“I didn’t take anything from him. He’s never touched my freaking code.” I manage to pull away from the desk, but I’m too nervous to sit back down. “He’s an ex-boyfriend.”
“Would he ever have had access to your computer?” Ant asks from the corner of the room.
I wince a little at the sound of his voice. It’s the first thing he’s said since I walked in the room. I want him either much further away from me or muchmuchcloser.
“No, of course not,” I snap. “I mean, yes, technically, when we lived together. My laptop was in our apartment all the time and—” My gaze flicks between the males in the room. “But he never even touched it! I never touched anything!”
“He knew your passwords?” Ant speaks again. I finally look at him. Really look at him, nearly invisible in the dark corner in a black suit. His bright red eyes mark his location. “He could have gotten on your computer without you knowing?”
“Well—sure. Technically, yes, probably.” Crap. I’m nervous saying this in front of the Mothman. I don’t want him to think anything is going on between me and Colin. “But he didn’t!”
“Do you know why he might be choosing to retaliate now?” Loch turns the papers on his desk around so they are the correct orientation for me to read.
“He—” I pause to look at Ant before I pick up the stack of papers and leaf through them while I pace the room. I should have told him everything the night it happened. Now it seems like I was trying to hide it.
“He—what?” Ant’s voice hits a low tone.
“I ran into him a couple weeks ago. He asked if I would take him back. Like, romantically.” I try to ignore my impulse to look at Ant again, waiting for any kind of response from the other two males in the room. Searching for an indication that they know what occurred that weekend. But if Ant does kiss and tell, then these two men are excellent at keeping it out of their expression.
“You turned him down?” Sacha asks.
“Yes! Of course, I fucking turned him down! I never want to see that ass—” I stop myself, that awkward nervous laugh boiling out of me in place of the rage. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Piper. It’s okay. They believe you,” Ant says. “We believe you. We just need to know any facts you think would help in this situation.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Yes, he’s a programmer too, but we never worked on projects together.” I can’t stop my feet from pacing the room. “Sure, we tried working on things together a couple times, but they never panned out. Never got out of the planning stages really.” I flip back and forth between the pages of the document, so frustrated that the words start to go wobbly as my eyes fill with tears.
Fuck him. Fuck Colin. Of course he would do something like this. He’s an asshole. Who’s bad in bed. And he’s going to try and fuck up my life because what? Because he left me and I wouldn’t take him back?
“Piper.” Ant’s voice is right beside me. When I finally look up from the folder he’s standing between me and the other two Cryptids. His beautiful wings spread enough that I’m blocked from Loch and Sacha’s vision. “It’s alright. We’ll take care of it. We can make it all go away.”
“No. It’s my fault,” I manage to say, “I’ll fix it myself.”
The Mothman shakes his head, one of his hands raises tentatively to stroke his knuckle along my arm.
“Sor—ry,” I say again. This time my voice cracks, and I turn my head away, trying to hide the tears from them. How embarrassing to cry at work. In front of everyone.
“Loch and I will talk to the lawyers.” Sacha’s voice is already near the door.
“Take a moment. We’ll let you know anything important we find out.” Loch lumbers after him.
Ant stays where he is. His hand drops to his side. His large red eyes are soft.
“Would you like to be alone?” he asks. “Can I get you any?—”
I don’t let him finish. I throw myself into him, pressing my face into the soft vanilla scent of his shirt and letting it muffle my sob.
“Piper?” His question is quiet.
“Hug me, you idiot.”
His arms circle me, holding me close. Pressing me against him. Solid and comforting, I manage to choke out a ragged calming breath.
“There, there, my girl,” Ant murmurs. “We’ll get this all sorted out. You don’t have to do this alone.”
I want to protest that I am not his girl, but one of Ant’s hands strokes along my back, and then he begins to purr. The gentle rhythmic vibrations have me pushing myself further into him.
All of that helps. Soon, I’m breathing much easier all wrapped up in him. I’d almost forgotten how easy it is to be in his arms. I could let him hold me like this for hours.
