by North,Leslie
“I’ve said some terrible things about you in the past, but at least you’re a straight shooter. You say what you mean, and you’re not afraid to admit when you’re wrong.” Daisy shot Gabe an angry look. “You don’t send out mixed messages. Now if you’ll excuse me, I see someone I’d like to meet.”
Gabe opened his mouth to stop her, but she was already walking away. Duncan whistled low under his breath. “Wow. And what exactly did you do to piss her off?”
“According to Angie, I’m treating her like trash all dressed up,” Gabe grumbled. “This company has a reputation to protect, and while Daisy hasn’t broken our contract, her history and the fact that she has teamed up with Restore Eden gives me pause. I invited her to this function on a whim and I have a feeling that I’m going to regret it.”
“Gabe, I’m concerned about you,” Duncan said quietly.
“Oh, now you want to be concerned about me?” Gabe snapped. “What about the other thirty years of my life?” Without waiting for Duncan’s response, he stormed off in Daisy’s direction. After a few minutes of searching, he was pulled aside by someone else.
“Gabe Maxfield. Always a pleasure seeing you.”
Gabe turned and immediately his anger intensified. Jacob Preston was swirling his glass of gin with a cool smiled plastered across his face. Preston had been part of the legal department at Duncan Enterprises up until a couple of years ago when Gabe had to fire him. Information about the company was being leaked to the press, and Gabe had tracked its source for months until it landed him at Preston’s desk. The man had always held a grudge against him for that.
“Preston,” Gabe said neutrally. He didn’t even bother to pretend to be friendly.
“I haven’t seen you since your father named Angela Lopez CEO of the company. I’m sure you had a say in the matter. Duncan Maxfield wouldn’t pass you over and force you to work under a woman unless it was your choice.”
Gabe clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. Preston clearly wanted to goad Gabe into a making a spectacle of himself, and Gabe was not going to rise to the bait. “Angela Lopez is an excellent choice for the company, as I’m sure your company has seen by our soaring profits. It’s been my pleasure to work with her for a number of years, and we’re lucky to have her,” he said simply.
But Preston wasn’t finished. “I was curious about the beautiful woman that you walked in with, so I asked around. Daisy Levine. I wouldn’t mind working under her, that’s for sure. Does this mean that Duncan Enterprises is in bed with Restore Eden? That would certainly be a turn.”
Balling his fist, Gabe nearly took a swing at Preston. The thought of him ‘under Daisy’ was enough to make his blood boil, but before he could follow through, a shout of anger got both of their attention.
“I will not have you sully my reputation like this!”
As Gabe and Preston turned, Senator Massey was turning so red in the face that he was almost purple. The woman that he was yelling at was none other than Daisy Levine.
“Shit,” Gabe said softly.
Preston chuckled. “You’re losing your woman to a man twice your age. You must be losing your touch. Didn’t you sleep with Senator Massey’s daughter?”
Gabe ignored him as he moved frantically through the crowd to reach them. Daisy had lowered her voice but was still challenging the senator. “I’m not sullying your reputation. It’s well known that you turned a blind eye to the removal of toxic waste. There are regions of Nevada where the water is practically poisoned because if that!”
“Senator Massey,” Gabe said smoothly, as he grabbed Daisy’s arm. “I think your daughter was looking for you.”
The older man eyed Gabe and Daisy. “Get your bitch under control,” he growled before turning and leaving.
“Bitch?” Daisy gasped. “I’m no bitch, and I’m certainly not your bitch. Get your hands off me,” she hissed.
“What on earth were you thinking? You were verbally assaulting a senator in the middle of a charity event. That is not why I brought you here.”
Daisy rubbed her wrist, and Gabe almost felt guilty when he saw the red marks. “I was talking to your father about it, and he suggested that I bring the matter up with the senator. I kept things polite until he become rude and obscene. You’re lucky I didn’t slap the fat bastard.”
He shook his head angrily. “We’re leaving.”
“What? We haven’t even been here an hour.”
“Exactly. We haven’t even been here an hour, and you’ve already caused a scene. I should have known that you’d pull something like this. Put you in a pretty dress and you’re still…” Gabe bit his tongue in an effort not to finish the sentence. Daisy’s eyes widened, and he could see the hurt in them. He’d gone too far, and they both knew it.
Without a word, she turned and headed for the exit. Gabe watched helplessly as her shoulders slumped. What the hell was wrong with him? Why had he lashed out at her like that? She hadn’t said anything to Massey that wasn’t either known to be true or at least widely suspected.
“She’s fiery. She reminds me of your mother when we first met.” Duncan said as he materialized to Gabe’s left. “I like her.”
“You would,” Gabe muttered. “A few years ago, you would have tossed her out on her ass for pulling a stunt like this. You know you only sent her after Massey because you hate the man.”
“It should give you pause that you’re acting like I would have done a few years ago. You’ve always thought that Stephen took after me. I guess you haven’t looked in the mirror recently. Be careful, Gabe. Don’t get so twisted up in the reputation of this company that you fail to see what’s right in front of you.”
“Stop!” Gabe snapped. “That is Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. She’s only here because she’s still in love with him. You heard her gushing over him. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole. And the sooner I can get the two of them together, the sooner I can clean up this mess.”
His father chuckled. “You think she’s in love with Nathan? I never took you for an idiot, boy.” Duncan shook his head and moved away, melting into the crowd. Gabe turned abruptly and left. He was consumed with an odd mix of anger and guilt, and it was all because of Daisy.
It was getting harder and harder to pretend that he was doing this because Angie had ordered him to. He followed Daisy out and found her waiting for the valet to pull up with the car. She shivered, and he put his coat around her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
She stared straight ahead and didn’t say a word to him.
12
As soon as Gabe pulled up at her apartment, Daisy reached for the door handle. Immediately, he reached over and grabbed her arm. “Daisy, please wait,” he pleaded.
“What?” she snapped angrily, shaking him off.
He took a deep breath. “I need to walk you to your door. I don’t want you to storm off in anger.”
“Really?” she said “Fine. Whatever.” She stalked towards the building, and he followed her past the busted security lights and into her building. They made their way up the staircase in silence until they finally reached her door. Without even thinking, he reached out and touched the small of her back. “Daisy,” he said helplessly. He had no idea what to say to fix things between them.
She tensed under his touch. “Look, we both know this evening was a disaster. It was obvious that you were concerned about how our partnership could jeopardize the reputation of Duncan Enterprises. You thought that if you covered me with money and glitter, you’d be able to put a positive spin on this whole thing. I know what we’re doing is convoluted at best. I work for an organization that is renowned for its radical actions. I dated your brother. Duncan Enterprises isn’t known for compromise. Maybe if you had told me that upfront, this whole stupid charade would have gone down a little better. Instead, you pretended as if you did all this for my benefit. I thought tonight was about making connections, and when I tried to do that, you threw a fit.” She turned and stared at him.
“What did you expect me to do tonight? Hang on to your arm and simper like an idiot? That’s not the kind of woman I am.”
Gabe studied her. She wasn’t completely wrong, but there was an aspect about tonight that he hadn’t mentioned. The truth was that he had been looking forward to tonight because he wanted to show her off. She was beautiful, and he wanted to spend a pleasant evening with her discussing something other than business. But he just hadn’t been able to come out and tell her that until now.
“You’re right,” he said finally. “I should have been upfront with you. But if I even push a little, you push back twice as hard. I was concerned that if I came out and stated that this was about the company’s reputation, you would have taken great pleasure in shredding it into a million pieces. Your reputation…”
“Stop!” Daisy said and held up her hand. “You’re basing everything that you know about my life on whatever you remember hearing from Nathan. I can’t even begin to tell you how unfair that is. Everything I said back then about Duncan Enterprises when I was with Nathan was because of Nathan. You, Stephen and your father treated him like nothing. He felt so ignored by everyone. I thought if he took a personal stand against the company and tried to show you guys how passionate he was about what he believed in, you would finally listen to him. And I’d have back the man that I fell in love with.”
As those final words hit home, Gabe stiffened. “The man you fell in love with?” he said softly.
“Nathan was brilliant early on in our relationship. We had the same beliefs and were passionate about the same causes, but even after I fell in love with him; it became clear that the cause was the only thing our relationship was built on. When he started to lose belief in the cause, our relationship slipped. I knew I was losing him, and I thought that pressuring him to take a stand against his father’s company was the only way to save us. I’d like to say that Duncan Enterprises was why I lost him to begin with, but we were over long before that. Nathan is a nice guy who doesn’t want to hurt anyone,” she said bitterly. “But the point is, my drastic actions over Duncan Enterprises then had nothing to do with the company. Our partnership right now has nothing to do with Nathan. Restore Eden has a global contact network, and I want nothing more than to tap into that and make a difference. And if I can do that while changing Restore Eden’s reputation of being aggressive and radical, then I’ll have it made. Duncan Enterprises is my way of doing that, but I can’t do it unless you trust me.”
Gabe inhaled slowly. He could hear the pain in her voice, and he didn’t know whether he had caused it or if talking about Nathan still hurt her. Slowly, he met her gaze, and in that moment, the world stilled. She looked so vulnerable and so hopeful, and for one crazy moment, he thought he saw a spark of desire in her eyes. In a moment of insanity, he leaned closer towards her as his hand fell to her hip. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to slip his tongue inside and taste her. He wanted to make her moan until all thoughts of the party tonight were banished from her head.
Her lips parted as though she knew what he was thinking, and he stilled. What was wrong with him? This was Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. Immediately he jerked his hand back off her and leaned back. He looked away from her gaze. “I apologize for embarrassing you this evening. I’ll try to do better in the future,” he said as he cleared his throat.
Daisy’s eyes widened in surprise. After a second, she muttered, “Right,” and she turned and slid the key into the lock. “I’ll see you later, Gabe. I’ll make sure the dress gets returned to you.”
“Keep it,” he said hoarsely. “It looks good on you.”
She opened her mouth, and for a moment, he thought she would protest. Instead, she shrugged and opened the door. “Goodnight, Gabe.”
“Goodnight, Daisy.” When the door shut, he leaned softly against it. Confusing thoughts swirled around him. How had things gotten so out of hand in only a few days? He was a master of control, yet right now, it seemed like he had no control at all. Part of him wanted to bust down the door and sweep her off her feet, and part of him wanted to walk away and hand her over to someone else.
His head was a complete mess, and he had no idea how to fix any of this.
Walking slowly down the stairs and out of the building, his thoughts were so preoccupied with Daisy that he didn’t even see the men until it was too late. Pain exploded through him as someone landed a solid punch to his stomach. As his breath left him, he crumpled over, but he saw the next one coming. Pushing away the pain, he blocked the blow and swung his fist up. It connected with something solid, and someone moaned in pain. But it wasn’t enough. There were three of them. No, make that four. And Gabe couldn’t block all of their blows. And when something solid connected to his back, he fell to the ground and groaned. As he turned his head and looked up, he saw hooded men standing over him. One was swinging a baseball bat.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” one growled. “We are everywhere, and we will never stop until you people start listening to us. Next time, we’ll leave you with more than a few bruises.”
They took off, and Gabe gritted his teeth as he pushed himself off the sidewalk to stand unsteadily on his feet. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone, only to discover it had been busted in the attack.
This attack was the work of Restore Eden. It had to be. Nothing else made any sense; no one else had any reason to do this to him. And either Daisy was completely wrong about her group, or…
…she was behind this whole thing.
13
Daisy peeled off her first ever evening gown and stood in front of the mirror. The woman staring back at her was beautiful, but she was a stranger. Curls and glitter. That wasn’t her. Never in her life had she felt the need to change who she was or what she believed to impress someone, but at the beginning of this evening, she’d hoped more than anything that Gabe would actually see her.
Oh, he had looked at her all right. And he’d seen something that he didn’t like.
“Hells bells,” she muttered as she grabbed the washcloth and began to scrub off her make-up. When her fresh shiny face stared back at her, she combed her fingers through the carefully arranged curls and ripped out the pins. When she’d put her hair in the familiar braid, and slipped into her pajamas, she finally felt like she could breathe a sigh of relief. The beautiful dress was crumpled on the floor. Contemplating leaving it there, she found she couldn’t do it and picked it up. Holding it to her, she placed it back on the hanger and hung it up. Gabe wanted someone who wore dresses like this. He wanted someone who oozed glamour and flirted politely with bureaucrats, and didn’t berate them for being hypocritical.
But for one moment at her door, she could have sworn that he was going to kiss her. She’d been ready for it. She’d been ready for him. Oh, how she had been ready!
Her heart pounded now thinking about it. The more she thought about his hands on her, and the more she thought about the look in his eyes, the more aroused she became. She wasn’t just attracted to Gabe Maxfield. Every cell in her body craved him.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” she muttered. She’d never felt this way with Nathan. She’d never felt this way about anyone.
The sound of her phone ringing startled her. Hoping that it was Gabe, she scrambled towards it. It wasn’t. The caller ID showed her what was probably the last name she wanted to see right now. “What do you want, Jordan?” she demanded.
“Your picture is all over the Internet. Tell me Daisy, are you looking to bring Duncan Enterprises down, or are you looking to jump into bed with those bastards?” Jordan snarled in disgust.
“Can it, Jordan. It was a political event, which afforded me the opportunity to make some contacts. And I thought you’d be proud of the fact that Gabe got me kicked me out after I confronted Senator Massey. Apparently, I didn’t handle the situation very well.”
“You almost sound disappointed. Afraid your precious Gabe is going to find you out?”
“Find what out? What the he
ll are you talking about?”
“You’re supposed to be using him to get to the heart of the company. Find the evidence we can take to the media,” Jordan snapped. “Or have you conveniently forgotten the plan?”
Horrified, Daisy tugged at her braid. “What are you talking about? That was not the plan. We’re working with Duncan Enterprises to make changes we can all agree with. There was never any talk about using anyone.”
“You are so naive, Daisy. Step up your game, or we’ll step it up for you.” The line went dead, and Daisy gasped. Never had she heard Jordan sound so angry. Immediately, she Googled ‘Gabe Maxfield’. The first picture to pop up was the one where she and Gabe were walking into the function together. Christ, she was looking at him like a starry-eyed, lovesick co-ed. No wonder Jordan had hit the roof. While Daisy had always denied that Jordan had any feelings for her, she was beginning to suspect that he’d like to take things further if she gave him the least little bit of encouragement.
He was reacting out of jealousy. He would never actually go through with the threats. He knew what they had agreed.
The phone rang again, and Daisy nearly dropped it. She exhaled a relieved breath when she saw that it was Angie. She probably wanted to apologize for Gabe’s actions tonight. “Hi Angie,” Daisy said as she tried to sound cheerful.
“I need you at Gabe’s apartment. Now,” Angie said tensely.
Gabe’s apartment? “Why?” Daisy asked warily.
“Someone attacked him. And he’s saying it’s your group that did it.” Daisy’s heart sank as the phone went dead.
What did Jordan do?
She grabbed some mismatching sneakers, her keys and rushed for the door.
Her beat-up and rusted car looked completely out of place amongst the streamlined expensive cars in Gabe’s parking lot. A few people heading to their cars gave her concerned looks, but she ignored them. As always, she had to slam her car door as hard as possible before she could lock it.
