Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 573

Please, Tasha, we need to talk. It is very important. Sparrow is upset, and I am worried. I should not have raised my hand to you, Tasha. I am so sorry. Please, just take my call. I watched the screen for five minutes. The message was delivered, but no reply came.

Desperate, I paced up and down, rubbing my temples. If I could reach Sparrow first, talk him down, and help him see reason, then when Tasha finally returned, the house would be calm. We could even go find her together. I dialed Sparrow's private number. It rang until it timed out. He did not pick up.

I stared at the screen in disbelief. Sparrow had never once ignored my calls. No matter what he was doing, he always answered. I called him again, and again, but he let the phone ring out every time. Left with no choice, I booted up my laptop. My fingers flew across the keyboard, tapping into the city's municipal surveillance grid. I ran his license plate through the central traffic cameras, tracing the path of his dark sedan as it cut across the city avenues.

Within three minutes, the feed locked onto his car. It was parked in the garage of Xander Corporation. I blinked, confused. It was past midnight. What was he doing at his corporate headquarters? A man like Sparrow usually blew off steam at an exclusive club or found a sexy woman for the night. Going to an empty corporate tower was the last thing I expected.

I shut the laptop, grabbed a pair of flat shoes and a light jacket, and hurried down to the garage. Sparrow had told me that I was free to take any vehicle in his collection, so I grabbed the keys to a dark SUV, slipped behind the wheel, and drove out into the night.

The drive across the city took less than twenty minutes. When I pulled up to the security gates of Xander Corporation, the armed guards stepped out of the booth, saw my face through the lowered window, and immediately raised the heavy steel barrier without asking a single question.

"Sparrow went straight up to the executive floor, ma'am," the guard told me, bowing his head slightly.

The vast lobby was mostly dark, save for the low security lighting along the floor. The front doors were unlocked, and my flat shoes made soft, hurried clicks against the polished stone as I crossed to the private executive elevator. I pressed the top button, watching the digital numbers climb smoothly until the doors chimed open on the penthouse level.

"Sure. Go ahead." His face was completely blank, stripped of every emotion. I walked closer, stopping just across from the desk.

He took one final pull of smoke, dropped the cigar onto the stone floor beside his chair, and crushed the ember beneath the sole of his shoe. He leaned back, resting his elbows on the leather arms of his chair. "I am listening."

I looked at him, desperately trying to read the man behind the stone-cold mask. "I really don't get it, Sparrow. Why are you so mad at me? Yes, I knelt in front of Tasha to put on an act in front of her friends. Yes, I told her to humiliate me. But Tasha is my niece. What is it to you? I still do not understand. It was not even in a public place where it could hurt your reputation. Why are you this upset?"