“Back to the here and now,” Davis says, “and my prior suggestion. We need to pick a criminal attorney, a killer that you trust and that isn’t connected to the firm.”
“He’s right,” I say, and this time I don’t argue for me to handle this. This is too big for my experience and I’m too close to Grayson. “You have no idea who’s working for Ri,” I add. “You need someone who’s a proven winner.”
“Agreed,” Eric chimes in and looks at Grayson. “Reid Maxwell,” he says, glancing at me to explain. “He’s one of the attorneys handling the Japan convention center,” before he adds, “He has ties to a couple of the best criminal attorneys in the country who happen to own the same firm.”
“What ties?” Grayson asks.
“His sister is married to one of them,” Eric says. “He represented one of them against the DA over a misconduct case, and the misconduct was against the DA.”
“Both are good choices,” Davis says, “but Reese Summer is married to Cat of the Cat Does Crime column and when she gets behind him and his cases, she influences a lot of minds. I’d go with Reese. He’s the best of the best and she’s a bonus.”
“Get me a number,” Grayson says. “Where are we on finding the mole?”
“I brought in a new security team. One of my old SEAL buddies works with them. I trust him. We won’t deal with Ri’s influence. They’re doing a sweep of our operations to find our moles nationwide. They assure me they’ll have an initial evaluation here locally done in two days. They’re good. We’ll get results.”
“How long do we have before charges are filed?” I ask.
“Uncertain,” Davis said. “But my source feels it’s weeks out, but not months. Weeks. That’s not long.”
“What else?” Grayson asks.
Davis looks at me. “The closer she is to you, the more chance Ri gets nervous and tries to speed things up.” He shifts his attention to Grayson. “She needs to stay away and if you love her, you’ll listen. I’m protecting you and her. Ri could smear her just to burn you deeper.”
Grayson doesn’t reject his words and I suddenly want to explode in protest, but not now with Eric and Davis here. Grayson looks at Eric. “What are your thoughts?”
“I’m not sure Mia being with you matters,” he says. “It’s all about positioning. If she stays, how do you make that work for you?”
Grayson stiffens, and I know he doesn’t like that answer. “Where are we on leverage against Ri?”
“The security team I hired has a master hacker on their payroll,” Eric says. “More soon.”
Grayson nods. “I’ll see you both in the city,” he says.
Both men look like they want to argue, but they don’t. They turn and leave. The minute the door shuts, Grayson pulls me to him. “I need you to go to Japan, work on that convention center project, and get out of target range until I make this go away.”
And so, the war begins. The war between me and Grayson, not Grayson and Ri, because he knows what I know. I’m not a master hacker, but I’m inside Ri’s operation, I’m close to him. He needs me here. “No,” I say, preparing for the storm to follow as I add, “I’m not leaving.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Mia
The past, two and a half years ago…
“I should not be in this car with you,” I say, glancing over at Grayson as he navigates his Porsche through Manhattan traffic, the man and the car radiating sexiness and power.
“We’re just going for pizza,” he says, turning a corner.
“In the Hamptons,” I say. “I can’t go to the Hamptons with you.”
“Why not?” he asks.
“All the reasons I didn’t call you. All the reasons I already told you I can’t see you.”
“And yet you got in the car,” he points out.
“I know.” I swallow hard. “Grayson.”
“Yes, Mia?”
“Can you stop the car?”
“At the chopper pick-up, yes.”
“I’m the kind of girl who’s fine with a slice of pizza at the corner pizza joint. Can we just do that before you leave?”
“We’re already here.” He pulls us into a parking lot for the chopper service that I knew was nearby but never gave much thought to it until now.
“And there’s a pizza spot one block down. I’ll even buy.” I give a strained laugh. “I just got this great new job, you know?”
He kills the engine and turns to face me. “I’ll bring you back tonight if you want to come back. No one is going to know we did this but you and me, Mia. I’ll protect your privacy. I’ll protect you.”
“Not by helping me at work,” I say quickly, rotating to face him as he does the same of me. “That’s not what you mean, right?” I press. “I’m not doing this for special treatment. I don’t need that. I don’t want that. That wasn’t what made me get in the car, in fact, it all but kept me from doing so.”
“Why did you get into the car?”
“I—You’re distracting me.”
He arches a dark brow. “I’m distracting you?”
“It’s not your money either, which you must have thought about.”
“I thought it was my hot body,” he teases.
“It’s not your money,” I say, unwilling to let this topic go for reasons that I can’t define, yet still feel important. “Actually, I think your money is part of my reservation. Yes, I hate your money.”
“And why is that, Mia?”
“You have to expect everyone wants it. You have to expect I’ll want it. You won’t ever be real because you won’t ever believe I’ll be real. Sex would be the only thing real with you, which doesn’t require a trip to the Hamptons.”
He leans in and cups my face, his breath a warm tease on my cheek before he kisses me, a deep, sexy slide of tongue that leaves me panting as he says, “Is that real enough for you?”
Too real, I think. There is something about Grayson that gets to me, that makes me do stupid things like getting into his car. “I need to leave.”
I try to pull away from him, but he slides a hand under my hair and holds me to him. “Mia,” he says softly.
“Grayson.” My hand has planted itself on the hard wall of his chest. “I want you. I don’t think I could hide that very well but if this is just fucking, can we just do that? Then I’ll go back to work and you’ll go back to being king of the world without me?”
He kisses me again, and my God, the man can kiss, and he smells all woodsy and spicy and addictive. “Don’t move,” he orders softly before he releases me and then exits the car. I assume he’s going inside to cancel the chopper, but suddenly he’s opening my door and squatting beside me.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Getting you out of here,” he says, reaching across me for my seatbelt, his arm brushing my breast in the process, and the tightening of my nipples radiates straight to my sex.
He freezes a moment and I sense a hunger in him, which only serves to stir more hunger in me. He unclips my seatbelt and pulls me to my feet, shutting the door and then leaning me against it, his big body framing mine. His hands on my hips. “I don’t bring women to the Hamptons or my apartment,” he says. “And yes, I am going to fuck you, Mia, before and after you try my favorite pizza spot in the Hamptons.” He brushes a strand of hair from my eyes. “If you come with me.” He releases me and steps back, offering me his hand and a choice as he does.
I don’t ask him to explain. Maybe he just wants to keep our fling private. I am an employee of his company. Or maybe there’s more to this. I’m not sure, but when I look into his eyes, the connection we share is real and I have this sense that Grayson Bennett needs something real in his life, if only for right now. I press my hand to his and when it closes down on mine, some part of me knows that this night and this man are about to forever change me.
Grayson walks me to him and then puts us both in motion. “Have you ever been to
the Hamptons?” he asks.
“No. Have you ever been to Brooklyn?”
He laughs a low, deep, sexy laugh I feel from head to toe. “I know Brooklyn better than you might think.”
“You own half of it, right?”
“I do not,” he says, opening the door for me to enter the building, “in fact own anything in Brooklyn.”
I enter the building, where a small waiting area is my destination with a dozen empty seats and glass doors leading to, I assume, the chopper. Grayson joins me, taking my hand again, his opposite hand lifting to the solo, thirty-something man behind a counter. “Jesse.” The greeting is light, genuine, and without airs.
“It’ll be five minutes, Grayson,” Jesse replies, casual and comfortable, even friendly, with Grayson. He doesn’t act like Grayson is a billionaire with an ego.
Grayson nods to the other man and turns to face me, returning to our prior conversation. “I don’t own half of Brooklyn, however, I do have a close friend, and business associate who grew up in Brooklyn a few streets from where you grew up.”
“And you know this because you looked at my HR file?”
“Yes, Mia,” he confirms. “I looked at your HR file.”
“I guess that’s fair. I googled you. I probably know more about you than you do about me now.”
“You know what I allow to be known.”
“Because nothing is real.”
His hands come down on my hips and he pulls me to him. “Be real with me, Mia, and I’ll be real with you.”
“I dare you to mean those words or not,” I amend, pulling back to look at him. “I don’t have any expectations.” It hits me that he’s made me promises but I have made him none. “If this is pizza and a fuck, then it’s pizza and a fuck and no one will ever know but you and me. That’s as real as it gets.”
He cups my face. “I can already tell you that that’s not real enough, but it’s a start.” He kisses me and once again I’m breathless.
Our lips are still lingering together when someone clears their throat and Grayson smiles. “Let’s go eat that pizza.” He takes my hand and as we walk toward the exit, one word stays in my mind: Real. It’s a word that matters to him. It’s a word that matters to me.
A few minutes later when he helps me into the chopper and we buckle up, I go back to the word “real.” There’s a real possibility I’m in over my head with this man, and yet, I can’t seem to care. The chopper door is still open, and I know only one thing with certainty: I’m not leaving and that's as real as it gets.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Mia
The present…
It’s not long before Eric and Davis are back at the house. Somehow Eric manages to not only contact his ex-SEAL buddy who he’s hired to help with the Ri situation, but he manages to get Adam to the Hamptons in rapid, nearly impossible, speed.
Adam turns out to be tall, good looking and in his mid-thirties, with dark, wavy hair. “Adam is an expert of disguise,” Eric says as we all gather around the kitchen island. “That’s his thing. He can get anywhere and no one will know it’s him.”
I wonder what Adam’s thing was, but I assume for a SEAL that could just be his ability to kill and protect. It’s a bit disconcerting how comforting that is right about now, but then, my gut is screaming with a warning. We’re wading in knee-deep quicksand, still moving, but there’s the very real possibility that we’re already trapped and going under but don’t know it yet. “Walker Security is a diverse, skilled group,” Adam says, pulling me back into the moment as he responds to something Grayson has asked about Adam’s employer. “Mia,” Adam says, “I need you to tell me about the dynamic between you and Ri.”
Grayson’s displeasure cuts through the air and I have no doubt every person in this house feels the blade. “He wants to fuck her for obvious reasons, but as an added plus, he’d fuck me at the same time.”
Tension curls in my belly. This isn’t a topic I enjoy sharing, but it’s necessary. “He tried to kiss me recently,” I say. “I kneed him. Hard. Really hard. He’s pretty bitter.” I go on to run through the details of Ri finding out that I’m looking for a job and the Monday meeting.
Adam listens without much input and for the most part, Eric and Davis simply take it all in as well. They’re all thoughtful, attentive, intelligent people who will all have opinions, some of which I won’t agree with and some that I will. I prepare myself for the varied opinions, but Adam guides the conversation in an unexpected direction. “We already have a female from our team ready to stay at your apartment tonight,” he says. “With Ri showing interest in you, Mia, I suggest we have me play the boyfriend, and I can hang out with our Mia double at your place.”
“No,” I say, rejecting that idea. “Ri has to think he has a chance to turn me or he’ll go at Grayson ten times harder.”
“Mia, damn it,” Grayson says, his voice low, guttural.
I turn to him, my hand on his chest. “Hear me out. He feels like I’m a weapon. Let him keep that weapon while you knock his legs out from underneath him.”
“At the risk of being pummeled,” Eric says, “I agree. We’ll watch her, Grayson. We’ll wire her. We’ll keep her with you as much as possible.”
“Just make it count,” I say, focused on Grayson. “Use me to take him out before he takes you out.”
Grayson pulls me to him, ignoring the rest of the room. “I will. You can count on it.”
He says those words so damn vehemently I want to cheer. His focus is no longer on getting me out of town. It’s on ending this, on beating Ri once and for all. I push to my toes to give Grayson a quick kiss, but he cups the back of my head and slants his mouth over mine in a sultry, hot kiss that has Eric clearing his throat. “All right then. Time for us to head to the chopper service.”
As in all of us, since Eric and Davis missed their original departure time. Grayson reluctantly turns his attention to the room, his gaze on Adam. “Whatever it takes, he goes down. You understand?”
“Quite well,” Adam states. “Eric made that point in crystal clear terms.”
“Make sure you make it to your team,” Grayson replies. “Whatever it takes.”
“Perhaps we should talk outside,” Adam states.
“You can ride with me and Eric to the airport,” Grayson states, kissing me. “Ride with Davis, baby.”
I don’t like the way this is going down, but I’m not going to push. Grayson doesn’t like what Ri is making him become. I’ll give him the space he needs to handle this without worrying about how I’ll react. He’ll tell me what he did later when he’s ready. “What about my car?”
“I have another female agent handling it,” Adam states. “We have you covered.” He looks at Grayson, who motions him forward. It’s clear that right now Grayson is focused and he wants action.
Grayson and Adam head toward the door. Eric stands his ground and leans on the island across from me. “Selfless, beautiful, and in love. You’re what he needs. I might even fucking love you myself, that’s how much I believe he needed you.” He pushes off the island and follows Grayson and Adam toward the door.
Davis steps in front of me. “I don’t love you, but I like you.”
I laugh. “Right. You like me, but you accused me of being up to no good.”
“I had to push you and then look into your eyes and see what there was to see.”
“And what did you see?”
“His future wife.”
Those words stay with me as we head to Davis’s rental and with good reason. Grayson asked me to come home, but he didn’t give me my ring back. By the time I’m in the passenger seat of the sedan, Davis is in the driver’s seat. He shuts the door and then sits there a minute. “He’ll ask again.”
The words shock me and I turn to look at him. “What?”
“I’m a damn good attorney for a reason. I hit a nerve with the future wife thing. He’ll ask again.”
I inhale and shake my head, but I say nothing else. The only words that matter are the ones between me and Grayson, which are still too few. Thankfully Davis has never been a man of many words and he is, in fact, good at reading people. He leaves me to my thoughts, which include a reply to that talk about flaws that keeps bothering me.
The ride is short, though, and we pull through a private gate to park at a smaller building. The minute Davis kills the engine, Grayson is at my door, opening it, and pulling me to my feet, molding me close. “How was your talk?” I ask.
“Productive. Unfortunately, we need to meet a couple of Adam’s team at the apartment when we get home.”
“Home,” I say. “I love that word.”
“I’m glad you do, baby.” He kisses me. “Come on.” He takes my hand and guides me toward the chopper.
I have déjà vu about ten times over in the next five minutes. This place, the Sunday night return to the city, Grayson helping me into the chopper, his hand at my waist, us side by side in leather seats, familiar seats. And then, Grayson reaches over me and connects my seatbelt, and I flash back to that first Sunday again when he’d done the same thing: Now you go home with me, he’d said. Grayson’s lips hint at a curve, his green eyes alight with memories, and he lets me know that he’s thinking the same thing I am by saying, “Now you go home with me,” but he adds, “Now we go home.”
My hand goes to his jaw, and suddenly, the ring doesn’t matter. What matters is what comes next. “Now we go home,” I say.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mia
Once we land in the city, Grayson and I part ways with the rest of the men and head to his Porsche. The minute I bring it into view, I smile. “You finally got the sapphire blue you wanted,” I say, “and the very idea that you denied yourself because you had a car and didn’t need another, is part of your appeal. You could do everything in excess, but you don’t.”
“The only thing I need in excess is you, baby,” he says, clicking the door lock and pulling me to him to give me a quick kiss. His voice lowers and he repeats, “Just you,” in a rougher, affected voice that has me all kinds of equally affected.
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