Page 113 of Twisted Knight

I’m scared to.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he asks as he moves back to his desk and hits the intercom.

“You’re back,” Audrey says through the speaker.

“Only been here a few minutes. We had four employees let go today in error. Can you get with HR and let me know why they were let go and by whom?”

“Mr. Rothschild let them go. His reasoning was a downsizing of the marketing department,” she says as the dormant knife in my back twists.

“Son of a bitch.” Holden’s hands curl into fists. “Audrey?”

“Yes?”

“Have HR call them back. Tell them there was a mistake made and we understand if they’d like to not return, but that we’d love to have them as they are valued employees. That for their troubles, we’d like to offer them a signing bonus with an employment contract.”

“Okay.”

“Please have legal then draw up some kind of agreement that by taking the bonus it clears us of any pain and suffering, etcetera, etcetera, lawsuit.”

“Will do. Anything else?”

“Is Mr. Rothschild still in the building?”

“I believe so.”

The smile he gives the phone is chilling. “Let him know not to go anywhere. That I need to speak with him. I’ll come to him when I’m ready.”

“Of course.”

He pushes the button to end the call and his low rumble of a chuckle fills the room. If I didn’t know him any better than I do, the sound would be a warning alarm to steer clear.

He stares at the pen in his hand for way too long before lifting his eyes to meet mine. “Believe me now?”

We stand feet apart, staring at each other as my heart decelerates, and my head acknowledges what is the right next step to take.

“What is it you want from me?” I ask.

A purely male expression fleets over his face and in his eyes. “That’s a very open-ended question. Care to narrow it down for me because I can answer that in a myriad of ways.”

I swallow and draw in a deep breath, hating that his comment causes nerves to rattle around inside of me. He’s laid the offer to work with him out there for me, he’s teased me with it, and he just protected my staff … there is more to his offer to team up with him than meets the eye, and I’m walking on broken glass trying to figure out what it is.

Time to just go for it, right?

“Obviously you’re a smart businessman—”

“Watch it. In case you didn’t realize it, you just complimented me.” A crooked grin lights up the darkness his call to Audrey caused.

“I’m asking what it is you want, Holden. Why do you want me to work with you?”

His nod is slow and measured, the calculating expression of Holden Knight reappearing. “Because while I don’t think you’re ready to run this place, I think you want to learn how. And because…”

“And because you want to stick it to my brother. Right? You want to put value in the one thing that he hasn’t. Me.”

“The face of the company. And I’m beginning to think the underused brains too.” His voice is quiet, reserved, when I would expect it to be more triumphant.

“You want to use me to get under his skin. That’s part of this, right?” I ask, everything tumbling together to make sense all of a sudden.

“Correct.”