Hidden Fortune

Chapter 8: The Rival's Offer (Part 2 of 2)

Adrian smiled, and he thought about Victor, and about Clara, and about the offer. He thought about the strings, and about Mia, who had refused to be bought. He thought about himself, who was, in a way, also refusing to be bought. Victor, and the board, and the easy way out could not buy him, either. He thought, as he walked Mia back to her desk, that refusing to be bought was a very good quality in a person. It was a very dangerous quality, too, because people who cannot be bought are people who cannot be controlled. People who cannot be controlled are people that men like Victor Lang try, sooner or later, to destroy.

At five o'clock, Adrian's phone buzzed, with a message from Jamie, short and urgent, in the way Jamie's messages always were when there was news. Adrian, reading it, felt his heart sink, because the news was not good. It was, in its own way, connected to Mia's refusal, and to Victor's offer, and to everything else that was happening, all at once.

*Victor is angry. Clara told him Mia refused. He is now asking questions about Mia, and about her team, and about who advised her. Be careful. And Adrian? Don't let Mia know Victor is angry. Not yet. It will frighten her, and frightened people make mistakes, and Mia does not need to make mistakes, right now.*

Adrian put the phone away, and he looked at Mia, who was laughing with Zoe. She looked, for a moment, happy, and free, and unburdened. He thought about Victor's anger, and about Clara's smile, and about the offer, and about the strings. He thought about the fact that Mia Harper had just made herself a target. She had done it by refusing to be bought, in a fight she did not fully understand. Adrian, who understood it all too well, knew that he would have to protect her. He knew that as he packed up his things and walked to the subway. He would have to do it without revealing himself, and without frightening her. He would have to do it without, if possible, letting Victor know how much he cared. Adrian Cole, the temp, cared about Mia Harper, the project manager, more than a temp should. He cared about her more than a billionaire should, and more than Adrian himself had ever cared about anyone, in his life, before.

On his way home, Adrian stopped at the coffee shop near the office, not because he wanted coffee, but because he wanted to think. Thinking, in a coffee shop, with bad chairs and good cake, was easier than thinking alone. Thinking alone, in a small apartment, meant thinking with a secret that was getting heavier every day.

He was halfway through his coffee when a man sat down opposite him, uninvited, and said, "You're Adrian Cole, aren't you? Mia's temp."

Adrian looked up, and saw a man about his own age, but broader and tougher. His hands looked as if they fixed things for a living. His eyes looked as if they had already decided Adrian was trouble. Adrian, who had never met Daniel Reyes, knew, instantly, that this was Daniel Reyes. He was Mia's older brother, the mechanic, the protector. He was the man who thought every man Mia met was too good to be true.

"I'm Daniel," the man said, holding out a hand that was, Adrian thought, both a greeting and a test. "Mia's brother. She mentioned you. She said you're a good temp, and a good listener, and that you helped her team, and that Victor Lang offered her money. She said no, which is, in my opinion, the best thing anyone in this family has done in a long time."

Adrian shook his hand, carefully, because Daniel's handshake was firm. Adrian, who was a billionaire in disguise, did not want to seem either too weak or too strong. He did not want that in front of Mia's brother, who was, Adrian suspected, judging him, and rightly so.

"She did say no," Adrian said. "She was brilliant. And brave. And I told her so, which is, I hope, the right thing to do, when someone you care about does something brave."

Daniel looked at him, for a long time, and then he said, very quietly, "Mia cares about you, Adrian Cole. I can tell, because she talks about you the way she talks about people she trusts. She trusts not many people, and not quickly, and not lightly. So I'm going to say this once, and I'm going to say it plainly. Mia deserves plain speaking, even if she doesn't always get it. If you hurt her, Daniel said, I will know, and I will find you. I will not be polite about it, and I don't care who you are. I don't care where you work, or how much money you have, or don't have. None of that matters, when it comes to my sister."

Adrian nodded, and he said, sincerely, "I understand, Daniel. And I promise you, I will not hurt her, not deliberately, and not if I can help it. If I do hurt her, by accident, or by omission, or by a secret I cannot tell yet, then I will fix it. I will apologize, and I will accept whatever you, and Mia, decide I deserve."

Daniel looked at him, and then he stood up, and he said, "Good. Then we're clear. And Adrian? Take care of her. She's stronger than she looks, and more fragile than she admits. That is a combination that most men, in my experience, do not understand, until it's too late."

He walked out, and Adrian sat there, alone, with his coffee, and with Daniel's warning ringing in his ears. He thought about Mia, and about Victor, and about the offer, and about the strings, and about how many people, now, were warning him. Zoe, and Eleanor, and Jamie, and Daniel, all saying, in different ways, the same thing: do not hurt Mia Harper. Adrian, who had heard them all, and who agreed with them all, knew that warnings were not enough. He knew that as he finished his coffee and walked home. Only honesty, in the end, would protect Mia, and honesty, for Adrian, was still, frustratingly, out of reach.

The question, as he walked home through the cold New York evening, was not whether Victor would try again. He would. Victor Lang always tried again, and again, until he got what he wanted, or until someone stopped him, for good. The question was whether Adrian, temp and billionaire, would be able to stop him, in time. The question was whether he could stop him before Victor's anger, and Victor's offer, and Victor's strings, wrapped themselves around Mia. Could he stop them before they wrapped around her team, and her project? Victor would pull them, slowly and surely, out of Vale Technologies, and into Victor's hands. There they would be safe, and well-paid, and completely, utterly lost.