by Riley Storm
“You!”
“Run, Chief,” Aaric said under his breath. “Now.”
“Yup. On it.” Chief Harwood vanished faster than Aaric would have thought possible.
Smart man.
“How dare you!” the woman shouted.
“Hello, Olivia,” he said, his voice dry, unenthused. “What brings you back to the scene of your crime?”
In hindsight, it wasn’t the best way to start the conversation.
Olivia went apoplectic, her face burning red while a supernova of bright blue fury burned in her eyes. Her lips, once so luscious and plump disappeared into a thin line, like the blade of a dagger she was about to wield.
“I cannot believe the nerve of you,” she hissed in white-hot undertones. “The nerve. The sheer unapologetic nerve.”
“Prove me wrong,” he challenged. “Show me it wasn’t you.”
Her mouth opened and shut several times. “And how would you like me to do that? Hmm. Show you the tapes of me laying on my couch last night watching some stupid reality TV in my pajamas until I went upstairs to bed? Would that make you happy, spying on me like some creep?”
Aaric frowned. After several centuries of life, he liked to think he’d become half-decent at detecting when someone was lying. The trick, he’d learned, was to become just as good at knowing when someone was telling the truth. Master both arts, and then it became easier to know one from the other.
Everything he’d ever learned screamed at him that she’d actually done just that the night before. There was the mild embarrassment at admitting to what she’d watched. A lack of hesitation in spitting it out, and also the certainty in her challenge that if he had been spying on her, he would have seen just that.
“I dropped you off at two in the afternoon or whatever it was,” he said calmly. “There was plenty more time than just last night for you to see these up.”
Olivia looked around, confused. “These? What are you talking about? You only sent pictures of the factory. What else do you think I did now?”
There was something in her voice there, though. He frowned. Was she lying? What wasn’t she telling him about her efforts to acquire this property?
“I didn’t expect such tactics from you,” he said, deciding to ignore her question. She was hiding something, and he needed to find it out. Soon, before she tried something else.
Olivia hissed. “You are an unbelievable asshole, you know that?”
Watching the way her face scrunched up the angrier she got, Aaric felt something stir inside him. He wanted to stay angry at her. To show her that he was pissed she’d stooped to such levels, playing dirty. It didn’t become her.
But he couldn’t. Not when she kept getting hotter the more pissed with him she became. It was like a moth drawn to a flame. He should be stepping away, but he didn’t want to. He wanted more.
Pissing her off even more will eventually backfire on you though. Don’t push it. Not if you want to see her again.
Aaric frowned at himself. Since when had he wanted to see her again? Where did that idea come from?
“Listen,” he said, thoroughly not understanding the way his brain was working at the moment. He needed space. Some time to clear his thoughts and figure out what sort of voodoo magic this annoying real-estate agent was working on him.
“I’m listening,” Olivia said. “Still waiting to hear an apology from you.”
“Could you wait right there then?” he asked. “I need to go.”
“You’re joking. You don’t actually expect me to wait here for you, do you?”
Aaric stepped around her, confused, and more than a little unnerved by his desire to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to his House. It wasn’t just mere arousal either. It was…
“I gotta go,” he said abruptly. “Please don’t burn any more of my stuff down, okay?”
“Where are you going?”
“Space,” he mumbled, walking away hurriedly.
“Space?” he heard from behind him, though the words didn’t really register. “So, you’re an astronaut now too? Or is that some sort of joke about trying to get as far away from me as possible?”
Aaric didn’t respond. His mind was elsewhere. Focused on Olivia, not the present. He needed to think about her. To think about whatever was up with his brain.
Talking to her wouldn’t help.
His car came to life and he sped off.
Chapter 14
“He just left you there?”
Olivia nodded. “Yup. Just got into his ultra-fancy sports car and zipped away. Like I was nothing.”
“Did he say why?”
“Yeah.” Olivia reclined in her chair, staring at the ceiling.
The night had come and gone, and now she was back at work, sitting there venting about Aaric to Angela. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, bringing her personal issues into a work setting, but the truth of it was, Olivia didn’t know who else to go to.
Besides, Angela was a good person, and they had gone out for drinks several times before.
“He said he was going to space,” she repeated. “I don’t understand.”
“Going to space,” Angela wanted to know. “Or he needed space?”
“Either way, he wants to get away from me,” Olivia sighed. “What does it matter?”
“Well, one is because he doesn’t want to be around you. The other is because he needed to think about something. It could be anything. It could be the fire. Money. It could be you.”
Olivia was shaking her head slowly as her assistant spoke. “It could be space.”
Angela laughed. “Oh man.”
“What?” she asked, sitting upright, not sure she understood the tone completely. “What was that for?”
“You,” Angela said, her thick cheeks pulled back in a wide grin, teeth fully visible.
“What about me?”
“You can’t see it, can you?”
“See what?” Olivia growled. “What are you talking about?”
Angela chuckled. “You’ve got it bad, boss. Like, real bad.”
“Got what? I’m not sick.”
“Oh, and you’re in denial too. That’s so cute.” Angela reached out and patted her on the back of her hand. “But you need to accept it.”
“Care to be a good helper and tell me what it is I need to accept?” she asked dryly.
“You’ve got it bad for him, Liv. You like him. A lot, if I don’t miss my guess, based on the way you talk about him.”
Olivia’s chair slammed back into its upright position as she sat forward abruptly. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t get mad at the messenger,” Angela said, still laughing. “It’s written all over you. The way you care so much, your emotions, the fact you’re so caught up in this guy. If you could see this from my perspective, you’d be telling any of your friends the exact same thing. You’ve got the hots for him. Plain and simple.”
“Fuck off.”
Angela just laughed harder.
“That’s so not true,” Olivia denied hotly.
In her head though, she couldn’t forget the words. You like him. Was that the vibe she was giving off? That she was interested in the prick?
Sure, he was hot. Beyond hot, really. Almost too good-looking. It brought to mind the saying, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is’, and with Aaric, that was definitely the case. He was far too good-looking to actually be interested in her.
But Angela never said he was into me. Just that I liked him. Which is impossible. You take away his looks, and he’s just some arrogant dick, who…
Who had taken her to dinner, and then a lunch after, to make up for it, all while she’d basically thrown herself at him. He’d dealt with it and hadn’t left. He’d been polite every time she’d tried to get him to sell to her. Never rude. He’d held every door. Opened the car doors for her.
He had apologized profusely for dinner as well, after being late. For the most p
art, she had to admit, he’d acted like a gentleman. A few quirks, and some odd language choices, but overall, if she looked at it in a vacuum, he hadn’t been bad.
Until today. Today, things had changed, when he’d accused her of burning down his factory.
“You look like you’re having some serious contemplation over there,” Angela commented.
“Why would he think I would do something like burn down his property?” she said, answering the question with a question.
“Because it makes perfect sense?” Angela suggested. “You burn the property down, it decreases the value, even if he plans to demolish it. Higher insurance rates, etc. Less appealing. Maybe it makes him open to selling. Who is the only person that we know of trying really hard to get him to sell the property?”
“Me,” Olivia said heavily. “Fuck. Okay. But still, this asshole thinks that I would stoop to that level? Me? I’m ruthless in a negotiating room. That’s about it. I would never do anything like this.”
“I know that,” Angela agreed. “But to an outsider, I can easily see how he could make the connection. You have, um, been trying rather hard to get him to sell.”
Olivia arched an eyebrow. “We’re not going to talk about the other day. Bad choices were made.”
“And I take it he didn’t, uh, accept?”
“No,” she said. “Which I’m actually grateful for. I’m not sure I could have lived with myself if I did that. But at the same time, I don’t understand. He kissed me the night before. Why would he be so reluctant for more?”
Angela’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me? Tall, tanned and super-sexy made out with you and I’m just now finding this out?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Olivia chastised with a laugh. “It was a kiss, nothing more.”
“Right,” Angela said with a snort. “Is that why your eyes are all of a sudden staring off into nothing, and you’re breathing a little deeper while you think of it? Hmm? Don’t pull that shit on me.”
“Okay, it was really good,” Olivia confessed in a rush. “But I screwed it up when he came here. I don’t think he’s interested.”
“Of course he’s interested. He just doesn’t want you to act so needy. He was interested when he saw you. Not the person he saw here the other day. That’s not who he wanted to kiss. So, he didn’t.”
“When you put it that way it makes a lot of sense,” Olivia admitted.
Could he really be interested in me? Am I interested in him? Shit. I need some space to think about this…
Just like Aaric had needed space before as well. Could it be the same? Or was it just coincidental?
Probably just coincidental. This is all probably just me over-thinking it, making things up in my head.
“I really was something else the other day, wasn’t I?” she said ruefully, thinking over the way she’d acted toward Aaric. How overt she’d been about what she was “offering” him.
Angela cringed a little. “Yeah. Yeah, kind of.” Then she leaned in, her features filling with concern. “Why are you so desperate, boss? We’re doing fine. Yes, the money from this deal would have been amazing. But we can manage without it. I’m just your assistant, and I’m not struggling. I know the finances here, we’re doing pretty well.”
“I signed the contract,” she said quietly. “With Northern Aspirations, Charters, Holding & Trading. I signed it.”
“Oh shit,” Angela whispered, sitting back. “And now you don’t have the property you said you’d get for them.”
“No, I don’t,” she agreed unhappily. “And Aaric isn’t going to sign it over.”
“How much will we owe them?” Angela wanted to ask.
“A lot. But we could probably get the money. But Edgar, the bastard, is threatening to destroy me. Ruin my reputation, ensure I never work in the industry again.”
“Asshole,” Angela snarled angrily. “What a fucking prick.”
“Tell me about it,” Olivia muttered. “But it’s my fault, Ang. It’s all my fault. I’m really sorry about it. I didn’t want to risk losing the contract to George or someone else. Plus, how often do I lose a property I really want? I thought it was a surefire thing, and now…now I’ve ruined us,” she moaned, burying her face in her palms.
“Have they done anything yet?” Angela asked, stabbing a finger onto the desk.
“No? Not yet. A few threatening phone calls. Nothing more.”
Angela nodded. “Right. So, we still have time then.”
“Time?”
Her assistant was still nodding, slowly, as if a plan was coming together in her head as she spoke. “To figure out how to get this new guy in town to agree to sell you his property. Without burning it down.”
“How are we going to do that?” Olivia complained, hopelessness closing in.
“The same way any good person in a position of power gets their way. We read the contract and loophole the shit out of it.”
“Which contract? With Martinez and his company? How will that help us?”
“Nope. Not that one. The one between Charles and this Aaric fellow.” Angela grinned.
“Has it been filed?”
“Only one way to find out,” Angela told her. “Let’s get to work.”
Olivia felt a spark of hope stir within her. She wasn’t alone now. Someone else was there with her, helping her find a way out of the mess she’d created.
“What did I do to deserve you?” she asked, pulling up the Plymouth Falls municipal website.
“Pay me a nice yearly salary that I don’t want to lose,” Angela answered.
The two of them smiled.
Yes, Olivia decided. They could do this. They would do this.
Chapter 15
“Here.”
Olivia looked up from the pile of papers on her desk. “What is that?” she asked, her features brightening as the aroma hit her.
“I had some coffee and food delivered,” Angela confessed. “I looked up from my computer half an hour ago and realized just how long we’d been at this without a break. So, here’s some coffee. Have a sip.”
“Why must I stop at a sip?” she wanted to know with a smile. “Thanks, Ang. You’re amazing. I’ve been really grateful to have you on my team. If I haven’t already mentioned that.”
“You can always do it again,” Angela said.
They laughed, and some of the tension of the past twelve hours faded. They’d been at it all morning, afternoon, evening, and now late into the night. Paragraph after paragraph. Reading and re-reading. Discussing language of clauses. Trying to come up with some way to null and void the contract.
“You come up with anything?” she asked, though the answer would be the same.
“No. Nothing. Yet,” she added with a defiant look that said But I will.
“Me neither. Whoever this guy is, he’s good.” Olivia tapped the first page of the contract with a finger. “What kind of name is Drakon anyway? Aaric Drakon.”
Angela was looking at her funny.
“What?” she wanted to know. “Did I say something funny?”
“Right. You wouldn’t know,” Angela said suddenly. “You’re not from around here.”
“I don’t understand.”
Angela plopped herself into the seat on the far side of the desk. “The Drakons are sort of local legends here, in a way.”
“Legends?” Olivia was confused. “He seems real enough.”
“Not like that. What I mean is, the Drakon family, along with the Ursa, and Canis family, are like, the founders of Plymouth Falls, I guess. Three families, all very secretive, don’t interact with us much, but they own a huge amount of town through various holding companies and fronts. You have to go through layers to find out they’re behind it, which is usually more work than we bother with the few times we’ve tried to buy or sell properties to them.”
“I see.”
“Anyway,” Angela continued. “The Drakons haven’t been heard from in nearly a century. It’s like they fel
l off the planet. Now that this guy’s back, I wonder if we’ll see more of them.” She frowned.
“What?” Olivia sat forward. “What is it?”
“Well, I wonder if maybe we should look into this Aaric a little more. See if he’s got all his proper paperwork filled out to be able to legitimately buy this property. After all, nobody has heard of him before. Where’d he get all this money?”
Olivia smiled. “Now we’re thinking!”
Before they could proceed, there was a heavy thudding at the door.
“Did you order anything else?” Olivia wanted to know, uneasy at the force being used on the door. “They seem awfully insistent.”
“Not a thing.”
Olivia frowned, pulling up the security cameras on her computer. Her office was a standalone single-story building. Not overly flashy, but she liked the space from any other businesses. It allowed her to set the tone of exclusivity she preferred to give her clients.
Now, on the camera that viewed the front of the office, she could make out four men outside. One of them lifted his fist as she watched and knocked on the door again. The other three stood nearby, one to the right of the knocker, and the other two directly behind each of them, in a square formation. None of the other three moved.
Weird.
Reaching for the phone, she pressed a button on it. “Who is it?” she asked, the phone connecting her to an outdoor microphone and speaker next to the door.
“I’m with Northern Aspirations, Charters, Holding & Trading.”
The two women exchanged glances. “It’s a bit late for business, don’t you think?”
“You’re still at the office.”
Angela frowned. “A real personality on that joker, isn’t there?”
“Yeah, he seems rather bored by all this, doesn’t he?”
“Just a little bit,” her assistant agreed.
Olivia punched the button again. “Please come back in the morning during business hours. Thank you all for coming by.”
The man looked up at her words, probably realizing he was on camera once she confessed to knowing there was more than just him. His face landed on the camera and stayed there for several seconds. Then he waved, a smile appearing on his face.