Those were good things to be, good things to have around.
And if Evie was able to choke down one more breath, perhaps she’d begin to believe that was true.
“Sage,” The Villain whispered.
“Shhh!” she shushed back, turning toward him and pointing her finger to the door. Listen, she mouthed at him.
“It has to be someone higher up in the company,” the man said.
“Oh, most certainly. I’m sure the boss already knows who it is. He’s just giving the fool time to sweat while he comes up with the perfect plan to dispatch them.”
Evie felt his hands tighten on her waist ever so slightly. She wondered if he was trying to figure out a polite way to get past her, but his fist tightened at the mention of his team. He was getting angry. She couldn’t see his face, but there was a palpable energy in the air.
“Could you imagine if it was Evangelina?” the male voice said, and they both cackled at that.
Evie clenched her fists so hard, she thought her bones might crack.
“As if that woman is capable of any kind of deception. She looks like she’d get lost in her own home.”
Embarrassed heat flooded her cheeks as she remembered who was currently pressed up against her—and how her boss was now hearing what the staff really thought of his assistant.
It occurred to her that many people would love to be in her position as the fly on the wall. Getting to hear the words people spoke of you when you weren’t around to defend yourself. But as it turned out, it was awful. Absolutely horrendous.
What a wonderful day I’m having.
“I’m going to—”
Evie whirled around, which caused her shoulder to graze The Villain’s chest in the cramped area, and put her small hand over her boss’s mouth before he could say another word.
“You’re not going to do anything,” she whispered. “Now hush, or we might miss something important.” It was quite literally torture to hear every disparaging word—but they’d stand here and listen if it meant saving Trystan’s life.
Evie couldn’t explain it, but she had the strong feeling something important was about to happen, like a large object was hovering overhead, waiting to drop. She just hoped they weren’t standing under it when it fell.
“Did you hear what the other interns were saying?” The woman’s voice was haughty.
“No, what?”
“They found a mask with King Benedict’s emblem on it. In a corner of the stairwell the day of the explosion.”
“What?” the male voice said, astonished. “Why didn’t anyone report it to the boss?”
“My guess is they didn’t want to give it to him and then be deemed a suspect for coming across it in the first place.”
“Makes sense.” The male voice chuckled. “Have you seen the way the man handles slights against him? Look at what he did to Joshua Lightenston.”
“Oh, no.” The female’s voice became a conniving whisper. “I heard he did that because of what Joshua said about Ms. Sage.”
Evie narrowed her eyes at The Villain, who’d gone rigid underneath her hand, black eyes looking everywhere but at her.
“We better stop this, Saline. Unless we want to be next.”
“All hail saintly Ms. Sage.” Saline chuckled as their footsteps faded into the distance.
Evie realized her hand was still over The Villain’s mouth, his soft lips a soothing contrast to the stubble tickling her fingers.
Dropping her hand back to her side, Evie awkwardly apologized. “Sorry, sir.”
Then she quickly shoved the hidden door back open and stumbled into the light, a burning sensation prickling along her skin.
“Is your hand bleeding?” His already low voice seemed to have dropped an octave. When Evie turned back to address his question, she enjoyed the sight of his back muscles stretching his shirt as he pushed the heavy wall panel closed.
“Um,” she mumbled, looking down to see her nails had scraped one of the blisters that still remained on her palm. “Oh, look at that. I suppose it is.”
“Is it from the burns you got last night?” He said it so casually, Evie nearly missed the implication of the sentence.
She exhaled hard, taking a step backward to have a better look at him. “How did you know about that? Did Tatianna rat me out?”
The Villain rolled his eyes, moving back to the table where his maps were. He took a seat and picked up the charcoal pencil. “Hardly. Tatianna is a vault. I knew about your hands last night.”