Devoted: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

by Lexi Blake

  He found her fascinating.

  Mitch sat his briefcase down on the bar. “Weird?”

  How did he explain this? “She’s not the girl I thought she would be. She’s open and funny and weird. Like quirky weird. She has quirks.”

  He’d expected a tight-assed Type A. Since that first day in training class, he’d looked into her a bit. Nothing more than reading her bio. And finding pictures of her and the ex. Now that he didn’t expect. The ex looked like a flipping male model.

  He was surprised at how strongly jealous he could be about her. He’d been a complete ass that first day. He’d walked up those stairs and she’d been talking about objectifying the other guys and they’d all been leering at her. Maybe not leering, but definitely looking and admiring and it had bugged the holy fuck out of him.

  He’d been engaged. He’d asked a woman to marry him, helped her plan a whole wedding, and when he’d found out she was marrying him for money and had a lover on the side, he’d very calmly broken everything off. Oh, he’d been angry, but it had been a controlled burn.

  What he’d felt for Amy hadn’t been controlled. It had been a flash fire and he’d behaved like a fucking caveman. He’d almost lost her.

  He still wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing, but he felt more alive than he had in a very long time so he was kind of going with it.

  He was careful. They met at the club for class and they’d had dinner a few times afterward. They’d talked about innocuous things. She liked baseball and watched an enormous amount of science fiction and fantasy shows. He’d been shocked at that fact. Outside the club and in street clothes she looked very much like the type of woman who would run a company. Her clothes were all designer and flattering, but they reminded him of armor. She didn’t look like a girl who had watched every episode of Star Trek.

  The truth was he was pretty geeky himself. His tastes ran to superheroes. Normally he tried to hide that fact, but Amy just put it all out there. She loved a show called Dart that he followed too, and they seemed to have similar tastes in movies. They’d passed a very pleasant evening talking about Doctor Who.

  He liked her. He had to face that fact. Maybe she was the single smartest woman in the world and she knew how to play him on every level, or maybe she simply was who she was. He needed more time to sort it out.

  He needed more time because he wanted so desperately to get back to that place where she stared up at him like he was something to memorize right before she kissed him.

  “Everyone has quirks,” Mitch shot back. “I’m the quirkiest motherfucker on the planet but that doesn’t mean anyone should risk their business reputation to sleep with me. I assume you’re already sleeping with her.”

  His brother was an optimist. She’d been sweet and friendly, but he’d fucked up that first day.

  Shouldn’t she have forgiven him much more quickly if insinuating herself into his life had been the plan all along? Should she have taken his jealousy and used it against him? Instead she’d told him to fuck off.

  Had that been calculated, too?

  “As a matter of fact, we’re not sleeping together,” he said as he closed the lid to his laptop. He should have known his brother would figure it out. It wasn’t like he could hide it forever.

  But he had to admit, it had been nice for a while. It had felt intimate, like he had a secret. Like they’d been the only two who knew what was going on.

  He kind of liked playing this game with her. He’d started to wonder if she hadn’t done this so she could get to know him. Maybe if she came to care about him, she would back off and figure out they didn’t have to be enemies.

  Stranger things had happened.

  Mitch sighed. “You want to explain to me what you’re doing then? Because if you’re playing her, it’s going to blow back on me with my friends. Big Tag will have issues with you using a training relationship for some kind of revenge plot. If she’s playing you, it could have very bad ramifications to Glendale and we’re both heavily invested. Chase is, too.”

  “I’m not playing her. I’m still trying to figure out if she’s playing me. I’m kind of starting to believe she’s not. Do you think it’s possible she’s feeling me out? Like she wants to get to know me?”

  Mitch seemed to visibly calm, his face turning curious. “Is that what you’re doing? Getting to know her?”

  He had no fucking idea what he was doing. “Maybe.”

  “What has she told you about herself?”

  There was the rub. “She said she works for a big corporation. She told me it was too boring to go into. When I try to talk about her work, she diverts me.”

  “Does she ask about your work?”

  “Yes. I told her I worked for McKay-Taggart writing code for their security systems.”

  A long sigh issued from Mitch. “And you say you’re not playing her.”

  “I’m feeling her out. I think that’s what we’re both doing. And I do write code and I have been working with Chelsea Weston on a security system code.”

  Mitch settled himself on the couch across from Flynn. “I know you do and it’s important code. That’s why I’m worried. Have you talked to your CEO today? Do you know what’s going on?”

  He felt himself frown. “I got some texts but I was busy.”

  “You’re not paying enough attention to the business,” his brother chided.

  “Do you have any idea how much you sound like our father right now?” Big brother was taking on their father’s persona in his old age.

  Mitch sent him his happy middle finger. “Dad ever do that?”

  “Our father was actually quite proper and uptight, so no. I never saw him shoot anyone the bird,” Flynn admitted. “You know you could take over the company. I would one hundred percent give that job to you. He left you stock.”

  “Yes, which I offered to give back to you and Chase,” Mitch pointed out. “I’ll oversee legal, but I’m happiest working for myself. Have you considered selling?”

  Only a million times. He could take the money and use it to start his own tech business. “I can’t until I’m sure Chase won’t want to take over. I’m keeping it solid until he’s old enough to make an informed decision. He needs to get through college and then we’ll talk. Until then, the guy I hired to run the company is solid.”

  “He’s a ruthless shark with five rows of razor sharp teeth,” Mitch pointed out.

  “Yes, so he’ll take care of the company. He’s being paid a nominal salary. His real money comes in bonuses if he meets the company growth goals.” It was the way CEOs got paid in his world.

  “He called me an hour ago, which is another reason I’m here. He couldn’t get you on the phone. He said he got a call from a man who used to work for Slaten. He’s willing to talk for a fee.”

  “Talk? About what?” His stomach tightened. He didn’t want to discuss this. It was so much easier to pretend Amy was nothing more than his training partner and a girl he was trying to get into bed. He was happier with that Amy. They were rapidly becoming friends.

  He hadn’t had one of those in a very long time.

  “About Slaten and their business practices,” Mitch said with a frown. “He says he knows the ins and outs like no one else and he can prove that Slaten has been sending in corporate spies for years. He claims there are still a few. He’s also willing to talk about their upcoming bids.”

  “And he used to work for Slaten?”

  “He was fired by Amy about a week after she took over the company. You know new CEOs like to clean house.”

  They tended to want their own people in the power positions. “How many people did Amy fire when she took over?”

  “Her father’s entire management team.”

  He’d hoped to hear something different. “It’s not unusual.”

  “Her father was a genuinely terrible human being. He still is. There was a reason I helped her with the takeover.”

  “Did she enjoy the fact that you were her rival�
�s son?”

  Mitch sighed. “It didn’t come up. It was more of a favor for Bridget than anything. And the asshole pissed off Big Tag. You know Ian lives to fuck with people who piss him off. She was likely very smart to fire everyone. She gave them packages. Only her father and this guy sued her.”

  “So the man who’s suing her is coming to us to sell her out?” Well, that was about as shady as it got. “I’ll call Curt and tell him I don’t want to have anything to do with the man.”

  The decision made him feel good. He wasn’t going to fall into that trap.

  Was it a trap?

  Mitch’s eyes narrowed. “Is this like what you said about talking to Wade and I’m going to go home and the dude will have moved in with you tomorrow?”

  A guy makes one little course correction and he’s got sarcasm forever. “No, I’ll call him right now. Do you see me? This is me calling.”

  He picked up his cell and hit the button that would connect him with his CEO, Curt Hamilton. It was to his personal line so Flynn didn’t have to go through either of the two assistants the man kept with him at all times.

  “Adler, I thought I was going to have to call the troops in to find you,” a deep voice said over the line.

  “You did. Mitch is here.”

  He chuckled. “Well. Trust the lawyer to get things done for once. Did he explain the situation to you? The man’s name is Ray Paulsen and he’s legit. I’ve checked into his background and he really did work for Slaten for years. Apparently he ran afoul of the daughter. She’s a ball-busting bitch according to him.”

  “Hey, don’t talk about her that way.” His anger flared.

  “What?”

  “How about we keep the sexual harassment to a minimum and just say she’s tough?” He couldn’t explain to his CEO that he was kind of involved with their biggest rival and now he wanted to punch Curt’s nose through the back of his face because he’d called her a bitch. She wasn’t a bitch. She was tough and smart. That made her good in his book.

  Unless she was setting him up. It occurred to him that planting someone like this Paulsen guy could put them in a bad position. He could also say anything he wanted, feeding them false information and causing chaos. If the employees knew there was a spy hunt, it could demoralize the entire company and they would lose some of their best talent.

  It would be a sneaky play.

  “Ray Paulsen is also suing her,” Flynn stated flatly. The jury was still out on whether this was a ploy of Amy’s or her way of figuring him out. He wasn’t sure and he wasn’t going to push it. Things were going well between them right now. Eventually he was going to sit her down and explain that he’d known who she was all along and they needed to come to an agreement on how to end this feud.

  If she wasn’t here to take the fight to a whole different level.

  “That’s not on us,” Curt replied. “That’s on him. He’s the one who stands to lose. Listen, let me put him on the payroll for a few weeks and see what shakes out. I’ll talk to him and that’s all it has to be. We gather some information and find out what’s happening over there. Consider it a fact finding mission.”

  He made it sound so reasonable. “No. We don’t need spies.”

  “You’re joking, right? Tell me you’re not that naïve, Flynn. You do understand two of the people she fired after she took over had been plants from your father. He knew what it took to do business these days.”

  He’d known his father was ruthless. “I’m not my dad. I don’t want to play like that.”

  “So you’re willing to let Slaten send spies in here. Look, we’re in the middle of negotiations to buy a company that will make your pet project work, right? If we can’t get the infrastructure to ensure we’re capable of selling that software, it’s utterly useless.”

  He didn’t need a lecture. “I expect you to be smart enough to buy the company. What can Slaten do?”

  “Slaten can find out what our bid is and outbid us,” Curt pointed out. “They can do any number of things. If there’s a spy on the team negotiating they can tank the entire process. Look, I called you as a courtesy to let you know what I’m planning on doing. I’ve got an ironclad contract so unless you want to pay me my salary and the guaranteed ten million you’ll owe me if you fire me, you should let me do my job.”

  “Is he strong-arming you?” Mitch asked, his loafer tapping against the marble floor. “Because we can get rid of him.”

  For a ton of money and he would have to go back to California and run the damn thing himself while he put on another exhaustive search for a CEO. He would have to leave the training program.

  He would have to leave Amy and he wouldn’t have the chance to figure her out. Wasn’t that meaningful, too?

  If he wanted to go up against the CEO, he would have to get the board together and they would have to vote. A no confidence vote against Hamilton could potentially trigger his contract based on whether it was on philosophy or incompetence.

  If the board would vote his way. The board was still from his father’s era. They would likely be all for Hamilton’s maneuvers.

  Frustration welled inside him. It was his fucking company and he was in a corner. “You be careful with this. Do you understand me?”

  A sigh of blatant relief came over the line. “I’m going to let security handle it, and if Mitch wants to come over and talk to Paulsen himself, I think that might be a good idea. He’s got a great sense for telling bullshit from the truth. I’m not trying to cause trouble here. I know you’re sensitive to the way your dad conducted business, but he was right to treat Slaten like an enemy. I don’t think you understand how far the Slatens were willing to go to fuck with your dad.”

  “Do you know why? My father never talked about it with me.” It was a mystery to him.

  “I think it was personal. The rumors are at one point your father might have embarrassed Slaten or something. He held a grudge and it looks like his daughter is carrying on the family tradition.”

  There were still problems with Hamilton’s plan. “Paulsen’s a disgruntled employee. I don’t think we can count on him to be honest about the woman who fired him.”

  “Flynn, I know that you want to be an idealist and stay above the fray. That’s precisely why you hired me. I also know that eventually you’re going to want to sell this company and start your own. Let me do my job. Let me get you the best price we can get so you can start with more than enough money to be the businessman you want to be. I knew your father. He would want that for you. He had to get down in the mud and fight it out so you wouldn’t have to.”

  The man was saying all the right things. “Like I said, be careful. Send me an update.”

  He hung up the phone.

  Mitch groaned. “This is why I don’t want to run that fucking company. Look, how do you want to handle this? If you’re unhappy with Hamilton, we pay him and get his ass out of here. I can get the board votes for you.”

  He was so close to beta testing his software. So fucking close. It would be exactly what Hamilton had said. If they could get the infrastructure in place, they could sell it and then everyone would make a ton of money. If Chase wanted to run the company, Flynn would pass it happily off to him. If he didn’t, Flynn would likely have enough money that he could be free.

  “He says you can come up and talk to him,” Flynn explained. “He’s going to be careful. He says this guy might know something about what Slaten is planning in the next few months.”

  “And if he’s lying?”

  “At least we’ll know we looked into it.” He was suddenly tired. “Is he right? Am I being idealistic?”

  “Probably, but you have good intentions. Look, keep those good intentions going with Amy. You like the girl. That’s obvious. She’s not her father, but that doesn’t mean she won’t do what it takes to protect her business and it also doesn’t mean she’s not somewhere sitting in her office and having to listen to a million different voices telling her what to do. Just like you a
re. She’s got a board to answer to and I’m not sure they’re in the best position financially right now. I can say that because it’s merely an opinion. I’m no longer her advisor in any way. But I watch the markets and I listen. Her father isn’t giving up. He’s hell-bent on causing trouble. Amy’s got to prove her worth or that board will oust her.”

  “You think she wants to prove her worth by taking our contracts?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?”

  There was a very good reason for that. “Because the minute I do that, I can no longer learn anything about her. Right now she thinks I don’t know who she is.”

  “Does it matter? You can’t negotiate with her unless you’re honest.”

  “This is more than fucking business, Mitch.” The words exploded in a wave of frustration. Damn it. He hadn’t meant to admit that. Not really.

  “You want her.”

  He turned and stared out the ceiling-to-floor glass windows. They offered him a phenomenal view of the city. At night he could swear he was all alone in the world.

  He didn’t want to be alone anymore and that wasn’t strictly about being lonely. He wanted her.

  “I think I could care about her, but I need time.”

  “All right,” Mitch conceded, “but I’m going to look into this and I’m going to oversee everything Hamilton does.”

  His cell phone trilled. He frowned as he realized it was the number for the Dallas Police Department. His stomach flipped and he prayed Chase wasn’t in trouble again. He’d done so well for so long.

  He picked it up and slid his thumb across the screen to accept. “Hello?”

  “Flynn, I’m in trouble. Can you help me?” It was a soft, familiar voice. One that played through his dreams lately.

  He was out the door in a flash.

  * * * *

  Amy pushed the still damp hair out of her face and wished she was seeing his condo under better circumstances. “I’m all right. You could have taken me home.”

  The elevator doors opened but not to some hallway. They were suddenly in his home and it was spectacular. She hadn’t realized he was a man of quite these means.