Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
She doesn’t laugh. “Yes, but it should really come from you.”
“I can’t with my mother right now, so feel free to steal that thunder.”
“She’ll call you,” she warns, because her own mothering tendencies can’t be tamed, even if it means she’s protecting me from my own mother.
“Right,” I say dryly. “Tell her after the board meeting happens, which is now next Monday.”
“Why? I thought it was today?”
“I’ll explain later. I need to go. I’ll be in mid-morning if anyone is looking for me.”
“Three of the board members already came hunting.”
“They can wait in hell while burning to death, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Got it. Blow them off. Check. What else?”
“Nothing.” My phone starts buzzing, and I glance at caller ID to find Caleb calling, his urgency setting off alarms. “I have a call coming in I need to take. Talk later.” I flip to Caleb and answer with, “I’ve never known you to be impatient.”
“I just watched your father pick Alana’s mother up at her apartment.”
A cold, hollow feeling settles in my gut. This is going nowhere good, and Alana is going to be the one who gets hurt. “Then it’s not over.”
“No, it’s not over. Now ask me why I was at her parent’s apartment in the first place.”
Holy hell, I think. “Do I want to know?”
“He has me following her father again.”
“Did that ever end?”
“For me it did, though I know for a fact he had cheaper eyes on him. But he has me now, and I’m expensive.”
My fingers thrum on my knee. “Any idea why?”
“You’re fucking with him. And don’t think for a minute you’re immune to his evil because you’re his son.”
I give a humorless laugh. “You do know who you’re talking to, right?”
“It’s easy to forget when he’s in this close proximity. He won’t come at you directly. He’ll come at what you love. And that means Alana.”
My fingers go still and then curl into my palm. “I’m aware. I’m keeping her close.”
“Get her protection. You’ve been warned.” He disconnects.
Chapter sixteen
I arrive at the Starbucks next door to Alexander’s office, where we’ve agreed to meet in the next fifteen minutes. With time to kill, I order a drink and settle at a private corner table, with Caleb’s warning screaming on repeat in my head. It doesn’t matter what his intent is with that phone call; it requires action. I’m instantly thinking of a guy who did some tech work for me in Europe and who I both respect and actually like—a combination I don’t come by easily. Blake Walker is not only sought after by government and private sectors for his world-class hacking skills; he and his two older brothers own Walker Security, one of the most well-respected, full-service security firms across the globe. I don’t know his brothers, but I know him, and he’s one of the few men I’d pit against Caleb and give him a shot at winning.
For just a moment, I’m back in the shower with Alana this morning, hot water streaming around us, me holding her sexy body against mine, and I tell myself I’m a changed man, worthy of her in every way. The past doesn’t matter. She doesn’t have to know everything. I shake off the memory and focus on what has always mattered the most: protecting her. And the days when I do that by stepping away are over.
I snap up my phone from the table where I set it, scroll past several desperate and/or demanding text messages from board members, and tab through my phonebook. Once I’ve located Blake’s number, I punch the autodial, and he answers on the first ring. “Damion, my man,” he greets. “I see you’re back in the States and New York. How the fuck are you?”
Blake uses the word “fuck” like a sentence connector and somehow makes it likable. Maybe because I like the word “fuck” as well, especially where Alana is concerned. “Should I ask how you know I’m in the States?” I ask.
“The real question is, why would you be calling to hire me if I didn’t know? Who the fuck would want that dumbass. That is why you’re calling me, right? To hire me?”
I sip my coffee, set my phone down, open my earbuds, and stick one in my right ear before I say, “Let’s talk Alana Blue, who’s become a local celebrity.”
“I know who she is, and she’s more than a local celebrity. That little show of hers is all kinds of viral. My wife watches it all the damn time. Hell, a couple of my guys watch it. Who is she to you?”
“I could tell you I’m on the board that got her that show, which would be true.”
“But not the whole story. She matters to you.”
“Very much. We’ve known each other since we were kids, but things were complicated.”