AG8210V

Was Angie going mad?

“Your father gave you this case?” Troy asked sharply. A little too sharply.

As Troy shut his office door, he began to frown. The thought of Angie focusing her attention on this killer made Troy angry. He wanted to sound calm but thinking of Underwood made him pissed. Fucking pissed.

Troy watched Angie nod in response. All she did was stare at her hands. All she did was look down. Everything she did was weird. Troy could never tell what's going on her damn head. It pissed Troy off that he couldn’t sense her emotions, so the best he could do was to just let the girl talk since that's the best way to access her thoughts.

“Right, okay, well, uh,” Troy muttered before catching Angie’s attention. “Why do you think your father handed you this particular case?”

“To find justice.”

Broad. Vague. Too predictable.

The more she stared at her hands, the more Troy envied her damn palms. For some odd, stupid reason, Troy wanted her eyes to him. It was a stupid human thing to think about yet it was something Troy had gotten used to.

To break his thoughts, Troy sat back down behind his desk. He began to tap his fingers on his keyboard while saying, “Underwood’s case is mildly complicated and top-secret. Can you think of other reasons why your father pushed it towards you?”

“Well.” She was obviously playing with some thought. Troy watched Angie cross her legs before speaking. “Maybe I'm trustworthy.”

“Is it because you are his daughter?”

He watched Angie scrunch her nose. “Well, no. I may be good at something he sees in me.”

“Okay.” Troy trailed. “You said you had some question about Underwood’s case. What was it?”

She stared at him for a while before speaking. “Yeah. I did some research.”

Troy furrowed his eyebrows at the thought of some human looking for information on non-reliable websites and thinking they have all the answers to Tripp Underwood (or whoever he was on this planet).

Maybe it was strange of him to do but Troy was carefully watching Angie. He wanted to take note of her little movements without managing to look suspicious. Troy noticed how Angie would speak with a tight face while moving her fingers; how she would squint when she was confused or flustered.

While gazing at her, Troy duly noticed how she leaned forward to rest her elbows on his desk.

“Is this too weird? I am being weird?” Angie asked suddenly before answering his question. While folding her hands on his desk, Angie quickly added, “I mean, I will be mentioning some of your family members and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me.”

He wanted to shrug off the thought of being uncomfortable around Angie but because the chip was already planted into his shoulder; it was hard to shake off Angie and her damn self.

“Noooo.”

That did not sound professional, Troy thought.

Angie doesn’t bring out notes or papers or anything that could be evidence of her research. Instead, Angie pulled out her phone and placed it on the center of Troy’s desk. She rested a hand on her phone screen as she looked Troy in the eye.

“You have to promise me that whatever information I tell you, you will not speak about it pass these walls.”

Troy narrowed his eyes at her. “I should be the one telling you that.”

If Troy wasn’t mistaken, he was almost positive he saw her lips curl up.

“Are you sure that what you’re about to do is legal?” Troy whispered.

He watched her shrug. She plainly joked, “How are you even related to Ava Vladimir?”

Troy’s eyes widened at the small joke. “You must’ve done a lot of research about my mom to have the nerve to joke about her.” He intended his tone to be soft. Hopefully, the She-Finn caught on.

“Just put your hand on my phone.” Angie firmly said. She locked her eyes on Troy before tilting her head to the side. “Besides, your mom, from what I’ve read, seemed pretty badass during her time.”

Troy nodded. He only bobbed his head because he needed his mouth to refrain from making any movement. If he were to move it, Troy was sure his lips would curve upwards no matter what.

He placed his hand on Angie’s hand and, dear God, was her hand cold. The warmth of his hand caused her to flinch, which caused Troy to drop his gaze on her.

“And I was actually pertaining to the fact that your mom basically took risks as an investigator. I didn’t intend to make my joke sound harsher than I hoped it did.”

After the short touch of their hands, Angie shook her hand under Troy’s hand. After grabbing her phone, she tucked the device in her dress pocket. She looked at Troy carefully. “Okay, on to the real reason why I’m here.”

Troy pouted. “Oh, and I thought you were here to hold hands with me.”

Holy crap, Troy thought.

Angie seemed as surprised to hear his response as Troy did upon speaking it.

He felt his mouth dry up. He tried to shrug it off with a small nod and a firm face. “Right, ask away, Angie. What can I do to assist you?”

Angie’s face changes solemnly as she whispered, “I need to you to tell me everything about your parents’ relationship.”