“Thank you, Fred.” Griffin opened his blazer and put his hands in his pockets. “As Fred mentioned, I’m here to assess your jobs and work out which tasks can be automated by the program. Theoretically, this will leave you all time to hunt more important stories. If you’re a person whose job consists of fifty percent or more dispensable tasks, then you will be made redundant and roles will be merged. I will analyze data on record to see how your stories come into the system, how they are delegated, and the process on getting them investigated, researched, written and then put online. I will also be spending time with individuals from each department to account for data errors so I can adjust my recommendations accordingly. Any questions?”
Silence.
Tall Guy lifted his hand. “Yeah, who died and made you God?”
Griffin narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps I’ll start with you first. Mr.…?”
“Doppenger,” he replied, still with a smug smirk on his face. “Donald Doppenger. My friends call me Don, or Donnie if you’re really close.”
With that, he winked at Lilo who wasn’t even looking. In fact, she still seemed to want to get as far away from the man as she could.
Griffin stared at the man while he chewed the name over in his head with appropriate associations. He wore dark clothes, his greed was deep, but the easiest connection Griffin could pull was: Demanding.
“I’m not here to make friends,” Griffin said.
Doppenger scowled.
Sensing the change in room dynamics, Fred stood up. “Ah… Perhaps you can start with someone else. Don prefers to work alone.”
Griffin arched a brow. “No one is exempt, Donald. For your information, the CEO of your newspaper hired me directly.”
“Stories can’t be automated by a computer, man!” Donald growled. “It’s hard, thankless work. I should know. I’ve been nominated twice for a Pulitzer.”
“Nominated. So you didn’t win.” Griffin knew he shouldn’t have said it the moment the words came out of his mouth. The temperature in the room dropped to arctic. He tried to recover. “This company doesn’t run on nominations. It runs on dollars and cents, which are currently hemorrhaging from every department.”
Doppenger raised his voice in argument, but Griffin put up his hand, stopping him.
“Fine,” Griffin said. “I don’t need to start with you.”
“Why don’t we see what stories we have today, and go from there, yeah?” Fred opened the manila file in front of him.
Inwardly, Griffin cringed. Still using paper and pen. He looked around the table and noticed many of the staff also had a notebook and pencil. Except one sitting on the opposite side of Lilo. A petite blond woman with pouty lips and round eyes. She fluttered her lashes at Griffin when their eyes met, then went back to her laptop, coyly glancing back at him now and then.
“Okay, what’s come in this morning?” Fred asked. “Anyone got something new?”
One by one, the people around the table detailed what they were working on. Already, Griffin could see holes in their process. Fred relied on each individual to volunteer for stories instead of always delegating from the start. When everyone was done, Fred lifted some papers from his file, and read through each sheet.
“I’ve got a handful of floaters here. You know the drill. Shout out if any tickle your fancy. Robbery at Kent Street Jewelers this morning reportedly foiled by two vigilantes. Damage bill could be extreme.”
Lilo raised her hand in the air, her mouth opened, but Doppenger cut her off.
“I’ll take it,” he said.
Lilo frowned and lowered her hand.
Dislike for the man immediately simmered in Griffin’s blood.
Fred still read the data sheet. “Hold on. One of the perps is called Liota.” His gaze lifted to Lilo. “Relative of yours?”
She paled. “Uh… I’m not sure. I don’t really speak to any of them anymore. I haven’t been a Liota for years.”
Was she married? Divorced?
“Well, you can take this one, Lil. Go to the cop shop and see what you can weasel out of the fella. Familial connection might get you through the door.”
“But—” Donald started.
“Any connection is a good connection, you know that, Don,” Fred stated.
“Well, she can do with a helping hand getting past the cops. I can go with her.”
She’s sitting right next to you, Griffin thought. She has a name.
“I’ll go with her.” Griffin found himself volunteering.
All eyes swung to him.
He elaborated: “My sister works there, and it will give me a chance to assess Miss Likeke’s process.”
Chapter Five
Lilo arrived back at her desk flustered. First, she was being forced to interview her estranged cousin Nathanial, second, because Donnie had tried to muscle his way in on her story and, third, because the uber hot geek god was coming with her and would be watching and assessing everything she did.
“You all right, hun?” Bev asked as she returned to her desk.
“Yes. All fine.” She would be fine.
Lilo’s gaze tracked from Bev’s blue hair to the poster pinned on her side of the partition wall. It was her Deadly Seven vision board. Pictures and newspaper clippings were pinned over it. Her favorite photo was of the vigilante Greed, taken two years ago at the scene of the bombing. Having just pulled a victim from the rubble, he’d been standing in the dust, a dark masculine silhouette outlined in white cloud. The photographer had won a prize for that shot. Lilo knew the vigilantes weren’t to blame for that tragedy and had been furious at Donnie for writing the story that accused them. Why would they rescue people from the rubble if they were responsible for bringing the building down?
Donnie replied that causing a tragedy so they could come to the rescue was classic psychopath behavior.
Bev had drawn a red heart around the photo, and Candy had printed and laminated a picture of Lilo making a kiss-face and stuck it next to Greed. Don’t ask Lilo how Candy had sourced that image, but it made Lilo laugh, so she left it there.
Her eyes moved to a clipping she was proud of: the one where a few months ago Envy had saved the city from the white-robed terrorists in the street. She’d titled it, Vigilante, or Superhero? Because that was the first day any of the Deadly Seven had been seen using a supernatural ability. He’d electrocuted the terrorists with his bare hands, bringing the ring-leader down. The feature image had been taken on her camera-phone and showed Envy in full battle gear, swords out—yes he had two of them! A green mouth scarf concealed his identity. Two menacing eyes looked at the camera, burning holes right through Lilo.
Her hand fluttered to her throat at the memory. Water had sprayed from a damaged hydrant. Two vehicles had crashed. A crazy man had a gun. There was a hostage and injured bystanders. Bedlam. A police woman had tried to take control of the scene, but it was Envy who stole the show.
Seeing the deadly warrior in action made Lilo understand why they all had online fan-clubs. There were Instagram accounts dedicated to each of the Deadly Seven. She’d scrolled through the accounts once or twice herself. The naked man chest pictures of imagined heroes were all in the name of research, she kept telling herself. Each Instagram account speculated on the true identity of the five men and two women in the group and posted ideal specimen examples. None of them were real, of course, but it got a girl wondering.
What she wouldn’t give to break that story.
Speaking of breaking a story, how was Lilo going to survive the morning working next to Griffin? Not only was she freaking from his watchful eye and possible risk to her job security, but seeing the way he took control of that meeting had been magnetic. That same kind of take-charge personality had been what initially attracted her to Donnie. That was, until he became too domineering. She shivered involuntarily, forcing her thoughts away. She wouldn’t think about him right now. That relationship had taken everything she had to offer, and then some. No. It was much safer to f
antasize about the unobtainable men of the Deadly Seven.
After a quick glance at her vision board, she dragged her attention back to her computer and set about finding the details for the precinct she was to visit. At least it wasn’t the dog-toilet bowl story.
“How could you?” a gruff voice accused from behind.
She turned to face the man who made her ovaries shrink. “How could I what, Donnie?”
“I needed that story.”
“I can’t help it if Fred assigned it to me.”
Donnie’s brows lowered. “Using your corrupt family connection is underhanded.”
“You know very well I’ve ex-communicated myself from that family and, besides, you didn’t seem to care where the lead came from when I gave you a story last week.”
“And since then? Nothing. You’re only looking out for yourself.”
Lilo’s jaw dropped. Seriously? She gave him every single leak her father sent her way about the crime syndicates running the city. Four years’ worth! From the moment she started working at Cardinal Copy, all leads from her father went to Donnie. It was how he’d been nominated for the damned Pulitzer.
She wanted nothing to do with it. Either the leaks were her father’s warped way of showing he cared, or he used Lilo for his own gain—snitching on the competitors to get rid of them.
Even as the defiant thoughts ran through her brain, she knew she couldn’t speak them. Donnie had a way of overriding her senses. After she left her family, she spent years starved for affection until Donnie pounced on her vulnerability. The moment he discovered her family connection, he pretended to sympathize with her. Lilo saw it clearly now. All she did in their relationship was give, give, give. She cooked the dinners, cleaned his apartment, let him have all the say in the bedroom until, finally, she couldn’t function properly. Literally. The day she realized she couldn’t orgasm without his help was the day she broke up with him.
You’ve had someone making your decisions your entire life, he’d shouted. You’ll never be fulfilled without me.
If only he knew how true that statement was. She hated him.
Yet... Donnie leaned against her partition and gave her a smile that brightened his face into something she once thought was boyishly handsome.
“Princess,” he chided. “You know you bring out the best in me.”
The best? She was sure that had been the worst.
“I’ve not been the same since you left,” he said, voice coaxing. “I need you. Come back to me.”
“Donnie…”
“I still have your toothbrush in my cabinet.”
Her eyes fluttered closed. She knew she was going to regret this. Somehow the man managed to get under her skin and… “Maybe you can tag along.”
Donnie folded his arms. “I work alone. You know this.”
Her fingers gripped her keyboard.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Griffin’s voice had both of them jumping. He stood glaring and imposing, holding out an assignment sheet to Donnie. “Fred asked me to give you this, Donald. It appears to be an assignment.”
“You’re not my boss,” he growled and snatched the sheet from Griffin. With each passing second, fury mottled his complexion as he read. “This is about a man suing his dog for saving his life,” he said incredulously.
“Indeed.” Griffin opened his blazer and slipped his hands into his pockets. Some would have called his pose peacocking, but on him, it looked damned sexy.
Griffin cocked his head at Donnie. “Unless you have a better story to chase?”
Somehow, Griffin’s confidence rubbed off. If he could stand up to Donnie with no problems, then she could too. Stuff Donnie.
“You don’t though, do you Donnie?” Lilo asked, but shrunk a little when the full menace of Donnie’s gaze turned her way. “I mean, you were just here asking for a lead, so I assume you have nothing else.”
Her ex-lover glared at her for a moment before turning his rage toward Griffin.
The two men faced off for what seemed an age, and then strangely, out of nowhere, a stapler flew through the air and hit Donnie on the back of the head. He jerked forward from the impact. Both men gaped and looked around for the source of the throw. Obviously that was what it was—someone threw it. Must have been.
Maybe it had been Bev. She hated the shmendrik.
“What the hell?” Donnie rubbed his head, cheeks staining pink. “Where did that come from?”
“Maybe the wind.” Griffin shrugged.
Donnie rolled the assignment sheet into a tube and pointed it at Griffin. “This isn’t over.”
“I know,” Griffin said. “I’ll be seeing you later for your assessment.”
After Donnie stormed off, Lilo breathed a sigh of relief and said to Griffin, “You know you’ve made an enemy for life, right?”
“I’m not afraid of him. You shouldn’t be either.”
Those few confident words made Lilo sit up straighter. He was right. She shouldn’t be. Donnie was the only person in the world who made her feel small, but he couldn’t harm her now. Somehow, sitting next to the powerhouse man, Lilo felt strong—especially because none of that Lazarus fire was directed at her. If anything, Griffin seemed to be going out of his way to stand up for her. It was time to start putting Donnie in the same basket as every other dickhead in the world. Not hers.
“I’ve called my contact at the precinct,” Griffin said. “She’s ready for us.”
“Thank you for that. It seems I owe you another one.”
Griffin adjusted his glasses awkwardly and a pink tinge flushed his handsome cheeks. “No. I told you, I don’t want you to owe me anything.”
Was he blushing?
Lilo cocked her head and studied. His cheeks held a definite flush. He suddenly became occupied with looking anywhere but at her. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was nervous to be around her. Only one reason a man became nervous around a woman. Sex.
The idea that Griffin actually desired her gave her the courage to say in a sultry tone, “That’s a shame. You might have liked what I had to offer.”
Chapter Six
Griffin drove Lilo to the precinct in his black Escalade, still flustered over her last words to him.
You might have liked what I had to offer.
In the small cabin of the car, he couldn’t ignore the woman. This close to her, the sense of greed took a back seat to everything else.
It was fifteen minutes of heated agony.
Bubblegum and feminine musk surrounded him, as though it pumped through the car’s internal filtration system. Her presence licked at his skin, tempting him to reach out and touch, to see what she felt like.
Would he be irritated by the contact, like he was most other times he was touched? Or would it be as she said, and he liked what she offered?
No. That wasn’t what she meant. It was his own irrational biological response picking up sexual tension where there was none. It took every ounce of control to keep his hands on the steering wheel.
Eventually, he dared a glance her way, and then found he had difficulty pulling back. The morning sun on her shoulder-length brown hair cast an orange halo. Every so often, she would fiddle with her gold hoop earrings, sigh and then rest her head on her palm as she gazed wistfully out the window, watching the city whiz by.
In her profile, her lashes were long and her cheekbones were high. Definitely attractive. Beautiful, even. Griffin checked the road, then went back to her. Her worn denim jacket was open enough to see olive skin from her delicate collar bone, dipping to a precious swell of breast before hiding beneath a white collared shirt. His gaze continued to where her hand tucked between the long flowing folds of her floral patterned skirt, knees squeezed together, as though she too felt the same charged energy bouncing between them.
Did that mean she was as taken as he?
The thought tripped a switch in his body. His mouth went dry, his cock stirred, and heat prickled his skin in waves. The metal
in the car rattled, and he felt an intrinsic connection between his skin and the car. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm. The last time his ability showed its face was with the stapler on Donnie's head. Before that, it was in his office. Each time he managed to manipulate metal, he’d been thinking about Lilo. It seemed his new ability surged when he was around her. Maybe in a protective instinct. He had to keep it together.
He loosened his tie and stifled a groan when he caught Lilo squeezing her knees together again.
This was torture.
In a desperate attempt to command his internal physiology, he tried to come up with some association words for her, but every word his mind projected made it worse. Lovely. Luscious. Luminous.
The prickling washing over him increased in intensity. He patted his cheek with the back of his hand. Yes, he was a little damp. Sweaty. Hot.
A car horn beeped. He tugged the steering wheel to veer back into the correct lane.
“Sorry,” he muttered, mentally chiding himself.
He could feel her eyes on him, and needed a quick distraction, so blurted out a question.
“How did a girl like you end up working in a place like Cardinal Copy?”
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns of the world…” Lilo spoke in a strange low voice then chuckled.
It was such an odd thing to say. “No, I said Cardinal Copy. Not gin joint.”
She gasped and turned to him with vivid attention. “You’ve never seen Casablanca?”
“No, I’ve never been there. Went to Spain once, but that’s as close as I’ve been.”
Lilo laughed. “It’s an old movie with Humphrey Bogart, you silly.”
So… not the place in Morocco? He shook his head, feeling more and more out of sorts.
“No, I haven’t seen it.”
“Wow. You’re missing out. Casablanca is one of my favorites.”
“I don’t have time to watch movies.”
“You don’t? What do you do for fun?”
Another odd question. “Work.”
“For fun? I need to take you out dancing or something.”
Greed: A Superhero Romance (The Deadly Seven Book 2) Page 4
