Page 42 of Five

“Yeah, don’t know what to do about my brother anymore.” His voice is filled with worry.

“Let him go to college next semester. Let him live on the campus.”

“He barely goes out.”

“He’s a nerd. He’ll do it for a chance at studying. Rami will keep a cyber eye on him, and we’ll take turns to go visit him. He needs to fight his fears and find his way.”

He nods and covers my hand with his on the table. I push down the impulse to pull it back. I still can’t seem to tolerate being touched.

“You’re right, I have to trust that he can work things out for himself.” Is he talking about Sully or me?

“You’re a sneaky bastard, you know that?” I huff. He squeezes my hand and then lets it go, getting back to his uneatable sandwich.

“Hi, Oliver, right?” A guy suddenly appears near our table. “Jeff. We have a couple of classes together.” He’s tall, tanned, and handsome—and he knows it.

“Oh, hi.” Ollie makes his I-don’t-remember-who-you-are-but-I’m-pretending-to face.

“Haven’t seen you at uni for a while which, was a bummer since I wanted to get your number.” He leans toward Ollie and gives him an inviting smile, showing clearly what else he wants to get.

Still is nice to have it spelled out, right? “What for?” I ask him.

Tall and tanned gives me a smug smile and then turns to my bestie again. “To get together. Have some fun.” His voice lowers to sultry city on the wordfun.The fact that he’s flirting so openly with Ollie makes me think that a) he’s never seen KKJ, which is weird since Rague goes to pick up Ollie every single bloody time just to show to the whole University he’s taken, owned. His. Which takes me to option b) this guy is suicidal. Rague will peel him like a banana and then make a puree out of him.

“I’m married,” Ollie says.

Jeff looks at me. “Not to me. I’m not his ball and chain,” I tell him.

“I have a boyfriend, no problem at all there. We can still havediscreetfun together. You can come too,” he tells me as he slides his phone on the table and lets his hand fall on Ollie’s arm. “Give me your number.”

My bestie turns rigid, a second away from breaking this bloke’s fingers—he certainly doesn’t need his husband’s help to do that.

A plan starts to form in my mind. I look at tall and tanned, and wink. “Oliver here is too shy, but we do need some fun. Let me help us all.”

I grab the bloke’s phone and register the number in his contacts.

Ollie stares at me suspiciously, but doesn’t say anything. He knows all about my malevolent mind—and that I’ve got his back.

“Later, Oliver and friend.” With a last dirty smile, he goes to a table a few feet away from us.

“Well, Oliver,” I drawl his name, “aren’t you the slutty working bee?”

“Fuck off. Don’t even know who that joker is.” He drinks his orange juice, glaring at me as he sucks the liquid through the straw. “What did you do, Lori?”

“Whatever do you mean?” I feign ignorance, looking at my sunshine-yellow painted nails.

“You’re full of shit! I hope for your sake that Rague never gets a whiff of this.”

Oh, but I hope he fucking does.

Tall and tanned suddenly clears his throat, and I look as he mouths the words “check your phone” to Ollie.

A phone beeps, but it’s not Ollie’s, it’s Rague’s. He’s making his way through the tables as he grabs his cell from his jeans to check his texts. He stops his huge bod near us, blocking the view to the other tables, his brows even more bunched up than usual. My smirk turns into a fully bloomed, devilish smile.

“Why did I just get a text from someone saying that my greedy green eyes are as beautiful as emeralds in the morning light?”

I can’t help a low chuckle. I’m not even slightly sorry about it. What can I say? I thrive in watching cocky twat’s pain.

“Fuck, Lor!” Ollie jumps from his chair to face his husband. “It’s just a prank.”