"Uh-huh." The stranger edged closer. "You're the one who got me here, right? So come on." He held up his hands. "Make me leave."
I felt my eyebrows furrow.What?
Over his shoulder, Derek said, "Call security."
I gave a confused shake of my head. "What security?"
"The police," he said. "Whatever."
I frowned. I didn't want to call the police. For one thing, the guy hadn't even touched him. For another, Derek had been a total jerk. If the guy slugged him, Derek would have no one to blame but himself.
Ifelt like slugging Derek, and I wasn't even the violent type.
My gaze shifted to the stranger. Washethe violent type? His muscles were taught, and his eyes were hard. Something about his stance told me he wasn't a stranger to physical conflict.
And now, Derek was panicking. Should I panic, too? Obviously, Derek knew way more than he was saying.
I said, "Derek, what's going on?"
When he said nothing, I looked back to the stranger. Our gazes locked, and for some weird reason, I couldn’t look away – at least, not until a flash of light broke the spell.
I turned and spotted one of the interns, shoving a cell phone back into her purse. It was the same girl I'd accidentally hit with my chair. When she saw me looking, she gave a little wave. "Sorry."
What could I say? I heard myself murmur, "That's, um, okay?" It was, after all, the same thing she'd said to me. Probably, she hadn't been any more sincere than I was.
Politeness – it could be really confusing sometimes.
The stranger gave a humorless laugh. "Screw this. I'm outta here."
I turned just in time to see him reach into the front pocket of his jeans and pull out a tightly folded slip of paper. He tossed it onto the floor and turned away, striding toward the open doorway.
And then, he was gone.
A split-second later, the two interns were scrambling after him. As they moved, one of them called back to the rest of us. "Be back in a minute!"
"Uh, yeah," the other one said. "We're just gonna hit the snack machine."
Silently, I stared after them.Snack machine, my ass.
Chapter 5
Next to me, Derek was laughing. "Oh man, did you see his face?"
Ididsee his face. It was ungodly beautiful, but that was hardly the point. I whirled toward Derek and demanded, "What was that about?"
Ignoring me, Derek announced, "Alright everyone, let's call it a day."
Around the table itself, no one budged. But behind us, the remaining interns stood and began filing out the door. That was fine by me. The way I saw it, the fewer witnesses the better.
After all, I still might have to strangle him.
When the room was empty of students, I turned to Derek and said, "Now seriously, tell me what just happened."
"Nothing," Derek said.
I turned to Andy. "Doyouknow?"
Andy shrugged. "Sorry. No idea."
