Book 4: Hidden in the Shadows (Forbidden Lake Romance)

“I’ll be there.” Anderson Tanner wished he still had a flip phone so he could snap the two ends together and hang up on the mayor’s assistant. Of course, Andy would never do such a thing. Oh, no, not an upstanding businessman like him.

Besides, the party was honoring Tanner Global Communications as one of the best companies to work for in Michigan. Not the only one, but one of the top ten. Andy didn’t like the fact that he’d have to go to another party and risk getting his pictures in the paper.

After all, it was really hard to hide his identity if his picture was splashed everywhere.

“And I’m still okay to have someone else accept the award for me?” he asked Joel, wondering where his own assistant had gotten to.

He usually knew when Sami Addler was in the building, because she brought something that smelled good with her every time. Doughnuts. Coffee. Cheesecake. Hamburgers.

His stomach rumbled, as he listened to Joel say that yes, he could have someone accept the award for him. “But I don’t understand, sir. Won’t you be there?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’ll be there. And I’ll thank the state board personally, but I want to stay out of the spotlight.”

Joel let a very long silence go by, as if Andy would explain further. But he wasn’t going to. No one—not even Sami—knew what his real last name was and that he had a deadbeat dad and a strung out brother who would just love to get their hands on his company, his money, his life. Everything he’d worked for and built over the past fifteen years.

And he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

“Very well, sir,” Joel said, and Andy nodded though there was no one in his penthouse office to see him.

“Anything else?” Andy asked.

“Not at the moment, sir,” Joel said.

“Thank you.” Andy hung up, his eyes wandering to the park across the street from the building he owned and lived in. If he left the building, it was from the rooftop, in his private helicopter, where he went to the airport to travel to whatever destination was on his schedule.

Sami took care of that too, and she often accompanied him to remote towns and mountaintops to scout for the best locations for the cell phone towers that had made him a billionaire by age twenty-eight.

Now thirty-five, Andy wondered sometimes what life would be like if he could wander the streets of Forbidden Lake as freely as others.

A bright streak of golden brown caught his eye, and he knew where his assistant was. In the park across the street, throwing a ball to his dog, Rusty. He glanced to the dog bed in the corner where two windows met. Rusty’s favorite spot.

It was empty, of course. Rusty had split loyalty between him and Sami, and if he wasn’t in his corner bed, he was lying on Sami’s feet while she worked at her desk one floor down.

He wasn’t sure when he’d seen Rusty last, but the dark-haired woman in the park was definitely her. Andy chuckled as she threw the ball again and it barely went twenty feet. She wasn’t exactly athletic, though she never wore a skirt to work.

She was the smartest person he knew, and he actually found that sexier than physical beauty. He shook his head, focusing on the close reflection of himself in the glass.

He didn’t find Sami sexy at all. He couldn’t, as she’d worked for him for eight years and never once given any hint that they could be more than they were. He was the boss. She was the assistant.

The end.

His heart still pulsed a little stronger at the sight of her twenty floors below, bending to pick up that orange ball and attempt to throw it for his dog. He’d been across the street to the park several times and never seen anything suspicious.

He pushed his family—who were still in Chicago—from his mind as he strode toward the private elevator that would take him all the way to the ground floor. Only he had the code. Well, and Sami, but she had to access if from the nineteenth floor.

On his way down, he scrolled through the contacts on his phone, hoping a name would jump out at him. He needed a date for the party next week, whether he got behind the mic to accept the award or not.

He couldn’t use Claudia or Nadia or Chloe. They’d helped him out in the past, and he didn’t want any of them to think they could begin asking him for favors if he arranged something with them again.

Problem was, he didn’t get out of the building, literally. The elevator dinged, and he tucked his phone in his breast pocket as he stepped out. He’d enjoy a few minutes of August sunshine, and then he’d figure out what to do about the party. Maybe he could write a nice note and claim he’d come down with a flu.

Across the street, his dog barked, and he grinned as he looked both ways. Rusty was a good dog, and Andy had gotten him as a puppy only the week before hiring Sami. She’d potty-trained him while Andy ran his business. She’d taught him to retrieve a ball and bring it back for a bit of hot dog. She could make him give high five and shake and spin.

He entered the park and saw her bent over, her dark slacks probably sweltering in this heat. She scrubbed Rusty’s head, picked up the ball, and threw it again.

Tossed was a better word. Andy didn’t actually know if throw or toss was even close to what she was doing. She threw the ball underhand, and it looked like it took considerable effort to do it. But the ball barely soared through the air.

Rusty tore after it anyway, catching it on a high bounce and making a big circle back to her, pure joy on his doggy face.

Andy wasn’t sure why he’d stopped to watch Sami interact with Rusty. Only that she’d made him hesitate and watch her a lot over the past year. She’d remained as professional as ever, but Andy feared he’d developed a little crush on her.

A flame as bright as anything he’d felt for a woman before flared to life inside his chest, and he wondered if he could ask her to accompany him to the party next week. She’d do a great job on the acceptance speech too, and he wouldn’t have to worry she’d say something he didn’t want her to.

She threw the ball again, eliciting another chuckle from him. Rusty brought the ball back, and Andy continued toward both of them.

“You’re a good dog, aren’t you? Yes, you are.” She scrubbed his back and picked up the ball.

Before Andy could say anything, she turned, bent at the knees, and threw the ball.

He lifted his hand, but the ball moved faster than it appeared to from a distance. It hit him right in the middle of the forehead. Pain flashed down his face at the same time Sami said, “Oh, no. Andy.”

He dropped to his knees for some reason, cradling his face in his hands as if he expected to need to catch blood in his palms. There was no blood, but adrenaline pounded through him as Sami arrived.

“Andy,” she said, kneeling in front of him. “Are you all right?”

Andy didn’t want her to see his eyes watering or a goose egg form on his forehead. Humiliation filled him from top to bottom, and the only thing he could do was start laughing.

“Andy?” Sami’s feminine touch landed on his hands, gently drawing his fingers away from his face. “I’m so sorry.”

Andy kept chuckling as their eyes met. Slowly, oh so slowly, a smile touched her lips too. In the few inches between them, Andy let himself look at her. Really look at her.

And she was the sexiest woman he knew—had ever known.

Would she go out with him?

She’d always been so professional. Not a sly smile out of place. Not a flirtatious look in his direction, ever.

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice a bit on the emotional, husky side. “You’re a really bad throw.”

Horror entered her eyes, replaced quickly by a flash of hurt. She straightened when Rusty arrived and licked her face. “Rusty,” she said with disgust, but Andy let his golden retriever lick his face as he laughed.

He had to cover up the spark burning through him somehow. Laughter seemed to do it, only because it made Sami mad.

But he didn’t want to upset her either.

“Come on, Rusty,” she said. “Time to get back to work.”

Andy scrambled to his feet. “Wait a second. I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” he said.

Sami gave him the side eye as Rusty perched, tense and taut and ready to go after the ball again. Andy plucked it from her fingers and launched it, sending Rusty after it.

“I have a question for you,” he said.

“Is that why you’ve descended from your penthouse? To ask me something about work?”

He watched Rusty pick up the ball and begin trotting back to them. “It’s not about work.” Though, technically, it was.

“I’m listening,” Sami said, steadfastly refusing to look at him.

Honestly, Andy didn’t mind. No direct eye contact would make it easier to ask her to the party.

“So the Best of State gala is next weekend.”

“That is totally work,” she said.

“And I need a date,” he finished, his voice a little louder than normal. Rusty returned with the ball, dropping it only inches from Sami’s right foot. She should’ve treated him, but she’d frozen.

“I’d like you to go with me,” he said, bending to pick up the ball. Why she didn’t use the throwing stick, he didn’t know. He frowned at the slobbery, sticky feeling of the ball in his hand and threw it.

“You’d give the acceptance speech. Wear a nice dress. Hold onto my arm.” He cocked his elbow as if she’d thread her arm through it right now. “Stuff like that.”

Sami stared at him, the weight of her eyes on the side of his face as heavy as a load of bricks. He finally turned toward her, not comforted by the utter shock in her expression.

“Are you kidding?” she asked.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This book was a good read. The pace of the story was good. The characters were believable. There was not too much description. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed a good romantic story.” ~Evelyn B.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Another great book by Elana Johnson! She never fails to keep me intrigued with a story I can't stop reading until I'm done!” ~JackieJane