“Jealous of what?”
Niko met my gaze. “Jealous of the power he wields probably. He’s second in line to the throne. You may think he’s throwing it all away by smiling too much and flirting with anything with legs, but you still have to respect the guy for coming in and helping us. He did send over some good info.” He whistled low. “And look at this place. It’s a tech nerd heaven in here.”
I let out a little growl. “Don’t get blinded by the trappings. And that information was probably easy to find. We just didn’t have access. He’s not being helpful; he’s throwing us a bone.”
“Did someone say something about a bone?” the man of the hour asked as he strolled in through the office door. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but just barely.
Niko lifted his chin over at the prince. “Hey, we were just talking about you.”
“Dirty things I hope,” he said, winking.
Damn it. I hated it when he winked. Liar.
Breck cleared his throat and took a step to the side as an Asian woman behind him stepped out from his shadow and smiled. Her inky dark hair hung to her waist, and her sharp, shrewd eyes were a warm cocoa. “Hi, everyone.”
“This is Jaye. She works with me, and I like to say she is the brains of the operation.”
Well, that just made more sense. This poor woman probably worked her ass off while he took all the credit.
Jaye just smiled. “Sure, I’m totally the brains.” She waved awkwardly. “Anyway, I’m going to go take a seat over here out of the way while we wait to hear from Olly.”
She practically bounced as she made her way to the chair, and I met Breck’s gaze. “What was that about?” I whispered, and Niko moved closer to listen in.
Breck bent forward just slightly, his aftershave tickling my senses, and I tried my best to ignore it. How could I already feel the heat of him so close? Damn the man.
“I think she has a crush on our dear Olly’s… talents. I don’t know about the man himself, but we hear things in our circles.”
I blinked in surprise. “Your circles?”
Breck’s face blanked, and it looked like he thought he’d said too much. But what the hell was he talking about?
“Anyway, will Olly be on soon? We have things to do. And I’m sure you have people to arrest, or guard, or whatever it is you do.” He took a seat by Jaye and pulled out an unusual-looking tablet. His fingers worked across the front of it quickly, smoothly, as if he wasn’t just playing on social media but doing something important.
I frowned as I looked over at the tablet and tilted my head. “What is that?”
He looked up with barely a glance before looking back down at his hands. “It’s a prototype hearing aid. The heritage trust commissioned one to help some of our elderly and hearing-impaired residents. Ones currently on the market are often times too big and the small ones too costly. So I came up with a cost-effective alternative. We’re working out all the kinks now, but hopefully we can get it on the market soon.”
“Market?” I asked, confused.
“It’s tech. It’s what I do. Build tech to make our everyday lives easier. Sometimes apps too. I don’t just code you know.”
“Who are you?” I whispered, and I didn’t even realize I’d said it out loud until Niko snorted beside me.
I glared at him, and then he gave me a sweet and innocent face as the comm chimed.
Niko pressed the button, and Olly’s face filled the screen. His eyes looked tired, but he gave us a smile nonetheless. “Hey there, everyone. Sorry I’m late. We had an issue, but we’re set up now.”
I went on alert, my shoulders tense. “Issue?”
“An ‘I was locked out of the office’ issue,” Olly said, his cheeks red.
Niko burst out laughing as Breck gave me an inquisitive look, and I felt forced to answer.
“Our dear Olly is brilliant behind the scenes on the computer and decent at other aspects of his job relating to security. However, picking a lock to get back into a room? Well, we’re not going to talk about the Toronto incident.”
“I thought we agreed to never mention the Toronto incident,” Olly said, his cheeks going even redder.
“I’m not the one that brought it up,” Niko said, his hands up in the air in a defensive position.
“Okay, enough of that,” I said, my lips twitching. For some reason, I met Breck’s gaze, and he smiled at me. That did things to me, warm things. Very low. I did not want to think about that. I couldn’t think about that.
I cleared my throat. “Olly, this is Jaye. She works with Breck. I think.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of you. You guys at Royal Water Tech have been doing some great things. I like your work.”
Jaye sputtered, and I just sat there, confused.
“Royal Water?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Silly thing, just a game,” Breck said, waving me off.
I looked over at Olly, whose eyes widened fractionally, but he just pressed his lips together and nodded tightly. “Got it. Anyway, I can’t wait to get there and work on my setup. It feels weird doing everything here when I don’t even have my station set up in the office. We’ve been a little busy on this end, with all the extra weddings and babies and jobs we’ve been taking.”
Breck frowned and looked down at his tablet again. “When you get back, we can talk. I have a few ideas for where you can set up that will be better for the network and will give you easier access to things that you might need. I don’t know about the whole security issue other than how to be the guy the bodyguard protects, but I think you and I can get along,” Breck said, surprising me.
Olly’s eyes widened, excitement running through him. “Oh, I like you.
“You know, I think that’s flirting in geek-speak,” Niko said, and Olly blushed again while Jaye sputtered and Breck just let out a low rumbling laugh that went straight through me.
What was it about this man? I had no idea who this Breck Waterford was, but he was not the guy that I talked to, day in and day out. Was he a doppelgänger? An evil twin? No, the royal pain in my ass would be the evil twin. This would be the good twin they hid in the dungeon who just showed up every once in a while for meetings or to confuse the fuck out of me.
“Anyway, what do you need today?” Breck asked.
I tensed. “Excuse me?”
“You said you needed a meeting. I assume you have notes? Or are you just here to gaze upon my pretty face?”
Niko whistled under his breath, and Olly turned slightly and started talking to Jaye. The two of them spoke in geek-speak that I couldn’t quite understand. I just narrowed my eyes at the prince. Was he trying to get under my skin? I didn’t understand. He was getting along with everyone else but apparently had to be an asshole to me.
I cleared my throat. “Do you mind coming outside for a minute? I think you and I need to have a conversation.”
“It seems I have a meeting with the teacher,” he said, and set his tablet on his chair as he stood up. “I’ll be right back. Don’t have too much fun while I’m gone,” he said, winking, acting like the normal self. The evil self.
Where had the good twin gone?