He narrowed his eyes. “So you’ve made up your mind then?”
“No turning back.” She squared her shoulders and tried to make sure he knew there was no use arguing with her.
Instead, he just nodded. “At least let me come with you. What is the name of the restaurant?”
She shook her head. “No. I thought about that already, but the information they want to discuss is just too sensitive. I can’t think up a good enough excuse to bring you along. But it’s just a short, in-and-out thing, Michael. It will be fine.” She held her breath as she waited for his outburst or anger.
“Just let me know what time you want to leave and I’ll have Jerry drive you.”
She stared blankly for a moment, waiting for him to yell or scream at her for going ahead with this. “You’re not mad?”
“Of course I’m mad, Lori! I’m mad at Ken and I’m mad at Evelyn and I’m mad at Grayson, but most of all I’m mad at myself. But if you insist on taking after my foolishness, then I can’t stop you. But at least you can have Jerry right outside the restaurant waiting for you.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you understand. I’ll text you the name of the restaurant as soon as I’m back at my desk. It’s some fancy French sounding place and I don’t remember the name.” She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you for understanding.”
He kissed her forehead, her nose, and then her lips. “I’d do anything to keep you safe, Lori.”
“I know,” she said. “And I will be. Promise.” She kissed him real quick before she pulled away. “I have a huge pile of stuff to catch up on, but do you want to grab dinner tonight?”
“Takeout?” he asked as she reached the door.
“Of course.” She gave him a little wink before she left and headed back to her desk.
For the next two hours, her entire mood was lifted. Michael and she were good, and things would be back to normal as soon as this lunch meeting was over. She felt stupid for not talking to him sooner. Of course he would understand.
She was in such a good mood, she practically skipped downstairs when it was time to meet Ken and his associates. She found Michael’s car quickly because she was so familiar with it by now and slid into the backseat.
After pulling up the name of the restaurant, she tried her best to pronounce it for Jerry without butchering the pronunciation. She had a feeling she failed miserably, but she had the address and that was the important part.
Jerry turned the key in the ignition. “Right away, ma’am.”
She sat back and was once again filled with warm, fuzzy thoughts of Michael as she watched the busy sidewalks buzz by. A few minutes passed and Lori frowned at the unfamiliar street they were stopped at. “Hey,” she called to Jerry. “Aren’t we supposed to be going north?”
There was a pause before he answered. “Mr. Devereaux suggested this would be the best route.”
“Well, he was wrong, obviously. Can we turn around?”
Another pause. “I have to follow orders, ma’am.”
Realization crashed down. “Michael told you to drive me away from the restaurant.” The words felt dry and heavy in her mouth.
Jerry didn’t answer, which told her all she needed to know. “Let me out of the car,” she ordered. “Now.” They stopped at a light and she tried to tug at the door handle, but it wouldn’t open. “Let me out or I’m going to call the police!”
He didn’t say anything as the light turned green and he turned left. Lori thought back and realized he’d already made two left turns. He was driving her in circles.
She pulled out her phone, but instead of calling 911, she dialed Michael. She half expected him to ignore her call, but apparently he did have the balls to answer.
“Hello, Lori,” he said in a resigned tone.
Son of a bitch knew exactly why she was calling.
“What the hell are you doing?” she bit out.
“I told you already. I’m not letting you put yourself in any more danger. I was serious about that.”
“And just today? When you seemed so accepting? You were already planning this, weren’t you?”
“Hate me if you want, but Jerry isn’t bringing you back until at least one o’clock.”
“This isn’t stopping anything. I’ll just reschedule with Ken.”
“You think I won’t find a way to stop that too? I’ll call in favors. Hell, I’ll call in bomb threats. From now on, you and Ken Kemmerling are done. Do you understand?”
Anger snaked through her veins, and she tried to keep her hands from shaking as she tried to reconcile herself with what he was doing. “You and I are done after this. You know that, right?”
“I’d rather you be alive and pissed at me than the alternative.”
Lori ended the call and went back to staring out the window. A tear streaked down her face.
Lori flipped through the endless stream of shows available to her on the streaming program she had on her laptop. Thousands and thousands of shows at her fingertips. Her phone buzzed next to her and she ignored it as she kept scrolling. After a few eternal seconds, it finally stopped.
She picked it up to see whether the caller left a message, and it immediately rang again. Michael. Nope. She wasn’t doing it. She threw it on the sofa and grabbed her mostly full glass of water to top it off just for an excuse to walk away, but the incessant buzzing was back again.
She almost made it. She really did. But at the last second, she turned and ran to the couch, answering the call on the last ring. “I thought I told you that I didn’t want to talk,” she said into the phone.
“I know, but something came up. Are you home?”
Lori balanced the phone between her ear and shoulder as she set her water down. “Yeah, I’m home.”
“A courier should be at your apartment in a minute with a package for you.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing major. I just wanted to send you a present.”
She tried not to roll her eyes. She’d known dating a man like Michael would have its benefits, but this was her first time getting a present. “I don’t want anything from you right now. I’m too pissed to be bribed.”
“Well then, you can give it back to me at the office tomorrow. Just pick up the damn thing from the courier when you get it. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He hung up before she could refuse whatever gift he was offering and she was left staring, dumfounded, at her phone.
But exactly like he said, a few minutes later, the buzz of the intercom filled the apartment, and the courier was at the downstairs door.
At Michael’s place, the doorman could sign for the package and bring it up to Michael. Her cheap place had no such amenities. Lori slipped on her sneakers and ran out to the elevator.
The courier waited patiently outside the door to the apartment. In exchange for her signature, he handed over a tiny white cardboard box wrapped with a red ribbon.
Jewelry. He was trying to win her back with jewelry. How cliché. As she rode the lift back to her apartment, she turned the box in her hand, trying to figure out a way to tell Michael where he could shove his pretty little trinket. Maybe she wouldn’t even open it. That would show him. Shove the still wrapped box in his face tomorrow. Or maybe pawn it.
Not that she was anti-gifts. Actually, she would’ve loved it for any other reason. But not as some sort of apology or way to win her favor.
She set the box on the counter and went back to her laptop, but her gaze kept on going back to the beautiful little package.
It wasn’t as if there was wrapping paper or anything. She could peek and still give it back to him with the bow just as pristine as ever.
Yeah. One quick look. She padded back over to the counter and carefully removed the bow and ribbon in a way that she could just slide it right back on when she was done satisfying her curiosity.
She lifted up the tiny lid and peeled back the tissue paper,
but her mouth went dry as she saw the necklace.
Well, she definitely couldn’t pawn this.
The next morning, Lori checked her phone for the fifth time as she stood outside Michael’s office. Come on. He needed to be getting in soon.
“Are you sure I can’t get you anything?” asked Cali. “Coffee, tea, water?”
“No. I just need to talk to him for a few minutes.” Looking at her phone again, she saw it was already eight thirty-five. Damn it, where was he? She had a pile of work to catch up on and no time to hang around his office much longer. “Are you sure he didn’t have an outside meeting today?”
Cali raised one perfectly tweezed blonde eyebrow. As though it was offensive to even wonder whether she’d made a mistake. “Trust me. He’ll be here any moment. If you want, I can call you when he’s in.”
“I can wait.” Even as she said the words, she debated how much longer she would hang around. Spontaneity sounded well and good until you ended up standing outside an empty office for fifteen minutes, waiting for someone who might or might not show up.
Just then, footsteps sounded from the end of the hall and Lori looked up to see Michael approach. Even though she wanted to keep her stern, angry face, she couldn’t help but smile.
He stopped when he saw her before he met her smile with one of his own. “So you got my present?”
She brought her fingers to the pendent that rested against her chest. “Yes. Where did you even get this?”
“Internet can get you anything.” He stepped into his office and ushered her in. As soon as she was inside, he shut the door and dropped his briefcase. “You like it?”
“Are you kidding? I love it. I didn’t even know they made necklaces out of trilobites.”
He snorted. “I should’ve known that you’d know a five-hundred-million-year-old fossil by sight.”
“Well, they’re one of the most common fossils.” She’d seen the display case at the Natural History Museum with the various types and sizes of the marine arthropods found in the fossil record. The one he’d gotten her was a smaller, common one. It was set in silver with a swirling pattern around the edges of the oval fossil, and an eighteen-inch silver chain held it around her neck. “It wasn’t expensive, was it?” She was so determined to not be one of those women who fawned over expensive gifts, but she’d hate to have to return her necklace out of principle.
“Not very expensive,” he promised. He leaned against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “So are you not mad at me anymore?”
“Michael,” she breathed. “Of course I’m still mad at you. I’m a grown woman. You can’t randomly kidnap me in the middle of the day and not expect me to be pissed. If you’re going to order me around, I can’t have you being a hypocrite. I won’t stand for it.”
“Is it so hard for you to believe that your safety is important to me?”
Yes. He barely knew her. She half expected him to realize that she was nothing special at any moment and run off as quickly as he could. Which she should be happy about, considering how upset she was, but at the moment the thought only made her sad. No. She was still mad. Grateful for the necklace, but sad.
“I need to go back downstairs,” she murmured. “I shouldn’t have come up here.”
“Come on. It’s Friday. Try another weekend with me.”
She scoffed. “No. I’m not going to magically forget that you’re a controlling ass.”
“Then dinner.”
She raised a brow and stared him down. “You really think it’s going to be that easy?”
“Of course not. I intend to grovel the entire way through dinner.”
Damn, she wanted to see that. But she also didn’t want to forgive him so quickly when he was such a dick. “How much groveling?”
“You have never seen a man grovel as much as I’m about to grovel. Mass begging. Maybe even crying.”
“Fake crying? Really? That’s hardly dignified.”
“Really good fake crying, though.”
Lori rested her forehead in her palm. “Michael! Why did you have to do this? I like you. I really like you.”
“Luke and I have a late meeting with the finance team, but I can have the car ready for you at seven.”
“Sure. Jerry and I are practically besties at this point.” She rolled her eyes.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” asked Michael. “Come out with me. You get a nice dinner out of it and then break my heart at the end. Best case, you can keep liking me.”
She held up a hand. “One, that is oversimplifying things. Two, I want Chinese food.”
Lori threw the skirt back on the bed. No. She wasn’t dressing up for Michael’s stupid groveling dinner. She tugged on a pair of jeans and put a hoodie on over the sparkly tank. So if she wanted to suddenly look good, she could pull off the sweater and would be more presentable. But for now, all he was getting was hoodie.
Served the bastard right. Even as the anger returned, she reached up to fiddle with the necklace that rested against her chest. Was it possible that the strange jerk who she had dealt with was only the result of how much Michael cared for her? Even if she was open to the possibility that he’d only behaved that way because he cared about her, was she supposed to be okay with that?
She had moved out here to make it on her own. To be strong and independent. What would she be if she became one of those women who let her boyfriend dictate everything about her life?
Though Michael hadn’t tried to dictate everything. Just this one thing.
She let out a breath. She’d take it one day at a time. She’d meet him for dinner and see where things went. Hell, she already knew where things would go. Knowing their track record, they’d end up ordering takeout again and staying at his place all night.
And damn it all if she didn’t get a rush of butterflies at the thought.
Hey. If he wanted to spend the entire night trying to make it up to her, she was going to let him. She grabbed her phone off the charger and slid it in her pocket, as well as her ID, credit card and keys. No purse. She wasn’t going to let herself sleep over. Get in, hear groveling, and leave. She knew that if she was given the chance, she’d rush right back into bed with him.
Not that that still wouldn’t happen tonight, but at least now she wouldn’t be able to sleep over without her purse on hand.
She turned off the lights because Quinn was out for the evening and slipped out into the hall. She pulled the door shut and locked it before she turned around and screamed as she saw who was waiting for her.
Ken Kemmerling stood right outside her door. One of her hands flew over her mouth as she instinctively bit back another scream and fell back against her door. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Ms. Briggs. I was hoping you’d have a few moments to talk.”
Lori eyed the hallway, looking for someone she could signal her distress to, but didn’t see anyone. But just because he was taking a page out of Hunter’s notebook didn’t mean he was there to hurt her. “I asked what you’re doing here. I don’t appreciate people lurking outside my apartment.” Screw manners. This was not okay, and if Evelyn got upset with her for telling him so, tough luck.
“I was actually just about to knock when you came out. I would’ve announced myself sooner, but your back was turned when you were locking the door. I thought that might appear...creepy. I suppose I miscalculated.”
Lori nodded as she thought back to coming out of her apartment. She would’ve seen him if he were just about to knock. He had to be bullshitting her.
“You did,” she said simply. “So what do you want? I’m heading off to meet Michael and my roommate is expecting company.” There. Let him think there was someone home and that there were people waiting on her.
“I was hoping to discuss your uncle. He’s been handling my finances for years and I have been working to transfer all my bank information to his, um, replacement and have been having some difficulty getting historical statements
for one of the accounts. I was hoping we could go to his apartment and look through some of the documents he’d retained for me.”
Nope. No. No. No. No. Hell no. “I’d love to help you, but I really do have to run off for a meeting with Michael. Can this wait until tomorrow?” Or never?
“Damn. I suppose that’s the risk I run of surprising you like this.”
“Yeah, schedules can be hard sometimes.” Except Ken knew that. He also knew that his bank could give him copies of any historical statements, which made a trip to her side of town pretty much pointless unless there was something else he wanted that he was too afraid to fess up to.
“I really have to go.” She pushed past him and rushed to the elevator. She jammed her finger in the button repeatedly as she urged it to arrive faster.
She heard Ken’s footsteps come closer. “I really am sorry for popping in unannounced, but this is rather urgent that I get these documents. Will you be available later tonight, possibly?”
You stupid, piece of crap elevator, just get to my stupid floor. “I can talk to Michael,” she said. “I’m sure he’d be willing to head over with me.”
“That should be perfect.” Ken smiled.
The lift doors opened and Lori cursed her luck when she saw that it was empty. She stepped inside the car and pressed the button for the lobby even as she stuck her hand in her sweatshirt pocket where her phone was. Technically Ken hadn’t done anything too scary, but she wasn’t about to let her guard down.
“Maybe I can look for it and give you a call if I find anything? No use for you to make a pointless trip out there. Maybe you can tell me the name of the bank and I’ll pull anything that pertains to you out.”
“That might work.”
Somehow, him suddenly being so agreeable after he seemed so desperate to talk with her set her nerves on edge.
“So things with you and Michael Devereaux seem to be going well,” he said.
Lori nodded as she stared intently at the numbers decreasing in the glacially slow elevator. “He’s been great to me.”
The doors finally opened and Lori jumped out of the lift. Ken kept pace with her as they crossed through the lobby, and he held the door open for her. She nodded her thanks and reached the street, scanning the cars for the familiar sight of Michael’s driver. Please don’t let him be late.
Devereaux Billionaires Complete Series: Books 1-4 Page 32
