Page 41 of To Catch A Rook

“You slept next to me.” He laughed before I could get the words out. “Yeah, I know, we definitely weren’t cuddling. You made sure there were three feet between us at all times. But you have a huge bed in there, Hill. If the nightmares keep coming, try it. Probably isn’t hard to find a man who wants to sleep with you.”

“Maybe I’ll get four, like you do.” I teased back. The unorthodox lifestyle he’d chosen never failed to amuse me.

“Not as bad as it sounds, actually.” Logan let out a light chuckle. “I’ve got to go. Noble’s finally asleep. I have a short window to get him down before he notices I’m missing.”

I could feel my heart rate slowing, and my eyes getting heavier by the second. His advice was third tier at best, but our shared history had done its work to calm me back into a state of drowsiness.

“Thanks for calling,” I whispered, grateful he’d bothered to get back to me at this late hour. His loyalty and friendship were as precious to me as his son was to him.

“Of course.” I heard the soft click of a door and imagined him walking down the short hallway back to the master bedroom. I knew the layout well—it had originally been my house, after all.

“And Hill? Spend some of your billions on therapy. If a fucking shrink can help me, it can help anybody.”

Thesoft click on the other side of the state was all I heard through the line. I slipped on my earphones, nestled into the safety of my blankets, and promptly fell to sleep.

“Marco, lovely to see you again.”

The words were citrus to a raging canker sore on my tongue, but I maintained the professional smile I’d cemented to my lips.

He rose from his seat in the plush royal blue booth to shake my hand, an equally professional smile holding his cheeks in place. Pale gray eyes politely assessed me from the top of my curled blonde locks to the tips of my cream Louboutins.

I repressed a disgusted shudder at his attention.

I’d chosen Quintessence to talk business today. The familiar territory and common ground did little to assuage my nerves, but if all went to rot, Jeremy would have my back.

I scanned the bar as I settled into the comfortable booth seat, hoping for a glimpse of my favorite bartender. The crest of salt and pepper hair at the other end of the vast walnut bar-top settled my stomach only slightly, but I took the win.

Taming blood-thirsty sharks was a very routine part of conducting business at the top level of society; I was no stranger to swimming in their waters and leaving scarring bite marks when the situation called for it. Now that I knew the depths of Marco Alvarez’s depravity, I wanted to shred him into tough, blubbery pieces and leave him as chum.

I was an equally honed predator, yet, I was still a woman, biologically programmed to sense danger in the air from a man who felt he owned me and my sisters. The high-pitched wail no one else could hear warned we owedhimfor the gift of his attention, and he would take it by whatever means necessary.

I was definitely not intothatkind of primal play.

“Let’s cut to the chase.” Marco’s slithering tenor slid over my skin like a poisonous snake. “Now that the Rodriguezes have joined our group of companies, you are no longer the power player. Shall we start making concessions now?”

Oh, ho. This was going to be fun.

“You mean, the elder Rodriguezes have joined your group of companies,” I said. “You seem to be forgetting that I have the true brains behind the operation as my partner. Not to mention considerable backing from the state.”

Marco’s stare was unblinking, keeping his hands clasped in front of him as if my position was of no consequence.

“Veronica and Vicente are a force to be reckoned with.” Pearly teeth flashed, an innocent smirk layered with malicious intent. “They have aligned themselves with a business they can trust.”

Armed with our drinks, Jeremy’s lean form stopped at our table.

What a saint.

I welcomed the interruption, and took a long sip of my dirty Martini to tame the boiling tendrils of anger seeping through my blood. Marco accepted the crystal tumbler of what looked to be bourbon from Jeremy’s outstretched hand, then turned his leering gaze back on me.

“We’re playing the game by giving Lane Enterprises the Power Chip contract, but we’ll be looking for other partnerships to better align with our … interests moving forward.”

It was pitiful really, how grown men seemed to think by dangling a carrot or a stick they could browbeat someone into submission. As if the shriveled carrot or the gnarled stick had any authority over me.

I brought my shark to the surface of my skin, allowing the steely determination of a predator to leach into my tone.

“You seem to think that I’m desperate to be at the top. I’m not. I have power because people want to give it to me. I have alliances because people know that they’re betting on a sure thing.”

I licked my lips and pasted on my most condescending smile, no longer in the mood to play a game of pretense.

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