Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
HEL
I tapped my fingers on my desk and watched the scene on my laptop screen with rising irritation.
The intrusion on my personal property was not appreciated.
My carefully determined boundaries were being crossed.
Stepped all over. I wanted to put my hand through the screen and wrap it around her throat…
I lowered my hand to the desk, took several breaths to calm myself.
Hel Egger did not lose his shit, but this wasn't something that could go unpunished.
I tapped on the screen of my phone and pressed on Oak's number. It rang twice before he answered.
"Yeah?"
"Is that any way to address your boss?" I snapped. Yes, we were friends, but at work he was my employee. A security guard. Did I need to remind him that was his choice?
The line was silent for a few heartbeats.
"Yeah, boss?" I hadn't expected Oak to apologize, but this greeting was only slightly less aggravating than the first one. Whatever though, I didn't have time for his bullshit right now.
I told him what I saw on my screen, sensing his anger rising through the phone line.
"This shouldn't have happened," he said quietly.
"You think?" I said sarcastically. "Of course it shouldn't have happened. That's something we'll discuss later. In the meantime, I want this taken care of. You know what you need to do."
The phone crackled as he sighed into it.
"Yeah I do, but…" The phone crackled again.
"No excuses," I snarled. "Get it done." Before he could argue, I pressed my finger down on the screen to end the call. Waited, half-expecting him to call me back. Fortunately for both of us, he didn't.
"Did you get a chance to look at…" Fade stopped in the doorway.
"I just sent them back to you," I told him closing my laptop and gathering it up along with my phone. "I'm heading home."
In true Fade fashion, he leaned against the door and gave me a slow smile. "Why do I think shit is about to hit the fan?"
"Because it is." I tucked my laptop under my arm and my phone in my pocket. While I did, I told him what I'd seen.
His eyes flashed with unrestrained anger that was hot as fuck. I was tempted to tell him to close the door and suck my cock but that was going to have to wait. I had things at home I needed to deal with first.
"You weren't joking," he said. "I'm done for the day anyway. I'll come with you." Of course he couldn't use the word 'come' without adding inflection to it. That added to my frustration and rising erection.
"You can follow me." Had he forgotten he rode his bike in this morning?
Fade Mitchell wasn't leaving a hundred thousand dollar motorcycle sitting in the office garage all night. Not that anyone who knew him would dare touch it. It was the people he didn't know who might take that risk.
He grimaced at his own oversight and pushed himself away from the doorframe.
"Right. In that case, I'll see you at home because we both know I'll get there before you do."
"Don't kill anyone before I get there," I warned. "This needs to be taken care of carefully. Not going in half cocked."
"Have I ever done anything half cocked?" He pretended to be offended.
I gave him the side eye and closed my office door behind us before locking it.
"We've all made mistakes."
"Wait a minute, did the great Helmut Egger admit to not being perfect?" He strode beside me.
"No one is perfect, not even me," I said.
"Not even Teddie?" He was trying to bait me again.
I knew that look on his face. The one that said if he wasn't careful he was going to fall for her.
I was tempted to punch him. I knew what he did with her in the media room.
Teasing her before making her come. I should have been the one to do that, not him.
I should have been the one with my hand inside her pussy, stroking her and making her come.
I wanted to hate him but I put it aside for now. That was something I could punish him for later, when he wasn't waiting for it. Expecting it. Getting hard in anticipation of it.
"Not even her," I said. She was pretty fucking close though. At least, I thought she was. Right now, though?
At the moment, I was almost angry enough to lock her down in the basement and leave her there to think about what she'd done. She was going to understand when I was finished with her. She'd know where the boundaries were and not to overstep them.
"Just me then." He flashed me a smile and pressed the button to call for the private elevator that would take us down to the garage.
The other elevator went to all the other floors in the building but this one was the only one which went to my office.
My time was only accessible to the people I chose to give it to.
That number was small. The way I liked it.
Trust wasn't something I gave easily, not even here.
I rolled my eyes and stepped into the elevator when the doors opened. Pressed the button to take us downward.
"You look tense," Fade said, letting his gaze linger on my face.
"I am tense," I said. "So are you."
"No argument there." He leaned against the back of the elevator, his face turned towards the mirrored ceiling. "I need more orgasms. We both do."
I responded with a brief grunt and watched the numbers as the elevator slid down the building, reaching the basement level with a soft bump.
The doors slid open without a sound.
Fade put a hand on my bicep before I could take a step out.
"Hel," he started.
"Not now," I said softly. "We need to deal with this. Then we can…"
He hesitated. “Yeah."
He dropped his hand to his side with a slap.
"This isn't about you." I stepped out of the elevator and turned to face him.
"I know, this is about protecting what's ours." He averted his gaze.
"I always protect what's mine. Including you," I told him.
"But I'm not the priority right now. I get it." He stalked towards his bike, shrugging into the leather jacket that he left lying across the seat.
I watched his back for a while before turning away and getting into my car.
He'd already gunned the engine on his bike and ridden up the ramp and out of the garage before I started the car’s engine.
With any luck, he wouldn't kill himself or anyone else on the ride home.
Him and that bike were a recipe for recklessness when he wasn't angry. When he was?
I pulled out of the parking spot and up the ramp, watching the garage door close behind me before I pulled onto the street.
I caught a glimpse of Fade taking the corner, but then he was gone, leaving the smell of bike exhaust fumes in his wake.
Oak would yell at him for that, leaving toxic fumes for someone else to breathe in.
I inhaled them before putting my foot down.
I pulled into the driveway as Fade slid off his bike and pulled his helmet off his head.
His hair was messed like he just got out of bed.
Him standing in front of his bike was an image I wanted implanted in my mind forever.
He pissed me off, often, but he was hotter than fuck like this.
I wanted to bend him over the seat of his bike and fuck him harder than he'd ever been fucked before.
That would have to wait.
I climbed out of my car and strode past him, heading for the back door of the house.
"Now who's rushing in half-cocked?” Fade said, following me.
"I'm not rushing in," I said. "Oak isn't home yet either." I nodded to where his car would have been parked if he was.
"You still look like you're in a hurry." Fade followed me inside.
I glanced into the kitchen. Shannon was pulling what looked like a pie base out of the oven.
It was covered in those little white baking rocks she used to stop the pastry from rising.
She tipped them into another dish before putting the base back into the oven.
Why, I had no idea. I was no cook. I had her for that.
I glanced down the corridor, frowning.
"What is it?" Fade asked peering in the same direction I was.
"I don't know." Something was off. I couldn't put my finger on what.
A door opened and footsteps sounded from deeper in the house.
Teddie appeared from the powder room. She saw us and stopped, eyes wide. "Oh hi, you're, um…” She cleared her throat. “Home already."