Holding Her Close (Bits and Bytes, Book 0) (Bits & Bytes) Read online

  She spun toward the door and found herself face to face with a FedEx delivery guy. She jumped in surprise. Her hand flew to her hammering heart and she choked on a nervous laugh.

  The man glanced up from his clipboard. “Zachary William Johnson?”

  “Johnston,” Zach corrected him. “That's me.”

  The man handed him an envelope. “Have a nice day, sir.”

  Zach took the letter, jaw clenched.

  “Thank you.” The FedEx man turned away before he finished speaking.

  “Wow, you executives really don’t ever stop working, do you?” Rae teased.

  He blinked and shook his head. His voice was soft, eyes never leaving the envelope as he turned it over and over in his hands. “Something like that. I’m sorry, I need to make a call.”

  “Yeah.” She didn't think he heard her. She had no idea what was in the letter, or if he even knew, but whatever it was had drowned out any remaining traces of the bizarre reunion.

  She shuffled back to the driveway. Jordan’s car was gone, leaving hers alone on the pristine concrete. Her eyes narrowed when she yanked the door open.

  Her laptop case winked back at her from the driver’s seat, a post-it note on top with Chloe’s familiar scrawl on it.

  If you’re reading this, you survived. Was it as horrible as you thought it would be?

  What the — ? What was her sister up to now?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Zach leaned against the counter next to the sink, palms resting on the granite behind him, fingers drumming on the lip. All things considered, he’d rather be wading through awkward conversation with Rae than facing his company’s mortality. Their company, Cord wasn’t even a decade old. Even younger than the faded grudge the two of them clung to.

  At least she'd lost the blue dye job, and swapped out her wardrobe. Of course, it had been years, it made sense she would have. And he couldn't complain about the thin white top with the turquoise bra underneath.

  “You’re not listening, are you?” Scott’s question cut through the drifting fantasy.

  Zach pushed the image away and focused on his best friend and business partner. Even if he hadn’t heard everything Scott had said, he’d be able to guess. The conversation hadn’t changed much since they’d lost Cord in the hostile takeover nine months ago.

  Scott nodded at something behind Zach “Was she as good in bed as she was attractive?”

  Was she? Fantasy sideswiped Zach’s thoughts and slid in to take their place. Rae’s teasing laughter growing heavy as he backed her against a wall, peeling off her thin top, making her gasp. He pushed the images away again. Where the hell had that come from? And that wasn’t what Scott was talking about. “Who?”

  Scott raised an eyebrow. “Whoever you liked enough to let spend the night.” He nodded at the sink again. “Extra mug?”

  Right, that. Zach shook his head, as much to force the tantalizing images out as to answer Scott. “No one spent the night.”

  “Fine, don’t tell me. Whatever has you distracted must have been the best fucking wet dream in history. You liked her enough to make her coffee this morning.” Scott turned back to the letter in front of him. “This changes everything, you know.”

  The rapid change of subject didn’t faze Zach. They were talking about the letter again. He exhaled slowly. “The only thing that’s changed is it’s in writing now.” It was a formal copy of the offer Digital Media — the company who had “acquired” Cord — was making to buy Zach and Scott out of their old company shares. “That doesn’t make getting out of it any easier. In fact, it makes it that much more real.”

  Scott pushed off the barstool, and paced the length of the kitchen. “So what do we do?”

  The specifics had varied over the past few months, but the meaning of the conversation never changed. Scott refused to accept that they didn’t have any options, and got pissed when Zach had the nerve to point it out.

  Zach was sick of it. He hated the entire thing as much as anyone — they had built Cord together — but he had also accepted reality months ago. “I was thinking of bumming around Europe for a couple of years. Sell the house, put the Porsche in storage, and buy a stack of traveler’s checks and a one-way-ticket.

  “This isn’t a joke.” Scott’s snarl echoed off stone and stainless steel.

  Zach knew what was coming next. Or at least, he had a list to pick from and he’d narrowed it down to the most likely option. This would probably be the negotiation argument. Couldn’t they just stay on long enough to launch their current game? DM would have to let them stay if they did a great job. They just had to prove they could play nice with their new owner. Like trained dogs on a leash.

  Scott stopped and turned to face him, dark eyes narrowed.

  Or maybe it would be the “Can we just pretend we never saw this?” argument. That one was always amusing.

  “Is this what you wanted?” Scott asked.

  Zach choked on a canned response. That was new. “Excuse me?”

  Scott shoved his hands in his pockets. “This isn’t just our lifeblood, it’s our dream. It’s being ripped away, and you’ve barely batted an eye. Do you have any idea how sick I am of hearing ‘there’s nothing we can do’ over and over again?”

  In most situations Zach would temper his answer. Business meetings, he’d filter his thoughts. Dinner with colleagues, he’d tone down his response. Scott was the one person he never had to watch his words with, and the fury racing through him was grateful for it.

  He crossed his arms. “Probably as sick as I am of hearing you deny this is an issue. It was a fucking hostile takeover. We’re lucky we have any say in anything after this long.”

  The veins in Scott’s neck bulged. “Maybe that’s what you were hoping for. Maybe that’s why you opened us up to it in the first place.”

  Every word dug deeper, and Zach’s anger rose in response. “You really think I planned this?”

  Scott’s brow rose. “I was thinking you let it happen, but maybe you did plan it. You’re the one who begged me to let Kelly invest.”

  “Really? You're going to rehash five years ago?” If she hadn't, they wouldn't have anything now to make them worth buying out. Her money had kept them solvent. Zach’s fingers twitched over the pack of smokes in his shirt pocket, but he held his posture. He swallowed a few breaths of air to try and sate the craving.

  “We would have found a way.” A growl cut through Scott’s response.

  This was bullshit, and the accusations hurt like hell. “I'm not going to play the 'what-if' game. We're here now, not there. Besides, the only reason you didn't want it then was —” Zach stopped himself before he could add ‘because she didn’t love you’. There were some lines he wasn’t willing to cross, even in an all-out exchange of insults.

  Scott's scowl slipped, but anger still ran through his retort. “I didn't want it then because it was blood money. It was bribery. It was her way of getting back into your life. She didn't earn it, just like she hasn't earned a penny since. I would rather have failed than owe her anything.”

  Zach exhaled through clenched teeth. “Funny, that's not what you said back then. Besides, can you fathom not being here right now? I'm not talking about today, I'm talking about the rest of it. You would have walked away from your dream just to spite a potential investor? And it took you five years to figure that out?”

  “It wouldn't have been spite.”

  Zach knew that wasn't true. “You would have taken money from anyone else. Do you remember how desperate we were?”

  “I didn't take it from Dad. I said yes because you wanted it.”

  “Nuh-uh.” Zach shook his head, gaze locked on Scott. They both knew the company had been Scott's idea. His dream. “Don't shift the blame to me. How was I supposed to know?”

  “Fine.” Scott threw his hands up before he started pacing again. “No one did anything wrong. This is all just an unhappy coincidence.”

  “I didn't say that. Kelly did this
. Yeah, okay. I can admit getting involved with her was a mistake, but how was I supposed to know?” Zach struggled to bring his anger under control.

  “At least you learned your lesson before it was too late.” Sarcasm hung heavy in Scott’s sneer. “Oh wait, no you didn’t. Maybe it’s a good thing we lost everything. Otherwise you might have signed over controlling interest to whomever you had over this morning that you’re not willing to talk about.”

  Zach’s fury raced back full-force. His raised voice bounced back at him. “Fuck you. Really? First of all, Kelly wasn’t just some random one-night fling. Mistake or not, I thought I loved her. I thought she loved me. Second, I already told you, I didn’t have anyone over last night. The mug is Rae’s.”

  Scott’s eyes grew wide, but his shoulders didn’t relax. “Rae, as in, no one better put the two of you in a room together? She was your one night stand?”

  That could be interesting; stripping off her turquoise bra, running his hands over those incredible curves. Zach pushed the uninvited images aside. What was wrong with him? “No. I didn’t sleep with Rae and no one spent the night. She was looking for Chloe and wanted to leave a message with me.”

  The tension faded from Scott’s frame and his shoulders slumped. At least that was one thing about Scott. He had a short fuse, but it tended to burn out as quickly as it ignited. “Does that mean you two are on speaking terms again?”

  “Yes. I guess. I don’t know.” It wasn’t even ten am and Zach already felt drained. Rae had always been a volatile subject. When they had broken up in high school, she and Scott stayed friends. It was obvious the entire thing stressed Scott, and Zach didn’t believe in making friends take sides, so he’d tried to keep his distance from Rae as much as possible.

  This was new though, and as much as Zach had more important things to worry about, like how to get Scott to recognize this buy-out offer wasn’t going away, Rae still danced in his head. The banter, her tongue running over her lips when she was nervous, the heat of her body next to his. He pushed the thoughts away. That wasn’t helping.

  “Anyway.” Scott raked his fingers through his hair, the brown spikes bouncing back into place the moment he dropped his hand. “Wanna go get breakfast?”

  “Good call.” Zach pushed away from the counter. They’d bullshit, maybe the waitress would be cute. Short, curvy. Wait, that wasn’t right, he liked his women tall. Unless they looked like Rae. Damn she was sexy.

  He needed to stop that. Why couldn’t he get her out of his head? Especially after less than an hour of talking to her.

  He needed to move on. Flush her out of his system. He only knew two ways to do that, and since never seeing her again probably wasn’t an option, he’d have to go with the second. He just needed a taste to sate the curiosity. To prove to his psyche she was just another woman. That was how it always worked when someone wormed their way into his thoughts and wouldn’t leave.

  The question was, what did she need to hear to convince her of the same thing? She had to be at least a little interested. Even though she’d pulled away from the kiss at the last second, he’d have bet money she was considering leaning into it instead.

  Seduction didn’t seem like the best option. She’d always been more of a straightforward person. The thought was foreign, but tempting. Maybe he’d just have to be upfront with her. Mostly.

  Scott was still talking as they made their way to the garage entrance. “You haven’t even tried to think of another option, have you?”

  Of course he had. Never speak to her again, or sleep with her. No, that wasn’t what he meant. He was talking about the buy-out again. Reality seeped back into Zach’s thoughts, bringing irritation with it. Hadn’t they moved past this point in the conversation? “I’ve considered selling everything I own and moving to New Zealand.”

  Scott’s wordless roar bounced off the surrounding walls. “That’s it, I’m done. I’m not hungry after all.”

  Zach glared at him. “Fine, call me when reality permeates your thick skull.”

  “Don’t hold your breath.” Scott slammed the door behind him, and the house shook. Moments later, the roar of a gunned engine cut through the air.

  Zach plucked his smokes from his pocket and headed for the back deck. Not only did he not have a solution, but he didn’t even know where to start. He and Scott didn’t always see eye to eye, but they’d always been able to compromise before. This time though, they’d lost it all. The money wouldn’t make up for the blood, sweat, and love they’d poured into Cord, and his best friend was slipping away from him in a haze of delusion and denial.

  He paused in the middle of the kitchen, feet sticking to the floor as the weight of frustration hit him full force. “FUUUUUUCK!” he screamed to the empty room.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Rae plucked another walnut from her salad and nibbled on it. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the rest, but the nuts were her favorite bit and she’d never been very good at spearing them with her fork. “It’s not a big deal.”

  Chloe pushed her potato chips around her plate before picking one from the pile. “Then you shouldn’t have made it one.”

  If it weren’t for the fact her younger sister dyed her hair black and kept her skin pale, Rae and Chloe would have looked like twins instead of the five years apart they actually were. Not that either of them minded their personal tastes made them look like separate people.

  Chloe was drilling her about whether or not she and Zach were on speaking terms again, and Rae was sick of it. “I didn’t.”

  “Whatever.” Chloe mumbled between bites of sandwich. She washed it down with a swallow of sweet tea. “Then this won’t bother you.” She looked past Rae, waving at someone. “Hey, guys.”

  Rae followed the movement, stomach flipping when she saw who her sister was talking to. Never, in the entire time she’d been meeting Chloe for lunch, had she ever seen Zach in the place. She’d always assumed the deli wasn’t his thing and now there he was, with Jordan, waving back from the counter.

  Rae turned away from the new arrivals to glare at Chloe. “Did you have to do that?”

  Chloe shrugged and grabbed another fry. “Presumably. It’s not like I could ignore them. He signs my paychecks. Besides, it’s not a big deal, right?”

  “You couldn’t have just said ‘I wanted to talk to my boyfriend?’” Rae kept the question soft.

  “That’s no fun.” Chloe’s smirk spread into a wide grin seconds later.

  Even if a hand hadn’t rested on the back of her chair, Rae wouldn’t have had to turn around to know what had provoked the change in expression.

  “Ladies.” Zach’s greeting was warm. “I was looking for one of you. Funny coincidence.”

  One of them? Something fluttered through Rae’s chest against her will. That needed to stop. He wasn’t talking about her, and she didn’t care even if he was.

  “Oh?” Chloe sat up straighter.

  “We’re brainstorming commercial ideas,” Jordan offered, eyes never leaving Chloe. “We were going to invite you.”

  “You’re busy.” Zach didn’t missing a beat. “We’ll catch up later.”

  Good. Rae could finish her lunch in peace.

  Chloe nudged a chair out with her foot. “Eat with us. We’re just rehashing the same old stuff.”

  Or not.

  “Okay.” Jordan dropped into the offered seat.

  Zach moved into view. “You’re sure we’re not interrupting?”

  Rae froze on her answer, half of her not wanting to recreate the other morning in his kitchen and the other half not minding the scenery. He made the button-down and slacks look even better than the pajama’s he’d been wearing the other day.

  “It’s all good,” Chloe supplied for her. “Not a big deal at all.”

  Rae shot her a look before pasting a smile in place. “Absolutely. Pull up a chair.”

  “So, commercials.” Chloe leaned in the moment they were both seated, pushing her plate aside. “TV, right? S
ince we need artwork?”

  “Webisodes.” Jordan’s grin was just as big. Where Chloe headed the writing staff, he was the art director. “Five minutes long. Epic, right?”

  Zach looked at Rae, the apology in his steel eyes muffling something she couldn’t interpret. “You sure you don’t mind?” he asked.

  “She’s fine,” Chloe answered first, attention always on Jordan.

  “It’s all good,” Rae assured him. It was an interruption, and it was annoying, but she could put on a happy face. The last thing she wanted was for Zach to know she was intensely aware of close he was sitting.

  Even if he hadn’t been there, she loved listening to Chloe — or Scott or really anyone from their office — talk about what they were working on. There was something about their work that was so creative compared to the contracts she had. If she could, she’d set herself up in a game company long-term. Too bad that had never been an option.

  She pushed the rambling thought aside and focused on the conversation, which was mostly Chloe and Jordan tossing story ideas back and forth, trying to make content work with visuals. Occasionally Zach would nudge them in a direction. All three of their lunches went untouched.

  “You can’t do that,” Zach interrupted as Chloe and Jordan reached an animated consensus on something. “It’s too easy. She needs to work harder to solve the problem.”

  Chloe stopped, eyebrows reaching toward the top of her head. “Say what?”

  Rae leaned in, resting her arms on the table. “Of course they can do that. The idea is perfect for your target market. Layla has to lean on the hero at least a little.” Layla was the main character for Cord’s top-selling title.

  Zach shook his head. “Part of the point of this is to draw in new audiences. We have to step away from the sexist assumptions. Like that Layla can’t defend herself.”

  Rae bit back her first response. It probably wasn’t the right time to tell him he needed to start closer to the core of their company image — like their playboy executives — if he wanted to get rid of their sexist image. “She’s already wearing skin-tight leather. It’s not about toning her down or hiding her weaknesses, it’s about making sure she comes across as confident. Self-reliant is not the same as bossy or standoffish.”