“So . . . Is O’Dea there?”
“Oh. Right. Oh . . . well . . . uh . . . Mr. O’Dea is busy. I’ll let him know you called.”
I was being Yasmined? He was actually Yasmining me!
Oh hell no. I said goodbye to Eve, shoved on my boots, grabbed my coat and scarf out of the closet, and locked the apartment on my way out. Indignation that he was being so immature fueled me and I got to the label in record time. No pun intended.
The big guy with the scar stopped me at the bank of elevators. “No ID, no entry.”
Sighing in irritation, I glanced back at the main reception to the woman sitting at the front desk. “Would you call up to Justin at Skyscraper Records to get him to confirm that Mr. O’Dea is expecting me?” I bluffed. “The name is Skylar.”
Luckily, Justin must have assumed he’d missed the memo because he confirmed and the big guy let me pass.
However, as soon as I stepped off that elevator, Justin gave me a strained smile. “Miss Finch, it turns out that Mr. O’Dea—hey!” he yelled after me as I veered to the left, heading down the corridor toward Killian’s office. I hurried my steps, hoping to get there before Justin stopped me.
Eve looked up from her desk as I barreled into view. “Oh, Skylar. You’re here . . . Oh, well, he doesn’t want to be disturbed!” She squeaked as I passed her and pushed open his office door so hard, it slammed open and back into the wall.
“What the—” Killian’s wide eyes shot to me. He had his phone pressed to his ear. “I’m sorry, Xander, I’m going to have to call you back.”
I stood staring at him, arms crossed in defiance as he glared at me while hanging up.
“I’m sorry, Mr. O’Dea, she slipped right by me,” Eve said breathlessly at my back.
“It’s fine, Eve.” He waved at her impatiently. “Close the door, please.”
I stepped out of the way so she could reach in and do as asked.
Killian raised an eyebrow in that pompous way that got on my nerves. “You call this professional? Always with the drama.”
I didn’t flinch at the insinuation. I was no longer going to let him get to me. And well, to be fair, it had been kind of a dramatic entrance. “Well, I couldn’t be sure if you were ignoring me and this can’t wait.”
“I wasn’t ignoring you.” He stood and rounded the desk. He sat casually on it, crossing his ankles. “I was on a conference call. So now that you have my attention, what is so important that it couldn’t wait?”
“Autumn.”
Killian stood up off the desk at the mention of his sister’s name. “What about her?” His concern for her made me not want to hate him.
“You know she broke up with that guy.”
“Darren? Aye, she told me yesterday.”
I let out a shaky breath. “This might sound crazy, but I know it’s not. Autumn came to see me today and I noticed bruising all around her forearm. It looked like finger grips. Like someone had grabbed her. Hard.”
Her brother’s face instantly darkened.
“I’m a pessimist. I think of worst-case scenarios all the time, right? So I ask her about the guy, trying to feel her out.”
“And?”
“She tells me they’ve broken up so I tried to put the bruising to the back of my head. But she’s closed off, and shifty, and we both know that’s not Autumn. Your sister is usually an open freaking book. I know every detail of how she lost her virginity, for God’s sake.”
He winced.
“Not the point, sorry. Point is, she was acting strange and not like herself. And then that guy, Darren, starts calling her cell. She told me to ignore it. But he calls two times more right at the back. Persistent fucker. And she got paler and paler each time he called. Then there was the text. I didn’t get to see it all but what I did see had a threatening air to it. And, O’Dea, she tried to hide it but she looked afraid.”
I’d heard the phrase “stormy expression” before, but I’d never really seen it in action until that moment. Killian looked ready to strike Darren down with lightning bolts from his eyes.
He paced the room in agitation.
“There is a chance I’m wrong, right? Of course, there is. But my gut is telling me something is going on and I thought if some guy is harassing Autumn, it needs to stop.”
“Oh, I’ll take care of it.” His voice rumbled with dark retribution.
And I didn’t care that if I was right and this guy was screwing around with Autumn that Killian would make him pay. A few years ago, I would’ve condemned vengeance. But something had happened to me when I realized my mother’s murderers were probably going to escape justice. I no longer saw the world quite so black and white. There was a darkness in me now.
Just as I’d felt protected knowing that Killian had Welsh threatened so he couldn’t hurt me anymore, I was okay with him doing the same to protect Autumn, Autumn who was better than the two of us combined. She deserved to be protected from the darker parts of human nature.
“I know you’ll take care of it. That’s why I came straight to you.”
Our gazes locked and for a moment, the anger mirrored in our expressions changed to something more complicated, deeper—something that drew us together even as we stood with the entire office between us.
Affinity.
He and I were so alike in so many ways.
I guess I hadn’t realized quite so much until that moment.
“Thank you,” his voice was hoarse, “for telling me.”
I had to clear my throat of the emotion bubbling up out of me. “Well,” I dropped my gaze as I turned to open the door, “I care about Autumn.”
THE NEXT MORNING I WAS pulled out of sleep by a loud banging noise.
It took me a minute to realize someone was banging on my apartment door. Groaning, stumbling out of bed, I pulled on the silk robe Autumn had bought me and yanked open my bedroom door, forgetting in my sleeplike state about the fragility of my wrist.
“Fuck,” I hissed, rubbing it gently.
The banging continued.
“Who is it?!” I yelled, beyond irritated.
“Skylar, open the door!” Autumn called.
Worry yanked me out of my fog and I hurried down the hall. Autumn had obviously opened the door with her key but couldn’t get past the security chain.
As soon as I removed it, she shoved open the door and I had to skitter out of the way. She blew past me, thundering down the hall. I shut the apartment door and followed her into the living area.
“What’s up?” I asked tentatively, because I was beginning to think Killian had told her about my suspicions.
She whirled, her lovely auburn hair spiraling around her before settling flawlessly across her shoulders. Seriously, how did it do that?
“You told him,” she huffed, drawing me out of my sleepy thoughts.
“Huh?” I pretended ignorance.
“Skylar, this isn’t a game.”
I tensed. “What happened?”
“What you must have known would happen. He interrogated me, I can’t lie to him, and so he tracked down Darren and got into a bloody fight.”
Worry shot through me. “Is he okay?”
“No, Killian beat the shit out of him.”
“I’m not talking about Darren,” I cried. “I couldn’t care less if your manhandling, stalkery ex-boyfriend got what was coming to him. Is Killian okay?”
“My brother is fine. A neighbor called the police but Darren, surprise, surprise, refused to press charges.” She crossed her arms over her chest and studied me like she’d never seen me before. “You guessed correctly, okay. Darren became controlling. He slapped me during an argument and when I tried to leave, he wouldn’t let go of my arm. I screamed bloody murder and he let me go. He lives in a flat with thin walls apparently. He tried to apologize but obviously, I broke up with him. He was calling me constantly and he was saying things that were . . . unsettling.”
“Stalker-like things?”
“Yes. But . . . I knew if I told Killian, he’d do this and worse. That’s why I didn’t tell him and even though I knew you knew something was up, I never would’ve thought you’d team up with Killian, let alone be okay with him going after Darren.”