by KB Winters
Despite the raging headache and bleary eyes, my nerves were sparking and ready to roll when eight o’clock arrived the next morning.
I flew across town and parked on the side street right in front of Christopher’s office, hoping he’d see me coming through the window from his cushy office chair. I wanted him to fear me, to feel a knot in the bottom of his stomach as he watched me cross the abandoned street, stalking towards his building. I wished I could see his face, and watch it fall the moment he saw me. My jaw grinding, eyes blazing, and realize that whatever the fuck was coming next was not going to end well for him.
My hands were clenched in tight fists before I even stepped one foot inside his office. I’d been in fights before but it had always been an in-the-moment kind of thing. I’d never spent twelve hours brewing over how much I wanted to connect my fists to the side of some man’s face. Man? No, that’s giving him way too much credit.
I flung open the glass door to the building and swept my eyes hungrily over the framed directory on the wall, before storming upstairs to the Vantage Point Beats office suite. It was early enough in the day that the lobby was vacant when I threw open the door and stepped inside. There was a thin woman approaching the front desk with what looked like a fresh mug of coffee cupped in her left hand. She looked startled by my sudden appearance before her.
“Can I help you?” She set the mug down and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“My name is Remington Maddox. I’m here to see Christopher.”
There was a flicker of recognition in her eyes and I briefly wondered if Christopher had warned her that I might stop by. Obviously, he had no idea I’d overheard the meeting the night before—but there had been a hell of a lot of friction between us for some time now.
More likely—I’d fucked her once upon a time, and she’d probably been dreaming about my cock ever since.
The receptionist licked her glossy lips as she slid down into the sleek leather chair behind her desk.
Yeah, she definitely knew who I was. Before Livvie, she would’ve been just my type. In shape, tanned and toned. She had long hair, full lips, and an impressive amount of perky cleavage peeking out from her low cut top.
How quickly things change, I mused, momentarily distracted by the silent worship the woman was paying to my Armani suit-clad body.
In what was starting to feel like another life, I probably would’ve thrown something suggestive her way, just to get her wet and wild. But as it was, Livvie was the only woman I wanted to fuck.
The woman smiled at me, emphasizing her pouty, full lips as she spoke. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Maddox.” She purred my name like a seductive kitten. “Christopher isn’t in the office just yet. If you’d like, I can assist you…” She let her offer hang, the sudden silence filling in the blanks, and I knew that if I was in the mood, I could round the desk and have her sucking my cock in less than two seconds.
I braced my hands on the desk, towering over her, and she smiled like I was about to whisper something naughty to her, but my false smile faded as I reset my jaw and growled, “I’m not leaving here before I talk to him. So, let’s drop the whole ‘he’s not here’ BS.”
“Mr. Maddox, he’s really not here.” Her smile soured and a look of irritation took its place.
“We’ll see about that,” I said, shoving off the desk and storming down the hallway.
The receptionist jumped up and started running after me. “You can’t go back there!”
“Watch me.”
“Please stop. I’ll call him and give him any message you want.” She continued chasing after me as I stalked down the hall, following my instinct to know where his office would be located. “Mr. Maddox, please! I really need you to stop!”
I ignored her frantic pleas and started flinging open doors at random. If she wasn’t going to tell me where Christopher was, I was going to find him myself. What was that expression about smelling a rat?
“Go call him and be sure to tell him I’m here. Trust me, he’ll want to know.” I pushed open one more door and I knew I’d hit the jackpot. It was very clearly the largest office and had a certain air to it. I turned around, facing the frazzled woman who was looking at me like I was either insane or the devil. “Go.”
She huffed and stomped off, her heels clicking an angry beat on the dark hardwood floor as she hauled her ass back to her desk to call her boss.
Once she was gone, I went inside Christopher’s office and had a good look around. His space was clean and very well organized. It looked like everything had a place and he paid attention to keeping it that way. It made sense. Christopher was one tightly wound tool. He was into partying and playing around more than just about anyone I knew, but at the heart of the beast was a man who was desperate for control and power.
Always had been.
It was probably the reason why he’d always zeroed in on me as his biggest opponent. I chuckled to myself. How flattering.
I shook my head, still shocked that I’d found him visiting my mother and that they were working together to drive me and Livvie apart. Every time I let myself think about how many other late-night meetings there might have been, I started to see red. How had the entire thing even started? Surely, that wasn’t the kind of plot that was hatched at the courtesy bar of some high society bash.
Or was it?
Well, it didn’t matter. It was ending…now.
I exhaled as I sank into Christopher’s chair, propping my feet up on his desk. I had the fleeting thought of wishing my shoes were dirty so I could scuff up the polished wood. From down the hall, I could hear the echo of his receptionist speaking frantically into the phone.
Moments later, the voices stopped, and I knew that Christopher would be here soon. I laughed, picturing him jumping into his car and ripping across town to get to the office. Something caught my attention and I started shuffling through the carefully stacked pages sitting in the middle of his desk. My heart started pounding as I saw several flagged places, indicating signatures were required. I skimmed the contract and saw that it listed out each member that comprised the band Downside—Livvie’s band—now, my band.
My eyes flew over the contract and I jumped up, my legs suddenly needing to move, as a new wave of anger hit me. The paperwork detailed some plan that made it pretty clear that he was trying to steal the band, and sign them with his—conveniently new—management branch under the Vantage Point label. And Livvie’s name was nowhere in sight. He was cutting her out of the deal.
And the worst part was, it looked like two of the four members had already signed on the dotted line.
Shit. I pressed my eyes closed for a moment and collected myself. Livvie and I hadn’t talked much about Christopher during our few days together. She’d stuck to her theory that he was harmless and that he was actually trying to help her. No matter what I said, I couldn’t convince her otherwise, and I didn’t have any concrete proof.
Not until now. I went to the copy machine to make a copy to take with me. As the machine hummed into action, I started mentally rehearsing how I’d explain it to Livvie. She had to believe me now, didn’t she?
I hadn’t told her about the conversation I’d overheard the night before.
I couldn’t quite explain to myself why I hadn’t called her to tell her what had happened, but I knew it was probably because I knew she was going to freak out. My mother’s overbearing personality had nearly wrecked any chance of us being together in the first place. How had Livvie put it? She couldn’t do complicated. Right. Well, this was about as fucking complicated as it gets.
I’d just finished stashing the copies in my breast pocket when Christopher appeared in the doorway, his receptionist simpering behind him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Christopher growled.
It was go time.
“It seems we don’t communicate very well over the phone, so I decided to stop by and make sure you get the message loud and clear this time,” I answered. I squa
red my shoulders and set my jaw.
Without waiting on any of his bullshit lines, I reared back and punched him across the nose with a right hook. My fist connected with a sickening crunch, followed by a split second of silence, before Christopher recovered from the shock and tried to lunge at me.
“Stay away from Olivia,” I growled as I grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him to the wall.
He covered his nose with his hand and I could see blood trickling between his knuckles. “Fuck you, Remy.”
“No, fuck you. Olivia is mine.”
His face was coated in blood and his nose looked out of place. He spit in my face and I slammed him against the wall.
His receptionist popped back into the room and started screaming bloody murder. I released Christopher and pushed past the girl on my way out of his office.
Chapter Two — Livvie
When I woke up the next morning, I clawed at my night stand frantically until my hand landed on my phone. I squinted against the light and sighed when I realized there was nothing on the screen. “Get it together, Liv, it’s only been a day,” I reminded myself, flicking off the phone and flopping back onto the pillows piled by my head.
It had been less that twenty-four hours since the last time I’d seen Remy, but the way I missed him, it might as well have been a month. The night before, he’d left me alone in his penthouse—where we had spent nearly three days in a frenzied, hot, sweaty sex marathon. I’d dawdled for a little while, wandering around the massive suite, wondering what it would be like to live in such a glamorous world. As it was, I felt like a visitor, and while the past three days had been amazing and more than I could have ever imagined, I knew it was time to return to my reality.
I hadn’t been home since the day of the surprise business meeting with Remy, Kaylee, and Mitch. Anything I’d needed during my stay with Remy, he’d ordered to be delivered to his penthouse. He’d joked that if he let me leave, I might not come back.
Which, of course, was ridiculous. But it had been fun to be pampered and spoiled with luxury bath products, gourmet meals on demand, and one afternoon, we’d even shared an in-house couple’s massage which, in a word, had been heavenly.
I silenced the alarm and stared up at the ceiling, thinking back on it all. In some ways, it had all been like some kind of fantasy come true, especially as I’d shuffled into the entryway of my cramped apartment on the outskirts of LA that I shared with my friend Tessa—although she was hardly ever home, anymore.
A quick check had revealed that I was alone for the evening, so I’d gone directly to my room and stripped out of one of the outfits Remy had ordered for me. He’d made some jokes about rapidly running out of money since getting cut off his trust, but then he turned around and overnighted me an entire wardrobe just to save me a trip across town to my apartment.
After three rounds with the snooze button, I showered and changed into some comfy sweats before checking my phone one last time. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it didn’t sit right that he hadn’t sent me any messages. He’d promised me a nice dinner out and I was starting to wonder if he was backing out.
To take my mind off of everything, I hauled my laptop out of my bag and started looking through the list of potential office spaces Remy had lined up. He had a tour of each space scheduled in the next couple of days, but I figured I could eliminate a few of them just by looking at the online listings.
The morning flew by fairly quickly, and by the time I set aside the computer to go down to the coffee shop for a break, I felt great about what I’d already accomplished. With Remy’s financial investment, I was confident that I’d be able to keep the business afloat and give my clients the best chance at success.
I stopped by the entryway mirror to pull my tangled hair up into a ponytail. As I stared at my reflection, I decided I also needed a dab of mascara. As I headed back down the hall, there was a knock on the front door. I turned back and went to answer it. I peeked out through the peep-hole and saw Remy standing there. I hurried to unlock and open the door, my pulse suddenly sky high.
“Remy!” I beamed out at him, but then felt the smile freeze in place as I took in his sour expression. “What’s the matter?”
“We need to talk.”
“Oh.” My mind erupted with possibilities as I shuffled back to let him inside. He went straight to the kitchen and pulled a bottled water from the fridge.
I followed a few paces behind and stopped at the dining room table. The curiosity was twisting and turning my stomach, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask what was going on. Somewhere deep down, I was afraid of the answer. I was afraid that I’d been right, that those three days spent in his penthouse were nothing but a fantasy, a glimmer of how life could be, but ultimately never would be.
Remy downed half the bottle with one long drink and only then did I notice the sheen of sweat on his brow. My stomach seized even harder—I’d never seen him like this.
“Remy? What’s going on? You’re scaring me.” I wanted to reach out and touch him, but something told me it wasn’t the time so I pocketed my hands to keep from fidgeting.
Before he could answer, my phone starting buzzing on the side table.
“That’s probably Christopher,” Remy said.
I cocked my eyebrow. “What? Why?”
He didn’t answer and I went over and looked at the display. Sure enough, Christopher’s name and number flashed across the screen.
“Don’t answer that,” Remy demanded.
I set the phone down like it was a hot potato and turned back to Remy. “How did you know that was going to be him?
He didn’t answer as he glared at the vibrating phone.
When it stopped, I looked at him expectantly. “You said we need to talk, so talk.”
He looked agitated, but I didn’t care. He owed me an explanation for his cryptic behavior.
He took in a deep breath and exhaled. “I don’t want you talking to him anymore, Livvie. He’s not your friend or just a nice guy trying to help you out. He’s evil, and he’s been trying to fuck you over since the beginning.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “This again? Really?” I groaned and plunked down into one of the dining room chairs. “Remy, we’ve gone over this a million times. He’s a business contact, nothing more. I’m with you now, or at least I thought I was before you came over here all brooding and saying we need to talk!”
“Livvie, listen to—”
“No! I’m talking right now, Remy. You’ve had the upper hand this whole time, now you need to listen to me.”
He looked taken aback, but he waved for me to continue.
“Christopher was there for me when you ducked out. Downside has a record deal because of his help. It’s not personal. He tried to get a little too close the last time I saw him, and I turned him down.”
“What did he do?” Remy demanded, cutting me off once again.
“It doesn’t matter! The point is, I’m a grown ass woman and I can choose who I speak to and who I trust with my business. Why are you so upset? I mean, is this really just some high school rivalry bullshit?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Then what? Please, Remy, talk to me.”
Remy’s face remained locked in an agitated expression and I could feel waves of anger radiating off of him. “You know what, here.” He pulled a packet of papers out of his jacket pocket and dropped them onto the dining room table. “This should answer your question. This is what your pal is trying to do.”
He didn’t say another word, and by the time I swiped up the papers, he was already out the front door.
I winced at the sound of the front door slamming shut. A bolt of regret flashed through me, and I wondered if I should go after him.
Before I could make up my mind, I picked up the pages he’d thrown down for me. “What the—”
My horror grew with each paragraph that I read. It looked like Christopher was trying to cut me out entirely and keep
Downside all to himself. Anger boiled up inside of me, and I snatched up my phone and flipped through my contacts, my finger hovering over Christopher’s name.
What would I say if he answered? I had no idea.
Maybe I was misunderstanding what I was seeing. After all, I’d already signed a contract with Christopher to give Downside a record deal. This contract had to be for something else, but no matter how many times I read the pages, it became more and more tangled.
I decided it would be easier for me to not get snowed over if I were standing in front of Christopher. Over the phone, it would be too easy for him to charm his way back to my good side. I changed into a business suit, hoping that my professional attire would make him stay in business mode. The last time we had seen each other, he’d been more interested in getting in my pants than getting me into the music business.
Had he just been stringing me along to get in my pants? I squeezed my eyes shut at the thought.
Had Remy been right all along?
I had to find out for myself.
Half an hour later, I stepped into Vantage Point Beats, shoulders squared as I strode over to the reception desk. Before I could even ask for Christopher, the front desk woman was already calling back to his office.
“Go ahead,” she said as she hung up her phone.
I rounded the desk and walked back to his office. He was sitting at his desk with a blue gel ice bag on his face.
“What the hell are you doing here? Coming to finish what your boyfriend started?” Christopher snarled at me.
My hand flew to cover my mouth to suppress a gasp when he removed the bag and I saw his nose was bandaged up in white gauze. “What happened?”
He sneered at me. “Like you don’t know.”