CHAPTER2
CORBIN
Iwaited. The quiet sounds of the building made it possible for me to hear the ding of the elevator. Once Hazel and her peach-smelling shampoo were out of my vicinity, I shot a quick text to Drake.
CORBIN: Follow her.
I didn’t trust anyone from All American Bank, and I especially didn’t trust Hazel Webb. Not in this scenario. How convenient for her to show up now. It was as if someone plucked her from the sky and dropped her on my doorstep as the perfect distraction. She checked every single box on my list of what I wanted in a woman appearance wise. Someone at All American Bank did their homework.
Too convenient.
So convenient that if someone wanted to take me down—say in retaliation for turning away a huge contract for her employer—Hazel Webb was the perfect person to guarantee my demise.
She had to go.
I flipped open my laptop and frowned at the screen, trying to get back into work mode. Her hips sashaying as she walked out of my office replayed in my mind. I obviously petrified her, but she still wiggled her hips. Was that her natural stride or did she do it on purpose while faking the fear?
Hazel looked and sounded defeated as she left. She didn’t even argue like I expected. It only made me more suspicious. If she was truly on the run and scared for her life, wouldn’t she have gotten on her knees and begged?
Why didn’t she offer to pay anything besides the fifty grand? The bank could afford it. She didn’t negotiate at all. Everyone always negotiated.
Some tried to give their lives.
Their bodies.
A few even promised to rat out their friends or family.
Why did her refusal to bargain excite me so much? I’d never taken sex as a payment, never needed to, so why even consider what she would have offered now?
I hated to turn the woman away, especially when her desperation painted every wall in the room. Truthfully, if she had come from any place else, I would have helped her for free, but I didn’t trust anyone from All American. Not a single soul.
Their crimes ran red throughout the entire company.
The corruption amid their walls went too deep. They approached me a year ago about developing an encryption software. The main objective wasn’t to protect customer information, but for private files for their CEO. They wanted a software good enough to keep everyone out.
Everyone.
I didn’t know what he wanted hidden, and I didn’t care. I wouldn’t risk my lucrative government contract for the measly half a million they offered. To say the CEO didn’t take my rejection well would be an understatement. He threatened my life, but I got that pretty often.
Hence Drake.
And his gun.
The CEO, Jake, upped their offer to an even million, but it wasn’t enough to make me take a job for a person I didn’t trust. He’d do anything to save his ass. I wouldn’t put it past their CEO to send a beautiful woman in to change my mind.
Wo, who was Hazel Webb?
It barely sounded like a real name.
How did the top staff at All American learn what type of woman would be the most effective to lure me into helping? Hazel with her red hair and splash of freckles dancing across her nose checked off every single one of my boxes. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
I might have found her gorgeous, but I didn’t think with my dick.
Jack severely underestimated me if he thought I’d change my mind based on the eye candy he dangled in front of me.
Although, if Hazel was a plant, she was a damn talented actress. The woman belonged in Hollywood, not selling her soul for whatever pittance Jack Beamer at All American offered her.
I opened a new tab in my computer, set the session to private, and typed her name into my specially developed person locator.