“We’ve got another situation,” Ellen said looking at Ree. “We got the new building plans from the architect, and when we passed them to Robert Kelly, the construction contractor, he said there are major mistakes that have to be fixed. We have to send them back to the architect, and now the architect is saying he’s going to charge us for a whole new set of plans.”
“Get him on the phone,” Ree snapped. “I’ll straighten him out.”
“Who?” Ellen asked. “Noah, or the architect?”
“The architect, of course,” Ree replied. “Noah is the best in the business. We’ve worked with him three times before, and he’s never steered us wrong. If he says the plans are wrong, I believe him, and if there is a mistake, we’re darn well not going to pay for the architect to fix them. Get him on the phone.”
Ellen retreated to a corner of the room with her phone stuck to her face.
Ned whispered into Ree’s ear, “Come have lunch with me before the negotiation. I want to be near you.”
“We can’t leave the building with all this stuff going on,” she whispered back. “We can have lunch here, and after the negotiation, we’ll go back to my apartment.”
His fingers twined in hers. “I have a better idea. Why don’t we go back to my apartment?”
“You have an apartment?” she gasped.
“Aye, lassie,” he purred. “I have an apartment in this city, and I can tell ye right now it’s much nicer than yers. Ye must come over after the negotiation, and we can discuss matters of chemistry and such to yer heart’s content.”
Ree laughed but didn’t have a chance to say anything before Ellen crossed the room with her phone extended. She took it and sat down behind her desk, reclined in her chair, and propped her foot on top of the desk. “Steven! How are you? It’s Ree Hamilton from Primary Industries. I understand we have a little issue with those building plans we ordered.”
Ellen stared at her friend in astonishment. Ree was in fact a changed woman, oozing confidence in all directions, and she’d probably never seen Ree put her foot on the desk in her life.
The rest of the day passed in a daze for Ned. He couldn’t stop staring at Ree. The last three hundred years blurred to nothing. He had her back. He would take her home to his lonely apartment, and they would never get out of bed again.
At last, Ellen returned from coordinating with Vic about something. “It’s time to go. We don’t want to be late for the negotiation.”
Ree jumped up from her chair. “We don’t want to be too early, either,” she said, straightening her jacket. “Let the chump wait for us for a change.”
The three of them rode to the Allied Chemical office building in the company limo. Ree watched the city roll past the window. Ned watched Ree. She’d been gone one day but had lived a lifetime before she returned.
For him, Scotland existed centuries in the past. For her, it happened yesterday and was all still fresh and clear.
She snapped out of her reverie when the limo pulled up in front of the building. Ned and Ree took the elevator up to the twentieth floor while Ellen waited for them at reception.
“I’ll be with you every step of the way in there,” Ned murmured as they stopped outside the boardroom. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not worried,” Ree replied. “He doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”
Ned laughed and shook his head. “Cut it out.”
Ree bit back a grin at her own joke.
Ned touched her sleeve. “Knock ’em dead in there, killer.”
“You bet.” Ree turned on her heel and strode into the boardroom. The big double doors blew open, and she stopped dead in her tracks.
The Allied CEO rose from his seat in a padded leather chair at the far end of the room. He drew himself up and squared his shoulders. He wore an immaculate gray suit with a sky-blue T-shirt underneath it. Short chestnut hair topped his head, but no one could mistake him for anyone else.
Ree gasped, “Malcolm!”
Chapter 32
Ree stared at the man across the room. She could never forget that face. He didn’t look so different with short hair from when he wore it long and braided. He looked every inch the dominant Highlander in that suit as he had in a kilt.
He strode around the table to where she stood rooted to the spot and held out his hand. “It’s good to see you again, Ree. I see you’re doing well, and now you’re reunited with Ned.”
She blinked up at him. “Malcolm!”
Malcolm laughed. “You said that already. You don’t have to keep saying it. I’m right here.”
“You’re…but you’re…you’re alive. That must mean you’re Angui!”
“Yes, Ree, I’m Angui. My real name is Luppaki Hoxha, and Ned is one of my oldest friends.”
Ned entered the room and stood next to Ree. She stared up at him, agape. Ned just smiled.
“As a matter of fact, we grew up together,” Malcolm continued, “and I’ve been working undercover with the Falisa for almost a thousand years in one capacity or another. I work for them for a while until I get too old. Then I drift away until all the old Falisa die out. Then I reapply and get my old job back under a different identity. That way, the Angui always have an insider to tell them what the Falisa are up to.”
Ree’s jaw went even slacker before she closed it again. She could hardly believe she was looking at the man she thought was her enemy. Ned smiled at Malcolm. They’d been in on this from the beginning.
Malcolm took her hand and led her to the table. “Take a seat, Ree. We have a lot to discuss.”
She sank into the chair he offered her, and Ned sat down next to her. Malcolm sat on the edge of the table and gazed down at her with that curious mix of aching love and primal understanding.
“There is no negotiation, Ree,” he told her. “There is no takeover bid. We orchestrated this whole thing to position ourselves close to your company. Allied is a big company, but it’s a Falisa front. We couldn’t use them to go after the Cipher’s Kiss. That’s why we had to use Primary Industries. You tipped us off back in Scotland that you’d be working there and that we could bring you in on our side.”
She shook her head, and her hand flew to her forehead. “This is incredible. It’s all too incredible to believe.”
“We’re not the only ones near you,” Malcolm replied. “You know about Ben Harris at the City Council. He’s Gilias Luga, Ned’s first mate on the Prometheus. Noah Kelly is also Angui. He was on the Prometheus too, and so is Louis Kirk.”
“Louis Kirk?” she asked.
Ned spoke up from her side. “You remember Major Kirk from the Aberdeen garrison? We planted him in the British Army to help us in case the Gunns ever used the Army to attack us. I tipped him off to keep an eye out for you in Aberdeen. That’s why he took you to the garrison for safekeeping.”
“Louis works for a consulting firm in the city,” Malcolm went on. “In a few weeks, I’ll maneuver Allied to hire him to help handle a particularly thorny contract. It’s a matter of delicacy—the formulation of a pharmaceutical that reverses aging. I don’t think I have to tell you anything more about it.”
Ree collapsed back in her seat. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I would never kid about the Cipher’s Kiss,” Malcolm replied. “If you question anything I’m telling you, just ask Ned.”
She didn’t have to ask Ned. She already knew it was true. These guys controlled every piece on the chessboard like puppets on strings. They planted their members in their enemies’ camps and planned and calculated until they lined up every detail to serve their function.
“All right,” she murmured. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“I already did,” Ned replied. “After work today, you’ll come back to my apartment and we’ll start working on the formula. We’ve got everything in position. We’ve just been waiting for your knowledge and your contacts to complete the formula.”
“But what about…?” She sto
pped and glanced up at Malcolm.
Even now, she couldn’t quite comprehend that he wasn’t her enemy. She didn’t have to worry about him finding out what she was doing. He already knew. He was Angui. He was her ally and her friend. He would help her instead of sneaking up behind to destroy her and everything she loved.
Malcolm read her mind. “You don’t have to worry about the Falisa. The Falisa are my job. You just concentrate on the formula. Once you get it completed, you’ll be the first woman to take it, so make sure you do it right.”
She gasped in surprise again, but he only grinned at her. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine, and you’re going to be around to live a long, long life with my friend Dagar here.”
Ned rose to his feet, but Ree couldn’t budge. “What will I tell my friends? I’ll need to use the company labs and probably assign some of our techs to work on the formula. I’ll have to give them some explanation.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, either,” Malcolm replied. “One of the contracts Ben Harris sent your way will give you an acceptable cover for your investigations. And it provides enough capital for you to assign as many people as you need to the project so you can complete it.”
“Am I the only woman you’ve got in mind to take the formula?”
Ned chuckled. “For the moment, yes. When the time comes, we’ll have to use it on others to monitor its effects, and when we know it’s safe, to increase the Angui’s numbers. Our brothers have been alone a very long time. But, we have time to figure everything out, together.”
Malcolm pressed Ree’s hand and raised her from her chair. “I’m so pleased, Ree. I’m so glad I don’t have to put on an act for you anymore. You don’t know how hard it was letting you believe I was Falisa all those years ago.”
“You certainly fooled me,” she remarked.
“There will be no more secrets between us again. I may not see you again for a long time. We have to continue the pretense that I work for Allied and I’m your company’s bitter enemy. Just remember that I’m your friend behind the scenes and we’re working toward the same aim.”
“I’ll never forget that, Malcolm,” she exclaimed. “I never wanted you for an enemy. I’m delighted we’re finally working on the same side.”
Malcolm walked her and Ned out of the boardroom and joined them in the elevator. Not until they went back down to reception and came face-to-face with Ellen did she realize she had a whole new problem. She didn’t have to hide anything from Malcolm anymore, but she did have to hide the truth from the friends she’d known and loved all her life.
Ellen stared in disbelief when the enemy CEO clasped Ree’s hand and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m so glad we could come to an agreement about this. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hamilton. I’ll be in touch very soon about that project I mentioned.”
“Such a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Gunn,” Ree stammered. “I’m sure we’re going to have a long, productive working relationship.”
Ellen, poor Ellen—she opened her mouth more than once but couldn’t find any explanation for this, and Ree wasn’t ready to give her one.
Malcolm gave Ree’s hand one last shake, and Ned, Ellen, and Ree left the building. Ree slid into the limo next to Ned and gazed out the window on the way back to the office. Ellen’s eyes drilled into her the whole way there.
Ree had known that when she came back to San Francisco things would never be the same. Now she was realizing that she could never explain to her best friends how or why everything had changed. That was just the way it had to be, and things would never go back to the way they were before.
Ree managed to avoid eye contact with Ellen all the way back to the office. When she went to her own office with Ned, Ellen disappeared.
“You okay?” Ned asked, pulling out Ree’s chair for her.
Ree sank into her chair. Her gaze migrated to the window. She seemed to be doing a lot of that since she got back. “I never realized how hard it would be to keep the secret.”
“You’ll get used to it after a while,” he replied, perching on the edge of her desk.
“Did you get used to it?” she asked.
“Well, it was different for me,” he replied. “It started out differently. We didn’t have to keep it a secret because everybody knew we were immortal. Things changed over the course of centuries, but now things are the same for us as they are for you. Pretty soon, you’ll develop a core of people around you who know the truth. You talk to them. Everyone outside that core stays outside this invisible circle and they never come inside it.”
“I don’t want it to be like that. I don’t want my friends to be outside an invisible circle. We’ve always told each other everything.”
“It will happen automatically when you take the formula,” he pointed out. “You’ll keep living and they’ll keep aging. You’ll move away and do other things until they pass out of your life. It seems sad now, but after a few hundred years, it just gets to be sort of normal.”
“I don’t think it will ever become normal for me,” she muttered.
“Probably not,” he agreed. “I was born immortal, so it’s more normal to me. You might always feel this way, but after a while, you won’t want to connect with mortals in that way. You’ll plan ahead so you don’t feel that pain when they disappear.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“All right. Let’s talk about this instead.” He took her hand and kissed it.
Ree dragged her gaze away from the window and let it fall on Ned. His piercing eyes drove to the center of her being, and her guts twisted in a fiery spasm.
All of a sudden, she cracked a wicked grin. “You don’t really want to talk about that, do you?”
“No, I don’t.” He raised her from the chair and pulled her to the door. “Come home with me.”
She gasped. “You mean…leave the building?”
“Why not? You’re the boss, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been gone too much the last couple of days,” she remarked.
“You’re going to be gone a lot more, so come on.” He dragged her by the hand out of the office, to the elevator.
Ree didn’t dare look around to see if anybody noticed her absconding again. Ellen better not see her leaving in the middle of the business day, or she would think Ree had taken complete leave of her senses.
Chapter 33
Ned held the limo door open for Ree and got in next to her. The vehicle glided away from the curb. He slid across the seat and pulled her against him.
She held him back for a moment and gazed deep into his eyes in search of the man she knew in Scotland. Finding him waiting there, she realized that after three hundred years, she was the same woman just as he was the same man.
She let him steer her face close to his and cover her mouth with his lips. She collapsed into his arms and kissed him back with equal ardor. She ran her fingers through his hair, and her body softened against him. She pressed her breasts against his chest, and he felt something hard underneath.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She pulled the book out of her inner jacket pocket and held it out to him. “You should have this back. It’s yours.”
“You keep it,” he told her, pressing it back toward her. “It means a lot more to you than it does to me. I’m a businessman, not a chemist.”
“We’ll go through it together,” she replied.
He took the book out of her hand and set it aside on the seat. “Later.”
He gathered her closer, and everything outside that limo disappeared. He gave his whole heart and soul to kissing her and holding her, to tasting the deep sweetness of her being. He’d dreamed of this moment for so many years, he lost himself in it, hardly daring to believe it was true. But here she was in front of him. His heart ached with the joy of it.
The limo stopped in front of his apartment building. They sat there entwined in each other for a long time while the motor purred in the distance. O
nly her luscious lips and her tongue tickling his mouth existed.
He noticed nothing until Ree pushed him back. A delicate bloom colored her cheeks, and her lips parted to show her tongue glistening behind her teeth. “Are we going inside?”
“Oh.” He laughed. “Okay.”
She picked up the book, and they got out on the sidewalk. He led her inside, up a glass elevator above the city. The view swept up the coast, past the Golden Gate Bridge to the dark hills of Marin behind it.
She didn’t move when the door opened.
He tugged her arm. “Are you coming?”
“It looks amazing up here,” she breathed.
“You get the same view from the apartment.” He escorted her into a hall lined with plush carpet, through a door, and into a huge apartment covering half the upper story of the building.
She crossed to the enormous windows. The view cast a semicircle to the Marin coast they just saw and down to the city sprawling south to the coast beyond. They could see everything to the west as far as the eye could see, and the ocean glittered far below their feet.
Ned came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. “Do you like it?”
“You’re right,” she replied. “It’s much nicer than my place.”
He chuckled into her neck. “Maybe you’d like to stay here.”
“I would like to stay here.”
“Then you can move in, starting right now.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she replied. “The folks at Primary Industries would think twice about my judgment if I moved in with a guy I barely know, and an employee of the company at that. I think we better wait awhile.”
“Okay. Just keep up the pretense, but stay here with me most of the time.”
“You know I will.” She turned around to face him and put her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
For a long time, neither said anything. Ned glided his hands under her jacket, and she melted into his embrace. He explored her body in all its magnificent curves. He tugged her shirt free and snuck underneath to unhook her bra. His fingers grazed her bare skin, and she sucked her breath between her teeth. She shuddered down her stomach exactly the way he remembered. The sound and the quivering sensation of her body against his poured a scorching stream of lava into his guts.
Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 23
