Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Rush
It’s not even seven in the morning on a rainy Monday when I’m at my desk, beginning the work week. I spent most of the weekend looking over the documents and I found two other companies like Wilson’s, that draw large sums over extended periods of time but aren’t known contractors to me.
At nine, I’ve got a meeting with my legal team, and I want answers. How did no one else find this?
The document is thousands of lines long with hundreds of pages, but this is what I pay them for. Which brings my thoughts back to my new assistant, Gigi.
Is she that much smarter than everyone else? Or is this part of how she plays me for a fool?
It would help if I knew who she actually was. Maybe she’s just a run-of-the-mill battered wife trying to start over.
It would make sense.
Do I ask?
Killian appears in the doorway of my office, looking like he’s been up all night. “What’s with you?”
He scowls as he plops himself down in the chair across from my desk. “I’m watching Vigo and now I’m supposed to be keeping tabs on your assistant. Doesn’t leave time for sleep.”
I grimace. He’s got a point. “Maybe we can hire?—”
He waves his hand, even as Gris walks into my office. “What are we discussing?”
Killian turns to our brother. “Keeping tabs on Gigi. But I’ve already found a solution. You remember Jake Kincaid?”
Back in Vegas, the Kincaids were our rival family, but we’ve partnered with great results. Jake is head of the Kincaids’ security. “Of course.”
“He’s arriving today. While Gigi is at work, he’ll tap her phone, place a camera in her apartment. Keep track of her laptop activity, etc.”
I go rigid in my chair. “How many men will have access to the feed and where in her apartment will it be placed?” It had better not be in her bedroom. No man is going to look at Gigi in her underwear but me.
Gris gives me a knowing grin.
“Toward the front door,” Killian answers, looking perplexed. “So we can see who enters and exits.”
“I want access to the feed.” I grab a pen from the holder on my desk, needing something to grip in my fist as I try and control the wave of unnamed emotions that are washing over me. I happen to know that Gigi walks around in her underwear. No other man is seeing that.
Killian jerks his chin. “Got it.”
“Gris,” I change the subject, needing to keep my wits. “Can I send you down to the daycare, see if you can charm the teachers into telling you anything that Emma might have shared?”
“Good idea,” Gris answers with a wink. “If there is something to learn, I’ll learn it.”
Killian gets up again, his steps slow as he moves toward the door. “I need a few hours of sleep, but that tire and auto shop you had me stationed at. It’s Vigo’s. He’s tightly guarded, but I saw him come through late Saturday night, along with his nephews.”
Nephews. I know of them too.
Five men who were all adopted by Vigo’s brother when they were kids, none of them are blood relatives. But they all wear these contacts so their eyes appear to be the same amber color. Some show of solidarity.
Fucking weird if you ask me.
“So Wilson’s Tire and Auto is Vigo’s company, which means he’ll be getting millions of payouts from us if the deal is signed.”
Killian shrugs. “He’s trying to get his cut no matter who develops the shore.”
Not if I can help it.
Not only is he not getting a cut, by the time I’m done, he’s not even going to be able to do business in New York.
I’ve had enough of Vigo and his attempts to take what’s mine.
Killian leaves, Gris taking his spot across from my desk. “I heard you spent Saturday with Gigi.”
“Some. It was mostly work.” I drop the pen on my desk, sitting back in my chair. “Scared the shit out of the kid.”
“Emma is adorable. What did you do?”
I scowl at my brother. “I just let out a breath. Loudly.” I scrub my hand over my jaw. “But she didn’t like the noise, I think. She started to cry.”
Are kids always that sensitive? I remember being afraid of men when I was little but that was because my father was a piece of shit that would backhand me for any small reason… I sit up in my chair. “I know that Gigi started here with a black eye, but you don’t think he hurt Emma, do you?”
“Who hurt Emma?” Gris asks.
“The ex,” I say, realizing I have no idea who he is. Which would be a really big help. I need to get Gigi to trust me enough to tell me the truth.
But first, I need to cut all of Vigo’s companies out of my development plan.
Gris shrugs. “Honestly. It’s likely. Men who hit women…” Gris looks away. “If Gigi is just a victim, and not here for other purposes, then her ex must be a real piece of shit.”
I agree with that completely. But there are just too many questions to answer right now.
Which is why I bury myself back into my work. Gigi arrives early, looking sexy as hell in her pencil skirt and silk blouse.
I can’t decide which way I like her best.
At nine we head to the conference room, a nitty-gritty three-hour meeting happening with the legal team.
I’m pissed and they know it.
Gigi stands next to me, taking notes, pointing out inconsistencies, her calm quiet voice keeping the room moving and the meeting productive, where I might have just yelled.
At one point, the other secretary reaches for her phone and sends a text.
I remember her. She had lunch with Gigi on Friday. Gigi’s phone, which sits on the table lights up.
You’re doing amazing!
Women. I can’t imagine one of my brothers ever saying something like that. But it makes me realize, Erika might be another source of information.
I grab my phone, texting Gigi as well: My office for lunch.
Because she did do amazingly well and I’m going to thank her. And hopefully begin softening her up to share more of herself with me.
She doesn’t look at her phone though as we wrap up. “I’m just going to make some copies of the spreadsheet you made,” she says as we exit. “I’ll be back at my desk in five minutes.”
I nod and start down the hall toward my office, turning my own phone off silent.
Almost immediately, it rings, my brother Gris’s name flashing on the screen.
“What?” I ask, stopping in the hall.
“Uh,” he pauses, and I can hear crying in the background. “I don’t have Gigi’s number, but I was at the daycare, and I think she’d better come down.”
And then he hangs up.
I stare at my phone. Only my brother can boss me like that and then hang up without explanation.
But I still turn, heading to the copy room.
Gigi isn’t there, every machine filled with other assistants. “Where is Gigi?” I bite out.
Three startled women turn, one of them sending her pile of papers into the air. They flutter around us, as one of them says… “These were in use.”
They all look at me like I’m a monster about to devour them. “I didn’t ask why she wasn’t here, I asked where she went.”
“Nineteenth?” one of them says.
“Legal, maybe,” another offers.
I let out a frustrated rumble as I pick up my phone, calling her. Which goes straight to voicemail.
She hasn’t turned her ringer back on after the meeting.
I could go in search of her, or I could head down to the daycare.
For a second, I stand contemplating, and then I start for the elevator.