Chapter 4

How do you know my name? Her velvet voice wrapped around him like a comforting breeze. It annoyed him that he wanted to pull her close. She was either a damn fine actress or she really didn"t know who he was. He was hoping for the latter, but prepared for the first. He wouldn"t let their one night of passion deter him from discovering how she knew Alexander.

He had yet to answer her question. After years of interrogation practice, he learned one thing for sure. People will continue to ramble on to fill the silence. It was during those ramblings that he usually found out the most information. Monica was no exception.

"Are you stalking me? How do you know my name because I sure as fuck didn"t give it to you. And what"s with the commandoes behind you? What, you need an army to talk to one little woman?"

He was forced to bite the inside of his cheek. It was that, or break out the smile that her sassy mouth caused. And that wasn"t the only part of his body that responded to her quick wit. It was clear he needed to have a discussion with his dick about when it was appropriate to be twitching. While he was trying to get information from Monica certainly wasn"t one of those times.

"How about we take this somewhere a little more private?" He caught the humor in Ryker"s tone. He hadn"t told his team that he knew Monica, and based on her reaction, she hadn"t exactly given it away either. Which was a good thing, but he doubted it would stay that way for long.

Monica didn"t put up much of a fight as they led her toward a quiet conference room they had requested to use. But she had no problem displaying her displeasure in the way she huffed or rolled her eyes when she assumed he wasn"t looking.

His happiness that she hadn"t mentioned their one night together was short-lived when she turned around and glared at him.

"One night of off-the-charts sex does not give you the right to be a pushy asshole. I said no names for a reason, and I think I made myself clear when I snuck out this morning."

Well, fuck, that stung a bit. Monica"s claws were out, and she wasn"t afraid to draw some blood. He quickly glanced around at his friends. While he recognized the shock in their eyes, he had to give them credit for keeping their faces neutral.

"Off the charts, huh?"

Apparently, that wasn"t the response she was looking for. If he thought she was throwing him sass before, it was nothing compared to the fire in her eyes now, those green eyes with a hint of blue around the edges that had kept him captivated the night before. The fists at her side also told him that she was about five seconds away from wiping the smirk off his face. Luckily, Monica didn"t get the chance to act as Caden stepped up.

"How do you know Alexander Fletcher?"

Thank God for his buddy bringing the conversation back to what was important, and reminding him that he needed to be thinking with parts of his body other than the one between his legs.

"You seriously expect me to answer questions when I don"t know who the hell you are? Let"s try this again. You all clearly know who I am. How about you reciprocate by telling me who you are?"

He supposed he at least owed her that much. "Luke Matthews." He stuck his hand out but pulled it back when it was clear she had no intention of shaking it. "My associates Ryker, Caden, and Austin." He pointed to them respectively. Besides a brief glance at his friends to put a name with a face, her eyes never left his. This wasn"t the same flirty woman he had spent the night with.

"And, Mr. Matthews, how is it you know my name?"

He would be concerned about her need for anonymity if the attitude she was throwing at him wasn"t turning him on so much. He had thought she was a firecracker in bed, but it was nothing compared to the way she was out of it.

"Ms. Cole . . ." Caden wisely stopped talking the moment Monica raised her palm in the air.

"It"s Caden, correct?" Monica continued after Caden nodded his head. "No disrespect, but I was asking your associate here."

Monica wasn"t backing down. He could see how she had risen to CEO of a billion-dollar company. If she was half as tough at her job as she was with them, then she was a force to be reckoned with in the boardroom.

It was that realization that had him spilling what he learned first, something he never did. "Your name came up in our investigation when we were sent to surveil Mr. Fletcher."

"Investigation? So, you"re cops?" Her eyebrows shot up like she didn"t believe him.

"Not exactly," he replied. "We own a private security company." He indicated himself and his friends.

"The four of you own it." Monica sounded more interested in that than the reason behind them watching Alexander.

"No, there"s actually seven of us who own it," he clarified.

"And someone hired you to watch Alexander Fletcher?" He could see the wheels turning behind those beautiful green eyes of hers, but he didn"t know if that was good or bad for him.

"That"s correct. So"—he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her—"now would you like to tell us why you were meeting with him?"

For the first time since he met Monica last night at the bar, she looked unsure; almost scared. It had him dropping the glare. His hands itched to reach out and comfort her, but he forced himself to keep them hidden under his crossed arms.

Monica made her decision with a large exhale. "I was meeting with him because he refused to take no for an answer, so I figured if I met him in person, I could tell him to his face that I never wanted to do business with him."

The way she spoke had the hairs on the back of his neck standing straight up. He knew all about the type of business Alexander was involved in and how he used manipulation to get what he wanted.

"What is it he wanted?"

He already had an idea, but he was curious if she would tell him the truth, if she would be completely open and honest with him about what was going on.

"To have me continue the arrangement he used to have with my former boss."

"Samuel Silverstein." It wasn"t a question Ryker was asking. They all knew about Fletcher and Silverstein"s past. Like himself, Ryker wanted to test how honest Monica was being with them.

"It"s clear you already know everything, so what is the point of asking me questions?" Monica"s tone told him she was getting more annoyed with every passing minute.

"Yes, we do, but it helps to verify. Intel can only take us so far," he told her honestly.

"So what more do you need from me?" Monica was an open book, both figuratively and literally. The spread arms she presented to him and the team showed she had nothing to hide. Interesting. She went from closed off when the discussion was about her to almost eager to give them information once she learned they were there for Alexander.

"Tell us everything you know about Alexander Fletcher," Austin spoke up this time.

Several expressions flittered across Monica"s face. It was her job, as CEO, to protect her company. He didn"t know if she held any loyalty to Samuel, but he wouldn"t know for sure unless she started talking.

"Since you seem to already know a lot," she started, "I think it"s safe to assume you know that Samuel is in jail for kidnapping my best friend, trying to extort a million-dollar ransom, something our company has in place for some of us. Not to mention hiring a hitman. Before you ask, no, I didn"t like the man before that either. Yes, he was one of my bosses, but both Ash and I always thought he was fake, quite literally. You know, lots of Botox." She gestured to her face and body. Although he wasn"t sure why since he"d seen her naked and he was nearly one hundred percent sure there wasn"t a fake thing about her.

"Turns out we were right. Not only was he fake, but he also liked to abuse his wife. She testified, so, on top of the kidnapping charges, he had a slew of abuse ones. Meaning bye-bye, asshole. Unfortunately, he left a lot of problems. And I mean a lot. At first, Carmichael and Ash tried to clean it up, but we all knew Ash wanted nothing to do with the business, so eventually, we were able to convince her to leave. It took a while, but Carmichael finally let go of the notion of having his daughter take over his business. Cue me getting the CEO position, and still, years later, I'm cleaning up messes. This leads me to Fletcher, asshole extraordinaire, who didn't like me telling him no over the phone, so I finally flew my ass out to meet him and tell him in person. Spoiler alert, he didn't like the word no in person either."

"Did he threaten you?" The question flew out of his mouth before he could tamp down the urge to stomp back into the restaurant and smash Fletcher's face in.

Monica's snort caught him off guard. "He tried. A little hard to do when I have no family I care about, and while he tried using my friends, that was pointless. The only friends I consider myself close to are all protected. Literally. Their men would snap someone like Fletcher in half without a second thought."

He thought back to what he learned about her friends. Monica wasn"t lying. The men her friends married were a force to be reckoned with. They just so happened to be in a similar profession as his.

"What exactly did he want from your company?" Luke had almost forgotten what the whole point of this conversation was until Ryker spoke up.

"Insider information on our clients so he can exploit them and con them with whatever scheme he"s working on at the time. Apparently, Samuel would let him know which clients would make the best targets based on their portfolios. He didn"t do it often. He was smart enough to not raise suspicion, but there was a pattern. Something I discovered after I took over. Carmichael would have figured it out eventually, but I think he was still trying to see the good in his business partner after everything. Well, maybe good isn"t the right word, but he didn"t want to see just how far Samuel had gone to make extra money for his habits."

There wasn"t as much anger in her voice as he would have expected, considering all the man had done, but maybe that had to do with the fact that she was used to it by now. She had said she"d been cleaning up the mess for years. At some point, she had probably gotten numb to the whole thing. That pissed him off even more. No one should have to get used to things sucking.

He met his friends" eyes, one by one. Caden was the first to understand his silent plea.

"I think we have all the information we need. We"ll go report back to the rest of the team and leave you two to . . . talk." Caden practically pushed Ryker and Austin out the door, Ryker with a smirk on his face, and Austin looking like he wanted to protest, but Caden wasn"t having any of it.

"So"—he turned back to Monica—"how about we start over? Hi, I"m Luke Matthews. What"s your name?"