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Max
The car pulled up to a ratty building in a ratty part of the city. My dates of late had all lived in the more pleasant areas—in buildings with a monthly community charge that probably doubled the annual rent on a place like this.
As I eyed the entrance, then shifted my gaze to take in the buildings either side and the people loitering, I knew I was grateful I had a driver and that I wouldn’t have to worry for my hubcaps.
Strange, wasn’t it?
People in decent areas meandered. In the rougher areas, they loitered. As though the two acts weren’t the same. But here, indeed, they were loitering and hovering around the doorway to the building Jessica had emailed me the details of earlier. It was in a way that had my hackles rising.
I wasn’t overly aggressive; not anymore. As a kid, I’d funneled my energy into football, eventually getting a college scholarship out of that odd rage all teenagers seemed to have in abundance. Now? Now, I funneled it into business.
But, the way the guys were hanging around… it made me think of things I’d seen as a kid. Things I recognized. Drug dealers. Robbers waiting on marks.
Waiting on Jessica?
They’d better not be.
I grimaced as I peered up the squat building with its peeling façade and mottled walls. Was this all temps could afford? This dump?
Surely not.
I’d looked into her resume earlier, seen nothing amiss. I wasn’t entirely sure why she’d asked me if I’d seen it. The flustered anger in her tone told me there was something she was hiding, but I hadn’t found anything. Shit, Derek wouldn’t have hired her if there was anything wrong with her so why she’d jumped to that immediate conclusion, I wasn’t entirely sure.
The thought had puzzled me all day. Well, until I’d shoved it aside to deal with a new merger Avalon was engaging in.
I said merger, but it was more like a takeover.
Not a particularly friendly one, either.
Still, Avalon needed the tech patents Drydal owned, and if they weren’t willing to play nice, I was willing to play hardcore.
Movement from the doorway garnered my attention when I saw one of the guys in a hoodie, jeans around his upper thighs, and more gold around his neck than a jewelers shift on his feet. There was either a deal in the making approaching or a cop.
From the way he rubbed his palms together and didn’t run off, I assumed the former over the latter.
Shit, I knew what Jessica was making with Avalon. It was the standard temp salary—surely she could afford somewhere better than this dump?
Even as I asked myself the question, I said to Mackenzie, “I’ll be five minutes.”
“Of course, sir.” My chauffeur managed to sound, for once, positively servile when, the truth was, Mackenzie didn’t have a servile bone in his body.
I had a chauffeur for two reasons. One, Mackenzie had needed the job. Two, Mackenzie had needed the job.
The old man had pride, would never have accepted charity even from me, so I’d created a position for him, and he’d been with me ever since. I didn’t exactly regret the decision, but he could be a pain in my ass and no mistaking.
There was no way I’d ever get a big head with Derek, Alex, and Mackenzie around.
Climbing out of the car, I buttoned my coat against the wind chill. I’d once heard that Chicago was called the Windy City because of all the hot air politicians spewed, but I called bullshit.
I’d come here at eighteen to go to college, and I’d never known anywhere colder than this. Saying that, I was a Florida native, so it didn’t say much for my internal temperature gauge. That first year here, I swear, I’d never gotten warm. Even in the hottest of rooms, some part of me, my feet or even my butt, had been frozen solid.
Shivering at the memory, a shiver that was turbocharged thanks to a shrill gust of wind that about knocked my teeth out as they chattered, I rushed toward the building’s entrance. The dealers eyed me, and I could see the shark in their nature rear to the surface. The notion that they might jump me had me smirking, and that smirk had them jerking back a step.
I’d told them, visually, to bring it, and they weren’t willing to bring shit to this party.
Movement in the doorway had me looking away from the scum hanging around. Maybe it should have surprised me to see Jessica heading out toward me, but it didn’t. I had the feeling she didn’t want me to see her place, and I could understand that.
Jessica, for all she was sexy with that silky hair and endless curves, screamed…
