Insolent (Crimson Elite 4)

She straightens her stance and plasters on a smile as she turns to face him.

“Can you honestly still call her blue?” I ask him seriously as she doesn’t have blue hair anymore.

“Yes, I can, can’t I, blue?”

We both see Olympia shrug her shoulders, and she goes back to work, not paying Falcon any more attention, because seriously, he’s like a dog with a bone—you give him one single inch and he will take a fucking mile.

“You’re into her, aren’t you?” Falcon asks as we start to walk away.

Olympia can’t hear what we say as we round the stairs, walking up to where our offices are located.

“Yes, I think so.”

“I know so.” His shoulders raise when I glance at him. “You don’t look at any woman the way you look at her. And you sure as shit don’t go back on your word unless it seems to be for her.”

He’s right, I’m fucked.

If she were anyone else she wouldn’t be here today. She would be fired. Fuck, she would have been from the first day. But like an alcoholic, I just keep going back and back for more.

My hand goes to my back pocket where I left the letter, the one that’s from Cleo. What was she to me? It sounds hurtful to say that, but unfortunately, she was nothing more than Charles’s mother. I didn’t want anything from her, and in the end, I did feel sorry for her, sorry that she was going to miss all Charles would become. Like listening to his first laugh, watching his first smile, hearing the pitter patter of his footsteps. That’s what I feel sorry about, but I’m not sorry I get to watch it all. Cleo gave me a gift bigger and better than anyone could have ever given me, and I’ll forever be thankful to her for that fact.

“He’s right, you know. I think you’re in love,” Echo says shaking his head as he walks past us.

Falcon laughs. “I was trying to ease him into it, you dick, not just drop the bombshell.” They walk off together, leaving me standing there watching after them.

“It’s not as scary as it seems.” I turn to see Creed standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. “Love. Actually no… it is.” He turns and walks back into his office, leaving me alone to contemplate what they’ve just said to me.

My hand reaches for the letter again, this time wanting to get it over and done with. I need to read it to see what she has to say. Not to move on from her because we were never a thing, but because I need answers that only a dead woman can now give me.

My hand comes back empty. I gaze at the floor then follow my footsteps back to where I walked in. No fucking sign of it. What the fuck did I do with it? Looking up once, I walk to my office door, look down and see Olympia with a letter in her hand, her eyes skimming the pages as she reads it. My feet carry me fast down the stairs. I lean over the bar and snatch it from her hands, almost tearing it in the process. Wild eyes look up to me, her hand covers her mouth.

“I didn’t know what it was.” She shakes her head.

“Who the fuck do you think you are reading someone else’s shit?”

She shakes her head again. “I didn’t know, I swear.” Her hands are up in the air now in surrender. Turning and walking away from her, I don’t look back. The letter that no one has read has now been read by someone who didn’t have the right to. My anger is at an all-new high, and if I didn’t walk away from her right now I’m not sure what I would have said or done. Slamming my office door shut, I start to pace back and forth, the letter getting so hot in my hand I scrunch it up. How can something so small make me so angry? It’s private, that’s why, and I’m clearly not good at sharing—actually, I suck at it.

A knock on the door makes me stop pacing. My hand clenches as the door is pushed open and in pops Olympia. She doesn’t look down when I stare at her, instead she stares me straight in the eye.

“I didn’t read it.”

I scoff at her. “I didn’t think of you as a liar, Olympia.”

She throws her hands up in the air. “I got to Dearest Darby, this is Cleo. As you may already know, your dead baby mama, if you’re reading this…” she says in a high voice. “I knew I had to stop right there.”

“Would you have, though? I did rip it away from you.”

She nods. “Of course, I would have. I wouldn’t do that. That isn’t mine to read. Why are you always so quick to jump to the bad, Darby? Why don’t you just believe me for once?”