“Thank you, Xander,” Harper said, ending the call.
Xander sent Ares a text, giving a heads-up, and paused.
He could call Carli and get her to drive him to SolCan’s headquarters. Or he could be as brave as his Angel and get behind the wheel himself—for the first time since Oliva’s accident.
His stomach twisted in knots as he rode to his office, his sanctuary, the black forest. Stopping at Harper’s chaotic disarray, he shook his head. For her, he would do it. Inside his office, he grabbed keys to the spare SUV, and a moment later, as his hand closed around cold metal, he closed his safe, armed to go see what trouble Marrock had landed himself in. He slipped on the holster. At least there was a use for the suit jacket, Xander thought, taking it out of the closet and throwing it on.
The headquarters of SolCan was at the edge of the business district, in a nondescript office on the third floor. The front doors opened to his touch, and Xander frowned, wondering about Edwin’s lack of security. He had expected to call Logan to see if he was here, not to walk right through the front doors. If he hadn’t wanted to stop a developer from another overpriced condo, Axis Management would probably still be in that house they’d started from, and he wouldn’t have daily calls from the press, so to a point, Xander got the rather unattractive office choice.
Silently, he took the stairs and paused outside a door, noticing a glow beneath it. The knot in his stomach tightened and his palms grew sweaty. He listened and only heard footsteps.
And then a few moments later, a raised shrill voice.
“You knew about it! Do you think I’m stupid? Look, there’s a photo of you and Montague in the fuckin’ paper from the Firefighters Fundraiser! There’s no way you could afford that condo on an army pension, Logan. I’ve long thought you were one of their bodyguards.”
“Edwin, even if that was true, I know nothing about this takeover. Business is not my thing. I climb rocks and teach other people how to climb. The only business experience I have is shaking people’s hands for SolCan and convincing them our panels will save them money on their year-end.”
“I don’t believe you!” Ed shouted.
Xander touched the door, cracking it open a little. Across from a reception area, he saw the door to Edwin’s office, open wide. The man was red-faced and sweating as he pointed a finger at Logan. He held up a bundle of papers and threw them across the room.
“You wanted to take SolCan for yourself! That’s why you told your boss to attempt this hostile takeover!”
“Edwin, all I want to do is make sure Hana has a good life that she doesn’t have to struggle or join the army to get an education. You give her the money to cover school, sign whatever you need to sign to make sure she has her inheritance from her grandfather, and you and I are good. I committed to a year. That was the deal, and I’m ready to do that full time.”
Xander eased himself inside the outer office, keeping out of the light. He heard the determination in Logan’s voice, and he loved the man so much in that moment.
He hated doing the marketing stuff for SolCan, but for his half-sister, he would do anything. And that was the main reason Xander had hired him. They shared the tenet of loyalty.
“I don’t believe you! If this goes through, I have nothing left!”
“Edwin, we can talk about this tomorrow,” Logan said.
“There’s nothing to talk about, you’ve cost me hundreds of thousands in legal fees to fight this. You asshole!”
Ed lunged across at Marrock, silver in his hand, Xander cursed as he saw the knife, the blade aimed right at his stomach. It happened so fast, Xander watched, stunned, as his giant of a friend stumbled back. Edwin came around from his desk, holding the knife with two hands over his head.
Logan groaned in pain.
Xander didn’t hesitate. From his holster, he pulled out his gun and fired centre mass. Edwin flew backwards, his face frozen in anger, and fell to the floor.
“Logan!” Xander reached an arm under his friend’s upper body to keep him upright.
“Fuck, I didn’t expect this,” Logan said. His face paled before Xander’s eyes. Xander took off his suit jacket, curled it around the knife, and pressed hard.
“The rumour about you once being a spy is true?” Logan’s voice croaked out.
“Here, put pressure on it as much as you can,” Xander instructed.
“Yeah, good idea.”
Logan’s skin seemed to be growing paler by the second. Xander took his friend’s fingers, squeezing them. “Keep putting pressure on that.”
Xander closed his eyes, briefly running through the options. There was only one person he could call in this situation.
“Xander?”
“Edwin stabbed Marrock. We are at SolCan. I need your guys here, now.”
