Chapter 5

"That's a wrap, gentlemen."

Marcus Stanton stood, giving his colleagues a firm handshake and a pat on the back. For the last four hours, I listened to them rattle off legal jargon and then point to a spot on the page requiring my signature. It had grown tedious. Sitting in the glassed-in office, I was only a few steps away from being a goldfish in a giant tank.

"Mr. Vex." Marcus held out his hand. The silver-haired fox had represented Vex Industries for the last decade. He and his law firm treated us as their only client. With the amount of litigation they dealt with, I'm surprised they had time for any other cases. But when I came calling for a personal matter, it warranted the attention of the partners.

"It is always a pleasure, Mr. Stanton."

"We're always willing to help you diversify your holdings." He raised an eyebrow. My company paid him to have our best interests in mind, but when I came in to discuss real estate acquisitions, he was shocked to see the properties.

"Out with it, Mr. Stanton."

"I'm curious. Why these properties? We did an appraisal, and you're offering far more than their worth. I want to make sure?—"

"I appreciate it. These are more pet projects than profit makers."

"We could have negotiated the prices down."

I shook my head. He would have negotiated, and if his past said anything, he could have easily knocked twenty percent off the asking price. He and his legal team were sharks, and once they found a target, they turned relentless. I found it amusing that we had a similar tenacity, and yet mine landed me in jail, and his netted him the Law Firm of the Year award.

"I have no doubt. Time is of the essence. I'm willing to pay for my impatience."

He nodded. Marcus Stanton had questions. I could see them in the way he narrowed his eyes. I paid him enough that he swallowed any inquiries. The smirk on the edge of his lips meant he was satisfied with the outcome. If I didn't keep my work and pleasure separate, I bet this man would have made for an outstanding lay. I'd like to see his powers of negotiation in action while naked.

"Let me see you out, Mr. Vex."

My body still ached from the pummeling the other night. The gem drastically sped up the healing process, but it couldn't fix my wounded ego. Sentinel had won in a feat of strength. I let my obsession with killing the man consume me. I had forgotten my goal. It wasn't to simply kill him. No, that'd be a swift victory. I was Damien Vex, and my entire professional career had been about crushing competition. It was time to rely on more than my fists to exact my revenge.

As Marcus guided me from the office and through the overly lavish hallway, I realized he was far too similar to me. The wooden Greek columns lining the hall made the floor look more like Olympus than a law firm. But I'm sure that was his intent. If I turned around and looked down the corridor, at the end, behind double doors, there'd be his oversized desk. I appreciated a man with a sense of drama.

As we reached the receptionist"s desk, I froze. I recognized the burly man leaning over the counter exchanging a laugh with the secretary. He had ditched the jacket, exposing the suspenders stretched across his back and bulging about his stomach. It'd only take a flick of the finger for the smoke to reach across the room and unfasten the clasps. Seeing him leaning over the counter made the front of my pants tight.

He stood, eyebrow rising as he spotted me.

"Mr. Vex, this is Mr. Jung. For some unknown reason, he insists on taking on all our pro bono work."

"Of course he does," I said.

"Oh, you know each other?" Marcus Stanton was anything but a fool. The moment I took Won's hand, the partner gave me a pat on the back. "I'll leave you be."

"In a city of a million people, what are the chances?"

Won-Ho didn't hide his smirk. "I'm starting to think you're stalking me."

"Says the man who crashed my party."

"Says the man at my place of work."

I looked down. Our hands had stopped shaking, but we hadn't let go. "It seems we have a stalemate." I wanted to ask about his office for a tour. It'd end with him closing the shades and bent over his desk. The tent in my pants seconded the idea, curious what it'd take to make the man moan.

"Pro bono, huh?" And yet, there was something about him I found alluring. It had less to do with my cock and more to do with the enigma in front of me. I found Won-Ho… interesting. It wasn't often I stumbled across a man who sidestepped the usual formalities. Even his boss treated me like royalty to keep my business. But this man, he seemed unmoved by my presence.

"Contrary to popular belief, there are lawyers trying to make the world a better place. Vanguard needs its champions." He let go of my hand. I wished he hadn't, but I wouldn't admit it aloud. "You're not the only one trying to right the wrongs of their past."

He spoke as if he knew me. For most, the name Vex got a sneer and snarl. They'd go through the long list of things my company had done to make the headlines. Our good deeds never made the front page of the paper. Won-Ho didn't strike me as an optimist, but he continued to focus on the positive. It was a refreshing change of pace.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the secretary watching us. I knew an office gossip when I saw one. As much as I didn't want the conversation to end, I didn't want our liaison to be a topic around the water cooler.

"Perhaps we should stop leaving our encounters to chance." Yes, that was about as subtle as I could get asking a man out. Despite the hard-on in my pants, I wanted… to talk? I almost chuckled at the thought. Won-Ho interested more than my libido, and that was more than I could say for most men.

"I need to head to the mail room." He held up a manilla envelope. "I'll see you out."

I cursed Stanton for putting his offices on the ground floor. We wouldn't have the opportunity for another ride in the elevator. As we passed through the reception area, I gave the secretary a quick glare. She seemed unbothered as she stared, using her middle finger to push the glasses atop the bridge of her nose. Geoff could learn a thing or two from her audacity.

"Excuse my candor." I had never uttered those words in my adult life. "But who the hell are you?" There was no easy way to ask. I knew every socialite in Vanguard, every millionaire, every influencer. Yet, this man seemed to appear out of nowhere, and since the charity event, it seemed as if our orbits were destined to collide.

He let out a bearish laugh. I'm sure we were an odd pair walking through the law firm toward the building's lobby. If it weren't for the double doors, we would have had to walk single-file. Two burly men walking in time caused more than one intern to look up from their papers.

"Are we talking the obvious or the philosophical?"

"I'd settle for the obvious."

"My family moved to Vanguard from South Korea. Appa had a job opportunity at Plytech and thought it'd be a good opportunity for him and Eomma. A few months later, I was born."

I eyed the man as we reached the final doors before entering the lobby. I had a master's degree in the history of Vanguard's industry and something didn't quite add up. Plytech had gone out of business before the war. That would mean… I forced my poker face into place as I did the math.

"I've lived in Vanguard since."

"Have you visited?"

"Korea?" He promptly shook his head. "No." He didn't leave room for discussion. I hit a sore spot. If it were the boardroom, I'd have dug in and insisted on him clarifying.

He pointed to the door across the hallway. We had reached the mailroom, and our chat was about to end. I wasn't done, not by a long shot. The longer I spent with him, the more questions I had. We needed to stop these chance encounters and be intentional.

"Would you…" I reached for the door to the mailroom. Asking him for a date sounded childish, as if we were teenagers preparing for a night of heavy petting. "We should get together when we're not on the clock." I couldn't muster the humility to ask him out. Now, it sounded as if we were going to watch a football game and throw back a few beers.

"Damien Vex." He gave me a pat on the side of the face. "You need to work on your social skills."

"You're not the first to tell me that." Doc reminded me frequently that the world held more than business opportunities. He made it sound as if I didn't have a vibrant social life. It was rare for me to have a free night. Doc might not consider attending parties and socializing at charity dinners, but that's why he didn't play at the same level as me.

He held out his hand. "Phone."

There were few things I cherished more than my phone. Stored in bits and bytes, it contained numbers for the wealthiest people in Vanguard. Even the mayor's landline had made its way into my contacts. Despite that, it was rare that I was the one doing the calling.

I reached into my breast pocket, fishing it out. I spun it about, handing it to Won-Ho. With a few clicks, he punched in his number. "Anything of interest on here?" His finger hovered over the screen, testing my resolve. I lost the battle as I swiped it from his hand.

"Last thing I need is you fishing for nudes."

He laughed. "There are websites for that." I opened the door to the mailroom for him. "Pretty sure I've seen you in one or two videos."

"Youth," I said. "We all do dumb things."

His eyes widened. "I was joking. You mean?—"

I gave him a shove into the mailroom. "I'll call you."

Before he responded, I pulled the door shut. I checked the hallway to make sure nobody had seen the exchange. I reached for my face, touching my cheeks. The beard wouldn't hide the blush. I didn't want Won-Ho to see that he had gotten under my skin.

I pushed through the double doors into the lobby. Now, I needed to decide how long to wait before calling him. Perhaps this would be the rare opportunity for the peanut gallery to weigh in. Heaven help me.