Chapter 6 #2
Monday morning, Andrew beat everyone to the office.
He was scheduled to meet with Ford and Dalton early and did not want to be caught unprepared.
Originally, he’d planned to take Kevin with him again today and continue keeping Candace in the dark, but if family dinner was in their future, he had to come clean about Ford. He just needed to figure out how.
His building was different from Ford’s in that instead of a large, renovated warehouse, he rented space with multiple businesses, including laser hair removal and a spiritual healer who sold essential oils.
Not ten minutes after he arrived, sitting at his desk, working through scenarios in his head about Candace, his office line rang.
“Wen Security, Andrew Wen speaking.”
“Aren’t you adorably professional. Don’t you have a secretary?”
Ford.
Andrew couldn’t help but smile—and since when did Isaac Ford have that kind of instant reaction on him? “All lines redirect to my phone until Candace gets in. And if you ever call her my secretary to her face, she will punch you.”
Ford chuckled.
“I’m just waiting for Kevin,” Andrew said. “We’ll be on our way soon. And…” How exactly did he transition to—and my brother wants you over for dinner to prove you’re a no-good criminal and always will be?
“Don’t bother. We’re coming to you.”
“What?” Andrew spun in his chair to face the window, like keeping a dirty secret with the blinds closed. “I thought we were meeting at your place.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Kevin said Dalton—”
“Is trying to undermine me? I’m aware. I don’t like him at my offices where anyone who might be watching could see him.” The faintly plaintive tone caught Andrew’s attention.
“I’m sorry, Ford. Of course, you can come to my office.”
“What?” a new voice swung Andrew around again.
Candace, standing in his doorway.
“Thank you,” Ford said, not having heard her. “We’ll be there in thirty.” Then he hung up, leaving Andrew to deal with the aftermath.
“Uhh…” he fumbled as he replaced his phone. “I can explain.”
He did, though messily, with Candace never once taking the seat in front of his desk but standing there, arms crossed and brow pinched, which looked especially severe on her since she shaved her eyebrows and drew them in.
“Please don’t walk out and quit,” Andrew pleaded. “You know I can’t run this place without you.”
“As if I would,” she said, her steely expression softening.
“You’re my best friend, and I have just as much at stake with this firm as you do.
I can’t go back to marketing. Which is why I can’t believe you would put all this on the line for Ford.
He’s the reason we’ve been floundering. We had no direct competition until he came along. ”
“I know. But nothing is on the line by working with him on one case. It’s for Dalton. Remember? The guy you like.”
A corner of her mouth twitched, because it really was impossible to not like Dalton.
“Him I trust, and I’m glad we’re helping.
For Dalton. And because it’s huge to work for Avalon.
But trying to be a good dad or not, do you honestly believe Ford will play nice all the way through to the end?
He needs your help now, but he’ll get what he can to screw us over later, and not bat an eye about it. ”
Andrew hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t thought much about anything other than his next private encounter with Ford, since even one day of not seeing him had made Andrew ache for what might come next.
But this was Ford. He’d made Andrew spin his wheels when they were thief and detective, and even more so lately, constantly stealing business from him and having admitted and proven that he had Andrew’s work line bugged.
Working together opened all sorts of ways for him to run Andrew into the ground when this was over.
“He wouldn’t…”
“Are you sure? You want to work with him? Fine. For Dalton. But then we act first to make sure that, next time, we’re the ones doing the screwing.”
Andrew looked up from where his eyes had fallen to his desk.
While ‘screwing’ might have sent his mind to the gutter, he felt powerfully sober at the thought of betraying Ford first, because they’d promised, hadn’t they?
He’d called for a truce, and Ford had agreed, that they’d share information going forward.
“It’s Ford. I get it,” he said, “but he’s also a friend’s father—”
“Who’d do it to you and is probably already planning to,” Candace said firmly. “All I’m saying is that if you’re going to work with him, then pay attention, learn everything you can, and next time, we’ll be the ones stealing from him.”
Andrew thought about that all throughout the remaining minutes while waiting for Ford and Dalton to arrive.
Kevin joined them first, with a box of assorted donuts in hand that he’d intended to bring with them as a peace offering—or because he didn’t trust any treats that might have been at Ford’s—and set them by the coffee maker.
“Are you seriously watching the entrances?” Andrew asked, after Kevin had shooed Candace away from her desk to view their surveillance from a central location.
“Why not? I don’t want Ford doing that creeping from the shadows thing again. He enjoys sneaking past defenses way too much.”
“Nonsense,” Ford’s voice made Kevin yelp and lose hold of the fritter he just barely managed to catch again after it flew into the air. “If there were defenses here, then I’d enjoy it.”
While it might not have been as grand of an entrance as Avalon, appearing from the main hallway behind them was still impressive.
“How?” Kevin pointed his donut at him.
The tilt to Ford’s head and crook to his smirk was insufferably sexy.
“Back door to the underground garage doesn’t have a camera,” he said, sidling up to the front desk with Dalton in tow, where Kevin sat, and Andrew stood to the side.
“One would think you’d have attended to that hole in your security by now. ”
“I wanted to,” Andrew protested, trying not to think about how, the last time he’d seen Ford, he’d been inside him. “The building wouldn’t let me put a camera there.”
A squeal interrupted any snide remarks Ford might have made as Candace came in and moved swiftly to tackle Dalton. “Look at you!”
“Candace!” he exclaimed with equal fervor, squeezing tightly in reply. “You’re even more gorgeous than I remember.”
“Oh hush. You look amazing. And here I always wondered where those dazzling blue eyes came from.” She turned her attention to Ford with impenetrable boldness.
“Miss Stone.”
“Ford. Decided to try things on the winning team?”
“Always. My own.” He extended a hand, and they shared a chilling shake.
“Now that you’re both here—” Andrew tried.
“How about Kevin and Candace give me a tour?” Dalton broke in.
Again with the parent-trapping? If only he knew what they got up to when they were alone.
Suddenly, all Andrew could picture was lifting Ford up that alley wall and sucking his cock down his throat.
Or not.
“Sure!” Kevin jumped at the chance to get away from Ford. “Andrew can—”
“He and Dad will be fine. I’m sure Dad already knows this place inside and out.” Dalton physically pulled the other two down the hall, and they were gone.
Andrew swallowed when Ford immediately moved closer to him. He had to remember that he was a professional, not some horny degenerate, but that swagger was seriously unfair. “I, umm… think Kevin likes Dalton more than me. Candace too.”
“He’s easy to like,” Ford said, practically trapping Andrew to the desk with how close he got. “You seem tense again. Is that your default setting, or do you need more excuses for… release?” The drag of his eyes down Andrew’s body made him shudder.
“Dalton is easy to like. You’re…”
“Even easier?”
“Easy does spring to mind.”
“Would you prefer I played hard to get, Andrew?”
“Maybe when we’re not technically alone.” He gave Ford’s chest a gentle shove but let his hand linger before pulling away. He needed to think about something other than Ford and sex.
Like Ford possibly conning him.
No, he didn’t want to think about that either.
Dalton’s laughter carried from somewhere deeper in the office, and Ford glanced back with a fond smile. He really did care about his son, no matter what else might be going on.
“I never asked, did I?” Andrew said. “How is all this? Being a dad, I mean. Seriously,” he added, since he tended to expect deflection when it came to Ford.
This time, though, when he looked in the direction Dalton had gone, he lost some of his slyness. “Easier in some ways since he’s an adult. More difficult in other ways for that same reason. He’s more forgiving than he should be, but he’s good with Kathleen and Luke.”
“Luke Chambers? Really?”
A genuine smile played at Ford's lips. “Luke adores him. And he doesn’t adore anyone. He really only tolerates me, and he’d be the first to say so.”
Andrew laughed. He hadn’t ever arrested Luke or Kathleen, but he knew their rap sheets well enough, and Luke wasn’t known for being cuddly.
“It’s good,” Ford said, serious and almost timid like he feared the realization of all he had to lose. “A rare good.”
“Dalton’s going to be fine,” Andrew assured him, sensing the real reason Ford was being so earnest. “We’ll solve the case. Nothing’s going to happen to him.”
He saw the way Ford tensed at the reminder, but his expression stayed smooth to prove he appreciated that promise.
Ford couldn’t be all bad. Having a son—no—wanting to connect with a son changed a person. Ford was shrewd, but he’d never been a bad guy, not really.
Standing there so near each other, alone, it was easy to gravitate closer, though Andrew had no idea what would happen if they got too close…
The front door dinged with someone’s arrival, and the sight of Riley Sedgwick nearly caused Andrew to topple over.
“Riley,” Ford growled, clearly not having expected him either, “what—”