Free Eyes Wide Open by Lucy Felthouse Page A

from Cambridge. He’s Logan Chisholm, also twenty-nine, also from Cambridge. We work in property development, have our own company. We’re actually pretty regular visitors to the Totally Five Star. Although we’re based in Cambridge, we have to travel a fair bit, for site visits, business meetings and so on. London, of course, is the center of the frigging universe, so we’re here a lot—meeting clients, wining and dining them, pitching for their business. Sometimes we stay here en route to heading out for international flights. Did that answer your questions?”
    It most certainly had answered her questions, but it had also raised plenty more—and not ones she could voice without being rude. How in the hell do two twenty-nine-year-olds end up with their own business, one that is so successful that they are regular visitors to a luxury hotel? Maybe she should hang around with them for a little longer. Perhaps their business acumen and success would rub off on her.
    “Yep.” She took a sip of her drink before continuing, “And I’m still interested so far. Not fascinated, but not bored, either. Tell me more about the business, then. How did that come about?”
    James was rattling off the story when Logan reappeared, placed the drinks down and settled into his seat. Smiling at Fiona, he stayed quiet as his friend talked, speaking only when James appeared to have finished.
    “So,” Logan said, turning his gaze onto her once more and making her feel as though she’d had her bottom glued to the chair, “that’s us in a nutshell. Now are we allowed to ask about you?”
    Gulping to try to relieve her suddenly dry mouth, she nodded. “Y—yes. What would you like to know?”
    “The same as what James just told you.”
    “All right.” It didn’t take long. She, after all, didn’t have an incredibly successful business to speak of, and her career was in its infancy.
    “Ah,” Logan said when she was done. “That explains why we haven’t seen you around here before. We suspected you were a newbie. How are you finding it here, so far?”
    “Great. I was incredibly lucky to have landed the role, and even luckier to discover I like it and am good at it—or at least I think I am. My boss, Sophia, seems pleased with me.”
    “Fantastic. It certainly helps when you’ve got a genuine passion for your job. So, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you all dressed up, yet were sitting in here chatting with your colleagues behind the bar? Not that this place isn’t amazing, but London’s full of nightlife. Shouldn’t you be exploring a little farther afield?”
    Fiona rolled her eyes. “I was enjoying that nightlife not so long ago. A bunch of us—staff, I mean—were in Soho. But one of the girls had an argument with her boyfriend, then proceeded to get incredibly drunk. I and one of the others decided to bring her back here before she passed out, threw up or got arrested. We put her to bed, and I decided to have a couple of drinks down here before calling it a night myself. Then you appeared and scared the crap out of me. What about you guys?” She didn’t confess to having seen them earlier. They’d have no doubt wanted to know why she didn’t speak or at least acknowledge them.
    “The same, actually.” It was James who spoke this time. “Well, not exactly the same. We were in Soho too, and some drunken arsehole kicked off in one of the pubs. It turned ugly and a bunch of people started fighting. We weren’t involved, of course, but we witnessed the whole thing. As soon as we could leave, we did. Didn’t feel like going anywhere else after that, so we thought we’d have a couple more quiet ones in here before heading to our suite.”
    Fiona wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, yeah, I can understand why you wanted to get out of there. Not good. You certainly wouldn’t see that kind of behavior in here. No wonder you guys like staying here so much, especially if you have a suite.” As she said the words, their