“Gwendolyn—”
“Oh, don’t you dareGwendolynme, Graham Graves!”
“We’ve talked about this.”
“We talk about lots of things,” she fired back. “You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Specifically,” Graham Graves —of coursethe cool-as-hell dude had a cool-as-hell name — growled. “We talked about you not hiring any random person off the street without letting me do a background check first. Full profile, no stones unturned, no skeletons hiding in closets. Remember?” His intense eyes cut to me. From the icy frost they were blasting my way, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize he didnotlike what he saw. “This girl could be another Zelda. A quack at best, a grifter at worst. I’m not willing to risk your safety before we find out where she falls on the criminal enterprise scale.”
I flinched slightly at his caustic evaluation of me. I didn’t know what this Madame Zelda had done, but she certainly had not left The Gallows on good terms — or left a good impression about those of us in the mystic biz. What I did know, however, was that I didn’t want this guy, who radiated very unsettling energy, digging into my past.
Background check?
Full profile?
No stones unturned?
No skeletons in closets?
No freaking way.
I liked my stones just the way they were. Not only turned over — buried six feet beneath the earth. Along with my skeletons.
(Who was dumb enough to keep their skeletons in their closet, anyway? Hello!? Buy a shovel, lazybones.)
“Graham!” Gwen snapped, her temper rising like a summer storm. “You cannot just call people names! You’re being insulting!”
“I’m being honest,” he countered.
“Well... stop it!” She swatted him on the arm, but there was no real anger behind her strike. “Imogen hasn’t done anything to deserve your rudeness!”
“I don’t know the first fucking thing aboutImogen,” he said flatly. Though, his tone gentled somewhat as he stared at her for a beat, then added, “And neither do you, baby.”
“Graham—”
“You nearly died on me a week ago. If you think I’m putting you at risk ever again?—”
“You’re overreacting, per usual!”
“And you’reunderreacting, per fucking usual.”
“This seems sort of like a bad time,” I interjected softly, beginning to backpedal toward the door. “I’ll just… get out of your hair…”
Gwen and Graham both ignored me. They were too busy glaring at each other to notice I’d even spoken. Beneath their anger, however, their attraction to one another was so palpable, it was borderline voyeuristic to witness.
Normally, I would’ve felt guilty for starting an argument, but I got the sense all this fighting would merely serve as fuel for the next opportunity they got to rip each other’s clothes off. I’d bet the last few benjamins in my shoebox that their sex life was off-the-charts hot.
Not that it was any of my business.
“Sorry to have bothered you,” I murmured, taking a few more steps backward. “I’ll just… uh… come back… another day…”
As in,never.
“Stay put,” Graham barked without looking at me.
Like I was a dog!
“Me?” I squeaked, certain I was mistaken.