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Fiona rolled her eyes. “You needed a little motivation. Nopersonwas supposed to get hurt…just the horses.”
Ben almost died, bitch. Elena, too.
“Now I have a shit ton of property damage,” I blustered.
“That’s the thing about alittleproperty damage—it doesn’t hurt the price. If anything, it makes the teardowneasier,” Fiona tittered. “At least, that was Piper and my thoughts when we…well….”
I nodded, pretending to be impressed. “I never thought of it that way.”
“You never had to,” she said with satisfaction. “That wasmyjob.”
She reached across the table, resting her hand lightly on mine, her nails cool against my skin. “You’re a smart man, Duke. But you’re better when you listen to me.”
I forced myself to look at her, to let my gaze soften like she was pulling me back into her orbit. I let a pause stretch between us, then said softly, almost hesitant, “I know, doll. I know now. Can you forgive me?”
She smiled. Slow. Smug. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back, Duke.” Her eyes were full oflove, the kind that was not directed at me but at herself. She waslike Mama, I realized. She’d be just as much in love if I were a fifty-million-dollar land development project or a Bulgari necklace.
“What happens now?” I asked, my stance lazy, relaxed when I felt no such thing.
I felt dirty, unclean.
I wanted Elena. I wanted to hold her. I wanted the ranch. I wanted to ride under the endless sky. I wanted to cleanse myself from the man I had been becoming and be the man who deserved the land and the woman.
“Now, you leave everything to me, and I’ll get things moving,” she said triumphantly.
I paid for lunch, and we slipped back into our old ways, talking about work, a deal, and the market.
“The Florida market is saturated.” Fiona looked at herself in her compact mirror and adjusted her lipstick. “It’s the insurance costs…they’re sky high.”
The server brought my suit jacket. I rose and slipped it on.
“Yeah, but Texas is heating up.”
Fiona snapped the mirror shut. “Maybe. But the margins are tighter…and with climate change and all that flooding…. It’s become a choose your natural disaster game.”
“You know, since you are working for Piper now, maybe Novak Enterprises and Ironwood could partner?”
“I love the way you think and so will Piper. This was her hope when she hired me.” She slid out of the booth, smoothing down her dress. She smiled, slow and indulgent. “Welcome back to the winning team.”
I stood when she did, and when she moved her face close to mine, I dropped a quick kiss on her lips. Kaz better edit that shit out if he was ever showing this to Elena.
I held my hand out, indicating that I would follow her. “I’ll walk you to your car.AndI’ll see you soon.”
“Oh, count on it.” I stayed a step behind her in the guise of having my hand on the small of her back.
I counted slowly in my head.
One.
Two.
We stepped out of the restaurant, and I dropped my hand and stepped away from her.
Three.
She was about to say something when?—
There were sounds of footsteps. Men in ill-fitting black suits, their badges flashing.