Page 5 of The Bratva Stalker's Ruthless Claim
And I’m so close to solving it, I can practically feel the answer breathing down my neck.
I just need thirty minutes to reset my brain.
And preferably some silence.
I turn around in my chair and glance between the two of them.
Samantha is the lab’s senior research assistant and has been working alongside me for the past two years. At this point, she practically lives in this office with me. If I’m here, she’s here.
Adrian, on the other hand, is a doctoral candidate in the department.
Technically, he’s supposed to be working on his dissertation down the hall.
Instead, he wanders in here every day under the flimsy excuse that he’s “interested in applied linguistic analysis.”
In reality, he just likes to gossip.
And if I can get Adrian out of the room, Samantha will actually focus and help me solve this thing.
I look directly at him. “You don’t even have a case here.”
He shrugs. “I’m the moral support.”
“Unnecessary.”
Samantha finally releases my shoulders and walks over to the small snack cabinet near the coffee machine. “Here.”
She presses a bag of chips into my hands.
“Ugh,” she says, wrinkling her nose slightly. “You work too hard.”
I stare at the bag.
Salt and vinegar.
My favorite.
Of course she knows that.
I sigh again, tearing the top open.
“Fine,” I mutter. “Thirty minutes.”
Adrian claps once dramatically. “Look at that. Progress.”
I toss a chip at him. “Shut up.”
He catches it midair and grins, throwing it in his mouth. “See? Even your snacks are organized.”
I roll my eyes and lean back in my chair.
“Maybe I should learn from you,” he says, folding his arms. “Work twelve hours straight and terrify the entire linguistics department.”
“Eight hours,” I correct automatically.
“Still disturbing.”
He tilts his head slightly, studying me.
