Five Minutes Late: A Billionaire Romance (26 page)

Uncle Sheridan the Jedi stood next to Devon’s desk, sipping from a cup of rich espresso coffee that I could smell from across the room. He wore one of his standard ruinously expensive suits, complete with a pocket watch on a chain for his vest and an orchid in his lapel, because the man was all class. He was as regal and grandfatherly as ever, a Zen island of calm in the midst of potential chaos: check.

And Devon? As I approached his ginormous executive desk of command, I realized that he was the source of the wrongness I sensed. The out-of-kilter, the unexpected, the weird and puzzling sensation of something being very much the hell not right – it all was centered here, at the eye of the storm.

Don’t get me wrong, the man looked great. He wore a dove-grey Fioravanti suit that had to be the king of his closet, the crisp sleeves of his shirt were fastened with gold cufflinks in the shape of the letter ‘K’, and his silk tie sported a clasp with a single gemstone – an amethyst, maybe? – that matched his blue-violet eyes.

That delicious beard stubble I loved to feel against my skin had been shaved off, his thick black hair was trimmed with military precision to just above his perfectly starched collar, and he leaned back in his luxurious and ergonomically ideal leather chair like an emperor relaxing on a throne made from the bones of his enemies.

He was tall, he was tanned, he was groomed and dressed to the nines, and he radiated confidence and power.

I didn’t buy it for a second.

Any other day, any other time, any other meeting, sure – but whenever this precious special project was on the table, my guy was always a tightly controlled bundle of nerves, ready to jump out of his skin at the slightest excuse. So why was he such a tower of strength today, and why did it feel so wrong?

I settled a hand on his shoulder and immediately had part of the answer. At my touch, he hissed in a sharp breath – just for a second, but I caught it – and a single muscle twitched in his jaw.

Yep, he was nervous as hell, just as usual for a special project meeting – but this time he was forcing his anxiety into a tight little box and locking it inside for the duration of whatever was about to happen.

Why? I had no idea. And just what was about to happen? Not a clue.

The boss acknowledged me with a nod that was cool, crisp, and professional. “I apologize for summoning you here so early on such a cold morning, but I think you’ll find today’s proceedings quite entertaining.”

He turned his gaze back to the three laptops sitting in a row along the front edge of his desk. Each one displayed the view from a different live video feed – on the first screen, we were looking at some sort of cargo ship on some ocean somewhere, the second displayed a group of reporters surrounding the entrance to a steel-and-glass skyscraper that I recognized as being only a few blocks away from us, and the third showed nothing more than an empty podium on a stage, with an official-looking seal of some kind displayed on the wall behind the podium.

Then Devon’s phone sounded off with an incoming call. Before he answered it, he nodded for me to come closer.

With my left hand still on his shoulder, I rested my right hand on the corner of his desk and leaned in close. “What can I do to help, Devon?”

Never taking his eyes from the laptops, he whispered, “Stay close, Ashley.”

I nodded, squeezed his shoulder, and took position just to one side of his chair. Not a damn thing in this universe would peel me away from Devon Killane, not until I knew he was safe from whatever the hell was going on.

Meanwhile, the boss issued instructions in a low voice to whoever was on the other end of the phone call.

“You’re to offer a bit of resistance before allowing them to come up, just enough to make the whole sham believable. And is that actual shouting I hear? Excellent, just as I anticipated – in any case, make them believe you’re all aflutter and upset over their presence, and that should set those fools up nicely for the little scene I have ready for them up here. Good work, Ferrum.”

He hung up and leaned back in his chair, faking relaxed confidence better than ever.

A guy named Ferrum was head of building security, so that was one question answered. As for shouting, I’d heard someone in the electronic distance hollering like six kinds of aggrieved asshole; Jedi Master Sheridan must have heard them as well, from the way he sighed and shook his head. Devon seemed to be okay with it, but I decided some insurance was in order.

I pulled out my phone and soon was whispering my own instructions to Mr. Ferrum, a stocky ex-Marine who took his duty guarding Devon Killane’s property and employees as seriously as if terrorists might come rappelling down out of the sky at any moment. He plainly was uncomfortable as hell about letting the mysterious loud guys come up to the boss’s office, and agreed in a heartbeat to follow them up in the next elevator, while bringing along for company the head of Devon’s personal security detail and whichever of my bodyguards was closest to hand.

Then I turned to Uncle Sheridan. “Sir, is there anything you can tell me about these shouty types that are on their way up here? I want to help Devon, but it’s tough when I know just exactly zero about what’s going on.”

Uncle Sheridan shook his head.

“Miss Daniels, I’m afraid that explaining this matter would take far more time than we have available – not to mention Devon’s spent years planning out every detail of the special project, and I would hate to spoil this show he’s set his heart on. I will say that I am pleased beyond measure that he has found such a brave and determined woman to stand by his side – your support for him means everything to me.”

The old man was playing hardball, all right – after an endorsement like that, I was ready to tear the throats out of a whole army of ninjas if they so much as looked at my guy.

Meanwhile, the executives on the far side of the room sent two delegates over to Devon’s desk for a few minutes of mysterious whispering. Once those two returned to the others, the herd of suits stood together as one, looking as grim as executioners as they stared at the door that led to the outside world.

Devon scanned the screens in front of him once again, and then called Dana on the intercom. “Dana, be aware that our guests are on their way up at this time. You recall the part you are to play?”

“Yes, sir – make a show of refusing to allow them in, let them bully their way past me, then follow them in there and apologize to you.”

“Perfect. And be aware, you will receive bonus points – well, an actual bonus, why not – if you can milk out a few tears and perhaps even a wail of despair. Also, I apologize in advance for whatever they might say to you – as you know, we are dealing with crass animals who have no respect for people in general and women in particular.”

“I’ll do my best, Mr. Killane.”

He cut off the intercom and turned to me. “Ashley?”

I once more put my left hand on his shoulder, my right on the corner of the desk, and leaned in close. “I’m right here, Devon.”

“I should apologize in advance to you as well, Ashley. These individuals are angry, terrified rats about to find out they’ve been backed into a hopeless corner – they will have harsh words for all of us, and I fear they will likely single you out for some particularly vicious abuse, because they know you are close to me. I’d send you away … but I need you near me just now. I need your touch. Can you forgive me for exposing you to these creatures?”

 “This big girl does not scare easy, boss – in fact, these losers should be very goddamn scared of me, if they plan on messing with my guy. So, are you at least going to tell me who the rats are?”

“You haven’t met them before, but I fear you will recognize their faces.”

That told me nothing and freaked me out at the same time, but I decided not to pursue it just then. “Swell – so can you at least tell me about this scene you’ve set up for them here? What are you doing to these guys, exactly?”

He turned to stare at me, and his blue-violet eyes were filled with despair, nerves, and hopeless fury. “I am destroying them, Ashley.”

He turned from me, sighed, and closed his eyes. I heard the distant ding of the elevator arriving on our floor, and the shouting I’d heard over the phone was now much louder and only two doors away.

He ignored the pounding footsteps, the yells, the muffled profanity, the disaster that was drawing closer by the second. Instead, he opened his eyes and settled his right hand over mine. He stared at our intertwined fingers and spoke to me in a voice that was barely a whisper.

“I will destroy them, just as they destroyed me.”

I wanted to tell him he wasn’t making any sense. I wanted to kill these assholes for whatever they’d done to him. I wanted so many things I didn’t have words for – so I settled for squeezing his hand in mine, and then straightening to stand just behind and to the right of his chair, with my right hand clenched in a fist at my side and my left hand resting on his shoulder.

Anybody who came in the door would have to go through me to get at my guy, and nobody – not an army, not God, not anybody – was getting through Ashley Daniels.

18. Destruction

Something slammed into the office door, hard enough to make it jump in its frame. Then two or three male voices yelled at once, followed by a different guy shouting, “He’ll see us whether he wants to or not, you stupid cunt – now get out of our way, or you’re hitting the door as hard as that chair did!”

I winced for Dana, and then glanced over at Uncle Sheridan. “I’m no lawyer, but that charming remark constitutes assault all by itself, doesn’t it?”

“I fear they’re just getting started, Miss Daniels.”

Meanwhile, Devon straightened his tie by a micron or so, ran a hand over his perfect hair, and made some invisible adjustments to his cufflinks. Then he leaned back in his chair, stretched like a panther waking up for the morning hunt, and once again became the picture of calm, relaxation, and imperial control. The muscles of his shoulder were like live wires under my left hand, but not a bit of that showed on the surface; when he spoke, he sounded as regal and distant as a statue.

“And so it begins.”

The door burst open and rebounded off the wall with an ear-cracking bang, as two men in suits shouldered through at once, with at least four more on their heels. Dana somehow squirmed past them, and those tears shining in her eyes looked real as hell to me.

“Mr. Killane, I’m so sorry, I explained you were in a private conference, but they forced their way in and I couldn’t –”

“That’s quite all right, Dana, think nothing of it. In fact, since there’s nothing of any great import on my schedule this morning, why don’t you treat yourself to an early lunch? I’ll handle whatever trifling matters come up, and then I’ll see you back here this afternoon.”

It wasn’t even 8:00 a.m. yet, but Dana didn’t hesitate to grab this thin excuse for getting out of Dodge. She blurted out a relieved, “Yes, sir, thank you,” and then she ducked back into the outer office and was gone.

The guys who started all this craziness stood in the center of the room, glaring at existence in general and at those of us who stood by Devon’s side in particular. The youngest were twenty-somethings, the oldest and shoutiest ones looked to be in their fifties, and every last one of them might have been a time-delayed twin in an expensive tailored suit. They all had the same broad jaw with a slight cleft in the middle of the chin, the same classical nose with just a bit of an arch to it, the same high forehead, the same piercing eyes that looked so familiar but not …

Oh.

They all stood at least a head shorter than Devon, their hair was varying shades of blond rather than black, and their angry eyes were green and not blue-violet, but they all wore his face … the Killane face.

I stared at my guy’s hated relatives in silence, because I had no idea what to say to them. The executives standing by the far wall also took the ‘let’s say nothing and look all steely-eyed and cool’ option, while just behind me and to my right, Uncle Sheridan stirred a single cube of sugar into his espresso, topped off the cup, and sipped with the patience of a monk.

At the center of the storm, Devon beamed the broadest and most insincere smile in human history at his visitors, and addressed them in a voice that was like honey mixed with rat poison. “This is such an unexpected pleasure – tell me, gentlemen, just how might I help you this morning?”

One of the older assholes stalked over to the boss’s desk, trailed by his fellow assholes. I sensed a serious shout coming on, and the guy did not disappoint.

He slammed a fist onto the massive desk, making the three laptops jump and edge a bit out of their perfect line. “You can tell us just what the FUCK you think you’re doing! Do you have any idea, or are you just making this crazy shit up as you go?”

At his shoulder, a twenty-something brat who had to be Head Asshole’s son said, “He knows exactly what he’s doing, I just want to know –”

“Shut your goddamn mouth, Keiran – as for you, Devon, I expect to hear an explanation that makes some kind of sense for what the hell is going on!”