A Baby for the Boss(17)

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

“For you, yes.”

A couple of people walked down the hall, their voices raised in argument.

“Zombies have to die when you cut their heads off.”

“In real life, not in the gaming world, hello?”

“We have to at least try to be realistic, don’t we?”

“You want realism, then our zombies have to eat brains, not just bite people...”

Their voices faded as they went into the break room and shut the door after them. A moment later, Jenny chuckled. “Zombies in real life.” She looked up at Mike, the smile still curving her mouth. “We have weird lives.”

All he could see was that smile and after a second or two, he returned it. “Yeah, I guess we do. So. Monday?”

“I’ll be ready,” she said, all trace of amusement disappearing. “Should I meet you here?”

He shook his head. “I’ll pick you up at nine. We’ll take the company jet to Vegas.”

“Okay.” She took a breath, blew it out. “Now, I’d better go see about finishing the images of my Wise Woman.”

Mike crossed the room and propped one shoulder against the doorjamb. Watching her go, he wondered if, when all this was done, seeing her walk away from him would be his clearest memory.





Four

“I’ll only be gone overnight, Uncle Hank.”

“With him,” Hank Snyder muttered under his breath.

Jenny sighed and let her head fall back. It was Monday morning; Mike would be here in a few minutes and she still had to finish packing. But as her uncle went on a long-winded rant, she realized having to listen to this was her own fault.

She never should have confessed to her uncle what Mike had accused her of a year ago. But in her defense, she had really been upset, and Hank had dropped by her apartment just when she was in the middle of a good rant. So instead of shutting up, she’d spewed everything at the feet of the man who’d raised her.

Naturally, his first instinct had been to go to Celtic Knot and punch Mike Ryan in the mouth. Thankfully, she’d talked him down from that. But he hadn’t forgiven and he hadn’t forgotten. In fact, Hank had tried to talk her out of going to work for the Ryan brothers on the principle that she should simply stay the hell away from Mike altogether. But Jenny had refused, then and now, to let Mike Ryan’s presence dictate how she ran her life and career.

“He is my boss,” she finally said.

“Doesn’t have to be,” Hank told her, and Jenny’s hand fisted around her phone. “You could come to work for me. You know that.”

Snyder Arts was a small company with an excellent arts program. The program itself simplified digital and graphic arts design and implementation. They sold retail and to companies looking to refine their own graphic art departments. Which is why Hank had tried to make a deal with Celtic Knot in the first place. He’d thought—and rightly, Jenny acknowledged—that his program would streamline the gaming company’s art and design division.

And since Jenny now knew both companies well, she understood that if Mike weren’t so hardheaded, even he would have to admit that her uncle’s program would make the work easier for his own artists. But Mike being Mike, he would never let himself see that. Especially since he believed that Hank had tried to use Jenny to worm a contract out of Mike.

She sighed and leaned against the bathroom door. “I do know that, Uncle Hank. And I appreciate it. Really. But I’m not interested in R & D or in sales and marketing. I’m an artist and I’m good at what I do.”

“You’re the best, honey,” he said on a belabored sigh. “I just don’t like you being upset is all. And I really don’t like you having to deal with a man who thinks so little of you.”

“It doesn’t matter what Mike thinks of me personally,” she said, though in her head she was chanting, Liar, liar, pants on fire. “I like my job. And this trip to Laughlin will be fast and all business. I want to scope out the hotel in person so I can start planning the murals.”

“Never could argue with you once you had your mind set on something, could I?”

Jenny smiled. “Nope.”

“Fine, fine. You just be careful and you let me know when you’re home safe.”

“I will.” Then Jenny listened as her uncle talked about what was happening at Snyder Arts. His R & D department was coming up with some interesting things. Jenny knew how important his company was to him. Until she had come into his life and he had taken over as her guardian, that company had been his entire world.

But the main point in all this was Hank didn’t need a deal with Celtic Knot to make Snyder Arts profitable. Their bottom line was very comfortable. Okay, not billionaire comfy, but still. It was laughable that Hank would have needed her to coax Mike into some kind of deal even if it hadn’t been insulting on the face of it. Snyder Arts didn’t need Celtic Knot and Mike had to know that, in some part of himself. He was just so down-to-the-marrow suspicious and hard, he’d never admit it.