Sam

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THE MIDDLE OF JUNE had rolled around, and the heat of San Francisco was becoming apparent. My jeans were unbearable, and my leather jacket had been traded for nothing more than leather hand warmers. They cushioned my hands if I had to throw a punch, but if I had to continuously fight someone, they also delivered a stunning electrical force. I’d made them myself, taking apart the leather fabric and installing the wires necessary to make them into another concealed weapon. There was a switch in the palm of my hand that had to be flipped. Then it was only a matter of balling up my fist and throwing a punch.

The wires, once connected to the skin, did the rest.

If I wasn’t sleeping in Derek’s executive washroom suite, I was sleeping at his house. I had set myself up in a room with eyes on his property surveillance system. I spent very little time at my house, always poised and ready for action should someone attempt to breach his property again. It felt odd here at night when San Francisco went to sleep and the stars in the sky twinkled above. Derek would stare at me when he thought I wasn’t looking, raking his eyes up and down my form.

It made me unsettled, but it also made me happy.

I didn’t like that. The fact that it made me happy.

“Sam? Sam, you there?”

“Huh? Yeah. Hey, John. What’s up?” I asked.

“The shift change is occurring. You want an update?” he asked.

“Let me guess. No perimeter breaches, no letters, no foul play.”

“Sounds about right,” he said with a grin.

“Who’s on this shift change? Still the same guys?” I asked.

“Sam, can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Without sounding insubordinate, I think it would be good if we got Derek away for a while.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, like a vacation. He doesn’t have to stop working, but with the police and the FBI hot on Jacob’s tail, I figured he would let up a bit. But Mr. Steele is more wound up than ever. He’s gonna have a heart attack with all this stress.”

“In his defense, his best friend did try to kill him.”

“All I’m saying is there’s no change in the threat, but there is a change in him. And it’s not a good one. He’s not really eating. If he’s not working at his office, he’s working here. The man could use a break.”

“I can talk to him, but I can’t force him to do anything like that,” I said.

“If there’s anyone who can convince him, it’s you. Spending some time away from this place will be safer for him, but it’ll also be healthier. Just ... talk to him. See what he thinks.”

“Will do. Thanks for the update.”

I lifted my eyes up the stairs and sighed. I knew Derek had been working late, but I didn’t know how badly it was affecting him. The man needed to eat. And if he wasn’t eating, then he was probably having trouble sleeping as well. I sighed as I walked up the stairs, making my way to his office as new men came trekking into the house. The shift changes were always louder than I wanted, with tactical boots stomping around and guns being prepped for action.

But it was necessary to keep this man feeling safe.

Or so I thought.

“Derek?”

“Come on in,” he said.

I pushed through his office door, finding the office rank with body odor. The lights were off, and the screen of the laptop was illuminated to its brightest. He was hunched over his desk, scribbling things down as he murmured lightly to himself. Not once did he stop to look at me as I closed the door, and I debated turning on the light just to get his attention

John was right. Derek was suffering because of this.

“I think we should get you somewhere,” I said.

Derek’s hand stopped moving as he straightened up in his chair.

“Has something happened?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Something has.”

“Is it Jacob?”

I watched Derek swivel around in his chair, his eyes heavy with exhaustion and red from focusing way too damn much on that laptop.

“No,” I said. “It’s you.”

“Can you save the cryptic answers? I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“That’s the problem. In making progress with this case, your stress levels have gone up.”

“You call being shot by my best friend progress?” he asked.

“This has taken a toll on you I didn’t anticipate, a toll I neglected to see because of my need to direct a security team. But John brought to my attention—”

“Ah, John, John, John. He really needs to keep his nose to himself.”

“Kind of hard when you aren’t showering,” I said.

“This isn’t uncommon. When I get into a groove, I don’t stop for much.”

“And according to John, you rarely stop to eat.”

“Sam, do you have a question, or are we going to argue the entire time? Because you’re not my girlfriend, so I don’t have to argue with you to settle and appease your state-of-mind.”

His words cut deeper than they should’ve. I felt a stinging sensation trickling down into my stomach. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, casting aside the pain his words caused me as he swiveled around in his chair again.

“Sam, I’m sor—”

“I know you think you can’t step away from your company because you have no COO. But that’s not true. You have people who are looking into records. You have people who are protecting your property. You have people in the finance division who can go over these records and make sure they line up with what the investors submitted. You have people you pay good sums of money to do this for you. And if you go away for a little while to clear your head, you can always keep in touch with your computer. You have no business deals that require you to be here to close. You have no projects that will need your immediate attention to start up, and honestly? It’s safer. For all we know, Jacob could walk into the lobby of your building with a bomb strapped to his chest and blow the thing sky high. Then what? What’s your executive washroom gonna get you then?”

I saw Derek slump in his chair as I swallowed down my anger. Now wasn’t the time to get emotionally invested. Now was the time to get Derek to listen.

“Think of it as an elongated Vegas trip without the business meeting. Wherever you want to go. For a week or two, just like that. You could lie out on a beach somewhere with a drink or bask in a hot tub that overlooks a mountain scenery. Hell, we could get you somewhere that doesn’t have cell or internet service, and you could come off the grid completely for a week or two. But you need to do this. You need to go somewhere for a while and unplug.”

“I can’t, Sam. I can’t abandon my company like that during this time,” I said. “All of this is hinging on me.”

“No,” I said. “All of this is hinging on you trying to get things running as normally as possible. And right now, all you’re doing is sitting shirtless in your office starving yourself, not showering, and doing other people’s jobs because you feel like everything is spinning out of control.”

“Because it is, Sam!”

“That, Derek Steele, is why you have me,” I said.

His eyes rose to mine, and I could tell I was getting through to him.

“You have me for when things spin out of control, so you can do what’s necessary for yourself and your company. And right now? You’re doing neither of those things because, on top of all this paperwork, you’re also trying to do my job.”

I took Derek’s silence as him willing to listen to my advice.

“I’ll keep teams around your workplace and home to throw Jacob off. And I’ll send an entire team with you. Anywhere you want to go.”

“I don’t want an entire team,” he said.

“Fine. Then you can take whoever you want. John. Mackie. Dwight. Whoever.”

“You’ll be just fine,” he said as he turned back toward his desk.

“I’ll have to be here to coordinate the teams,” I said.

“Either you go with me, or I don’t go at all. Take your pick,” he said.

That sounded like the Derek I knew. But now, this meant I was relegated to taking yet another vacation with this man, this billionaire client-slash-lover-slash-whatever the hell else we were.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll keep in contact with John, and he can coordinate the teams from here.”

“I’ll get us an itinerary, a flight plan, and a destination,” he said.

“Fine. Good,” I said. “And make sure you get yourself a shower too. And turn a fan on, Derek. Yikes.”

Then, I opened his office door, slipped out of the room, and sighed. I was going on another vacation with Derek Steele.

I made the decision to ignore how happy that made me and instead focused on the next plan of action.

Getting Derek through the night alive.