Kevin kept his bloodshot eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses and an insouciant smile pasted on his face as he made his way through the top executive floor of Moynihan Consolidated. People he barely recognized either got out of his way or offered an obsequious greeting. He ignored both. He had an informal agreement with Sean to attend board meetings and make an appearance on the executive floor once a month. It was that time of the month and if it wouldn’t get him a punch to the arm, he would have texted Olivia and joked about desperately needing chocolate. She was the lucky sibling. She only had to attend board meetings if her schedule permitted it, and she didn’t have to make the monthly visit at all.
But then, she had an actual career, as both siblings would remind Kevin if he dared complain.
He reached the office suite with his name and no title on the door. Priyanka Murphy sat at her desk in the outer office, furiously typing away. Her heavy black hair was tamed into a tidy updo. She wore a conservative skirt suit in dark blue that contrasted perfectly with her tawny skin. The picture of professionalism, and she was probably writing porn.
“Good morning, Ms. Murphy.” Kevin swooped in and sat on the corner of her desk. “Whatcha writing?”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Moynihan.” She kept her gaze trained on the screen, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m branching out into a new genre.”
He picked through the odds and ends on her desk. She always kept gum around and he wanted the taste of that food truck chili dog he’d had for lunch out of his mouth. “Got any gum?”
Priyanka moved the mouse, clicked once, and sat back, eyeing the document with satisfaction. “Space opera.” She opened a drawer and withdrew a pack of gum then tossed it to him. “Earth is still struggling to get along with the first alien species they’ve met. The main character is a diplomat sent to learn their ways.”
“Do their ways include a lot of sex?” He unwrapped a stick of gum and chewed it.
“Duh. The aliens only have sex in threesomes. The alien diplomat is a dude. And his head of security that he sometimes bones with is a woman.”
“What’s the human?”
“A guy. Previously very straight, but once he gets some of that alien anal, he’s gonna be as bi as you.”
Kevin laughed so hard he almost spit out his gum. “Damn, girl, don’t say that too loud. That’s not a talk I ever want to have with my brother.” It felt good to laugh so hard and so freely, even if it did cause his sore ribs to twinge.
“He’s busy yelling at a VP. So did you have any plans for this month or would you like to beta read some smut for me?”
A year ago Sean had ordered his assistant, Mrs. Li, to find someone in the secretarial pool to work for Kevin. Even if the youngest Moynihan never took on a real position in the company, he needed information pertaining to board meetings. And if his new assistant being young and beautiful got Kevin into the office more often, Sean would be happy about that, too. Kevin and Priyanka enjoyed a casual friendship and had never once considered dating.
“You know I want to beta read any smut you want to write,” Kevin said. “But first, I did have something in mind for today.”
She closed the alien smut on her computer and stood. “Want some coffee?”
“God, yes.”
Ten minutes later they sat at his empty desk, both with cups of steaming coffee and a notepad open in Priyanka’s lap. She said, “You hired a what?”
“A trainer. So I can learn self-defense.” Kevin grinned. “Apparently an Irish temper isn’t enough to win a fight when you’re up against half a dozen or more guys.”
Priyanka rolled her eyes. “Please. Everyone knows your brother got the Irish temper.”
“And I got the Irish charm.”
“Why not just hire a bodyguard?”
“I don’t want someone all up in my business every time I leave the house.”
“You could hire a hot, sexy bodyguard and have a torrid affair with him.”
“Nah.”
“You could hire a hot, sexy bodyguard and I could have a torrid affair with him.”
“I promise if I ever feel the need to hire a bodyguard that he’ll be both hot and sexy, and you’ll get first dibs.”
“You’re the best boss.”
“What I need right now is equipment.”
“This is the part where I stop with the jokes and start taking notes, right?”
Kevin sipped his coffee. “I’m going to need some new stuff in my home gym.”
Priyanka picked up her pen and notepad. “Has the trainer given you a list?”
An image came to mind, of Dani in a tank top. The luscious curves of a woman’s breasts and hips deserved to be celebrated, and she had plenty to celebrate in that department. But it was the rise and fall of muscle, the leashed power that made her skin seem to glow and her body move with a graceful lightness, that constantly drew his attention. She radiated dynamic energy, and a fluid strength that had nothing to do with her enhanced physical abilities and everything to do with her heart. He knew if pressed she would deny those things. The eyes he’d had so much trouble capturing in charcoal last night were the only part of her that held darkness. Dani didn’t believe in herself, and she didn’t know what to do with herself, either. She’d had so much taken away from her, it was like she couldn’t conceive of being the author of her own story.
His assistant’s voice brought him back to the moment. “Sorry, I spaced for a sec. Uh, no. No list. But I know you did some research about this kind of stuff for that trilogy you wrote about the three cops.”
“Handcuffed Love.” Priyanka grinned. “Those were some fun books to write.”
“Hand to hand training equipment. Non-lethal weapons. I don’t know much about this kind of stuff. There’s got to be more than just stun guns, right?”
“Oh, sure.” She scribbled notes on the pad. “Brass knuckles. Mace and pepper spray. Batons.”
Batons. How hard would Dani hit him if he asked her to twirl a baton? “Yeah, just whatever. Order a bunch of stuff and have it delivered to my place.”
“Has your doctor cleared you for self-defense training?”
“I’m not planning on starting right away. I just don’t want to get my ass handed to me again.” And he wanted those non-lethal weapons for Dani, but he couldn’t say that. “I do want everything delivered as soon as possible so my trainer can put together a program for me and I can begin to familiarize myself with all the…stuff.”
Priyanka tapped the notepad with her pen. “Just don’t shoot yourself in the face with pepper spray, okay?”
“I think I can handle that.” He took out his phone and settled deeper into the leather chair. “Now go, I’m got some smut to beta read.”
She hopped up. “Ooh, I’ll go email it to you.”
“Anybody asks, tell them I’m reading up on the Hong Kong markets or something. Make it sound impressive.”
“I’ll get you the quarterly report from Applied Sciences.”
That was the one corporate thing he enjoyed reading and she knew it. “Thanks, Pri.” She returned to the outer office, closing the door behind her.
The thought of the Applied Sciences report led him back to Dani. Lately, everything led him back to Dani. Kevin placed his phone on the desk then leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. What kind of lab had done these things to her? It sounded like a government facility, or at least a place with government contracts. A place designed to create super-soldiers.
It wasn’t the only thing people were enhanced for at the lab. There were tests to see what we’d be best at.
Her words of last night came back to him. What else was this lab enhancing people for? Dani was convinced they were searching for her, and she was probably right. The sooner she left Point Sable, with a new identity intact, the safer she’d be. Knowing that, he couldn’t get attached. It was too dangerous, for so many reasons.
One of the desk drawers held a sketch pad and several pencils. Kevin took out the pad and two pencils, blue and black. Something abstract to focus on would stop the churning in his head. Geometric shapes, lines of Celtic knot work – things like that were his usual go-to when he was out of sorts. This time something else took shape on the page.
Dani.
He lost himself in the work, so much that it barely registered when someone knocked on the door. Sean came barreling in, a whirlwind of impatience and anger. “Are you here to actually do something or are you just taking up space?”
Kevin gripped the pencil so hard, he could feel it giving under the pressure. “What’s the matter with you?” He turned the paper over, not wanting any questions about Dani.
“I could ask you the same thing. Are you really going into business with Tyler Kincaid?”
“What?” Kevin had to think for a moment to remember his last conversation with Tyler. “He asked me to help him buy out his investors. I turned him down.”
His brother glared. “You’ll get involved in that idiot’s bullshit waste of time and money, but I have to practically beg you to haul your ass into your family’s company once a month.”
So that was what had Sean frothing at the mouth. Kevin released the pencil and sat back in his chair. “I said I turned him down. Go find some underling to yell at if you can’t be bothered to listen to me.”
“If you wanted to start your own business, I’d be thrilled. Partnering with Tyler Kincaid is a crap idea.”
“For the love of God, I turned him down. Did you not hear that part?” Kevin forced himself to take a beat and calm down. He didn’t want to fight with his brother. “I’m not interested in starting a business, with or without Tyler.”
“Of course not.” Sean’s usual casual disdain turned into something darker, uglier. “Heaven forbid you get off your ass and do anything useful with yourself.”
Kevin froze. “This again.”
“You changed your major five times in college and barely graduated. Spent half a season as a ski instructor in Banff before getting fired. Left our father’s wake early so you could get drunk with your useless friends. You’ve never held down a job for more than a few months because you have a trust fund provided by someone else’s hard work.”
A cold, blistering anger stabbed Kevin, along with guilt. “What exactly is your fucking problem?”
“You study languages but never get good enough to be fluent in them. You pretend to read the Applied Sciences reports but never get involved. You write checks for charities you know nothing about. You dabble in one thing after another, skip from one brief relationship to another.”
“You want me to start getting approval for how I spend my time? What I’m allowed to be interested in?”
“I want you to be an adult. Apply yourself to something, see it through. Stop being a dilettante and make a commitment.”
The words washed through Kevin in a sickening wave. “You really don’t respect me at all, do you?”
“When have you ever done anything to earn my respect?”
“Get out.”
Awareness flashed across Sean’s face, as if he’d just then realized what he’d said. “Kevin, look.”
“Let me put it to you a different way. Get the fuck out. Now.”
Sean looked like he wanted to say something but Priyanka burst into the office waving a folder. “I’m got that report for you, Mr. Moynihan.” She nodded in Sean’s direction but didn’t make eye contact. “Other Mr. Moynihan.”
Sean ignored her. He turned on his heel and left abruptly without another word.
Priyanka edged the door closed. “Oh God. Are you okay? I left my desk for, like, a minute.”
“I’m fine,” Kevin lied. “It’s nothing he hasn’t said before. He’s just not usually quite so pissy about it.”
She tilted her face down and raised one eyebrow. “That wasn’t pissy, that was vicious. Are you sure you’re okay?”
He didn’t want to answer, because he just might tell the truth. “What’s in the folder?”
“Eh.” She waved the slim black folder. “Takeout menus.”
Kevin nodded. “Order me some Chinese, would you please?”
She sighed as she crossed her arms. “Yeah. Sure thing.” She returned to the outer office, mercifully closing the door behind her.
As soon as the latch clicked Kevin leaned over, head between his knees. He took slow, deep breaths until his stomach no longer felt like it was doing somersaults. Don’t throw up. Ah shit.
Not even the drunk and disorderly arrest and subsequent community service had brought out that level of disgust from Sean. Kevin wanted to be angry. God, he really wanted a hit of righteous anger right now. It didn’t come. Instead, shame snaked through him. Sean may have been an asshole about the way he said it, but he wasn’t wrong to call his younger brother a dilettante. One of the things Kevin had plenty of was self-awareness. He knew he’d been coasting on his trust fund, his family’s name, his own charm and good looks.
So what did he have to offer the world? He could throw himself into working fulltime at Moynihan Consolidated but that would never make him happy. It would never mean anything. Could a rich, pretty boy, dilettante like him ever amount to anything meaningful?
Kevin was afraid he knew the answer.