11. Kane

“I’ve canceled your eleven o’clock for tomorrow, and the Charity gala for next week is asking if you can do a recording if you’re unable to attend in person.”

My assistant, Hannah, stood before me, going through the check list in her hands.

“I think that’s everything. Do you need me for anything else?”

“No, Hannah. That’s all, thank you.” I waved her away, then waited until she had left my office before I turned around and reached for my phone.

Ever since I started this project with Sawyer, everything else has taken a back seat but it was for the best. What Sawyer was trying to do was admirable and it was exactly the sort of thing I was more than happy to finance. The only problem was that the longer we worked on this, the more people found out.

And one of them was likely to be a problem. The phone call I’d received this morning had also shown that a lot of the friction would be coming from the same side.

So, I called Sawyer.

The line rang out three times before he answered.

“What?”

“Hello to you, too.”

“Sorry, long day.”

“I wanted to see if your lawyer had found a path through the patent issue yet.”

Sawyer sighed. “No. If anything, I think the best thing for us to do is just change angles. What we have is good, and I don’t want this to get wrapped up in legal battles for years and then never hit the shelves. I don’t know what we need to change, but it has to be something.”

“Back to the drawing board?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “A new applicator, maybe. Definitely a new name.”

Sawyer snorted. “Definitely.”

“I actually wanted to mention one more thing.”

“Hmm?”

“I received a call this morning. From Marcus Crane.”

“What?” Sawyer’s tone immediately changed from light to sharp.

“Yeah. He had some choice words to say to me.”

“We shouldn’t talk about this over the phone. I can carve some time out for you and be there later this afternoon.”

“No, I’ll come to you.” I’m already on my feet. “The scenery is much nicer.”

True, Sawyer had a nicer view from his office than I did, but Callie was the only scenery I was interested in. She had arrived in my life as a whirlwind – literally – of beauty, and I hadn’t been able to get her out of my head since our tryst last week in the toilets. That was the most reckless thing I had ever done, and it was amazing.

Usually, I’m more in control than that, but there was something so sweet and utterly irresistible about Callie. She was a forbidden fruit that I hungered for.

Arriving at Sawyer’s office, my heart sank to see Callie’s desk empty. My visits here this past week had mostly been motivated by my selfish desire to see her, so each time I turned up and she was absent, my world was a little grayer.

“Sawyer?” I knocked lightly on the door to his office. He waved me in without looking up.

“She’s not here.”

“Excuse me?”

Sawyer stabbed at the paper in front of him, then he lifted his head. “I sent Callie out for lunch as a treat, but if you’re so desperate to see her, you can wait in the other room, and we can postpone this talk.”

Of course he’d noticed. Not a lot slipped by Sawyer Crane and as a light smirk danced across his lips, I was reminded of our youth. Things worked the same back then and like always, Sawyer knew things without me even having to say a word.

“I’m fine,” I said, striding toward his desk. “I’ve already seen plenty of Callie. I can handle going without.”

The hint was there, daring to tease that I had slept with her, but where I expected to see surprise on Sawyer’s face, he merely smirked.

“Haven’t we all?”

It really was like the old days.

“So,” Sawyer sighed as I sat in front of him. “What did Marcus want?”

From his tone, it was clear that Sawyer’s relationship with his father was as bad as it had always been and my heart went out to him a little. I had my fair share of parent pressure but Sawyer always seemed to draw the short stick in that regard.

“It was his usual meddling. He wanted me to give him all the information on what we were up to. I refused and even cited a few legal reasons, but he really did not care.”

Sawyer’s face twisted in distaste.

“He didn’t like that at all and then told me that the deal was off. I was to pack up my things and back off because the Cranes don’t need any handouts. He had a few choice words about your decision-making, too.”

Sawyer scoffed and tossed his pen down, then he leaned back in his chair with a groan born of years facing down such an aggressive man.

“That’s where he always falls short.” Sawyer rubbed at his eyes, fighting a yawn. “The old bastard spent so long scraping his way along to make a buck but never accepted even a lick of help. He wanted to do everything on his own dime, literally. No wonder we ended up alienated from the industry and marred with a reputation that all we care about is money.”

Sawyer leaned forward, resting one elbow on his desk.

“Do you know I still get calls from organizations seeking donations? Usually, I would do that in a heartbeat, but these organizations are ones that I would never back. One’s responsible for the damage in the world that those I do support are trying to fix. But they see the name Crane and think money is all that matters.”

“We all care about money,” I remarked. “It’s what we do with it that counts. I can sympathize a little. There are countless people who look down on me for being younger than most or for using the family money to waive debts for people who need it. Those people, the ones I save from crushing debt, are the people that matter. Not the assholes who think I should be investing that money elsewhere.”

It was the same old argument. Using my billionaire inheritance to help the little people was my main focus. Over the years, I had paid off the debts of more people than I ever cared to count so that they could receive debt-free medical treatment or finally get a roof over their heads. Those in business suits with more ties than sense often had heart attacks on my methods, but it worked.

What better investment was there than people?

“Soothing the scars our parents left on the world is an impossible task,” Sawyer agreed, rising from his seat. “But we try.”

He poured me a drink and we turned the conversation to how best to navigate the issues with the patent. What we were trying to do was a good thing, but several of our concepts conflicted with something already on the market. The similarities were small enough that we could maybe get away with what we were doing but the risk was too great. Sawyer was right. Having this medication wrapped up in a patent legal battle for years would help no one.

So, we needed a new approach.

We talked late into the afternoon and only found an end when Callie returned to her desk after lunch. She immediately stole my attention and my thoughts faltered as I watched her through the two-way glass. She sat at her desk, toying with the end of her hair while busy on the phone. Her legs were crossed under the desk, causing her skirt to ride up and expose some of her inner thigh.

“She’s a vibrant, pretty little thing, isn’t she?” Sawyer said, drawing me back to the present.

“Yes. Indeed she is.”

“Is she going to be a problem?”

I shot him a confused look, then took a sip of my drink. “Not at all. Unless it’s going to be a problem for you?”

Sawyer arched one brow. “In what way?”

“You never could handle a little competition.”

“From you, maybe not,” Sawyer remarked. “But you’re competing with Liam as well.”

“For real?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. Our taste in women had always been the same, and in the past, it had resulted in some exciting competition, but in the end, there was nothing worth risking our friendship.

Life already did that.

“Liam lacks substance,” I decided. “He’s flashy, and Callie deserves a real man.”

“She has me.” Sawyer tilted his glass, sending the ice clattering against one another. “And Liam has changed.”

“Really? The famous party man has changed?”

“You’ve seen how he is with Marie. He changed his whole life for her. He has a new perspective and that helps with Callie. He’s already had a taste.”

“Haven’t we all,” I mused, splitting my attention between Sawyer and Callie. “She has the pick of the litter.”

“She’s my assistant.”

It wasn’t hard to detect the hint of possessiveness in Sawyer’s tone and I smirked.

“She might be, but she’s interested. You can pretend she’s not, but we both know that’s a lie.”

For a moment, the joking and teasing felt like we were back in college, toying with one another and having a good time. The good old days, before life and responsibility tore us all down opposite paths. We went from the best of friends to business rivals almost overnight.

I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed this and Sawyer’s smile had a fresh lightness that suggested the same.

“Still, she’s my assistant and that means I have the power here.”

“Except you’ve forgotten one important detail.”

“Which is?”

“She doesn’t belong to either one of us,” I pointed out. “Just like the old days.”

Sawyer chuckled softly.

“Unless you’ve forgotten how to share?”