For the Win

by Brenna Aubrey

  Instead of answering the intercom, Adam headed for the door, motioning for me to follow. Upon first hearing the man's name, my stomach had dropped. Not good. Not good at all.

  I trailed behind Adam by about three or four feet, feeling like a dog being dragged to the washbasin. Adam stopped when he came face to face with a man in his early fifties--medium height, fit build, salt and pepper hair, olive skin. He didn't look anything like April--or rather, she didn't look anything like him.

  Adam was enthusiastically pumping his hand. "Hey, David. So great to see you. Glad you could come out."

  "Well, thanks for inviting me--finally." He had an East Coast accent--Boston, I guessed.

  "I have to be careful letting the competition in here, you know. You signed that NDA, right?" Adam smirked.

  David Weiss laughed. "You were always a funny kid."

  Adam turned to me. "Let me introduce you to my right-hand man. This is Jordan Fawkes, our CFO. He's running the show on all of the IPO stuff."

  "Ah, you're the one who's been putting my little girl through her paces."

  My hand almost went limp inside his, and I could feel the sweat starting to form. Oh God, this was awkward. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Weiss. I've enjoyed your daughter--I mean, having her as an assistant. She's very good." Fuck. Goddamn it. Now was not a good time for a Freudian slip.

  He pulled his hand back with a nonchalant shrug. "Well, she's not going to be an assistant for the rest of her life, so it doesn't really matter if she's good at it."

  I laughed. "True enough. She's destined for greater things, for sure."

  David looked us both up and down. "So, you two are looking awfully formal for tech geeks." I was grateful for the change in subject. "Those boys at Facebook wear tshirts to work. And I don't believe I ever saw Adam wear a tie in the two years he worked for me."

  "We have a photo op later this afternoon," said Adam. "All the press stuff for the IPO."

  David's eyes gleamed shrewdly. "That wouldn't have anything to do with why I'm here, would it?"

  Adam looked at me for a minute before turning back to David. "It might." He checked his watch. "I know you've got things going on today, but do you have time for me to show you around?"

  "Sure. I'd like that. I'd also like to steal my daughter for lunch, if that's possible. I didn't tell her I was coming and I'd like to surprise her."

  As the two men talked, I tried to wrap my head around the ramifications of his presence here. I suspected Adam wanted to make him an interim chairman to organize a new board of directors, which was necessary once we were a publicly traded company. I cursed myself that I was just now seeing this, at the exact moment it was dropped in my lap like a load of bricks. Adam had had his own reasons for moving April into my office--reasons he hadn't cared to share with me.

  But I knew now this was all part of his master plan to bring David in to help with our IPO. I sent a heated glare at my best friend, resentment bubbling up. I was pissed that he'd withheld this information from me until now. It was so typical of him to behave this way.

  And yet, had I known from the beginning, would it have changed anything? I'd known April was off-limits before I'd had my way with her--half a dozen times or so.

  Even if I had been tentatively planning on pursuing a relationship with April after her internship, that would now be impossible. As an officer of the company, there was no end to the potential disasters that could occur if I dated--and subsequently broke up with--the board director's daughter. My gut tightened.

  But my brain was telling my gut to shut the fuck up. Bringing this guy on was good business. He had experience in the industry and was an executive at a competing company. This opened up possibilities for Adam--and possibly even me--to serve on his board, as quid pro quo was common in business. Beyond that, Adam trusted the man and he had apparently helped him out early on in his career. How could I go against all that?

  Putting David Weiss on our board would be a smart business move. I couldn't deny it.

  But...

  No, there were no buts. This thing between April and me had to be over. For good.

  Adam and David were discussing where to start the tour when movement at the periphery of my vision caught my attention. April stood at her desk beside Susan staring wide-eyed at Adam and her father. She looked at me and our gazes locked. I swallowed, shaking my head. The color drained from her already pale face. She really was the color of snow--or as close as she could get to it. I let out a breath and motioned for her to join us, but she shook her head stiffly.

  David must have seen my gesture because he turned to see who I was motioning to.

  "There she is!" he said, walking toward her. She walked around the desk, casting a self-conscious glance at the people around the atrium.

  "Dad. What are you doing here?"

  "Nice to see you too," he said, landing a peck on her cheek, which, judging from the flash of her blue eyes, she barely tolerated. "How was Canada?"

  "Good. I was very busy."

  Yeah, busy with me between her luscious, soft legs. I swallowed again, loosening my suddenly tight tie.

  Adam watched the two with a frown. When he turned to me, I sent him a pointed glance, hoping we could just get on with this hot mess and get it over with as soon as possible.

  "Let's start over in development, maybe?" I said when the uncomfortable father-daughter greeting didn't seem to getting any less awkward. "April, you can come along too. I'm sure your dad would like that."

  "I would, thank you." David smiled.

  April's eyes, hard and blue as glacial ice, told me a different story, however.

  Adam and I led the way while David deliberately hung behind to walk beside his daughter. "Rebekah was wondering why you hadn't answered her last email."

  "I told you. I've been busy with work."

  I stepped up the pace, feeling like an eavesdropper. Adam followed my lead, but they stayed right behind us. "She wants to know if you're coming down for Yom Kippur."

  "I'll, um, let you know. I have a lot of work coming up."

  Adam turned his head and said over his shoulder, "You can have that day off, April. It's no problem."

  Corporate policy. Of course she'd get that day off if she requested it. But I suspected she didn't want to request it. I peeked and saw April staring at Adam's back with a clenched jaw. "Okay, thanks."

  "I'll tell her you're coming, then?"

  "We'll see. So why are you here?"

  "Adam invited me. I think he's cooking up some kind of plan. He's always got secret plans. Like that time he ditched me to start his own company..."

  "Hey," Adam said with a smile. "I do recall you gave me your blessing."

  And I suspected that David must have bought in with a fat wad of cash, too, or he was about to. His company, Sony Online, it was rumored, was preparing to be spun off and sold, even as they worked on their "next big thing" that might give us a run for our money if it ever got off the ground. It was sad, because his company had been among the most innovative in the industry, at the forefront of massive multiplayer online role-playing games less than two decades ago.

  But time, and progress, stopped for no man--or company. I suspected that David knew the bright new future when he saw it and had probably been following Adam's progress very closely. There could be no other reason why a man would let someone as brilliant and talented as Adam leave to go start up a rival company with his blessing.

  Of course, I couldn't approach him about the rumors, and they were just that--rumors. But I read up on the industry every day. This community was not very big and we often exchanged employees. Basically, everybody was all up in everyone else's business.

  As if to illustrate that point, David made the quiet allusion, once we were in a private room outside of development, to the forbidden subject. "So, uh, forgive me for asking, but...what's all this about a sex video involving the company?"

  Adam's face betrayed nothing, but he did pale a bit. I swallowed an
d studiously avoided his daughter's gaze. She had frozen beside him.

  I spoke up. "A couple employees goofing around, nothing more--" And the minute they escaped my mouth, I wanted to grab those words and shove them back inside. Fuck. Fuck. Fucking fuck.

  "We only know that one employee was involved, actually," Adam corrected quietly, managing, to his credit, not to throw me one of his dark, correcting glares.

  "And this person has been fired, I hope?"

  Adam and I locked gazes nervously. "Their identity hasn't yet been discovered," Adam said.

  April fidgeted at her father's side but kept her eyes down, saying nothing.

  David looked skeptical. "You've got the situation under control, though, right? I've been through this process before and those bankers are a skittish bunch. They'll bolt at their own shadows."

  "I have the bankers rounded up and on our side. We've done damage control, and the situation has pretty much blown over," I said.

  David seemed to accept that and we concluded our tour without any further mention of it, thank goodness. April seemed to want to avoid her father's invitation for lunch, but, not having much choice, grabbed her purse and, with rounded shoulders, followed him out.

  As soon as she was out of my sight, I went back to my office, pulled out my phone and sent her a text message.

  Can we talk after work tonight?

  An hour later, while I was standing in Adam's office waiting for the photographers to set up their backdrop for the cover shoot, my phone chimed.

  Yes.

  I heard some weird chatter about the cover story being labeled, "Tech World's Most Eligible Bachelor Millionaires." But Adam set them straight and said he wanted none of that--most especially because he wasn't eligible anymore.

  I could only imagine Mia's face when she saw an article like that. I hoped to God he wouldn't throw me under the bus to get himself off the hook.

  But that was the least of my worries.

  I met April outside by her car in the parking lot at five-thirty. She looked tired and pale but not unhappy, and something lit up inside me when I saw her again. I stopped in front of her.

  "So, um, we should talk. Want to grab a bite to eat or something?"

  She rolled her eyes but smiled. "That sounds suspiciously like a date, Mr. Fawkes."

  "No, nuh-uh. If you keep calling me Mr. Fawkes, then it's a business dinner, Ms. Weiss. And I think that after this morning, you can't deny we have a lot of business to discuss."

  She nodded. "Do you mind if I drop my car at home before we go eat? It's okay if I ride in the back seat of your car. That's still businesslike and me knowing my place."

  I blew out a breath. "Knock it off, Weiss. I'll follow you home."

  She lived less than four miles from the complex in an upscale condo in Irvine. After she parked her car and got out, I rolled down my window when she indicated she wanted to say something.

  "I need to run up to my place for a minute. Want to come? Strictly businesslike, of course." She smirked.

  "Whatever. But this better not take long. I'm hungry because I skipped lunch. My intern ditched me to go eat with her daddy."

  "Park over there in visitors' parking," she pointed with her middle finger. I laughed and followed her directions.

  She waited for me on the curb, her arms folded across her chest, looking down, deep in thought. Inside her head again.

  "What's up?"

  She shrugged, avoiding my eyes. "Just thinkin'."

  "Yeah, I've been doing a lot of that today, too."

  She flicked a worried gaze at me. "I suppose this talk we're having has to do with my dad showing up out of the blue?"

  "Let's save it for dinner."

  She rolled her eyes. "Always good to have a new excuse for indigestion."

  She turned to climb up the steps to the second floor. I followed her up. "I'm just going to change really quick and get out of these pantyhose. I promise I won't be more than five minutes."

  I leaned against the wall next to the door as she fumbled with the key in the lock. With all the distractions today, I hadn't even had a chance to get a close look at her. She looked as gorgeous as ever, that glossy dark hair, those blue eyes, that elegant, upturned little nose, that graceful white neck.

  I enjoyed your daughter. I grimaced with the memory of almost blowing it with her dad while amending that dirty little statement in my head. I enjoyed her on the living room floor, on the dining table, up against a car and several times in a hotel room bed.

  She opened the door, stepped inside and I followed close behind. Then I crashed right into her as she halted in her steps and gasped.

  Chapter 23

  April

  I stood frozen in shock and then suddenly found myself propelled forward by the force of a six-foot, two-hundred-pound man colliding into me from behind. Strong hands steadied me while a soft voice murmured an apology I barely heard. Because sitting on my living room couch were my mother and her new husband--the asshole formerly known as my ex.

  What the hell was this, invasion of the obnoxious parents day? No, that wasn't fair to my dad. He wasn't malicious in his neglect. My mother, on the other hand? Pure evil she-demon from hell. My face immediately flamed and I stiffened.

  "What's wrong?" I heard Jordan ask quietly behind me.

  "Hey, April-Flower!" My mother popped off the sofa, her arms in the air, her pert body posing like a dancer performing a routine. Even in her mid-forties, my mother was still a beautiful woman. And she knew it. She also used it to her advantage with every breath that she took. I swallowed bile in the back of my throat and tossed my purse and keys on the counter.

  "What are you doing here?" I said without preamble, vaguely aware that I'd greeted my dad this morning with those exact same words.

  Mom approached me, but her eyes were on the man standing behind me. Typical. She flashed Jordan a wide smile, then continued to speak to me in her fake, sing-songy voice. "I wanted to see my daughter. Isn't that enough?"

  She swished her long blond hair over her shoulder flirtatiously. The bile threatened to come up again.

  "Excuse me," I muttered and turned to walk through the kitchen into the hallway. Sid was standing in our bedroom, chewing on her thumbnail and staring at her phone.

  "You couldn't have texted me that they were here?" I asked between clenched teeth.

  She jumped and looked up at me. "I just texted you like ten minutes ago. And again just now. They showed up and I had no idea what to do!"

  I took a breath and then released it. The text must have come through while I was driving and I hadn't heard the update. "I don't suppose you want to tell her to go fuck off for me?"

  Her brows shot up, and I gestured to cut her off before she reminded me that she didn't use those potty words.

  I heard voices behind me. Jordan and my mom were talking. Ugh. I spun and headed back to the living room. Mom was chatting up Jordan. Oh, hell no.

  "So you and April work together?"

  Jordan, for what it's worth, was more interested in the jackass sitting on the couch than in my mom's batting eyelashes.

  "Mom, leave him alone."

  She turned back to me, the smile sliding off her face. "You make it sound like I'm attacking him or something."

  I bit my lip. Well, it was her typical mode of attack. I mentally counted to five, then took in a deep, cleansing breath. None of that was working.

  "I'm just getting to know Jordan, here, a little better," she continued when I didn't say anything. "I didn't realize you were seeing someone. And since you've been avoiding me, I don't know anything about what's going on in your life."

  I looked at Jordan in time to see him frown at that statement.

  "You used to disappear for months at a time," I reminded her. "And if I recall correctly, before your latest wedding, I don't think I'd heard from you for six months. Why are you suddenly so interested in my life?"

  My mother glanced over to the couch and exchanged a long l
ook with Gunnar. Then she squared her shoulders and walked over to me. "I'm sorry your feelings are still so hurt. I can't choose who I fall in love with."

  Great non-apology. So typical. I blinked away the stinging sensation behind my eyes. Her insensitivity to this entire awkward situation got me every time. And really, that was my own fault. I was always hoping, maybe even expecting that she'd become a better person.

  But she was the same one who, when I was fourteen, didn't pick me up from a friend's birthday party, leaving me stranded for hours at a restaurant after everyone had left. Her Hollywood director third husband had forced her to change her plans and she'd never bothered to notify me. My poor stepmom ended up driving hours out of her way to get me. Rebekah hadn't gotten there until after midnight, at which point I'd been sitting alone in the dark for hours.

  I'd gotten one of my mom's shruggy non-apologies then, too.

  "If you're stopping by just to say hello"--which I highly doubted--"I have to get going. I have some important business to take care of right now."

  My mom frowned and then reached up and wiped at something on my face before I batted her hand away. "Have you been getting enough sleep? You look tired and your makeup is all worn off. And that mascara--I taught you better than that." She added another cutesy laugh at the end of her statement and threw another assessing look at Jordan.

  "I don't need a makeup tutorial, thankyouverymuch."

  "Of course you don't, sweetie." She smiled and alarm bells went off. She wanted something. She never, ever called me sweetie or any other term of endearment. "I, uh, actually wanted to ask you something." I knew it.

  She stepped toward me and put her hand in my face again. I caught the distinct smell of alcohol on her breath. "Jeez, April, this gloppy mascara is annoying the hell out of me."

  This time, she poked me in the eye with her thumb.

  I jerked back. "Ow, shit! Mother, get your finger out of my face and tell me what the fuck you want."

  She did this stupid exaggerated thing where her mouth dropped in horror but she still used her cutesy, fake voice--for Jordan's benefit, I presumed. "Since when do you talk to me like that?"

  I rubbed at my injured eyeball. With my other eye, I noticed that Jordan was beginning to look pissed. I turned back to my mom. "Have you been drinking?"