Exposure & Shutter Speeds

| 11 |

- Henry -

Recognition dawned as I approached my glass office door. She still hadn't seen my arrival, and I had a minute to re-compose. Six foot of blonde woman turned and spied me - make that six foot of blonde, hostile woman.

"Lana, for what do I owe this pleasure?" I said cooly as I opened the door to my office.

She levelled her gaze with mine. A look any lesser man would have shrivelled under.

"I heard about this morning. What did I say to you last night?" She demanded.

I glared right back. Addie must have called her. And I thought my inner circle was bad. "I told you I don't take threats idly. Nor do I slink out of an apology when I'm in the wrong!" I said, keeping an even tone, even though under the surface I was fuming.

Lana had caught me outside Beth's building last night. I'd followed them back to make sure they, ok, I mean Beth, was ok. I had wanted to apologise again for my second intrusion of the day. Sure, I screwed up a fair bit when it came to women, but when it came to Beth, for some reason I couldn't stay away, I couldn't not try and right the wrongs in her universe. As I was walking out of the foyer, she has tapped me on the shoulder, taking me by surprise, which never happened to me. That in itself had caused me to question. No one had ever gotten the drop on me. Two meetings in and Beth had already got me twisted up.

Lana had levelled a glare at me, not quite unlike the one facing me again this morning, and said in the most direct, authoritative, asshole tone I had ever heard come from a woman's mouth. "Leave her alone. She doesn't need someone to screw her over now. She's just starting to deal with everything, and you're the last thing she needs."

I raised an eyebrow at her, hoping she'd go on. Lana's face relaxed a little. Not much, but a little. She sighed in exasperation. "Look, I don't know the full story. All I know is she left to shoot this wedding and came back shattered. Not just broken. Completely shattered. One day she had a successful photography business, weddings booked for years, a fiancé and her own wedding rapidly approaching. The night of the last freaking wedding she ever shot, I opened my door at 2am to find her standing there. Her face was wet from tears, her clothing was ripped and dirty, she clung to her camera bag like a life raft and she was missing her engagement ring. Eyes vacant, a blank, nothing look on her face. All she said to me was "Protect the cameras. Keep the photos safe" then she walked in and collapsed." She rubbed her face. This obviously weighed down on her more than she let on.

"The next morning, she told me in the coldest, emptiest voice I've ever heard, that the wedding was off, she was quitting photography and I was to ask no more about it. That was the last I ever heard about that day. Until you appeared yesterday, and she's started getting flashbacks. You're no good for her. Stay the hell away from her, or you won't know what hit you." She finished coldly. Asshole Lana had made another appearance, and with one last glare, she whirled around and marched off into the night.

And here she was again. Fantastic. As if this morning could get any bloody worse. Curiosity got the better of me. "How did you find me anyway? All you had was my first name." I questioned.

Lana rolled her eyes. "Your security firm did work for the law firm I interned at. You skulked around the place for a few weeks assessing the security risks and loopholes. Bit hard not to notice a tall, brooding man poking his nose everywhere." She said back sharply.

I was impressed. I was only there a handful of times, and she picked up on it. Good to know Beth kept good company. I smiled at Lana.

"Are you going to make good on your threat yet?" I smirked at her. I ran a multi-million dollar security firm. I had rigorous defence training, multi strand martial arts, stick, knife and street fighting experience. This woman had nothing on me.