His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 133

Zane’s POV

The drive to the Mercer Company felt longer than it should have.

Traffic was light. The roads were clear. But every minute that passed felt like an eternity because I knew what was waiting for me at the end of it.

Her.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles going white.

Twenty minutes until the meeting. Twenty minutes to get my head together and figure out how the hell I was supposed to act like a professional when all I wanted to do was pull her into the nearest empty room and demand to know why she’d been avoiding me for seven days.

My phone buzzed in the cup holder.

I glanced at it briefly. Walter.

Walter: Don’t do anything stupid.

I almost smiled despite the tension coiling in my chest.

Me: Define stupid.

Walter: Anything that involves you and Olive alone in a room. Keep it professional. Remember there are witnesses.

Me: I’m always professional.

Walter: You’re many things, Zane. Professional around her is not one of them.

I didn’t respond to that because he wasn’t wrong.

The Mercer Company building came into view, all glass and steel and architectural intimidation designed to make anyone approaching feel small.

I’d never liked this building. Too corporate. Too much like something my father would create to stroke his own ego.

But it served its purpose.

I pulled into the private executive parking garage and killed the engine, sitting there for a moment in the silence.

My phone buzzed again. Not Walter this time.

Nikolai.

Nikolai: Heard you’re seeing her today. Try not to fuck it up worse than you already have.

Me: Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Nikolai: Just saying. You’ve been miserable for a week. Maybe try apologizing instead of brooding.

Me: I have nothing to apologize for. I did nothing wrong.

Nikolai: Keep telling yourself that.

I shoved my phone in my pocket and got out of the car.

The elevator ride up to the executive floor was smooth. Silent. The kind of silence that gave you too much time to think.

I checked my reflection in the mirrored walls.

I looked exactly like what I was-a man about to walk into a situation he couldn’t fully control.

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.

And I walked directly into Sophia.

She was standing there like she’d been waiting for me, arms crossed, that familiar look on her face that meant she had something to say and wasn’t going to let me pass until she said it

“Zane,” she said, her voice sharp. “We need to talk.”

“Not now,” I said, moving to step around her.

She blocked my path.

“Yes, now,” she insisted. “Because I know what you’re about to walk into, and I need you to remember something.”

I stopped, my jaw clenching. “What?”

“That woman,” Sophia said, and I didn’t need to ask who she meant, “doesn’t belong here. She’s not one of us. She doesn’t understand our world, our business, how we operate.”

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