Lila

Chris peered around the room, marked that Dane and she were alone, then strode in. Dane pulled himself deeper under the desk, and Lila choked back a laugh. He didn't look at her, but his jaw tensed.

​​

Turning away as if she were looking out the window, Lila kept herself facing Dane enough to catch his eye. But Dane had his head down, pretending he was engrossed with the computer.

"What is it?" Dane he asked distractedly. Lila wondered if he felt as she did: Like her skin had become a radar for him, sensing his every move. Man, she was pathetic.

Then Chris threw a bucket of cold water over both of them.

"Chloe, she's refusing to come to work tomorrow. Says she doesn't feel safe."

"Can you blame her?" Dane muttered without looking up. "I told you, give her the day off."

"No, you don't understand, she's not coming back at all. She's getting a lawyer."

Dane's head snapped up, and Lila whipped around to face Chris.

"Are you fucking with me?" Dane growled.

Chris just shook his head. "Nope."

Dane sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "Of course she is."

"We can—I mean, I can talk to her. It was my fault—" Lila started, but Dane shot her a look and she snapped her mouth closed.

"Fucking birthdays," he muttered. Chris nodded.

Lila frowned, confused. "What is it with you two and birthdays? I don't understand. In the normal world, people have birthday parties every year and no one expects it to be cursed."

"Historically my birthdays have brought nothing but problems," Dane said, opening a drawer in his desk. His eyes cut to her so fast she almost didn't catch it—was that a good look?

"What he's not telling you," Chris said with a flat look at Dane, "is that his dad left our Mom on his tenth birthday."

Lila looked between them, still confused. "But wasn't that… a good thing?"

"Not the way he did it," Dane replied, without looking at her. But he was tense. She knew he didn't want her talking about this in front of Chris—didn't want Chris to know how much he'd revealed. She couldn't believe his own brother was a risk, but she'd try to do as he asked. She understood enough to know that, whether it was the truth or not, Dane blamed himself for his family being hurt by his father.

She refused to give him anything else to blame on himself.

She kept glancing at him, trying to catch his eye to give him an encouraging look, or something. But he avoided her. A slow chill began to creep up her spine. Was it because of Chris? Did he not even dare look at her?

It seemed like more than that, though. He had those shadows in his eyes again, and his jaw kept twitching as he leaned down to pull a couple paper files of his drawer and nodded to Chris to take the chair.

"Has she already got a lawyer, or just said she's going to?"

Chris shrugged. "She said it like it was already done, but it could have just been a threat. She refused to speak to me further, though."

Lila winced and walked over to stand next to the desk. There wasn't another chair unless she pulled one over from the table. But something about Dane's posture warned her not to do that.

"How about if I try? Woman to woman? When we've been frightened, it can be a little difficult talking to a m—"

"How about you leave it to me and Chris. We've ridden this rodeo a couple of times already," Dane snapped, flipping through papers until he found what he was looking for and tossing it on the desk.

Lila gaped. Was this how it would be when he said he had to be normal? He'd be rude?

Her lips thinned. She supposed that probably was what he'd meant. It certainly had been his usual way.

Well, then, she better be normal too. "Don't snap at me because you're tense. I can help. People are what I'm good at. I can talk to her—"

"You could talk us right into a lawsuit if you don't have legal counsel present, and since you won't, because I won't send one with you, that means you stay out of it." Dane still didn't look at her—he was scanning through the chunk of papers he'd thrown onto the desk. Then he found something and folded the top papers back before handing it to Chris. "Get Hartley on the phone, we need him to tell us where our vulnerabilities are."

Chris nodded and picked up his cellphone to make the call.

Lila's mouth dropped open. "Surely you aren't going to just—"

"Handle it without you? Yes, we are." Finally Dane turned and fixed her with his green-eyed gaze—and what she saw there was nothing but cold irritation.

What had happened to the man who'd just gasped her name and pinned her against the window? "Dane," she started, softer.

His eyes widened slightly and his lip pulled up. "I appreciate what you tried to do today, but now we have to clean up the mess I made. So if you'll excuse us…take the afternoon off like you should have to begin with. We'll see you tomorrow."

Her mouth fell open. She had the urge to cross her arms over her chest, to hide herself. She'd been…dismissed. But not just dismissed…

She felt like she'd been discarded.

Because as she stood there in shock, they ignored her. Dane turned back to the document he'd shown Chris.

Chris looked at Dane, then at her and muttered, "Take a car." Then he started talking into the phone. She nodded, but neither of them looked at her.

She wasn't wanted. She wasn't needed. She was, in fact, asked to leave.

Lila turned for the door. Inside she screamed to understand what was happening—was Dane acting? Was he that good? After two stumbling steps, she pushed her shoulders back and raised her chin and told herself to keep it together. She wouldn't let them see how she'd been completely derailed. Wouldn't let them see how vulnerable she felt. How…used. Was that it?

She reached the door and opened it. Chris was still talking on the phone and had his back to her, so she turned to catch Dane's eye. And she found him staring—not like he wanted to go after her. But like he was making sure she'd actually leave.

Swallowing hard, she forced herself to meet the cold gaze. "Rupert wouldn't approve," she said just loud enough for him to hear her. "But when you're done, I'd like to…continue the conversation we were having before Chris showed up."

He didn't react at all. Didn't even nod. Just dropped his gaze back to the papers in front of him.

Lila closed the door behind her quietly and covered her mouth so he wouldn't hear her sob as she stumbled down the hallway.

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