Enchanting the Beast

by Maggie Dallen

  She’d gotten him out of his apartment.

  He stared at his office setup, which could be described as unconventional, at best. The room was lined with computers and tech gadgets that he tinkered around with. What was it Jack had said? All those computers won’t keep you warm at night.

  It was possible that his father had been speaking in generalizations.

  Possible, but not likely.

  His father had never been to his apartment, at least not when he’d been home. But he hadn’t been home several times these past weeks, thanks to his lovely, alluring neighbor. Jack had asked Holly to get him to a meeting, which meant getting him out of his apartment.

  Did she know? Had she had any idea that her role had simply been to get him out of the house?

  It didn’t matter. What was important now was fixing whatever damage his father had done.

  As he rolled up to his desk, he thought it through. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what his father was after. As a cybersecurity specialist, he had his clients’ online security blueprints saved on his hard drive. As a reformed hacker he knew better than to store them online or in the cloud. Too easy to access. But his computers’ hard drives? No one could touch them.

  Not unless they broke into his apartment and hacked into his computer.

  He muttered a string of curses under his breath. While his online security was stellar, he’d never bothered much with his home security. Why would he need more security when he was always home, always there to protect his precious computers himself?

  Except for this past week when he’d been lured away by his lovely neighbor.

  He cursed again, this time loudly enough that his neighbors would surely hear. If his father was there he would strangle him. Only Jack would be so reckless as to brazenly walk into his place and steal the blueprints out from underneath him. He would have to know that Spencer would figure it out if he succeeded. But apparently his father didn’t care that his master plan would lose him any relationship he might have had with his son.

  Spencer slammed a fist against the desk at the utter heartlessness of his father’s plan. Not only had Jack stolen from him in order to steal from others, but he’d set him up as the bad guy. It would be his fault if Jack succeeded. His freelance career would take a massive hit once word got out that the great security genius had let his plans be taken from his own home.

  Jack’s plan wouldn’t succeed, of course. Now that his adrenaline was stabilizing, reasoning kicked in. Spencer might not have installed high-end security features for his home, but he hadn’t left his clients’ plans to chance, either. The blueprints had an encrypted password, if someone tried to open them on another computer they’d be useless.

  His father had gone to a lot of trouble for nothing.

  That should have made him feel better, but it didn’t. Not really.

  But he had to fix the problem first. Ensure his clients were safe and his father didn’t get away with this. Then he could deal with the storm of emotions that were churning in his gut.

  He switched on the computer and got to work. Sure enough, with a little digging it became clear that someone had accessed his hard drive. Someone who was not him.

  He had his work cut out for him.

  His obsession with Holly would have to wait until morning.

  Chapter Seven

  This dingy, smelly bar in Brooklyn was so not where Holly wanted to spend her Christmas Eve. But it was time to end this stupid gig once and for all.

  She’d done her job. Spencer had met with his father, perhaps not because of her stellar performance—in fact, he’d met with Jack thanks to her epic failure—but Jack hadn’t stipulated why Spencer meet with him, just that they meet.

  Mission accomplished.

  Somehow the victory didn’t fill her with joy. She’d been battling tears ever since she left his apartment the day before. Lexy hadn’t known how to comfort her because she’d refused to tell her sister the details of what had happened. Not because she didn’t trust Lexy to understand but because she was ashamed. So unbelievably ashamed.

  She couldn’t stop replaying Spencer’s words, the look on his face. The cold anger that had made her chest freeze over.

  He was right. Everything he’d said had been correct. She’d demeaned herself for an easy buck. She might not have intended to use her body to make money—her plan had just been to flirt a little, that was all—but that was exactly what she’d done.

  And he was right about everything else as well, including the fact that she had been willfully ignorant to keep her hands clean and her conscience at ease. She’d barely been able to look at herself in her bathroom mirror this morning as the truth of it hit her once again. This had become a pattern for her. She’d let herself remain blind to Eve’s work, happily accepting her financial help but not questioning where it came from.

  How convenient. Spencer was right. Her ignorance was convenient…and wrong. She’d been walking on the high moral ground of being in the right all these years while letting her sister romp around in the muck. She’d stuck with her black-and-white view of the world…because she could. She hadn’t had to make the tough decisions or face the moral dilemmas that came when the price of a paycheck was one’s pride and dignity.

  Poor Eve. She wished she could apologize to her sister for ever having judged her. Worse, for letting her make all the hard choices while she sat back and watched from her cushy accounting position.

  She spotted Jack in the far booth and headed toward him. Charlie was already there. Apparently he’d gotten her message last night that she’d needed to talk. She took a deep breath and choked on the stench of cigars. Apparently the fact that smoking in bars was illegal didn’t stop the fine patrons of this bar.

  Jack smiled as he saw her coming. Ugh, she hated that easy smile. It was nothing like Spencer’s sexy smiles, which might be few and far between, but they were worth the wait.

  One conversation and then she was done. She’d have her money in hand and she could walk away. Back to her old life…alone. Without Spencer.

  “What’s a pretty girl like you have to be so sad about?” Jack was reclining against the booth’s back. She studied him just as openly as he was eyeing her. Nope. She still couldn’t see the resemblance even now that she knew that he was Spencer’s father. Not only was Spencer far more attractive but he also looked at her with warmth and kindness, and without Jack’s lecherous ick factor.

  She slid into the booth beside Charlie so she could face Jack. “I talked to Spencer. I know he met with you.”

  He raised his brows expectantly.

  “And I know that he’s your son.” She wasn’t entirely sure why she felt compelled to add that part but it seemed relevant. Maybe a part of her wanted him to know that she knew he’d been lying to her from the start.

  He didn’t blink but his smile grew. “Ah, so you pieced that together did you?”

  She looked to see Charlie’s reaction but he just took a sip of his drink and met her stare evenly. Had he known that Jack was sending her to dupe his son?

  It didn’t matter. It was done now. All of it. Her gig with Jack, her friendship with Spencer, and whatever that friendship might have been leading to.

  Both men were watching her, waiting for her to continue though she’d thought it would be obvious. “I’m here to get paid.”

  Jack stared at her and some of that twinkling humor faded from his eyes, replaced by a coldness that made her feel sick. The smile was back before she could blink. “Not so fast, little lady. I met with Spencer, but he hasn’t agreed to my arrangement.” He shrugged with a regretful grimace, as if the whole thing was out of his hands. “If he doesn’t cooperate, I can’t pay you.”

  Something was off. He looked entirely too pleased with himself.

  She turned to Charlie who didn’t seem to be paying much attention. He sure didn’t look shocked by the fact that his “friend” had just reneged on their deal. She faced Jack again. “That’s not
what we agreed to. You just said he had to meet with you, and he did.”

  Jack shook his head and gave her a pitying smile that was as fake as their cocktail waitress’s boobs. “Sorry, sugar. A deal’s a deal.”

  Her mouth fell open but anger had her sputtering as she looked for the right words. Words that didn’t sound like a little kid on the playground. That’s not fair. You can’t do that. I’m telling!

  Of course it wasn’t fair but she couldn’t see any way to stop him from doing exactly that. Besides, who would she tell? She turned back to Charlie but it was immediately obvious that he wasn’t on her side. She tried anyway. “You heard him,” she said. “Back me up.”

  He looked unfazed. “Holly, the agreement was to get Spencer to agree to join Jack’s team. I thought you knew that.”

  She shook her head. “What team? No one said anything about a team.” Her voice was rising and she realized that the tables around them were starting to stare.

  She looked from Jack to Charlie and back again, frustration making the urge to cry grow unbearably strong. “You planned this,” she said. They didn’t blink but their silence was her affirmative. “You got me to do your dirty work and you knew you wouldn’t pay me.”

  She looked to Charlie. “How could you do that to Eve?”

  His pretty-boy face was so smarmy she wanted to smack it. “Eve’s a big girl. She knows how to play the game.”

  “And I don’t.” She said what he hadn’t. He’d used her because he could. Because she was too stupidly ignorant to know better. She whipped around to face Jack and there it was again.

  She caught a glimpse of his smug victory before he could hide it. There was more to this, but what? If Spencer hadn’t gone along with this guy’s plans, then what was he so happy about? And if they’d expected her to fail in the first place, why bother sending her into Spencer’s life?

  A sick feeling had her gut twisting. What had she gotten herself into?

  But the worst part was, she was starting to think that however much trouble she’d gotten herself into, she’d done worse for Spencer. These two shady men were up to something and whatever it was, it involved him.

  She had to let him know. She might not know what was going on but he deserved to be warned that this was deeper than he thought. They didn’t want him to join any “team,” or at least, that wasn’t all they wanted from him.

  Scooting out of the booth with as much dignity as she could muster—and really, pub booths were not designed with anyone’s dignity in mind—she headed out of the bar, ignoring Jack’s pompous laughter in her wake.

  As she rode the subway back to Manhattan she tried not to think too hard about how he’d react at seeing her again. The way they’d left things, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he slammed the door in her face.

  But at least she’d see him….

  When she’d left his place the day before, she’d had the horrible, sickening idea that she might never see him again. She might not have known him for long, but the thought of him being out of her life for good had cut though her like a shiv.

  She couldn’t let that happen.

  That was the only thing she was sure of at the moment. Let him rant, let him curse her out. She could take it. But she couldn’t handle losing the only real friend she’d made since childhood. Friends were precious in her world, she couldn’t afford to lose one.

  Granted, the word “friend” didn’t quite seem to cut it. She’d never kissed a friend the way she’d kissed Spencer. And no friend had ever seen through her the way Spencer seemed to, for better or for worse.

  A pang of guilt shot through her as he called her out on her wimpy way of remaining willfully ignorant. His ability to see her clearly had definitely been for the worse. But there had been good moments, also. Too many of them to count and in such a short period of time.

  He’d honestly seemed to like her, just like she’d genuinely enjoyed his company. Oh heck, she didn’t just enjoy his company. Even now as she tensed up walking to his apartment, her belly went into a frenzy of nerves. And not just the bad kind. She was excited. And scared. And a million other emotions she couldn’t name.

  When she was around him the world came into focus. An electrical current buzzed through her everyday life when he was around. She never knew what he would say or do next, and that was half the fun.

  She slowed her pace as she reached his floor and headed toward his door. Although right now, not knowing how he’d react at seeing her wasn’t exactly fun. More like terrifying.

  Several knocks later, followed by an inelegant attempt to press her ear to the door to see if he was there and avoiding her, she had to face the fact that he wasn’t home.

  The sense of urgency that had made her scramble out of the bar and jump on the next train to Spencer’s neighborhood had only intensified. Like watching a suspenseful movie, she could feel the tension ratcheting up inside her. All that was missing was the foreboding Jaws music. At any moment Spencer could be the victim of whatever dastardly deed his father had set up and it was up to her to warn him. For a moment she tried to convince herself to go home, back to Lexy, and send him an email or shoot him a text.

  Her brain said “good plan” but the rest of her couldn’t get on board. She had to see him. She had to make sure he knew what was going on.

  And, okay, yeah…maybe there was some selfishness mixed in there too. It may have occurred to her that this was an excuse to see him once more. Maybe if she apologized again. Maybe if she begged for forgiveness…

  She couldn’t let herself go down that rabbit hole. One thing at a time. She had to find Spencer first.

  Where would he be on a Monday afternoon if he wasn’t at home?

  But it wasn’t just any Monday. It was Christmas Eve. She smacked a palm against her forehead. She’d been so caught up in her own misery these past twenty-four hours, she’d forgotten all about the holiday.

  But at least she knew where he’d be.

  Spencer was at a Christmas party. Willingly. He sipped his eggnog and watched Jenna and Hunter bicker over which ornament belonged at the top of the tree and marveled at how completely he’d lost his senses. That was the only explanation for his being there.

  Even weirder than him being at a holiday party was the fact that he was there without Andie. It was her family after all. Though she had Skyped in to wish everyone a Feliz Navidad from South America.

  She’d been shocked to see him sitting there, parked in a corner by the tree, scowling at the room at large as he tried to figure out why one earth people enjoyed these types of gatherings.

  “Oh my gosh,” Andie had squealed. “You convinced the Grinch to come!”

  “He didn’t have a choice,” Jenna said.

  That wasn’t entirely true. Sure, Hunter had threatened to retrieve him at gunpoint if he didn’t show up and Jenna had texted with a threat to come and get him in person. Both of which were frightening, but neither was the cause for him getting his butt into a cab and up to the Upper West Side.

  The real reason was back in her Brooklyn neighborhood, no doubt nursing her wounds from their confrontation the other day.

  He would not feel guilty for that. She’d been lying to him all along, for Christ’s sake. Not to mention, she’d crossed the line. She’d made him believe that she was interested in him.

  He threw the rest of the eggnog back and then coughed and sputtered as the rich, creamy beverage choked him.

  He needed something stronger than eggnog and he needed it now. He’d pay good money for something to numb what he’d been feeling ever since she walked out the door. He’d been up all night fixing things so Jack wouldn’t win and his clients would be safe, but now that he was finished with his work, he had nothing to distract him from thoughts of Holly and the hurt that had been in her eyes before she’d walked away.

  Was she still hurting today? Hopefully not. He might have been angry with her, but he didn’t want to think of her hurting. Or crying. But maybe she’d
moved on already. Maybe she was over it.

  Or maybe he was losing his mind and should stop thinking about what she may or may not be doing, already, and move on himself.

  Had she already figured out that her big payday wasn’t paying out? His hand clenched the empty glass as he thought of all the ways he wanted to make Jack suffer for using Holly the way he had. And for trying to use him, of course. That went without saying. But somehow that didn’t seem as bad as dragging Holly into this mess.

  He was so caught up in his thoughts about Holly he didn’t notice when one of the guests flopped down onto the couch beside him. “I hate parties.”

  He looked over to see Kate, Andie’s former neighbor, giving him a small, shy smile.

  They’d never met, but he recognized her from the tabloids. The daughter of a tech tycoon, she’d made world news when she started dating a prince. She looked pretty in a soft, girly sort of way. Her red hair was pulled up in a bun and she wore a pale green cocktail dress. “Where’s your prince?” he asked.

  Her brows shot up in surprise but then her smile grew broader. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

  He scowled and turned his attention back to the tree. “I don’t have one.”

  “That’s not what I hear.”

  He turned to see her sipping her drink, eyes wide with feigned innocence. Her gaze flickered to Hunter and back to him. Ah, of course. Hunter caught their conversation and held his hands up. “Hey, I just said you had a new girl friend.”

  Kate snickered beside him.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said again, feeling slightly juvenile at having to have this conversation. “She’s not even my friend.”

  “Uh oh,” Kate said softly. “What happened?”

  He glared at her but she looked unfazed. Andie had told him about her—painfully shy, she’d always run from the spotlight. Until she’d met her prince, apparently, and he’d helped her embrace the fact that prying eyes couldn’t hurt her.