by Holly Rayner
She couldn’t let him keep doing this.
From what she had gathered in the elevator, the men Chase was flattering were potential investors for the planned rig sites, which meant she was in a prime position to stop all of this with some quick thinking.
Stepping from the office, Annabelle passed several cube openings, but the workers inside didn’t even bother to look up from their screens. She passed a conference room surrounded by glass windows and spotted Chase inside, standing before a long, sleek table, presenting data from a projector.
Annabelle squared her shoulders and strode over to the conference room door, pushing it open.
“Darling!” she cried.
FIVE
Chase froze mid-sentence, his expression horrified. Every set of eyes burned into her, and Annabelle flashed a wide smile as she walked up to the CEO and swatted him playfully on the shoulder.
“You know I’m trying to learn the family business, so I can take over when you die. Kidding, of course! Our rugrats will probably kill me before they let me do that, am I right?”
She looked around the table as though to seek approval from the investors, who all stared at her with expressions of confused wonder.
“Excuse me…” Chase began, his tone curt.
Cutting him off, Annabelle caressed his arm, surprised at how muscular it was beneath his suit jacket. She lowered her lashes and blinked up at him, pouting her lip.
“Oh darling, don’t be angry with me. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Do go on. I can’t wait to hear just how many dolphins you’re going to kill in the next year. You do have that statistic, don’t you? Environmental impact reports, are they called?”
“Miss, what are you doing here?” one of the men asked.
Annabelle batted her eyes at the gentleman, who instantly backed down as he melted beneath her gaze.
“You mean Chase didn’t tell you about me?”
She glanced over at Chase with a hurt expression. His eyes were full of repressed rage, which made her act all the more buoyant.
“I’m his girlfriend, Annabelle. He usually lets me know when these meetings are, you see, because he wants me to take over when he dies, and I’m sure all of you know that women always outlive men. I mean you would, if you didn’t swap out wives for a younger one every five years.”
She flitted over to a seat next to the man at the head of the table. He looked to be the least offended of the suits in the room, so Annabelle figured that would be the safest seat.
He turned and glanced at her. “Anything else you have to say, since you’ve already interrupted us so effectively?”
Annabelle grinned. “Only how nice it is to be with men of such wisdom and maturity. I mean, how many toupees have we got in here? Six? Seven?”
She heard Chase let out a small growl, ignoring him completely as she smiled at the glares surrounding her. Then a more surprising sound erupted by her side: laughter.
Annabelle turned toward the gentleman at the head of the table as he chuckled gently.
“You have quite the rapier wit, my dear. I’d expect no less from the girlfriend of Chase Frost. Well done, Chase. Well done, indeed.”
Annabelle tried not to frown in confusion. Why wasn’t he offended? Why wasn’t he storming out of the room in a rage?
“Chase, you may continue, if your lady will allow?”
“I’m sure she will. She just loves making a grand entrance,” Chase snarled through clenched teeth.
Annabelle smiled at him sweetly.
Point one for Annabelle.
“Right, well, as you can see here…” Chase said, continuing on with his presentation.
Annabelle did everything she could to disrupt him. She banged her knee against the table, popped bubbles with her gum, and yawned as loudly as she could. All to no avail. Chase pressed on, ignoring her disruptions as he finished his presentation with aplomb.
“Now, gentlemen, I believe the lunch service has been set up for you in our VIP dining area. If you head down the hall and take a left, you will see it right past my office. I’d like to have a little chat with Annabelle before we join you.”
The leader of the investors stood and chuckled. “Young love is such a fickle thing, is it not?”
“And you know this because your girlfriend is twenty years younger than you?” Annabelle quipped.
The man was unfazed. “Twenty-five years younger, actually, but who’s counting?” His smirk was victorious as he led the group out of the room and down the hall.
Annabelle’s gaze followed them until she could feel Chase approaching her from behind. She turned and met his moss green eyes face-to-face.
“What are you doing here? Who are you?”
He was speaking in a sharp, quiet tone, but Annabelle refused to be cowed by anyone, much less some rich boy with no regard for anyone but himself.
“I’m nobody to you, obviously.”
Somehow, Chase’s brow furrowed further.
“I will not ask you again. Tell me who you are and what the hell you are trying to accomplish playing these games in my conference room!”
Annabelle had to fight a sudden wave of attraction as she refused to back down, staring hard into his stunningly green eyes. Why did evil people have to be attractive?
“My name is Annabelle Williams. Your rig in Bluewater cost me my job and the livelihoods of nearly everyone I love. I came here today to find a way to stop you from ruining more lives than you already have!”
Chase paused for a moment, his eyes widening as his grip loosened. “Don’t move,” he said, stepping away from her and pulling a key from his pocket. He then locked the door, with both of them inside.
“What are you doing?” Annabelle demanded, panic rising to her chest. It was one thing to play games to get him to lose a deal, but entirely another to trap her inside the room with him.
Chase’s stare was sardonic. “I’m not going to hurt you, you imbecile. I’m calling security and making sure you don’t get away with anything that doesn’t belong to you.”
“Oh, we’re resorting to name calling now, are we? How refined you are.”
Chase picked up a phone and called for security, ignoring her comment. When he hung up, he continued to glare at her.
“You really think you accomplished anything today? The worst you did was make yourself look like a fool. I don’t know what you think I did to you, but blaming me for you losing your job is a coward’s way of denying their own ineptitude.”
“Oh really? Then how do you explain the fact that every business in town was thriving until you came along and destroyed the view? I may not be a CEO, but I have the power of deductive reasoning, and it’s not hard to determine the catalyst for these occurrences!”
Chase approached her like a panther, standing over her as though to intimidate her. Annabelle craned her neck to look up at him, refusing to let him think he had any sway over the situation, even if she was locked in one of his conference rooms, in his building, with his name on it.
Whatever.
“Listen, Anna.”
“Annabelle.”
“It really doesn’t matter. You’ve had your fun today. I don’t know how you got in here, but I’ll make sure it never happens again. Go live your life, let me live mine, and nobody presses any charges, get it?”
He was threatening her now.
Annabelle was preparing a retort when a tall man in a blue security uniform walked briskly down the hall. Seeing him, Chase opened the door to the conference room.
“Take this girl downstairs and search her before escorting her from the premises.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard said, taking hold of Annabelle’s arm before she shrugged him off and headed toward the exit.
“Well I suppose this is goodbye, Annabelle. Such sweet sorrow,” Chase smirked.
Annabelle glared back at him. “You haven’t heard the last of me, Frost. You’re destroying lives for profit, and I’m not going to sit quietly while the people
I love suffer.”
“Sure,” he said, waving her off.
Her last view was of his turned back as she was ushered to the elevator, and pressed inside.
SIX
“Move it!”
The guard gave Annabelle a not-too-gentle shove as he pushed her towards the security offices.
“I got it, I got it. No need to get physical. I have a camera on my phone and I’m not afraid to use it.”
“Good point,” the man said, grabbing her purse and emptying it out on a silver table.
Annabelle watched as her cellphone, wallet, keys and a tube of Chap Stick clattered onto the surface. The guard picked up her phone and tapped it open, reminding her that she really needed to set a password protection on the device.
After scrolling through for a minute, the guard took a few notes in his pad and set it back down, rifling through her wallet before replacing all the items and handing her the purse. He sifted through her coat pockets, finding the ID she’d used to get in, and pocketed it. He then gestured toward the door.
“Time to go, princess.”
“Believe me, I’ll be back.”
“You can cool it with the sass now. The big boss isn’t here for you to flirt with.”
“I wasn’t flirting with him!” Annabelle insisted, even as her cheeks blossomed with color.
The truth was, as much as she wanted to hate Chase Frost, Annabelle found herself terribly attracted to him. She reminded herself that looks were deceiving.
Annoyingly, the guard insisted on seeing her all the way out of the building, even taking the time to slam the glass doors behind her for good measure.
Outside, in the cold December air, Annabelle realized that she had failed in her attempt to infiltrate Frost Energy.
She should have taken pictures of the plans, sent them to the press. But all she had come up with was to pretend to be the CEO’s girlfriend, then insult investors who had no soul to begin with? How could she think that anything she’d say would impact them? They destroyed lives just to fill their bank accounts.
Feeling defeated, she walked back across the street to the car, finding a bright orange envelope tucked underneath her windshield wipers.
“Damnit,” she cursed. She hardly had money for groceries, let alone parking tickets.
Sighing, Annabelle pulled the ticket off the windshield and slid back into the driver’s seat, making her way back home.
Back in Bluewater, Annabelle didn’t think she would be able to handle seeing her parents right away. Instead of returning to the bakery straight away, she pulled her car up at the docks, and stepped out onto the boardwalk.
A storm was rolling in, and heavy clouds filled the air with moisture yet unshed. Annabelle stared out at the bay as wave after wave crashed against the rocky shore. A single tear escaped from her eye, and she hurriedly brushed it away.
She refused to let the likes of Chase Frost and his posse get to her. She would think of another way to pull their town back from the brink. She had no other choice.
Staring out at the frigid waters, Annabelle jumped when a voice sounded from behind.
“Belle? What are you doing here?”
It was Will.
He approached and looked down at her, his brows knit with concern. “You’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”
Annabelle lowered her head. She didn’t want to tell him what she had done. Maybe if she’d succeeded, it would have been different, but as it stood she was a failure, and the last thing she felt like doing was admitting that to her old friend.
Will placed a gentle hand on her arm, and Annabelle resisted the urge to pull it away. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“You can tell me anything, you know,” he said, his voice gentle.
Annabelle tried to ignore the soft tone of his voice, like a caress that she didn’t feel like accepting.
What was wrong with her? Her thoughts drifted back to Chase Frost, and the tingling sensation she’d felt when he had touched her. It had felt so much more powerful than this—so much so that she wanted nothing more than to push away from the one man she should lean on while desiring a monster she should abhor.
“I’ve got to go,” she said quickly, confused and upset by her own emotions.
“Annabelle,” Will said, and she paused. He rarely called her by her full name. “Please don’t push me away. I know we’ve been friends a long time but…I really care for you.”
She had known this conversation was coming; she had simply hoped that it wouldn’t.
Turning to face Will, Annabelle looked up into his eyes, trying not to think about how emerald Chase’s had been that afternoon. What was her mind doing, focusing on that man’s appearance? He was a criminal!
“Will,” she began, her tone apologetic.
Will held up a hand. “I know, I know. You see me as a friend. I’m just saying, I care about you, and I think we could be really good together…”
“Thank you,” she blurted. Not sure of what else to say, she patted him on the arm, stalling for time. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now. I’m sorry.”
Will smiled sadly and released his grasp, much to Annabelle’s relief.
“No need to be sorry. Just know I’m here. If you ever find yourself reconsidering, I’d like to give us a shot, okay?”
Annabelle’s smile was gentle. Will was putting himself out there. The least she could do was be kind.
“I’ll text you later, okay?” she said.
“Sounds good.”
Turning her back on the ocean, on Will, Annabelle made her way back to the car, turning the starter several times before the engine revved on again, and she made her way home. Somehow, hours had passed as she’d stared out into nothing, and when she got home her sister was already there, preparing dinner.
“Hey,” Annabelle mumbled.
“Woah, what happened to you? Did the interview go that badly?”
“What interview?”
“Why else would you be wearing a suit?”
Annabelle glanced down. She had totally forgotten she’d dressed up that day. Like it mattered anyway.
The silence dragged on until Kate put down the gravy she was mixing and stared openly at her sister.
“Spill it,” she demanded.
Annabelle plopped into a kitchen chair and relayed the whole story while Kate listened with amazement.
“You seriously asked how many toupees they had?” she asked with a laugh.
Annabelle chortled. “Yeah, and they didn’t even care! They thought it was funny!”
“They thought it was funny because you’re a hot young thing.”
“Oh, please. They were sucking up to their boss because he thought it was funny. If he wasn’t there, I’d have been kicked out much sooner.”
“Sure. So Chase had you kicked out huh? That’s rough. Did you sneak any pictures of the oil rig plans at least?”
Annabelle’s shoulders slumped. “No. I left with nothing. You’re right, Kate. There’s nothing we can do to fight these people. They look at us like ants; we’re meaningless to them.”
Kate stepped behind her sister and rubbed her tense shoulders. “I wouldn’t give up completely yet. I mean, if we just lie down and accept what they’re doing, we can’t even say we tried. Hearing you say that makes me sad. You can’t give up fighting, Belle. You’ve got to keep trying.”
“Maybe,” Annabelle replied, her voice laced with doubt.
The family enjoyed a simple meal together, followed by an hour or two of making eggnog for the holiday. Deborah had always believed that eggnog tasted better after stewing for a few days, and her daughters had found that she was absolutely right.
That night, Annabelle stared up at her ceiling, wondering what she should do next. An image of Chase’s stupidly perfect face danced in her mind’s eye, and she did her best to shoo it away. There was no point in romanticizing the man who had ruined all their lives.
No point at all.
> SEVEN
The next morning, Annabelle was sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling at one of her mom’s famous lemon muffins as she perused job ads on her laptop.
“See anything?” her dad asked as he strolled in, his front covered in flour.
