Page 32 of Confessions of Pain
Chapter 9
I knocked on the door and stepped inside the office that Wayne used to visit for a total of about eight full hours a week, spread out over seven days. Wayne wasn’t much of a worker. He excelled at spending money, not earning it.
Several sets of eyes turned in my direction. Ethan, the man with Gabriel yesterday during the meeting, was there. Another man, about the same build as Ethan and Gabriel but with the warmest chocolate eyes I’d ever seen in my life, stood next to Ethan. A smaller man with delicate features sat behind Wayne’s old desk, typing on a computer. He didn’t bother looking up when I walked in. Gabriel was sitting in my rickety chair with his feet propped up on my desk, looking all arrogant and ready for a fight. Perfect.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Maverick?” I asked politely, not at all sure how he wanted me to address him. How much did these guys know about our history? More importantly, what was Gabriel’s relationship with each of them? I mean, I knew their names and they were all friends with Gabriel, but I didn’t know howfriendlythey were with him.
The room remained deathly quiet. The only noise was the continuous pecking on the laptop keyboard. I was confident the delicate-featured guy was Titus. He was Ethan’s brother, according to what I’d heard on the grapevine. My eyes flickered across the room, feeling like a total fool. I supposed that was Gabriel’s intent, though.
Finally, Jeremiah, Ethan’s lover, crossed the room with his hand extended. “Nice to meet you, Kelsey. I’m Jeremiah. Gabriel’s friend.”
I shook his hand, remembering how Ethan refused to shake my hand yesterday. From his permanent perch on Wayne’s desk, it didn’t look like he was going to offer his hand today either.
Not having a clue what to say, I simply smiled, nodded, and shook his hand. Following that pathetic burst of conversation, the room grew quiet again. Jeremiah laughed nervously.
“Your desk will remain in here, Kelsey. I need to be able to keep an eye on your performance. Do you have a problem with that?” Gabriel barked.
Oh yeah, he was sporting for a fight. He wouldn’t get one from me.
“No problem at all, sir. I do have several responsibilities on the production floor, but a lot of my time is spent sorting paperwork, as well.” I sounded like a complete idiot.
Another uncomfortable silence fell across the room as I waited for Gabriel to tell me what to do. When he didn’t say anything, Titus spoke up and asked, “Do you know the major holders of debt against us and how long the debt’s been outstanding? We need to get our payables taken care of so vendors will start shipping to us again. We also need to know the details of the immediate orders that require fulfillment and payments due us. Is any of that easily accessible, Kelsey?”
“I have the details of the open and pending orders on my computer, but the details of debt fell in Wayne’s area of…expertise. Maybe Barb or Courtney has access to those files,” I suggested as I tried to open my laptop while standing in the doorway. It wasn’t an easy task, especially with my hands shaking. “We also bid on a military contract but haven’t heard anything about the status of the bid yet. We’ve never been a prime supplier to the military, so I doubt our odds are good at being awarded the contract, but as far as I know, the contract still hasn’t been awarded to another contractor yet.”
That seemed to grab Gabe’s attention. “Do you have the paperwork for that? I’d like to look it over.”
“Sure. Let me go grab it,” I answered. Before anybody could argue, I ran back down the stairs, realized my desk was up in Gabe’s office, and then turned around to go back up the staircase. As I rounded the corner, I heard Ethan saying he didn’t trust me. Of course, he didn’t. Why would he? I made as much noise as possible before entering the office again. “Uh…yeah…it’s in my desk. I forgot you’d brought it up.” I crossed the room, opened the third drawer, and pulled out the folder holding all the military contract information in it. “Here it is.” I handed the file to Gabe.
He jerked it up and started scanning the paperwork like he might actually know what he was looking at. I doubted it, military paperwork was ridiculous to try and understand. Just because he’d served in the military didn’t mean he’d understand the ins-and-outs of their contracts for protective fabrics. It only took a few seconds to realize just how wrong I was. Gabe’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“Look, Ethan,” he said as he handed one of the sheets of the contract to his friend. “Any chance you recognize a name?” He grinned. “Because I do,” he added as his smile grew even wider.
Ethan’s face mimicked Gabe’s. “As a matter of fact, I do. Let me go make a phone call,” he said as he took the paper and started to leave the office.
From behind the desk, Titus said, “You realize that’s against the law, right? Colluding with the contracting officer in order to get business,” he explained, just in case everybody in the room hadn’t understood exactly what he was referring to.
Gabe snorted. “Well, it sure as hell won’t be the first law I’ve ever broken.” His eyes cut around to glare at me.
Whatever the hell he meant by that, I’d never know. I most certainly didn’t intend to ask.
“Let’s go see what I can find out,” Ethan said, completely unfazed by Titus’s comment about collusion. “I’ll be back…hopefully with good news. This guy owes us. Big time.”
When Ethan left, the room grew silent again. Uncomfortably silent. I hated the quiet. It allowed me to hear the thoughts in my head and that was never a good thing. Ever.
Jeremiah broke the silence. “I love your bracelets, Kelsey. Are those handmade? They’re exquisite.”
Silence! Silence would be much better than the path Jeremiah just started down. I immediately felt my hands start to shake and then my right hand automatically started twisting the soft leather wrapped around my left wrist. Frozen in terror, I hadn’t even realized Jeremiah had gotten up until he stood right in front of me and reached for my hand. All my instincts screamed that I jerk my hand back, but the tenderness of his touch and the softness in his brown eyes allowed me to remain perfectly still as he inspected Jax’s handiwork.
“Absolutely beautiful,” he murmured. I watched as a slight frown caused his eyes to squint. “They’re locked on? You have a key, I hope,” he commented as he looked away from the leather and into my eyes.
I tried to come up with something, anything, but my voice was lost. No, I didn’t possess the key. Jax held the one and only key, but there was no way I was ready to explain my relationship with Jax. Loud voices coming from somewhere down the hall caused me to jerk my hand away from Jeremiah. Ethan’s security detail demanded that someone stop, and then there was something that sounded a lot like a growl, followed by a heavy thump against the wall. Jeremiah and Gabe started toward the door before I could do anything to acknowledge I recognized the voices. This was sonotwhat I fucking needed to add to my day.
Neither of them made it to door before it burst open, nearly coming loose from the hinges from the force of it slamming against the wall. Jax and Evie barreled inside the tight confines of the office, obviously locked and loaded for battle. Ethan was hot on their heels but instead of confronting the two intruders, he whipped past them and didn’t stop until he’d positioned himself between them and Jeremiah. Gabe, I noticed, stood in the doorway, blocking anybody’s exit. Fuck. Things just went from bad to worse.
This was just what I needed—Jax and Evie ready for combat in their efforts to protect me. Personally, I felt like I was doing damned fine on my own, even if I knew they wouldn’t agree with that assessment. I’d been in the room with Gabe for nearly twenty minutes and I hadn’t disintegrated into a pile of cowardly ashes. I knew being near Gabe was not only stupid but incredibly dangerous to my mental stability, but I didn’t give a fuck. Jax and Evie, on the other hand, would definitely give a fuck. From the look on Jax’s face, he was planning on giving more than a fuck.What was he even doing here? He was supposed to be hundreds of miles away and not scheduled to return for another couple of weeks.
Evie looked like a smug mother-bitch. She’d known Jax was coming back. Fuck, this was going to end very badly if I didn’t do something to intervene.
