by Lexy Timms
Fuck him.
She stepped in close, right in his face. “I want some answers,” she hissed, just loud enough for only him to hear. “And I want them now!”
Chapter Five
She was a live wire, all right. Hot-headed, fearsome, exactly what he’d pictured a goddess would be. The kind that flung lightning bolts and caused wars. She was about to blow everything, too. Luke scanned the room, looking for some other option that didn’t involve pulling the fire alarm. Like they’d believe that after a false shooter.
Besides, he needed this night to play out.
There was no hope. He took a deep breath and stepped between the two battling dinosaurs. By this point David had come up and now stood between them, hands up in a placating gesture. Guests were beginning to watch, conversations in the near vicinity dropping as people quieted, the better to listen to the argument as the voices of the combatants rose.
The things I do… Luke sighed. “I believe the lady promised me a dance.” He stepped right into the middle, ignoring the father, paying attention only to the daughter. Stepping in there bold as brass required a certain amount of bravado. Offering his hand to Dani might have put a slight shake in his right knee as he stepped toward her, but Luke liked a good adrenaline rush on occasion. His smile only wavered a little.
“Is this the loser?” her father snapped, and pointed a thumb at Luke.
Well, he’d wanted to get noticed by the big boss. Being sneered at, though, seemed somewhat counter-productive to his goals. Luke’s smile was fast becoming a baring of teeth as his eyes met Dani’s.
She blinked a few times as she looked at him, her head cocked to one side as though trying to puzzle out just what he was doing there. “What…”
Dani confused and off-balance was cute as hell.
And if he didn’t act fast he was never going to defuse this mess.
Luke caught at her hand when it seemed she wasn’t going to meet him halfway, and dragged her to the dancefloor while she was still confused.
At least that was the plan. He’d barely gotten her a single step before she caught herself and froze in place. He hadn’t expected a girl her size to be quite so immovable, and the loss of forward momentum almost tripped him up.
“UNHAND ME!”
For a whisper it was impressive. Luke could feel shards of ice in that statement. Figuring she wouldn’t be able to hurt him as badly in a clinch he put one foot between hers, placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her in close, stepping her straight onto the dancefloor just as the music changed to something vaguely reminiscent of a tango. Or it would have been if it hadn’t been crossed with Metallica.
“Shut the hell up and smile if you give a damn about your brother,” he hissed, eyes on her father, who was watching them from the sidelines with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Who the hell are you? Did you put that note on his back? I will kill…”
“Shut up and dance—you’re attracting attention you don’t want.”
Of course, she stopped to look. Luke stumbled into her, muttering a curse under his breath as he swept her into his arms. He threw her into a spin that she somehow managed with the grace of a jungle cat, coming back into his arms with a jolt designed to throw him off balance. Her fingers dug into his back and shoulder.
He drew himself up, unyielding. In control.
Eyes flashing, she moved into the dance with barely-concealed anger. She let him lead, but made sure he held no delusions that this particular battle was on his turf. It was her choice that he led. It was like dancing with a leopard. If he let go, he’d get clawed, but get in too close and she’d likely rip out his throat.
Damn, she was hot.
“Listen,” he said, the smile still plastered on his face, “I don’t know who put that there or how. And if you’d only stop and think a minute, you’d recall I’ve an air-tight alibi. You. I may be just a dumb desk-jockey analyst, but I can tell you that screaming at the top of your lungs at the host is not a good way to stay under the radar.”
“And what makes you think I want to stay under radar?” she hissed, relaxing marginally, feet moving through a series of steps that had several years of dance school written all over them.
Two could play at that game. He followed with a few steps of his own, spinning her out and back into his arms again.
If their conversation wasn’t so intense, this might’ve actually been fun.
He pulled her back in close, speaking directly into her ear. “Because right now, the entire security team is tearing the place down trying to catch someone they already missed. Because if it’s broadcast, this party ends in panic with people running, and when that happens Daddy doesn’t make his announcement, whatever that is. Has it occurred to you that, whatever he’s going to say, someone doesn’t want it heard?”
She stared up at him for a moment. He took advantage of her distraction to lead her across the dancefloor in a series of moves that, while not as fluid as hers, had a degree of professionalism that came not from years of dance school, but summers spent out on Long Island with a grandmother who’d loved to dance and had been intent on showing off her grandson at the country club.
Only, Dani was having none of it.
From the look she gave him, her patience was gone. As the tempo of the music changed and became more brittle and chaotic, their interaction became more battle than dance. Dani placed a long leg between his, her knee in his crotch, flirting and also a clear warning. He wrapped an arm around her waist and she ran her sharp fingernail down his shirt under the jacket. The material snagged and caught. Somehow her fingernails found flesh. There were going to be raised welts later.
He increased the grip on her hand, squeezing until she fought to be free, and released his side. His feet found the rhythm and she tried to break it, but finally allowed him the lead. Her expression was one of anger, rage and, oddly, amusement. He was an interesting annoyance, an irritant, but she couldn’t shake him.
He let go with his left hand and brought her to a half-spin into his right arm. She caught herself on his shoulder. It was a beautiful move, elegant and sensual, and nearly tore his shoulder out of its socket. He backed up, over-balancing her, and she nearly fell but for his left arm holding her upright. He might have bruised a rib catching her, but she simply grunted and looked at him. A small smile parted her lips; it was the look of a lioness discovering the mouse wanted to play.
The music changed again to something else entirely. Deepening. As if the DJ had noticed them on the floor and decided to bring heat and a little darkness to the sound. Maybe he just happened to choose a sensuous, growling tempo. Luke didn’t know or even care. The rest of the world ceased to exist but for the pounding beat. The look in her eyes as she responded to the new music and turned sideways to him, rubbing the length of her side against his body. Her foot rose slowly, almost erotically, and the spike heel ran up the inside of his leg. It caught the fabric of his suit pants and pointed momentarily at his knee.
He spun her again and she caught herself in the spin by grabbing under his jacket and digging into his back.
He had a momentary glimpse of a crowd of blurred faces. People no longer dancing. It was just him and her on the dancefloor, staring as though unsure whether they were watching a tango or something that might require a call to 9-1-1.
“For shit’s sake, smile,” he growled at her, twisting his lips into a mimicry of a grin that he strained to keep innocuous.
She parted her lips. For most women, it would have been a smile. Even if it didn’t meet her eyes, and it certainly didn’t, it would still look like a smile. On Dani it was a baring of teeth, a snarl from a she-wolf without the saliva running down the sharp white daggers of her canines. He wasn’t sure, but she might have growled.
“That’s better. Now you look like you’re having a good time,” he whispered, voice dripping sarcasm.
“Just imagining what you look like doubled over and clutching your
balls in pain.” She smiled brighter, slipped her hand around the back of his neck, and pressed on the carotid artery.
He started to gray out and twisted free from her. “Stop that!”
“Ok.” She loosened her grip. “I only wanted to give you a killer headache anyway.” She spun out and back again, maybe a little less ferociously this time around. “What’s it to you what happens? Why do you care about any of this?”
“Because…” He stretched his neck and squinted. Yeah, the headache was forming and it was going to be glorious. “Because if your father merges with IntraCor, everyone’s stock goes through the roof. If he doesn’t make the announcement, the stocks are going to fall.”
She stopped and stared at him. “So you’re doing all this for a portfolio?”
It sounded weak even to him. Luke sighed, and nudged her into motion again, guiding her backwards and to the left in a smooth motion that gave up on combat and concentrated heavier on the tango. “Yeah, that and the fact that I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I’m not that easy to hurt.” Her smile grew wider, more predatory.
“Sure you are,” Luke snapped back at her, growing tired of her games. “You’ve already publicly declared your weak spot.”
Her head snapped back as if she’d been slapped. “Oh? And what might that be?”
“Your brother,” he said curtly. His head was beginning to pound to the beat of some godforsaken screech disguised as music. He wasn’t going to be able to take much more. Thankfully he’d guessed right, and those two magic words shut her up and put an end that vicious smile.
She even danced, well, like a well-behaved socialite for a change, her spine losing the rod that had been jammed up her—
“Why do you care about me getting hurt?” she asked after a moment. She sounded… young, childlike.
“Because you kiss better than anyone I’ve ever been lip-locked with.”
The music squealed to a stop. “LADIES AND GENTELMEN!”
Dani’s father stood with the microphone in his hand next to the DJ. The spotlight wavered, searching for him, finally coming to rest a little to the left, as everyone clapped their hands over their ears trying to muffle the squeal of heavy feedback that left the DJ scrambling and red-faced.
Luke bent over, the sound muffling his cry—not that it mattered. It was timed beautifully, and the humph he couldn’t control was drowned out by the old man clearing his throat to begin his ever-so-important announcement.
“Yeah,” Dani said as she turned away from Luke, who was still bent over and holding his balls. “That’s what I thought it would look like.”
Chapter Six
It did look kind of cute, Luke trying to not hold his balls too noticeably. He did manage to straighten up after a bit of time, she had to give him credit for that. Dani stood off to the side, pretending she was paying rapt attention to her father as he fumbled with the microphone, but she was scanning the crowd, marking every member of her father’s security team. They were easy enough to spot, standing out like rejects from a mafia version of “A Chorus Line.” The thought of them bursting into song and choregraphed dances lightened her mood considerably.
Not that it stopped her from watching. Someone sure as hell had to.
Something around here doesn’t feel right. Duh, the lockdown, the Post-It note on my brother’s back. What part of tonight actually feels right?
Except, no one was acting suspiciously. Well, unless you counted the strange guy holding his balls and trying to walk like it didn’t hurt as he came to stand next to her.
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded out of the corner of her mouth as the crowd quieted.
“I already told you,” he snarled under his breath, nowhere near as cute as he’d been earlier.
Okay, maybe he was still cute. But he’d gone more Grizzly than Teddy Bear in the last few minutes.
Not that she could blame him.
“You lied,” she snapped, not about to let momentary shards of guilt settle.
“Can you hear me? Testing? Is this thing working now?” her father spoke into the mic; the resulting feedback silenced and deafened the room in a display even more impressive than his first attempts to speak.
Dani winced, and focused on making a list. She could account for almost all the guests. The service had presumably been supplied by the hotel, so there was a big chance that whoever pinned the note to David’s back was pretending to be a server.
But the one constant unknown in all of this was Luke. He shows up and suddenly there are shooters and threats and dances and kisses. She cleared her throat to get that last thought out of her head. That really was the clincher, though. He had an air-tight alibi—her. He couldn’t have planted the note, since he’d been with her the entire time.
Not that he couldn’t have someone else helping.
Why did that thought leave a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach?
“I just wanted to say…” her father said, still playing the happy host, though by now every person in the place had to be seeing the cracks in the persona. “I’m glad that my son, David, is back again from college, this time… FOR GOOD!” He led a spontaneous round of applause. “And, despite the deplorable friends he has, who called in the fake alarm we all had to go through just now…” He smiled here and paused, the ever-tolerant father who loved his son despite the boy’s nature, allowing people to digest his words.
It was artful. And perfect.
Dani watched as people around her nodded thoughtfully. The entire thing was a prank. Called in by college kids seeing an old buddy off in style. It was something perfectly simple they could accept and understand. They clung to it, because anything else was too uncomfortable to tolerate.
However, this was no joke. Someone had tried to kill David, her baby brother.
And there was Daddy Dearest, smiling and nodding, and to all appearances writing the whole thing off. Why should she be surprised? Her father’s solutions always involved pretending things never happened.
Typical.
In the meantime, her father was back to waxing poetic. “David…” He was positively beaming, and held out a benevolent hand. “Come up here, boy!”
If her father was playing genial host, David was playing at being the quintessential rube. He went and stood beside his bellicose father, the quiet voice of reason. Like nothing had happened.
Dani’s nerves ratcheted up a notch. David standing on a stage in front of everyone. He was completely exposed, completely unaware of the threats around him.
She scanned the crowd again. The security detail hadn’t moved. They weren’t guarding the stage. She moved closer, trying to be the perfectly proud older sister. Nothing to see here, just a helpless little girl wishing her brother well.
Luke was moving, too. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him scanning the crowd, albeit more discreetly than the bully-boys were. He stopped at the edge of the platform and pretended to pay attention to the events unfolding, but Dani watched his eyes. Bright, blue, piercing eyes that flickered from one person to the next.
Analyst, my ass.
David smiled and waved to a rousing round of applause. He beamed like the little boy Dani remembered, and her heart swelled. That look of sheer adoration he gave her when she returned from school or, other times she was away, was still in there somewhere.
“I’m taking this time,” her father said, taking the microphone back, “to announce that it’s my intention to retire from Markland Enterprises.”
The gasps and murmurs from the audience were genuine. No one was expecting this. Conversation buzzed.
Dani’s mouth went dry. What the hell’s he up to?
“I’m stepping down…” Her father was enjoying himself. His voice positively boomed over the sounds of surprise. “…in favor of my son, David!” He grabbed her brother’s hand and lifted it like a prize fighter after a victorious match.
Dani’s heart seized. Markland Enterprises was nothing more
than a front and everyone knew it. The real business had destroyed her mother, torn their family apart, and haunted Dani her entire life. She hated her father for it, had blamed him. Blamed Markland as well. And now… David was to be the head of the very thing that had torn Dani from her mother? Her beloved brother…part of the one thing she hated more than anything else.
Her cry of “NO!” was lost in the general tumult of applause and cheers.
David heard her. He turned and smiled. Perhaps it was meant to be reassuring. It wasn’t. At all.
“Thank you, Father,” David said into the mic, but his eyes were on the crowd. Not looking for danger. Not looking out for his safety. He was playing his audience, positively soaking up their cheers, their adulation. He grew taller before Dani’s eyes, even as she shrank away from him, trying to lose herself in the masses while she tried to think this whole mess through.
In the meantime, David held up his hands for silence, speaking to them passionately. Friend to friend. “I know I’m still green, but the transition will take place over time. With oversite and tutelage, I know that we can create a new future for Markland…”
It was a prepared speech. He’d known.
As David continued to talk about the great and glorious future ahead of them, Dani forgot to scan the crowd, forgot to search for threats, even forgot to keep an eye on Luke. Markland Enterprises was nothing more than a front, a web of lies and corruption and deceit that locked her family into the family for generations. Against all odds, she’d hoped and prayed that David would somehow escape, that he wouldn’t be touched by the graft that had so infected their father. Now he stood on stage, openly embracing what she’d rejected, the one thing that had so nearly destroyed them all.
