Lila

"Gah! I'm so sick of this!"

​​

Lila gripped her laptop with white knuckles and talked herself down from throwing it across the room. And it hadn't even done anything except be in front of her.

She was losing her mind. It was actually happening.

She knew she hadn't even started to process all that had happened that morning, and the triggers Chris had flipped by first fighting her, then tying her up. But she honestly wasn't feeling the tension from that—at least, not consciously. What was driving her completely crazy was knowing that Dane was out, walking around free somewhere near, somewhere safe, but somewhere she couldn't see him.

Did he not want to see her?

Had he regretted the wedding after what it had cost him, going back to his father? She put her hand to her chest. She had Dane's wedding ring on a chain around her neck. The ring was warm and heavy between her breasts. She swallowed hard.

Had that woman caught his eye? Or was he so ashamed of what he'd done he was afraid to face her?

None of those things seemed likely of him, but… Lila groaned and dropped her face in her hands. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. And she wanted to hunt Dane down and make him answer for himself. She also desperately wanted to know how bad it was, how completely messed up he'd been by his father. Whether he was okay, and if he was hurt.

Of course he was hurt. What a stupid question. From what she gathered, Doug had gone easy on her—and yet, she was still having trouble sleeping, waking up more than once a night in cold sweats from nightmares that she was stuck in his building again.

What must Dane have gone through? All the echoes of his past thrown together with the threats of his future… it must have been the most difficult circumstances of his life.

She knew that.

But she was still struggling to just overlook the incident with the woman.

The sensation of being torn in two was beginning to strangle her. Hence, wanting to pick up the laptop and hurl it through the broad window behind her.

Chris knocked on the door and peeked in just when she started to breathe again. "You okay?" he asked, looking concerned. He stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. "You look…"

"Aggravated? Scared? Fucking furious? Yes."

Chris blinked. "He's doing his best, Lila. I promise. I know this isn't what he'd choose—"

"Stop feeding me bullshit please," she sighed and started packing her things. "Dane never does things he doesn't want to do—unless his father is forcing him to. And his father, according to you, is gone. So, I'm not buying it." She swallowed. Saying that out loud made it a lot more real. "Unless you're both lying to me?"

"No."

"Then, while I understand that he doesn't want me in trouble, I am his wife. If anyone should know where he is and what he's doing, it's me."

"That's… what I said," Chris growled. Then he frowned at her bag where she'd just slid her laptop—still in one piece—into the slot. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going home. I can't concentrate, and if I actually lose my mind and start pinging off the walls I don't want the staff to have to clean up after me."

"Lila—"

"I will keep my phone on. It's not like this place needs me to run. I've barely written more than a couple press releases this week. I can't keep my head on straight!"

"No, that's not—"

"Please don't mess with me, Chris. I thought after this morning I wanted to be around people. But it turns out that's just made it worse."

Chris sighed and met her eyes. "I'm sorry about that. Really."

"It's fine, it wasn't at all traumatic after everything else that's happened, so don't worry yourself," she said venomously, then felt bad when he winced. "Look, Chris, I get it okay. Things are difficult right now. But they're difficult for me too. So, I'm pissed about this morning. But I'm also not going to do anything about it because under the circumstances, I probably would have done the same thing."

Chris sighed and raked his hand through his hair exactly the way Dane would do, and it made her chest ache. "Look, let me take you back. We'll grab some take-out on the way and I'll check the place, then you can just relax and I'll leave you alone for the night."

"No, Chris, I don't need you to take me home. I'm serious." She stepped out from behind the desk, and Chris stepped into her path.

"Please, Lila. Please let me take you? I've only got one errand I need to run first, and then I'll—"

"No, Chris, the drivers can—"

"But I'd feel so much better if—"

"Chris, I don't need you to do everything for me!"

"It's not for you, Lila!"

They both stopped. Chris let his chin drop and closed his eyes.

Lila sighed. "So, he's back to the over-protective bullshit, I take it?" she said quietly.

"Can you blame him? We have no idea how this is going to go, and it's killing him not to be close to you. He's… hyper-sensitive to your safety."

She snorted. "Then maybe he should show up." Chris opened his mouth, but she raised a hand to stop him. The truth was, there something warm and soft inside her at the thought that Dane was still working to make sure she was safe—even if he was effectively ignoring the past two weeks where she'd had to function in serious danger almost entirely without him. "It's okay," she said. "I'll wait for you. You go do your thing, I'll try one more time to write something useful, and then we'll leave together and you can tell your brother that you did your job."

"Thank you, Lila," Chris said, looking truly relieved. Dane must have really put the screws on him. "I'll be forty-five minutes. An hour tops. Then I'll let you know when I'm downstairs with the car. Let me know what you want for dinner, I can even pick it up on my way to get you."

"That would be great," she said, though she couldn't imagine what she could force down her throat. "I'll give it some thought."

*****

Dane

Dane sat in John's cave, the florescent lights making both their faces look half-green, half-shadow. "Did you organize that other stuff I asked you about?" he asked quietly.

"Of course. It's all in place. The packets are here." John leaned over with barely a glance and picked up to buff envelopes and tossed them over to Dane, then went back to his screen.

"The lawyers?"

John snorted. "Desk jockeys. They don't have a clue."

Dane breathed a sigh of relief. But not for long. His phone buzzed, which meant it had to be Chris. He looked at the text. "Damn."

"What's going on?" John asked without looking up from the computer. "Chris says he has to come get me now, otherwise I'm going to be stuck not able to get to the Penthouse. He's already on his way."

"I still think you should see Lila. You'll both feel better," John said in the toneless voice he used when he disapproved, but didn't want to conflict with someone.

"I'm working on that, John. Or rather, you are."

"Well, I'm not going to be able to get these files to you in the next few minutes. How do we want to transfer them?"

"What's safest?"

"Getting them on a secure, external drive and taking that to whomever you wish to have them."

"Copies?"

"I'll hold them here. I have a fireproof safe."

Dane nodded. "Okay, I'll ask Chris if he'll keep being my errand boy and run back over here when you're ready, then get them to Harry."

"The same Harry they had a team on?"

"Yes, but at least that means we can know he's really not working with my father."

"I suppose." John kept tapping for a minute and Dane finally got up the courage to ask.

"Did you send her the gift?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"I believe she said she cried. She loved it."

He sighed, okay. That was good. That was good. "Was that before or after—"

"Before. She made a big show out of being uncertain about you to the others, but she wasn't uncertain, Dane. She's still in love with you."

Not for the first time, Dane wondered how John spoke so confidently about relationships when he didn't seem to have one. With anyone. At all. But this wasn't the time to ask. So instead, they worked out a few more details around the old software and what Dane wanted to do with it, then Dane's phone chimed again, because Chris was there.

"I gotta go, John," he said.

John nodded, without looking up from the computer. "I'll have this done tonight at the latest, then I'll talk to Chris about getting them to Harry."

"Thank you."

"How was it, Dane? Wearing the tech that long. Did you notice it?"

"No. In fact, more than once I got worried I'd lost it somehow because I forgot it was there."

John smiled and nodded, but still didn't look at Dane. "This is fantastic. I've definitely got the files."

"Well, let's just pray they caught the important stuff," he said. Then after a pause, "You don't have to watch that last one, you know. Not in detail. Just… make sure it's there."

"It would be the first time I watched you kill a man, Dane."

"I know, but… just…"

"It's okay, Dane. I know. I know you don't want to. Don't worry."

"Harry needs that one."

"If it's there, he'll have it."

Dane heaved a sigh of relief, then walked out to meet his brother—who was steaming with impatience, and ready to beat his face in when he found out he'd be expected to come back out to this dump at some point in the middle of the night. But Dane was so exhausted, he didn't care.