Page 93 of Winning Bid

I try to get a word in edgewise. “Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, you too, dear.” During the entire interaction, the woman never stopped typing.

Anderson opens the big dark door behind Margaret’s desk. “After you.”

“Coward.”

He smirks, and I walk past him into a room better suited to hang meat in than to be an office. It’s got an office temperature technically, but the whole room is so cold I worry about frostbite. Everything is hard and gray. The huge view, the furniture, the walls, all of it. Nothing looks comfortable. No warmth anywhere.

Of course, this is where Elliot West works. The man is allergic to humanity.

But that assessment didn’t track with the woman outside. She clearly has a history with Anderson—there is too much affection between them for that to be based on anything but a long-term relationship. Which means she’s worked for Elliot for that time … how could he want to hire someone like her?

The man is an oddity who is staring at me as I enter his office. It’s like being stared at by a snake. There’s nothing behind the eyes. “Hello, June. Anderson. Take a seat.” He gestures to the pair of guest chairs in front of his desk.

Anderson warned me they are terrible to sit on, so when I find my seat worse than he told me, it’s a surprise. Like sitting on pricy cardboard, but without all the support.

“Thank you for meeting with us, Dad?—"

Elliot holds a hand up to silence him. To my surprise, it works. Anderson really must want him to like me. His father says, “I agreed to this meeting because you said you want to enlighten me about some facts I do not have regarding June. Given my last directive to you was to dismiss her from your life, I am curious to see what it is you think you could possibly tell me that would dissuade me from having her accosted by security, seeing as you did not mention she would be in attendance.”

“You didn’t tell him I was coming?”

Anderson smiles. “Thought it would be a nice surprise for him.”

I almost laugh at that. I would if I weren’t also pissed off.

Elliot sighs disdainfully. “My son has a taste for dramatics that he gets from his mother. But since you did not know he was springing you on me, I’ll hold off on calling security. For now.”

“First of all, Dad, you need to know that no matter what comes of this meeting, I am with June. Period. She is my partner, and one day, she will be my wife. I love her. We are together. That is not up for debate or discussion. We aren’t here to ask your permission to be together. We are here to mend fences, if possible. That is the scope of this meeting.”

The elder West sits back regarding his son. “Funny you think to lay down the law in my office when I could easily have security remove you both. Considering the situation, I’d think you’re practically begging me to do so.”

“Why security, Elliot?”

“You know very well why, June. You’re a spy. From the sound of things, you’ve either seduced my son into denial or convinced him to join you?—"

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Anderson says, standing. He passes his father the folder with the documents. “I’m no more a spy than June is. These are from Andre Moeller’s office. We broke in there—sort of—and stole them.”

“Do tell how you sort of break into an office, son.”

“We had the key.”

Elliot grunts at that and peruses the documents. “And I am supposed to see—wait.” He studies one further. “These are in my aliases.”

I nod. “That’s right, sir.”

Anderson says, “She didn’t know. Not about any of it. You put your alias on the documents, and there was no way for June to know any of this was tied to you.”

“I had no idea any of this was going on.” I sigh at myself. “Andre used me. On more than one occasion. The first time, kidnapping me to make you feel weak. Now this, using me to ruin you. A way to rub salt in the wound that someone close to you had been the one to help him.” I can hardly control the tone of my voice, I’m so angry when I speak. “He has been nothing but a thorn in my side from the moment I met him?—"

“Then why did you go to work for him after your kidnapping if it was a true kidnapping?” he rumbles.

I snap, “To piss you off.”

He blinks in surprise. Then he laughs sharply. “Is that right?”

“You hurt me. You hurt Anderson. I wanted a way to hurt you back. But I never dreamed he’d use me like this. It wasn’t even on my radar—I thought just working for him would be enough to piss you off. It’s hard to admit it, but I never saw this coming.”

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