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I didn’t like this. The man was paying far too much attention to Max, her whereabouts, and the history of her family. “You must just be confused. This is Joseline. She’s my daughter.” I put my hand on her shoulder and awkwardly yanked her towards me for a hug.”
“Hmm,” Adrian said. “You seem quite young to have a daughter her age, Miss Thorn.”
I froze. I hadn’t told him my name. How the hell did this guy know who I was when I’d never met him?
He saw the look on my face and gave an apologetic grin. “Apologies. In my line of work, being informed is the only way to stay out of the ground. I make a habit of knowing.”
“That’s great, but we really do need to go.” I tried to step past him, but he moved to the side, easily blocking my path.
“If you don’t mind me saying so, you’re even more beautiful in person, Miss Thorn. I’d love to take you out some time to dinner. I could answer all the questions you may have about me.”
I wondered if this gorgeous asshole had any idea how completely out of touch he was. He opens with a vaguely threatening reveal that he knows who we are, then implies he’s in some kind of shady line of work, and then he tries to get me to go on a date under the assumption that I’m just so curious about him?
I wanted to spit something venomous out, but my survival instincts were on high alert. It was midday and nobody was in the parking lot except us. For all I knew, this guy could summon goons with a text and have us thrown in a van.
“I’ll think about it, okay?” I said.
He finally gave one last smirk and let us pass. I took Max’s hand, not caring if he saw at this point since he seemed to already know everything and rushed her toward the building.
We rode the elevator together and Max looked at me once the doors closed. “That was bad, wasn’t it? He was super creepy.”
“I’m worried that may be one of the people your uncle talks about wanting to take his business away. He knew way too much about all of us for casual interest.”
“Oh, shit,” Max said, frowning at the ground and then looking up to me. “We’re in trouble again, aren’t we?”
27
CHRISTIAN
I braced myself for the barrage of accusations and exaggerated claims. Trisha Frost, David Cullum, and Adrian Bellamo were all once again sitting in my conference room, staring me down from the other side of an oversized table like I was on trial.
I noticed that Adrian and David looked frustrated about something, which I assumed was a good thing. If the people who wanted to ruin me weren’t happy, chances were, I was.
Trisha straightened a stack of papers and set them down carefully in front of her. She made it look like she was reading something before she spoke, but I had a feeling she already knew everything on those pages by heart. “We’ve been keeping an eye on the numbers and account acquisitions, Christian. I’m not afraid to admit it when I’m wrong. It seems you’ve done your best to make a fool out of me for thinking you’d lost your touch. You’ve reclaimed the Foster account, the Maxwell account, and you even convinced Peter Moss to open an account with Stone Financial for the first time. In a few short weeks, you’ve returned tens of millions in yearly earnings to the company.”
I nodded my head. It was all true, of course. I wasn’t about to thank her for noticing or try to make her feel better about doubting me in the first place.
“So I wanted to formally meet with you to let you know that I apologize,” Trisha said. “I was harsh last time we met, and I’d like to rescind what I said about how close you were to being removed. Consider your leash lengthened, Christian.”
David Cullum made a disapproving noise in his throat and Adrian Bellamo was watching me with a predatory glint in his eye. What was the story behind that? I had a bad feeling I would find out before long.
“If that’s everything,” I said. “I need to get back to work.”
Trisha gave a tight smile, nodded, and rose with her papers. David got up and followed her out. Adrian, on the other hand, pretended to be fiddling with something on his phone until the two of us were alone in the room. He slid the phone in his pocket and turned to face me, standing beside the table.
“I’ve just come across some interesting information I thought you would like to know.”
I stared, waiting.
He grinned at my silence. “Oddly enough, I discovered your executive assistant was driving your brother’s daughter around during work hours. In fact, they were just returning to the office when I got here. Strange, isn’t that? Records show Maxine Stone is living with your brother’s girlfriend, Melina Budreau. So what is she doing getting ferried around by your personal assistant?”
