Page 45 of The Best Worst Mistake (Off-Limits #2)

Dax

Trudy, a paralegal, sticks her head into my office, but her eyes only meet mine for a millisecond before she turns them on Silas, taking in every inch of him from head to toe.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you both,” she says in a voice as sweet as honey, which is very unlike her since Trudy usually sounds like she smokes four cigars on any given day and cusses like a sailor.

“I’m sure,” I reply, shooting Silas a funny look.

She’s the sixth female paralegal to find a reason to come in here this afternoon, ever since Silas’ private jet finally landed back in L.A. today.

I lost track of where he was in the world after Spain. Frankfurt, I think? Maybe South Africa after that. Something about a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the elephant migration over the plains there.

God knows.

“What is it, Trudy?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s just that this was left on the printer,” she says, holding up a few pages that I’m not even sure are printed on.

“I have a printer in here,” I tell her. “Or did you forget?”

“Oh, gosh, that’s right!” she exclaims, not even looking at me. She’s studying Silas a bit closer, grinning. “My mistake.”

Instead of leaving, she stands there, like maybe our billionaire client might ask her out or something.

Silas is oblivious. He’s picking out which scotch he wants to pour from the new collection his assistant sent over last week to replace the previous set of bottles he had sent, even though half of them weren’t even open yet.

“Is that all, Trudy?” I ask.

“Unless you need me to do something? Take notes maybe?” she suggests.

“Take notes about Silas’ experience with elephants?” I say, deadpan.

Trudy nods enthusiastically, then digs into her pocket for a pen.

“I can certainly do that,” she says, shuffling over toward the couch, flipping the blank pages over.

“I was being sarcastic, Trudy,” I say, gently. “I’ll let you or any of the other five paralegals who have come in here today know if we need anything.”

“Right,” she says, then turns to Silas. “I’m Trudy, by the way. Did I mention that? Let me know if I can do anything for you. Coffee, snacks. Anything at all—”

“Thank you, Trudy,” I interrupt, then nod toward the door.

She turns to go, just as Lila breezes in.

I groan.

Then I do a double— no, a triple — take at her. Lila, who’s normally pretty drab at the office, has a full face of make-up on, including a fresh coat of hot-pink lipstick.

“Oh, Mr. Davenport!” she says, stopping in her tracks, like she’s surprised to see him.

Mr. Davenport? Really?

Silas looks up from his stash of fresh scotch bottles on my overflowing bar cart.

“I’m Lila. Lila Lancaster,” she says, batting her eyes. “I’ve been working with Dax on The Nile deal for you the last few months.”

“Well, hello Lila Lancaster,” Silas says, suddenly losing interest in the scotch.

I look at Lila, and sure, she’s cute — she has legs up to her neck, and red hair that falls into a long mane when she lets it down like she has now — but she’s certainly not the type of woman that I imagine would catch Silas’ eye.

He tends to go for the real supermodel types, as in, just off the runway.

“So glad you were finally able to join us,” she says, sliding into my wide, corner couch.

Us? Did we invite her in?

I stare at her until she finally stops drooling over Silas long enough to catch my stare. She narrows her eyes and jerks her head to the side, like she wants me to stop making it obvious that this whole charade is mildly entertaining.

I crack a grin.

She shakes her head, nearly imperceptibly, but her eyes flick back to Silas when he speaks to her again.

“What can I pour you, Miss Lancaster?” he asks, his voice smooth as glass.

Christ.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” she says, neatly. “I hear you have quite good taste.”

“In most things,” he says, winking.

I clear my throat.

“Okay, you two, uh, we have some things to discuss. The Nile Group hasn’t been impressed with anything we’ve been throwing at them, so I’m glad you’re in town now, Si. Lila and I have come up with a new strategy that involves you doing—”

“I don’t think I want it anymore,” Silas interrupts.

Lila chokes on the glass of whatever he’s just handed her, then stares up at him. The hearts that were floating around her eyes a moment ago have disappeared.

“You don’t want it anymore?” she repeats, as if she’s just heard that a bomb might go off down the street and it’s her job to verify the threat.

“The Nile Group?” I ask, clarifying along with her. “You’ve changed your mind about wanting it?” His face curls into a mischievous grin, and I close my eyes. “Fucking hell, Si,” I mutter, setting my own glass down harder than I mean to.

“Nah, I don’t think I want it anymore. Don’t worry, I’ll go in with you guys tomorrow to break the news. And pay you, I dunno, double whatever I owe you for taking all that time away from our other deals.”

Lila shoots me a panicked look.

“You don’t have to pay us double for the hours we’ve already put into this, Si,” I tell him, slowly.

“There will be other deals. But we should talk about this. We’ve publicly positioned Davenport Media for months, and have a hostile takeover plan sitting on a hair trigger right now, waiting for your command to start it.

I have everything ready to implement, which is what I was going to suggest today, actually, before—”

“Sir,” Lila interjects, blinking rapidly. “We’ve been working on this for months. An entire team of Harper and Associate partners in the M & A division. You’re looking at losing a staggering amount of money here if you decide to—”

“Yeah, no worry, Li. Can I call you Li?”

She melts into the couch a little, seeming to forget what’s happening here.

“If . . . if you’d like,” she stammers, before turning her eyes on mine, looking helpless.

“I’m thinking we head over to grab dinner tonight, the three of us, before we go in for the last time tomorrow to clean up the mess I’ve made,” he says. “Have you tried that new place over on Sunset? The one with that Iron Chef. I met him in Cambodia last year.”

“Si, with all due respect, if you pull out now, after all that’s been made public, after everything we’ve put into this, your reputation will have significantly less clout behind it for the next deal we go into. As your friend, not just lawyer—”

“Lila, can we have the room, please?” Silas interrupts me.

She stares at him for a beat before jumping to her feet, placing her tumbler of scotch on my desk.

“Uh, sure,” she says, then walks briskly from the room, glaring at me once her back is turned to Silas.

Once the door shuts behind her, he turns to me.

“You enjoy having the last few weeks with Abby?” he asks, grinning like the Cheshire cat. He bites his bottom lip, trying to hold it in.

I blink a few times, and narrow my eyes at him, shifting back on my feet.

“Don’t tell me . . .” I can’t even get the words out. He starts nodding, grin growing wider. “You set this whole thing up to get me on the same deal as Abby?”

I can hear the anger in my voice, though I don’t exactly know why.

If Silas wants to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorney bills, plus probably more when this hurts his reputation, that’s on him, not me.

To a billionaire, that’s a small drop in the bucket, but it’s still a stupid way to spend his money.

He laughs, then pours another splash of Macallan into his glass before adding a second splash for me — one I don’t think I can stomach right now.

“You were shaking like a leaf about seeing her in New York again last year. It made me see how bad you still had feelings for her. We needed to see that unfold naturally here. Give you a few weeks to flush it out, see how you really felt without a whole country between you.”

“ We ?” I ask, still stuck on the first half of that explanation.

The one that makes no sense whatsoever. And yet, the whole scenario fits Silas to a tee, doesn’t it?

The guy’s officially gone off the deep end.

It might be worse than I thought. “Si, this is a multi-billion-dollar deal. The Nile is going to be the next Amazon, for Christ’s sake.

It’s a career maker for me. How could you not want it? Especially now that we’re this close?”

“Eh,” he says, shrugging. “Let her have it. Your career is already made. There will be other deals.”

“ Let her have it ?” I repeat, crumbling inside at what I’m hearing. “You really mean to tell me that you never wanted this thing to begin with?”

“Nope,” he says, picking up his favorite stack of darts, then drains the glass to set it down.

“Si, money doesn’t grow on trees, man. Just because your dad left you a lot of it doesn’t mean—”

“I don’t want it,” he says, pointing a dart squarely at my chest, suddenly serious.

I take a step back, defeated. Speechless.

“Just come to this last meeting tomorrow. Hear what Lila and I have planned out for the next steps.”

“Is this a career maker for your girl on the other side?” he asks, studying me. “From what I hear, it is.”

“What do you mean from what you hear ?” I ask, feeling like I’ve entered the twilight zone.

“Let’s go have you make her career tomorrow then, bro,” he says, throwing the first dart. “She’ll love you for it. Money can’t do everything . . .” He pauses, grief flashing behind his eyes. “But if it can bring two knuckleheads back together, then it’s money well spent.”

“Abby would never want this handed to her,” I say, feeling the need to argue with him over this.

Abby will be ecstatic to know The Nile Group is now free for her client to take, just like she planned all along. But, knowing my friend set this whole thing up with the hope of bringing us into each other’s orbit again?

No.

If she ever found out that Silas basically feigned his interest in The Nile Group, just to get us in the same city for months on end, it would embarrass her horribly.

Make her feel like this whole thing between us was engineered by forces she couldn’t control, that I couldn’t control but which had everything to do with me. I won’t do that to her.

“Let’s just go together tomorrow and see how you feel after hearing what Lila and I have ready to go for you,” I tell him. “Just consider it, alright?”

He walks toward the board to pull all three darts out of the middle ring.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” he says, grinning. “Except change my mind.”