Complete We (A Her Billionaires Novella #4) by Julia Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

seemed to say. Mike detached himself from any emotional reaction. One blink could throw him off. This guy needed to be treated like he was dangerous. For all Mike knew, he could be.
    Laura’s reactions lately seemed to make it a possibility.
    “Frank Stedman, of course.” He reached out and slapped Mike’s shoulder with enough force to rattle a smaller man’s teeth. “Surely Laura has mentioned me!” The look on Frank’s face said he’d be offended if the answer was “no,” and yet the man clearly knew he was on shaky ground.
    “Laura has talked about a distant uncle, but said it’s been years since you’ve had any contact…” Mike let the sentence hang in the air, his face neutral but eyes lasered in on Frank’s.
    No blinking.
    “It isn’t as if I haven’t tried!” Frank protested, sweeping his arm out toward Mike’s desk. “You know Laura,” he said with a conspirator’s chuckle that made Mike’s fists clench. His jaw followed, forcing him to inhale very, very slowly to keep his cool. How dare the man claim to know Laura intimately enough to be so blasé?
    “Why don’t we sit and chat?” Frank added, watching Mike carefully, clearly searching for ways to read him. Mike wasn’t giving any quarter.
    “I prefer to stand.” Mike’s voice came out cold and hard. It grated against his own ears, and yet he let his eyes go dead. This was how he had to play if Frank was going to lead the charge with lies.
    Lying about Laura right to Mike’s face put Frank in the dangerous category, all right.
    But Mike had plenty of danger in him, too.
    “Stand. Hmmm.” Frank broke eye contact and turned toward the massive window, floor to ceiling, that looked out over the large mountain that made up the ski resort. “With a view like this,” Frank said with a conspirator’s chuckle, “I’d stand, too.”
    Ignoring the fact that his desk chair faced the same view, Mike clasped his hands together at his waist and said nothing, blinking evenly, forcing his throat muscles to relax. Silence could unnerve most people.
    Mike was good at silence.
    Frank was not.
    Ten beats went by. Twenty. Frank began to cast nervous glances at Mike, which would have unnerved him on any other day, in any other setting, but instead—to Mike’s pleasant surprise—the looks only fortified him. Intensified his resolve to get this man out of Laura’s life and to bring her back to the equanimity she so desperately desired.
    Frank was a threat to their happy little life, and that meant he needed to be managed.
    One quiet second at a time.
    Finally, Frank broke. Clearing his throat, he said, “I’m sure you are wondering why I am here.”
    Mike decided to up the ante, moving swiftly toward Frank, only needing five powered steps to come within close range. Frank stiffened but did not move.
    “I am.” Mike measured his words in centuries, not seconds. The slower he spoke, moved, thought— felt —the more control he could maintain. An inner fury spun in circles, building an energy within that threatened to burst out of him.
    He did not like this man.
    In fact, hate might be strong enough a word to apply, because Frank represented something that was rotten to the very core, as if a seed itself were defective.
    Frank gave a practiced, tight smile, instantly alerting Mike to the fact that nothing that was about to be said was true. “I’ve lost touch with Laura these years, and I regret it. She hasn’t responded to my emails and I’ve started talking to her friends out of desperation.”
    Desperation. Mike would use the word manipulation , but semantics weren’t important right now. Narrowing his eyes, Mike said nothing. Let the man stew in his own soup of insincerity.
    Frank was a little too comfortable simmering there, for he went on, seeming to think Mike was buying this.
    “And so when she didn’t answer my email, I went to her place of business.” Frank picked up a framed photo Mike had on his desk, a shot of the four of