But I couldn’t concentrate. My mind was full of her.

Was she being safe? Imani might not know to look out for her. As for the bodyguards she’d mentioned earlier… well, I hoped none of them were as taken with her as I seemed to be. Even if I couldn’t fully trust her, I didn’t want any of them making moves on her either. But it was impossible to believe none of them would. They didn’t have to worry about the repercussions like I did.

A sudden urgency crept up on me. To see her. Make sure she was all right. A thought occurred to me. King’s Security had installed The Castle’s security system, which meant we had access to the camera feeds.

No. Don’t do it.

Using my access to spy on a woman would be wrong. But then, I only wanted to make sure she was okay. Much as I wished I could hate her because of her connection to Tom, she was loyal to her family legacy, and I couldn’t fault that.

God, I missed Frank. He’d know what to do at a time like this.

“Two minutes,” I muttered to myself as I refocused on the screen and hit the keys needed to navigate into The Castle’s main feed. I shifted from one camera to another, checking the screen for her, until eventually, I found her in a booth with a group of my employees, sandwiched between a pair of women. The pressure in my chest eased, and I shut the feed off.

“Creep.”

I forced myself back to work but hadn’t made it very far before my phone rang. I glanced at the number and sighed. Kaitlyn. This wasn’t going to be fun.

“Hi, King.” Her voice was brisk. All business. “I’m in town for the weekend. Want to get together?”

Kaitlyn was a partner in a small law firm in Indianapolis, but often visited Chicago for work. I’d met her through a friend, and since we were both busy people without time for a relationship, we scratched our itches whenever she was in the area. “I’m sorry, Kaitlyn, but that’s not a good idea.”

“Oh?” She sounded surprised. As she should have. I rarely turned her down.

I winced. “I’ve met someone, and nothing has happened between us, but it wouldn’t be fair of me to be with you when I’m thinking about her.”

“I see.” Was it just me, or did she sound hurt? I supposed no woman liked to hear you preferred another woman over her. “Well, best of luck. I hope you can manage to carve some time out of your busy schedule for her.”

Yeah, okay, that definitely sounded bitter.

“Kaitlyn, I’m—”

She hung up.

Willow

It was nice to be out with people. Even if I didn’t know most of them and didn’t really want to. They went out of their way to make me feel like part of the group. People often treated me differently because of my family, even though we’d lost our fortune. My colleagues’ welcoming attitudes made me rethink my quest to pump them for information. I didn’t want to be that person, did I? The one who wriggled into their good graces like a snake and exploited their trust. It didn’t feel right, no matter how much I wanted to protect my family company. Whatever Ronan may or may not be up to, these were decent people and they didn’t deserve that.