My CEO and ME

Chapter 4

The Devil You Know

"Sophie... this is more than you could possibly know."

The voice of Carter rocked me. It was the weight in the words, the kind of weight that tore anything in its path. It was not only the words.

I could see this deep, restless tempest about to erupt in his eyes. I pondered momentarily whether it had ever been a storm at all.

Perhaps it was only a well-made façade he had been donning for self-protection, and now it was collapsing.

My body stiff with strain, I stood there motionless in the middle of his office. The events spinning out of control eluded my brain.

Every time I felt I had a hold on things, the world changed once more. Though I had no idea what Carter was engaged in, I could feel it.

The risk, the falsehoods, the shadows hovering over everything we were caught in.

"I bit out, Carter, and I don't need any more cryptic remarks," my voice sliced through the heavy quiet separating us. "You have to tell me what's happening; I'm walking out of here."

Though the words came out of my mouth, I felt the uncertainty-related hesitancy even if I intended to seem confident.

He could make me wonder everything I knew and disarm me. I could not ignore the draw between us even now, just inches away from him.

He drew in closer, and my heart surged as I naturally backed off. His presence seemed to be a pressure, stifling, as though I couldn't breathe unless I yielded to it. I could not, though.

Not while everything was collapsing around me could I afford to lose myself in him.

His voice lowered to a whisper, close and deadly. "You don't get it, Sophie." Walking away now will cause you to be directly facing the flames.

I swallowed, my throat dry, his words repeating in my mind. "What are you stating, Carter?" I pushed myself to look at him, but my chest tightened from the sensitivity in his eyes.

Benevolent under that icy exterior was something primal. Something I couldn't find, something I wasn't sure I wanted to find.

"I'm saying you're already involved," he said, his voice low and somewhat confessionally. "You are deeper than you would believe. And right now there is no simple path out.

I detested the accuracy of that. Hated how I had somehow fit into something more than myself, a game I wasn't ready to engage in. Still, I couldn't go away no matter how much I wanted. I already was too deep in. And he was thus as well.

The world seemed to stop for a while, just long enough for the conflict between us to diffuse like a dense fog.

Though my feelings were a whirl, there was something about his presence—the way he was staring at me—that set my heart racing in an inexplicable manner.

Part of me wanted to fight it, wanted to flee this magnetic, frightening draw. But another side of me missed.

I made myself go against the silence. "Why did you not tell me sooner?" Frustration and something else rocked my voice; something I chose not to acknowledge.

"Because you wouldn't have believed me," he stated simply, his eyes fixed and relentless. And maybe you still do not.

"I don't believe you," I rebelled, but even to me, my words seemed hollow. Not when you will not tell me the truth.

He tightened his jaw, irritation flaring in his eyes. Sophie, you do not want the truth. Notyet.

Then, Carter, what do I want for? What the hell am I meant to do with all this? I waved my hand between us, as though it could suddenly clarify the anarchy. "I'm caught in the middle of your world and I have no idea who I could even trust."

He moved forward, quickly bridging the distance between us. His breath stopped as he leaned in, his body's heat nearly tangible on mine. "You can trust me," he continued, eyes angry and voice subdued. But not everyone is who they first seem.

With every moment that passed, the unspoken tension choking the air seemed to decrease between us. Unquestionably, we had chemistry, and it simply made things more difficult.

My breath caught in my throat as his eyes stayed on me and his lips slightly parted as though he were about to speak.

I momentarily assumed he would kiss me. And I am sure whether I wanted that or dreaded it.

But Alex's words sliced through the scene like a knife before I could process it.

"Sophie, you have to listen to this.

I withdrew, my heart thumping in my chest, but it was not only from the encounter. No, it came from the tug I could sense deep within me and from the way Carter's words connected in my spirit.

He seemed to have a way of challenging all I knew, all I wanted. And that infuriated me even more.

Still, it also made me want to kiss him.

I looked away from him, attempting to control my breathing, then turned to face Alex. He was standing at the door, his face austere, his eyes darting between Carter and me with the type of intensity that made the air between us seem even more dense.

"What is happening, Alex?" I insisted, my voice quivering despite me.

Alex did not respond straight away. Rather, he looked at Carter and then started talking. "You should be aware of the person behind those threats.”

Carter's jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed in a way that made me want to back out. Nobody else knows. Nobody.

Alex shot him a quick glance. "They know more than you might believe."

The air felt like a pulse of peril. One could sense the strain. This involved something far more than just us now. Something I still didn't understand.

Abruptly, the hall resonated with footfall, then the distinct ring of a phone on the desk. I looked across at it. On the screen, the name was one I knew nothing about. But I understood right away that Carter's face reflected something grave.

His hands firm, his countenance incomprehensible, he reached for the phone. I started to shiver as he picked it up. On the other end of that line, nobody was calling for a friendly conversation.

He turned on the speaker on the phone. The voice emerging was low, garbled, and somehow all too familiar.

"You're running out of time, Carter," the voice replied, harsh and chilly, clearly sneering. "I am all-knowing. And involving Sophie? That is only the starting point.

I turned to Carter and blood spilled from my face. "What's this? Identify this person. Over the hammer in my ears, my speech was hardly heard.

Now Carter's face was pale, a flash of panic across his generally calm features. But it also disappeared behind a wall of will really fast.

With a hard tone, he said, "Stay out of this, Sophie." Still, his voice revealed underlying anxiety even with his clarity. "This is greater than both of us."

The line clicked before I could answer, losing my voice. With shaky hands now, Carter dropped the phone down on the desk. I met the actual Carter—broken, terrified, and unsure—for the first time.

I gave a hard swallow. " Carter... What the devil is driving on?

His back stiffened him away from me. "I'll tell you everything; when it's safe."

But something indicated to me that safety no longer exists.

As I watched Carter, his back turned to me and his whole body tensed, I could clearly hear my pulse in my ears.

The weight of the phone call, the ramifications of it, hung thickly in the air and choked us. When I opened my mouth to talk, the words appeared to clog in my throat.

"What does that mean, Carter?" I choked out just above a whisper.

He answered slowly, his fists closed at his sides as though he were fighting an inner struggle. Tension drove the twitching of his back muscles. In the low light, his profile was clear-cut, and his jaw tightened, as though he were suppressing something.

I got closer, my voice shaking. "Carter, I have to know what's happening. I cannot keep standing here in the dark.

He turned gently at last to meet my eyes. His eyes were unvarnished, full of so many feelings I could not even start to interpret. Yes, there was indeed rage. But there was also anxiety and something deeper, something that turned my stomach over.

His voice straggling, he replied, "You don't understand." Should you know the truth, things would be different. I want nothing like that for you, Sophie.

"What do you want me to be shielded from?" I insisted, my annoyance leaking over. "I have already been pulled into this muck. Tell me what I am dealing with, Carter, or I'll—“

Or you'll what? His voice ripped through my words like a razor, abruptly icy. You believe you can leave this behind? You are already too deeply buried.

At his words, I gasped and tightened my chest. He was accurate. Whether or not I wanted to be, I was in right now. I was not ready to let it overtake me, though. Not now.

The chamber erupted in a forceful knock at the door, shattering the still calm. My muscles tensed right away and my heart sprang in my chest. As Carter went near the door, his countenance changed to something darker, more guarded. He opened it a fraction of a second after pausing.

A big, broad-shouldered man with thick sunglasses masked his eyes behind, stood in the doorway and I did not know who he was.

At first the man remained silent; his presence was almost oppressive. The room seemed to have several degrees of temperature reduction.

Carter's eyes turned to me and his jaw clenched. "You ought not to be here."

Though there was no humor in it, the man's lips turned into a tiny smile. "I think you'll find we don't have time for shoulders anymore, Carter," the man continued, his voice low and threatening.

"You have received warnings." Time is running against us.

My pulse skipped. The air seemed to get heavier, laden with something I couldn't really put—threat, haste, fear. Stepping forward, the man passed Carter as though he owned the space.

He said, "Sophie," looking at me. His gaze gave me shivers down my spine. "You're not safe right here. Neither is he.

My breath seized in my throat as I instinctively stepped back. Whose man was this? Knowing what he knew, And why was he suddenly putting himself into the picture?

"Get out," Now, Carter's voice was more pointed and frustrated, but the man moved nowhere. He just grinned once more, a frigid, empty gesture that made my skin crawl.

The man pointed between Carter and me and said, "Not until I've delivered my message." Your little game is over.

The sound of a gunshot rang in the silence before I could respond; it came from somewhere beyond the door.

I froze, my blood cold. My gaze turned to Carter, looking for any indication he shared my level of shaking.

Still, there was nothing—no worry, no anxiety. Just a mask covering cold computation.

The man standing in the entryway lost his smile.

"That's just a taste," he added, his voice cooler than before. "Time's up.

He turned and left the room before I could say anything, his footsteps fading into the distance and leaving a terrible stillness behind him. I breathe or move. My ideas were a mix of horror and doubt.

I murmured, my voice just a whisper, "Carter, what just happened?"

He did not reply right away. His eyes stayed locked on the entrance, as though he were waiting for someone—or something.

"It's started," he whispered at last, his voice low and nearly too mild for human hearing. "And it's worse than I thought."

I moved closer, a rising sense of anxiety flooding over me. " Worse than you imagined?" In what sense does that apply? Who was the guy?

Carter turned to face me, his eyes reflecting a grief that caused my chest pain. "Sophie, you are not safe." Additionally neither am I.

I tried to swallow, the whole weight of the circumstances falling on me. I had been pulled into a world I knew nothing about, and it was spiraling out of hand faster than I could keep up.

My stomach felt when I noticed the caller ID as the desk phone chimed once more just then. Same quantity as before.

The voice on the other side was even worse than the man from the door.

I could identify a voice.

"Carter," the voice murmured, cool and deliberate but with a dark undercurrent. "You only have one chance to write this. And should Sophie cause interference, there will be repercussions.

Looking at Carter, my blood ran cold. This went beyond simply us now. It spoke of survival.

We also ran out of time.