Chapter Eighteen

Shane

When the jet touched down in Houston, Justin had my Veyron waiting for me at the private airport. I realized that while I was itching to get behind its wheel again, I didn’t feel as excited about driving it as I had been before I went to Mystic. That was when I was pretty sure I was fucked.

I was starting to think that my self-imposed exile was going to be a dividing point in my life, pre-Mystic Shane and post-Mystic Shane.

The Veyron’s engine purred to life at barely the touch of a button, and I directed the monster of a performance car straight to the skyscraper that was Perkins Enterprises. I had come back to Houston to get back to work, and I wasn’t going to waste so much as a second.

Besides, I was starting to drive myself crazy, and I needed an outlet. Work seemed like the perfect thing. I roared into my parking spot, right next to the bank of elevators that led straight to the executive level, swiped my key card, and within seconds, I was back in my natural habitat.

The employees of Perkins Enterprises seemed genuinely happy to see me back, coming out of their offices to greet me. Justin rushed toward me, firing off instructions into his ever-present earpiece and tapping at it when he reached me.

“Boss man, good to have you back.” He smiled. “I’m afraid there’s no time for you to settle in. There’s a board meeting in progress that started two minutes ago.”

“What?” I snapped, confusion and surprise clouding my thoughts, though I showed no outward expression of either emotion. “Why wasn’t I informed of this meeting?”

Justin looked shocked and suddenly afraid. “I don’t know, sir. Bart convened the meeting. I assumed it was on your instruction.”

It wasn’t but I wasn’t about to say it. “Where is it?”

“The big boardroom, sir,” Justin answered quickly.

I strode with purpose to the other end of the building, to the big boardroom that was attached to my office because it was ordinarily used for board meetings called by the CEO.

Me.

No one else was ordinarily allowed to make use of it without my express permission. Someone, it seemed, had forgotten that. I practically felt the relaxed Mystic Shane melt and mold back into the ruthless, billionaire oil tycoon, Houston Shane.

By the time I yanked at the handle of the door that led to my boardroom, there were no more traces of the man Fiona had met in Mystic.

A hush fell over the room as I entered. Most of the board members looked like they had seen a ghost when they saw me. Surprise was etched onto every face in the room, none more so than my trusty President’s face.

Every prickle of apprehension and suspicion that I’d felt and ignored back in Mystic bubbled to the surface. I had let the reins hang too loose, and it seemed he was trying to gather them up.

My fists clenched. Something was rotten in Denmark. Or, in this instance, at Perkins Enterprises.

My gut feeling was confirmed when someone muttered, “I thought he wasn’t attending these meetings anymore.”

Rage roiled in my stomach. When I spoke, it was with a low command. “What is the meaning of this?”

Each of the board members met my eyes briefly before becoming suddenly interested in the wooden grain of the table, or the view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. A few of them glanced at Bart and set their jaws.

“Shane,” Bart started, beads of sweat popping onto his brow. “I didn’t know you’d be back quite this soon.”

I turned my gaze on him, my eyes burning holes into his sockets. “You haven’t answered my question, Bart. What the fuck is this?”

“I… uh… We…” He dabbed at his forehead. “We needed to discuss some, uh, some things that couldn’t wait.”

“Couldn’t wait for CEO to deal with them, or even be informed of them?” I asked, my voice a dangerous rasp.

“Well, I was going to, uh, update you when you finally got home.” Bart fumbled his words.

“Here I am, Bart.” I crossed my arms across my chest. “The floor is yours.”

“Mr. Perkins, Mr. Burrows,” one of the board members spoke up. “I think it’s best that we adjourn this meeting so you two can catch up.”

“And figure your shit out,” another mumbled.

My eyes caught Bart’s, and I kept them narrowed on his. “I think that would be for the best. You’re all dismissed. Meeting adjourned. I will reconvene it within the next few days if I feel it necessary.”

The board members shuffled from the room, a generally confused mumbling among them.

“What are you doing here, Shane?” Bart huffed when the doors closed behind the board.

“First off, you’re in my seat.” I nodded to where he was seated at the head of the table. His eyes narrowed briefly, then he heaved himself out of my chair and into his proper place at my right hand.

I settled in, undoing the button on my jacket with one hand. I sat without once breaking eye contact with Bart. “That’s better.”

“Well then?” Bart asked, prodding me to continue.

“I believe I asked you a question first,” I said. “It remains unanswered.”

“I told you, boy,” he said, something unfamiliar in his voice. “There were some matters that needed to be discussed immediately, and I needed the board to approve them.”

“What matters?” My eyes were narrowed to slits at this point.

“A lot has happened here since the explosion. You were gone. We had to carry on in your absence. I will catch you up in due course, but you need to get settled back in first. There are some documents that need your signature as soon as possible, then we’ll sit down. Okay?” His reply was as cagey as he’d been acting all morning.

I needed time to figure out what was going on with him, so I agreed. “Okay.”

“So, what are you doing back already?” Bart dabbed his brow again, his eyes darting to the door like he couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“You tell me. You called, Bart. Do you not remember that?” I raised an eyebrow, studying his features closely.

“Of course I do, but I didn’t think you’d hop on the first flight out.”

“You were pretty insistent. Besides, I was already headed back.” It was a lie, but he didn’t need to know the truth.

“Oh, well, that explains it, then,” Bart said. “I thought it would take you at least a couple of days to wrap up your business there.”

“You were wrong, obviously,” I said quickly. “Perkins Enterprises has always been my first priority, as you know. It was time. It’s been long enough since the explosion.”

“Yes.” He pursed his lips. “I suppose so. I called you back because there are some things only you are authorized to do at this point in time.”

What the fuck does that mean? “I’m not your goddamn whipping boy, Bart. I’m not at your beck and call to summon whenever you need me to scribble my signature.”

Bart’s eyes popped wide open. “That’s not what I meant. I merely meant that I agree with you. It was time to come back, and it’s a good thing, since we need your authorization to take a few steps that are necessary in the investigation.”

His vague, bullshit answers were starting to get to me. “Have everything sent over to my office. I’ll look it over and authorize what I deem necessary.”

“You don’t need to look over everything, Shane. It’s not necessary. I’ll have the documents sent over that need to be signed. If, of course, you agree with their contents.” Bart had trouble meeting my gaze. He dabbed at new beads of sweat.

“You may be right,” I said. “But even so, I want everything. It’s my time to waste, is it not?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll have everything delivered to your office as soon as we’re done here. I’ll mark the most important developments.” Meaning that he didn’t want me to really pay attention to the documents that weren’t marked.

Those, then, would be exactly where I started.

In the meantime, I changed the topic. “How’s our public image doing?”

“The public relations team is working overtime, but it’s not as bad as it could have been.” Bart shrugged, then added grudgingly, “There are those who lauded you for taking the explosion so seriously that you threw yourself into the investigation from the other end.”

“And the others?” I inclined my head.

He refused to meet my eyes. “They think you’re a coward who ran away as soon as things got tough.”

“Well, I’m back now. I’ve also had an idea to help with the rehabilitation of our public image.” I was doing it with or without his approval but it would go down better with the remainder of the board if I had it. It had to at least appear like we were on the same page, for the moment anyway.

“You did?” He didn’t look too excited about the prospect. “And here I was, thinking that all you were doing in Mystic was fishing.”

Far from it. “It wasn’t.”

“What’s this idea then?”

“I want to donate some money for a wing at the hospital, or possibly start a new charity, depending on what I find to be better,” I told him.

Bart thought it over for no more than a few seconds. “You’re right. That might help save your image. Show that you’re not the heartless coward some are saying that you are.”

“It’s a done deal, then. I’ll work out the details and talk to the guys down at public relations.”

“Good idea. You should get the jump on that.” He perked up for the first time since I’d arrived.

He wanted my attention diverted from whatever he was sending to my office, I realized.

“I will,” I said. “As soon as I deal with those documents you’re sending over.”

His shoulders slumped. “Very well.”

“I’ll send Justin to help your assistant with everything. I want it all within the hour.”

“Shane,” he sputtered. “That’s not possible. It’s too much to assemble in that time.”

“One hour,” I repeated. “I think you’ll find that Justin is very efficient.”

“I’d better get to it, then,” Bart conceded, rising slowly to his feet.

“Thank you,” I said, still pretending like I didn’t realize anything was wrong.

I followed him to the door and slid into my office, feeling like I was coming home and stepping into a stranger’s world all at the same time.

Less than an hour later, Justin and Bart’s assistant started carrying files into my office. It was more than I thought it would be but it wouldn’t be an impossible task to get through if I buckled down.

Rolling up my sleeves, I pulled the first file closer before they’d even delivered the last of them. I instructed Justin to hold my calls, only putting the most urgent of issues through to me, and I got to work.

For the rest of the day, I poured over hundreds of reports from the explosion, minutes of meetings held in my absence, minutes of meetings that I had dialed into but that had continued after I’d ended the call, and countless other documents.

It wasn’t long before a picture started coming together, a picture that I should have started seeing a lot earlier. But I hadn’t been here, and I’d been too wrapped up in Fiona while I was gone. The way that Bart had been acting for weeks was starting to make sense, and the meeting I’d interrupted that very morning had been one of his last moves.

It seemed that Bart had planned on calling me back to seal my own fate, after he called for a meeting the following week to appoint him as the CEO of Perkins Enterprises. All that he truly needed me back in Houston for was the sign off after the vote.

Over my dead fucking body.

It was an unfamiliar feeling to have been caught off guard. I didn’t plan on letting it happen again.

I read over every scrap of paper carted into my office, dividing them into neat piles relating to the explosion, Bart’s plan to usurp me, urgent contracts that needed my signature, and the menial day-to-day things that I could catch up on later.

Slowly but surely, the day turned to night, the building emptied, and before I knew it, I was completely alone in the office. I had skipped lunch and dinner, and my eyes were burning from the strain of reading for hours.

It was just before midnight when I finally decided to call it a day. I locked the most pertinent documents in the safe in my office, before all the evidence that I had relating to Bart’s activities disappeared in the morning. Then I headed to the parking structure.

I stopped at a Chinese takeout place, grabbed a late dinner, and pointed the Veyron’s nose in the direction of my house. Justin had arranged for it to be cleaned and for the kitchen to be stocked again.

I dragged my bags into my bedroom, finding the place strangely cold and empty. Out of nowhere, I pictured Fiona in the room. I imagined what it might look like if she were living here. The images formed with vivid clarity.

I imagined the place would be brighter, with little touches of her personality accenting the walls. I pictured waking up next to her, wrapped in my arms. I saw myself coming home to her at the end of the day, where she’d greet me with a warm smile and a warmer kiss. And all the troubles of the outside world would fade away when I gazed into her eyes.

I shook the useless images from my tired mind and ran a hot shower. That produced similar thoughts of having Fiona in the shower with me, her bright blue eyes staring up at me as she sucked me off.

My dick liked that idea way too much, so I turned the temperature of the shower all the way down. The last thing I needed was another distraction.

Freezing water cascaded over my shoulders, prickling onto my skin like tiny shards of glass. Once I got my mind and my anatomy under control, I stepped out of the shower and padded back to my bedroom without bothering to get dressed.

I shrugged off the towel knotted around my waist and got into bed, naked as the day I was born.

My phone buzzed on my bedside table, and I jerked as if I’d received a shock. A part of me hoped against all hope that it was Fiona, but I knew it was a long shot…

Fiona: Hey! I know that it’s late but I just wanted to say that I hope you had a good first day :-) Mystic misses you.

My heart pounded. I hadn’t really been expecting to hear from her, especially not so soon. I told her to take her time and figure things out. What could she possibly have figured out in the mere hours it had been since I’d last seen her? Since I’d crawled from her bed in the middle of the night to leave her standing alone in the doorway?

In a moment of weakness, I tapped my thumb on the green call button and called her back instead of returning her text.