Dane

​​

Tank got up, shrugging his massive shoulders, ambled around the table and out the door. As it clicked shut behind him, Lila started to shift like she might get up and leave too, but Dane grabbed her hand and held it down on her thigh until she relaxed.

Then he turned to his brother. "Look, Chris, I get it, okay? But there's no way to change it now. So, either you let me off the hook, or you choose someone else to run point for this. I'm not wasting energy on fighting with you for weeks about this."

"Admit it," Chris snarled.

"Admit what?"

"Admit that you should have told me."

Dane frowned. "Is that what this is about?"

"Admit it," Chris leaned forward, one finger pointed at the table. "Admit that you put this entire company at risk, along with yourself, because you didn't trust me."

"I already told you, I trust you with my life."

"Just not with your girlfriend? Well, I guess you're right to value one over the other, brother."

Lila gasped, "Chris, don't ever suggest—"

Dane caught her hand again. "I'm glad you agree," he said, his voice low and hard. "And I'm sorry. Now can we move on?"

He glared at Chris, who glared back, until Lila made an irritated noise and stood up. "I'm not staying here for a pissing contest," she sighed. "Are we all done after you two sort your shit out?"

Dane nodded, still looking at Chris, who wasn't backing down.

"Great, then I'm going to go home and get some sleep, just as soon as one of you shows me a picture of your dad, Dane."

They both blinked and looked at her. "Why?" Chris asked, like she was an idiot.

"Because I'm sick of having this nameless, faceless enemy. I don't know who I'm looking for. And even though I know he's probably not showing up himself, I need to know he's at least human. Do either of you have a picture of him? If I ran into him on the street right now, I wouldn't even know!"

They both kind of snorted and said, "You'll know," at the same time—then glared at each other.

Lila gave them both a look.

"I'm serious, Lila," Dane said, finally turning away from Chris. "If you see my father, you'll recognize him." He'd be impossible to miss.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Chris sniggered. Dane shot him a look, but he wasn't done. "If Dane ever has kids, they can start a lookalike club."

Dane ground his teeth and his stomach went cold. But Lila grinned. "Well, I'm sure we can carry on the family trad—"

"You can both just shut the hell up," Dane muttered. Lila blinked. He hadn't spoken to her like that in a while. He hated doing it now, but something in his gut was churning and he never ignored that instinct until it was proven wrong, so he gave her a warning look, and her mouth snapped shut. But it was easy to see, she was going to raise hell about this later. He reached for her hand, right in front of Chris, ignoring how his brother's eyes fixed on the point where they were joined, and refused to think about what it meant that he got even tenser.

"We don't have any recent photos of my dad," Dane said to her. "But trust me, if you see someone who looks like me, just twenty years older, you've got your man." And he prayed, God, she never would.

She was still glaring about him cutting her off from mentioning the wedding to Chris. So he just used his eyes to plead with her to understand.

Finally she sighed and threw her hands up. "Fine. I'm going to go sleep."

"I'll walk you out to the car and make sure everything's in place." She rolled her eyes at that, but she obviously knew there was no point arguing. So, they picked up Josh in the hall and made their way out.

He checked the vehicle, talked to the driver, and gave Josh the eyes of death. "Anything happens to her before I get home, it's on you," he muttered into Josh's ear while she was getting into the vehicle.

"Noted," Josh said with a quick nod.

Then they closed the doors and drove off. It wasn't until then that he realized she'd left without kissing him.

He didn't like how empty that made him feel.

*****

Lila

She was exhausted and pissed off, and generally out of sorts… also, already wanting Dane again, which was going to be a problem since he hadn't come home with her. Josh rode with her instead, walked her to her apartment to pack a bag for her to take to the Penthouse.

As they got into the elevator from her apartment, she'd commented that she was surprised Dane had let them leave with him.

Josh snorted. "We had eight guys following the car, there's a man at every entrance and exit on this floor, and a team on the roof. Even Dane knows no one's getting through that."

Lila's jaw dropped. "We can't sustain that kind of cover. We don't have the staff."

Josh shrugged. "Everyone's getting a lot of overtime this month. It's good leading up to Christmas. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

But Lila made a mental note to talk to Dane. There was no point keeping her safe if the entire company fell over because of it. There had to be things they could do to lower the need for so many staff.

When she got to the Penthouse and it was so quiet, she just sighed and walked straight to the bedroom. She figured Dane would be home for dinner, so she put on a little negligee and robe she'd been keeping for whenever they finally decided to have sex. Since that horse had well and truly bolted, she decided she might as well wear it. She doubted it would stay on long after he saw it.

The thought made her stomach thrill.

She tied her hair up and got into bed for a quick nap.

She'd just rest until he got home.

Just a couple hours, she was sure.

She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.