CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Nora stood outside the Sterling Tech building. Holy crap.
Fancy.
Nope. Not the right word.
Daunting. Predatory. Those words fit.
It was a symphony of steel and glass, with angles that cut against the sky and dominated the entire area while standing aloof.
Somewhere in there, Gabe was holding her dog hostage.
Nora marched on in and headed for the front desk, making a deliberate effort not to curl her shoulders in a protective hunch as her boot heels clipped over the marble floor. The security guard, unsmiling, watched her approach.
Halfway there, Nora paused to gawk at the stunning sculpture that hulked in the central atrium. It was a complicated, threatening twist of black and silver and gold metal. Some of the metal caught and viciously threw back the atrium’s light; other sections were highly textured with deep scores and gouges, and seemed to drink the light down. The sculpture made her think of a dragon and a tree at the same time. The hair on her arms lifted and her muscles tensed as she stared at it. She had the ridiculous thought that the thing…whatever it was…could come alive at any minute, and swallow her whole.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
Nora jumped. The guard had come out from behind his desk without her noticing, and now stood at her elbow. She tore her eyes from the sculpture, careful to keep it in her peripheral vision as she said, “I’m here to see Mr. Sterling. I don’t have an appointment, but—”
“That’s all right, Ms. Bowman. You can go right on up.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“You’re on the list.”
What list?
“Follow me, please.” The guard led her to the elevator and stood aside, ushering her in. “Top button for the penthouse,” he said, pointing.
“Is that where his office is?”
“His apartment.”
Nora had an idea of exactly what list she was on. “I’m not here to go to his apartment,” she said frostily.
“My mistake. Office is the floor below.” He flashed her a wink, leaned his upper body in to press the button, and withdrew.
The ride was so smooth Nora didn’t realize the elevator had even moved until the doors binged open onto a supervillain’s lair.
At least, that’s what it looked like, at first glance. Must have been all the chrome and the black marble.
Nora hesitated but when the elevator doors started to close again, she scurried out. She stood for a good minute wondering how the hell she was going to find Sunshine before someone spotted her.
Bill the angry lawyer strode past, did a double take while still walking, and came to an abrupt stop. He spun on a heel and surveyed her from head to toe in a way that had her clenching her fists and lifting her chin, then he sighed. “Great. Since you’re here, come with me. Let’s do this.”
“I’m very well, thank you, Bill,” she said. “And how are you?”
“Too busy for polite nonsense,” he shot over his shoulder, checking to see she was following.
He did not, as Nora had expected, take her to Gabe. Instead she found herself in a cavernous conference room.
She gazed around. Or maybe this was where the League of Evil convened.
She shaded her eyes against the glaring blue-white lights and took in the enormous stone conference table with intricate metal inlay. Or performed their human sacrifices to the mighty gods of capitalism.
Bill waited at the head of the table, gesturing her to take a seat. “Ms. Bowman, we have a problem.”
Perching on the edge of a chair, she clasped her hands in her lap and fought the feeling she was about to be suspended by the principal. “Nora,” she said. “Just Nora’s fine.”
“Nora.” He inclined his head as he sat. “Sterling’s going to throttle me if he finds out I’m interfering with whatever perverted little mating dance he’s doing for you, but there’s a whole lot more at stake here than his sex life.”
Mating dance?
“Things are on a knife edge at the company,” Bill continued. “You’re distracting him.”
“Are you sure it’s not all the chrome that’s distracting him?” Nora waved a hand around. “He says he doesn’t like it, but he does seem to like shiny things, and there are a lot of reflective surfaces in here. A lot.”
Bill laughed, then looked annoyed with himself. “While it was nice of you to give him the dog—”
“I didn’t give him the dog. She’s my dog. He’s borrowing her for stress relief.”
Bill jabbed the table with an index finger. “There’s the problem, right there. I need him stressed.”
She frowned. “That doesn’t sound like something a friend would want. I thought you guys were friends. Didn’t you get tattoos together?”
Bill’s nostrils flared and he blanked her tattoo comment. “Gabriel has a project he’s supposed to be working on. I’ve watched him for years, and I know how he does it. How he does his best stuff. He’s got a genius-level IQ, did you know that?”
“I can’t say it ever came up in conversation.”
“He’s an odd one, and—”
“He’s not odd!” Nora said. “He’s lovely.”
Bill snapped his mouth shut, leaned back in the chair, and steepled his fingers. “I’ve never heard anyone describe Gabriel as lovely before.”
Because only a giant dork would say something that stupid about a guy like him.
Nora willed her blush to die down, and glared at Bill. “He’s not odd. He’s different. There’s nothing wrong with being different.”
“This is how it goes, Nora. Gabriel gets an idea to write code, or he comes up with a program, or creates some piece of tech. He fixates on it. Lives and breathes it. I’m not gonna lie, it’s eerie to witness. Nothing exists for him except the work, and that’s the way it is, until the day he walks in and presents the board with something that will pull in billions of dollars of revenue and keep this company running for the next century.”
“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”
“The way his brain processes the world? I think it’s a constant noise for him. It must be like he’s living in the middle of the loudest rock concert you can imagine. It’s why he has such difficulty focusing. But when one of those ideas gets loud enough to catch his attention and he attaches, he’s gone. He’s in another dimension.”
“I still don’t understand what it has to do with me,” Nora said.
“You’re pulling his focus to yourself, and it needs to be on the Nebula project. He can’t give it everything with you hanging around in his life, competing.”
“I’m not competing. And I’m not hanging around, either! I’m his interior designer’s assistant.”
“Gabriel is not focusing on work. He’s focusing on you. He can’t build up to the state he needs to be in to create the next product, because you’re chilling him out by giving him a dog.” Bill’s voice rose. It wasn’t quite a yell, but it wasn’t far off.
“I already told you, I didn’t give him the dog! Sunshine is mine.”
“It is vital that we’re on the same page, Nora. There are a lot of people working in this office. If Sterling doesn’t pull his head out of his ass, their jobs are at stake. He has three more buildings like this one. All filled with people whose jobs are at stake.”
“We’re not on the same page. We’re not even in the same library. I have no idea what you’re saying to me.”
Bill slid a finger under his collar and tugged it away from his neck. “I’m worried about him. I’m looking around, trying to work out what went wrong, and the only change in his life I can pinpoint is you.”
“So your business problems are my fault? You’re overestimating his interest in me.”
“On the contrary, you are underestimating it. Any other day, I’d be delighted that he seems to have more than a passing interest in a woman. Any other day, him getting a dog would warm the cockles of my shriveled lawyerly heart, because it would signify he’s getting over that preposterous notion he has that his nature dooms him to be ever alone and all that shit. But today is not that day! This is the worst time for you and your dog to be in his life. There’s too much at risk.”
“I don’t know what you want from me, Bill.”
“Stop making him happy! I don’t know how to deal with a happy Gabe!”
“He’s always happy,” Nora said.
“He fooled you too, huh? Forget it.” Bill got to his feet. “Gabriel will do as he will do, as always. All I need to know is, what kind of impact am I supposed to be bracing us for here? Is it another beginning, or is it the end?”
He looked at Nora as if she had an answer. She shrugged helplessly.
“Right.” He rapped on the table once, and strode out.
Nora watched him go. I just want my dog.
She left the conference room and asked the first person she found to point her in the direction of Gabe’s office. She was so unnerved by Bill and the general ambiance that she nearly ran to him.
She managed to keep it down to a brisk jog.
His office was a mirror image of the conference room, running the full length of the building, but it faced west rather than east. At this time of day the sun poured in, firing everything a deep rose-gold.
Should have looked pretty, she thought. It didn’t. With all the black marble, hard edges, and reddish light, it kind of looked like he was sitting on the throne of Hell. Gabe was behind his desk, and the young man on the other side of it was waving his arms over his head. Yelling.
As she got nearer, Gabe stood and started yelling back.
Sunshine must have been asleep, because Nora could see her curled up on the bed Gabe had bought her, and she showed no sign whatsoever of being disturbed by the arguing.
Nora slowed her eager pace to a walk. She glanced behind her, wondering if she should make a break for the elevator. Without making a conscious decision she found herself turning to go, then Gabe saw her.
His head came up, his eyes locked on, and the expression of relief that flooded his face rooted her feet to the ground. It disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, and he crooked a finger at her. Come here, he mouthed.
Now she really wanted to run for the elevator.
Being a big dork who thought he was lovely, however, she didn’t. She arrived at his door in time to hear the young man hiss, “I will quit, do you hear me? I will quit, you bastard, and then where will you be? Huh?” before he pushed past, shoved Nora into the office, and slammed the door on her.
Nora’s heart pounded.
“Hi,” Gabe said.
Jesus. No wonder he was stressed out, working here.
“Hi.” She cleared her throat. “Had a good day?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Good one.”
A damp nose pressed against the back of Nora’s hand, and she crouched to plant a smacking kiss on the top of Sunshine’s warm head. “Hello, sweetie. Ready to go home?”
“I said I’d take her home with me tonight.”
Nora stood. “I said no, and you hung up on me. I’m starting to miss my dog, Gabe. You’re taking advantage.” And not in the fun way. “This is me being firm.” Although, seeing that he didn’t seem to be at all fazed by screaming employees, she doubted it would register as firm.
He regarded her thoughtfully.
She had no idea what he was thinking.
“Well,” she said after an awkward silence. “We’ll get out of your hair so you can get back to the important stuff.” She gestured at his overflowing desk and muttered, “If you can find it.”
Gabe smiled. “You want to organize my desk, don’t you?”
Was there any point denying it? “Yes, I do. My God. You need an assistant or something.”
“That would be Daniel. You met him on the way in.”
The man had been fuming at Gabe like he wanted to stab him.
“Usually, we get along great. Every now and then?” Gabe flung his arms out. “Drama.”
“Your desk is probably driving him crazy. It’s a disgrace. How can you find anything there?”
“I can’t. Doesn’t matter. There’s nothing important on the desk, anyway. It’s all in here.” He tapped his head.
Of course. He was a genius with a genius brain. “Do you have a photographic memory?” she asked.
“Eidetic. And no. It’s exceptional, but it’s not eidetic.” His chest expanded in a slow, deep breath as he considered her through half-closed eyes. “Bill got to you.”
“What? No. Who?”
Gabe sat, angling his chair toward the giant computer that brooded over the mess on his desk. He rattled a few keystrokes with the grace of a concert pianist, and gazed at the screen. “Hmm.”
Nora fidgeted. “What, hmm?”
“Come here.”
At least this time she raised a brow before she complied. “What?”
He gestured her around the desk, then startled her when he reached out a long arm and tugged her onto his lap.
“Gabe!”
“Why must you always start squirming the minute I get you in my lap? You ever think maybe I want to be the one squirming for once? You hold still. I’m going to squirm.”
She laughed. “Let me up.”
“When I’m ready.” He flattened a hand on her stomach, holding her in place. “Let’s try this again. Bill got to you.”
Nora didn’t bother denying it, since he’d pulled up video footage of her and Bill sitting in the conference room. Wow. She looked very…demure. “You bug your own office?”
His hand glided over her stomach to stroke her hip, then he picked her up and set her on her feet. “Security cameras. But sure, if I didn’t have them, I’d bug my office. I want to know when people start crossing lines.” He smiled faintly. “Don’t look so worried. I didn’t mean you. What did he say?”
“I’m distracting you. And Sunshine is. We’re messing with your focus.” She circled back to the safe side of his desk and dug Sunshine’s pink leash out of her purse.
Gabe didn’t reply, and they had another one of those loaded moments that she had no idea how to interpret.
“Do you want to go to dinner tonight?” she asked impulsively.
He shook his head. “No.”
“You could come home with us. If you want. Or come by later.” Shut up. Stop it. What are you doing?
Again, he shook his head. “No, baby.”
He didn’t even offer an excuse. He just said no.
Twice.
The first time to food. The second time also to food, but the way she’d phrased it, it sounded like she’d been suggesting more than food.
And he’d still said no.