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Chapter Three

Before the sun had risen above the treetops, Niko submitted himself to the brunt of Roman’s mandatory sparring sessions.

Few kindred could go toe to toe with the massive Sagani leader and live to tell the tale.

He’d always been Niko’s first choice in the daily training that kept his warrior conditioning and skills during this modern era of boardrooms and creature comforts.

In addition to his brute strength, Roman’s skill with a blade was legendary. Even in his capacity as Sentinel, Niko had stumbled upon few Sagani that could boast greater skill than his prime.

Roman had drilled Niko into the ground for an hour this morning with the rest of his lieutenants. They’d all completed their training quickly, so they could watch the prime and his second go head-to-head. Fox had even manifested a bag of popcorn as they entered the second hour of the festivities.

Niko’s blade clashed violently with Roman’s, the metallic whistle familiar and satisfying. Pressing forward, he shoved at his prime’s sword, freeing their weapons and allowing him to go on the offensive once more.

His opponent met him head-on, parrying the thrust with a sharp downward sweep. A heavy shoulder rammed into Niko’s chest, throwing him off-balance, and before he could recover, a powerful hook swung toward his face.

He barely dodged.

Throwing himself backward, Niko’s blade aimed to slice across the prime’s calves—but this time wasn’t quick enough. The massive Sagani prime leapt in the air to avoid it, with a grace belied by his size. Niko smiled as his magic flared to life.

A thin layer of ice coated the floor before Roman’s feet touched back down, and he skidded. Niko seized the opportunity, slashing his blade downward with intent.

Except a Bengal tiger now stood in the space the man had occupied a fraction of a second before.

Claws dug into the ice, giving the animal better grip, and a low, rumbling growl preceded the final attack.

A six-hundred-pound predator rammed into Niko’s gut, stealing his breath and taking him to the ground.

The back of his skull bounced off the cement flooring. Temporarily dazed, Niko stilled. At some point, they must’ve left the mats. As he attempted to gain his bearings, Roman’s tiger—the prime’s shifted form—stared down at him curiously.

“Bad kitty.”

Roman shifted back, laughing, as Amadeo, the legion’s mender, administered a quick fix. If Niko showed up to the corporate meeting with a bruised face and dizzy from a concussion, it would certainly send the wrong impression.

After he’d been given a pass on the rest of training, he phased to Chicago. He took his seat at the proceedings seemingly without suspicion from the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.

Fortunately, he managed to listen with half an ear to what was going on around him—despite being preoccupied with fantasies of himself victorious, stepping over Julian’s slain body, as Jade fawned and ran into his arms.

“We needn’t proceed with either one or the other,” Niko added to the conversation.

“We’re merging companies, not throwing out the weakest link.

It’s my opinion that we establish new core principles, rewrite our foundation.

If we’re smart about it, the new principles will nod to the past while looking toward the future. ”

Easily said, not easily done.

He expected Jade to voice her dissenting opinion, but she merely gave him a nod instead. Had she truly accepted his answer, or was she merely biding her time before lashing out?

“Agreed,” Hayley followed up. “We don’t need to trash McArthur Vegas’ principles when we can simply incorporate them into ours.”

The slight narrowing of Jade’s eyes indicated her immediate dislike of Hayley’s veiled insult, but she didn’t take the bait.

Instead, her attention veered over to Trina, a question in her eyes before she looked down at the laptop in front of her. It was clear from the way her eyes scanned across the page that she was reading, and Niko knew without a doubt that she was instant messaging with her protégée.

He decided to roll the dice.

Pulling open his own laptop, he retrieved Jade’s instant messaging credentials. Her picture, perfect and poised, hovered above a ‘Type here to begin the conversation’ message.

I’m bored.

A frown lined Jade’s forehead and dissolved almost as quickly. She sent him a disapproving look over the top of her computer.

Casting his dialogue window aside, her attention went back to where Kurt, the lead acquisition officer, was explaining the importance of choosing the foremost principle.

He sent another message.

Tell me a joke.

This time when Jade caught the instant message, she rolled her eyes, then began contributing to the spoken conversation like the goodie-two-shoes businesswoman she was.

Fortunately, Niko’s attention span was only slightly longer than the average goldfish, and he’d never appreciated business-jargon in any of his lives.

Fine, I’ll tell you one.

Niko didn’t have to look at Jade to see that her attention went once more to the screen.

What’s the difference between an executive and a magician?

He waited for three seconds before typing, The magician actually makes things disappear without blaming middle management.

Holding his breath until Jade finished her train of thought and looked down, Niko was rewarded when her sultry lips softened. Not quite a smile, but a hint of one before she glanced up and purposefully avoided looking at him.

She couldn’t quite manage to hide the twinkle in her eyes.

Jade had appreciated his humor, and it made Niko’s heart sing. He watched her as she typed out a few words on her laptop during the next lull in conversation.

Stupid joke.

Ah, but you laughed he replied, eager to continue their dialogue now that she’d lowered herself to his level.

Briefly, her eyes met his across the table, a slight reprimand. I did no such thing.

Not all laughs are out loud. If we can’t make fun of ourselves, we’ll be crushed when the employees do.

Once again, the other Sagani’s attention drifted back to the conversation, and for a spell, both of them were locked in a discussion about core principles and the politics behind them. Niko became so invested that he didn’t notice until an hour later that Jade had replied.

Touché.

It was nearly lunchtime when they paused for a water break, and Niko was happy for the reprieve. Meaningless drivel, usually carried by the people whose jobs were on the line, had never been his forte.

Following the discussion about core principles, they’d launched into an argument about where the merged company would be housed. Both sides had agreed that maintaining two campuses was untenable, but settling on which one would close was an entirely different matter.

While Niko listened to each argument and the reasoning behind it, his mind had already been made up months ago. The Chicago campus was necessary for one reason: to get him closer to Julian. Though the acquisition meant he’d be cutting away at the prime’s empire, Niko had an ulterior motive.

The company gave him a ‘legal’ reason to be in the territory, even if only temporarily. While he was here, he would uncover and expose what secrets he could, then uproot what was left of McArthur Vegas and drop them in La Crosse.

Ultimately, there was absolutely no way he’d cede the location to Chicago.

More employees lived in the suburbs and their client base was centered more fundamentally around the big city, but Chicago was a far pricier locale to maintain than the existing campus in La Crosse.

When Niko finally laid out the bottom line—moving Chicago assets and employees to Wisconsin—tempers erupted. Arguments from the McArthur Vegas team toed the line between respectful and less so.

He understood the vitriol behind them. Moving homes, changing school districts, and uprooting their families would be difficult, but it wasn’t impossible. The only positive thing here was that if former McArthur Vegas employees wanted to remain in Chicago, that was one less person he’d have to cut.

After ten minutes of raised tempers, Niko decided enough was enough. Especially since Jade hadn’t intervened for either side.

“For those of you interested in continuing to beat a dead horse, I’ll remind you of one thing. We’re merging companies, true, but DNB acquired McArthur Vegas. If you do not wish to uproot your families, I understand. Please inform me of your exit date and I’ll handle the termination.”

Instant tension.

Well accustomed to these conversations, Kurt took everything in stride. “Let’s break for fifteen, then reconvene to work through the logistics.”

People filtered out without a word. Members of his company looked too smug for Niko’s liking. They’d won a battle here today, but he wouldn’t forget that his win translated to pain on the part of his future employees.

Winning too many battles in the wrong way could still lose the war.

He exited the conference room at roughly the same time as Jade, walking side by side toward the same place. His counterpart didn’t say a word, and he was beginning to believe she was deliberately ignoring him.

She smiled warmly at those they passed, and even exchanged a few greetings, but she remained silent toward him the entire way into the kitchen. Niko started to grin.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

A subtle shake of her head before she grabbed a corkboard coaster and a few napkins and made to leave.

“What, no coffee?” came his question as he filled his cup. Admittedly, the Chicago office did offer a much more robust variety. He made a mental note to expand the pod offering in La Crosse.

Turning, Jade merely said, “No.”

She stared at him blandly with those gorgeous eyes, and her beauty hit him all over again.

She always looked poised, and the tight bun she wore as a hairstyle nearly drove him insane.

Inhaling to reply, he caught a trace of her lilac scent.

The sweet, flowery aroma caressed his senses, piquing his interest.

“Tea?”

“No.”

There was a hint of smugness in her expression.

“Smart Water?” Niko was running out of business appropriate liquids. At her blank look, he grew sly. “Oh, I see. Vodka, then. I know a vodka girl when I see one.”

This time, Jade’s eye roll was theatrical. “Still no, Nikolas.”

“Niko,” he gently reminded her as she moved toward the exit.

As she escaped the kitchen, he moved to accompany her once again through the impersonal office hallways.

The added coolness of the Ice Queen’s attitude only spurred him on, determined to break through her icy exterior and find her inner fire.

“Whatever you choose to call yourself is no concern of mine,” was Jade’s flippant answer. “But you shall call me Jade, and only Jade.”

Niko couldn’t resist. “For being so touchy about your own name, you’re certainly disrespectful of what others call themselves.”

Jade’s gaze pinched as though she’d never thought of it before. She righted nearly instantly, but Niko had a feeling she’d use his nickname moving forward.

They split company at the door, after he’d given her a sarcastic salute and she’d rewarded him with a chagrined sigh. It was progress, down a level on the annoyance scale from her typical eye roll.

When he sat down at his computer, he typed, So, you’re a muscle milk girl, then? Gotta get that protein in, huh?

No.

Is that all you can say? There was something about Jade that made it so irresistible to taunt her.

A melodramatic sigh from her side of the table. What are you, five? Grow up, Niko. We have actual work to do.

Is that what you call this?