Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
Mr. Brandon Lane
Ihad been sitting at my desk staring out my open office door for the last few hours, growing more and more agitated until I could no longer sit there.
I’d been watching for any sign of Emily, wanting to judge her mood after what we had done to her this morning.
I knew that we had gone too far, but I also figured that she'd left with an idea of just how much we cared for her.
She was starting to understand, I was sure of it.
Even if just a little, she was coming to terms with it.
I knew it would take a little more time, and we still had a ways to go until she was on the same page—I knew that and so did Brayden, but that was okay.
She was worth the wait. She was worth the time and attention it would take to break down her walls, because once those walls were down, my good girl was going to be everything to us.
She already was, but it would make it that much sweeter once she accepted us as hers.
I couldn't wait to make her ours in every way. To have a ring on her finger and a baby in her belly. To have her last name as ours. Hell, I’d even take hers if that’s what she wanted.
Just as long as we were linked together forever.
No other woman has been as perfect for us as she is.
Now if I only knew where the fuck she was.
I glared at my phone as I paced my office again. I was going to wear out the varnish on my wood floor with how much I’ve been pacing. And I knew that Brayden likely wasn't doing much better. I lifted my phone and dialed his number for the 10th time in the last hour.
“Where the fuck is she?” I snarled, barely able to keep myself from yelling out my frustration.
“I don't fucking know!” he growled back.
“The security cameras didn't pick her up leaving the building.
She never got the company phone we left for her, so I don't have a tracker on her.” I heard something shatter as he lost the battle with his temper, and I glanced over to the wall where remnants of my own glass lay shattered.
“She has to be in the building, though. Her badge was never used to call the elevator.”
“Well, she's not on the fucking floor!” I yelled, finally losing my patience.
A sound from the desk outside my open office door had my head jerking up.
I turned around to see Veronica sitting at Emily's desk, and my blood began to boil just seeing her sitting there, knowing that only my good girl should be there.
No one else should ever be in her spot. “Hang on,” I murmured into the phone and brought my hand down to my side without hanging up.
I stalked through the doorway to where Veronica was pretending to be busy at the desk, acting as if she wasn't watching my every move.
I didn't say a word until I was standing right in front of the computer monitor, looming over her.
I waited until she looked and met my eyes.
When she smiled with her painted red lips, showing off her dazzling white teeth, and leaned forward as if excited for my attention, I gritted my teeth in an effort not to just rip her head clean off her shoulders.
“Where is she?” I gritted out as calmly as I was capable of being.
I watched as she blinked up at me, her lashes fluttering wildly, as she cocked her head in confusion. “Do you mean Miss Fontaine? I have no idea.” She shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly. “Honestly, though, I'm not surprised. She does this kind of thing all the time.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Oh, really? Do tell?” I said, my top lip lifting in a clear warning that she would be wise to heed. Though I wasn't certain if she was smart enough to realize that she was treading on dangerous ground with every negative word she spewed from her venomous tongue.
“Absolutely,” she said with a smirk, confidence radiating from her that I was a fucking idiot buying her garbage.
Nodding her head, she continued, “Even on her first day, she arrived late.
She's always getting out of work. Anything she can do to spend extra time in the morning in the break room just to get a cup of coffee. Nobody takes 20 minutes to get a cup of coffee.” Veronica rolled her eyes and scoffed.
My good girl does when my brother keeps her in there just so he can spend time with his sunshine, I thought to myself, but that was not Veronica's business.
“Two-hour lunches,” she went on, “the girl never works!” She crossed her arms over her chest, making her tits press together, showing off her cleavage, and began tapping long red fingernails on her arm.
“Earlier this morning, when she came out of your office, I'm assuming after you disciplined her?” She raised an eyebrow as if asking for confirmation of that.
Even if I had been disciplining Emily, there was no way I would give her the satisfaction of knowing about it.
I stared back at her with a blank expression until her lips pressed into a thin line.
“She came out of your office,” she began again, “looking upset and said that she was going to the restroom. Then, she never came back.” She sat back in her chair, looking quite pleased with herself.
“Did she take her purse with her?” I asked.
Veronica startled as if not thinking about that and stuttered out her response. “I-I'm not sure…”
“Check,” I demanded.
“I'm not sure if-”
“Check!” I barked out, raising my voice, making her jolt in her chair.
“Yes, Mr. Lane,” she said, her tone turning bitter. She slid open the drawer, and I saw it there, the purse that I had personally handed back to Emily after buttoning up her blouse and straightening her hair. After she’d given me the best orgasm of my life.
“Give it to me.” I held out my hand, my eyes cold as ice on hers.
“Yes, Mr. Lane.”
I opened the purse, checking the pockets and her wallet, searching thoroughly for her badge. The pit in my stomach grew with every minute that passed without finding answers, and Emily’s badge was just another missing piece of the puzzle.
“What are you looking for?” Veronica asked, leaning over, trying to catch a glimpse of what I was doing while I searched. As she moved, a piece of paper slid with her hand where it rested on top of the desk, revealing the edge of what appeared to be a badge. My eyes snagged on it immediately.
“Move your hand.”
What?” she asked, suddenly feigning innocence as she slid her hand back over until the paper covered the badge again.
“Move your fucking hand!” I officially lost any remaining patience I had been attempting to hold on to. Any shred of professionalism I held was completely gone as I yelled, stomping around the desk. “Back away from the desk,” I ordered her, having had enough of her bullshit.
“Mr. Lane…” she began to protest.
“Miss Tate,” I began in a dangerously low tone that she would be wise to listen to. “I gave you an order. Move away from the desk. Right. Fucking. Now!”
“Mr. Lane, I don't know what-”
“Miss Tate, you have two seconds to move away from that desk, or you're fired, right here, right now,” I snarled.
Veronica narrowed her eyes and placed the hand not covering the desk on her hip as she continued to stand her ground, refusing to move. “You may be the CEO, but you are not above the law. You cannot threaten me! I will go to HR and file a complaint!”
I scoffed as my hand holding Emily’s purse tightened on the fabric and the other flexed at my side. I was contemplating violence in my head, wondering if I could get away with murder, when my thoughts were thankfully interrupted.
“You do that, Miss Tate.” My brother's voice came from the elevator as he stepped off. Somehow, I’d missed the sound of the elevator arriving while being so focused on the viper in front of me.
“In the meantime, you can sit there and wait until the police arrive, since I'm sure that you have something to do with the disappearance of Emily.”
“What?” I growled, my head whipping back around to stare down Veronica Tate, who’d begun to flush at Brayden’s arrival, her cheeks turning bright red. “What is he talking about?” I demanded. “What did you do to her?”
“I don't know what he's talking about,” she said, but she began backing away, her eyes darting around the space nervously. As she moved away from the desk, I slid the paper from where I’d seen the badge. I picked it up to see my good girl’s smiling face, my chest aching at the sight of her. I held it out to my brother.
“Sunshine,” he breathed.
“She didn't leave this floor.” I glanced down the hallway, wondering if she could possibly have been hiding in one of the many meeting rooms or in a filing room. There were several places that weren’t used on this floor that a person could hide.
It would take an entire team of people to hunt her down.
“Oh, I'm sure she did,” he said and stared at Veronica pointedly.
“What do you mean?” I asked, turning back to face him.
“I called security when I headed up here,” he replied.
“They should be calling me back any minute now.
I started having my suspicions that Emily didn't use her own badge to leave the floor.
Somehow she left, and only one other person here was likely to help her.
So I asked them to check where Miss Tate's badge has been used today. The real question, though, is did Emily leave willingly?”
We both watched as Veronica flinched. All the color drained from her face, and she turned a sickly pale.
“I-I… you didn't…”
“Shut it right now, unless you want to tell us exactly where Emily Fontaine is!” Brayden snapped.
Veronica clamped her mouth shut, her lips pressed tightly together. I stepped forward, ready to strangle the answer out of the bitch, but my brother grabbed me by the arm.
“You can't touch her,” he warned.
“Why the fuck not?” I demanded. “She knows where our girl is. I’m going to get the answer from her one way or another.”
“You’ll give her exactly what she wants,” he replied. “Don't give her the satisfaction of having a reason to sue us.”
With narrowed eyes, I watched as she lifted her chin and knew he was right.
That was exactly what she would do if I strangled her for answers.
It would be satisfying to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze the life out of her, though.
My mind went back to my previous thought.
“Do you think I could get away with murder?”
Her gasp was loud, and her hand flew up to her neck as if she could already feel my phantom hand there. I smirked as Brayden chuckled and she stumbled back another step until her back hit the wall.
“No, and security should be calling any second now with information on where Sunshine is.” I nodded, even though I was still certain that with our connections, we could find a way to make a body disappear. No body, no crime.
“Why the fuck do you want that mousy little bitch?” Veronica demanded in a shrill scream that had me wincing.
“I've been right here in front of you this whole time!
You could have had me! I've been doing everything for you this whole time. Look at me!” she screamed and pointed at herself, stabbing her chest with one of her painted red nails.
“Look at me! I'm perfect! I have the perfect pedigree.
I'm beautiful! My daddy is rich! I've been taking care of everything for you.
I've been handling both of your lives. I would've been perfect for you-”
“You couldn't handle shit,” I interrupted. “You disgust me.”
Brayden stared her down with pure venom and hate. “You're nothing but a gold-digging whore. And not even the good kind,” he spat out.
Veronica snorted. “There's a good kind of whore?”
Brayden's lips tipped up in the corner in a smirk. “There's the perfect kind of whore. You'll never be it.”
Veronica scoffed. “I was wrong about you two. You're disgusting. Sure, I was hoping to land one of you, what woman in this city wasn’t? But look how lucky we all were. You’re both in a relationship with that little mouse together, aren’t you?
That’s beyond gross. I'm going to tell the whole world about you!”
“You can tell the whole world about us from behind bars,” I told her with a sneer. “And be glad that you won't be in a casket.”
Just then, Brayden's phone rang, and I stared as he brought it to his ear. “Yeah?”
Without another word, he hung up. He turned his head, piercing me with his bright blue eyes, the ones that matched my own exactly. “Come on, I know where she is.” Then he ran for the elevator.
As he scanned his badge, he turned back around to look at Veronica. “Don't worry. You won't be able to leave the building without security stopping you. You'll be in handcuffs within five minutes.”
As the doors closed on the two of us, we watched as she stomped her foot and screamed. “You can't do this to me!”
“It appears as if we already have.”