Burned Deep (Burned 1)

I had to believe Dane could defeat his nemesis. Whomever it might be.

Exhausted from the turmoil of the evening, I sat back down on the bed. Dane slipped off my shoes and helped me out of my dress.

“Do you want something to wear?” he asked.

“Your shirt.”

He gave me a shadow of a grin. At least he tried not to be so sinister looking. “I’ll go get you one.”

“I want the one you’re wearing. Smells like you.”

Loosening his tie, he whipped it off, then worked the cuff links as best as he could with what had to be a throbbing hand. He set them on the table next to the water, slipped out of the shirt, and assisted me with getting it on and buttoned.

I crawled under the covers. Dane joined me.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Like I stuck my hand on a hot stovetop burner. At least my brain’s not scrambled the way it’d been the last time.”

“Jesus, Ari.” His muscles tensed all around me.

“I’ll be all right.”

He possessively kept me pressed to his body until I fell asleep. When I woke in the middle of the night, it was because I knew he’d slipped out of bed. I’d sensed it even in slumber.

I scanned the room, finding him on the sofa in front of the large fireplace, working on his laptop, his fingers softly skating over the keys. He was also speaking in a quiet tone into the phone wedged between his ear and the crook of his neck.

“That’s not enough,” he said insistently. “Dig deeper. We’re close but we need more. Yes, I know they’re already panicking. I’ve been watching their market shares and portfolios. I’m seeing the results of our efforts. It’s not enough. If they think they can fuck with us—with me—they’ve got to be seeing right now that it’s not a good idea.”

Dread slithered through me. Dane was poking the snake. This alarmed me. But what else was he to do? Roll over and play dead? Give in to them? Let them steal the Lux from underneath his nose?

I would concede that it was property and money. Difficult to part with—painful, even. But, all in all, potentially replaceable.

Yet that just seemed too simple a solution and too easy. I had to respect the fact that he fought for all that he’d built, all that matter

ed to him. He’d had a dream, he’d worked hard to achieve it. Now it was up to him to save it.

I really was torn between right and wrong with this scenario but definitely leaning toward the full understanding that if I had wrapped my entire future around such an enormous endeavor I’d want to protect it as well.

What would I do to safeguard the things that meant the most to me? I didn’t know. I’d never been in that position before. When it came to my parents’ fallout, I’d had no clout to help one side over the other. Obviously, I’d sided with my father. But I couldn’t bargain with my mother to leave Dad the hell alone, because she didn’t care enough about me to worry what she might lose if he threw his hands in the air and walked away, instead of fighting for me. In other words, giving her everything she wanted so he could have me.

I’d been a stand-on-the-fringes kind of person for the majority of my life. Now that I had a better understanding of what could be gained, built, fought for, I could appreciate the fact that Dane would do anything and everything in his power to protect what was his.

That did not mean it all sat right with me. I was a bit scared of what that all entailed. But he’d done his best to keep the poli-econ society on course—on the up-and-up. He and Ethan both. They’d failed. So now Dane was taking another stand. And I had to give him credit for it, even if I wasn’t wholly sure what that meant in the long run.

I pulled on the robe Dane had bought for me in Paris and curled up next to him on the leather couch. I didn’t bother stealing a peek at his work—I didn’t want to know his new course of action. Perhaps it was wiser to not pry for information I couldn’t quite decipher anyway.

He draped the throw over me and I closed my eyes, my head on his shoulder. I was content just being near him.

“I love you,” I whispered. And drifted off.

chapter 21

Two days passed without incident. I did exactly as Dane and Amano instructed. When something mysterious cropped up that they both had to contend with they waited until lunchtime, when I could meet with Kyle in the courtyard. It didn’t take him long to catch on that all was not right in my world.

“Why is he not scowling at me this week?” Kyle asked over his prime rib sliders.

I shrugged nonchalantly. “He knows we’ve become friends. He’s okay with it.”