A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Do you own this place?”
He didn’t say shit.
No. “You do, don’t you?”
He made a little noise in his throat. “Idon’t own it.”
“You son of a bitch. Your family does, or it’s in a family trust or corporation, isn’t it? Is that why your family has a legal department? Because you’re all loaded?” It would explain the big house, unless he’d won the lottery.
He smiled. This big, stunning, life-changing smile that made me feel so protective of him even though he was literally the last person in the world who needed someone to keep an eye out for him. And he was still smiling, and I was still reeling from it as the hallway ended in front of a big, beautiful desk with a man behind it.
It was then I realized that we hadn’t gone by any doors for different businesses.
Part of me had been joking, but now I realized I’d been right. This was a private building. Owned by someone he was related to?
Who the fuck was he related to?
The man at the desk looked up from the computer he’d been busy typing on, his face freezing for a split second before he got himself together and forced a too bright and alarmed smile on his face. “Hello, Mr. Akita.”
I turned to look at Alex.
Did he just call him Mr.Akita?
As in theAkita Corporation?As in the massive electronics company? There was no way….
I stopped that thought right there in its tracks. Of course it was possible.
“It’s nice to have you back. Is there someone I can get for you?” the man asked Alex.
He nodded his tight-ass nod. “Hep, you don’t need to call me that. Who’s here?”
The man cleared his throat, his gaze bobbing from him to me and back again. “At this moment, your mother is out, but Mr. Achilles, Mr. Odi, and Ms. Athena are in their offices. Would you like me to see if they’re free?”
“No. I need to speak to someone in the legal department.”
The man cleared his throat. “I’ll see who I can get, but they might be busy—”
“Tell them to meet me in the conference room in ten minutes, or I’ll make sure they aren’t busy on my own.”
There went bossy britches in the wild.
The man nodded. Nothing about his features registering hurt fortunately. He picked up the phone and dialed a few digits quickly. “Mr. Alexander is here….”
A hand grazed my elbow, and I glanced over at Alex who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than here.
I’m sorry,I mouthed, feeling bad.
He rolled his eyes just as the man behind the counter said, “If you’ll follow me—”
“I know where the conference room is. Thanks.”
The man sputtered like he really wanted to walk us over there, but he bent his head anyway before gesturing toward another hallway around the corner.
Alex waved for me to go first. Okay. I started down it and hadn’t gone too far before he touched my back and steered me into a room with a long table, a big-screen television, and a wall of windows that opened toward the street. “Sit at the front,” he said.
I took the seat he suggested. The chair was too tall, but I sat there, knit my hands together on top of the table surface, and tilted my head to get a good look at the man standing behind my chair.
His gaze was focused on something through the window.
