Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath (Stella)

Susanna's stomach growled so loudly she was sure the whole house could hear. Lately, she'd been doing everything she could to avoid running into Hull— especially around mealtimes.

She'd tell herself, "Just go downstairs and grab something to eat. You're not even that hungry, you probably won't eat much anyway."

But then she'd wait a little longer and bam-she was starving.

She tried to time her trips to the kitchen for when Hull was out running errands, but today, his car didn't seem to be going anywhere.noveldrama

Didn't he have work to do or something?

She thought about heading down anyway, but the idea of bumping into him made her hesitate.

As she stood there, caught between hunger and awkwardness, a knock rattled her door.

"Susie, Boss wants you in his office," Barnaby's booming voice called out from the hallway.

Susie? Since when did they call her that? Star was the only one who ever called her Susie, and that was their thing.

Now everyone was just going for it?

She muttered under her breath, too annoyed to care.

Outside, Barnaby didn't seem to notice how irritated he'd made her he just kept calling out.

"Susie? Susie? Susanna?"

Oh, so now it was Susanna. That snapped her right out of her funk.

She yanked open the door and smacked Barnaby right on the side of his face.

He froze, wide-eyed.

Susanna glared at him, hand still pressed to his cheek. "What's with your mouth? Don't push me, or I'll rip you a new one."

Barnaby just stared at her, stunned. He'd seen Susanna act all soft and weepy around Hull, especially after messing something up. He didn't expect her to have this kind of fire left in her. How badly had Hull been pushing her?

He cleared his throat, rubbing his cheek but not looking angry. If anything, he looked... a little sorry for her.

"Boss just wants to see you in his office."

"What for?" Susanna snapped. She didn't want to see Hull if she could help it. Star's suspicions over the phone still rang in her ears, and now

Hull's Crew was calling her penet

names, probably thinking she'd tried to seduce him or something.

Worse, with everything that had happened, even if she tried to explain, she doubted anyone would believe her.

"For the

acord, I'm not any good at

gup wounds, and I'm no

about to start serving coffee

biscuits either," she grumb

Barnaby waved his hands. "No, no, you don't need any of that. You just need to

know how to... charm him."

Susanna blinked. "Excuse me?"

Barnaby's face went red. "Wait, that's not what I meant-forget I said that."

Susanna just stared, speechless. Charm him? Was she supposed to flutter her eyelashes at Hull now? Absolutely not.

She

eyes and stalked past

Barnaby, heading towards Hull's

office.

If he called her, she conet

exactly refuse.

On the way, she glanced at Barnaby. "So who's the one checking if I'm some kind

of undercover cop or whatever?"

Barnaby grinned sheepishly. "That'd be me."

Susanna stopped short, giving him a look. Out of all Hull's crew, Barnaby was easily the least reliable.

"You?" she said, disbelief all over her face.

He nodded. "Yep, just me."

She groaned. Just her luck.

"So... how's your little investigation going?" she asked, already dreading the

answer.

Barnaby shrugged, looking almost apologetic.

Susanna sighed, realizing her chances of clearing her name were probably shot.