Caldwell’s back tensed. He turned around, his eyes cold and sharp. “Rutledge Manor?”
Miles met his gaze steadily. “Yes, is there a problem? I thought Derek was your partner.”
“How do you know the Rutledges?” Caldwell said, ignoring Miles’s question.
Miles eyed him curiously. For the first time, he wondered if Derek Rutledge’s suspicions weren’t unfounded. There was something hard in Caldwell’s eyes when he spoke about the Rutledges.
“I didn’t,” Miles said. “I was supposed to stay at their friend’s place, but they had to leave the country and asked the Rutledges to let me stay at their house for a while.” He pulled a face. “My passport and wallet were stolen at the airport, so I kind of had no choice but to accept their hospitality.”
The faint air of suspicion around Caldwell disappeared, replaced by a frown. “Don’t you have a family? Can’t they help you?”
Miles smiled ruefully. “They obviously can, but I’d rather my brothers don’t know that I already managed to run into trouble. I’m the baby of the family and they all can be ridiculously overprotective.”
Caldwell nodded, as if that made perfect sense to him. He pulled out his phone and brought it to his ear. “Zane, take my assistant to Rutledge’s house. Wait for him while he packs. No, I won’t return to the office today.” Ending the call, he looked at Miles, as if saying, Why are you still here and aren’t doing as I say?
Rolling his eyes with a smile, Miles headed to the front door.
But his smile dropped when he realized that he would have to tell the Rutledges that he couldn’t do what they wanted. He could hardly keep an eye on what Caldwell was doing at the office when he no longer worked in said office.
To be honest, it was a relief. The whole spying business had never sat well with him. He just hoped they wouldn’t consider him a traitor for agreeing to work for Caldwell.
The thought made Miles frown as he got into the car.
It wasn’t that he owed the Rutledges his loyalty—he didn’t know them all that well—but he’d been staying at their house for several weeks now and he liked them. He liked them a lot. They had helped him when he really needed it, even though they had no obligation to do it. So he felt… a little bit bad. But he was also relieved that he wouldn’t have to do the spying—it seemed so underhanded. Dirty.
Fuck, he didn’t know what to do. Coupled with Caldwell’s utterly insane, terrifying plan to use him as some kind of pseudo-mother for his son, Miles felt like burying his face in his hands and screaming. What had he gotten himself into?
Miles was still mulling it over by the time the car stopped in front of the Rutledges’ house.
“Thanks, I won’t be long,” Miles told the driver, getting out.
Zane shrugged, pulling out a cigarette. “There’s no rush. Mr. Caldwell told me to wait for you. I’ll wait as long as you need.”
Miles smiled faintly and strode toward the house.
When he asked a maid where Shawn was, he was told that Shawn was in Derek’s study with his husband.
Miles grimaced a little. He hadn’t really wanted to see Derek—Shawn was far less intimidating than his husband—but it looked like it wasn’t Miles’s day. To be totally honest, although Miles liked the Rutledges as a couple, Derek Rutledge kind of unnerved him. It was a little strange, actually: Miles felt pretty comfortable around Caldwell, who was as high-handed as Derek Rutledge was, if not more, but something about Caldwell’s brand of high-handedness felt familiar and even amusing while Derek’s just made him feel small and foolish.
Miles knocked on the door. He knew better than to enter without knocking after the time he’d caught Derek and Shawn making out in there.
After a while, Shawn called out, “Come in!”
Miles almost smiled when he saw that Shawn was flushed, his hair disheveled, while Derek’s shirt was buttoned wrongly.
“Sorry for interrupting,” he said with amusement. “But it kind of couldn’t wait. I wanted to tell you that I’m moving out.”
Derek frowned. “Alexander and Christian won’t be back for a few more weeks.”
“I know.” Miles raked his hand through his hair. “I’m sort of moving into Caldwell’s house. To work as a nanny for his son.”
Shawn and Derek stared at him.
To his surprise, Derek said, “Ah. He wants to use your resemblance to his ex-wife.”
“You knew about it? You know about his son?”
Derek nodded. “There have been rumors for a while that his son is mentally deficient—”
“He isn’t,” Miles bit off before he could stop himself.
Derek gave him a strange look. “I’m only repeating the rumor,” he said calmly. “I can’t attest to its accuracy.”
Miles felt himself flush. He didn’t know why he felt so protective of a child he’d just met, but remembering Liam’s wide, uncertain eyes and cherubic little face made something in his heart clench protectively.