do you a favor and let you know you’re spooking the programmers. They don’t like the eavesdropping, and it’s pretty damned obvious that’s what you’re doing. You’re not nearly as smooth as you think you are.”
A warning. A small one and I’d landed the shark, even though I hadn’t been trolling. He stayed and talked to me for an hour that night, then his assistant found me on Facebook and arranged lunch the next week. The man squirmed his way into my life and I was still trying to figure out how I’d let that happen. I didn’t really like Duncan, but at least he did have a little imagination. He wanted Nations to succeed as much as I did. And he could see the potential. That alone had me sticking around.
“No time for Vegas, man.” A quick nod at the monitor and I started typing again. “I got work to do.”
“See, that’s what I thought, but then I came in here this morning and you were just staring off into space.”
He kept that smile tight and wide when I looked at him, my eyes narrowing. “You checking up on me, man?”
“No,” he laughed, throwing a shoulder up in a shrug as though he thought I was simple. Then came a bigger laugh bunched up with an insult. “I pay your assistant to do that.”
“I pay my assistant, Duncan. Don’t get it twisted.” He lifted his hands, a surrender he sure as hell didn’t mean and then laughed again, fast, hurried, failing at his lame-ass attempt to squash the tension he’d caused. “What do you want?”
“I’m just a little worried.” He was circling, Duncan always did that. The predator sniffing around, checking to see if I was full or juicy enough to warrant an attack. But Duncan was a player of the game I was trying to learn. He was better at it than me, we both knew it, but he still fronted like he was only concerned for me, not the buckets of cash my program would make him one day. The laugh was gone, so was the smile and Duncan pulled his eyebrows together, forcing mock concern I knew wasn’t real. “It’s been a couple of weeks now and you’re still working on the same code. And you missed the meeting on Wednesday morning…”
“I can’t oversleep?”
He waved, ignoring my question, speaking over me. “And then I pass by here this morning and you’re staring off into space, completely zoned out.”
“Maybe I was thinking.”
The head nod was slow, his eyes cool, as if he wanted to swish around his words in his mouth, like a shot of bourbon that would burn. The buzz was worth it and Duncan knew it. He had me. I had been zoned out, plagued with Willow and the damn crazy dreams that wouldn’t back off.
“Daisy tried buzzing you three times.” There was a lot of accusation in his tone, and I stood, meeting his stare with a head tilt that let Duncan know I wasn’t going to back down like a punk. Still, he watched me as if my bluster didn’t matter, moving his teeth together like he wasn’t sure if he should let the words on his tongue fly. “Weird, isn’t it? Her calling, you here and still you didn’t answer.”
“Maybe I was thinking hard.”
He didn’t buy it, not when I sat back down, tired already of the interrogation. In fact, he actually thought getting angry would raise my hackles maybe, because he let his temper flare, knocking a fist against my desk. “Man, what’s going on with you? You… you thinking of signing up with someone else? Because if you are…”
Here we go. This mess again. What an asshole. “Give me a break. No, I’m not going anywhere but even if I was, what of it? We got no contract.” Duncan stepped away from my desk, scrubbing his chin as he moved around my office. He looked like a tiger itching to pounce but I wouldn’t let it get that far. When I spoke, I made sure it was with less attitude, that my voice was lowered, calm. “Is this your way of getting me to sign a contract? If it is then...”
“No, man…” he started, a quick, hurried laugh moving from his throat as he holds up his hands. “Of course not. I’m just concerned, is all. I know how hard all of this can be.” He waved to my monitor, adopting a worried expression that might look sincere if I