It felt like someone had poured cold water down her back. She couldn’t breathe. She could hardly even think straight. Zane King. Her Zane. He had slept with this—this—this woman with the tight clothes? He had just walked in here and basically ignored her and the two of them had been sleeping together once upon a time? It was horrible!
Meanwhile Candace was laughing. The low sexy sound made Landry’s skin crawl. She could not believe that this was happening to her right now. It was surreal. She felt as though she had stumbled into some other alternate reality where the man she thought she had just sort of maybe agreed to marry was someone else entirely.
“So is the engagement real?” Candace asked suddenly. “Because usually that’s not how the King family works, you know?”
“Enough.” Landry put up her hand. “That’s enough. I don’t want to hear more.”
“Suit yourself.”
And Landry did suit herself. She moved toward the elevator as quickly as she could and hit the button over and over again until the doors finally opened. Then she stepped gratefully into the empty interior of the big metal box and waited with bated breath for the doors to close again. When they finally whooshed shut she felt an incredible wave of relief. It was over. She could go home and just try to figure out what normal looked like. As if anything would ever be normal again.
“What is normal anyway?” Landry whispered to nobody in particular.
It took an eternity for the elevator to reach the ground floor, but that was fine with Landry. At each floor the doors would open and more people would get inside. By the time they reached the end of the line there were so many people spilling out of the elevator that Landry felt blessedly anonymous. At least until she tried to cross the lobby toward the front doors.
“Landry!” Zane’s voice was distinctive. It wasn’t like she could really ignore it. At least not really, but she could try.
Landry kept walking. She locked her gaze on those front doors and just kept going like nothing had happened. It was her strategy. It was a necessity. And she almost made it too. But at the last second she felt someone grab her arm and spin her around.
The force was so great that Landry nearly spun three hundred and sixty degrees. As it was she almost fell over and would have if Zane had not held tight to her wrist at the last second. He tugged her toward him and out of the major traffic heading in and out of the crowded building. There were eyes everywhere. People staring and probably wondering what kind of King drama was about to unfold. Because that’s what happened in the King building in downtown Dallas. Right? Drama unfolded.
“I’m going home, Zane,” Landry said, trying in vain to keep her voice very casual and completely calm. At the last second she heard it crack though. She was—after all—pretty upset.
“Landry, please.” Zane held tightly to her hand. “Let’s talk. Can we talk? Before you leave?”
“Why?” Landry tilted her head to one side and willed her eyes to big, round, and empty. “It’s just another day to you, right? But I’m really tired after my very odd morning and I would like to go back to my home and relax. Why don’t you stay here and—uh—do something with your family?”
“You are my family.”
“No. I’m not.” The words came out a bit harsher than she had intended. “I’m not your family and I don’t think I ever will be. Not really.”
Zane’s voice lowered until it could have only been called hushed. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.” Landry shrugged and tried to leave. She really didn’t want to talk about this right here with everybody slowing down as they walked just so that they could eavesdrop and gawk. It was embarrassing.
“Landry, please?”
“I want to go home, Zane.” Landry bit her tongue, but it didn’t work. The words slipped out anyway, damn her red-headed temper! “Why don’t you go back up and hang out with Candace? I’m sure she would be more than happy to help you kill a few hours. She seems to miss you a lot. You know, since the two of you have stopped hanging out together so much.”
“Candace?” He actually looked confused. Landry did not know if this made it better or worse. How could a man just summarily dismiss and forget a woman he had been intimate with? Then understanding dawned on Zane’s face. “You mean Candace our receptionist? I haven’t seen her like that in years! She’s been working for us for about as long as I’ve been going into the office. She’s efficient and hardworking I guess, but I can’t imagine why I would be hanging out with her on my personal time.”
“What about your private time?” Landry said, curling her lip in disdain. “I hear the two of you spent quite a lot of private time together at one point.”
“Are you…” His expression darkened. “Really? That’s what this is about? You think that I slept with the receptionist and now you’re mad about it? Who cares! Even if I did, that was ages ago and why would it matter now? I’m with you! I chose you! So why does it matter what I did in the past? Have I asked you?”
Landry was stunned. She felt her mouth drop open in surprise as she realized what he was insinuating. She pointed at him and made a low noise of contempt. “Don’t you dare try to put this on me! I haven’t had a bunch of men trot in and out of my life! That’s not my thing at all and you well know it! How can you even suggest such a thing?”
“But you can suggest it to me?” he roared the words and it was pretty much like the entire lobby and foyer area of the King building came to a complete and total halt.
Silence reigned in the building. They had officially garnered every bit of attention that could be gotten. It was epic and embarrassing, and right then and there Landry knew that she could not possibly keep up with this relationship no matter where it might be going or not. She’d had her fill of notoriety all those years ago when her parents had been thrust into the limelight, and Landry Fisher wanted no part of it now.
“Landry, please?”
“No.” Landry put up her hand. “I’m done with this and I’m pretty sure I’m done with you. I think we’ll call that your shortest relationship ever.” Then Landry thought about some of the things that Candace had shared. “Or maybe not. I don’t know. But I do know that I do not want to be just another notch on the proverbial bedpost. That isn’t how I’m wired. I can’t have a relationship like that. And since that’s how you’re obviously wired, I think we are done here.”
“Where are you getting these ideas? You’ve known me almost all my life! How can you think this about me now after all these years?”
Zane’s voice was big and bold and it carried to every corner of the room. That was great since every eye in the place was locked on them. Even the security guards were too distracted to let anyone through the metal detectors. One of them was actually frozen with his hand inside some poor woman’s handbag as he did the obligatory search with a wooden stick as though he could feel out a weapon or some other contraband with that implement.
Landry exhaled a sigh and yanked her arm away and glared at Zane. “I’ve known you all your life, but not really in the last few years, Zane. I knew you as a young man and as a boy. And you’re right. The boy I knew would have never done anything like that. But you’re not a boy. You’re a man. And you’re not the man I thought you were.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
By the time Zane got back upstairs to the tenth floor he was so angry that he could almost feel the steam rolling out of his ears. It did not help that the first thing he saw when he stepped back out of the elevator was his mother with her head bent close to Candace’s. The two of them were whispering about something. No doubt it had to do with making trouble. Candace knew how to make sure she had job security in this uncertain world. Apparently keeping Tisha Olivares-King happy was a lucrative business to be in when Tisha was interfering in the company payroll and making a general nuisance of herself.
“Mother?” Zane said through gritted teeth. “Would you care to tell me why you felt the need to get involved in my relationshi
p with Landry when less than a half hour ago you were inviting me to bring Landry along to a social function at the home of one of your friends?”
Tisha turned around and gave Zane a mocking look of surprise. “I cannot imagine what you are talking about, Zane King! I didn’t interfere in your relationship. I thought you went downstairs to take Landry home. Did she leave without you?”
“Yes. Just now.” Zane eyed his mother and he looked at Candace. The two of them were smug. Their expressions reeked of it. He could not let on that they had succeeded. And that meant he had to bluff his way through it. “I suppose it’s been a long morning for the poor girl since she had to deal with that ridiculous parent at school. You know what it’s like when mothers and fathers act ridiculous in public and embarrass their children.” Zane did not even bother to try and temper his words. At this point he did not care one bit if his mother was pissed off at him.
“Uh huh. Right.” Tisha glowered a bit. Then she brightened. “Don’t forget about the party at the Dunlop’s. It starts around eight o’clock. There will be some wonderful food and an open bar.”
“I don’t drink.” This, of course, reminded Zane of his brother. “And what did you mean when you threatened to make Orion start drinking again?”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Tisha said with a roll of her eyes.
The queen of the King family glanced at Candace as though the two of them had some kind of secret between them. The sly look was not lost on Zane. He didn’t know exactly what had transpired or what Candace had said, but there was no doubt in his mind that it had involved some pretty pointed maybe bullshit allegations against Zane.
Tisha wiggled her fingers at Candace. “I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetie. I’ve got to go get my nails redone to match my dress for the party!”
As soon as the elevator doors had closed and Zane could be reasonably certain that his mother could no long hear him, he plopped his forearms on the counter and looked down at the long-time receptionist for the corporate offices of King Security Solutions, Inc.
“What?” Candace did not look up from her computer screen. “You’re standing there glowering at me, but it’s not going to do any good.”
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Zane lifted his eyebrows. He could feel his temper simmering. In seconds he would be fighting the urge to shift into his wolf form and totally tear this place up. “Don’t play with me, Candace. What version of the truth did you give Landry. And don’t bullshit me.”
“What version?” The corner of Candace’s mouth twisted into a look of derision. “What are you talking about? There is only one version of the truth. That’s how the truth works. Remember?”
“That isn’t necessarily true and you know it.” Zane was about to totally lose his patience. “What did you tell her? Did my mother put you up to it?”
“Why is that always your go-to thing?” Candace stood up and glared at him over the tall counter separating her desk from the waiting area. “You constantly act like I don’t remember what it was like when I first started working here.”
“What?” Zane frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“All of those long talks we used to have where you would stand here and bug me while I was trying to do my job. All of the flirting and the making eyes at me and asking me to dinner.” Candace made a face at him. “You act like that never happened. You act like nothing ever happened.”
Zane felt like he was looking down a tunnel. “Candace, that was like five years ago.”
“Five years.” She snorted. “And yet six months ago you were flirting with me.”
Six months ago… Zane searched his brain for what she could be talking about and came up empty. He had not flirted with her, at least not intentionally, for years. He had been trying to do his best to change up his game. He wasn’t interested in casual flings. Not anymore. He was a bit of a lone wolf. That was true. But he didn’t make it a habit to run around disrespecting women and hurting them by playing with their emotions. That wasn’t the way he wanted to live his life or be as a man. Not anymore.
“So you told Landry what?” Zane asked quietly. He gazed long and hard at Candace. “Just be honest with me. I know that you said something. She told me you did. But the way that she’s acting right now makes it seem like you told her that I’m the biggest player in Dallas and we both know that’s not true.”
“It is true,” Candace said suddenly. “Look at that story they ran in the Dallas Star! Your mother told me what you did.”
“Excuse me?” Now Zane was totally confused. “My mother told you what? That she threw my clothes on the front lawn and then she went to her best pal down at the Dallas Star, Carolyn Phillips, and she spun some horrible tale about me looking for a place to crash because I’d been tossed out of my house?”
“Well, yes.” Candace made a funny face. “I’ll admit when you put it like that it sounds a bit odd.”
“Exactly!” Zane fumed. “My mother told you that I did that myself? Are you out of your mind?”
“You sleep around, Zane. Everybody says so,” Candace muttered. “We talk about it in the break room. Who is Zane King sleeping with? Oh, Zane King is so good in bed that he can make a woman scream his name in five minutes or less.”
“You talk about it?” Zane was absolutely floored. He felt like glancing around just to make sure nobody else was listening into the conversation. “What like, people who work here discuss this? It’s an accepted fact that I’m apparently a sex god who sleeps with any woman I find even mildly attractive or just anyone who has a warm body? Please tell me that at least the rumors suggest these women are willing!”
“Of course.” Candace looked affronted. “We don’t insinuate that you force women. That’s ridiculous.”
Oh. That was ridiculous. It was perfectly acceptable for them to somehow concoct a series of sordid affairs that spanned—hang on. He had no idea how far reaching this supposed list of conquests was. Zane cleared his throat.
“You were kind of mean to Sonora down in accounting though,” Candace muttered. She tugged at the cuffs of her blouse as though she were struggling not to say something else, something stronger. “You shouldn’t have told her she was fat.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sonora is a big girl,” Candace said, sounding almost defensive. “She’s my cousin. She’s always been a bit on the bigger side. That’s okay. A lot of guys are into that. I’ve never known you to be, but then maybe that’s something that just happens after a man gets older. You know?”
“Candace, I have never slept with your cousin Sonora from accounting.” Zane made sure his voice was flat and final. “Never. I mean, absolutely never. I haven’t—”He struggled because it was none of her business how long it had been for him. “Let’s just say it’s been a really long time for me. All right? But I don’t sleep with people here at work. That would be the height of stupidity.”
Zane thought about his brother Devon and shook that right off. This was not the time to be thinking about Devon and the cleaning crew woman. But Candace was already narrowing her gaze and shaking her head. She made a noise of disgust and then sat back down in her chair.
“What?” Zane demanded. “What now?”
“You’re such a liar,” Candace muttered. “A total liar.”
Since it was plain that Candace was done talking to him about anything at all worth hearing, Zane stalked back down the hallway toward Orion’s office. He could hear his brothers talking in low voices. For all Zane knew they were making plans together to take over the company and leave the other three—no, four now—King brothers out of it altogether. Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe Zane should just be happy with the salary guaranteed to him for the next thirty years including cost of living raises every year.
Zane pushed his way back into Orion’s office through the slightly ajar doorway. His brothers both looked up from Orion’s desk in surprise. Zane didn’t give them a chance t
o say a word. “Are either of you aware of rumors around the company that apparently I am sleeping with employees all over the company in as many departments and on as many floors as we apparently have in this building?”
What. The. Hell? The twin expressions on Orion and Devon’s faces screamed duh. It was readily apparent that this was not only a common rumor, but also a commonly accepted truth. How in the hell had this escaped his notice?
“You do flirt a lot,” Devon pointed out.
“This from the guy who had Kami the cleaning lady pissed off at him because of his family problems,” Zane fired back. “Yes! I’m nice to women! I smile at them and talk with them and ask them how they’re doing. I remember their names. I do the same thing with male employees.”
Orion snorted. “No, you don’t.”
“What?” Zane snarled. “Yes, I do!”
“Name a male employee in this company,” Orion fired back.
Zane’s brain was spinning, but at least it latched onto something. “George Salazar. He’s a security guard downstairs.”
“You’re trying to use that to say that you spend as much time talking with the men as you do the women?” Orion was now laughing. “You must be joking! You cannot count the guy who lets you through the metal detector in order to bypass the line every morning. That’s ridiculous. If you didn’t know George I would think you were the biggest ass in the company!”
“So what?” Zane growled. “I’m supposed to know some random guy down in the mail room—other than Jason our brother, mind you—that I talk to once a year? My office is up here. I push pencils and make phone calls for customer service because I’m good at talking to people. Remember? The only place I go inside this building is on this floor and the only support staff we have up here is Candace!”
Devon folded his arms over his broad chest. “Whom you slept with.”
“That’s not fair. It was five years ago and I had just started here.” Dammit. Zane had always known that the decision to sleep with Candace would totally backfire and come back to bite him.
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 64