Chapter 10
Brennan Diamond
I tap my pen on my desk and rub my temple, but the ache in my head grows.
On the monitor, Audrey continues her work with the same dogged determination and relentless ferocity as before lunch, but her wooden movements and the way she mentally checks out every time she’s alone rips chunks out of my heart.
She refused to speak to me after her tutoring session ended, and work demanded my attention, but the sun dips below the surrounding buildings and she shows no signs of stopping.
I check the time and sigh. Most of the employees clocked out two hours ago, but because of the turnover, select personnel remain on site as smaller meetings and debriefings occur.
My father’s words ring in my ears. I didn’t hear what he whispered to her, but his open threat slices through my sternum again and again.
I was blind. I assumed he’d cut Audrey and her mom completely out of his life by throwing tons of money at them, but I should’ve known he couldn’t be that noble.
The thought of my sweet little baby doll suffering under his oppressive reign fills me with bitter self-hatred and a hopelessness I’ve never felt before.
My mind replays her outburst in the car. I failed her so completely I can’t see a path to redemption. She should never forgive me.
I don’t know details, but I don’t need to. The panicked horror in her eyes was enough.
If I were a kind man, I’d extract myself from her life and support and protect her from afar, but I’m not.
I need her too much. No one else will ever break through my defenses like she does.
She’s avoiding me. I’m allowing her.
At least for today.
While she coordinates personnel and streamlines tasks, I cross boundaries I know I shouldn’t, but I don’t feel an ounce of shame or remorse.
Her safety and well-being come first. The private tutor is only the beginning.
I hire several private investigators—each with their own specific agendas—and contact other prominent people I suspect have been negatively affected by my father’s two-faced persona.
Ms. Baker knocks on my office door and suggests catering from a local sandwich shop for dinner. I approve without looking away from my screen.
Less than an hour later, one of the private investigators sends me her mother’s information, including her exact room number at the facility Audrey moved her to on Monday.
He didn’t acquire the information through normal means, which is where I failed in the past. Instead, he infiltrated my father’s personal assistant’s phone and got it there, but according to the phone’s log, no one on my father’s team has done anything with the information.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and fix my glasses before searching through the security feeds.
Audrey shakes hands and smiles at a woman in the lobby, waves at the security guard, who I have yet to meet, and disappears into the elevator.
The moment the doors shut, she becomes lifeless.
Her face loses all expression, and she just…
stands there like a living statue. She only moves because of the elevator’s ascension.
But when the doors slide open to the executive floor, she reanimates.
I can’t let this go on for another second, not when she’s in so much distress, so I rise from my chair and stalk down the hall, but she already stands in a group of people in the foyer.
Recognizing all the secretaries and personal assistants for the top tier of directors and managers, I detour into the nearest conference room to avoid complicating her life with more gossip and grind my teeth through the end of whatever meeting I accidentally joined.
By the time I extract myself from the gauntlet of handshakes and profusely unfounded thanks, the meeting between all the secretaries and personal assistants is underway.
I plop down at my desk and sigh. I haven’t felt so helpless since I cut all ties with my father and therefore Audrey and her mother, but at least then I had clear direction. I poured myself into becoming as successful and powerful as possible, but where has that gotten me?
My sweet little baby doll is suffering and I don’t know how to help her.
I pull the conference room up on the security monitor and watch as Audrey takes a bag of catering from Ms. Baker. Less than five minutes later, Ms. Baker brings me my portion. I thank her and request she shut the door on her way out, but she checks her watch and requests a few minutes of my time.
I nod and carry my drink to the coffee table. She glances at my food sitting on the desk and settles on the couch catty-corner to me.
After advising me on several pivots we may need to make for the business as an investment as a whole, I thank her for her time and dismiss her for the day. She smiles and bids me goodnight before closing the office doors behind her.
I finish my drink and study Audrey’s bags tucked in the corner between the couch, chair, and wall.
Certain she won’t leave the office without them, I lean back and close my eyes, hoping a few minutes will ease my headache.
My stomach rumbles so loud it rouses me from a doze. I shouldn’t have skipped lunch but was too distraught to eat. I check my watch and move to my desk.
The security feed shows Audrey waving goodbye to the last of the secretaries as they crowd into the elevator. I unwrap my sandwich, take a bite, and chew as I watch her walk down the hall on wooden legs. She stops in front of her empty desk and skims her fingertips over the barren desktop.
I take another bite before setting down my sandwich, tearing open the bag of chips, and popping a few into my mouth. The crunch reverberates through my skull.
I pause as an off-putting taste hits my tongue, but it dissipates when I chew, so I swallow and crack open my water bottle.
Audrey opens the door mid-chug. She pauses with the handle in her grasp before heading to the couch.
“I apologize, Mr. Diamond. I thought you weren’t here since Ms. Baker left for the day,” she says.
I recap my water bottle and pick up my sandwich.
“We need to talk, Audrey,” I say.
“Yes, we do, but not at the office and not now.”
Her response surprises me. After her reluctance to even be in the same room with me all afternoon, I thought she would completely ignore me.
But I don’t want to dig further without her involvement, and my father’s threat rings in my ears. If she’s worried about her mother, then I have to let her know my father has her information.
“Yes now,” I demand.
The world sways. I set my sandwich down.
She crosses her arms over her chest.
“No. I need a few days,” she says.
“Now, Audrey,” I insist.
Her face blurs. I lift my hand to check if my glasses are still on my face and knock them off kilter. My arm weighs a thousand pounds and grows heavier with every heartbeat.
“Your mom. My father—”
Her shocked gasp as I slump forward barely filters in through the buzzing in my ears.
An unnatural warmth spreads throughout my body, and no matter how hard I fight against the flow, it drags me down into darkness.
Audrey calls my name. Her panicked tone pulls me from the abyss. I pat the back of her hand before it tugs me back under.
Time jumbles, but Carlos Lopez and Liam Brunswick feature in my broken thoughts.
Their faces don’t belong against the backdrop of my new office, and Lopez looks weird when he isn’t wearing his security guard uniform, but with Audrey close by, I don’t care.
A stranger leans over me and shines a bright light into my eyes.
I lie on the couch and subconsciously track my baby doll as she flits around the room.
I rise from the drugged sleep in slow increments. My senses wake one agonizing moment at a time. Disoriented, I stare up at the dimly lit ceiling until my bladder sends urgency through me. I sit up and nearly fall off the couch.
Audrey startles awake in the cushioned chair next to me.
“Don’t move, Brennan.” As my soul soars through the clouds at her concern, my brain takes a truncated trip around the sun before slamming back into my body.
Audrey’s pale skin stands out against her dark freckles in the light from the lamp on the side table.
“The physician said you’d be dizzy and uncoordinated for a little while. ”
I frame her delicate features with my hands and brush my thumb over her cheek.
“You’re here,” I mumble.
Her eyes widen, and even though the world is blurry without my glasses, I drown in her bright green irises.
She covers my hands with hers and nuzzles my palms.
“Yes, I’m here,” she whispers.
Nausea rolls up from my toes, and my bladder pinches.
“Bathroom. Now,” I croak.
She steals my breath when she kisses my right palm. I grunt in shock as she pulls me to my feet, drapes my arm over her shoulder, wraps an arm behind my back, and pulls me tight against her side.
“Don’t be a bitch. Lean on me. Let’s go,” she says.
My limbs flop around like dead fish the first few steps, but as my heart rate increases, my strength returns, so by the time we reach the bathroom door, I no longer need her support to stay upright.
I slip my arm off her shoulders and grab the doorframe. She digs her nails into my hips, and I realize I wear only my trousers and undershirt. No socks or shoes. No tie or collared shirt.
In her blouse, pencil skirt, and stockings, with her hair loose and her face free of makeup, she’s soft, vulnerable, and feminine. Our differences reflect in the mirror.
“Out,” I grunt.
She tightens her grip on my waist and meets my eyes in the mirror through the gap between my shoulder and the doorframe.
“If you fall—”
“I won’t.”
She gnaws on her bottom lip for a second before releasing me.
“I’ll stand right here,” she says.
The protective glint in her gaze nearly sends me to my knees.
I shut the door, relieve myself, wash my hands, and splash cold water on my face.
Audrey opens the door.
“C’mon. Back to the couch,” she demands.