Rowland stretched and reached over the side of the bed. Lily followed his movement with her eyes and then tensed, coiled to jump. Too late. With lightning speed, he grabbed her, flipped her onto her back and straddled her. He gripped her throat with one hand and shoved a blade against her belly with the other.
Her head spun. How had he found out? What had she done to trigger this reaction? Lily commanded her breath to settle, her heart to slow.
He pressed down on the blade and searched her face. “Who are you, and why are you really here?”
She clawed at his hand, fought to breathe. He released his hold a fraction, just enough to allow her to speak.
“I don’t...what are you talking about? I’m Addison Moore, from Alabama.” She gasped for air. “I’m sure you’ve already done your research on me. You know I’m telling you the truth.”
“But you didn’t come up to Omaha for the autumn foliage. And as much as I like to think you’re warming my bed because you find me irresistible, I’m not an idiot. Imagine my surprise last night when I woke to find you gone.”
He woke up? Shit. She was good as dead. Her mind tumbled over itself, scrambling for an excuse, any reason, to give her more time.
“Wine doesn’t always sit with me.” She stumbled over the words. “I went to the kitchen to get something to settle my stomach.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Addison.” The tip of the blade bit into her flesh. Panic tore through her as he glared down at her. “Who are you?”
Lily clambered to find a reasonable explanation.
“You’re right,” she blurted out. The pressure against her belly subsided. Barely. But it gave her enough of a reprieve to lie with conviction. “I represent a very motivated buyer who’s interested in ARME and is willing to invest heavily in the company.”
A motivated buyer? For the love of God, was that the best she could come up with? She swallowed the bile in her throat.
“Due to his rather questionable connections, he flies off the radar.” Lily knew she was rambling, but she couldn’t help it. Not when it meant the difference between life and death. “He sent me to vet you, to vet the company before he approached.”
Rowland’s eyes narrowed. Lily’s heart bucked against her chest.
“I swear to you...” Fearful tears that were not at all contrived rolled down her cheeks. “It was purely a business transaction. I hadn’t planned to end up in your bed, Rowland.”
Which was true. She’d expected the drug to kick in long before it had. The intimacy of last night, and their nakedness now, made her skin crawl.
Rowland eased off the pressure on the knife. He brought the blade to her face, traced it down her cheek, her ribs, and rested the tip back on her stomach. The muscles in her abdomen tightened, pulling away from the cool metal.
“Set up a meeting with this client of yours.” He leaned his mouth close to her ear. “Immediately.”
He brought the knife to her face again. Lily flinched, but after a moment he removed it, wiping the blade on her pillow. She didn’t move, barely breathed. How was she still alive? He rolled off her and walked toward the bathroom. Scrambling out of bed, she pressed her hand to the wound, assessing the damage.
Nothing more than a shallow cut.
He stopped at the bathroom door and turned. “Do not underestimate me, Addison. If I find out you’ve fucked with me, I’ll kill you. I’ll take my time doing it, and I will enjoy every agonizing second until you beg me to end you. And then I’ll track down everyone you’ve ever loved and do the same to them.”
She reached for the sheet, wrapped herself in it and pressed her back into the corner. Lily didn’t doubt he’d make good on his word. What the hell was she going to do?
“And, Addison...” A cruel smile spread across his face. “I own you. I expect you to warm my bed tonight.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
“Now. Get the fuck out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sunday, September 28, 9:00 a.m.
LILY PULLED HER jacket tight. Her head swam. The cut in her belly, though shallow, pulsed with a dull ache. She took a deep breath, hoped the café would be empty of prying eyes and stepped into Keystone. Derek and Ben glanced in her direction.
“I’ve been made.”
Ben slowly put down his coffee mug. “What do you mean, you’ve been made?”
Derek didn’t speak. He eyed her, glancing between her face and the hand shoved into her jacket. She refused to look at him and prayed he wouldn’t see past her makeshift bravado.
“Rowland knows something’s off.” She lowered herself into the closest chair.
“Lil.” Derek’s eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
She shifted uncomfortably, refusing to meet his eyes.
“How did Rowland make you since I saw you last night?” Ben’s brows scrunched.
Lily cleared her throat, continuing to avoid Derek’s gaze, and locked on to Ben’s confused face. “This morning—”
“This morning.” Derek jerked back as if he’d been struck. “You were with Rowland this morning? Is that why you broke contact last night?”
Heat burned her cheeks. She gnawed the inside of her lip. Partially to keep the tears at bay, because she hurt like hell, but also to keep her mind off Derek’s tone. He sounded hurt, confused and royally pissed.
Derek glanced at the clock.
It was barely past nine in the morning.
Lily cringed. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out she’d been at Rowland’s last night. And it wouldn’t be a far leap to envision what might have happened between last night and this morning.
Why did it matter if Derek knew she’d been with Rowland? He looked over at her, veiled pain swimming in his eyes, and the bravado she’d been struggling to maintain crashed and burned. She hung her head.
It mattered to her because Derek mattered to her.
The only sheets she wanted to warm were his.
She’d fallen for him, and fast, which was the last thing she’d expected. Or wanted, for that matter. But now she’d gone and screwed it up before they ever even had a chance.
“I went to his house last night and apparently miscalculated the sleeping agent I’d slipped into the wine. I didn’t have a choice. Nothing happened,” she clarified quickly, but the dull look on Derek’s face slashed her heart to pieces. “I slipped out when he finally dozed off to riffle through his office.”
“Damn it, Lily.” Derek slammed his hand on the table. She jumped, and a pain-filled moan escaped her. “We decided to leave that monster be.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “But you were gone. My night was free.”
She stopped short and winced. Her night was free?
Ben’s eyebrows arched.
Lily heard herself running at the mouth, understood that she was babbling like an idiot, but she couldn’t stop. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. The kicker is, I didn’t even find anything. I couldn’t slip out in the night like some hooker, so I went back to his room.”
What was going on behind Derek’s guarded eyes? Lily felt as if she was going to throw up or cry...or both.
“This morning, Rowland went a little crazy.” Her voice trembled.
Derek’s attention snapped to her face. “Define crazy.”
“Crazy like he had a knife to my stomach?”
“Shit, Lily.” Ben groaned.
Derek’s eyes narrowed and his gaze went from her face to the hand tucked into her jacket, then back to her face. His eyes hardened. “Did he hurt you?”
“’Course not.”
He got up, silently walked over and squatted in front of her. Without a word, he reached for her hidden hand, gently coaxed it away from its hiding place, revealing a small crimson stain. H
is face darkened.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” he said in a quiet, deadly tone.
Lily looked down at him pleadingly. “It’s really nothing. Just a small cut. It barely hurts.”
Which was true. The cut in her stomach paled in comparison to the way her heart ached at Derek’s hooded expression.
“It’s Rowland’s way of leaving me with a constant reminder of his brutality.”
“Ben, got that suture kit handy?”
Derek scooped Lily up into his arms and headed for the back room. She instinctively looped an arm around his neck—being close to him was as natural as breathing—and laid her head against his shoulder.
Why, oh, why did she have to go to Rowland’s last night?
Derek gently set her on Ben’s desk and, without a word, peeled open her jacket, lifted her shirt again. He shook his head and looked up at her. “This isn’t as bad as I’d imagined, but, Lily, what were you thinking?”
Lily tried to say something, anything, but nothing came out. She pressed her lips together tightly. Derek had asked her not to do anything heroic, and she’d gone ahead and done just that. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.
Stupid, stupid woman.
“I told you no heroic shit.” His tone was soft, gentle even. Nothing like the tongue-lashing she expected.
“I know.” There was nothing else she could say, not when she wished she could turn back the hands of time.
Silence greeted her.
Lily peeked out from under half-closed lids. Derek had moved away from her and now leaned against the opposite wall. Perfect. Could this morning get any worse?
Ben walked in and knelt down in front of her. “Sorry, Lil, there isn’t a numbing agent in this kit.”
Yep, it could.
“Do it.” She gripped the chair. “It’s not that bad, and I’m not going to the hospital. Too many questions. We don’t have time.”
“Lily girl.”
“Do it.”
Ben swabbed the edge of the small wound. “What possessed you to go to Rowland last night?”
“We needed answers.”
“We needed—” Derek choked on the words. “Are you kidding me? We discussed this. Right before I walked out. Or did you forget that little conversation?”
And there it was. The tongue-lashing she’d expected. Her heart sank. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole. “I know.”
“Lil—”
“Derek, I get it. It was the wrong move.”
Ben pushed the torn skin together and pressed down on the butterfly bandage. She bit her cheek and focused on that dull pain rather than the searing ache in her chest. Ben didn’t say anything. Which Lily appreciated. She could only handle one lecture at a time.
Lily glanced over at Derek. He hadn’t moved from his perch against the wall. She couldn’t read him, and that aggravated her and scared her all at once. If she’d known last night would have ended up in this disaster, she might have reconsidered taking the chance.
Maybe.
Derek pushed off from the wall. “Wait. How are you alive?”
And there, ladies and gentlemen, was the million-dollar question. Given everything they’d uncovered about Rowland, she should be laying in a pool of blood on his floor, not currently getting her ass chewed out by the man she was rapidly falling for.
Was this Rowland’s sick, twisted game of cat and mouse?
“Lil?”
She scrunched her nose up. “I made up some wild story about a motivated buyer who sent me to vet Rowland and the company.”
His eyebrows arched. “And he bought that?”
She nodded. “He demanded I set up a meeting with my client. Immediately.”
Ben whistled. “Well, I’ll be damned...”
“Unbelievable,” Derek muttered.
Lily couldn’t look at him. If there had ever been anything between them, she’d gone and blown that to smithereens. Why’d she have to give in to her heart? She should have listened to reason and stayed away from Derek. She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Stupid libido.
“Who do we know that we can read in on this case?” Ben swabbed around the butterfly stitch and gently pressed a clean bandage over it. “Derek, do you have access to anyone with the skill set to pull off something like this...without getting Lily killed?”
“Yeah.” Derek rubbed the back of his head. “I’ve got someone in mind.”
“How quickly can they be read in?” Ben put his kit back together and stood.
“I’ll see if they can be here this afternoon.” Derek threw Lily a stern look. Her heart nearly broke in two. “Is there anything else we need to know?”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes tight, shutting out the world. Maybe then the room would stop spinning and she could get her footing back.
“Lily.”
She opened her eyes. Ben’s face was blank. She took a deep breath. “Rowland wants me back tonight.”
“You’re shitting me, right?” A dumbfounded look crumpled Ben’s features.
The light blue of Derek’s eyes darkened to a deep sapphire. A muscle in his jaw jumped. “No. Fucking. Way.”
Lily sat up, the hair on her neck bristling with indignation. “I couldn’t agree with you more, Derek. But what the hell am I supposed to do?”
“It’s simple. I’m not putting your life on the line for this bastard.” Derek crossed his arms. His face was set. “You’re done.”
She jerked back as if he’d sucker punched her. “Take me off the case now, and we blow this mission. We’ll figure something out.”
Ben had been strangely quiet. Lily glanced over at him. Surely he didn’t agree with Derek’s reasoning.
“She’s got a point, Derek.” Ben finally spoke up. “She’s been backed into a corner. We all know—”
“You.” Derek pointed a finger at Ben. “Stay out of this.”
Ben threw up his hands and walked out.
Lily chewed her lip, waited for Derek to continue with his rant. When he didn’t, she spoke softly. “This isn’t your decision, Derek. It’s mine. I’m staying on this case.”
“It’s not my—” Derek broke off, looking livid. “This is my case, babycakes. I brought you on. Not the other way around.”
“And for good reason.” Lily straightened her back as much as she could without pulling apart her newly stitched wound. He wasn’t the only warrior in the room, damn it.
“I could order you off this case.”
Lily’s mouth dropped open. Had he really pulled that card? The fall from partner to grunt had been short and fast. She took a deep breath. “But you won’t.”
His eyebrow arched. “Oh, no?”
“No. I agree. Going back tonight isn’t happening. But pulling me off this case is the wrong call.”
Derek glared at Lily. She refused to move. She wasn’t backing down, not this time. “It’s the wrong call, Derek.”
“This is bullshit.” Derek kicked at a chair and sent it flying across the room. Lily jumped. He walked to the door, jerked it open, walked through and slammed it behind him.
Emptiness swept through the room and wrapped its cold hand around her throat, squeezing hard. Whatever moment they’d shared, whatever they’d once had, was gone.
Lily was sure of it.
* * *
DEREK HAD NEVER met another human being who pulled such opposing emotions from him.
He paced on the brick sidewalk outside Keystone Café, hands shoved into his pockets, shoulders hunched against the morning cold. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to kill Lily himself for deliberately disobeying a direct order, or applaud her brilliance for getting out of Rowland’s home alive.
He massaged his temples wearily. That damn woman was going to be the end of him.
Pulling out his phone, he dialed the only person he trusted enough to help get her out of this mess.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus Moretti, Derek’s brother, demanded.
“Can’t a man call his brother?”
“Not at seven-thirty in the damn morning,” Marcus grumbled. “Not unless it’s an emergency. Which leads me back to my first question. What’s wrong?”
“Shit.” Derek glanced at his watch. He’d totally spaced on the two-hour time difference between Omaha and San Diego. “Sorry about that.”
“No worries.” A toddler’s giggles in the background pulled a smile to Derek’s face. “I’ve been up with Liam for an hour. Talk to me.”
Derek paced. “I’m in deep, man. My asset—”
“You mean the woman you’ve not stopped talking about since you landed in Omaha?”
“Yeah, that’d be the one.” Derek ran his hand over his head. “She’s been made.”
“Shit.”
“My thoughts exactly. But she gave our target some crazy-ass story about representing a motivated buyer wanting to invest in ARME, and now we need to set up a meet with this client immed—”
“Say no more. We’ll be on the next plane out.”
“Thanks, brother. I owe you.” Derek hung up, relief washing over him.
Maybe, just maybe, they’d all get out of this alive.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Sunday, September 28, 7:00 p.m.
THE AIR HUNG THICK with tension. Derek stalked from one end of the wall of windows to the other, hands grasped behind him, head down. Silent. At this rate, Lily would have to refinish her hardwood floors soon. Ten minutes after slamming the door on her, he’d burst back into the office at Keystone and insisted on taking her home.
Ben hadn’t stepped in. She’d argued. And lost.
Without a word, Derek carted her past George, ushered her into her home and bolted the door.
Then he stayed, waiting for his contact to show.
Lily wasn’t sure why he bothered to stay with her. His reaction this morning...she’d never seen such disappointment rip across someone’s face before. Her stomach rolled just remembering it. She wished he would just leave. She didn’t need to be freaking babysat—especially by someone who refused to speak to her.
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