Chapter Eleven

Declan

“Hang on, Neil, I need to go into my office and grab the paperwork for the meeting. Meet you in ten minutes.” Ending the call, I slip my phone into my pocket. I adjust my suit, thinking how much Sydney dislikes the black-and-gray superfine pinstripe. She says it makes me look like a gangster from the twenties, some Bonnie and Clyde shit she worries too much about. Her favorite, my navy Brioni, is at the drycleaners until tomorrow. I have fun dressing her up in my vests, admiring her cleavage in the deep V. We have a lot of fun unbuttoning my dress shirts slowly. I’ll have an entire closet of new suits, if it makes her happy. There’s lightness in my step I never thought I would have before all this.

Before Sydney.

Damn that girl.

One night with her and I’m a goner.

A week and I’ve scooped her dad up and shipped him off to a rehab three states away. Best half million dollars I ever spent, clearing her old man’s debts. She twists me up in fucking knots, and yet when she offered me her delectable ass this morning I couldn’t bring myself to take it yet. I wanted to savor it, not slam into it as if she was some whore from the club. Using the debt against Sydney had been a game until it stopped being a game. The velvet box in my safe said everything I couldn’t when I’d gone and fallen for the girl. I never fall for the girl and all that messy shit.

Except for Sydney.

I thought long and hard about how I would ask her to be mine. Dinner out, or in? How long would I wait? It shouldn’t matter, but I want this one thing to be perfect. My hand reaches for the doorknob, and as I began to twist it I hear a rustling in my office that shouldn’t be. My office is empty unless I’m occupying it.

Maggie dropped off a casserole yesterday, trying to see what we were up to, nosy old bird. I lock shit up when I’m not there. A needle of pain lances my stomach, wondering, and I back away down the hall and around the corner waiting. I didn’t survive this long by being stupid, and my hand reaches for the concealed gun I carry.

I wait for what feels like minutes, pressing ignore on my phone when Neil messages me to hurry up. I hear the click-clack of small heeled feet coming closer. I step around the corner as if I had just gotten there.

“Shit, Dec!”

I grab her shoulders, righting her from falling. What the fuck was Sydney doing coming from my office?

“What’s up, baby?” I kiss her dry lips, licking the edges until she moans and lets me in for a taste. I have to meet Neil, but my cock has other ideas. I grind her against the wall in the hallway and her body goes soft for me.

She’s breathless, speaking between my bites on her neck and my hands cupping her breasts in her sundress. “Meeting Selma at the coffee shop.” Her eyes dart down the hall, not meeting mine. She’s lying, but I can’t figure out why or what has her so distracted.

“I can drive you there and pick you up later.” I can’t because I’m meeting Neil, but she doesn’t know that and I’ll make brother wait if I have to.

“No, it’s okay. We’ve got girl stuff planned.” Since she’s been in my house, my bed, and at my breakfast table, working had been out of the question. Sydney hasn’t been back to the coffeehouse or her apartment. I haven’t heard her call her co-worker or that roommate of hers that never seems to be home and I suppose she has things to take care of.

I smirk because I think she should take care of my dick right now, despite how crude that sounds. We haven’t discussed the particulars, but she’s a kept woman now—my woman, whether she likes that part of our deal or not. That’s how it’s going to be. Having her makes me vulnerable to my enemies, and now she needs her own protection detail, which leaves my two best guys or myself.

“Then let Stevens take you.”

She groans. “Declan, no.”

“Not negotiable.” My finger taps her nose.

“Fine, but it’s a waste of his time.” Her protest is cute but pointless.

“Protecting you is never a waste of time. When will you be back?”

“Late…” Her voice trails off.

I tip her chin up, looking her squarely in the face. “Dinner.”

“I have a curfew now?” One brow rises in challenge.

“What you’ll have is a good spanking if you’re late to dinner. Maggie left a casserole. We can eat in.” I smirk.

Her cheeks flush and she knows the threat is idle unless she really wants a spanking—then I’m happy to oblige. She’s turned me into a damn teddy bear.

Softly she smiles. “Okay. Dinner.” She reaches up on her tiptoes and kisses my chin. I grunt, letting her go. If I reach for her again its game over, and the meeting with Neil will never happen.

I tap her ass on the way out and watch her walk down the steps and into the car with Stevens. He knows I’ll take Rhodes with me.

I shake my head, disappointed with myself for thinking Sydney was in my office, and open the door. It’s filled with her scent but that’s not new. I fuck her in here at least once a day, given the chance. The desk gives nice leverage when I want it, and seeing her perched on the corner while I work is a nice distraction.

I reach for a file on top when a breeze behind me pulls my attention. I turn and study the door to the vault. For the first time I find it’s not fully shut, and I yank it open. There’s an air duct and ventilation system that’s blocked when the door is shut. Obviously it wasn’t, and I don’t forget these things.

That niggling fear and doubt settle in and I sit down at my desk, pushing back in my chair, my hands resting behind my head while I look around the office for any other anomalies. My phone rings and I reach into my pocket to get it.

“Declan, you’re late.” Leave it to Neil to harass me about being on time. I’m surprised the party boy made it out of bed for our meeting, but I’m bothered by how Sydney left and unsure of what’s going on. Since we’ve been having sex, christening each room of the house, I turned the cameras off inside. No sense in recording what I could freely have, and I didn’t fuck women in my house if I don’t trust them. In fact, Sydney is the first.

The only.

I hate thinking that I’ve let my guard down foolishly.

“Hang on, Neil.” Standing up, I go to the vault, keeping the phone in one hand opening the door again, scanning each shelf and every file I keep in here. A few have little spots of dust, but one is empty. It’s a shelf I kept set aside for Tabitha’s inheritance—specifically one deed to a tract of property when Dad thought he could strengthen the family by marrying Tabby off to a business associate. Obviously I wasn’t going to let that happen and so the property has stayed barren, a dock on the waterfront worth a shitload of money to the right person. My fist clenches and I roar to the empty vault, cursing my stupidity.

I place the phone against my ear and mutter.

“Neil, we have a problem.”