Page 92 of Open To Negotiation

Quinn

Hey. You were gone when I woke up.

Everything okay?

I don’t mean to pester, just looking for a sign of life.

Theo?

Istepped out of the elevator onto the executive floor at the Knight Enterprises offices and took a breath as the doors closed behind me. It was past nine and the place was empty. There was dread building in my stomach, it didn’t feel unwarranted.

I hadn’t heard from Theo all day, my phone calls had gone unanswered, and he hadn’t replied to any of my messages or contributed to the group texts. Which were honestly quieter than normal from all of them.

We were supposed to go for dinner tonight. I’d waited for him for two hours before I came here. Because his office was the first place I could think of to look for him if he wasn’t home.

I knocked on his door and then walked into his dark office without waiting for a response. I was trying to be pissed that he stood me up but I was really just worried.

None of this was normal for him.

Theo was standing with his back to me looking out the window. He had a drink in his hand and the bottle was on his desk. He’d clearly put a dent in it.

“Theo?” I asked after stopping behind the chairs facing his desk.

He didn’t answer, instead he just glanced at me over his shoulder and then looked back out the window. The pit in my stomach dropped down further, the anxiety rising in my chest. His eyes had been cold when he’d glanced at me. I’m not sure he’d ever looked at me like that before.

“Are you okay? I thought we were going to dinner tonight,” I asked after another few moments of him drinking.

“I’m flying out to London in the morning.” His voice was emotionless and detached.

I could hardly process what was happening, what he was saying.

“Okay.” I frowned. He hadn’t mentioned anything about needing to go to London. In fact he’d mentioned a few weeks ago that he planned on decreasing his travel and sending the other guys instead when something needed to be handled, he said he didn’t like leaving me. “When will you be back?”

“Not sure yet,” he said as he took another sip of his drink.

“What do you—”

He cut me off. “I received a call from your father today.”

I blinked a few times in shock before I moved so I could at least see his profile. “I’m sorry, Theo, I have no idea how he got in touch. What did he want?”

“Called to introduce himself, thought we could have dinner with him. He mentioned he might have a business idea for me to invest in.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as my cheeks got red with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, Theo. I will talk to him, he won’t bother you again.”

“Considering you’ve been funding his habit since you were seventeen, I’m not inclined to believe you.” His words felt like a slap.

“When I told you that, you said you didn’t care. That you would help me.” My hand went to my stomach trying to stop the nausea that had started.

Was I going to be sick?

“That was before I heard from him myself.” He hadn’t even looked at me yet. “It provided me with some clarity.”

“I’ll talk to him. He won’t call you again, I promise.”

Theo made a noise that meant that he didn’t believe me. “I don’t like being used for my money.” He took another sip of his drink.

My stomach tightened and I flushed even more. I wanted to believe that he didn’t truly think that I would allow my father to do that to him. But my mind was racing and I couldn’t catch up.