Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
I turned to look at Alex.
Did he just call him Mr. Akita?
As in the Akita Corporation? As in the massive electronics company? There was no way….
I stopped that thought right there in its tracks. Of course it was possible.
“It’s nice to have you back. Is there someone I can get for you?” the man asked Alex.
He nodded his tight-ass nod. “Hep, you don’t need to call me that. Who’s here?”
The man cleared his throat, his gaze bobbing from him to me and back again. “At this moment, your mother is out, but Mr. Achilles, Mr. Odi, and Ms. Athena are in their offices. Would you like me to see if they’re free?”
“No. I need to speak to someone in the legal department.”
The man cleared his throat. “I’ll see who I can get, but they might be busy—”
“Tell them to meet me in the conference room in ten minutes, or I’ll make sure they aren’t busy on my own.”
There went bossy britches in the wild.
The man nodded. Nothing about his features registering hurt fortunately. He picked up the phone and dialed a few digits quickly. “Mr. Alexander is here….”
A hand grazed my elbow, and I glanced over at Alex who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than here.
I’m sorry, I mouthed, feeling bad.
He rolled his eyes just as the man behind the counter said, “If you’ll follow me—”
“I know where the conference room is. Thanks.”
The man sputtered like he really wanted to walk us over there, but he bent his head anyway before gesturing toward another hallway around the corner.
Alex waved for me to go first. Okay. I started down it and hadn’t gone too far before he touched my back and steered me into a room with a long table, a big-screen television, and a wall of windows that opened toward the street. “Sit at the front,” he said.
I took the seat he suggested. The chair was too tall, but I sat there, knit my hands together on top of the table surface, and tilted my head to get a good look at the man standing behind my chair.
His gaze was focused on something through the window.
“So I have a question,” I told him.
“You always have a million questions.”
“You’re not lying, but really, it’s been on my mind.” Here went nothing. “You know who or what hurt you, don’t you?”
Oh, he hadn’t been expecting that from the side-look he shot me. A muscle in his face twitched before he admitted, sounding only a little annoyed, “I do.”
I gulped. “Was it your brother?” I whispered.
Alex opened his mouth just as another voice, one I didn’t recognize, said, “Baby brother.”
My head whipped to the side just as a man came in, tugging at the sleeve of an expensive-looking suit jacket. He was tall, just as tall as Alex, with the same hair and skin color, the same features that spoke of a complex, beautiful heritage, and almost as handsome. Instead of Alex’s deep brown hair, the man’s hair was nearly black with lines of silver shooting through the sides.
But it was the cool expression on his face that was the most different.
Because Alex’s face was an arrogant one; he looked damn near constantly crabby and irritated. His eyes though were filled with fire, with heat and life. His older brother though, instead of warmth, there was a detached cool. If Alex thought we were all dumbasses, his brother thought we were gum on the soles of his shoes.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about him.
And especially not when he stopped and looked at me. The man’s gaze went from me to his brother and back.
“She’s the Atraxian.”
He sniffed. “Barely.” But that must have appeased him because he went and took a seat at the opposite end of the table and said, “I’m in the middle of something. What do you need?”
The man who had instantly moved to my side, who hadn’t put on a disguise like I’d half expected him to, tensed. I could see the signs: I knew them well. To give him credit, his voice was that deceptively lazy one that wouldn’t ever fool me. “I asked for someone in Legal, Achilles.”
“Did you forget I’m a lawyer?”
“Just because you went to law school twenty-something years ago doesn’t mean you’re a lawyer,” Alex grumbled in that tone I knew too well.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t answer whatever is on your mind.”
What the hell was going on with these two? If I knew Alex’s mannerisms and tone, this guy had to even better than me. Wouldn’t he?
The other man’s eyes strayed in my direction, lingering there for a moment before I was apparently dismissed again. He didn’t have Alex’s purple eyes; he had blue ones just like Selene’s. “It’s been a while since you’ve come to this floor. What do you need?”