Page 60 of Undeniably Unexpected (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #6)

* U nedited and Subject to Change

Vander

“Ah, he’s alive. I was going to send out a search party for you.

” My assistant, Champagne, leans her hip against my office desk, her eyes on her long, hot-pink nails, picking at something as I exit what I refer to as the closet.

A room only I can enter, attached to my office, and only accessible with my biometrics and a code that changes every thirty seconds.

I rub the top of my blond head as I twist my back to crack out the stiffness. “I know, I know.” I hold up a hand to her and check my watch. Fuck. It’s nearly eight in the morning and I have a board meeting at ten. I meant to leave earlier than now.

“Is anyone else here yet?”

“Not many, but that’s why I came in here and pushed the button.”

I nod in appreciation even as a wicked yawn hits me so hard I shudder with it. The button she’s referring to is an app that makes a light in my closet flash on and off, alerting me I’m needed. “Thank you.”

“It’s Tuesday,” she states, abandoning her nails to hit me with a stern, perturbed look.

I chuckle. “I’m aware. I’m not that out of it.”

“Maybe not, but you look like hell. I told everyone you were working from home yesterday. How long were you in there this time?”

“Just since Saturday. I’m working on a couple of things.”

“You’re always working on a couple of things.” She rounds my desk and follows me out into the empty hall to stand before me, concern all over her face. “When was the last time you had anything real to eat? I know the last time you showered.”

She scrunches her nose while giving me a big once-over with her large, disapproving brown eyes and a motherly look only she can get away with.

“I’m not answering that. And some of that might be from my midnight drumming session.” I shrug unrepentantly. It gave me the endorphin and adrenaline burst I needed to keep going. It also made me a sweaty fucking mess.

“Go shower and please shave. You’ve got suits hanging in your real closet. I’ll run down to the café on the corner to get you something that doesn’t come from the vending machine.”

“Nah, I’ll do that. Thank you, though. I need to get out and stretch my legs for a bit. Don’t worry. I’ll be back, showered, and ready well before the meeting.”

Her lips purse as she eyes me. It’s not the first time I’ve made that promise and not kept it. “You better be,” she warns. “Now get moving before people see you.”

I throw up a hand and head for the elevator.

“Remember, you have assistant interviews starting tomorrow. My retirement date is in eight weeks.” I stumble over my feet as I step onto the elevator and hit the button for the first floor.

Shit. How did that come on so fast, and how on earth will I ever find an assistant like Champagne?

It’s impossible. I trust no one but her because she’s worked for me for eight years since I took over as the CEO of Monroe Securities, and my mother, who was the CEO for two decades before that.

Champagne knows me. She knows who I am and what I do, and that’s not something I share with hardly anyone. Blinding sunlight singes my eyeballs when I step out of my building, the heavy glass door swooshing behind me as I nearly get body slammed by a guy in a suit hustling past me.

“Watch it, dick,” he barks, only to catch a second glimpse of me and immediately grimace, regretting his harsh words. “Never mind. Sorry, man.” Before I can reply he scurries away, and I snicker.

I must really look like shit.

I glance down at myself. Black slacks that…

yeah, those are food and coffee stains. Black button-down shirt that’s again covered in shit I dare not name.

No coat despite the frigid temperatures.

I scratch my jaw and won’t even consider how grizzly my beard is, and I’m wearing my glasses because my eyes were hurting.

I suppose that’s what happens when I haven’t slept much for the better part of three days.

I drag my hands back through my greasy hair to try to tame the too long locks into some semblance of not fucked only to realize it’s hopeless and yank an old Boston Rebels hat from my messenger bag and shove it on my head.

Whatever. Since when do I give a shit how I look? I almost laugh at how ridiculous I’m being as I head toward the coffee shop on the corner. I’m stiff and tired and can’t wait to go home and sleep, but that’ll have to wait. Today is not my sleeping day.

First the board this morning, then I have to get the person. Well, two people in this case.

There’s the black hat hacker attacking one of our companies and then there’s the asshole who is trying to mess with my friends Loomis and Keegan. Neither hero nor villain, I exist as the CEO of a cybersecurity company by day and a hacker by night.

Which means I need some coffee and food not from the vending machines in my building. I head up the block, tucking into myself as I fight the wind, wishing I had remembered my damn coat. My phone rings in my pocket, and I slip it out only to smile.

I swipe my finger across the screen and drop an AirPod into my right ear.

“Hey, man,” I answer Stone, one of my best friends. “How’s it going?”

I can hear the hospital in the background, which is no surprise. He’s a pediatric emergency room physician.

“Hey,” he replies. “I’ve been texting you. You had me worried after three days of no replies and missing our hockey game on Sunday. Everything good?”

That has me scowling. “Sorry. Yeah. I meant to reply, and by the time I went to, it was the middle of the night. You guys probably won without me anyway.”

“It was a hard-fought battle, but Owen and I pulled it off. What’s up? You hiding out to work?”

“I’m good. Just leaving the office to get some coffee before I head back.”

He blows out a breath. “All right. Shit, man. How many hours have you been awake?”

I chuckle. “Too many to count, but it is what it is.”

“You need sleep. It’s not good for you.”

“Thanks, doctor. I’ll take that under advisement along with how I shouldn’t put bacon on my egg and cheese this morning, nor should I have it on a bagel. Spoiler alert: I intend to do both.”

I can hear the smile in his voice as he replies, “Fine. But you’re coming to Sorel’s baby shower this weekend.”

I roll my eyes as I reach the café. “I wouldn’t miss it, and I’ll even sleep, shower, and shave before I come.” The warm blast of air, accompanied by the incredible scent of coffee and greasy food practically has me groaning as I get in line.

“Good stuff. Because Mason is a little too excited about crashing his wife’s baby shower, and he’ll need us to rein him in.”

I smile thinking about that. “It’ll be—” My voice cuts off when my breath dies in my lungs.

I blink and blink again, positive my overly tired brain is simply playing tricks on me.

Except as I study the girl at the counter taking orders, I know that’s not what it is.

I’d know those bright blue eyes and that sweet smile anywhere.

Even without having laid eyes on them for the last ten years.

And she’s wearing the bracelet. The delicate silver chain with the diamond half heart on it. The other half is buried six feet under.

I rub my forearm over the hidden tattoo, my heart hammering so hard in my chest it’s making me dizzy.

“Van? Vander, you still there?” Stone yells in my ear.

“I gotta go,” I mumble, and disconnect the call.

I slip my AirPod from my ear to my case and bag, and mechanically shift with the line, all the while unable to tear my eyes away from the girl.

Visions of the last time I saw Liora flash through my head like the pages of a graphic novel I forced myself to stop reading years ago.

The day of Cassian’s funeral. No. After that.

The night at my dad’s tattoo parlor before I left for MIT.

Her smile. Her body. Her kisses. Her soft words.

Her touch. Her love. Her tears. I walked away from her that night, sick to the point of second- guessing everything.

It was as if she cursed me, and I spent far too long haunted by her, unable to shake her ghost.

We were just kids, and it was a lifetime ago.

But… I was crazy about her. She was the smile that woke me up every morning.

Her brother’s death ruined me. Ruined both of us.

And two weeks later, I was gone, leaving her behind.

It led me down a very dark path. One that was reckless and self-destructive.

“Next!” she calls out because I stopped moving, and now it’s my turn. “Good morning!” she chirps, all bright sunshine for this cold, gray winter morning. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll have an Americano with one sugar and two creams and a bacon, egg, and cheese on a sesame bagel, please.”

She punches everything into the tablet in front of her before she glances up and meets my eyes for the first time.

And there’s something in them. A shift. A searching.

They hold before they trickle around my face and down my body until she adjusts her weight to her other foot and glances back down at her screen.

Likely because I look like a serial killer and not because she recognizes me in return.

“That—” She clears her throat. “That’ll be sixteen thirty-two. What’s a name for the order?”

I reach for my wallet, flip it open, and stare at the choices of payment before me. So tempted. What would she do if I said my name or handed her a credit card with it printed on it? Then again, if she hasn’t recognized me yet, is this how I want her to see me again for the first time in ten years?

“Bennett,” I say, using my friend Katy’s husband’s name because it’s the first to pop into my head. I hand her a twenty. “Keep the change.”

“Thank you,” she replies. “That’s very kind of you. Next,” she calls, and that’s my cue to shift to the side and wait for my food, my body buzzing and my gaze locked on the back of her head.