3
GABE
On the elevator ride up to the Winter-Farmington boardroom, I check my messages. The signal is spotty, of course, but there’s a text waiting from Hayden Cort.
Hayden: I think your girlfriend is ready to wash her hands of the whole company.
My stomach drops as if the elevator suddenly plummeted to the ground. Sighing, I drag a hand down my face, glad it’s just me and Tadhg on this ride. I mean, honestly…
Gabe: Can you blameher?
Then I read his text again, my focus snagging on his word choice.
Girlfriend.
That sounds so right. And also not… enough.
Before I can get lost down that path, the elevator levels off with a ding. The doors whoosh open to the familiar pine scent and the low hum of the fluorescent office lights. After Tadgh’s cursory security check, I pocket my phone.
The boardroom looks just like it did the last time I saw it, which is ironic considering almost every facet of my life has changed since then.
A long, polished conference table dominates the center of the room, and there are matching buffets along the wall at either end. One has a large TV over it, and the other holds a coffee pot and assorted snacks.
I grab an apple and a soda.
“Gabe?” Nancy Sheridan, one of my fellow board members, hovers just inside the doorway. She steps into the room, and a small group of others files in behind her. “I’m surprised to see you.”
There’s genuine understanding in her voice, as if she knows what it’s like to have her life sucked into a whirlwind.
I give her my most reassuring smile. “It’s been a hectic few weeks.”
Her brows lift. “Sounds like.”
Turns out Lucinda was more unhinged than her father, which is saying something given what Henry was capable of. The lengths she was willing to go were extraordinary. Hiring a henchman to explode the pipe above Katherine’s apartment in an attempt to get her back under Lucinda’s roof? Under her thumb? Utterly deranged.
And that was just one side quest. Heck, it feels like she was throwing spaghetti at the wall. Her behavior was more erratic from day to day.
Even though Lucinda is one hundred percent responsible for her actions, guilt still gnaws on me like a dog with a meaty bone.
“Let’s just say, if I wasn’t living it, I’d think it was a B-rated movie plot,” I say, going for the joke.
No doubt, everyone’s read the “news” by now. According to my PR team, the story of Katherine’s kidnapping has been a headline across all kinds of media.
Unfortunately, Nancy doesn’t laugh at my lame joke, and Katherine arrives just in time to hear it.
Her gaze locks with mine, and her lips settle into a thin line.
Fuck.
Nancy shifts from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable. That makes two of us. I resist theurge to tug at my tie. Of the thousand times I pictured this meeting in my mind, such an awful gaffe was never on the list.
Way to go, Gabe. Open mouth, insert entire fucking foot.
Okay. I’ll fix this. That’s what I do, right? I make things better.
If only Katherine operated on any of the programming languages I know.
Stepping forward, my stomach flutters. She’s so damned beautiful. Spine straight, chin tipped up, lips dewy pink, a darker stain on her cheeks that probably has to do with her annoyance at me, and the teal dress that clings just right to every single one of her curves.
