by Eve Devon
Chapter Two
Adam eyed Steel Hawk’s company lawyer as his words penetrated. “Exactly how big?” he asked quietly.
“Gargantuan,” Edward replied with spectacular surliness.
It wasn’t the tone but the complete lack of hesitation in Edward’s response that had Adam ushering him into his office. In the doorway, he turned back to Honeysuckle. “Can you organize some coffee for us?”
“Sure thing.” She nodded, looking worried, which had him hesitating in the doorway.
“Look, about earlier…” he began, not exactly sure where he was going with his words but wanting to take some of the worry out of her eyes.
“Go start your meeting. I’ll be in with drinks in a moment.”
He hesitated, and she must have been completely unused to that from him, because she broke out the eye-roll again and made a shooing motion with her hand.
Adam entered his office, where Edward had already taken up residence in front of the window that overlooked the building’s atrium. He looked as if he was staring out at the top of the Steel Hawk sculpture that rose proudly from the ground floor. Almost as if he was steeling himself for what he had to say.
“What’s going on?” Adam asked, walking over to his desk, pulling out his chair, sitting, and shifting his weight so that the front two legs lifted off the ground and he could prop his feet up on the corner of his desk.
Edward turned around to face him. “Before I tell you, how much do you know about Steel Hawk’s history?”
Adam observed the rigid set to Edward’s shoulders and started talking. “My great-great-great grandfather, Benjamin Steel, founded the company with Nathaniel Hawk, in 1850. They were commissioned to provide a secure locking case to display the Pasha Star of Zarrenburg at the Great Exhibition in London, 1851. The design they came up with was incredible, even taking in today’s leaps in material and technology.” He watched Edward’s eyes glaze over and with a wry smile brought himself back on track. “The design was a huge success. Orders started flooding in from all over the world. Steel Hawk opened up a branch in London, and before the turn of the century, the company had branches on each continent. We floated on the stock market in—”
“Okay.” Edward held up a hand to silence him. “You got most of it. Apart from the fact that if it hadn’t been for Nathaniel Hawk foiling a plot to rob the rightful heir of Zarrenburg of his throne, Steel Hawk’s reputation would have been in the pan before they’d ever really gotten started because the Pasha Star diamond went missing the day before the exhibition opened.”
Adam grinned. Sure, he remembered that part. But being as his last name was Steel, he was naturally more inclined to focus on the heroics of his family’s side of the company.
Not that Adam didn’t appreciate Nathaniel Hawk’s or his wife, Rose’s mad design and engineering skills. Rose Hawk had become the first female goldsmith to be recognized for her impressive body of work. It was her Steel Hawk logo that went into all their locks. The same logo was re-created in the steel structure outside his office window: a hawk sitting atop a steel globe.
From his very first visit to Steel Hawk as a child, the couple had inspired him. He’d been playing in the boardroom and had taken down from the cabinet that housed early Steel Hawk products the puzzle-box treasure chest that Nathaniel and Rose Hawk had designed for their first child.
Adam had become fascinated. With its specialized hinges and strangely shaped keys that allowed you to open one part while keeping the rest locked, if you didn’t know the secret to opening up the rest of the box, it was impossible to get into. He’d got a set of screwdrivers from his father’s office and sat under the huge oval conference table for hours, painstakingly thinking out how to dismantle the box to look at each component.
When his father had found him, along with the lecture and list of chores he’d been given to do at home as punishment, he’d also been allowed to visit every day after school and figure out how to dismantle and reassemble the box into one piece without using tools. It had taken him four days. By then he was hooked.
Briefly Adam wondered what Honeysuckle thought of her ancestry. Over the years as the company had gotten larger, it was natural that some Steels would become more interested in the design part of the company and that some Hawks would find their skills gravitating more toward the business side of things. That was life. As was the fact that not all Steels or Hawks grew up wanting to be part of the company.
Steel Hawk was big enough to know and accept that and carry on. The company was more than two names fused together, and its success was the focus it placed on designing, developing, and producing the best products in order to supply the best contracts.
If only Steel Hawk had secured those two latest contracts, Adam thought again. Post-match analysis showed the companies with the winning bid hadn’t even been on Steel Hawk’s serious contenders list—making the failure feel like the bid had been not those companies’ to win, but, rather, Steel Hawk’s to lose.
That was what got to Adam most. His products were good. But someone else’s had been better.
“So, I take it I passed Steel Hawk 101? Can we please get to what’s going on?”
Edward shoved his hands into his suit-trouser pockets. “There’s going to be a book published on Monday about Steel Hawk—an unauthorized biography. In it, the author claims that Nathaniel Hawk, the cofounder of the company, was a jewel thief called the Raven and that after the Great Exhibition, when he and his wife opened a branch of Steel Hawk in London, he continued to be the Raven, using the cover of the company to scout out targets and carry out jewel heists.”
“What the hell?” A story like that could ruin the company’s reputation. Christ, their motto was Strong as Steel, Watchful as a Hawk, and no one had seen this coming? The story had to be false. “This writer has proof?”
“Depends on what you mean by proof.”
“Edward,” Adam warned.
“Okay. There appears to be some documental evidence scattered throughout the book, which should be easy enough to check. If we prove the allegations false, we’ll sue everyone in sight. That’s not the initially tricky part. The real trouble comes with the fact that, come Monday, we as a company suddenly become the ultimate sexy, scandalous story for the press and the public to feast over. And let me assure you that feast is exactly what they’ll do.”
Adam’s mind whirled as the implications for Steel Hawk’s future set in. Of course, with a company going as long as Steel Hawk, there were going to be a few skeletons. But this? The public and press might enjoy the sensationalism, but Steel Hawk’s clients and the company’s share price would most definitely not.
Coming on top of losing the contracts and all the other things that had been happening, it stirred up Adam’s impression that someone was trying to subvert the company’s progress.
“Bury it,” Adam said with authority.
“Believe me, I have legal all over it. And I’ve been in and out of meetings with public relations all morning.” Edward turned briefly to the window and then back to Adam. “It gets worse.”
Adam dropped his feet from the desk, the front legs of his chair hitting the floor with a thud. Of course Max would have already told Edward to use whatever power he had to stop the book being printed. He obviously hadn’t been able to obtain an injunction. So what did Adam specifically have to do with the book being published?
An itch started at the top of Adam’s spine, warning him he wasn’t about to like what was coming next.
He didn’t know much about Edward on a personal level. Edward was not the sharing type, and being as how neither was Adam, they rubbed along all right. But, gauging Edward’s discomfort and his special visit to see him, he couldn’t help wondering. Was someone’s personal life about to impact Steel Hawk?
Was his personal life—his past—about to impact Steel Hawk?
Ada
m felt his mouth go dry. Was this how it was going to go down? You made one gigantic mother of a mistake and years down the line someone picked it up and regurgitated it for entertainment?
With heart thundering against his chest wall, he tried to think what he’d do when Edward divulged that not only did he know what had happened years ago, but now there was nothing he could do to stop everyone from finding out as well.
Shit.
How could this writer have gotten hold of…?
A chill snaked its way up Adam’s spine. Was there more footage out there? Tapes he hadn’t even known about?
Shadows of the disgust he felt must have shown on his face, because Edward suddenly pulled out a chair, sat down, and said, “Whatever’s got you so ramped, you can relax. This isn’t about you.”
Relief exploded in Adam’s chest, right alongside hatred that one error in judgment could so easily impact not only his present and future, but that of Steel Hawk’s as well. He should have told Max about what had happened when he’d been offered the promotion to head of R and D, but for once, he’d thought he’d put enough distance between the young, naïve, duped man he had been and the man he was now.
The door opened, and Honeysuckle entered with two drinks.
Edward stopped talking and gave him a quick silencing look.
If his personal assistant thought it strange that neither Adam nor Edward continued their conversation while she was in the room, she was too professional to say.
Adam’s gaze lingered on her retreating back as she left the office as quietly as she’d entered. He wondered if he’d be able to find a big enough lot to park his bruised ego in if it turned out he was going to have to be a gentleman about her wanting to leave. She might not manage to smooth his ruffled feathers all the time—in fact, sometimes he could swear she ruffled them on purpose—but he would miss her. For all the things she didn’t make a song and dance about, as much as the things she did.
Interesting.
He had been so certain he had taken the care not to notice.
Picking up his cup, he took a sip without even glancing at it, expecting the much-needed burst of dark-roasted coffee bean on his tongue and instead got…mush. “Honeysuckle,” he bellowed, holding up a hand to Edward to ask him to wait to speak again.
Honeysuckle cracked open his office door, an innocent expression on her face.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, pointing to the mug as if it were alive.
“It’s a protein shake.”
“A protein shake?”
“Sure.”
Edward snorted, and Adam offered up his death glare. To his personal assistant, he demanded, “Do I look like the kind of guy who needs a protein shake to take a meeting?” knowing damn well he didn’t and thinking, if she did leave, he definitely wouldn’t miss the disgusting concoctions she seemed to delight in making especially for him.
“Did you have dinner last night?” she asked.
“Yes, I had dinner, last—” Wait, had he? He’d gotten so involved with working on his prototype, he couldn’t actually remember.
Honeysuckle gave him an extra-patient “uh-huh” and added, “Drink up. Then you get the coffee,” before closing the office door behind her.
Adam stood, picked up the mug, and emptied the entire contents into his ficus plant, muttering, “I’m seriously thinking about firing her.”
“Word around the office,” Edward interjected, “is she’s already resigned. Although I have to say, I’m not totally surprised if you can’t be trusted to remember the basics, like feeding yourself.”
“Funny guy,” Adam muttered and then settled himself back behind his desk. “So what were you going to say before she tried to poison me?”
Edward sobered and glanced at the door. “About the book that’s coming out—most of it is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawk with extra material about many of the Hawks who came after.” Edward’s hand came up to smooth his tie. “Apparently, there’s an entire section dedicated to Honeysuckle. Complete with photographs.”
“Honeysuckle?” Why the hell would Honeysuckle be in anyone’s book? Okay, the Steels and Hawks were known in San Francisco as being from a particular social set. Sometimes a certain lifestyle came with that money, but… Oh. “Look, if there are a couple of photographs of her coming out of a club, maybe a little drunk—”
“Oh, there are definitely photographs of her coming out of a club. She’s not drunk, though. She’s in costume. For her job. As a burlesque dancer.”
Adam blinked, frowned, and possibly did some blinking again. He’d never know, because he was pretty certain he’d just fried something in his brain. “Excuse me?”
“Burlesque. You know, dancing, hardly any clothes, then, even fewer clothes—”
Yeah, that was what he’d thought he’d said. “Give me your coffee.”
“What?”
“Give me your damn coffee,” Adam said, then reached over, picked up Edward’s cup, and drank the entire contents down in three gulps.
Damn it to hell, turned out he had never, he realized, never, actually, known anything about his assistant at all. The burning sensation in his mouth did absolutely nothing to temper the heat coursing through him as the Honeysuckle from his dream walked center stage into his head, winked, and blew him a kiss from behind an ostrich-feather fan.
“You’re going to have to ask her about it.”
Adam’s jaw dropped open. “You want me to ask her if she used to…? Are you out of your mind?”
“Specifically, I need you to ask her if she is still a burlesque dancer. The more facts at our disposal, the more we control fallout, because, believe me, when this book hits the shelves and those photographs are in the public domain, trouble is going to start, with the staff talking about them amongst themselves, and then grow exponentially if even one of them decides to talk to the press about knowing her.”
Fairly convinced that talking to Honeysuckle about naked dancing was only going to cement the image of the siren he was trying to get out of his head had him panicking. “It’s none of our business what she does outside of this building.” But even as he said the words, Adam knew that wasn’t strictly true. Not when it came to damage control for something on this scale. He took off his glasses and threw them down on the table before scrubbing a hand over his face. “Is she going to need legal counsel?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. Fact is she deserves to know what’s coming her way as soon as possible.”
“Yeah.” Adam raised his face to the ceiling and closed his eyes, only to reopen them when he mentally pictured Honeysuckle being lowered from the ceiling in nothing but one of those enormous prop champagne glasses. Sometimes having a brain that cataloged absolutely every piece of information he came across wasn’t a plus. And was it any wonder he was having a little trouble reconciling what Edward had told him with the woman who’d presented herself in his office day in, day out for the past eighteen months? Apparently the version his subconscious had thrown his way wasn’t so far off the mark. Unless she’d been more of a warning, he thought suddenly. A warning that he was starting to trust a woman he clearly knew next to nothing about.
Been there, done that, he counseled himself. Wasn’t going to happen again.
“Word to the wise,” Edward said. “You can’t fire her over this.”
Adam brought his gaze level with Edward’s. “Steel Hawk doesn’t abandon its own,” he stated, annoyed Edward would think he’d even consider an easy fix that wouldn’t actually solve the problem at all. “I have no intention of firing her. She’d be a sitting duck for every crazy reporter in town and we’d be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Besides”—he reached over to put his glasses back on—“everyone has a past.”
At his words, something strange passed over Edward’s face. Though, it was gone in an instant; Adam wondered if he’d simply imagined the law
yer’s altered expression. His hand went unconsciously to the back of his neck and soothed over the itch at the top of his spine.
“Just find out if the past is the past, okay?” Edward reasserted.
“Okay.”
“There’s a meeting before lunch to see where we’re at. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Not good enough,” Adam answered. His team worked hard for him. He knew how lucky he was to be able to run his department, as well as getting to keep his design and engineering skills current. He was also forced to admit that Honeysuckle headed off most of the day-to-day trouble, to enable him to work like that. If his department was to be involved in any firefighting—more importantly, if Honeysuckle was directly in the path of the flames—then damn if he wasn’t going to be lead firefighter. “I want in on what you’re planning.”
“Very well,” Edward said after a moment’s assessment. “But, first, about your getting so ramped up earlier—”
“Forget it,” Adam said.
“Because if there’s something additional that could come out—”
“There’s nothing. It’s fine.” No way was Adam about to hash over something that looked as if it was buried nice and deep where it belonged, another lifetime ago. If the biographer hadn’t managed to uncover it, he wasn’t going to add to his brother’s stress levels.
Like a dog with a bone, Edward reminded him, “You said everyone has a past.”
“You want to share first?”
Edward’s face remained impassive. Apart from one barely noticeable facial tic. “Yeah,” Adam concluded, “I don’t think either of us imagines we’ll end up in a beer-swigging, pool-playing bonding session. So forget about it and tell me about how Steel Hawk fights its corner when the story breaks.”
Edward tipped his head in touché and then got serious. “In two weeks’ time, Prince Zoltan will be crowned Zarrenburg’s new ruler in a coronation ceremony that will be screened worldwide. I want Steel Hawk there, on camera, showing the world that we have entire countries who believe in us—who think our brand, our promise, our name, stands for something. Who better to protect the Pasha Star after it is presented to Prince Zoltan and then placed on display for the world to see than the company that ensured its safety the first time around?”