“Shh,” she scolded him. “Come in. Sit down. I’m eavesdropping on Ozzie and Becky, and you’re blocking my view.” With her office door open, she had a straight shot at the bank of computers where Ozzie and Becky sat.
Christian glanced over his shoulder. “Eavesdropping on Ozzie and Becky made you cry?”
“Yes,” she hissed, waving for him to come in already and take one of the two chairs in front of her desk. For crying out loud! The man follows instructions for shit. “It was a poignant moment.” So poignant because talk of family, talk of BKI being a family, touched a particularly tender spot inside her. “No time to explain. Now sit down and shut up.”
He eyed her for a full three seconds. Finally, he shrugged and shuffled inside. He was wearing a purple dress shirt, unbuttoned at the collar and with the sleeves rolled up. The color emphasized the bright green of his eyes, and the tailored cut made his shoulders look as wide as an Olympic-sized swimming pool. She ignored all of this—yeah, right—as he took a seat.
“…are you working on?” Becky asked, wiping the tracks of tears from her cheeks as she pointed to Ozzie’s computer screen.
Emily had been curious about that herself. For the last few days, Ozzie had been nose deep in something. And since she was the office manager, kept apprised of every mission or project, the fact that she didn’t know what was keeping Ozzie up nights meant it was something personal.
“I’m trying to track down the person hired to kill Samantha’s father all those years ago.”
Christian muttered something under his breath. Emily shushed him.
“Why?” Becky asked Ozzie.
“Because…” Ozzie trailed off, shaking his head. Then he glanced through the door to Emily’s office.
Oh shit.
“Act like you’re talking to me,” she instructed Christian, careful to keep her voice low enough not to be heard.
“I would,” he answered with a glower, that ridiculously sexy glower. “But you insist on shushing me. So”—Emily saw Ozzie turn back to Becky—“how am I to know when—”
“Shh!” She waved at Christian.
He gaped at her.
“Because it’s something Samantha has wanted to know for years. She needs closure,” Ozzie told Becky. “I can’t give her everything I want to give her, but I just might be able to give her this.”
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Christian whispered. “That’s a private conversation and—”
“Either hush or leave.” Emily tried to murder him with her eyes. “I’m not doing this just to be nosy.”
“No?” He lifted a brow.
“No,” she assured him. “I have… Shh!”
He lifted his hand as if to say, You were the one talking, not me, just as Becky said to Ozzie, “Tell me something. Are you in love with Samantha Tate?”
The woman wasn’t one for beating around the bush. Just one of the many reasons Emily adored her. Holding her breath, Emily waited for Ozzie’s answer.
He tried to play it off with, “I love all women. You know me.”
Becky punched him in the shoulder. “Cut the crap. I’m serious.”
For a while, Ozzie remained quiet. Then he blew out a ragged breath. “I love her.”
Emily nodded. She had suspected as much all along. She thought she heard Christian mutter “Stupid, bloody wanker” under his breath.
“But it doesn’t matter,” Ozzie said. “It’s not like I could make it work with her. Not in the long run. I mean, I can’t even tell her who or what I really am.” He hesitated a beat before adding, “But that’s a moot point anyway.”
“Why is that?” Becky asked.
“Because she doesn’t love me.”
Before Becky could answer, Emily pushed up from her desk. The move was so sudden that Christian looked startled. “Becky!” she called. “I need to talk to you!”
Becky turned in her seat, metal shavings falling from her ponytail. “Can it wait? I’m kinda in the middle of something here.”
“It’s a time-sensitive matter!” Emily called.
With a sigh and a word to Ozzie, Becky shoved out of her chair.
“What are you up to?” Christian demanded.
“Stick around and find out.”
Becky stomped to the doorway. “What’s up?”
“Shut the door,” Emily instructed. “I have an idea I want to run by you.”
Chapter 24
Black Knights Inc. Headquarters
One week after Samantha had canceled her lunch date with Ozzie, she stood in front of the huge steel doors to the old menthol cigarette factory and warehouse the Knights had converted into their custom bike shop. Lifting her finger to ring the buzzer, she noticed its tremor.
What the hell am I doing here?
Oh right. She was here because Becky had called, asking her to stop by. The blond-haired motorcycle mechanic had said she had something for Samantha. But Samantha couldn’t help but wonder if Ozzie was behind this.
She’d canceled on him twice. She hadn’t been able to bear the thought of being with him without being with him. But now it was time to come clean. Her plan to friendly fade him wasn’t working, and she couldn’t continue to blow him off.
Pride be damned, she needed to tell him the truth. Tell him she loved him to the moon and back. At which point, she’d sit back and nurse her broken heart while he pulled away.
She glanced over her shoulder through the big wrought-iron gates at Toran. He was one of the Connelly brothers, the four burly Chicago-born Irishmen who worked guard duty for BKI. She’d come to know all four brothers over the years while trying to get the dirt on the Knights, but Toran was her favorite. He had always withstood her nosy questions with a bit of humor. Currently, he was standing in the door to the gatehouse giving her a thumbs-up.
“Go on!” he yelled in his thick Chicago accent. “Give ’em a ring! They’ll let ya right in!”
She waved her thanks before turning back to the buzzer. For so long, she’d been trying to get into the BKI compound. Now she was being let in at will, and she couldn’t even make herself press the damned buzzer.
You’ve never been a coward, Sammie. Now’s not the time to start.
Right? Right. Squaring her shoulders, she pressed the button. An angry whir sounded inside. After a series of clicks and beeps and one mighty clang, the huge metal door swung open with a whispered groan.
They take their security seriously here, she thought. Then again, they were all former special operators or spies or whatever. Security was probably second nature to them. Plus, they had hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and custom bikes inside, and this wasn’t exactly the greatest neighborhood.
As the door swung wide, Samantha girded herself to see Ozzie. Maybe she was even hoping to see him. That was the only explanation for why her heart plummeted when she realized it was Becky waiting to meet her. “Oh, it’s you,” Samantha said.
“Try not to bowl me over with your enthusiastic greeting.” Becky frowned around a lollipop stick.