by Lexi Blake
“Is Chase out of class early today?” Flynn asked.
Mitch shrugged. “No idea. You should probably tell him you’re going to merge Glendale with your sub’s company. He’ll be thrilled. He doesn’t want the job any more than you do.”
At least he didn’t have to worry about his brothers being upset about handing over a multimillion-dollar company to his girlfriend.
But one day that girl was going to be his wife. He just knew it.
The doors opened and he felt a smile cross his face. Amy walked out of the elevator, still dressed for her meeting.
And then his smile died because the expression on her face was a careful blank and she wasn’t alone. Liam O’Donnell stood beside her and he wasn’t bothering with a blank expression. He looked thunderously angry.
Mitch cursed and stood up. “Li, I can explain.”
“You fucking better be able to, Mitch, because you know how Big Tag is going to handle this. You better be damn happy I’m the one on your doorstep and not him. Fuck all. You know he can’t handle this shite right now and here ya are, helping your brother scam my bloody client.” The Irishman continued his curse-filled rant.
Flynn felt the bottom drop out of his world. He wasn’t sure how she’d found out, but she definitely knew he’d kept something from her. He turned to Amy. “Baby, we need to talk.”
She looked through him. “I only came along with Li because I left a few things here. I’ll get them and then I’ll be out of your way. You and your brother can continue with whatever meeting you were having.”
She started to walk back toward the bedroom, ignoring him utterly. He hated the blank expression on her face, loathed how shut down she was. This was supposed to be her big day. Win or lose she was supposed to feel something, and it looked like she was completely ice cold.
He’d done that to her.
“What happened? How did you find out?”
Her voice was as cold as her expression. “How did I find out you were playing me? Well, I learned it the way I learn all the hard lessons in my life. I learned it from my father. I suppose you weren’t afraid of him outing you because you already knew what he was doing.”
The words stopped him in his tracks. “What do you mean?”
She kept going. “He’s been following me. I guess you made it easy for his PIs. Having an affair with you won’t go over well with my board. I’ll either be conspiring against my own company or too stupid to realize I was sleeping with the enemy.”
He had to jog to catch up with her. What had her father done? If he found out Hamilton had anything to do with this, he would kill the fucker himself. “We’re not enemies. Our fathers might have been, but we’re not. You and me. We’re Flynn and Amy and not our dads.”
She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of pajamas she’d left there. He’d liked her having a drawer. He wanted her to take up half the space. He wanted to open his closet and see her clothes hanging alongside his. “No, you’re worse than your father. From what I can tell your dad merely reacted to mine being a complete dick. I’m sure he did something awful to start the feud.”
“He slept with my father’s first wife.”
She turned, her eyes flaring. “So you decided to pay my dad back by fucking his daughter? I could have told you that wouldn’t work. He doesn’t care about me. The minute I broke with him I became less than an insect to that man. All he wants to do now is step on me and be done with it.”
At least there was some emotion in her now. “I would never do that. Not to any woman much less one I care about.”
“It’s over Flynn. I got Clannahan to sign so if you’re trying to protect your place with me so you can torch my negotiations, you’re too late.”
He smiled, a real genuine relief. “You got them? Baby, I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.”
Dark eyes rolled as she reached for the bracelet she’d left on the dresser top. “Sure you are. What’s the game now? You didn’t get Clannahan so you’re trying to find another angle.”
He’d found his angle. “There’s no game here. There’s just one insanely stupid man. I should have told you in the beginning. I recognized you. I knew who you were. I went to Sanctum on that first night to explain to Wade why I couldn’t be your training Dom.”
“You didn’t explain very well, did you?” Sarcasm dripped from her mouth.
He ignored it. She deserved a few digs. “I saw you and I knew I had to have you. No matter what the cost was. At the time I thought the cost would all be mine because I was absolutely certain you were the one playing me.”
She snorted. “Now you know. I’m far too stupid to ever win a game with you, Adler.”
“No games, Amy. I wasn’t lying. I saw you and I knew I had to try with you. God, do you think I get that jealous of all the women I’ve recently met? I acted like an idiot that day because something deep inside me had already connected with you. You kissed me and it was more erotic and intimate than all the women I’d slept with before you.”
“Don’t bother. It’s not going to work.”
But her face had flushed and her breathing had picked up. He moved in, taking up more space. She held her ground as he got closer.
“It has to work. It has to because you’re so fucking important to me.”
Her eyes were on his chest, as though she didn’t dare trade stares with him. “If I was, then you would have told me. You thought I was trying to steal your software, didn’t you?”
“At first. Your father sent a lot of spies our way, pet.”
“Don’t call me that,” she demanded, her voice rough with emotion. Finally, some emotion.
“All right, I’ll stop for now, but know I’m using it in my head because I can’t think of you and not want to pet you, not want to have you curled in my lap and purring in my arms.”
Now those eyes came up, flashing fire. “Yes, I suppose I did seem like an idiot kitten to you, didn’t I?”
“Not at all.” He had to stay calm. He wanted to force her to listen to him, but he had to use persuasion. It was everything he’d been afraid of. Maybe in order to get past his lie it was time for him to start telling her the truth. No matter how vulnerable it made him. “You’re everything, Amy. I did worry you’d manipulated your way into my house so you could take the software. It’s everything I’ve been working on for years and I still risked it because I wanted you so badly.”
“Or you wanted to catch me.”
He shook his head. “I wanted you.”
“So you didn’t watch me carefully? I should have known there was a reason you insisted on taking me to and from work and spending all your free time with me.”
“That was because I was already crazy about you. I didn’t want to spend a minute away from you.”
She wasn’t having it. “Did you or did you not put security measures in place after that first morning?”
He winced, but he was determined to be nothing but honest with her from now on. He’d fucked it up so badly. “I had Simon Weston put in some cameras because it looked like someone had tried to get into the tower to take the drive. It turned out to be not a screwdriver but my housekeeper’s old vacuum cleaner. It had some metal parts and she scratched it up when she was trying to clean the rug around it. I felt so stupid I bought her a new one.”
“You took video?”
“Yeah, but only until I figured out what had happened.” He realized what she was worried about and shook his head immediately. They’d made love at his desk. “No, baby. There was a tiny camera and it was at the same level as the tower. No one could see more than legs. I swear.”
She’d turned a brilliant shade of pink. “You’re a bastard. Whoever watched those tapes knew. They knew what we were doing.”
“I watched them. I definitely knew what we were doing because I was there. Simon loaned me the cameras as a favor. I did all the surveillance.”
“And who ran all the checks on me?” Amy asked. “According to Adam Mil
es, someone’s run several rather invasive checks into my background and my finances. Were you looking for some kind of payoff for me spying on you?”
At least she was listening. “No and that was all in the beginning. I called off everyone a few weeks ago.”
“Everyone except your CEO, who seems to be in league with my father.”
“I’m going to fire him. That’s what Mitch is doing here today. Go and look at the paperwork. I’m going to pay his ass off and get rid of the fucker because I won’t let anyone treat you like that. I didn’t realize what he was doing until last night.” He moved in again and this time he got his hands on her arms and put his forehead to hers. “We can call him. Hell, I’ll let you give him the news. I don’t care. I just need you to forgive me. I know I should have told you, but I was happy. God, for the first fucking time in my life I was really happy and I was scared to lose it.”
For a second he thought she would turn her face up and let him kiss her, let him put everything he was feeling that second into something physical. He wasn’t sure words were enough.
“I can’t believe you.” She stepped away and moved around him.
He followed her back down the hall. “Think about it, Amy. Why would I lie now except that I truly want you? I’ve got nothing left to lose. You have the company we were fighting over. I know you won’t believe me but I told my CEO to let Clannahan go.”
She turned on him. “Is that what you’re trying to say? Now it’s all your doing that I won the contract?”
That had been a trap he’d fallen into. “Not at all. You won that fair and square and I want to hear all about it. I was praying we could celebrate tonight.”
“I’m sure you were. You’ll forgive me if I don’t see you again. I’m leaving the training program and I expect that you will never contact me.”
He reached out for her hand. “Don’t do this, Amy.”
“Get your hand off her right now,” a dark voice said.
“I would do what he says, Flynn. He’s got a gun and he won’t hesitate to use it.” Mitch and Liam O’Donnell were standing in the living room, staring at them. Mitch’s face was tight as though he hadn’t enjoyed what was likely a very tense conversation with O’Donnell.
He’d gotten his brother in trouble, too.
He dropped Amy’s hand, but he couldn’t let her go. “Please stay and talk to me.”
She turned.
When he tried to follow her, he found a massive Irishman in his way.
“Mr. O’Donnell, this is between me and my sub.” He couldn’t let her go. Not like this. Maybe not ever.
Mitch cursed under his breath. “You’ve had your Sanctum membership revoked, Flynn. And Li is here in a professional capacity. He won’t back off. He handles security for Slaten. In this case, he’s acting as Ms. Slaten’s bodyguard.”
“She doesn’t need a bodyguard.” What the hell was happening? How had everything fallen apart in the course of a single afternoon?
“I’ve been lax,” O’Donnell said, his jaw tight. “I’m supposed to protect the company from spies and the head of the company from people who want to use her. I won’t make the same mistake again. Ms. Slaten, have you gotten everything you need?”
She nodded, her eyes cold.
“Then why don’t you wait for me in the lobby?” O’Donnell asked. “I need to make a few things plain to Mr. Adler.”
“Don’t walk away,” he pleaded.
She turned and was in the elevator. The doors closed and she was gone.
He couldn’t breathe. What the fuck had he done?
O’Donnell stared at him. “I need you to understand that if I find you around my employer again, I’ll take ya out meself and I won’t care a damn that you’re Mitch’s brother. Do you have any idea the trouble you’ve caused for him?”
“He didn’t know.” He had to get Mitch out of this.
“Of course I did,” Mitch replied.
“The only reason I’m not pushing to revoke his membership is the fact that he’s also your lawyer,” O’Donnell continued. “We’ve got the clusterfuck of a situation that both you and Amy are clients of McKay-Taggart. Simon and Jesse are your liaisons. We’ll be having a long meeting to try to figure out if we can reasonably keep both Glendale and Slaten as clients after all this fucking mess.”
“Don’t you drop her. Please don’t drop her. I’ll find someone else.” He couldn’t cost her another thing.
O’Donnell was quiet for a minute and then switched his focus to Mitch. “You weren’t kidding, were you?”
Mitch sighed. “I told you this wasn’t about business. I’m pretty sure he’d been burned before and he was scared. He’s in love with her.”
He felt like an idiot standing there between the two older men, but he couldn’t lie. “I do love her. I swear I wasn’t planning on taking her company. I was going to try to give her mine.”
O’Donnell seemed to soften slightly. “So you’re nothing but a dumbass. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“Mitch is right. I’ve been stupid. I knew about a week in that she wouldn’t spy on me. My fiancée…I found out she was marrying me for money. She took some work product and sold it to a rival company. I’m sure she intended to do much more of that after the wedding. She had a secret account and a secret lover she funneled money to.”
“Amy’s nothing like that,” O’Donnell pointed out.
“I know that, but I…I don’t know what I was thinking. After a few weeks, I was just fucking scared to tell her because I knew I’d been wrong. I wanted something to give to her to make up for it somehow. And then she told me how much she hated me. The real me, not the one she knew.”
“I doubt that woman could truly hate anyone,” Mitch said with a frown. “I don’t think she hates you now. I think she’s hurt.”
“You’ll have to forgive Mitchell. He’s very good at pointing out the obvious,” O’Donnell said with a shake of his head. “You poor bastard. You screwed up with her. I’ll let Big Tag know you prefer to leave over her if it comes to that. We don’t normally have these kinds of conflicts of interest. You can see why it causes headaches. Look, maybe I was harsh on you but I can’t let you around her if she doesn’t want you there.”
“Her father is coming after her. You have to stop him.” He wasn’t sure of everything that was going on with her father, but he knew her father wanted his place back and it looked like he was going to use Flynn to further that goal.
He couldn’t be the reason she lost her company. Even if he offered her the job at Glendale, it wouldn’t make up for losing Slaten. She’d sacrificed for Slaten.
O’Donnell turned to Mitch. “She’s got her own lawyers working on that, but I think if the bastard calls a vote, she’s going to be short. Unless someone could figure out a way to sway the board. Or perhaps buy up enough stock that they would have a voting share. The way I figure it, she needs two more votes to be safe.”
Mitch frowned. “That could cost millions. I mean millions of dollars and with absolutely no guarantee that she would come back to him. She might see it as the beginnings of a hostile takeover. That is if we could even get one of the board members to sell. Slaten used to have a strict no-sell policy to anyone other than family.”
O’Donnell continued. “Ah, but Amy thought that was a draconian law. She had it taken out of the bylaws along with the morality codes. And she likely wouldn’t see it as a hostile takeover if he signed the stock over to her once he’d voted.”
“You can’t expect him to do that,” Mitch argued. “You’re talking about at least ten million. It could be far more than that to get two freaking board votes. He’s not going to turn around and hand it over.”
“I’ll do it.” He would have to sell the condo. He would fucking have to sell just about everything, but he knew in an instant none of it mattered if he didn’t have her.
God, he had to pray it worked.
The elevator chimed again and he turned to the door a
s Mitch began to argue against the utterly insane plan. Amy. She was coming back. He could talk to her. He could make her see reason.
Instead, the doors opened and he saw Amy had sicced someone else on him because her brother-in-law entered the room like a bull in search of someone to gore.
Will Daley strode in, still in his scrubs. “You son of a bitch. I swear to god, I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to kill your brother.”
Mitch held his hands up. “He’s going to pay ten million to buy two board seats so Amy doesn’t lose Slaten and then he’s going to sign all the stock over to her.”
Wow. That had gone down fast. It looked like all Mitch had needed to get on board with Flynn spending his entire fortune on the hopes that a girl would like him was his best friend threatening to kill them all.
Will stopped in the middle of the room. “Are you serious?”
At least he might get one of her family members on his side. “Yes, but you can’t tell her because right now she would likely try to block me. She’s angry, but I swear I’m going to get her out of this mess and make sure her father can’t screw with her ever again. I love her.”
“I think you’re right about her blocking you,” Will said with a frown. “I don’t know that she would allow you to save her from drowning right now.” He looked to Mitch. “Is it that bad? Could she lose the company?”
Mitch put a hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “It’s bad, but I think we can accomplish what we need to with one vote.”
“I think it’s worse than it looks on paper,” O’Donnell said with a grimace. “I want him to buy two votes which means he’ll need someone else to vote the second share. I was thinking Mitch, but maybe you want to do it. Bridget already has a vote. She’s the only one we can count on.”
Flynn shook his head. “No. I’ve got someone else in mind. I’ll handle this. I’ll make sure she doesn’t lose Slaten.”
“Are you really going to do this?” Will asked, looking him straight in the eyes.
He had to do it. It would cost him everything he had, but now he realized she was the only thing that mattered. “I’ll put the condo on the market tomorrow, but I’ve heard Simon’s cousin wanted to buy it before I did so I’ll call Michael Malone tonight and see if I can work out a deal.”
