Three

The files were everywhere.

Adam tried not to twitch at the absolute shitshow his office had become. Stacks of folders were scattered across the table, three laptops were open with spreadsheets covering all of the screens. And coffee cups and empty food containers littered the coffee table and piled up in the trashcan.

Adam didn’t want to be the guy who was bothered by the disorder and chaos but he was one hundred percent that guy.

Justin was not.

“How did we end up with so many weirdos working here?” Justin asked, lounging back with his size twelve Converse Chucks kicked up on the coffee table. He held a folder in his hands, reading over the reports Tess had compiled on the most likely employees of Redhawk/Ling. “What the hell is LARP-ing? Is that the costume thing? The Comic-Con stuff?”

“It’s live-action-role-playing.” Tess strolled by him and nudged his feet to the floor, shooting Adam a secret smile. “It’s what you would have been doing if you’d actually had the guts to get out from behind the computer screen in your parents’ basement and go out and meet real girls.”

Justin sat up straight and looked absolutely offended. “I was not in my parents’ basement. I had a computer in my room.” He motioned to Adam. “Do I have to put up with this?”

Tess scoffed. “If you yuck on somebody else’s yum, you get what you get.”

Adam snorted and grabbed the file from Justin. “Yeah, Justin, stop yucking on—” he read the name off the folder “—Bryan Lane’s yum.”

“He’s not our guy anyway,” Tess interjected, plucking the file from Adam’s hand.

Their fingers brushed; their eyes locked on each other and everything else in the room disappeared. He stared at her, zeroing in on the way her body swayed into his. He knew how it was; gravity had nothing on the pull of Tess Lynch.

“How do you know?” Justin inquired, sifting through the stack of files and trying to pretend like he wasn’t staring at the two of them. “What are you looking for? What does a traitor look like?”

Tess’s gaze lingered on his for a moment longer and then she transferred all her attention to Justin. Adam felt the loss as a physical pang, deep in his gut. And if he zoomed in closely on his emotions, he’d acknowledge that jealousy was in the mix too. But he wasn’t zooming in on anything except the task at hand, right now.

“They look like you and me and Estelle,” she said, mentioning Adam’s long-time and highly beloved personal assistant. “Or that beautiful boy at the corner coffee shop with all of the tattoos.”

“Felix. His name is Felix.” Adam spoke without thinking, waving off the extended, curious looks from Tess and Justin. “He takes the time to remember my name and my order. I remember his.”

“Okay, yes, Felix,” Tess agreed. “It would be great if they walked around with a big T on their chest or a mustache to twirl like a villain. But, they don’t. So, you have to look for an area of exploitation, usually debt, sex or family. It will be a miracle if the IT guys found evidence on the company computers. I’d be shocked if someone was so dumb or brazen. So, I need to look deeper.”

“File by file,” Adam observed.

“Person by person,” Tess answered, pointing to the stacks on the table. “But I’ll find them, whoever they are.”

Estelle Conway appeared in the doorway, her expression wary. She glanced back over her shoulder, angling her wheelchair across the opening and effectively blocking whoever was behind her. “Mr. Thornton is here to see you, Mr. Redhawk.”

Adam went rigid while Justin shot into movement. There was a flurry of arms and legs and thunderous muttering as he rose from the couch in a cascade of paper and folders and advanced toward Estelle.

“What the fuck does he want?” Justin asked, his typically smooth voice ragged with anger.

“I want to fucking talk to Adam.” Franklin Thornton answered as he pushed past Estelle and barreled through the door, jamming Estelle’s chair into the door frame with a metallic thud and bang. His voice was calm and even, in contrast to his physical aggression and demanding movements.

He was a handsome man, his tall frame still broad in the shoulders with a power that hinted at his college football player past. But one look in his eyes told you the truth behind his money and power. It wasn’t that he was fouled by hatred or rage. Franklin Thornton was dead inside. He didn’t care enough about the people around him to worry about hurting them; you couldn’t harm a thing, an object. Adam had learned early that his adoption had had its reasons and none of them involved him or his welfare. He was around because he was useful to Franklin and nothing more. Everything was that complicated and that simple with his adoptive father.

“Mr. Redhawk, I’m sorry,” Estelle began to apologize for what she clearly thought was her failure for this man barging his way into the office.

Adam wasn’t having it.

He stepped forward and stood in front of Franklin, using his own bulk to block any further progress into the office, any progress toward the work they were doing in here. Adam didn’t raise his voice; he’d learned early and often to keep complete control of his reactions, to deny his opponent the opposing show of force they tried to incite.

“Franklin, you need to apologize to Estelle.”

He was ignored as he expected, the other man’s lips curling into a grin. “Hello, Adam. You’ve been ignoring my calls.”

“If I’d known that answering would have prevented you from showing up here today, I would have...” He considered his options. “I still wouldn’t have answered.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest and dug in. “Apologize to Estelle. Now. I’m not asking.”

Franklin considered him, his gaze never leaving Adam’s face. “I apologize.”

It was as good as he was going to get. Adam nodded at Estelle, his smile communicating his own apology. He waited until she’d left before he turned back towards Franklin, dropping the smile entirely.

“Whatever you’re here for, the answer is ‘no,’ ‘none of your business,’ and ‘get out.’”

“All of the above,” Justin added.

“That too,” Adam agreed.

“Cute.” Franklin sneered. “I’m here to find out why you have a redhead with big tits asking questions about me.”

Franklin’s tone was ambivalent but the words hit Adam like a sledgehammer and it took most of his will to not react physically to his words. However, the spark of interest in his adoptive father’s eyes told him that he wasn’t holding his poker face as well as he usually did. A guttural sound of outrage behind him communicated that Tess wasn’t maintaining her cool either. Franklin’s eyes slid from Adam’s face to look beyond him, to where Tess was standing.

His eyes raked over her before he spoke. “Well, they weren’t wrong about the tits.”

“Shut your mouth,” Adam warned, facing off with Franklin with a shove to his chest before Adam turned and walked toward the fuming Tess.

Now he knew what she looked like when she was pissed and it was so not the right time for him to linger on the fact that she was gorgeous. Anger raised the pink in her cheeks and made her eyes flash a poisonous green.

He never wanted to kiss her more than he did right this instant.

He never wanted to keep Franklin away from someone more than he did in this instant.

“Tess,” he murmured as he reached out and grabbed her hand. She tensed, attempting to get him to let her go as she peered over his shoulder, the venom shooting out of her glare like a laser. If it had been leveled at anyone other than Franklin Thornton her opponent would be cowering in a corner, but Adam guessed that Franklin was giving as good as he got. Letting these two at each other would be a very bad idea. He tugged her in closer and leaned down to murmur, his voice pitched low and edged with a warning that he wasn’t going to argue about this. “Don’t.”

At his demand, she stopped resisting him, her eyes snapping to meet his with the sizzling impact of a lightning bolt hitting too close to the mark. Tess wanted to fight. Her reaction was visceral, a tremble of tension that ran up and down her body and hitched her breath with every inhale. Adam slid his hand around her wrist, letting his fingers soothe her with the gentlest touch against her rapidly fluttering pulse point. Franklin got him riled too, pushed buttons he didn’t even know he had, but her reaction was strange, more than just anger over his words, and prompted a million questions in his mind. Questions that would wait until later. Right now, he wanted to put as much distance between Franklin and Tess as he could manage.

“Tess, go make sure that Estelle is okay,” he asked. She hesitated, her refusal poised on the edge of the tensed hard line of her lips. “Please, baby, just do this.”

The unexpected endearment shocked him as it slid past his lips and she was now utterly focused on him. He would have bet money that the world had ground to a damn halt except for the electric current running between the two of them. Tess didn’t look angry, didn’t look like she objected, her expression was more shocked pleasure and sharp interest than anything else and he wondered what her reaction would be if he tugged her even closer and tasted her mouth. Only the knowledge that Franklin was watching, a viper in his house, kept him from acting on the impulse.

“Please.”

His one-word plea broke the spell and spurred her into action. He took in the stiffening of her muscles and the quizzical, lingering glance aimed at him. Then she was gone with a nod and a determined stride past Franklin and out the door. She didn’t even spare his adoptive father a glance, but she didn’t shrink away, either. Proud and defiant. The Tess he knew and wanted way too much.

“So, who is she, Adam? You’re not screwing your help now these days, are you?” Franklin tsked and shook his head. “That doesn’t seem like you at all.”

Adam took two long strides and then he was toe-to-toe with the man who’d given him a roof and an education but never any affection or acceptance. “Don’t ever talk about her like that again.”

“So, who is she? What is she doing for you? Why is she asking questions about me?”

“Are you worried about what she’ll find out?” Adam replied.

“That’s not an answer to my question,” Franklin insisted.

“That’s all you’re going to get so you can leave. I’ll have a member of my security staff walk you out,” Adam said, nodding toward the burly man in a dark suit now standing in his office doorway.

Franklin followed the path of his attention and glanced over his shoulder, the smirk on his mouth more amused than angry when he turned back.

“No need. I got the answers I wanted anyway.” Franklin swept his eyes over the rest of the office, his gaze taking in all of the papers and files. “This office is a mess. No wonder your company is in trouble.”

Adam didn’t flinch at the icy coldness in Franklin’s tone. He was used to him bashing his business, his skill, his ambition, and he was well versed in not giving him the satisfaction of knowing that it pissed him off.

And it infuriated him that the rejection by this man still hurt a little.

Not enough to get him to become the man Franklin wanted him to be but enough to keep him from giving up from his dreams. From giving up and letting down the people who believed in him. He had a lot of people depending on him and he wasn’t going to let them down.

Adam waited until Franklin had exited his office and Justin had secured the door behind him before grabbing the nearest object and hurling it across the room. The mug hit the wall, created a significant crater in the dry wall and shattered and scattered across his hardwood floors.

“Man, you just broke the wall,” Justin said, walking toward Adam with his hands raised in a placating gesture that made Adam roll his eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sorry. I just...”

“You lost your shit.” Justin pointed at the mess. “I mean, you’re the CEO so you can break the wall if you want to break the wall...”

Adam ground his teeth and searched for words that could shatter the rage haze induced by Franklin.

All he could manage was another lame apology. “I think I threw your mug. I’m sorry.”

Justin waved him off, crossing the room while making a show of sidestepping the large shards of ceramic on the floor. “Adam, just shut up already. I’m glad to see you lose your cool for once.”

“Losing my cool is unproductive.”

“It’s also human and a relief to see that you’re not actually a robot. I just can’t believe that you haven’t punched Franklin by now.”

Adam knelt down, casting a glance up at his best friend as he picked up the larger pieces of ceramic. They’d known each for a long time and Justin was one of the few people who knew everything that Adam could remember about his life before coming to California and what he couldn’t forget about what had happened once he’d arrived.

“It’s not like I haven’t thought about it,” Adam admitted, rising up to toss the pieces into the trash. “Helene would lose her mind if we ended up in the ER and on the front page of the papers.”

“Or she could have told her husband not to be a dick,” Justin said, shrugging in an apology that didn’t look like he meant it at all. His best friend wasn’t a fan of anyone in the Franklin family.

If Adam’s adoptive mother, Helene, were a color, she’d be beige. All she really cared about anymore was her charity work, keeping her roots from showing, and not ending up in any of the tabloids. She hadn’t always been like that, or so Adam had been told. Years with Franklin had made her into the kind of woman who kept quiet and looked pretty and ignored every bad act by her husband.

She’d been distantly kind to Adam, never motherly, but she’d never tried to cause him harm. For that, he would try not to cause her pain if it could be avoided.

“Helene hasn’t had it easy either,” Adam said, not wanting to cover this old ground again.

Justin shrugged, his expression morphing into the closest thing Justin ever got to serious and Adam braced for what he knew was coming. It was a well-worn topic between them—as familiar as the focus on women, sex, money and poker was in their frequent late-night cigar-smoking sessions after long days making a company run. “It’s not your job to take care of everyone, Adam. Redhawk/Ling isn’t going to rise and fall on you alone.”

“Justin, I know that but this is important. If we don’t figure this out, I’m going to let a lot of people down. People who have banked their futures on Redhawk/Ling surviving.”

“You mean ‘we,’ not ‘I.’” Justin moved even closer to shove against his chest, his glare echoing the anger and frustration in his voice.

“I know,” Adam replied, avoiding making direct eye contact. But Justin wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.

“No, I don’t think you do.” Justin grunted out the last of his frustration and scrubbed a hand against the stubble on his cheek. “Look, I’m done trying to change you but you’ve gotta start letting some of this shit go. Rely on other people. Now you’ve got a brother and sister to help you work on that life skill.”

Oh yeah, the one subject sure to make him stress even more than usual. Now he had a family to worry about when he knew nothing about family.

“I’ll be sure to call you out of your next weekend-long poker tournament to help out at the office. That will work,” Adam grumbled, immediately feeling a pang of guilt at the jab that he knew would strike the soft underbelly of his oldest friend.

“Okay, now you’re being an asshole and that’s my cue to give you some space to brood and fixate on all the things you can’t control.” Justin paced over to the couch, grabbed his phone off the table and headed toward the door. “While you’re pondering all the shit in the universe during your ninety-mile run tonight, don’t forget to figure out what the hell was happening between you and Tess a little while ago.”

And there it was. Payback for the poker comment. He deserved it.

“I’m not talking to you about that,” he answered, not bothering to deny that he knew exactly what Justin was talking about.

He had to figure out how to navigate the fact that he’d called her baby and how hard it was to stay away from Tess. He’d failed miserably at not fantasizing about her or dreaming about her—why did he think that actual physical contact would be easier to navigate? There was no easy answer, but he had to make a decision to give in to temptation or cut Tess loose. And he knew in his gut that letting her go wasn’t the answer.

“You were leaving, right?” Adam prompted, needing time to process the day’s events.

“I was. I am. I’ll be back here tomorrow morning and we’ll find out who is trying to destroy our company.” Justin pointed at him, his grin telling Adam that all was forgiven. “And we’ll also discuss why you can’t seem to understand the difference between asking Tess out and hiring her.” He shook his head. “No wonder you’re still single.”