Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“We’ll never be able to hide, Abbie.”
“We will,” she insists. “We have to. This matters to me. I don’t want to be the girl you’re banging, Gabe.”
“Any girl I was just banging wouldn’t be at the office with me.”
“Please.”
That one word undoes me. Holy hell, she undoes me. “Fine. Agreed.”
She gives me a prim nod and a smile. “Thank you.”
The elevator halts and she turns to face forward. I grimace, disliking this new arrangement. “I’ll change your mind about this,” I promise right before the doors open. I glance over at her. “In my office. With my tongue.”
Her lips quirk. “Then I guess I better not go to your office.”
The doors open and she exits the car. I follow, and I don’t touch her, kiss her, or check out her ass as I introduce her to the staff. I do, however, coordinate her meeting with Human Resources for one hour from now. That done, I lead her not to my office, but hers. Once we’re inside, I shut the door, and pull her around, pressing her against it. “This is uncalled for, Mr. Maxwell,” she teases. “None of this at the office.”
I cup her backside and pull her to me, about to prove her wrong, when someone knocks on the door. “You have three seconds and I’m coming in.”
At the sound of my brother’s voice, I pause a lean from kissing Abbie, my efforts to convince her to fuck me on her desk on hold but not for long. Grimacing while she laughs, I open the door to find Reid is standing there, his shoulder on the frame. “We should debrief after the Reese meeting.”
“Come the hell in,” I say, opening the door wider.
Reid pushes off the door, and joins us in Abbie’s office, giving her a quick once-over. “Heard you took a chunk of that reporter’s hair out.”
“Did I?” Abbie asks. “I sure hope so.”
Reid’s lips twitch. “Try harder next time. HR is ready for you now, not later.”
“In other words, get out of my own office,” Abbie says. “Not too subtle there, Reid, but good try.”
“Tell Carrie I tried,” he says. “She won’t believe you, but tell her anyway.”
Abbie laughs. “Right. I’ll tell her. Gallant effort.” She heads for the door. “I’ll find my way to Human Resources.” And then she’s gone, shutting Reid and I inside alone.
The two of us step to the window, our thinking positions, side by side. A window, any window really, always the place where we both overlook the city and let the superpowers flow. And we need fucking superpowers right now. “Do you think dad’s behind this?” Reid asks.
“We drove him out,” I say. “Of course, he’s behind at least some of this. I have a good mind to just go choke the bastard out and call it done.”
“But would it be done? There’s more to this than meets the eye.” We turn to face each other. “The question for me is,” he continues, “does this all come back to that property the shelter sits on, or was that all her ex’s bullshit to fuck with Abbie?”
“Walker can’t find a reason her ex would want that property. I’m thinking he was fucking with her.”
“Or it was a distraction to keep her eyes off something else.”
I lean on the beam running down the window. “Walker is looking wide and coming up dry.”
“And yet Kenneth is dead and Abbie and the shelter are at the core of this.”
“We can’t necessarily connect those dots,” I argue. “Kenneth was a bastard with a list of enemies, Jean Claude included. And as for the red wig, Abbie was his ex. She’s an easy target to place blame.”
“I wouldn’t put that or anything above Jean Claude. She was on his radar and that is not a place to be. Ever.”
The door opens and Abbie enters again, shutting it behind her, her face pale. “Jean Claude just tried to call me. He wants to make an offer on the animal shelter.”
Chapter seventy-eight
Abbie
“I’m done with this, Gabe,” I say, leaning against my office door. “I just want to save you and my mom, and then get back to saving cute fluffy animals any way I can.” I look at Reid, who I know needs to know I’m worth hiring. “And winning legal battles against jerks like Jean Claude.”
“Fuck the assholes,” Reid says. “No. That’s my job. Save the animals. It’s a hell of lot more fun and it’s a tax write-off for us.”
I swear in this moment, as silly as it is, I want to tear up. Because I know Gabe hasn’t had time to talk to him about this but he replied just like Gabe. “All the more reason for me to call my mother, give her the heads up, and then take whatever Jean Claude offers. She feels like she has a lead on a new place anyway.”