Page 63 of Ruthless Wars

“And why is that?”

“Just meet me for dinner. And you’ll see.”

Before I ask the question, I know the answer, but I ask anyway. “Where?”

Upbeat and casual, he says, “My place.”

Of course.

I’m halfway to the elevator in the lobby of Coop’s building when I hear the two-toned whistle of someone who likes what he sees. He’s standing by the vacant concierge desk, and I take a minute to drink him in.

Coop’s wearing a navy button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled almost to his elbows, showing off just enough of his forearms, and a pair of jeans that catch the flex of his thigh muscles as he heads toward me. His piercing gaze with his gold-green eyes and his five o’clock shadow absolutely melt me. And when he breaks out into a smile, I totally forget what I’m doing here in the first place.

“This way,” he says, resting his hot palm on the small of my back.

God, I want this man.

If I could form words, I’d ask where he’s taking me. But between the heat of his body and that swirl of cologne blending with his own scent, I seriously can’t think.

Maybe it’s the stress. Or maybe it’s not having seen Coop in nearly a day. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s only going to be amplified by watching some porno of us in an elevator.

He leads me down a hall and into a small office filled with monitors. “This is Walter,” Coop says as I shake the man’s hand. “He runs security for the building.”

“Pleasure,” I say, noticing Walter is wearing a pullover and sweats, casual and comfortable in a room that has to be ten degrees colder than the rest of the building. I’m already shivering when Coop pulls me against him, his hot body loaning warmth to mine.

Walter gestures to the monitors in front of him. “Coop asked me to check the footage, but there isn’t any.”

I cock my head, not sure I understand what he means by that.

“You see,” he says, “all video footage is on a seven-day loop, after which it records over itself.”

Frowning, I think that through. “But someone could’ve snagged it off the cloud backup.”

Walter shakes his head. “That’s what everyone thinks. But we not only pride ourselves on security, but privacy as well. We don’t do cloud backups. Everything we have is in this little freezing-cold, fireproof room. If someone hasn’t noticed unusual activity in seven days, too bad for them. Now, the residents are free to have whatever security system they want in their apartment. Video. Cloud. Kept forever and a day. But it’s on them to make those arrangements. We only monitor the common areas. The exterior. The lobby. The elevators. And the roof.”

“Monitor?” I ask nervously. Fuck.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Coop

I exchange a confident glance with Walt as our grins widen. I let him respond to Margot’s noticeable concern.

“Yes. Though I tend to have a sketchy memory when faced with subpoenas and depositions. All I can say is if that footage happened to be of someone accidentally dropping their wrap, I can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve definitely seen worse.” His wink adds remarkable reassurance to his words.

“If that’s the case,” she asks slowly, “then how did anyone even know there was footage?”

“Walt ...”

“No problem,” Walter says, leaving the room to give us some privacy.

“This room is safe. But it’s the only place I trust for this at the moment. The article isn’t talking about this elevator footage. They’re talking about yours. Long Multinational. The first day of negotiations when we were in the elevator. Your building. My building. We’ve got corporate spies on both sides. But that’s where Corey comes in.”

“Corey?”

“My investigator. He checked your cloud backup.”

“He did?”

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