Page 59 of Twisted Knight

I’m not sure why that one sticks with me the most.

It’s also such a major contrast to the pictures I found when I slid past her firewall and into her hard drive. The carefree, wild woman in those images is nothing like the reserved and defiant one who stands outside my office debating what to spar with me over.

The pictures of her in barely there bikinis don’t hurt either.

Christ almighty. Brains and beauty are a lethal combination, and she has both.

I startle when my cell rings. A glance at the clock tells me it’s late and I’ve been staring at this for way too long.

“Knight,” I say when I pick up.

“Leave Rowan the fuck alone.”

The slurred words hit my ear.

“Chad? Hello to you too.” I rise from my seat and move to the window of my penthouse so I can look out to the city beyond. To the river that separates who he is and who I used to be.

“You heard me.”

“Mm-hmm. I did. I heard ‘fuck’ and ‘Rowan.’ Thanks for the approval on what I plan to do. Not that I needed it.”

“You motherfucker,” he grits out.

My chuckle is a taunt. The closest I’m going to get to plowing a fist in his face. At this point, it’ll have to do. Unsatisfying but better than nothing. “Been called worse by better.”

“You think this is funny, don’t you? Well, don’t. It’s not.” He sniffs. “Leave her alone.”

“Now, do you care to tell me what that’s supposed to mean?” I can’t help my smile. I know exactly what the fuck he means.

The looks I level him as I stand partly in Rowan’s office as I talk to her. The purposely placed comments about her as I walk past his office. Anything to fuck with his head.

And … it seems to be working.

“You’re … you’re toying with her and I’m not sure why.”

“You know why,” I bait him but am met with his silence.

“She has nothing to do with it,” he says, but I let the comment float and die. It? Does he mean the company being run into the ground? The poor financial decisions he and his best buddy have made? The slow demise of their coffers?

Because we all know he’s not referring to the real reason I’m here. I was invisible to him then and it seems because I was, he can’t see through me now.

“Did you hear me?” he demands on pretty fucking shaky legs.

I don’t know what he’s referring to and I don’t care. But clearly my not answering fucks with his head even more.

“Are you there, Knight?”

“Desperate doesn’t sound good on you, Williams.”

“I’m warning you.”

“I don’t have to listen to shit from some drunk wannabe asshole who couldn’t find a backbone to save his life.”

“Fuck you.”

This is more than pathetic.

“That all you got, Chadwick?”