Page 6 of Haunted Games

Abby

By the following Wednesday, I still hadn’t made my way out of the daze.

I’d been on autopilot, slogging through the piles of work on my desk and in my email inbox, making polite conversation with coworkers, and spending quality time with my vibrator to convince myself that I didn’t need the rough thrusts of a masked man to get off (I didn’t, but it sure didn’t pack the same punch).

Even Michael’s incessant texting couldn’t penetrate my cloud.

Galen had been watching me, a smirk permanently affixed to his face.

A face I had come to accept was obnoxiously handsome, which may have been due to the fact that I was without a boyfriend for the first time in many years, or because I was indiscriminately horny these days—who could say?

I was off my game at work, and Galen was relishing it.

It was happening right now as I stood in the break room with four coworkers, half listening to them rehash the gossip on a relationship between two litigation associates that had just crashed and burned.

I was contemplating how much longer the bruises on my hips would be visible, since they’d faded to the lightest blue-green as of this morning.

“Right, Abby?”

I snapped to attention. “Huh?”

Emily Welch, a first-year lawyer who used the office next to mine, arched a strawberry-blonde brow at me. “I was saying that you told me Anthony started dating that girl from the DA’s office a month ago, but we all know he only broke it off with Madison two weeks ago.”

Galen sipped his stupid tea, dark eyes pinned to my face, his mug doing nothing to hide his delighted smile.

“Oh,” I said lamely. “Yeah, Julia saw them together at the tri-county prosecutors happy hour thing last month.”

“What a dumbass,” Ryan Peters muttered. “Anthony and Madison are both trying some big case in arbitration this week. She is going to murder him.”

“I’m sure Julia would keep the charges as light as possible if she did,” I said drolly.

Everyone laughed. Well, except Galen, but his eyes sparkled, and his grin widened behind his mug.

What is your deal, Hades?

We dispersed, loath to be caught away from our desks for too long when there was work to be done. I meandered back to my office, thankful that I managed the wherewithal to nod in greeting to Bob as he strode past, briefcase in hand.

“Oh, great timing,” he said, looking past my shoulder. “Galen, you have a few minutes to join me down in Conference A? The clients from Project Great White are here to discuss another potential acquisition. They’ve been pleased with how things are progressing with the current one.”

There went my cloud.

Bob walked past me. I stopped in my tracks and turned to give an incredulous look to his back.

Galen stood frozen in front of his assistant’s desk, his dark brows bouncing upward.

“Oh, uh….” He raked a hand through his thick dark hair.

“Sure, Bob, but I think Abby should come too. She hasn’t gotten to interface with the client since the pitch, and she’s done just as much work on this deal as I have. ”

I eyed him with great suspicion.

Bob glanced over his shoulder in surprise, like he’d just registered that I was standing there. “Oh, right. Of course. Come on, then, both of you.”

We fell in behind him like two well-trained dogs.

“I don’t know what you’re up to,” I said under my breath to Galen, “but I’m going to find out.”

He snorted. “How about you take another half W and run with it, Crossbar? I’m a gentleman. I play fair.”

I squinted at him. “Since when?”

“Since always. Do you think I cheated in class? Or how about on the soccer field?”

No, I didn’t think that, actually. He was just annoyingly good at fucking everything.

I pursed my lips and faced front. Bob had already hit the button for the elevator, which would take us down two floors to the firm’s lobby.

Galen leaned down to whisper in my ear, his warm breath ghosting along my neck. “That’s right. When I beat you at anything, it was fair and square.”

The elevator dinged. Bob ambled aboard, oblivious.

Galen strode merrily along after him. I ducked in behind them, fuming.

I spent the twenty-second ride down glowering at Galen while he grinned at me like this was the best day of his life.

The client meeting went fine. They seemed genuinely pleased to re-meet me and thankful for both my and Galen’s work on their deal.

Bob vacated the conference room as soon as they stepped out, leaving Galen and me to deal with the mess of paperwork the client had brought for their next prospective acquisition.

After we’d organized it all into piles and split it equitably, I cleared my throat. “Thank you for getting Bob to bring me to the meeting. It was a smart move, hanging him out to dry like that right in front of me and your assistant. He’d have looked like a real asshole if he said no.”

He quirked a dark brow as if my graciousness had stunned him. “All of my moves are smart moves, Abigail. Stick with me, and you might learn a little something.”

I flattened my palms on the table and leaned forward, baring my teeth. “You are insufferable.”

A huge grin split his face, and he leaned in, mirroring my pose, dark eyes dancing behind his glasses. “And you are adorable.”

I gasped in outrage. “I am not. I am a ball-busting attorney and practically an .”

He nodded sagely. “You sure are. It is adorable.”

“I don’t have to sit here and take this.” I shoved my chair back, stood up, and gathered my share of the papers. “I’m going back to work.”

He laughed as I marched out of the conference room.

I made it ten steps before I ran straight into the last person I wanted to see.

“Michael? What the hell are you doing here?”

My ex stood in the lobby, wearing his courtroom suit, briefcase in one hand and his phone in the other. “Oh good, there you are. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to bribe Anthony to take me up to your floor.”

“What?” I blinked stupidly at him. Why was he here, uninvited, in yet another space that was supposed to be mine?

He sighed irritably. “I’m in Dallas for the arbitration, remember? Your firm is representing the other side. We just finished a settlement discussion.”

“And you thought you’d just accost me in my office? Is that really what you thought?”

“If you would deign to answer my texts or calls, it wouldn’t have been necessary, Abby.”

“I didn’t answer your texts or calls because I do not want to see you or speak to you ever again,” I replied, seething. “You cheated on me, Michael. There is nothing to discuss.”

“Abby—”

“You heard her.”

Galen stepped up next to me, his shoulder a hair’s breadth from mine.

Michael’s blond brows bounced upward before he fixed his expression into something cool and haughty. “Ah, Costas. I’d heard you were back in town. Are you working here?”

Galen stared at Michael like he was the dumbest asshole he’d ever encountered. “You’re going to get in that elevator, and you’re going to exit this building. If you try to come up to Abby’s office, I will remove you from the premises myself, and I can promise you that will be a lot less pleasant.”

Michael’s lip curled. “Childish threats. Stay out of Abby’s and my business, Costas.”

“You and Abby no longer have business.”

Michael’s glare snapped to me. “You’re letting this guy speak for you? You don’t even like him.”

“You know what, Michael?” I said, blowing out a frustrated breath. “I am letting him speak for me—because he’s right, and because I’m tired. You’re harassing me now. You know that, right? Should I call Julia and have her get me a restraining order against you?”

“Oh, give me a goddamned break. Are you out of your mind, Abigail?”

The sound of my full name coming out of his mouth scraped my ears. No one called me that.

Except Galen.

But when he said it, it didn’t make me want to hurl.

It must’ve pissed Galen off, too, because he advanced on Michael, whose bravado was finally in danger of faltering. Galen had at least four inches of height and twenty-five pounds of muscle on my ex.

“You’re the one who is out of your mind, asshole.

You fucked up and lost an amazing girl. I get it.

You know exactly what you lost, and now you’re panicking.

But it’s the end of the road. She’s told you to leave her alone, and you’ll do it, or I’ll drag her down to the district court to get that protective order myself. After I break your nose with my fist.”

“Jesus. Fuck, fine, I’m leaving.” He shoved his phone angrily into the pocket of his jacket. “Happy, Abby? Just don’t come crawling back to me when all you can find on the dating apps are basement-dwelling losers who just want to borrow money from you.”

He left, disappearing through the main doors and into the elevator bank.

“That was… an oddly specific and probably pretty accurate insult at the local dating pool,” I mused.

Galen laughed, his (weirdly uncharacteristic but much appreciated) aggression vanishing like it’d never surfaced. “Yeah. What a dick.”

“What a dick,” I echoed. My cheeks were hot, but it wasn’t embarrassment I felt at the fact that Galen, my nemesis, had not only witnessed that train wreck but had to get involved.

I was feeling something else, and it confused the hell out of me.

“I’m… going to go back to work,” I said, not looking at Galen. “Thanks for the backup. I wish I hadn’t needed it, but I did.”

“Anytime, Abigail,” he said, back to a serious tone I wasn’t used to from him. “I mean it.”

I nodded and wandered to the elevator.

He didn’t follow me.