Counting On You (Counting the Billions 2)

“These are good ideas,” I told her. “Aaron’s out of town, so we won’t be able to do a follow-up meeting in person, but I’ll see if I can get him on a video conference later in the week and we can flesh this out with him.”

“Sounds perfect,” Abby said. We turned our attention to our meetings and then hurried through one after another for the rest of the morning.

“Phew,” Abby said as we walked out of the last one.

I raised an eyebrow over at her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were tired,” I joked.

She snorted. “Anyone would be tired trying to keep up with you,” she said. “I don’t know how you do it. I get about the same amount of sleep as you, but you’re like the Energizer Bunny. And you don’t even require three cups of coffee in the morning to do it.”

I laughed. “Years of practice?” I tried.

“I think you’re just nuts,” Abby said, shaking her head. “I think someone forgot to tell you, somewhere along the line, that you’re a cyborg.”

I grinned at her. “Go have lunch,” I suggested. “We’ve got a pretty easy afternoon, so take your time.”

“No chance that you’ll join me?” Abby asked, suddenly switching roles from the professional persona to the more personal one.

“Wish I could,” I said regretfully. “But I have a wonderful call with my broker scheduled, so I get to chat with him while I eat.”

“I don’t envy you,” Abby said, shaking her head. “I’ll see you later, boss.” She flashed me that cute salute that she often did as she was leaving.

I gri

nned at her. “See you later,” I echoed.

I headed back to my office, happy in spite of the fact that I couldn’t go to lunch with her because of this stupid phone call I had to take. More and more, the business was starting to feel like business, in a way that it never had before. But if that was the price I had to pay to keep Abby by my side, then so be it. It was more than a fair trade.

Erin knocked on my door almost the moment I sat down. “Hey, I know you have that call coming in a minute, but there’s a man here to see you,” she said, sounding almost worried.

I frowned, especially confused at the fact that she didn’t tell me just who it was. That wasn’t normal protocol. But I nodded at Erin. “Send him in,” I told her.

The man walked in moments later, dressed in a sharp suit. Another businessman, maybe? But why hadn’t he called to set up an appointment like they normally did? And why had Erin just let him in like this?

I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, the man walked right up to my desk and set a file down in front of me. “Daniel McGregor, you’ve been served,” he said. “My client and I will see you in court.”

I stared down at the file as the man walked out, shock and confusion swirling through me. I was almost afraid to pick up the file to see what it was about. The business, or something more personal?

I slowly picked up the file and opened it. Then, I swallowed hard.

Gerrard was suing me for assault over that fight in the bar.

It was something I should have seen coming. But I had naively assumed that if he hadn’t already tried to take me to court over it, then he wouldn’t. After all, he had just as much to lose. I could take him to court for all the shit he had leaked to the media about me.

Of course, I would need solid proof to do that. And I would need to want to destroy his reputation, something I had never wanted to do.

I stared down at the file, planting my hands flat on either side of it. Of course this would come now, right when everything seemed to be going well. I knew that Abby had reservations about dating me after that night. I knew that she had been worried about the kind of guy that I might turn out to be.

Not only that, but a trial like this would bring me very much into the public eye. It was just the kind of thing that Abby had been trying to avoid all along.

And selfishly, all I could think about was the amount of time this was going to take up. I was going to have to find someone to stand in for me at work, and I was going to miss out on time with Abby.

If she would even see me again, once this all came to light.

My hands clenched into fists. Fucking Gerrard. I couldn’t believe he would pull something like this now. But there was nothing I could do except fight it. And you’d better believe I was going to go to war. I had something worth fighting for... the woman I loved.

THE END