Chapter 4

Miles started forward. My father stepped between us, and he stopped. He glared at Adrian, got into his car, and drove off.

For a moment nobody said anything.

"Did he hurt you?" I touched the place where Miles had gripped his neck.

Adrian stood very still.

"I need to get back to work," he said, and left so fast that I noticed the tips of his ears had gone red only as he turned away.

Three days later, I took my résumé to the Vale Group.

The Hart Group still ran on my work, but I could no longer bear to walk into its offices.

The change meant giving up a job I had worked hard for. It also meant getting through a working day without Miles appearing at my desk and calling his demands concern.

Vale's head of hiring recognized my name and went to tell Adrian that the project lead they had spent six months trying to poach was sitting in the waiting room.

The manager told me later that Adrian had stood up the moment she said my name. He had her come back with the offer on whatever terms I set.

When she told him I hadn't asked about the salary, he said, "I don't think it was the job that brought her here."

Over the next month I fixed what I was given to fix and asked for more.

By the end of it, Adrian had started taking me with him, and one night that meant a dinner hosted by an investor from out of town.

Miles was there. His arm was around Lila's waist.

People complimented him on his lovely companion, apparently unaware that his fiancée was standing a few steps away.

He saw me, let go of Lila, and came over. "Nora. I didn't know you'd be here."

"I came with Adrian."

Miles glanced behind him. "I couldn't find you, so I asked Lila to come. Don't misunderstand."

Lila came over and told everyone they were just friends. Miles gave her a grateful look.

I took a sip of wine and let him finish explaining an evening I hadn't asked about.

For all his insistence that I was his girlfriend, he had put his arm around Lila where the entire party could see them.

He wanted us both to play along. I wondered who he thought would do it first.

"Who you bring to dinner isn't my business, Mr. Hart," I said. "If you keep following me, though, I'll call the police."

"Nora. I'm your boyfriend."

Adrian was walking toward us. I reached for his arm as if we had come together.

"There you are."

Several executives came over to greet him. When one of them asked who I was, Adrian introduced me by name and said I worked for the Vale Group.

Miles went very still. Then he gripped my wrist and pulled me toward the entrance.

The guests stared. Someone asked whether I wasn't the woman he'd proposed to.

Others looked at Lila. She made for the door, her mouth pressed into a hard line.

"You work for Adrian?" Miles demanded. "You had a job at the Hart Group."

"I left. I've been at Vale for a month."

He hadn't known. All that time he'd been courting Lila, he hadn't once asked where I went in the morning.

I had helped run projects at his family's company. Now I had another employer, a new badge, and work of my own.

Miles seemed to think Adrian had taken all three from him.

Lila's heels sounded behind us. Miles turned to her at once.

"They were calling me your mistress in there," she told him. "You knew you were engaged, and you let me walk in with you?"

"Tell me who said it."

He never asked if she was all right.

"I want to go home."

He hurried her to his car. Only after opening the passenger door did he remember I was still standing there.

"Nora, I'll explain later."

Lila rolled down her window and looked at me. She was smiling again.

Miles drove her away while I stood beside the entrance, my wrist sore where he'd held it.

---

The next day Miles came to the Vale Group.

One night was enough. He had a name now, and an address.

He didn't ask to see me. He went straight to Adrian's office, shouting loud enough for the corridor to hear.

I was in the break room when I heard him. I put down my cup and went after him.

Adrian looked up when Miles stormed in, then finished signing the document in front of him.

The sight of him putting down his pen sent Miles straight to the desk. He slammed a fist against it, rattling everything on top.

"You knew exactly what you were doing," Miles shouted. "She said your name in that hospital room because she wanted it to be mine, and you let her. And now you've hired her. What are you trying to pull?"

Adrian met his eyes. "She came to me for work."

"Give her back. You stole her from me."

"I can't do that."

Miles grabbed him by the collar. "Nora belongs to me. Just because she's with you now doesn't mean she'll stay."

"Nora is her own person. I can't make her do anything she doesn't want to do."

Miles punched him. Adrian didn't hit back.

He could have — he had worn a black belt since he was sixteen — but he kept his hands where they were, blood on his lip.

"The doctor said she might remember." Miles's voice cracked on it. "It could happen any day now. When it does, she'll come back. She loves me."

Adrian had heard the same thing from the same doctor. There had been no promise in it.

He said nothing. He didn't take his eyes off Miles.

I reached the doorway then. "Miles, get away from him."