ARAWN
“I’m out.” Bernard grunts, throwing his cards onto the table.
And I grin before taking in all the chips lying on the table. “Bad luck, Bernie.”
“So, we are all going to just ignore the elephant in the room?” Jensen snorts, but I don’t react to it. Throwing my cards his way.
“Just deal another hand, Jensen. Stop bitching around.”
Collecting the cards with a scoff, he starts riffling them reluctantly.
“What elephant?” Bernard asks, his cigar between his teeth.
“He is probably talking about the girl, Bernie.” Harvey says with a slight grin.
“Oh!” Bernard’s laugh rumbles through the room. “You mean his tea!”
I glare at him but he remains unfazed. “She is a keeper, old boy!”
“Just shut up,” I murmur, distorting my face.
“She is the tea?” Jensen and Harvey say nearly in unison, their jaws dropping.
I grunt, taking a sip from my glass. “Why is everybody so interested in who I… Spend my time with?”
Bernard and Harvey laugh while Jensen stares at me incredulously. “Because it is kind of important who got you slung around her little finger, Arawn! Seeing your position.”
“My position.” I scoff, putting the cigar between my lips. “She doesn’t have me slung around nothing.”
“Well…” Harvey chuckles, “I saw you drinking from the same glass, and you really seemed to enjoy conversing with her.”
He leans forward with a mocking expression. “I saw you flirting, you can’t deny it!”
“Stop it already. What’s wrong with talking to a beautiful woman?”
“Hear, hear!” Bernard shouts, cracking up. “She has you wrapped up real good.”
“Just not around her finger.” Harvey adds, causing them to nearly choke on their laughter.
I grimace, playing with my chips, considering just shooting everybody in the room to get out of here.
“Come on! There is nothing wrong with it,” Harvey says with a smirk on his face. “You had to find someone right for you eventually.”
Someone right for me.
I’m about to protest as Jensen beats me to it. “You are fucking kidding, right?”
Harvey shrugs, looking at Jensen annoyedly. “What? She is intelligent and funny. I know her through William’s cousin. I don’t think there is anything that we have to be worried about with her.”
“And there must be something special about her, if you let her touch your hair.” Bernard mocks, getting Harvey to look at me like he had an epiphany.
“Your hair?” He whispers, and I groan.
They are beginning to get on my nerves.
“I’m not planning to marry her, Harvey.”
Just as I have murmured the sentence, Jensen gets my blood to boil with the most stupid question he could ask me.
And I’m annoyed about the fact that I even care.
“She is a whore, isn’t she?”
I look at him angrily, as he seems to be fuming. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“She obviously does it for money, doesn’t she? It’s not like she likes you.”
Passing my hand over my mouth and chin to scratch my skin, I try to keep myself from pulling my gun.
“So?”
Harvey and Bernhard have lost their obnoxious smirks and are now looking down onto the table like the poker mat was the most interesting thing in the world.
“Because she flirted with me and tried to sell her services as she was left alone by her company who was called away for business.”
I clench my jaw, as I’m a hundred percent sure that he is lying. The voice in my head shouting in favor of Nerthus surprising myself.
“Imagine how stunned I was to see you together, and finding out that the guy she came with was you.” He laughs, my nerves cringing at the sound of it. “Some guts to look out for new clients while she is somewhere with you.”
My chest squeezes in anger. I know for sure that he must be lying as Nerthus is not the type to do something like this. She doesn’t like men enough to look for them actively, and she is too professional to risk such a stupid thing.
As if she was a fucking amateur.
But the feeling expanding in my chest has me losing my fucking mind. A sensation that I was sure I wasn’t able to feel.
“Whatever Jensen. She is not my wife, so shut up and deal the cards.”
He props up his elbow onto the poker mat, pointing his finger at me. “This is serious, Arawn. You aren’t the type to melt into the hands of a lowlife whore. What the fuck are you trying to do?”
“I give you 3 second to lower that hand and change the subject or you will be taking a dive into the East River.” I growl, and he lowers his hand with a shake of his head.
“I just meant well, boss.”
I scoff, seeing Harvey glaring at Jensen while Bernard stares onto the mat puffing on his cigar.
“I don’t think that I need a babysitter.”
“No, but you don’t need a whore to accompany you to events, either.”
“Jensen,” Harvey says in an annoyed tone, clicking his tongue. “Enough.”
Feeling vexed, I am about to stand as Jensen stops me. “I know that you don’t want to hear it because you probably never had this kind of feeling for a woman, but-”
“Who the fuck is talking about feelings?” I interrupt him, and he lifts his hands.
“I’m just saying that she might be the first that you don’t despise entirely, so maybe you get the wrong impression. If you don’t get that soon enough, she will be playing you like a fiddle in no time.”
I distort my face in disgust, shifting in my seat. “Argh, shut your fucking mouth.”
“I still think she is okay.” Harvey says, his eyes still set on Jensen.
Not helping, Harvey!
“Hey, I’m just saying. I saw you together as well. And all I could see is that you looked so infatuated with her, that if you had a tail, it would have been wiggling as hell.”
He presses his hand onto the green mat of the table as he looks at me with a serious expression. “As your second in command I have to have a look on that. And you know that I wouldn’t be lying to you! I’m just preoccupied because you being corrupted by a woman is not exactly something we want to deal with, right?!”
“You sound like a broken disk,” Harvey says, causing Jensen to scoff.
“Just look at him. From the moment he got his wife, he is barely useful.”
“Don’t you dare! What is your fucking problem? Did you hit on her and got miffed about the fact that she wouldn’t be a dead weight falling off his bed for you to collect like you did with the others?” Harvey bursts out, slamming his fist onto the table.
I stay silent as I watch the men pop off and start a screaming match.
She had said she felt uncomfortable. Was it because he had hit on her and was staring at her?
Or maybe because she had really tried to hit on him and was now scared about me finding out.
Her gaze as he joined us was sketchy indeed.
And he looks a bit like Derek.
Her date.
Maybe he is her type.
Damnit!
Hitting the table with a fist, I get them to shut up.
“This match is over. I’m out.” After getting up, I walk through the communicating door.
I find Nerthus talking jokingly with Emily and something in me ignites.
That’s not what I pay her for.
“Everybody out!” I say lowly, and while the staff present in the room scurries out immediately, Emily stares at me worriedly.
“Please, Em. Don’t have me raise my voice at you. I don’t want to piss off Harvey.”
Emily looks at me, before turning her head to Nerthus concerned, and gets up. “Sure. See you later, okay?”
Nerthus nods at her with a smile, and I look at her silently until Emily has closed the door behind her.