Page 43 of Cocky Tech God

Back down in the lobby, I walked the perimeter, passing all the bars and restaurants. They were mostly empty now that the seminars had begun. But no Lucia. Okay, I needed to back off. Lucia was a capable woman and didn’t need me to save her. I wasn’t anyone’s hero. And even if I wanted to be Lucia’s hero, she’d rather die than let me.

Fine. Back to the spotlight. Back to minding my own business. Somehow.

I walked past the front desk. To my surprise, the woman behind the counter called to me by name. I paused a moment. What would she want from me? I pivoted my foot from my path back to the conference room and approached her desk.

“Mr. Holte?” she asked, her face washed clean of makeup.

“Yes?” I set my palms on the high counter.

“We may have a room coming up tomorrow, though it’s not confirmed.” She glanced at her computer screen. “If it is, we’ll let you and Miss Mendez know immediately. Should I send a text to both of you as soon as we know either way?”

Tomorrow? I wasn’t ready for that—or expecting that’s what she would say to me. I had no idea what Lucia felt about this new development. I’d have to talk to her about it when I saw her next. Maybe…

“Sure, you can send a text to both of us. Thank you.” I turned away from her, my chest too tight to inhale the air I desperately needed.

Think, Hansen.

I glanced at my phone again. Nothing.

Somehow, I made another detour. Straight to the beach. It always soothed me when I felt off-balance. I walked through the space of non-conference patrons in tourist-style clothing and bathing suits who peppered the tiki bar, which was half indoors, half out. Brown double seating lined the edge of the patio, with white umbrellas overhead. I stood at the edge, watching the blue-green water ripple in soft, seductive waves along the white sands.

There she was right in front of me.

Lucia sat on a lounge chair, dressed as I’d last seen her after her shower, on her phone. She’d taken off her shoes, though, her toes dipping in the sand intermittently.

In a moment, I was trekking through the sand, ruining my Prada loafers. I slowed as I came into earshot of her conversation. Her tone concerned me. Sharp and frantic almost, she spoke quickly. Still advancing toward the back of her lounge chair, her words became clearer.

“Mia, we are kind of screwed here. We need either NuvaTech or Morgan Financial Holdings to stay in business. You know we’ve been in the red for at least six months. There is nothing else to liquidate, nothing else to mortgage…and if we can’t fix this sec breach, we’re done.”

Shit. I held my breath. Had I heard right? Lucia’s company was in trouble? And she had a security breach?

She continued with a choked cry. “Please send me the slide deck. I had a drink with Calista Everette last night and I asked her for a private meeting…Yes, she’s receptive. So let me handle the pitch.”

I froze. I didn’t know she’d pitched to NuvaTech.

“I’ll try my hardest to win Graham, but I had dinner with him and you know who, and I still think it’s going to Hansen.” She scoffed. “He doesn’t even need the business. But what can we do? No one said this owning a business thing was fair…Yeah, that’s it. Push Manuel and Ryan hard. They must find a way to fix the problem. I need you to analyze the simulation. Tell me how the hell this even happened.” She sighed heavily; her sobs choked back. “God, Mia…this could be it for LMS.”

No. I turned on my heels. I shouldn’t have listened to her private conversation. But I knew if I acknowledged I had, she’d assure me everything was fine. She was strong and didn’t like to admit failure. I knew that about her firsthand.

I walked several steps back toward the bar, but before I reached the patio, she called out to me.

“Hey…” She ran up, holding her shoes in one hand, messenger bag in the other. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Morgan’s spotlight?”

The moment she approached, I cradled her head with both palms and pressed my lips against hers. Her arms wrapped around my neck, but just as quickly, she pushed away. Her eyes were wild, and her lips were swollen with my intensity.

“Hansen…” She scanned the area. “What are you doing?”

“I just had to do that. I’m sorry.” I wanted to tell her what I’d heard. I wanted to help her figure a way out of her trouble.

She laughed, the angst in her voice of minutes ago was gone. “You have to control yourself.”

I closed my eyes, reveling in the curl of cool ocean breeze against my hot skin. “It’s too fucking hard.”

“If we are going to continue this, you have to try harder.”

The more I looked at her, I just couldn’t make that promise.

Lucia

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