The Darkest of Shadows (14 page)

“Other than Frost and Charlie’s rooms, there are only two other bedrooms.” He led me down a short hallway that ended in a wall of glass that allowed the sun to shine through bouncing off the white walls and flooding the space with brilliant light.

Near the end stood two wide doors. Both entrances mirrored each other. “Yours.” He indicated with his head the door on the right. “Mine.” He flicked his head back to the left.

Then with a flourish he pulled the huge door on the right open. It moved with more ease than I would have expected. Inside the room was all white, with splashes of light green on the furniture coverings. It was the same minimalistic approach as the rest of the building, the furniture clean and light; overall it really was beautiful.

“It’s lovely,” I assured him.

He shrugged. “Mine’s the same, but blue.” He opened his door and I got a glimpse of a very similar layout, but with royal blue touchings and darker furniture, which gave a much more masculine appearance.

“Have a look around, and meet me back in the office when you’re done. No hurry. Oh, and I tend to leave more of my stuff here than anywhere else. So feel free to make whatever changes you like to make it more comfortable.” Then he disappeared and left me standing, a little stunned, in the doorway of my new room. New part time, temporary room, but still mine.

The bed sat opposite the door and had two large panels of glass that framed it on either side; the rest of the light came from the full bank of windows on the left of the room. The right wall had several openings, but no doors. One clearly led to a bathroom, which was visible through the opening; and after closer inspection I found that the other entrance led to a fairly substantial closet. I could have stored half my house in it. The bathroom and closet stood beside each other, and I was fairly positive that they shared their back wall with the lounge room.

Lawrence’s room, with the door still standing wide open, showed an exact mirror of my own room, but his bathroom and closet formed the back wall of the kitchen. There was a TV and small desk in each room and a few strategically placed arm chairs, not that I could understand why anyone would want a lounge in the bedroom.

Several paintings graced the walls of the room, and I had no doubt that their value far exceeded what was reasonable.

It didn’t take me long to become familiar with the apartment. There wasn’t much to my bedroom, and I certainly wasn’t going into Lawrence’s; so after a quick skim around the lounge and a once-over of the kitchen and its contents—namely the fridge, which contained a strange assortment of items—and a last wistful glance out the big windows, which I couldn’t wait to see at night, I stepped back into Lawrence’s office.

“OK?” he queried from behind his desk.

“It’s beautiful, as you well know,” I told him.

A smile twinkled in his eyes but didn’t quite catch in his face. “I’ve asked Allan Marsh, the MD of my UK division, to come in and meet you in about ten minutes.” He rose and crossed the room as he spoke. “But I’d like to formally introduce you to Charlie and Frost before then.”

He opened the main doors, and the two men in question filed quietly into the room, their size suddenly making the space not quite so large.

“Charles Kennedy, otherwise known as Charlie.” I shook hands with surfer boy, please to have his actual name now.

“Nice to have you along for the ride.” He winked cheekily, and I knew he was going to be fun to be around.

“Demetrius Frost.” His partner stretched out a hand that engulfed my own, giving it a firm, almost painful shake.

“Frost doesn’t talk much,” Lawrence apologized. “You’ll get used to him.”

Super, sounded like he would be extra fun to be around.
Must be why we have Charlie along, keep things light and oh-so-cheerful
.

“I don’t step foot outside this office without them, so that means neither do you,” Lawrence explained, and I had a sinking feeling of being trapped. “They are here for a purpose, and it doesn’t help any of us if they aren’t able to do their job properly. They need to know where we are at all times, and I would appreciate if you would make every attempt to ensure that they are able to do their job effectively.”

Another double-edged statement. “Meaning?” I queried.

“Meaning if you try and lose them, we’re going to have words.” Simple as that.

I gave them a good glance and wondered how he thought that I could manage that. “I’m not sure why I have need of security?”

He nodded for Frost and Charlie to leave, with a reminder for them to send Allan in when he arrived. It wasn’t until we were sitting back on the lounges that he explained.

“In order for you to do the job I need you to do, there can’t be any secrets between us,” he explained. “I can’t have you not knowing everything that’s going on, because there are going to be times when you will need to make decisions for me, and I can’t be confident that you will make the right one unless you know everything.”

“Meaning that I’m going to know secrets that you can’t let anyone else get their hands on,” I replied.

“Right.” He looked troubled for a moment. “Please don’t be alarmed. As long as you allow Frost and Charlie to do their job, then there shouldn’t be any danger to you. It’s more a precaution than anything else, a deterrent to those few unsavory people out there who seek to make easy money. If people see you shadowed and protected, then they will move onto a different target. I’d like your word that you won’t attempt to evade their protective measures.”

Well, when he worded it like that, there was very little choice, really. “I will make every attempt to not deliberately interfere with their work,” I offered.

“Not really the answer that I was looking for, Lilly,” Lawrence warned, but it was all he was going to get from me at this stage. I wasn’t sure how much of my freedom I was about to lose, so to offer more than that was just not going to happen.

“Just how much ‘protection’ are we talking here?” I asked cautiously. “Can I go grocery shopping?” He shook his head slowly. “To the movies?” Again with the negative. “On a date?” My voice might have risen in volume somewhat as the negatives just kept on coming. Not that I intended to go on a date with anyone, but it was the principle of the thing.

“You aren’t going to have time to date anyone,” Lawrence countered in a deep voice.

“You don’t own me twenty-four hours a day, Lawrence,” I snapped back. At least I didn’t think he did.

“I can if I need to.”

I would have given him a mouthful over that, but luckily for him, Allan decided to announce himself at that moment.

“Monterey.” Allan Marsh acknowledged Lawrence as he walked purposefully into the room. He was an older man, edging fifty if I had to guess, with a distinguished grey streak that ran through the front of his hair.

Lawrence and I both stood as he walked closer to where we had been sitting. “Allan. Glad you could make it.” Lawrence shook his hand and then indicated for us both to sit.

“Allan, allow me to introduce you to Lillianna Owen,” Lawrence said. Allan leaned forward, and we shook hands.

“Nice to meet you,” I told him.

“Pleasure is all mine,” he replied. “I was surprised when Monterey told me that he found an assistant. Last I heard, he had given up hope of ever finding someone; however, I’m very happy to have you aboard and hope that you might be a bit better at keeping him on schedule than he does himself.”

“I’ll give it my best effort,” I assured him with a polite smile.

“Allan here,” Lawrence continued, amused by the other man’s casual banter, “is in charge of our UK operations. Lots of different projects happening, some high-level building developments, urban housing—and he’s also in charge of our newest enterprise. We’ve collaborated with another company and dipped our fingers into the banking sector. It’s still early stages at the moment, but it’s looking promising, provided Allan can keep some of our more adventurous advisors in check.”

“What sort of banking?” I queried.

“Mostly loans, but what we’re doing is incorporating the purpose into the equation. So we’re offering very select clients funding for their building works. So we pay for and build their projects, and they pay us back.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“It’s a very select process, an invitation-only venture. So unless we approach them, the offer doesn’t exist,” Lawrence added.

“So you get two bites of the cherry,” I said.

“Exactly. We make money from the development, and we get interest from the loan. But the profits are extremely long term, so it’s carefully calculated to ensure that it doesn’t leave our own company short on cash flow or credit. If we put too many offers out there, we aren’t going to get the big projects that are cash on completion of the works.”

“Enterprising,” I admitted. “What do you need from me?” I directed my question to Allan. His requirements would, no doubt, be very different from Lawrence’s.

Allan shared a glance with Lawrence, whose nod was enough for Allan to continue. “I need you to answer his phone,” he said bluntly. “No offence intended, Monterey.”

I raised my eyebrow in query. Lawrence shrugged. “I don’t always answer their calls,” he admitted, without any hint of shame. “If I’m busy or at a function, I can’t be running out of the room to talk to them; and when you have sixteen people who want to talk to you all the time, it gets very busy. If I didn’t ignore their calls, I would spend my whole day on the phone.”

True. “OK, Allan. I’ll answer his phone.”

“No.” Lawrence got up and moved over to his desk, returning a moment later with a nice, bright new mobile. “You’ll answer your own. Here.” He handed it over. “I’ve been told it’s programmed with all the numbers you need, and there’s an e-mail going out to everyone with your details. It’ll probably start ringing soon, and then you’ll wish you had never got it.”

“As long as I can talk to one of you, I’ll be a happy man,” Allan said. “What I usually need is just to pass messages along to Monterey, and occasionally I’ll need an urgent decision made. He gets a little irritated with us when we don’t keep him up to date with what’s going on, but that’s difficult when he won’t take our calls.”

“I could imagine,” I said. With Lawrence, I didn’t doubt it.

“You will have mine, and fifteen other men’s, eternal gratitude if you could manage to make that part of our life easier.”

I liked Allan; he was simple and straight forward. We would deal with each other well.

“I’m trying not to scare Lilly off today, so I’m not dumping her into my life right away,” Lawrence told Allan. “We’re going to lunch, and then she’s going to spend the rest of the afternoon familiarizing herself with her new office.”

Allan nodded. “Does Lilly have a base here in London?” he asked.

“Not really,” Lawrence answered, before I could. “She will be moving into the apartment this afternoon and will base herself from wherever I am.”

“That should help a lot,” Allan stated. “At least if you’re always here, someone should be able to get hold of him. Frost and Charlie are useless; they refuse to pass messages along, even if Monterey is standing right beside them. They don’t answer their phones anymore, either. However, I think that might just be personal to the MDs.” He grinned at me, and I knew he wasn’t totally serious.

“I can’t guarantee that I’ll get him to talk to you,” I warned him, “But at least I’ll answer, and if I think it’s important, I’ll make sure he gets the message.”

“That’s all I can ask.” He rose. “It is indeed a pleasure to meet you, Lilly Owen. I hope you enjoy working with us and stay for a very long time.” He sent a calculating look at Lawrence before adding, “Good luck, my dear. You’re going to need it.”

“Get out, Allan.” Lawrence feigned irritation. “You’re not supposed to be scaring her off.”

“How are you feeling?” Lawrence asked once Allan had left.

“Honestly?” I asked. “A little drained.”

“I imagine it’s a lot to take in, and there’s much more for you to learn, but no one expects you to pick it all up on the first day.” He crossed to a cupboard near the door and extracted his suit jacket from within its doors. “Let’s go have lunch, and then you can have the afternoon to go through things at your leisure.”

Sounded like a good plan.

If Charlie and I drew attention when we walked into the building, it was nothing compared to the havoc Lawrence left in his wake. Unlike Charlie, who patiently ignored everyone around him, Lawrence took the time to acknowledge people, or some of them, anyway. Those he knew by name he greeted, but the others just received a nod of acknowledgment. Not that we actually got close to too many people. I think that Frost and Charlie had a bit of a reputation for keeping unwanted attention away from Lawrence, because most people seemed far more intent on keeping out of our way than engaging in conversation.

It was also a little frustrating to see that I seemed automatically included in the group to be feared. It doesn’t really affect management when their employees are wary of them, but that kind of attitude hardly helped those of us who would need to blend in more. I needed to work cohesively with these people, I needed them to tell me things; and having them scared to approach me wasn’t going to help me in that regard.

“Am I allowed to move around the building without a tail?” I asked, as we settled in his town car.

To give him credit, he did take time to think about it before he answered. “I’d rather you didn’t move too far, if that’s possible. What would you need to go wandering around for, anyway? If you need something, have them come to you.”

That was definitely not going to work. “Lawrence.” I sighed his name in exasperation. “I’m not you, and I don’t want to be. I’m the one who has to make sure that what you need happens, and I can’t do that if the people who work for you are scared of me.”

He looked at me blankly, obviously not following.

“If I need something, what are my chances of getting it done and getting it done well, if I don’t have a good relationship with the people I work with?”

“Ask the other PAs, and they’ll get it done.”