Stepbrother Needs (His Twisted Game, Book Three) (6 page)

I wasn’t sure what to do.
 
My heart pounded in my chest, my fight
or flight response in full effect.
 
Everything inside of myself was telling me to run.
 
But if I ran, I was afraid he’d realize
I knew he was following me.
 
And
that might spur him to do something, witnesses or not.

I zigzagged around the street, trying to
lose him, panicked.
 
When I finally
got into Cole’s building, I was out of
breath,
my
chest rising and falling in short gasps.
 

As the security guard checked my name off
on a list and printed up a temporary badge, I turned to look out the
floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby.

But the man was gone.
 
I didn’t see him anywhere.

I blew out a sigh of relief.

When I stepped off the elevator and onto
Cole’s floor, my breathing had returned to normal, but my legs felt wobbly and
my stomach was doing somersaults.

“Hello,” I said to the receptionist.
 
“I’m Avery Buchanan, Cole’s new
assistant.”

The receptionist was much more friendly
to me this time, giving me a big smile.
 
“Mr. Buchanan is waiting for you in his office.
 
You can go right in.”

“Thank you.”
 
I smoothed my dress and walked through the double doors of
Buchanan Enterprises, making my way back to Cole’s office.

When I got there, he was talking on the
phone to someone, and he motioned me in with one hand.

I swallowed and walked inside, shutting
the door behind me.
 
I couldn’t
help but remember what we’d done the last time I was here, they way he’d made
me strip for him.
 

“Yeah,” Cole was saying into the
phone.
 
“Let me know as soon as you
can.”
 
He hung up the phone and turned
to me.
 
“You’re late.”
 
He pointed at the clock on the wall,
which showed that it was 8:03.

“Three minutes.”
 
Was he really going to give me a hard
time for being three minutes late?

“I don’t want excuses, Avery.
 
You were supposed to be here at eight,
and I expect you to be here at eight.”

He was right.
 
I shouldn’t have been late.
 
And I wouldn’t have been, except for that man who was
following me.
 

Cole picked up a file folder and started
paging through it, then indicated the other side of his desk where a clipboard
and a cell phone were sitting.
 
“There’s your cell phone,” he said.
 
“And your forms for HR.
 
You can fill them out in the conference room, and then Kalia
will show you what to do with them.”

“Kalia?”
 
I asked warily.

“Yes.
 
You’ll be spending the day with her.
 
She’ll teach you everything you need to
know.”

“Thank you.”
 
I picked up the clipboard and the shiny new iPhone that was
resting on top of it, running my fingers over the screen.
 
I’d never had a phone this nice before.

“Is there anything else?” Cole
asked.
 
He was all business,
picking the phone back up and dialing a number, dismissing me.

Hurt burned through me, hurt that he was
acting like I was just someone who worked for
him,
even
after the things he’d done and said to me last night.

I began to shake my head no.
 
But then I stopped.

“Someone was following me this morning,”
I said.

Cole stopped, his finger on the keypad of
his phone.
 
He slowly replaced the
receiver.
 
“What are you talking
about?”

“A man with black hair.
 
And a mustache.
 
He was in the café I was at this
morning, and I’m pretty sure he followed me here.”

Cole crossed the room and looked at me
seriously.
 
“Did he say anything to
you?”

I shook my head.

“Did he try to approach you?”

“No.
 
He was just following me.”

Cole took in a long deep breath through
his nose then turned around.
 
He
walked slowly over to his desk before pulling his arm back and pushing a bunch
of papers off his desk and onto the floor angrily.
 
“Fuck,” he swore.
 
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Cole,” I said, rushing over to him,
surprised at his reaction.
 
“Who
was it?
 
Was it the same man who
came to your apartment last night?”

He ignored me, instead walking over to
his phone and picking it up.
 
“You’re not to leave this building without telling me, Avery,” he
said.
 
“Do you understand?
 
You’re to stay here today.
 
All day.
 
Until I’m ready to leave with you.”

“What?”
 
I shook my head.
  
“I’m not a prisoner, Cole.”

“For today, as far as you’re concerned,
you are.”

“No.”
 
I shook my head.
 
“No, Cole.
 
Tell me what the
hell is going on.”
 

“Yeah,” he said into the phone.
 
“This is Buchanan.
 
Put me through to John.”
 
He placed his hand over the receiver
and looked at me. “I’m serious, Avery,” he said.
 
“Do not leave this office.”

He turned around, dismissing me.

I walked out into the hallway, my mind
reeling.
 
What the hell was going
on?
 
I had the feeling that
whatever it was had nothing to do with Gordon.
 
But who else would be following Cole?
 
And why wouldn’t he tell me who it was?

I began walking slowly toward the
conference room, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do.

My new cell phone started vibrating in my
hand, and I looked down.
 
The
screen was showing a number I didn’t recognize.
 

“Hello?” I said, holding my breath and
hoping it was Cole, hoping he was calling to apologize and call me back to his
office.

“Hey, Avery,” a familiar voice said on
the other end of the line.
 
I knew
who it was right away.

“Jeffrey, how did you get this number?” I
demanded.

“Company directory,” he said.

“I’m already in the company directory?”

“Yeah,” he said.
 
“So I was wondering if you’d given any
more thought to having lunch with me today.”

I opened my mouth to tell him no
way.
 
But then I realized Jeffrey
had something I needed.
 
Information.

Cole’s
not a good guy, Avery.

Isn’t that what he’d said?

Jeffrey might know something about the
man who was following Cole.
 
At the
very least, he could give me some idea about Cole’s life, about the people he
was involved with, how he spent his time and where he hung out.

Of course, Cole had told me to stay away
from Jeffrey.
 
And he’d also told
me not to leave the building without his permission.
 
But I wasn’t his slave.
 
Even if he was my boss, he didn’t have the right to keep me
here.
 
What could happen out in New
York?
 
If that man wanted to hurt
me, he could have done it this morning.

“Sure,” I said to Jeffrey.
 
“What time were you thinking?”

Cole was hiding something from me.

And I was going to find out what it was.

END OF STEPBROTHER
NEEDS, His Twisted Game, Book
Three
 
Click
here for Book Four, STEPBROTHER CLAIMS, available now!