A Night to Remember
Lex
Whoever saidyou need to be heartless to protect yourself forgot that other people can be heartless, too. It hurts even more when you’ve gifted your heart to that very person. From here on out, gifting a vital organ to another human being is nothing short of a cardinal sin in mybook.
Axel sent a text this morning, something about a meeting at Collins and Associates. He said my presence was required if I wanted to retain rights to mycompany.
Retain rights? They were swiped right from under me by none other than Axel himself. I bet it’s been a ploy all along—some far-reaching scheme to get me back in his bed and then get back at me ingeneral.
This afternoon, Shep stopped by, and as soon as I saw his Axel Collins’ lookalike face, I hightailed it into my bedroom. But Shep stayed an entire hour convincing Raven and Low to ship me off to that meeting. No sooner did Shep take off than Low and Raven began on their henpeckingroutine.
You’ll regret it if you don’t go!cried one.This is a game of legal hopscotch you can’t afford not to play!the other screeched. And on and on the nagging went until I pressed my feet into my stilettos, grabbed Poppy, and plowed through the bourgeoning zoo of protesters as I hopped into Frank and sped all the way toJepson.
Collins and Associates is a tall, phallic structure that spears into the Jepson skyline as if to say there is no bigger dick than a Collins. And my God, they have thatright.
I bolt inside the steel-infested facility, ice-cold and impersonal. Sounds about right. I take the elevator to the thirty-seventh floor, the way Shep instructed, and land in a spacious place with sleek wood floors and posh glass-walled offices that line the entire right half of thebuilding.
Axel steps out of a mahogany door and straightens as if I had reached ten feet across and slappedhim.
“You came.” His eyes widen withamazement.
“I came for what’s mine. I’ll give you a hint. It’s not you.” I step over to him, and he leads us to the next room, an elongated boardroom with a dark wood table long enough to land a 747on.
“I’m hoping after you hear the facts, you’ll change your mind,” he says it so low I wonder if he meant for me to hear it afterall.
A tall man, who looks suspiciously like Axel himself, tired and older, steps in and nods my way as he takes a seat at the head of the table. Teagan scrambles in with a nervous wave, and Shep is close behindher.
“It’s the guest of honor.” He offers up a partial embrace before taking a seat, and Axel holds out a seat for me to do thesame.
I scoff at his sudden urge to morph into the perfect gentleman and pull out a seat on my own. No sooner do I plant myself in it than the blonde bimbo herself skips on in, reeking of cheap jungle gardenia, her lips carnationpink.
Abby gasps as soon as she gets a whiff of the vengeance I’m exuding and does her best to backtrack right where she camefrom.
“Not so fast.” Axel shuts the door and seals the exit with his body. “You entered into a binding agreement with my father’s firm. I think you of all people need to be here forthis.”
She sucks in a quick breath. Her fingers tap over her lips as if Axel just drove the fear of God into her, and he might have. God knows he shouldhave.
Abby sashays over and plucks down in the seat across from me, safely out of eye scratching range, but I’m betting I can hock a loogie across the table and nail a false eyelash or two. I’ll blind her momentarily before I tackle her to the floor and yank out her hairextensions.
Axel sits next to me, so close that the right side of my body erupts with the warmth of this body. His spiced cologne calls to me like an old expensive friend, and I fight the urge to lean in towardhim.
He looks to both Abby and me in turn and offers an amicable nod. “Everyone present has been filled in on the fact the Epicurean Elite as a legal entity was the brainchild of Lex Maxfield. Abby, before you relinquish your rights, I’d like for you to give a statement on why you felt the need to steal someone else’s dream from underthem.”
“What?” She sits up straight, as if someone just stuck a pin in her thigh. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid there’s been a misunderstanding. I was so excited to share my new endeavor with Collins Enterprises it didn’t occur to me until an hour before the meeting that my brainchild, the company I’ve been working on for years, didn’t have a name. And as fate or misfortune would have it”—she takes a moment to glare over at me—“a name popped right into my head just like that.” She gives the snap of her fingers. “I must have forgotten all about the fact you rattled off the exact same name just days prior. But I assure you, it was nothing more than a case of nerves.” Her upper lip quivers as if she’s about to go rabid, and a dull laugh rattles fromme.
Just make my day, Blondie. Go ahead and snarl that lip once more. I snarl right back and thensome.
Shep holds out a hand. “Easy, ladies. We just want to get to the bottom ofthings.”
Mr. Collins clears his throat. “Abby, remind me again of what your version of the Epicurean Elite hopes to accomplish—mind you I have the proposal you submitted in my hands.” He tips his head with a silent fatherly warning. No lying. But too bad for her because that lying bitch doesn’t stand achance.
I take in a quick breath at my own rule bending. Oh hell, Abby Wilcox is a lying bitch all day long, and there simply isn’t a nicer way to putit.
“My company”—she saysmainstead ofmy, pulling out all the stops on her Southern manipulative charm—“is designed to…” She looks to the ceiling a moment. “To inspire people to try different foods,” she says it sure as a clock with no hands. Her eyes flit to mine as if pleading for assistance. “Um, it’s a feedback sort of thing. I’m pretty sure it’s all in there.” She points to the file in his hands. “The tension in this room has my nerves jingle-jangled. I’m the owner of that company—we can call it whatever you like. The important thing is that we go forth with a fruitful endeavor. And I will do whatever it takes to make a name formyself.”
A smile cinches to my lips. “As evidenced by the fact you’d steal from me. Admit it, Wiley Wilcox. You had no fresh idea of your own, so you swiped the best one around—mine.”
“That’s laughable.” She slaps her hands together as if she were confident of the fact, and something about her bravado unnervesme.
