Layers Crossed Read Online Free PDF

lowering to my chair.
    “What can I do
for you, Mr. Waters?”
    “Emma, I’ve
been worried about you,” I said.
    She paused for
a moment, obviously surprised by my statement.
    “You were
supposed to come back and let me walk you to your car.”
    “Mr.
Waters.”
    “Eric.”
    “Eric, I’m
quite capable of taking care of myself.”
    “I didn’t mean
to insinuate you’re not, but the place we were in… a lot of bad
stuff happens there.”
    “I’ve seen
bad, and I can handle even worse, including whatever business you
have with Cross Enterprises, which I’m assuming can’t be good since
you’re here.” Her reply nearly iced my veins.
    “I’m sorry, I
just wish you’d let me know. I was worried.”
    She considered
my statement for a moment, and I saw her guard lower for a split
second.
    “You weren’t
there when I came out. I left you a note at the bar.”
    My eyes
widened. “I had to use the washroom, and I never got a note. Only
your name from the waitress.”
    Her face
softened. She drummed her fingers on the table, waiting patiently
as if contemplating whether she should cross the business line we
would sign on today and venture into the personal territory I so
desperately needed her to be in. “Would you have called if you’d
gotten it?” she finally asked. The vulnerable side of her was
unreal – definitely not the way she’d presented herself the night
we met. I was important to her. Allowing herself to ask this
question had to mean that she thought I was special. I was now
certain I was the only one capable of breaking through the sheet of
ice she’d covered herself with.
    I leaned
forward, saying, “Over and over again, until you’d agree to see me.
When I realized at the bar I had no way of contacting you, it was
like getting stabbed – actually, worse than that. I felt like I’d
just had a bomb explode yards away, making me numb and dead for
seconds before I realized that I’d live but would never know how to
go on without seeing you again.”
    A shiver of
goose bumps appeared along her neck, and I imagined kissing each
one away. God, what was she doing to me? And how? Sitting here all
the way across the table, I might as well have been behind bars.
The urge to touch her and just be close to her was becoming more
like an unbearable itch you had under a cast and couldn’t
scratch.
    “What can I do
for you, Mr. Waters?” she asked, bringing me back to the conference
room.
    “You’ll be
working on my case?” Of course I knew she’d be working on my case.
That’s why I was here. The irony of my situation was that she was now my case as well. This couldn’t have worked out
more perfectly. And hopefully I wouldn’t screw this up.
    “I’m one of
the best,” she said with confidence.
    And I had no
doubt that she was. My only fear would be her safety. I’d been
thinking about finding the bastard who ruined my and my sister’s
childhoods and haunted my parents for years. When I was approached
by Hunter and given details about taking a girl out of the city and
onto my ranch, I knew her background could only be a bonus. But the
man I was looking for was vicious; and honestly, now that I knew it
would be Emma searching for him, I didn’t want her anywhere near
him.
    “Julian and
Tristan…”
    “They’re my
brothers.”
    “I don’t think
they’d give you the case if they knew all the details.” I was
backtracking, but the urgency I now felt to keep her a bit further
away from my case couldn’t be denied.
    Her eyes only
sparked with curiosity at my words – that was not my intention.
    “Why don’t you
tell some of the details then, and let me decide, Mr. Waters?”
    “Eric.”
    “Eric. I can
assure you I’m quite capable of being professional and handling
you.”
    The way she
said that zapped through me, collecting like a drug at the bottom
of my spine.
    “I have a slew
of bodyguards and resources, even more than my brothers. And if you
want the job done, there’s no