In His Service

torn: Austin's POV

I concentrated on my breath as the elevator descended from the rooftop helipad to the penthouse apartment. Deep breath in, long breath out. It was a tactic I had adopted when I was hunting. I'd never been a patient person, and hunting was all about the wait. I learned to bide my time by slowing down my breath and focusing on my own bodily functions, instead of hyper-focusing on the things around me. Then when the perfect shot came along, I could focus on nothing else. 

It taught me to keep control of myself. To keep my baser instincts at bay when my emotions were raging. 

And right now, I was fucking enraged. 

Luc couldn't have been more stupid tonight. It wasn't like him to make a move like he did tonight. Taking Ginny to the fucking club? It was beyond what any of the other three Galloway Inc owners would have expected from him. Had he not been the most hesitant about the arrangements of Ginny's employment? It was out of character. 

The air was electrically charged as the five of us processed the night's events in our own ways.

Jake stood with his arms crossed, legs wide in a fighter's stance, eyes narrowed to slits, as he focused on the lighted screen showing the floor number above the door. 

Derek's fists kept opening and closing, the veins in the back of his hands bulging like they might burst with the effort of keeping still. 

Luc had the decency to look guilty, at least. His stance was casual, hands in his pockets, head tilted back; but I knew him well enough to see the tension in his neck, and the way his jaw shifted ever so slightly. 

And Virginia. "Ginny" as she so often insisted. She was regal, standing there in the center of the car between all of us, her back straight and a challenging glint in her eyes. As I watched her, I noticed the leather fringe hanging from beneath her tailored coat. 

DING

It felt like the ding of the elevator was wired to my brain as I registered what Ginny must have been wearing under that coat, and why Luc had her at the club. 

And it was NOT to introduce her to the goddamn accountant. 

Derek was first out of the elevator, and I followed a step behind him, the two of us subtly doing a sweep of the apartment. The security detail was stationed at the front door and the service door as expected, and they confirmed nothing was out of the ordinary. 

Maybe we were being overly protective of what we had first referred to as a "glorified personal assistant," but I think all four of us had quickly learned that Ginny was capable of filling many more roles than just an assistant. Although those roles were all varying degrees of "personal." 

All I knew was that when Derek got that call tonight while he, Jake, and I were working out in his home gym, something shifted for all of us. We simultaneously came to the realization that Ginny was becoming more important than any of us wanted to admit. To our credit, we had all been holding back a little. 

It's not every day you and your business partners hire a shared personal assistant who just so happens to be a total smoke show and the best marketing executive in the area. 

We were all testing the waters with Ginny, getting to know her as a team member at work, in whatever capacity benefitted the company, whether it was making appearances at local trade shows, strategically scheduling events around holidays or during heightened tourist activity, or just cleaning up the image of the four bad boy real estate moguls. 

But underneath the professionalism, we were all testing the waters with Ginny, the woman, as well. 

Derek had answered Luc's call on speakerphone in the gym, and the stab of envy when he said he was with her at the club caught me off guard. A glance at Derek and Jake told me they had felt the same shock to their systems. 

We had shared women occasionally in the past, but that was for a night. Not like this, when she was literally becoming enmeshed in our daily lives. We generally kept our conquests to ourselves, but I didn't need them to tell me that they were as enchanted by her as I was. Our reactions said it all. 

Now, as Derek and I made it back to the living room where Jake and Luc were squared off, glaring at each other, I realized this arrangement was going to have to be completely stripped down for us to make it work. Figuratively, and literally. 

Virginia was standing with her back to them, watching the lights of the city from the window. She looked lost in thought, like she was putting the pieces of a puzzle together. I watched as her lips moved minutely, her eyes shifting down towards the floorboards, then up towards the city lights again. It seemed like she was talking to herself, but I couldn't make out a word. 

She grew still again, then took a long inhale that she let out in a huff before shaking her head and turning towards the four men in the room. Her jaw was clenched and her eyes betrayed her fear, but when she spoke her voice was clear and unwavering. 

"Have they IDed the shooter yet?" She asked without preamble. 

Derek paused a beat before answering her on a sigh. "No, and we don't have any leads." 

"What the fuck do you mean, no leads?" Luc demanded, his voice low and menacing. 

I shook my head, scoffing as I took two steps towards him for even daring to comment on anyone else's shortcomings in this situation. I don't think I would have hit him if I had made it that far, but I never got to find out because Jake beat me there. 

He charged Luc with a feral growl, his forearm going to Luc's neck as he shoved him against one of the support columns in the middle of the room. 

"Don't. You. Dare." Jake whispered, his words dripping with danger. He loosened his arm against Luc's collarbone for a second as he added, "I fucking love you, man, but right now? Don't you fucking dare speak on the mess you created, and how everyone else is cleaning it up." 

Every eye in the room was trained on Luc's face as we waited to see his reaction. The air rippled with tension. Finally, Luc lowered his eyes and nodded, and the whole room exhaled collectively. 

I watched as Luc's gaze found Ginny's, and I saw the apology there. Whether or not he had expressed it was up in the air. Of all four of us, Luc was the most closed off; the most likely to slam up his walls and barriers when anyone got close. But I knew him well enough to see it in his eyes. 

He was as scared shitless as the rest of us.