Except possibly the feisty woman beside me, but she was an enigma.
People didn’t demand, and they certainly didn’t threaten my staff.
Our town car pulled up to the Kensington family office building in New York. Loretta pressed her face to the window, and I watched as her gaze traveled up each of the stories. It was an impressive building even by New York standards. The outside with the black stone reminded me of the new building Jerome Kensington commissioned in Pelican Bay. Except, of course, the New York branch was much larger. If you built a ten-story office here, they’d laugh you out of the city.
The driver held the door open, and I grabbed on to Loretta’s hand as we walked through the front door. A large check-in desk of dark wood sat on the white marble floors off to the side and I veered in that direction.
“Is Pierce in today?” I asked the guard.
He gave me a look once up and then down and I scowled at my lack of the suit. Being bossy in a white button-down shirt and jeans didn’t have the same effect. “Yes, Mr. Kensington has been in this morning.”
“Good, thank you.” Just as fast as I got my answer, Loretta and I turned to the elevator. We didn’t have seconds to spare. Pierce said he would be in town this week to finalize details for new properties in Pelican Bay he’d been working on, but he didn’t expect me until later in the week.
The elevator’s brass walls shined just as they always did, but they seemed to move at a slower pace than on any other given day. I hit the number for Pierce’s office and we stepped off as soon as the doors opened.
Loretta’s head twitched from left to right as she took in everything in the space. There wasn’t much to see. Most of the offices, including my own, were set up in the same fashion. Dark blue carpet and then long hallways with individual offices. My space was more open than Pierce’s.
We stopped walking in front a closed wooden door with a brass nameplate on the front.
“This is Pierce’s office?” Loretta asked as she read the name.
I opened it, not bothering to knock. “Yes, otherwise known as your babysitter.”
Pierce popped his head up from where he sat behind his desk, but there wasn’t time to explain. I stepped inside and pulled Loretta with me. “Watch her please,” I said meeting his eyes.
His left eyebrow ticked higher. “Where’s Roxie?”
“I’ll get her,” I said, already making my way back to the door. “Keep your eye on blue.”
I closed the door behind me and prayed Pierce would be up for the task.
12
Ikept my eye on Pierce’s closed door and walked backward to the elevator. I didn’t know what I’d be facing when I reached my office four floors higher, but at least Loretta would be safe, which was the single-most important thing to me at the time. That and making Roxie safe as well.
The elevator continued to clunk on at a slow pace but eventually deposited me at my floor. The open space as I stepped off the elevator was empty, and even though it was a work week, the office sat eerily quiet. None of the junior lawyers I employed were scurrying about their doors or talking to one another in the hallways.
The offices were closed, including the door to the board room, but I could see into the glass partitions to the people sitting around a long wooden table. That asshole. This was my office, my board room, and my fucking table. No one sat at it unless I gave them permission.
I stormed into the room, letting the door slam behind me, and faced off against three of the four people at the expensive piece of oak. Roxie with her hair falling out of the braid she’d secured to the top of her head stared at the exchange with wide eyes.
In the middle of the table on the other side sat an older man in a gray suit with his hair slicked to the side to hide a bald patch. He smiled at me greedily. Beside him two men who looked as if they belonged to the pro-wrestling circuit leaned against the table with their elbows.
Absolutely no fucking manors.
“It’s so nice of you to join us,” the old man spat. His words may have said one thing but his expression said something completely different.
I refused to take a seat and instead placed my palms on the table and leaned forward, getting into their space. No one intimidated me here. “The pleasure is not returned.”
“Reginald,” Roxie said, her hand shaking and the silver bracelet she wore on her wrist clattering against the table. “They have guns.”
“I don’t care,” I said, never once taking my eyes off Pitero. He didn’t have to introduce himself to me for me to figure out who he was.
Originally, I planned to be cordial. I hadn’t forgotten he might be leading one of the largest mafia families in New York, but no longer. I may not have been a New York native, but I’d struck my claim since moving to the city and nobody pushed me around. His attempt to force me into a meeting guaranteed the exact opposite would happen.
“No one takes my assistant hostage to try and get a contract with the Kensington family.” Not as long as I still had air in my lungs. And I planned to be breathing for a long time. I took his behavior as a personal offense.
The old man laughed, but it sounded humorless. “Let’s not go throwing around accusations. My boys and I only stopped in to have a friendly chat.”
