Phonophobia

|20|

"You're not serious." Greg said, almost sounding panicked.

Payne steered me to a direction by keeping his right hand by the side of my waist. His other hand was busy typing furiously on his phone.

"I am." Payne replied half distracted.

I looked over my shoulder and flashed Greg a smile.

"What could she possibly know that I don't–?"

"That Nagini is the only thing Voldemort has ever liked?" I intercepted Greg mid talk before adding: "Besides, it won't hurt to have a fresh, young brain will it?"

"Who the bleeding hell is Vol– my brain is fresh and young!" He cleared out almost defensively.

I threw him a bored look over my shoulder.

"You eat pasta for breakfast." I pointed out and his eyebrows scrunched up for a moment, probably confused.

"Look, Christian, you know I can sort this out within seconds – hell, even Xander could do it, what does she want to prove?" Greg said, his calm and lazy tone almost morphing into an annoyed one.

I opened my mouth to reply but Payne beat me to it.

"What if one day the two of you aren't there to sort things out?" He said stopping in front of a pale blue door, he lifted his stormy orbs and locked them with Greg's forest ones. "She doesn't have to prove anything Greg." He told him before opening the door.

I heard Greg grunt but he didn't say anything.

Inside the room there was a long wide table and several black chairs surrounded by it. About ten people occupied the room, eight of them were men and two were ladies. I recognized one of ladies, she was the one that walked in on Payne and I the first day I came here.

I'm sure her name rhymed with diarrhea or something.

"Andrea," Payne spared her a glance. "What are you doing here?"

Oh! So it's Andrea, not diarrhea. My bad.

"Christian, it's nice to see you too." She smiled widely, even though it was clearly fake.

Her bland eyes spotted me and they narrowed infinitesimally, her maroon lips now pressed to a grim line.

Payne pocketed his phone and held the side of my waist firmly before giving her his attention again.

"You're wasting time, my time, and I can't waste my time on you. So pray tell me why you're here or get the bloody hell out of my house." He said calmly, like he didn't care, but it sounded dangerous and intimidating.

"You work for me." She said edgily.

"I used to and I regretted every minute of it. And now, I work for my fucked up self. You can walk out when you're ready." He replied, his thumb rubbing circles by my waist.

The other lady in the room caught my eyes and smiled before mouthing 'hi' to me. I did the same.

Alex pointed at Andrea and rolled his eyes making me hide a laugh behind my hand.

"I heard what happened, I just came to help." Andrea explained, she sounded like someone was choking her with croutons.

Payne looked at her, the same look he gives me when he's trying to find out something. Like he was analyzing you.

"Suit yourself." He finally said and told Greg to take a seat.

"Teresa wasn't working with Bychkov–" Payne started but he was interrupted by someone.