CHAPTER 10 - BARRETT
I still couldn’t believe she worked at the Norman Corporation. As I walked out of the elevator and to the private garage under the building for executives and consultants toward the waiting company car, I couldn’t understand the coincidence.
Of all the places in the world the one girl that had made me see the world as a real place again had to work, she had to work in the same building as Tate Norman. I couldn’t square how light and dark could coexist on the same floor like that.
Tate Norman’s name got me thinking down a different path — it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to reconcile the work I was doing for him with my own moral code. I wasn’t so strait-laced that I was against breaking the law here and there - I’d seen and done enough things all over the world to know that the law itself was mostly fluid and open to interpretation.
I didn’t mind doing things that hurt bad people. They knew what they were signing up for when they made that choice to get into the life, and no one could be naive about it — there was always a chance you left this life at the end of a bullet.
But what Tate Norman was starting upstairs — that was a little different. That wasn’t just a power play in the underbelly of Meridian, it was all-out war with forces and armies that were, at least on paper, a whole hell of a lot bigger than Tate’s.
There was no chance this ended without innocent people getting hurt — and that was something I couldn’t stand. I wouldn’t let it happen.
Which is why I already knew that walking out of Tate’s office just now had been a mistake. I knew that even trying to talk sense to Tate was a fool’s errand at best, but if I was still in the room, at least I could exert a little control over the situation — try and make sure as few people got hurt as possible.
Minimize the collateral damage as best I could.
And then there was the other guy standing in Tate’s office, the one off to the side. I’d seen him before, even though I didn’t know his name. I couldn’t stand his whole ninja assassin shtick, but I had to respect his fighting ability. As far as I knew, though, from working alongside him over the last year, he didn’t have a moral bone in his body — he just did this stuff because it was fun.
That was the kind of guy who would get way too many people killed.
The driver got out of the car and hustled around to the passenger’s side, opening the door just as I stopped in front of it, but instead of getting in so we could be on our way back to my apartment, I found myself staring at the black leather interior of the town car without getting in.
“Something the matter, sir?” The driver asked, clearly puzzled. I wasn’t usually the type to hesitate.
I already knew I wasn’t getting in that car. “No,” I said, halting for a moment. “Turns out I’m not ready to leave just yet.”
The driver closed the door. “Understood, sir.” He saw me turn around and start heading back toward the elevator. “I’ll be right here when you’re ready, sir,” I heard him call out to me, and I waved over my shoulder.
Shit.
What the hell was I getting myself into?
Almost immediately my thoughts jumped back to Mallory. I’d managed to get over the fact that she worked at the Norman Corporation, but what was much tougher to deal with was the realization that I was in no way ready to see her again, to have her so close by.
What we had shared that night had been magical and life affirming, but I had decided right then and there that I couldn’t put her in the kind of danger that my life came with — it simply wasn’t fair to her. Becoming a ghost in her life had been the best thing for both of us, even if it had hurt, and even if I was still thinking about her.
The thought of having her in the same building as me…it both turned me on and made me excited, but at the same time, I found myself wanting to request an out-of-office assignment already. Have Tate send me somewhere around the world to do the company’s dirty work.
Anything but have Mallory this close to me, so close but still too far for me to be with.
It would have been enough to drive a normal man crazy, and I knew at least one thing about myself — that I was anything but a normal man.
I got halfway between the car and the elevator before I realized I was heading into the first test of my resolve. She was probably still in the building, but hopefully she’d left already.
Oh, fuck.
It hit me all at once, and my blood turned ice cold throughout my body, and I broke into a run.
No, there was no chance she would find out what Tate was doing up there. For all Tate’s recklessness, he wasn’t sloppy.
I tapped at the elevator button, impatiently tapping it multiple times, but the elevator had moved on, and I had to wait.
Then I felt a buzz in my pocket.
I pulled out my phone, holding it away from me like it was a biohazard, seeing the name ‘Tate Norman’ on the caller ID.
A cold sweat running over my hands, I answered the phone.
“Get the FUCK back up here, Barrett! I need you to clean up a mess RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!” Tate screamed into the phone.
And then the elevator doors opened, but by then, I was already running up the stairs as fast as I could go.
I just hoped I was in time to make sure Mallory was OK.
Damn you, Tate Norman.