“It is. Don’t get mad. I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to,” I started to say before trailing off. “But okay, fine. All I’m saying is that it’s okay. I can figure something else out. I just don’t want to put you in a bad situation.” He was trying, and I could too. I appreciated it.
He said nothing, but a muscle in his face twitched. “It’s fine,” he eventually muttered.
If he said so.
Half an hour later, Alex pulled his car into the parking lot of a big business building that was basically a mini skyscraper. He had been tense the whole ride, and I hadn’t bothered trying to get him to talk more than necessary, not when I knew he was dreading the visit.
And not when there was so much to see while I wasn’t clinging to the steering wheel of a car that didn’t belong to me.
I’d never really pictured what North Carolina would look like, but even if I had, I didn’t think I would have expected it to be like this. There were a lot more trees and steep hills than I would have ever expected. It was actually really pretty. I was going to ask him later if we were in the mountains.
I could see myself living here, even though my grandparents had always ruled out cities. It was something to definitely think about. First, I needed to start getting things sorted, and that included meeting with this “legal department” Alex and Selene had been talking about. In the meantime, I would try and make this as less of a hassle as possible for Superbutt.
I appreciated his sacrifice.
I appreciated it a lot.
So I was on my best behavior as we made our way from the parking lot, across a bridge, and into the nondescript building. We rode up the equally no-nonsense elevator to the twelfth floor, and it was when we were going down a hall with expensive-looking carpet and lots of wood paneling that he said, “Let me talk.”
I couldn’t help it. I snorted even though it made my nose hurt.
That got me a long look.
I gave him one right back. “You talking. We’re going to get thrown out of the building now.”
His grunt made me smile as we kept walking down the hall.
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. “I don’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 the Akita 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.
“So I have a question,” I told him.
“You always have a million questions.”
“You’re not lying, but really, it’s been on my mind.” Here went nothing. “You know who or what hurt you, don’t you?”
Oh, he hadn’t been expecting that from the side-look he shot me. A muscle in his face twitched before he admitted, sounding only a little annoyed, “I do.”
I gulped. “Was it your brother?” I whispered.
Alex opened his mouth just as another voice, one I didn’t recognize, said, “Baby brother.”
My head whipped to the side just as a man came in, tugging at the sleeve of an expensive-looking suit jacket. He was tall, just as tall as Alex, with the same hair and skin color, the same features that spoke of a complex, beautiful heritage, and almost as handsome. Instead of Alex’s deep brown hair, the man’s hair was nearly black with lines of silver shooting through the sides.
But it was the cool expression on his face that was the most different.
Because Alex’s face was an arrogant one; he looked damn near constantly crabby and irritated. His eyes though were filled with fire, with heat and life. His older brother though, instead of warmth, there was a detached cool. If Alex thought we were all dumbasses, his brother thought we were gum on the soles of his shoes.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about him.
And especially not when he stopped and looked at me. The man’s gaze went from me to his brother and back.
“She’s the Atraxian.”
He sniffed. “Barely.” But that must have appeased him because he went and took a seat at the opposite end of the table and said, “I’m in the middle of something. What do you need?”
The man who had instantly moved to my side, who hadn’t put on a disguise like I’d half expected him to, tensed. I could see the signs: I knew them well. To give him credit, his voice was that deceptively lazy one that wouldn’t ever fool me. “I asked for someone in Legal, Achilles.”