Raising the Stakes

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Dan cleared his throat. “You’ll be happy to hear that Keir agrees we should be watchful. Without being obvious, of course. Keir’s promised to keep a low profile and not be confrontational toward Baron.”

Mary nodded. “Fine,” she said, but knowing her son, she wondered exactly how long his promise would last.

* * *

Gray was furious with himself. Talk about your mouth getting ahead of your brain…

He’d spent the past two days trying to figure out what had possessed him to say something so stupid to Dawn. Mentioning kids, asking if she liked them, Jesus, asking why she didn’t like them…

He shoved aside the toasted bagel with cream cheese that he hadn’t touched, the congealing bacon and cold eggs, wrapped his hand around his coffee mug and lifted it to his lips. From the start, she’d been as wary of him as a canary in a cage full of cats. He’d had to do everything but turn handstands to get her to agree to have dinner and a drink with him. She’d come close to not showing up. And then, after she had, after things were going well, he’d said something so dumb he still couldn’t believe it.

It wasn’t like him to do something stupid like that. Lawyers measured their words, if they wanted to keep their clients out of jail. If somebody had been around to hear him, he could have pretended he’d said it to smoke her out, get a reaction…

Except, nobody had been there to watch his miserable performance, nobody but him, and what was the point in lying to himself? The simple truth was he’d spoken without thinking. He’d behaved like a man trying to figure out a woman for his own reasons, not like one who had a job to do.

And she wouldn’t come near him, now.

He’d tried. He’d stopped by that little desk in that alcove, picked up the phone and hit seven seven seven, but no matter what he did or said, the answer was always the same. Miss Carter was busy elsewhere.

The hell she was. Miss Carter was avoiding him.

Gray shoved back his chair, scribbled his room number and his signature on the bill, and left the coffee shop. Enough was enough. He was tired of thinking about what he’d done, tired of cursing himself…tired of wishing he could turn back the clock and still be seated in that dark little bar, with Dawn smiling shyly at him. He needed to do something to clear his head. A change of scene, maybe. It would help his sanity, if not his disposition.

Someone stopped in front of him. Preoccupied with thoughts of Dawn, Gray muttered “Excuse me,” and tried to move past but the man moved with him.

“Excuse me,” he repeated, the words taut with impatience.

“Baron.”

With a rush, his thoughts returned to the here and now. Keir O’Connell stood before him, looking as if he’d been carved out of stone.

“I’m busy,” Gray said sharply.

“I want to talk to you.”

“Another time.”

“Now.”

Gray narrowed his eyes. O’Connell looked the way he felt, frustrated, angry and dangerous. This was just what he needed, a go-round with a man he hadn’t liked before he’d even met him. Nothing that had happened since they’d shaken hands had changed his mind.

“Yeah, well that’s too bad. I’m in a hurry.”

“I noticed.” O’Connell’s voice was as cold as the look on his face. “This won’t take long.”

They were toe to toe and eye to eye. If I swung now, it would be over before he knew what hit him, Gray thought, and the very insanity of the idea made him take a steadying breath. He gave a quick nod and followed the other man through the lobby, to an unmarked door. O’Connell took a key card from his pocket, inserted it in a slot, and the door opened onto a small, sparsely furnished office.

Gray stepped inside. O’Connell followed, and closed the door behind him.

“Nice,” Gray said tonelessly, looking around at the desk and couple of chairs. “Too bad they won’t give you a real office but then, I guess you’d need to have a real job for that.”

“Sit down.”

“You give me one more order and I’ll stop being polite and tell you what you can do with it.”