Chapter 2 - Clearing the Room|
Nobody moved. I wished somebody would cough, shift in a chair, drop a phone—anything to break the crushing silence pressing against my skin.
Instead, Ronin glanced around the table. "Meeting is over."
The chief financial officer blinked, pausing with his tablet in hand. "Ronin, we still have the Mercer quarterly projections—"
Ronin looked at him once. That was all it took.
Chairs moved immediately. Laptops closed. Papers slid into folders. Twelve people who normally argued over every single decimal point gathered their things without another word, virtually sprinting toward the heavy double doors.
Gideon Shaw, Ronin's head of security, was the last to leave. He paused beside the threshold and looked at Ronin with a silent question in his posture. Ronin gave the smallest shake of his head.
Gideon left. The door clicked shut.
Suddenly, the vast conference room felt ten times larger and infinitely more dangerous. I stared through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city below. Morning traffic crawled along the river like nothing had changed.
My phone sat inside my purse beneath the table. I could almost feel the message waiting there. Preston had sent six before sunrise. The last one had been simple: Smile at work today. I will know if you do not.
"You shouldn't have dismissed them," I murmured, wrapping both hands tightly around the leather folder.
"The meeting can be rescheduled," Ronin replied quietly.
"It was important."
"So are you."
I looked at him then. That was my mistake.
May you like
Ronin's expression had changed. Not softer—Ronin did not become soft. But there was an intense, laser-focused attention in his eyes now that made lying feel utterly impossible.
"Did he do that to you, Laurel?" he asked. He hadn't asked who. He had said he.
