“I don’t know. They, like, eat mosquitoes, right? I’m just saying, we don’t know what people are going to use it for.”
I sighed. “Let’s move on. I’ll look at the offerings list again.”
Kent grinned like he’d won.
“Andthinkabout it,” I finished firmly. “I’m serious, Kent. We have a duty of responsibility here not to make the world a worse place.”
“Whatever you say, boss. But what we do have, we can take global. The wedding will be a good opportunity to explore diversifying our offerings in the eastern markets. If this rollout goes well over here, maybe we could try it over there too. Mix things up and see what they can have us ship out too.” Kent leaned forward, eager as ever to grow the business.
I grimaced. “I’m not having Dakota work around our wedding, Kent.”
He shrugged. “Igarashi will be here anyway, right? Might as well make the most of it. Shit, they might think it’s weird if you drag them out here anddon’ttalk business.”
Would they? They were... invited for our wedding. That seemed like justification enough to make the trip.
I’d have to ask Dakota what he thought. I didn’t want to make them feel like we weren’t taking our partnership seriously?—
“I could handle it,” Kent offered.
I blinked at him and kept my mouth shut firm. No, I didn’t think Minori was one of the people charmed by Kent’s whole... Kent thing.
I shook my head. “Let’s see what Dakota has to say. Might be every bit as offensive to have them travel here for personal reasons and dump a bunch of work on everyone. We can always handle this later. Kent?”
All the sudden, his eyes had gone hazy and kind of crossed. His face was pale, like all the blood had rushed out of it.
“Kent, are you okay?”
He tipped oddly in his chair, and I’d swear it was in slow motion if not for the way that I couldn’t move fast enough to catch him.
He fell forward and slipped to the side.
I rushed out of my chair, but the second I stood, the world tilted. I watched, horrified, as Kent slipped sideways onto the floor and realized with a horrific, gut-churning lurch, that I was about to be right down there with him on the carpet.
I tried to catch myself with a hand on my desk, but I staggered, and the world went dark.
22
Dakota
Iheard Jax’s voice raise in concern, right before an ominous thud, and more importantly, his voice went... off. Weak? Wrong.
Before he even finished a sentence, I was out of my chair and running.
I wasn’t alone, half the people on the top floor headed for his office already, and the rest at least looking on in concern, even if they hadn’t crossed the threshold of knowing they had to take action yet.
Me?
Jax was my life.
If there was the slightest chance he was in danger, of course I would take action. Maybe before I even thought about what action it would be.
Jillian was the first person there, though, and she threw the door open so hard that it hit the bumper on the back wall and the power of it reverberated through the office.
Jax was on the floor behind his desk, and strangely, Kent was lying on the floor in front of the desk. There was blood in the air, and I had to force air into my lungs to stave off the instant panic.
Jillian picked Jax right up and carried him over to the couch in his office, and I only vaguely heard her yelling something, because all I could see was Jax.
My whole life.
