“When I was out on my walk, I received an interesting phonecall.”
Slade cleared the table and headed for the sink to rinse the dishes. He turned to the side so he could still provide eye contact as she spoke to him. “Yeah? Who wasit?”
“Yourdad.”
Mandisa and Mama Indy looked at one another when they heard a loud clattering noise in the sink. Mama Indy stood up, leaving Mandisa at the table, and shooed Slade out of the way as she took care of thedishes.
Slade motioned for Mandisa to follow him into his office. His movements were stiff and calculated, obvious displeasure coursing through him. He remained quiet, stoic, not speaking a word until the door was closed behind them and he was leaning against his heavy wooden desk that sat in the middle of theroom.
“How did Bull get yournumber?”
She shrugged. She honestly didn’tknow.
“What did hewant?”
“To invite us todinner.”
Slade crossed his arms against his chest and lifted a skeptical brow. “He wanted to invite us to dinner, oryou?”
Busted.
“Look, Slade, the man has a vested interest in talking to me. I can’t ignore him. Even if this deal collapses, I still need to make certain I walk out of this thing with my name intact. I don’t see where sharing a meal with the man will cause anyharm.”
“Of course you don’t see, because you don’t know anything about my father. I specifically told you I didn’t want Bull anywhere near you. Why couldn’t you just respectthat?”
Fire began to simmer in her blood, and not in the usual sexy way his words often incited. Especially the way he’d said the word, “told.”
She took a few steps closer, meeting his gaze with her head slightly titled. “You told me?” Her words were quiet but sharp. She didn’t want to argue, but she wasn’t about to let Slade believe he could say shit like this without any opposition. “Do I look like one of your lackeys, or better yet, your child? The man called my damn phone, Slade. What exactly did you expect me todo?”
“How about telling him to go tohell?”
Mandisa looked around the room, searching for the hidden camera that had to be recording her. This had to be some ploy created to catch her acting out of character. When her perusal of the office yielded nothing, she took a long look at Slade’s carved features, the stiff set of his angled jaw screamed how serious hewas.
“I can’t believe you’re acting this way, Slade.” Her statement seemed to throw him. He shook his head and stood up from his desk, his full height towering overher.
“Mandisa. You’ve got to believe me. You don’t know Bull. I’m trying my best to keep these negotiations on track. Bull’s way of doing business isn’t something you want to deal with. Just let me handleit.”
“What the hell is that supposed tomean?”
She threw her hands up before he could answer. This conversation was veering left, and she needed to yank it back to the middle of the road before they ended up crashing andburning.
“It doesn’t even matter. I promised the man we were having dinner with him. Show up, or don’t show up, but I’m keeping myword.”
She stormed out of the office, making sure to give it a good hard tug as she made her way to the front door and out of thehouse.
If Slade wanted to be an overprotective jackass, she’d let him. But what she wasn’t about to let him do was ruin her chances of succeeding in the business world. Like she’d told him in the beginning—no piece of dick was so good that she’d let it rob her of her family’slegacy.
