My blood ran cold. That voice. Low, cold, and behind me. Alexander Blackwood. Here. Now. Just like my dreams.
My heart pounded so hard I could be certain that everyone in this upscale restaurant could hear it. How did this occur? Was he stalking me? Had he somehow discovered I was meeting Vanessa?
I crept around slowly, holding onto the edge of the table so that my hands did not shake.
He towered over my chair like a ghost in his spotless black suit. His face looked chiseled from stone, and his blue eyes were frigid, pinning Vanessa, not me.
The cruelty of his gaze at her sent shivers bursting on my arms. This wasn't the same man who'd seemed nearly human in the gym. This was the hard, cold CEO everyone warned me about.
Vanessa didn't bat an eyelash. Her plastered-on smile was set firmly in place, but the slits between her eyes narrowed to cat's width. "Alex. Surprising. Won't you come in?" Her voice oozed saccharine sweetness, but I caught the knife-edge underneath.
"Barely," Alex answered in a low, threatening voice aimed at our table alone. "I was in the building. I knew you were having lunch here, Vanessa. With one of my employees."
His eyes finally darted to me for an instant, sweeping me up and down as if checking for damage. I wished I could slide under the table and disappear.
"Friends with the new talent," Vanessa slurred, holding up her wine glass in my direction. "Olivia's such a nice girl. So eager to learn about the firm."
The subtext was ultraclear: *eager to learn from me, not you*.
Alex's jaw muscle bulged, and I could almost hear his teeth crunch. "Ms. Gray reports to me, Vanessa. Anything she needs to learn about Blackwood Industries will be through proper channels."
His tone brooked no possibility of debate whatsoever. He was basically putting a big "MINE" sticker on me. I belonged to Blackwood Industries. I belonged to him.
"Is that a threat, Alex?" Vanessa's smile was cold. "Don't tell me you're afraid I'm going to steal your new little graphic designer?"
"I'm advising you to stay away from my employees," Alex whispered, and his voice sounded more threatening than if he were shouting.
"Ms. Gray has a highly critical project that she's dealing with. She can't get distracted." He glared again, this time harder, like he was trying to send some kind of direct message into my brain. *Watch out for Archer. Avoid her. I'm keeping an eye on you.*
"Maybe I can show her something better," snapped Vanessa, her eyes glinting with cruelty. "Sharp Industries is always open to fresh ideas. We encourage independence, not. ownership."
*Ownership*. The term quivered there, suspended between us like a cloud. Was he considering me like that? As something belonging to him? The thought made me want to vomit.
Alex's laugh was curt and humorless. "Sharp Industries is all about. dirty tricks, Vanessa. And Ms. Gray is far too able to waste her time on your sinking ship."
*Ouch*. These two did not enjoy a pleasant getting-along moment. Their barbs were knives wrapped in nice paper. I just sat there helpless, like a toy fought over by two upset children.
Vanessa's eyes narrowed. The only indication that Alex's words had stung. "You always were able to ruin things you couldn't control, Alex. Aren't you, Olivia?" Her eyes snapped into focus on me, intent and terrifying.
"Tell me, darling, has Alex ever spoken to you about the small businesses he destroyed in order to construct his empire? The lives he destroyed?"
My heart froze. She did know. About the bakery. She was bringing it up now, in his presence.
Alex stiffened, his eyes squeezing shut. Most wouldn't have noticed, but I saw the way his whole body stiffened, the way his mouth pursed. He was shocked.
"Vanessa, this is not about Ms. Gray," Alex said, his voice unsettlingly calm. "Leave her alone."
"Why should I?" Vanessa goaded. "She's your little pet project now, isn't she? Is this just another acquisition, Alex? Another little helpless thing that you can shape to your will?"
She was definitely talking about the bakery. And she was trying to provoke him, to get some response out of him, maybe even to make me question him.
"That's it, Vanessa." Steel was there in Alex's tone. He finally broke away from her and looked at me. "Ms. Gray, you're needed at the office. We have an initial Archer presentation this afternoon." It was not a question or an offer. It was an order. A rescue.
Relief crashed over me like a tide. A way out! I grabbed my purse on the floor at the base of the table. "Yes, sir. At once."
"Oh, going home so early, Olivia?" Vanessa's voice was thick with venomous sweetness. "Such a good little employee. Don't let Alex overwork you. He likes to discard things after he's done with them."
Her words hurt, bringing back what Alex had said about her, but in a much grimmer tone. *Discard things*. Would that be my fate in the future?
I stood on wobbly legs. I didn't dare look at Vanessa and focused instead on Alex, who still stood half in my path.
"We'll discuss this further, Vanessa," Alex growled, his voice warning of war. "Don't call Ms. Gray again."
He didn't wait for a reply. He half-turned, gesturing for me to proceed. I muttered another "sorry" to Vanessa (habits die hard) and hurried past Alex, whose eyes burned into my back.
He followed behind me as I left the restaurant, leaving Vanessa by herself with her beautiful smile hopefully gone from her face. The host looked nervously back and forth from one of us to the other as we left.
On the street, city noise was ear splitting after the hushed-voiced quiet of The Gilded Cage. Alex stood on the sidewalk and turned to me.
"Are you okay, Ms. Gray?" His voice was still tense, but he didn't quite sound so angry anymore, more ice-cold in command again.
"Yes, sir," I said, my voice a bit shaky. "Fine. Just. surprised."
"You shouldn't have had lunch with her," he said to me, his eyes locked on my face. He wasn't accusatory, just matter-of-fact.
"She invited me," I defended. "She said she wanted to explain about the company."
"And you believed her?" His face was impassive. "Vanessa Sharp doesn't give anything away unless she's expecting to get something of infinitely greater value in exchange. Usually, that's information."
"I didn't tell her anything," I quickly assured him. "Nothing specific. Generalities about the Archer campaign."
He nodded like he was glad to hear it. "Good." He sounded like he paused, looking into my eyes. "She was trying to trigger something. In me, in you. To find out what she would find out."
"She said. destroying small businesses," I breathed. I wanted to know if he had any suspicion that she was talking about the bakery.
Nothing in Alex's face changed. "Vanessa will take anything she can get her hands on. Your family bakery was years ago, Ms. Gray. It is irrelevant."
He said it so carelessly, so cavalierly. *Irrelevant*. But it was the world to me. Everything that had shaped my whole life.
My heart ached with a very old, very deep pain. He knew. He had always known. And he still thought of it as merely. a business transaction. Something not important from very far back in the past.
"It's personal to me," I said, my voice rising now, fueled by hurt and anger.
His blue eyes caught mine, and for a fleeting instant, I thought I saw something there, surprise? Regret? It vanished before I could utter it.
"Anyway," he stated, his voice back to its usual measured pace, "stay away from her. She isn't safe."
"So you're telling me all this," I said, struggling to maintain a bitter-free tone. First Jason, now this one. They both played it like she was some supervillain. Why? Because she worked for a rival?
He said nothing more. He just looked at me for a long time, his face revealing nothing. "A car will bring you back to the office. Focus on Archer."
He turned and strode away, leaving me alone on the sidewalk, my mind spinning from what had just happened. Vanessa's veiled threats, Alex materializing out of nowhere, their ugly exchange, and the crushing weight of him making my family's tragedy "not relevant."
A black sedan stopped at the curb a few moments later. The same driver as this morning. He opened the back door for me.
I got in, totally drained. The soft leather cushions, the subtle luxury of the car, all so alien, a million miles from the bakery and the world that I'd left behind.
As the car pulled away, I turned and looked back at The Gilded Cage. I didn't see Alex, but I imagined him remaining there, patiently waiting. Maybe he was already out on his next sale, his next buy.
My phone beeped in my palm. Text message. No number.
Boss from Hell: Presentation this morning was great. Polish 'Reimagined' visuals. Need to see them tomorrow at 7 AM. My office.
Tomorrow. 7 AM. With him alone. After all of it. My head was spinning hysterically. What did he want? Why was he showing up out of the blue like this? Why all the threats? Why was he so obsessed with me?
And how was I supposed to focus on making revolutionary photographs when my own past was crashing into my future, and I was caught up in a war between a billionaire sociopath and his equally sociopathic ex-girlfriend?
"You alright back there, miss?" the driver asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah," I lied, gazing out the window. "Just an odd lunch meeting."
"They come often with Mr. Blackwood's colleagues," he said with a gesture of recognition.
"Do you transport him every day?" I asked, now intrigued.
"Every day for five years," he said. "Marcus, by the way."
"Olivia," I said. "Is he always like that? So intense?"
Marcus chuckled. "Mr. Blackwood? Yeah, basically. But fair, I'll say that. Pays well and remembers your kids' names. Just don't mess with him. Man's got an elephant's memory."
An elephant. Never forgets. And yet he had acted as if my family's bakery was nothing. Had he forgotten? Or hadn't he cared?
"Thanks, Marcus," I said when we reached Blackwood Tower.
"Whenever, Miss Gray. I've got a premonition that I'll be seeing you around again."
I looked up to the towering glass skyscraper, being overshadowed by it. The car drew away, farther into the Blackwood Industries gilded cage, and I couldn't figure out how to extricate myself.