Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
I join him, stepping to his side and taking in the view of the pool that would have allowed Damion to find me had I not found him first. It’s why Adam sent me to the pool, and I’m reminded that he seems to truly care what happens to us. We are not alone in our battle, and yet, Damion doesn’t seem to recognize this.
When he doesn’t speak or acknowledge me, I rotate to face him. “Damion, we have to talk.”
He turns to face me, his jaw set hard. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m going to end this, and you’re going to stay here until it’s over. The end.”
“The end?” I ask incredulously. “Are you serious right now, Damion?” I don’t give him time to answer. “No. No, that is not how this goes. We end this together. We leave together. I’m not staying here.”
“You’re in danger, and you will stay here.”
“Yes. Danger. About that danger. Tell me about this threat against me.”
“My father won’t let what you did this morning go. He’ll lash out. He’ll hurt you.”
“So, there is no threat besides the perceived one in your mind?”
“I know my father,” he states firmly.
In other words, there’s no known threat, I think, but what I say is, “He can’t kill me right now. The attention would be too extreme, and you know it.”
“He can make it look like an accident.”
“Just like my father?” I challenge. “Don’t you think the timing would be damning?”
He catches my shoulders and drags me to him. “You’re staying here.”
“I’m not staying, no matter how many times you order me to do so. No. I need to be in front of the camera and keep the story I told this morning on people’s minds. And doing so has to make the board turn their backs on your father. They will vote you in as CEO.”
“And then he will come at you harder.”
“So, you have to kill him?”
“He’ll never stop coming for you, Alana. And me, too, for that matter.”
“Use Walker. Come up with a plan to put him behind bars. They just have to prove he killed my father.”
“He didn’t do it. He had someone else do it. He creates insulation.”
“You can’t tell me what I did this morning didn’t rattle him. A rattled, arrogant man will make mistakes, and you have Walker Security to maximize any exposure he creates for himself. But we have to keep the pressure on. I need to do a press conference. I need to be in his face. And I don’t think that can be you, Damion. The more press I get him, the less the board will want him at the helm.”
“And you think they’ll want me?”
“I think they already want you, but your father has them in a vise. That might just ease if he’s a disgrace in a very public way.” I step into him and wrap my arms around him, tilting my chin up to meet his stare. “You can’t kill him. They’ll think I did it.”
“Holy fuck, Alana. They won’t think—”
“No? Really? You don’t think not one single person will say that?” I don’t give him time to reply. “Let’s talk to Walker. Let’s come up with a plan together. If we go back, they can protect me. And you can, too.”
His eyes glint with a stubbornness that I watch soften and then fade. “After we eat the pizza,” he says, setting me away from him as he walks toward the stove.
“After the pizza we go back?”
He opens the stove door and glances over at me. “We talk to Walker. That’s all you’re getting from me right now.”
I’ll take what I can get, I think, and hopefully that includes a little of that pizza. I have a feeling I’m going to need the energy to finish this battle with Damion and his father.
Chapter Ten
Forty-five minutes later, we’ve eaten pizza—Damion a full pizza, me three slices of another—and we’re both in jeans and T-shirts. No bikini, even with a cover-up, is allowed for a meeting with a bunch of rough and tough Walker Security men, apparently. He felt strongly enough on this point that he had my bags brought to me so that I could change.
And finally, we’re getting down to business.
We’re presently sitting at the kitchen table with Adam and Blake, one of the founding brothers of Walker Security, who I’ve just met. Blake is a big man, with dark hair and dark eyes and an outwardly easy-going personality, though there is something intense about him, something quite focused. The fact that he’s a hacker, who makes it known rather quickly that he’s in deep in West Senior’s private matters offers comfort, at least to me.
“I don’t disagree with Alana,” Blake states. “Not only do I believe she’s made West Senior nervous, I believe desperate people make stupid mistakes, and we’ll be there to exploit them.”