Corrupted Chaos (Tarnished Empire)(36)



“That was a one and done thing.” I held up a finger.

“It was actually two times—three if you count the elevator, though.” A corner of his mouth lifted as he took a step back to lean against the doorframe of the room. “I don’t think personal space is needed quite as much when I know how you taste.”

I grabbed my bags. “I’m staying with Rodney. Or Lucas.”

He chuckled and walked up to me to snatch them away. “You’re not.” He pried them from my hands. “You’re going to work with me, and we’re going to get shit done because you put work first. Right, Ms. Hardy?”

Someone questioning my work ethic always got me. I’d swear he knew what he was doing, and it made me want to punch him. “I’m only working on JUNIPER, and then I won’t be here.”

“You scared to spend time alone with me?”

“I’d rather spend time with people who believe in my work ethic, Mr. Armanelli.”

He scratched his chin, and before he got a chance to tell me what a shitty worker he thought I was again, I grabbed my laptop from my bag and breezed past him to the living room to go work.

Without his help, I gained access to our private Wi-Fi and dove in. Minutes or hours later, Cade sat down next to me. I felt his heat, even though he didn’t say a word while he looked over my shoulder.

“It’s been a couple hours, dollface. Why don’t you take a nap or eat? You’ve got to be tired from traveling?”

“I’m proving my work ethic, Cade,” I ground out.

“You can’t work on these sorts of things when you’re tired. You’re missing some of the bigger issues.” He pointed out one right in front of my face, and I slammed my laptop shut.

“Did you want me in this cabin to micromanage me?” It made sense now. He didn’t want to work with me, he wanted to make sure I didn’t mess anything up. He thought I wasn’t competent enough to handle JUNIPER. And my gut twisted at his lack of confidence in me. “If you feel the need to do that, maybe it’s better you get someone else in here to work with you.”

“I don’t work well with others.” He shrugged.

“I don’t work well with you!” I screamed. “You have no respect for me, and you don’t believe I can do this. And I need—” I stopped abruptly.

To need someone’s support, to ask for it, to want their approval, was never a good thing. Especially for someone like me. I could be let down. I knew that. I knew that I didn’t want anyone but my family that close. I couldn’t afford the risk.

“You need what, Izzy?”

“I need you to find someone else to do this with.” I waved at the computer, surrendering some of the work I was most proud of because I wasn’t willing to risk the person I’d become. I could stand on my own, be happy on my own, and operate well enough on my own. I didn’t need anyone.

It had been that way with Gerald. I’d engaged with him, but I’d never really let him in. Maybe that was why he’d hooked up with someone else, why it didn’t hurt me as badly as it should have.

“I’m only working with you.” He grabbed my rose gold laptop and opened it back up. “You might miss a few things, but you’re capable enough and more tolerable than most.”

“Do you even hear yourself? I’m ‘tolerable’? ‘Capable enough’?”

It was Cade’s turn to squirm under my assessment. “Can we just work rather than pass around compliments we don’t mean?”

I decided he wasn’t worth it and plopped back down in my seat to work in silence.

Making amends wasn’t something he was good at either. Or maybe Cade simply didn’t care to make amends with me, because he sat at the opposite end of the table and got to work, tapping away at his computer, sending me tasks digitally.

The very last one said Eat some food.

I left it unchecked, got up, and called Lucas. “Are we going in the lake today?”

He whooped and said yes.

I left Cade to his devices. We weren’t friends, he wasn’t social, and I didn’t want to engage with him anymore that day anyway. Instead, Lucas and I looked over the itinerary and mingled beside the lake.

“We get three days of no work and all play,” Lucas practically sang into the blue sky like he was in heaven.

“I’m already working. Cade wants me revamping JUNIPER for testing.”

“Damn. Did you show him the itinerary? Tell him Rodney and I need some alone time with you.” Lucas smirked.

“Ha-ha. Not happening. I just want to prove I can do this and that I’m good at—”

“You’re good at your job, Izzy. Don’t let him make you feel like you aren’t. That’s a slippery slope.”

I nodded, but doubts crept in, like the ones I used to have about not fitting in when my brothers went off to college, like the ones that pushed me into bad habits rather than healthy ones. “I just need to stay occupied and enjoy—”

“The world that this retreat is offering.” Lucas pointed to some more very sweaty, very muscular men. “I think they dropped us at a Temptation Island experiment or something. How did everyone on our team get so hot? I even stared at Cassie a little too long in her swimsuit today.”

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