Short Circuit (Riders Of Tyr # 7- MC Romance)

21. Acting

Nathan

I can't tear my eyes off Stig as he is working on his laptop and there are a million reasons that I don't. He is looking for info, forming a plan, getting all the details we need to make this work. At the same time, he is setting Anthony's family, teaching the kid some shit I do not even attempt to understand. And he does by pulling on his lip ring all the fucking time. And as is his usual thing form what I gather, he is doing that without a tee on, barechested, the garden of his tattoed body on display.

"Hm," I cough to get his attention but he doesn't even blink.

I shake my head. Stig is in the zone. I have seen Ava go in the zone too while doing some magic on her own laptop but Stig is taking it to the next level. He barely blinks, he never averts his gaze from the screen and is capable of monitoring different shit running at the same time without even breaking a sweat. His fingers move on the keyboard so fast, I can barely see them.

"Fuck!" he gets up and rubs his neck.

"What's wrong?"

"I need more time with this shit. We shouldn't have had-"

He stops abruptly and looks at me. He doesn't say it but he blames himself ever since we found out what was going down. That we lost time when we... spent the night together.

"We couldn't have known," I get close and whisper in his ear. "We thought this was an underground feud. The father was sure it was an inside job. We couldn't have known."

"It was a fucking mistake," he hisses low so that Anthony doesn't hear us.

I take a step back. Of all the bad things he has ever said to me the little time I have known him, this was the worst of them all.

"Don't give me that look, Nathan, you know it was. All we had to do was come in and do our fucking job instead of just fucking. Fan!"

I bite down my jaw.

"Is this how you feel?"

"It fucking is!"

Ouch...

"And now..." He points at his computer. "I need more time. This isn't a fucking movie. This shit takes time. I got nothing in place for this. And even if the Riders could be here in time, I am not sure going guns blazing is the right path to take with a kid in the middle. Fan! Fan!"

I swallow hard ignoring the bitter taste that goes down my throat as I do. I knew I had to let go of Stig at some point but I thought it would be somewhere between the lines of "nice fucking with you" and "it was great to spend time with you". Didn't see "I fucking regret it" coming.

I search his face but his mind is somewhere else as if he is calculating possibilities. I doubt he even realizes what he just said. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there is a voice that tells me that it's his anxiety talking, the fact that he has almost overdosed on power drinks and the joint he lit to calm his nerves at the same time. That he doesn't mean it.

He is right. This was supposed to be a partnership for a very specific reason. I should have never gone after this. I dug my own grave to laugh at his expense and look who's laughing now. This is it then.

"What do you need?" I ask coldly.

"I need direct access to the mainframe."

"How?"

"USB, email. But that takes time. Plant the USB, phish for the right email," he grunts.

"So, you need a USB plugged into the right computer, right?"