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They’d gone around and around this dance before. The woman hated him, not that he knew why. He was sweet as could be to her, except when she blocked him at every turn.
Which was always.
Normally, he avoided going through proper channels as much as possible. He was a known quantity at Ripper Records, so he could walk about freely even after recent tragic events had necessitated a security lockdown. But one place he could not intrude on without requesting access was Donovan’s private office in the tower building separate from Ripper’s main hive. Lila usually didn’t meet with him there, but whatever they were discussing must be primo secretive shit.
His curiosity was piqued, but he was also annoyed. He was her husband. He wouldn’t interrupt her work if it wasn’t important.
Still, it wasn’tthatimportant, except to him. So he’d bided his time. And he would continue to, assuming he could be assured Li truly knew he was on the premises.
With this chick? He had no such confidence.
“Look, I’m leaving on a world tour in a couple days.”
She sniffed at him and kept typing.
“A mini world tour, granted, but it’s still overseas. Our first time abroad. Is it so much to ask for that I get to spend time with my wife prior to leaving?” He was begging, but in a manly, prideful way.
More sniffing and typing. After a moment, she glanced up and pinned him with baleful brown eyes behind her rimless glasses. “I would suggest perhaps you either make an appointment ahead of time or perhaps, keep non-work business to non-work hours.”
He clenched his jaw. “I sleep when she gets home. Lately, I’m up all night with—”
“Yes, with your rockstar duties, I know. Very heroic of you.” She reached for a foil-wrapped packet. “Mint?” she asked pleasantly.
He took it and popped it into his mouth to keep from growling again. “I’m up most nights with our daughter, thank you very much. Charlie is a fussy sleeper, not that you care. She’s still teething.”
Her cries were absolutely pitiful, so he couldn’t do his best to ignore them as he had when she was a baby. Plus, now she could say “Daddy” and did often enough that Li had given up going to her when she fussed in the middle of the night.
Donovan’s admin made a noise in her throat and continued typing.
“Whatever.” He stalked back over to the chair he’d occupied and dug out his phone.
Half an hour later, Li had still not appeared, and the admin had stepped away probably to make voodoo dolls. He’d watched her release the private elevator for Donovan’s floor from a button behind her desk enough times that he went right to the hidden panel, pushing the button and heading inside the elevator before she could come back and screech at him.
Handily, he had his ID with the additional security clearances Lila had made sure he had as her husband. He could have made use of them before, but he’d tried to do stuff the right way. Screw that. He wasn’t made for channels. He was a break-in and interrupt sort of dude and always would be.
It seemed as if he endured a million swipes and scans before he was outside Donovan’s office. All this security bullshit was because that bastard Nick wouldn’t even acknowledge in his head by name anymore had believed he could ruin people’s lives and not get caught. He’d had an accomplice, but it didn’t matter. They knew who was truly responsible.
And now he was dead. As he should be.
Outside Donovan’s door, Nick flexed his hand into a fist. Even now, more than a month after that final confrontation, his knuckles still ached sometimes. Theirs had been a fight to the death, and if his sister Ricki hadn’t been there—
Yeah, well, he wasn’t cocky enough to deny who probably would’ve been dead that night.
Nick lifted his hand to knock, then gave in to his baser instincts. Aka tipped his head near the thick-as-fuck door to see if he could hear anything.
The hum of voices came through, but just barely. They were completely indistinct.
He glanced at his watch. Past seven now. Way beyond official business hours. Hell, maybe Donovan’s admin hadn’t gone to the bathroom. She’d probably gone home. It wasn’t as if she’d bother to say goodnight to Nick. He was just a pain in her rear.
Li had been working late a lot recently, which wasn’t that shocking considering all the crap that had happened in the fall. They were down a rep, among other things, and she was a workaholic under the best of circumstances. Add in the tragedy at the Warning Sign concert and the security breaches and all the rest, and it was no wonder she was rarely home for dinner these days.
Sometimes she wasn’t even home for the late news.
He’d understood what he was in for when he married her. They were both wedded to their careers, and their hours didn’t always mesh. As long as one of them was present for the girls, it was all good.
Usually.
They hadn’t talked a lot since the showdown in November. She’d been closed off and quiet, and the holidays had been understandably subdued this year. Sex had been oddly scarce since the fall too. That rarely happened anymore, especially since last Christmas when they’d vowed to not lose track of that part of their relationship due to work or stress or anything else. But she hadn’t been initiating, and he hadn’t been initiating, and now it felt as if fucking Donovan Lewis saw his wife more than he did.
