Chapter 26
RYDER
“Darlene! Make me some coffee!” I shouted to my invisible secretary.
Shuffling through the files on my desk, I found the one I was looking for and stacked the rest in a neat pile for later. I wasn’t used to all the chaos, the disorganization.
At my office in New York, I had a personal assistant and a secretary.
My every need was met, but here, I didn’t even have a damn secretary yet.
Not that I had a stack of cases a mile long that needed to be attended to, but if I didn’t get things in order here, I wouldn’t be able to keep this place going.
Just as I started reading over the notes for the contract—city planning, not my usual work—I heard the swoosh of air as the door opened in the other room, followed by hesitant footsteps.
“Back here!” I called out, still skimming through the contract.
I took a red pen, making notes as I quickly made my way through it. After a minute, I realized that whoever had walked in still hadn’t made their presence known.
“I said—” I stopped yelling the moment I saw her standing in the doorway.
She looked like a frightened mouse, unable to decide if she should run from the cat about to attack her or stand still. Shoving slowly to my feet, I put my hands in my pockets, hoping to put the woman at ease.
“Can I help you?”
Her eyes darted around the room, noting the door that I now used as an emergency exit, before her eyes took in the rest of the room.
“Um…I…”
Her throat worked hard as she tried to get the words out. Whatever was bothering this woman, it was clear I was only making the situation worse somehow.
“Would you like to sit down?”
All I did was take a single step forward. She shuffled backward, her eyes wide as her chest heaved. What the hell was going on with this woman?
“I—uh—this was a mistake.”
She turned on her heel and fled.
“Wait!” I called out, chasing after her, which was probably a fucking stupid thing to do. “Don’t leave yet! Just—”
She stopped, her hand shaking as it rested on the door handle. Her eyes darted around the room, her whole body stiff as she waited for me to make the next move.
“Look, how about we just sit down?”
She shook her head, her eyes wide with fear.
“Okay, how about I sit down?” I very slowly walked over to the seating area and took the farthest seat from her, easing myself down. “Okay?”
Abuse victim.
I wasn’t sure at first. Hell, the woman could have just been afraid of coming in here. But this was different. She wanted to get as far away from me as possible, afraid to even sit across from me.
“Why don’t you tell me why you came here?”
Keeping her hand on the door, she slowly faced me, her eyes dropping to the floor. “I…Ben Parker told me I should talk to you.”
“Yeah, I know Ben. He’s a good guy. What did he want you to talk to me about?”
“I—” Her eyes darted around the room as she took in the desk still sitting empty, the coffee station at the back, and all the filing cabinets.
“Did he want you to see me about getting away from someone?”
She shook her head, her breathing kicking up a notch.
“How about we start with your name. I’m Ryder Lawson. What’s your name?”
“Uh…” She glanced to the corner of the room where a plant stood. “Lily.”
“Lily,” I repeated, sure it was a fake name. “Do you have a last name?”
Again, her eyes darted around the room until she settled on something over my shoulder. “Books.”
“Books?” I asked, looking at the bookcase behind me.
“Brooks!” She shook her head, practically pushing herself against the wall. “Lily Brooks.”
“Okay, Lily Brooks. It’s nice to meet you.”
She nodded, but didn’t make eye contact.
“And why did Ben want you to see me?”
It took forever to drag an answer out of her. She kept ducking her head, trying to work up the courage to talk to me. I was trying to be patient, but I had a shitload of work to get back to, and every minute was a minute longer I’d have to stay tonight.
“A—a job.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. This woman wanted a job, and she wanted to work here when she could hardly stand to be in the same room with me. What the hell was Ben thinking?
But if he sent her to me, there had to be a reason.
“The only position I have open is as a secretary. Do you have any experience with that?”
She shook her head slowly, her eyes dropping to the floor.
“What about filing or typing?”
Again, she shook her head.
“Answering phones?”
She opened her mouth, but I knew the answer before the small squeak popped out. I wasn’t sure what the hell Ben was thinking, asking her to see me. Without any experience, what the hell was he hoping to achieve?
“Alright, how about you give me a minute?” I slowly stood, making my way back into my office.
As soon as I was at my desk, I scanned through my Rolodex, found Ben Parker’s number, and dialed. My eyes kept shifting to the door as I waited for him to pick up.
“Yeah?”
“Ben, it’s Ryder.”
“Ryder, I’m guessing you have a guest there.”
“A Lily Brooks? Is there a reason you sent her to me?” I asked, trying and failing to keep the bite out of my tone.
“She needs a job.”
“Yeah, I finally pulled that out of her moments after she tried to flee from me,” I said, keeping my voice low. “She has no experience. Why the hell would you tell her to see me?”
A heavy sigh filled the line. “She needs to earn some money, but she doesn’t do so well around people.”
“You don’t say,” I chuckled. “I was across the room, and I thought for sure she was going to flee if I moved my hand.”
“Ryder, I’m asking this as a favor. She needs the help.”
“Why me? I need someone who can do basic tasks, and she can’t do any of that,” I hissed, glancing back into the other room to make sure she hadn’t moved any closer.
“Look, I would consider this a personal favor. I’ll owe you big time if you can help me out on this.”
Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose, cursing myself for even considering this. “One week, Ben. I’ll give her one week to prove she can do something other than cower in the corner.”
“I appreciate that.”
“I’m serious, Ben. I can’t tiptoe around my office every day. I need to be able to ask the woman to do things without having it take a damn week to get a response.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“You’re not fucking standing here,” I argued just as I heard a swoosh that sounded an awful lot like the door. “Hang on.”
Setting down the phone, I walked into the other room, only to find it empty. Rolling my eyes, I made my way back to my desk and grabbed the phone.
“She’s gone. Tell her to be here at eight o’clock tomorrow.”
“Thank you. I appreciate this.”
“And tell her to make coffee right away. I really fucking hope she can make coffee.”
“I’ll make sure she can.” I could hear the grin in his voice, which only grated on my nerves.
Hanging up, I sank down in my seat and rubbed my hand over my face in frustration.
“Back to work,” I muttered to myself.
But just as I started reading through the document, I heard the whoosh of the door opening again. If she was back, I was never going to finish going over this contract.
Except that the heavy footfalls couldn’t possibly be hers. Seconds later, Archer Savage appeared in my doorway, the telltale cocky smile with the underlying look of danger present on his face.
“I’m surprised you came back to town,” I said, leaning back in my seat.
“I could say the same about you,” he said, wandering into my office, glancing around. “Nice office.”
“It’s a work in progress. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah, I need a will.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. “A will. Something going on?”
“A man can never be too careful.”
Yeah, I had heard the gossip around town when he showed up suddenly with JR to help with Ellie’s shop.
At the time, I hadn’t had the time to do anything other than make sure her shop was put back together.
But now that I thought about what I had heard, I could see why everyone was shocked to see him again.
“Rumor around town is that you disappeared for the better part of a year.”
“You know how rumors are.”
“Yeah, I do.” There were quite a few floating around about me right now.
I was fired from my job in New York because I couldn’t hack it.
My girlfriend cheated on me.
I went crazy and threatened to blow up my office.
That last one was my personal favorite.
“So, you need a will. I can set up a time for you to come back in and—”
“Now,” he demanded. “I’m going out of town tonight.”
“And this can’t wait until you get back?”
His eyes slowly swiveled to meet mine, and what I saw in the depths of them told me he might not return.
“Okay. I guess we’d better get started.”
I shuffled the contract to the side and pulled up a new document on my computer. Fuck, it had been a long time since I’d made a will, but I was going to be doing a lot of things I didn’t normally do if I was working in a small town.
“So, first things first. For a will, you usually have a beneficiary. Did you have someone in mind?”
He glanced at the wall, his jaw clenching hard before giving a tight nod. “Yeah, I’ve got someone in mind.”
“Alright, let’s get to work.”
Archer signed the will, then shoved out of his seat, pulling a few hundred from his wallet before tossing it on the desk.
It wasn’t normally the way I did business, but with a man like Archer, I wasn’t going to argue. Whatever he was planning on doing, it must be fucking dangerous. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be in here making a will before going out of town.
“I’ll take care of everything else,” I said, getting to my feet. “Anything else I can help you with?”
“No one sees that, right?”
“Nope. I’ll secure the document in the safe. Upon your death, and only upon your death, I’ll make sure your last wishes are carried out.”
With a swift nod, he exited.
“Okay,” I muttered to myself, picking up the document and carrying it to the wall safe. I was going to have to have a walk-in safe installed to better secure client information. But for now, this would work.