Free Here Comes Trouble by Anna J. Stewart

hold of Levia’s arm. “And I’ll remember.”
    ***
    “I’m beginning to believe you don’t pay me enough, Malcolm.” Veronica Harrison, all five-feet-eight sinuous inches of her strode into his hotel room the second he pulled open the door and headed to the kitchenette and wet bar, shoulder-length auburn waves flying like Medusa in a rage.
    Ten seconds and two fingers of Scotch later, she dipped out of her skyscraper high heels, plopped herself on one of the two love seats bookending the gas fireplace and kicked her feet up on the coffee table. “I thought you’d been exaggerating all this time, but guess what?” She toasted him with her glass. “Your father really is an arsehole.”
    “Careful, Veronica.” Malcolm scooped up the paperwork he’d been rifling through and joined her in the sitting area. The British always came out when her temper had been tweaked. “Talk like that might just make me fall in love with you.”
    Veronica smirked and laughed, the sound a massive contradiction to the image she projected. His elegant and sophisticated VP might look the part of the consummate professional businesswoman—with a law degree to boot—but she’d drunk him under the table more often than he cared to admit and provided a shoulder more times than he could count. Any other time, any other life, things might have been different for them, but from the moment they’d met, Malcolm hadn’t been able to view her in any other way than a kid sister. A very mature this-girl-could take-care-of-herself sister.
    “According to Chadwick Oliver,” Veronica said, “everything at Oliver Technologies is sunshine and roses. Not a penny out of place. And those beautiful spreadsheets he provided? Stephen King couldn’t have created more perfect fiction.” She ran her finger around the rim of her glass, casting her gaze out to the mid-afternoon sun with a heavy sigh. “It was almost Shakespearean, watching him wax poetic about the strength of the company, convincing his shareholders that within six months to a year they’ll see a double down on their current investments.”
    “They believe what they want to.” Malcolm settled in the corner of the loveseat, narrowing his gaze at his phone as it buzzed for the fifth time that day. He should turn it off, but that would feel like an amputation. “They have no idea he’s been selling off shares at a record pace, or that he currently owns less than fifteen percent of the company.”
    “Or that you and your subsidiary companies have bought up all those lovely shares.” She toasted him again. “Another eight percent and you’ll have controlling interest. You’ll have him right where you want him.”
    “Yeah. Right where I want him.” Taking down the company was one thing. What he’d do with it after, that was another question. At least he’d be able to protect Ty and his grandmother from the buyout effects.
    “You going to answer that?” She reached out her foot and nudged his vibrating phone toward him with her toe.
    “No.”
    “You’re going to have to at some point.” The unspoken words hovered heavy between them until Malcolm couldn’t do anything but respond.
    “I will.”
    “Doc Chapman is on your side, Malcolm. She was three years ago when you were sick, she will be again if you need her to be. But nothing’s going to happen if you don’t answer that call.”
    “I know what she’s going to tell me. The cancer’s back.” The headache beat behind his eyes like a Scottish Tattoo, thundering, ear shattering. “I don’t have time to deal with it right now.”
    “First of all.” Veronica heaved herself up and knocked her knees together as her pale lavender skirt shifted around her knees. “You don’t know that for sure, and secondly, postponing treatment will make things worse down the road.”
    “I wasn’t aware you could get a medical degree in law school.”
    “Really?” Veronica’s eyes sparked. “After the day I’ve had watching