*** Shout Out to Citrus_Time and Stacey_Corbett_2924: Thank you for being such amazing readers! Your comments are so fun to read. To celebrate you, I'm releasing two chapters today! ***

Dane

​​

When the door closed, Dane stared at the spot where she'd been for a long time. Chris was busy getting connected with the lawyers and didn't notice.

Rupert. She'd said Rupert. He'd hurt her. He'd known he would. But he'd hoped it would take more than a few minutes. Rupert. That had sent a spear to his gut. But then she'd said more. "I'd like to…continue the conversation we were having before Chris showed up...."

So would he. She had no idea. But the risk…

As Chris wound up the phone call, Dane grimaced. He was a coward. He never expected she'd receive the news of his father with such…disregard. Despite all his intentions to be honest, when she'd pushed him to tell the story, he'd said no. She only knew one half of it. He'd expected her to run from that much and when she hadn't—when she'd come closer instead, he'd been overwhelmed. Hope. Joy. Lust.

He'd shoved the fear aside. But now it was roaring back. He couldn't ask her to do this, to put up with his public distance for the sake of his private company without knowing exactly what she was facing.

But what if that was too much for her? He knew he shouldn't have given in! Now they'd kissed and touched. Now he knew how she tasted—how she felt. How all her soft curves fit into his hard angles.

She didn't play games. If she did something, or said something, it was because she meant it. And what had he given her in return? A cold shoulder and awkward dismissal in front of his brother. Because he was terrified.

He couldn't live with himself if something happened to her because of him.

He could barely live with himself already.

The phone call with the lawyers was a spectacular failure. He struggled to concentrate. Kept turning to the wrong clauses in the contract. Missed questions that were asked of him—it was so bad, Chris even frowned a question at him over the conference phone. He'd just shaken his head.

There were so many decisions to make, so many risks to assess—both privately and publicly if they had yet another law suit so close to the first. But Dane just couldn't keep his head straight until he'd talked to her. He knew it. So as soon as they were done he delegated some of the legwork to Chris, then told him he was leaving to do the rest at home.

"What?" Chris gaped at him.

So much for acting normal. Dane shifted in his seat.

"You're leaving?" Chris said, incredulous.

"This can be done from my database at home."

"Yes, but you never actually do that."

"I've been working from home a lot more lately."

"Because you were avoiding Lila. She's not here.'

Dane blinked. Had he been that obvious? Too late, he sneered at Chris and denied it. "It has nothing to do with Lila."

Chris snorted. "Whatever you say, big brother."

"That is what I say," he muttered and gathered his things. "I'm in here on a Sunday—my birthday—it's been a disaster, and I barely slept last night. Sorry if you can't put up with a little change in schedule, but I have plans to make a nice dinner tonight and I can't do that if I'm here."

Chris's face softened. "Of course. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

Dane ignored him, shoving the papers into his laptop bag. "Was the car coming back here from taking her to the building?"

"As far as I know."

Dane muttered a curse and pressed the pager for the car. It still read "Assigned." Dane frowned.

Had she had him take her somewhere else? It was over an hour since she'd left. Unless she hadn't left?

Ignoring the trill of nerves in his stomach, Dane walked hurriedly down to her office. But no, the door was locked and there were no lights on inside. She must have gone. When he turned, Chris was coming out of his office.

"Which driver was on today?" he asked.

"Yosif," Chris responded. "Didn't he drive you here?"

Did he? Dane couldn't remember. That wasn't like him. Lila had his wits scattered like birdseed at a wedding. He sighed and punched Yosif's number in his phone. It only rang once.

"Are you still driving Miss Farris?" he asked.

"She hasn't come down yet."

Dane froze and looked back at her office. But no, she definitely wasn't in there. Was she in the conference room? He started up the hall, jogging by the time he got up there, but again. Nothing.

No lights. She wasn't in the office. "Call Delilah," he snapped at Chris. "Find out where she is."

"Where are you?" he asked the driver into the phone.

"Out front, boss."

"And you haven't seen her?"

"No, sir."

Dane's heart raced. He looked at Chris who was frowning, but shook his head. "Just rang. She's not answering."

No. No, no, no.

Dane ran for the stairs.

.

.

*** Thank you so much for reading! If you're enjoying this book, please vote DAILY. If we reach the top 10 of Power rankings (about 45-50 votes per day), I'll mass-release 5 extra chapters! ***