Page 80 of The SongBird's Love

Eden answered with a glare. She had understood that much but his stating it so openly annoyed her even more. She really didn’t need a babysitter. She could already guess that most of the cameras on this floor were probably watching her every move for their master. Eden shuddered, remembering her night and being close to Dante for some reason. Way too close... She shouldn’t have let herself go like that. Why was she so weak when it came to him? If it had been anyone else, they couldn’t have taken a step closer without her jumping away and she certainly would never have slept with any man either…

Trying to ignore her own blushing, she pushed the buttons of the elevator. Beer and Bullet immediately ran to her, ignoring the treats they hadn’t collected yet, to get to their mistress’ side with little barks. Rolf followed the pups and stood next to her in the elevator. Eden crossed her arms but she didn’t protest, it probably wouldn’t have mattered...

Instead, she now wanted some action. She had been way too still for someone who was not fine about all this. Her best remedy for anxiousness was to keep herself busy with something else. Preferably something dangerous or thrilling at least. Of course, it involved going to see Loir.

Despite the change of environment, she wasn’t surprised at all that her partner hadn’t dropped any of his bad habits by coming here. She walked into his new lair and no Italian had any intention to stay around; no surprise there. They had probably decided that watching him from behind a screen would be much more bearable. Moreover, Loir had his music horribly loud over the speakers and she grimaced while walking in. Had he been unable to do this when he was living and hiding in that basement? He seemed to be enjoying himself fully while listening to some absolutely stupid song with some loud techno beat, making the whole place jump.

“Ring, ding, ding-ding-ding, ring! Ring, bam, bam...”

Loir was singing and moving way too much, even for someone who couldn’t use their lower half. His singing made absolutely no sense; it was high-pitched and annoyed Eden the minute she entered. Plus, he was following every high note with a jump at each beat. It was like watching a meerkat hopping in every direction while also moving his head like a dingbat.

“Loir! LOIR, damn it! “

He didn’t even hear her yelling. He just kept jumping in his chair, his eyes fixated on the screens, his shoulders moving left and right, opposite to his head. He had even illuminated the whole room with purple lighting as if this was a nightclub or something. Eden sighed, while the pups barked behind her, annoyed by all the noise and unwilling to approach. She walked up to him and tapped his shoulder.

“Kitty!” he yelled, as loud as the music. “Look! Ding-ding-diiiiing! Riggi-ding!!”

He kept making some dance moves that weren’t even matching the rhythm. Eden ignored him, pissed, and went to his keyboard to find out how to cut off that stupid music.

When it finally stopped, she let out a long sigh. How could he even stand this?

“Kitty! But that was so fun, I didn’t even get to hear the second part...”

“Loir, you’ve had enough, I think... What the fuck, they gave you caffeine?” she gasped, seeing the rows of cups on the side of his desk.

She sighed. As if Loir wasn’t crazy enough, they had actually come up with the stupid idea to give him caffeine, of all things? Moreover, there weren’t only one or two cups! She grabbed them and threw them across the room, annoyed. Beer and Bullet immediately ran to play with them, Rolf jumping after them to make sure the pups didn’t get any. Meanwhile, Eden glared at the camera in a corner.

“If I find out who gave him coffee, they’re dead!”

No response came but she hoped that was enough. Loir pouted.

“But I like coffee... They have really good coffee!”

“Yeah, it works wonders on you, apparently. Did you even sleep at all?”

The dark circles under his eyes were worse than usual, giving him an even more skeletal appearance with those pitch-black eyes of his. He shrugged.

“Sleep? I don’t know. Wait, what time is it? Is it midnight already?”

“It’s morning, Loir. I already told you to keep a damn clock on your computer, you crazy owl... Anyway, I need you to check something... about the Core.”

He tilted his head.

“Can’t I have breakfast first? I asked for carbonara and they said they’d kill me...”

“Kill you? Why would they kill you for...”

Eden rolled her eyes. She couldn’t even blame the Italians; she knew how Loir could be absolutely insufferable at times.

“Loir, what did you do?”

“I simply said there was no cream in their carbonara!”

“And?”

“I asked for anchovies...”

“Loir, enough, you’re just making fun of them. I don’t care about you annoying them but they are the ones who feed you, so you behave if you want breakfast next time.”