The Harder They Fall (2 page)

Unfortunately
for Colleen, despite this being a neophyte agency, she was still the new girl
on the block, and no one gave her preferential treatment because of her family.
Most of her coworkers had been in government service since before everyone
moved underground, and they knew their way around the bureaucracy. She had to
prove herself, the same as the others had done.

In
an effort to restore order, the agency was requiring everyone to get permits,
even those who, like Blaine, had deals that pre-dated the mass moves
underground. She had also been warned that Blaine Parker was unlikely to give a
shit, or to cooperate with such a mandate. It was only a formality so they
could keep track of everything, or at least try to. But he wouldn’t see it that
way, and she’d been warned about that, too.

She
knew all about the guidelines he’d quoted. She’d helped write them. But they were
fluid, and likely to change at a moment’s notice. The website also said
that
, though she doubted he had given
those paragraphs more than a passing glance.

Despite
the warnings ahead of time, no one had told her how freaking gorgeous he was up
close and personal. She wished she’d been prepared for the sheer force of
standing next to him and speaking with him. He oozed wealth and power, not to
mention more than a healthy dose of testosterone.

He
was also a player. She knew that, too, because it was splashed all over the
Internet. But now it would be difficult to erase the memory of that intense
gaze peering into her soul, or the way his eyes had twinkled with amusement
when he’d made the joke about the names of the cities. She loved a man with a
sense of humor, and it was obvious that, in addition to his well-known rebel
status, Blaine Parker had a witty one.

When
she reached the airlock, she turned to find him and the man with him, whose
name she didn’t know, still standing there, watching her. She wasn’t far enough
away to miss the way he shielded his eyes once more, as if he were trying to
see the expression on her face. He was certainly a sight, in his jeans, boots,
and blue plaid shirt.

He
looked like he spent a great deal of time outdoors, which surprised her. He’d
been CEO of Clear Channel Industries since before he was her age. She had
always imagined him in person as pale, dressed in a suit and tie, and hunched
over his computer in a wood-paneled office. Perhaps that was where he spent his
time indoors, but he didn’t look out of place in this windswept field, either.

His
hair hung loose to his shoulders, blond and soft-looking. She’d wanted to run
her fingers through it even while his “I don’t give a shit” attitude had pissed
her off royally. And those sapphire eyes… They gleamed with just the right
amount of lust to make him sexy but not lecherous. Her damn panties were wet,
for heaven’s sake.

“Are
you coming, Miss?” asked the guard at the airlock, distracting her from Blaine.

Not yet, but I will later when I
fantasize about him
.
“Yes. Thank you.”

She
gave Blaine one last look, and couldn’t help but smile as he tipped an
imaginary hat to her. Oh, he was a charmer all right.
And
a player. But that’s exactly why she was so attracted to him.

Colleen
curtseyed in response to his hat tipping, then kept her gaze on him long enough
to see him laugh. She finally turned around and began the descent through
several levels of airlocks to the city below.

Chapter
Two

Blaine
sat in Ace Easton’s apartment sipping a glass of scotch Ace had poured from a
bottle he’d saved since everyone was forced underground eight years ago. He had
told Blaine he wouldn’t drink it until The Madeline Project had been shut down,
and he wouldn’t drink it alone. Since Harper, Ace’s wife, couldn’t join him
because she’d given birth to twins two months ago and was breastfeeding them,
he was sharing the bottle with Blaine.

Ace
had been the first of the Weathermen to marry, and Blaine had spent the last
thirty minutes listening to him rave about the joys of married life and
parenthood. Which explained why Blaine had consumed twice the scotch Ace had,
and was currently drunk.

The
twins had arrived a month early, but both were thriving. Ace and Harper had
named them Michael Brent and Eva Marie. Secretly, Blaine thought they were
adorable, as children go. Both had dark eyes, like their father, but their hair
clearly would be blonde, like Harper’s.

“Your
time is coming,” said Ace. “You’re the last holdout of all twelve, but it won’t
last.”

“Why
is that, oh sage one?”

Ace
leaned forward, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Because I heard a rumor that a
certain representative of a government agency has caught your eye, that’s why.”

Blaine
refilled his glass. “Colleen was only doing her job.”

 
“Don’t bullshit me, Blaine. Townsend is best
friends with Javier. He told Javier how you fell all over yourself on the
surface when Miss Newton paid you a visit, and then Javier told me.”

“Your
IT lead is a gossip. You should fire him at once.” He and Ace had been friends
for a long time, but there were days when Blaine wished the people who worked
for Ace didn’t feel the need to relay everything they heard about Blaine to
their employer.

“Why
did she come all the way up there to find you?”

“Why
do you think? I don’t have
permits
.
Boil me in oil. Feed me to the sharks.”

Ace
laughed. “So apply for them. What’s the big deal? I’ve already done it.”

Blaine
turned to face his friend. “The
big deal
is that their website specifically states they won’t allow more than one communications
tower to be built within a fifty mile radius. That won’t even allow for decent
cell phone coverage once we can use them again. I need to erect three towers
alone in the complex I’m building.”

“You
don’t need three in a half square mile for cell service.”

“No,
I don’t. Only one is for cell service. The other two are for satellite and
shorter wave frequencies. We’ll have radio and TV on the surface again one day.
It would be nice if the people who live and work in my complex can have their
conveniences back.”

“So
ask the AFSR to make an exception for you.”

“Not
to mention the fact that my business
is
the
media. I can’t run my business if no one can access the channels I distribute.”

“Go
above her head. We can get anything done.” Ace took a swig of his drink. “We’re
the Weathermen, remember?”

Blaine
sank back into the leather cushions on the sofa. “I’ve already tried that.”

Ace
raised his brows. “And you didn’t get anywhere?”

“I’m
waiting for the VP to return my call.”

“She
hates you.”

“No
shit.” Vice President Charlene O’Leary and Blaine went back a long time, to
before everyone had moved underground and Charlene had been in local politics.
Her meteoric rise to the second highest position of authority in the country
hadn’t dimmed her loathing of Blaine. If Blaine had known Charlene was the kind
of woman who held a grudge for the rest of her life, he’d never have asked her
out in the first place.

Ace
shrugged. “Sounds like you’ll have to convince Colleen to let you have your
towers. Have you tried explaining it to her?”

“I
shouldn’t have to explain it to her. Anyone with half a brain should realize
restrictions like that aren’t workable in large cities.”

“I
don’t think they’ve thought it all through yet. You won’t be the only company
making that argument. They’ll eventually have to relax the rules under certain
circumstances.”

“But
that’s exactly what I can’t wait around for. I risk losing my market share if
someone beats me to the punch.”

“Who
the hell has enough capital and influence to get towers built despite the
rules, and steal even a tiny percentage of your customers?”

“I
don’t know, but I can’t get complacent. None of us can.”

Ace
took another long sip of his drink. “We were all like that once, remember?
Eager, driven, wanting to be the first ones to do something.”

Blaine
frowned “We still are.”

He
shrugged. “All of us have more money than we’ll ever spend.”

“You’re
not thinking of giving it all up, are you?”

“No.
Of course not. I don’t mean to give that impression. But it’s not the same as
it was when we all had to move underground in a hurry. We had no time to plan
back then. Our businesses were successful, but not like they are now. We had
more to lose.”

Blaine’s
attention was pulled away from Ace’s musings when Harper walked into the room.
She looked radiant for a woman who had delivered two babies recently, and he
couldn’t help wondering whether Ace’s sudden laissez-faire attitude toward
business was due to the fact he was now a father.

“I
came to say good night. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. They’re both
finally asleep.”

Blaine
raised his glass. “Sleep well, although how you can sleep at all is a mystery
to me.”

Harper
laughed softly. “They are so worth it.”

Ace
rose and hugged her “I’m sorry I didn’t come in to say goodnight to them.”

“You’ll
have a chance. I’m sure they’ll be awake in a couple of hours.”

A
sharp pang of jealousy shot through Blaine as he watched. It wasn’t Ace’s
status as a married man, or the fact that he was married to Harper that made
Blaine envious. It was the ease with which Ace, and the rest of his friends,
had embraced having one woman in their lives. He seemed incapable of embracing
such a concept. Then again, he hadn’t tried very hard.

Ace
kissed her tenderly, and Blaine had to glance away. “Get some sleep, my love.” Ace
whispered something Blaine didn’t hear, and Harper laughed. Blaine took another
drink. She finally left, and Ace took his seat next to Blaine again. “I’m going
to be a fucking wreck until they both turn thirty.”

“No,
you won’t.”

“Yes,
I will. You have no idea how this feels. I’m so damn excited, but terrified at
the same time.”

“Terrified
of something happening to the babies?”

Ace
shook his head. “No. Terrified I’m not doing this right. Terrified I’m a lousy
father. Terrified because I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing.”

“No
one knows what they’re doing with kids. I’m sure you’re already great at this.”

“Do
you really think so?”

“Jeez,
Ace. I don’t fucking know. But I know you’re intelligent and driven enough to
do anything you put your mind to, so you’ll be perfect at this, too.”

“It’s
not like starting a new endeavor or planning a marketing strategy. These are
human lives. Three of them now, that I’ve promised to love, protect, and
cherish.”

“Yeah.
The vows. Blah, blah, blah. I didn’t know Harper from any other girl out there
before you started dating her, but when I look at her now, I see a very
intelligent woman who is blissfully happy. She’s so damn in love with you it’s
sickening. You two will be fine, and so will your twins. I’d stake my life on
it.”

“Which
brings us back to you.”

Blaine
drained his glass and poured another. The bottle was nearly empty, but he was
sure Ace had more booze in the apartment. “No, it doesn’t, because I’m fine
just the way I am.”

“Bullshit.”

He
hated that about Ace and the others. They all knew each other way too well, and
he couldn’t lie to any of them and get away with it. “So what do you think I
should do? Ask Colleen to marry me?”

Ace
laughed. “Maybe you should go out with her first, at least once. If you’re lucky,
she’ll fuck you before you propose.”

Ace
must be drunk, too, or he never would have said such a thing within potential
earshot of Harper. The man worshipped the ground that woman walked on. But that
didn’t stop Blaine from speaking his mind now because he was too drunk to care
who heard what. “Would you have married Harper without fucking her first?”

Ace
cut his gaze toward the hallway. Apparently he wasn’t
that
drunk. “We’ll never know, will we?”

“Nice
sidestep, especially considering you blackmailed her into your bed.”

Ace
shook his head. “That was a long time ago. We’re well past that.”

“Do
you ever talk about it?”

Ace’s
cheeks colored slightly from the question, or it might have been the booze.
“No.”

Blaine
laughed softly. Of course they didn’t. Ace probably wished he’d never done it.
Ace had caught Harper hacking into his personal computer, along with a former
employee of his, after he had dumped the employee. She and Harper hadn’t been
good friends, but Traci had spilled her guts to Harper one day, and Harper had
made a tragic mistake in helping Traci try to dig up dirt on Ace.

He
couldn’t do anything to Traci since she’d already quit, but Harper was still
around. Ace had his eye on her for a year before that incident, ever since
she’d come to work for him. In retrospect, that mishap hadn’t turned out badly
for Ace or Harper. No harm had been done to Ace’s accounts, and he hadn’t had
to convince Harper
that
much to have
sex with him.

Now
here he was, married to her and a father to their twins. Blaine wondered if he
could blackmail Colleen into letting him build the towers?

“Where
did you go just now?” asked Ace.

Blaine
took another drink. “I’ve made a decision. I’m going to ask Colleen out.”

“You
made the decision three days ago. What are you waiting for?”

“Why
does my dating life suddenly interest you so fucking much?”

“It
interests all of us, Blaine.”

“Oh,
really? Do you have secret video calls about it? Are you keeping score?”

Ace
clapped him on the back. “Calm down. We’re worried about you.”

“Why?
Because I haven’t joined the diamond ring club?” All eleven of his friends were
now either married or engaged. Even Viggo Ingram, the one man he would have bet
a year’s salary would
never
settle
down.

Ace’s
expression turned serious. “We’re not kids anymore. It’s time to set good
examples. The entire world is watching us now.”

“The
entire world has been watching us for eight years.”

“And
how many times have we been portrayed as players or worse?”

“Ace,
we were portrayed that way long before we all moved underground for one very
good reason. We were.
All
of us.
What’s your point?”

“We
stopped the storms, Blaine.
We
did
that. It’s up to us now to capitalize on the good press we finally have.”

“We
had bad press up to the last minute. And
we
didn’t stop the storms. Dave Perry did.”

“Who
never would have been forced to do so if
we
hadn’t sat his ass in that warehouse and laid a guilt trip on him.”

“Not
quite right, my sanctimonious friend. He didn’t do it because of guilt. He did
it because he was backed into a corner, and he knew the only way to get out of
a life prison sentence was to stop the program.”

The
way they’d handled Dave Perry at the end was one point on which Blaine
disagreed with most of his friends. Dave had written the Tommy Twister virus
not to hack into The Madeline Project and send it on its rogue course of
destruction, but to take it back for himself. He had always resented Ronnie
Treadway, the man who got credit for being the program’s chief architect.

Dave
hadn’t shown the Weathermen the back doorway into the program that only he knew
about, or the suggestions he’d programmed into it that led to it shutting
itself down, out of a sense of guilt or global social responsibility. He’d done
it because he’d become complacent working at HCS for thirty years, and had
believed he’d never be caught. He’d been wrong. And once he was caught, he knew
he was up shit creek without their help.

“Did
he get his Presidential pardon yet?” asked Ace.

“I
haven’t heard that he did.”

“He’s
been waiting two months on house arrest.”

“Better
than waiting inside a federal prison.”

“He
betrayed all of us.”