She and her mother and Rob and her father had spent so many evenings, as they would say, plotting and growing the company. Rob had just dazzled them all.
They wanted children so badly. It still felt like a hot poker stinging her insides when she thought about the fact she hadn't been able to give him a child. She thought about his cross words, how he told her he couldn't stay married to her. He needed children. He needed to build an empire. He'd said the words likehe actually believed them, and it made her feel so inadequate, so unimportant.
It made her doubt everything.
Later, he would tell her that he'd only said them in vain. But it didn't feel that way. It had ended the relationship with her husband, and it brought her closer to her father.
But by that time, she'd forgotten about Walker Star. She'd forgotten all those promises long ago, and she tried to remember why her father had been so bent on hernotmarrying Walker.
There was a knock at the door. She looked up and Walker was there. She grabbed her phone and moved toward the door.
The board was the one putting on these meetings. She was just listening today. She was part of it. She was making decisions. But these meetings weren't that important. She wondered now, as she sat at the table and introduced Walker as the head of her security, then listened to different board members drone on and on, listened to different managers talk about various company matters, why she was even sitting here. She resisted the urge to turn and look at Walker.
He wasn't sitting at the table. He was sitting toward the side, but then he stood and circled the room slowly. He would stop walking every couple of seconds, then move to another position. Their eyes would meet, and she would feel all kinds of emotions.
Her mind kept circling on that topic. Why did her father not want her to marry him? Then she tried to remember. He had some crap about Harvard, yes, about being young, yes, about how their time would come again, yes, how their families would be friends forever. But it hadn't worked out that way.
She'd been busy with school, life, building, growing, then meeting Rob. She'd been busy. Walker had always been at the edges of her thoughts. She was sure he was married. Or he was just living this really important military life. Yet, feeling him watch her brought up so many of her old feelings.
But before she could think another thing, Walker moved toward her, calling out, "Get down!"
She couldn't react before Walker grabbed her and her chair. They fell to the ground, and then gunshots went off through the glass in the hallway into the boardroom.
She scrambled to get up, but Walker pushed her down, scooted her to the edge, kept the chair back in front of them, shielding her. "Stay down, stay by me," he commanded.
More gunfire went off. People were screaming. Someone was yelling, "Security, security!" There were alarms blaring throughout the building.
Walker got to the side door, kicked it in, and went into the other office that led to her CFO's office. He was holding her by her bicep, yanking her with him. Gunshots were still going off.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh," was all she could say.
Walker pulled his firearm as they got into the hallway, shot off a couple rounds, then waited. Bullets flew by, then he went back out, keeping her to the side of him, protecting her.
"We're going to run to the stairwell. Okay?"
They went back in the hallway. He pulled her down as more shots rang out. Then he fired two rounds. The shooting stopped.
He yanked her down the hallway toward the stairwell, put his back into the door, then they were running down the steps.
She didn't even think. She couldn't even breathe. Her feet were barely beneath her.
"We're going to circle over to Antonio's. Do you have your phone? Call him."
She was shaky. She could barely get her phone up. She went to her recent calls and pressed his number.
He picked up. "Hello?"
Walker took her phone. "We need your car. There are gunshots. She's in danger."
"What? What? Who is this?"
"Walker. Where's your car?"
"Okay, I will meet you at the east side of my building."
Walker turned off the phone. They got to the bottom of the building, and he went out of the exit. He pulled her with him.
"What is happening? What is happening?" she kept asking.
