Page 26 of Darling Wildfire
“Fuck…does she know any of this?”
“No.”
“Have you told her anything?” He sounded annoyed.
I pulled into the underground parking garage at thePhoxoffices downtown and pulled into a spot next to Kaelin’s Tesla. I turned off the car and turned to Graham.
“Look, I practically just met you and Kaelin. Sure, this has all been hot and heavy and I-I care deeply for both of you,” I said, stumbling slightly over the declaration of feelings, not sure how to word what I felt. “But I will do whatever is necessary to accomplish what I set out to do. That means being careful with information and being careful with a life I wasn’t expecting to have to watch out for.”
“Do you love her?”
I stepped out of the car before answering. He met me around the side of the SUV.
“I’m not sure if I know what love means anymore,” I said honestly. “Where does obsession end and love begin?”
He shrugged. “I can’t answer that. Maybe they’re one and the same.”
I nodded. “I would burn the world for her—but I also know there is a deep darkness inside me that is driven by retribution and fed by vengeance. I have obligations—” He looked grim. “It’s complicated. I will do whatever I have to do to accomplish what I’ve spent the last decade putting into place.”
All I knew was I needed to end this. I was just hoping Kaelin and the other people I’d come to care for were still around when the dust settled.
“She knew what she was getting into,” I continued. “She knows what kind of man I am.”
“The dangerous kind,” Graham agreed.
“Who plays dangerous games.”
11
GRAHAM
My mind was still turning everything over as we stepped into the elevator.
Even though I sat through North and Demetrius’ planning session, I still didn’t have the full picture of what was going on. All I knew was that Kaelin was in some photographs she shouldn’t, and North had a crazy stalker after him. I knew it was deeper than that but I couldn’t see exactly to what extent—yet. I fully intended on finding out though.
“How are you going to get her to lock the cameras down tighter without telling her why? Can’t West do it?” I asked as we rode the elevator up to the executive suites on the top floors.
“Yeah, he could. Just easier if she does it,” he answered.
The doors opened up into a large lobby with a receptionist desk on one side and a wall of glass offices along the far wall. Everything about the building was spacious, expensive and high tech. I followed North as he walked purposefully past the reception desk. The woman stood up behind it.
“You can’t—” North completely ignored her. She hurried to try and intercept him. “She’s in a meeting!” The woman insisted.
North fixed her with a glare and she froze, paling slightly, then he kept walking. I smiled at the woman, trying to ease the anxiety clearly on her face.
“We won’t interrupt her,” I said firmly. “We’ll wait in her office.”
The conference room glass was currently blurred out, signifying a meeting was in place. I walked past it and entered her office to see North already looking around.
“You could be nicer to Maeve,” I said with a chuckle. “She’s terrified of you.”
“She should stay out of my way then,” he said distractedly, looking up at the camera in the corner of Kaelin’s office. Her office was simple but with small feminine touches here and there—like the vase of white flowers on the coffee table and the accent pillows on the couch. There was a massivepainting she’d done on the wall across the room from the desk but the other wall was all windows and looked out over the sprawling city scape and further out to the bay.
“I think she has a better view than you do,” I said.
North scoffed and glanced briefly out the bank of floor to ceiling windows. We both did a quick walkthrough of the room but didn’t find anything out of sorts. I sat down on the couch, arms stretched out across the back while North went and sat down in front of her computer.
Before I could start in on all the questions I had, Kaelin walked in.
