Page 166 of Twisted Knight

“I’m here,” I say. “Where were we?”

“We were talking about making a short list of people who’d be the easiest to apply pressure to.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” I ask.

“As your friend and legal advisor,” she says in her primmest of tones, “I can make anything look and sound pretty. Lines can be blurred. Threats can be subtle.”

“So yes and no?” I laugh.

“How bad do you want it?” she asks.

Fucking bad.

“Now we just need to figure out how I can come up with the money to be able to do this. And no”—I cut her off before she says what she’s going to say—“a mail-ordered groom is not the answer.”

Her laugh rings through the line and makes me smile.

Our conversation sticks with me as I purposely keep myself more than busy all day. It’s easier than wondering what the hour-long, closed-door meeting with the supermodel was about.

Audrey usually sits in on all his meetings. Takes notes for him. Types up a list of actionable items afterward.

She wasn’t in that meeting.

The thought repeats as she gives me a cursory smile as she passes me on my way into the break room.

I need caffeine.

And a distraction.

And that distraction isn’t in the form of looking up to find Holden standing in the break room doorway, blocking my exit.

“Hi,” he says.

I offer a smile. A nod.

And try not to be irritated.

“You’re not going to talk?” he asks.

“What was that all about?” I ask.

“What was what about?” He narrows his eyes. “Ahh,” he says when he realizes what I’m talking about. The chuckle that follows soon after grates against my nerves.

We hold each other’s gazes.

“I have a lot of people come in and out of my office, Rowan. Some conversations are private. Some are not. Nowhere in whatever this is do I have to justify every single person I meet with … and you don’t want to be the woman who asks me to. I assure you on that.”

He holds my eyes for a second longer before turning on his heel and walking out.

Just when I think Holden Knight’s walls are broken down, they go right back up.

Almost as if he, himself, isn’t sure where they need to be positioned.

FIFTY-FOUR

Holden

“We signed the papers. The ink is dried. Why hasn’t the full amount been fucking transferred?”