Chapter 7 - Three Years Later
Three years later, Damian sat in the same boardroom.
Same Chicago skyline.
Same long table.
Very different company.
Vincent Russo had been convicted on multiple financial and corruption charges.
Bastion Locke’s empire collapsed shortly afterward.
Daniel Shaw became a protected witness and, after years spent living behind false names, finally began rebuilding a relationship with his daughter.
Apex survived.
Barely.
Damian sold questionable divisions, replaced half the executive board, and opened the company’s books to outside auditors.
People called him reckless.
Then they called him successful.
Hazel called him annoying.
That mattered more.
At 1:08 p.m., she entered the boardroom.
Not wearing beige.
Hazel now preferred dark tailored suits.
The plain hair clip remained.
Damian suspected she kept it specifically to irritate him.
She dropped a folder before him.
“You’re late.”
Damian looked at his watch.
“By forty seconds.”
“Unacceptable.”
“I own the building.”
“And?”
Marcus, sitting across the table, covered a smile.
Damian opened the folder.
“What’s this?”
“Security review.”
“You emailed me one this morning.”
“That was the monthly review.”
“And this?”
Hazel sat beside him.
“Personal security.”
Damian looked suspicious.
“What did I do?”
“You changed your driver’s route without telling anyone.”
“There was construction.”
“You still notify security.”
“It was six blocks.”
“Rules apply to you too.”
Marcus stood.
“I’m leaving before this becomes domestic.”
Damian looked at him.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
Marcus walked toward the door.
“Three years ago, I thought discovering Hazel was a covert operative was the strangest thing I’d ever see.”
He opened the door.
“Then you two got married.”
Hazel threw a pen at him.
Marcus caught it and laughed as he left.
Damian looked at the wedding ring on Hazel’s hand.
“You missed.”
“I wasn’t trying to hit him.”
“I know.”
Hazel leaned back.
“Your meeting with Seattle was moved to three.”
“I know.”
“Dinner with your mother at seven.”
“I know.”
“Daniel arrives tomorrow.”
“I know.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Have you finally started reading your calendar?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know everything?”
Damian closed the folder.
“My wife tells me.”
Hazel tried not to smile.
Three years earlier, their first dinner had lasted four hours.
Their second had become an argument.
Their third had ended with Hazel telling him she could never work for a man she could not trust.
Damian had answered that he did not want her working for him.
He wanted her working beside him.
It took another year before he proposed.
Hazel made him wait twenty-two minutes before giving him an answer.
She claimed it was accidental.
Damian never believed her.
A knock came at the door.
A young assistant entered.
“Mr. Russo?”
“Yes?”
“Your two o’clock appointment arrived early.”
Damian looked at Hazel.
She nodded.
“Send them in.”
The assistant hesitated.
“There’s another issue.”
Hazel immediately became alert.
“What kind?”
“The loading dock flagged a delivery with incorrect credentials.”
Damian looked at Hazel.
Years earlier, he might have dismissed it.
Now he asked one question.
“What do you recommend?”
Hazel’s expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“Delay the delivery. Verify the driver independently. Keep the dock closed until Marcus clears it.”
Damian nodded.
“Do exactly what Mrs. Russo said.”
The assistant left.
Hazel stared at him.
“What?”
“You asked.”
“I usually ask.”
“Now.”
Damian understood.
He looked through the glass wall toward the desk where Hazel had once spent three years answering his calls.
“No.”
He reached across the table and took her hand.
“I should have asked then.”
Hazel was silent.
“I should have looked at you that afternoon and asked what happened.”
“You were angry.”
“That isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
“I saw a missing button. A mark on your neck. You were never late, and suddenly you were twenty-two minutes late.”
He shook his head.
“All the evidence was standing in front of me.”
Hazel squeezed his hand.
“You eventually figured it out.”
“Six days too late.”
“Better than never.”
Damian smiled.
“Do you know what frightened me most when I watched that footage?”
“The firearm?”
“No.”
“The injector?”
“No.”
Hazel raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“You.”
She laughed.
“Very romantic.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know. That makes it worse.”
Damian smiled.
“I had spent three years believing I knew everything happening inside my company. Then I discovered the quiet woman outside my office understood my enemies better than I did.”
Hazel looked toward the skyline.
“You know what frightened me?”
“What?”
“That after three years pretending not to care about you, I realized I wasn’t pretending anymore.”
Damian became quiet.
Hazel immediately looked uncomfortable.
“Forget I said that.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Damian.”
“I may have it engraved.”
“Do that and we’re getting divorced.”
He laughed.
Hazel stood and collected her folders.
“Where are you going?”
“To work.”
“Your office is twenty feet away.”
“And somehow that still isn’t far enough.”
She reached the door.
Damian called after her.
“Hazel.”
She turned.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
He glanced toward the old secretary’s desk.
“For being twenty-two minutes late.”
Hazel smiled.
“If I had arrived on time, you’d probably be dead.”
“I know.”
“And you still fired me.”
“I know.”
“You were an idiot.”
“I know.”
She opened the door.
Damian looked at her wedding ring.
“But you married me.”
Hazel paused.
“That proves I make mistakes too.”
She disappeared into the hallway.
Damian laughed.
On his desk sat an old black leather notebook.
Hazel had given it to him on their wedding day.
He had expected the pages containing schedules, surveillance notes, license plates, and names.
He had not expected the final page.
There was only one entry.
Damian Russo.
Below it, Hazel had written three dates.
The day she began working at Apex.
The day she saved his life.
And the day she married him.
Beside the first date:
Assignment.
Beside the second:
Choice.
Beside the third:
Home.
Damian closed the notebook.
Three years earlier, he had believed twenty-two minutes proved his secretary had failed him.
Instead, those twenty-two minutes revealed the truth.
Hazel Brooks had never failed him.
He had simply never understood the woman sitting outside his door.
May you like
Until almost losing her forced him to look.
And after that, Damian Russo never made the mistake of overlooking her again.
