“Please don’t walk out and quit,” Andrew pleaded. “You know I can’t run this place without you.”
“As if I would,” she said, her steely expression softening. “You’re my best friend, and I have just as much at stake with this firm as you do. I can’t go back to marketing. Which is why I can’t believe you would put all this on the line for Ford. He’s the reason we’ve been floundering. We had no direct competition until he came along.”
“I know. But nothing is on the line by working with him on one case. It’s for Dalton. Remember? The guy you like.”
A corner of her mouth twitched, because it really was impossible to not like Dalton. “Him I trust, and I’m glad we’re helping. For Dalton. And because it’s huge to work for Avalon. But trying to be a good dad or not, do you honestly believe Ford will play nice all the way through to the end? He needs your help now, but he’ll get what he can to screw us over later, and not bat an eye about it.”
Andrew hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t thought much about anything other than his next private encounter with Ford, since even one day of not seeing him had made Andrew ache for what might come next.
But this was Ford. He’d made Andrew spin his wheels when they were thief and detective, and even more so lately, constantly stealing business from him and having admitted and proven that he had Andrew’s work line bugged. Working together opened all sorts of ways for him to run Andrew into the ground when this was over.
“He wouldn’t…”
“Are you sure? You want to work with him? Fine. For Dalton. But then we act first to make sure that, next time, we’re the ones doing the screwing.”
Andrew looked up from where his eyes had fallen to his desk. While ‘screwing’ might have sent his mind to the gutter, he felt powerfully sober at the thought of betraying Ford first, because they’d promised, hadn’t they? He’d called for a truce, and Ford had agreed, that they’d share information going forward.
“It’s Ford. I get it,” he said, “but he’s also a friend’s father—”
“Who’d do it to you and is probably already planning to,” Candace said firmly. “All I’m saying is that if you’re going to work with him, then pay attention, learn everything you can, and next time, we’ll be the ones stealing from him.”
Andrew thought about that all throughout the remaining minutes while waiting for Ford and Dalton to arrive. Kevin joined them first, with a box of assorted donuts in hand that he’d intended to bring with them as a peace offering—or because he didn’t trust any treats that might have been at Ford’s—and set them by the coffee maker.
“Are you seriously watching the entrances?” Andrew asked, after Kevin had shooed Candace away from her desk to view their surveillance from a central location.
“Why not? I don’t want Ford doing that creeping from the shadows thing again. He enjoys sneaking past defenses way too much.”
“Nonsense,” Ford’s voice made Kevin yelp and lose hold of the fritter he just barely managed to catch again after it flew into the air. “If thereweredefenses here, then I’d enjoy it.”
While it might not have been as grand of an entrance as Avalon, appearing from the main hallway behind them was still impressive.
“How?” Kevin pointed his donut at him.
The tilt to Ford’s head and crook to his smirk was insufferably sexy. “Back door to the underground garage doesn’t have a camera,” he said, sidling up to the front desk with Dalton intow, where Kevin sat, and Andrew stood to the side. “One would think you’d have attended to that hole in your security by now.”
“I wanted to,” Andrew protested, trying not to think about how, the last time he’d seen Ford, he’d been inside him. “The building wouldn’t let me put a camera there.”
A squeal interrupted any snide remarks Ford might have made as Candace came in and moved swiftly to tackle Dalton. “Look at you!”
“Candace!” he exclaimed with equal fervor, squeezing tightly in reply. “You’re even more gorgeous than I remember.”
“Oh hush.Youlook amazing. And here I always wondered where those dazzling blue eyes came from.” She turned her attention to Ford with impenetrable boldness.
“Miss Stone.”
“Ford. Decided to try things on the winning team?”
“Always. My own.” He extended a hand, and they shared a chilling shake.
“Now that you’re both here—” Andrew tried.
“How about Kevin and Candace give me a tour?” Dalton broke in.
Againwith the parent-trapping? If only he knew what they got up to when theywerealone.
Suddenly, all Andrew could picture was lifting Ford up that alley wall and sucking his cock down his throat.
Or not.
