Beloved Predator (Beloved Series #2)

Fourteen

Unknown

I grasped my coffee cup and walked briskly through the lobby to my private elevator. It was seven in the morning, and as usual I was the only one in the building aside from security. I walked past the reception desk in the lobby, making a mental note to submit the paperwork for the holiday bonuses for the receptionists. As the elevator doors opened, I felt a buzz from the bottom of my laptop bag. After rummaging through way too much crap, I found the bright yellow phone. I hated to answer this phone at work, but I figured it was safe since I was alone.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Dude, we've got a problem. Ox is missing."

"What the fuck do you mean he's missing? I left him with Sergei."

"Sergei got picked up a while ago, man."

I gripped the phone and tried not to throw it. "How am I just now finding this out?"

"I don't know. Blain and I were at the club last night and Axel told us. I tried finding out from the guy who replaced Sergei, but he said he didn't know anything."

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. This was the last thing I needed right now. "Fucking find him. You have two days."

I threw the phone in my bag and took a deep breath. This could all wait, I reminded myself. The meeting later that morning was where I needed to focus. Some damn parents' group in New York was bitching about some of the content in my games, so I needed to kiss some ass and smooth things over. I cleared my head and stepped into the elevator, determined not to obsess over what was probably a miscommunication until later.

As soon as the doors opened on my floor, I heard it. A song I recognized, but couldn't immediately place was loudly reverberating through the walls of the reception area. After a few moments, I suddenly realized the name of the song and my thoughts went back in time to my college days.

Fuck. No.

With what felt like a ball of lead in my stomach, I ran to the door and damn near tore it off the hinges. To my surprise, the lights inside were off until I entered but the music continued at full volume. I rounded the corner to my desk, and that's when I saw a figure already seated behind it.

Her.

She sat in my chair with her feet propped up. Her eyes were full of emerald fury as they met mine, her curly dark red hair only adding to the fire. She stood up and smoothed out her black pinstriped pantsuit and crossed her arms. The rumors that she was short were true, but in that moment, she may as well have been eight feet tall from the power and anger I could feel rolling off her. Her mouth cast into an evil smile as the song ended.

"Good morning, Rigo. How nice of you to finally make your acquaintance."

Ari

The color drained from his face as we stood starting at each other in silence. I disconnected my phone from the cable on his desk that connected to the audio system. The break in eye contact seemed to give him the few seconds he needed to regain his composure. When my eyes met his again, they were the same cold ice blue I remembered from my meetings with Carlton Danvers III, CEO of CanX.

"Well, if it isn't the child prodigy," he sneered.

"Well, if it isn't the coward who hires rapists to do his dirty work," I spat.

"Prodigy, I had no idea—"

I stood up and he froze. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up. So help me God, Carlton, Rigo, or whatever you call yourself these days. Take a seat and spare me the 'prodigy' shit. I'll be brief since I have somewhere I need to be soon." I pointed to the chairs in front of the desk.