Chapter Seventeen

Carrie

I draft the staff memo and give Sallie a heads up that it’s going out. I then send a copy to Reid’s email and, in turn, find an email from him in my inbox labeled: Walker contract.

I open the email and there are no words. Nothing. He didn’t type anything at all. It bothers me. I think he knows it will bother me. At that moment, my email pings with a response from Reid on my staff memo that reads: Brutal perfection.

Two words. Good words. I inhale with the compliment, which I find myself far too pleased over. He affects me. What he says, and what he doesn’t say, affects me. He also challenges me and not just as a woman. He challenges me to be the best I can be for this company, I just don’t always like how he does it, but he is pushing me. He is making me reach higher and I’m not beyond admitting this. I wouldn’t think that quota he picked was possible, but now I’m fighting for it.

I close the email and start reading the Walker contract. Once I’m certain I’m up to speed, I end up sidetracked from new money trying to save old money, on the phone dealing with challenges related to a project we’ve recently closed on for a group of investors. My stomach growls and I eat cookies. At some point, Sallie sticks a sandwich in front of me that I didn’t order, but I set aside. I had lunch: her cookies. It’s nearly two when I walk out of my office to find Reid’s assistant now seated outside his door.

I turn to Sallie with a sudden thought, my father’s assistant on my mind. “What about—”

“Resigned,” she says, reading my mind. “She heard about the takeover.”

“Okay well, that’s a solution I guess.”

“You know you never liked her,” Sallie supplies. “And neither did I.”

I don’t deny or confirm her words. “How is Reid’s assistant?”

“Connie’s marvelous. She has a whip she uses on Reid and gets away with it. You’ll love her.”

A whip. I wonder if it’s like my cuffs and before I can stop myself, I glance in Connie’s direction, right about the time she heads to Reid’s office, her blonde hair streaming down her back. She’s pretty, petite, but curvy, in a pink suit. She’s pretty and I hate the pinch I feel in my belly over this. I hate that I wonder if Reid is fucking her. It isn’t my business and yet, isn’t it? I need to know if he’s fucking her, considering he’s fucking me. Or he did. He did. He’s not going to again.

I mentally shake myself. “I’m going to walk to the lobby and talk to security about our new security procedures, which I forwarded to you in an email.”

“I saw,” she says. “You want me to do it?”

“No, I want to make sure they know it’s important enough for me to go down myself, but I better grab my phone.” I enter my office and grab my phone just in time to find my ex-best friend Crystal calling. I hit decline. She’s in Japan with my brother, which wasn’t a big deal since they both worked for the same company here. Except that she knows how he treats me and then started fucking him. She can talk to him. I head for the door and Connie appears in the entryway.

“Hi, Carrie. I’m Connie.”

And prettier up close. Late thirties I think, around Reid’s age. “Hi, Connie.”

“You’re stunning,” she says, shocking me with the compliment “I love it. The next CEO of the company, and you’re young, gorgeous, and in control.”

“Thank you, but Reid is in control.”

Her lips quirk. “Right. Reid is in control.” Her blue eyes dance with mischief and some private secret that I find disconcerting. “I’m running to the DA’s office to grab a file for Reid. Can I get you anything on my way back?”

“That’s very thoughtful, but I’m fine, thank you. I’m headed downstairs. I’ll walk with you.” I motion her forward and we head toward the lobby.

It’s not until we’re in the elevator that I say, “I hope that’s the settlement for the victims of that serial killer you’re picking up.”

Surprise lights her eyes. “You know about Reid’s case.”

“I do,” I say. “But he assures me that fighting for the innocent doesn’t make him a good guy.”

She snorts. “I wonder if he’s trying to convince you or him. Actually, I’m surprised he told you about the case.”

“I just happened to be around at the right time.”

“There’s no such thing with Reid. I’ve been with him for ten years. I know. There is what he lets you see and what he doesn’t let you see.”

I’m reminded of last night, of me accusing him of being an asshole because I see too much, but I set that aside for now. I focus on her. “Are you two—”

“No,” she says. “Never. I’m not beyond seeing his beauty, but I’m not into arrogant alpha assholes. I have enough of those I call family, but that’s also why I get him, and why we work well together.” She lifts her wrists and shows me the dainty diamond watch on her wrist. “And he buys me gifts.”

My eyes go wide. “He does?”

“Well, I buy me gifts after he works me to death, blows a date I might have enjoyed, or he’s a big ass in a larger than normal way. I have his AmEx. I use it.”

I laugh. “You must get gifts all the time. He’s such a big ass.”

The elevator dings and she sobers, “You can handle him. I can tell. So can he, and that’s a good thing. It’s why he respects me. I can handle him.” She catches the door. “So can you,” she repeats. “I’ll be back soon.” She heads out of the car and takes off. I follow her, repeating her words: There is what he lets you see and what he doesn’t let you see. Reid didn’t accidentally tell me that I was in his head. He wanted me to know.

I set the thought aside out of necessity and walk to security. After fifteen minutes of coordination, I’m just about to get on the elevator back upstairs when my cellphone rings with a new number that has my eyes going wide. Elijah Woodson is calling me. Elijah, who is a billionaire that I’ve all but groveled to, to get to invest with us. I step to the side of the elevator to avoid service interruption and answer. “Elijah,” I say. “How are you?”

“I hear you’re the future CEO over there.”

“That’s the buzz,” I say.

“That works for me.”

My heart starts to race. “As in, you’ll invest?”

“In you, yes. For the right project. Find it and make sure it’s really right, Carrie.”

“How much money are we talking?”

“How much are you going to convince me to give you?”

“It’s going to be a large sum.”

“That I better not lose. Send me a contract. I’ll be waiting.”

“Wait,” I say quickly. “Why now?”

“Because your father is gone.” He disconnects and my stomach knots. What was happening with my father that other people knew and I did not?

My stomach knots and I punch the elevator button. I need to set the personal part of this aside. I was just given a gift that makes that financial goal Reid set possible. I need to get the team working on prospects before I consider the implications of the negativity surrounding my father. The elevator doors open and I wait impatiently to arrive back on our floor. My destination is not left toward the lobby and my office, but right, where I enter the offices that house our sales team. Walking down a path between cubicles, I waste no time gathering my best half-dozen to the edge of their cubicles.

“I need your biggest plays for Elijah Woodson and I need them by tomorrow. The bigger, the better, and if you aren’t sure it’s the right project, get me facts and let me decide. Call the investors that know you. Get them interested in whatever we do with Elijah.”

“Hold the name back,” Reid says, stepping to my side, and glancing down at me, those blue eyes piercing mine. “There’s a development we need to discuss first.”

Anger boils inside me but I manage to contain it. I glance at the group. “Get to work. Get me your proposals by tomorrow.” I rotate and start walking.

Reid is instantly by my side, keeping pace but neither of us speak. I’m too angry. He’s too in control. We exit to the elevator banks. “Let’s go to my office,” he orders tightly.

“I’ll meet you there,” I reply without looking at him, aware that I need to cool off before I talk to this man. I cut to the stairwell and exit. I’ve barely made it inside and Reid is there, pressing me into a corner, his big body framing mine.

“Running again?”

I press my hand to his chest. “I’m not running. I’m sparing your life. You do not want to fight with me when I’m this angry. You say I have the chance to be CEO and yet you pull the rug out from under a huge deal I brought to the table. Me. Not you.”

“If you’d hear me out, you’d know your anger is misplaced.”

“My anger? Or my attraction to you that is completely misplaced? I must be a sadist.”

He tangles fingers in my hair. “Let me remind you what keeps you coming back for more.”

“Do not even think about kissing me.”

“Too late,” he says. “I’m always thinking about kissing you. I can’t change that. I’m done trying.”

“If you kiss me—”

His mouth closes down on mine.