on how to ‘manage’ it!” I retort before I can stop it.

He flinches and sinks back. Guilt creeps in for my harsh response, but I don’t have the energy or patience to fight this battle on three fronts.

After a long silence, I fear he’s going to lash out again when he moves closer. I’m surprised when he rests his hand on my shoulder. His eyes search mine, and I see the remorse and pain hiding in their depth.

“You’re right,” he says quietly. “Idon’tknow, and I’ve left you alone to handle the fallout of my choices for a long time. I’m sorry, Case. I’m sorry that my actions forced you into this position.”