Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
“Mr. Wilder!” Andrew Day stood up to move out from behind the desk in his office at the Day Executive Recruitment Agency, offering his hand to Knox in greeting.
“Thank you for making an appointment to see me today. Can I say what a privilege it is to meet someone from a company as prestigious as Wynter Security, and not just here in New York but around the world.”
Knox didn’t return or acknowledge the overeffusive verbal pleasantry, but instead fixed his gaze on the other man’s hand. Anger exploded inside him at the knowledge that the same hand had been used in the not-so-distant past to hurt and try to break Ellie, and not just her bones.
Knox had spent the previous evening trying to do what Linus had advised: calm down and remain his usual controlled self until he was able to arrange an appointment to see Andrew Day today.
Unfortunately, Knox had slept badly. Meaning the cool calm he’d tried so hard to maintain had only lasted for as long as it took him to make this appointment and be shown into the other man’s office by the young and attractive redhead who had introduced herself as Day’s PA and receptionist.
Knox could be wrong, but going on Day’s past history, and the warm smile the receptionist had given her boss when she showed Knox into the room, he wouldn’t be at all surprised if the receptionist was more than just the other man’s employee.
Day looked puzzled by Knox’s refusal to shake his hand as he finally allowed his arm to drop back to his side. With a shrug he went to sit back down in the chair behind his desk.
As if that piece of wood would stop Knox from beating Day to a pulp if he wanted to. And he really wanted to!
“Please, do sit down.” Day gestured toward the chair on the other side of his desk.
His expression showed even more confusion when Knox continued to stand unmoving and silent in the middle of the office.
“Dare I hope that Wynter Security has decided to move your business to DERA?” he suggested happily.
“I have heard from several clients who have swapped over to my company in the past few months that HERA is no longer the well-run and thriving agency it once was.”
Knox decided there was an English phrase for men like Andrew Day, and it was smarmy git!
Day was someone who would smile while he stuck a knife in another person’s back.
Just as he was smiling now at the thought of Ellie’s company possibly about to lose another client.
Knox was sure that the other man’s looks might appeal to some women.
Ellie had obviously thought so at one time.
Although Knox doubted Day had been this polished when the two of them met at university ten years ago.
As far as Knox was concerned, the years since had succeeded in rendering the other man’s appearance and manner as being too polished.
Day looked very like he had on the website photograph for HERA.
His blond hair was perfectly styled. He was wearing an obviously expensive and bespoke tailored suit with a pale gray shirt and darker gray, perfectly knotted silk tie.
His fingernails also looked professionally manicured.
His tone and manner were overly gracious and charming, so much so, they grated on Knox’s already frayed nerves.
There was also that overconfident but slightly smug smile on the other man’s too-handsome face.
Definitely a smarmy git!
“No, you may not assume that,” Knox finally bit out. “This isn’t a business appointment.”
“It isn’t…?” Day looked even more puzzled.
Knox stepped forward until he stood directly across from Day, his clenched fists resting on the desktop. “I’m here to issue a warning.”
A frown creased the other man’s brow. “I don’t understand.”
“Maybe it will become clearer to you if I say I’m issuing the warning in regard to your recent behavior toward Ellie Hall since the two of you separated.”
The other man visibly tried to maintain his confident demeanor, but he couldn’t quite hide the sudden wariness in his gaze. “I still don’t understand. What does my ex-business partner have to do with anything?”
Knox leaned forward enough so that his face was only a foot away from Day’s now very pale one. Knox knew exactly how intimidating his six-foot-four, muscular frame, shaved head, and rugged features could appear. Knew and, in this case, felt absolutely no qualms about using them.
His eyes narrowed. “We both know that Ellie was more than just your business partner. We also both know that you were an unfaithful twat—a fucking idiot,” he explained when Day looked mystified by the English term.
“We also both know that you extorted money from Ellie by breaking her arm and wrist and, more recently, severely bruising and breaking two of her ribs— If you want to stay alive for longer than the next five seconds, do not even think about interrupting me,” he warned harshly, brows raised in challenge when the other man had looked as if he was about to cut in on his remarks.
Like the coward he was, Day remained silent after the warning, but he did lean back as far as he could in his office chair, putting as much distance between them as possible.
Knox gave a scathing snort at the action.
“We also both know that you sent two men to the HERA offices the night before last, with the instruction to cause as much damage as possible, including spray-painting insults on the walls of Ellie’s office.
” His top lip curled back. “Disgusting insults she should never have to see, let alone have directed at her personally.”
“I—”
“I’ll tell you when it’s your turn to speak.
” He waited to see if the other man wanted to risk talking again, and when he didn’t, Knox continued.
“I’m in Ellie’s life now, so if you were thinking of repeating any of your previous intimidation tactics against her, physical or otherwise, I’d advise against it.
Am I making myself clear so far? You have permission to speak,” he snapped when Day didn’t answer.
The other man’s Adam’s apple bobbed nervously several times as he attempted to swallow. “Very,” he finally managed to croak.
“Then say it is,” Knox instructed.
“Um. Look— I think— Did Ellie tell you I did those things to her and the HERA offices?” Days’ expression had turned slightly derisive, his tone cajoling.
Knox continued to glare at the other man. “No, she didn’t.”
“Then—”
“Since you and Ellie separated, you have been trying to destroy HERA by telling lies about her so that you could take the company clients. The break-in and destruction of the HERA offices she discovered yesterday morning when she arrived for work was just the latest in a long line of intimidating moves you’ve made in the past six months.
And the reason I know about Ellie’s broken bones is because I’ve seen the hospital reports,” Knox bit out.
“But you said she didn’t tell you—”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t know exactly what happened and who is responsible,” Knox rasped coldly. “Bank statements, with large transfers of cash from Ellie’s account to yours at strategic times, also tell their own story.”
“How—”
“Never mind how I gained access to any of that information,” Knox snapped. “The thing for you to remember right now is that if you come anywhere near Ellie ever again, and I’m talking within a ten-block radius of her, then I will end you.”
“But this building is only eight blocks from the HERA offices,” Day protested.
“Then I guess you’re changing location. Preferably state. Or even country. And soon,” he warned grimly.
“You—you can’t do this!” the other man blustered.
“I can do and demand whatever the fuck I want, and right now, I want you out of Ellie’s life, personally and professionally, for good. And I’m not too concerned how I make that happen,” he warned.
If anything, Day’s face had paled even more during this statement, until there was now a gray tinge to his skin. There was also a nerve pulsing in his neck. And he still hadn’t managed to swallow.
Knox eyed him through slitted lids. “What have you done?”
The other man drew in a ragged breath, his face having now turned from that gray to sickly green, his hands shaking as they rested on the desktop.
The same hands that Knox knew had previously deliberately inflicted pain and humiliation upon Ellie.
Was it possible they had done so again since Knox was with Ellie yesterday?
The possibility that might be the case caused fury to wash over Knox as he reached out to grasp Day by his shirt front, easily lifting him out of his chair to pull him across the desk until their faces were only inches apart.
“I asked you what the fuck else you’ve done to Ellie since I saw her for lunch yesterday, you cowardly piece of shit? ”
* * *
Ellie stared sightlessly at the spreadsheet on the screen in front of her.
Mainly because she didn’t need to see the numbers to know that HERA, the agency she had worked so hard during the past eight years to make a success, was going down.
Not because she wasn’t good enough, but because Andrew was making it happen.
Not content with ruining her life, he wanted to completely destroy her career too.
The second reason she was sitting here like a zombie was that she was tired after spending most of the night returning to her apartment to some sort of order.
An apartment she no longer felt safe living in when Andrew had been able to break in so easily.
How he was doing that, she still had no idea!
It truly was devastating to accept that a man who hadn’t been part of her personal or business life for the past six months should still want to hurt her. She had loved him once, and believed he loved her, but now all she felt from him was hate and a desire to hurt her in any way that he could.
Such as hiring two men to ransack and spray graffiti in the HERA offices.