I’ll Be There (3 page)

The sun was going down and he'd survived another day. Barely. The housekeeper who came in once a week, Mrs. Graham, also cooked for him and put everything in containers that could be easily microwaved. If it wasn't for her, he'd certainly starve. His stomach growled and he frowned. He was alone and he was hungry, so what was he waiting for?

Someone to share it with might be nice.

Where the hell had
that
thought come from? For far too long he'd had people fluttering around him helping him do even the most basic of functions. It annoyed him. He was a man who enjoyed his independence and his solitude. When he'd started to become mobile, the round-the-clock help was the first thing to go.

Slowly he rose and grabbed the crutches and made his way to the kitchen. He pulled out a meatloaf dinner from the refrigerator, placed it in the microwave, and waited.

Pathetic.

Once upon a time he'd have been dining at some fantastic five-star restaurant with a beautiful woman on his arm or with a group of friends—laughing and having a great time. Now look. His reflection in the microwave glass stared back at him. If any of his friends saw him now, they'd be horrified at his appearance—he looked like a cross between a yeti and Grizzly Adams. Not a look he was ever fond of, and yet lately he had been too depressed to even care. No doubt the first thing one of them would say is “Damn, what the hell happened to you?”

And that would almost be as bad as the pity.

Thank God no one was going to be seeing him any time soon to have the opportunity to make such a statement.

“Oh my God. What happened to you?”

Those were the first words Gabriella uttered when she stepped into Zach's home the next day. He was covered in sweat and his hand was bleeding, and she noticed a harried-looking woman wearing scrubs scurrying around collecting things.

Zach glared at her and then at the woman in scrubs. “Good riddance!” he yelled as she walked out the door. It slammed behind her but Zach's eyes were instantly back on Gabriella's. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Ignoring his harsh tone, she took off her jacket, hung it on the coatrack by the front door, and placed her leather satchel on the floor beside it. “What did you do to your hand?”

“None of your damn business,” he snarled. “You might as well take your coat off the hook because you're not staying.”

She rolled her eyes. The man had a nerve. She may be on the thin side but she was tall, and right now—in her less-than-sensible heels—she was eye to eye with him. He looked like hell, like he hadn't slept in weeks, and he was barely steady on his crutches. If she were a mean girl, she'd remind him how she could probably knock him over with a feather.

Or a stiletto.

“The coat stays where it is,” she replied coolly. Stepping around him, she inspected the open floor plan of his home. Her gaze was instantly drawn to the wall of windows at the back of the house with the view of the mountains. She decided to keep her admiration of nature to herself for the time being.

She kept her back to him for two reasons: One, she needed a moment to compose herself. In all the years she had worked for Zach, Gabriella had never seen him look like this—ragged, almost dirty. Defeated. And two, she was waiting him out to see how long it was going to take for him to start throwing his weight around and verbally assaulting her in an attempt to make her leave.

She had the patience of a saint and nothing else to do today. The ball was in his court.

Her confidence was boosted by the mere fact that they had played this game dozens of times in the office, and she was always able to outwait him. Zach hated silence just as much as he hated when people didn't do exactly what he wanted when he wanted it.

She'd missed this. And him.

“You can stand there all day and think you've got the upper hand, but I've got news for you,” he taunted. “Your presence here means nothing and once you're done admiring Mother Nature, you're gone. Got it?”

A small smile played at her lips. So cocky. So arrogant. Careful to put on a neutral expression, she turned to him. “You've got an awful lot of attitude for a guy on the verge of losing his job.”

Zach paled.
Crap
. He should have known. His old man had mentioned he needed to get back on a regular work schedule, and that would include working with Gabriella. “I guess you haven't talked to my father lately,” he said, doing his best to sound calm even though his hand was throbbing and his legs were shaking from standing for too long, but damn, there was no way he was going to collapse in front of her.

“I actually just got off the phone with him,” she replied smoothly. “Maybe
you
haven't talked to your father lately.”

His gaze narrowed. “Who's covering you at the office?”

“Carolyn.”

“She can't possibly handle the workload. You need to go back there. Send Bob or Darren or…anyone else. Or better yet, don't send anyone. Just keep me up to date via email. We can do a phone conference or Skype or something.”

Gabriella shook her head. “Nice try, Ace. The only way this is going to work is if you actually buckle down and start to work. I'll be here with you Monday through Friday, eight to five, just like we did at the office. You'll do your therapy twice a day and while you're doing that, I'll take my lunch break or do any personal errands you may need so I'm out of the way.”

“Not gonna happen, Gabby.” He made sure to use the nickname he knew she hated and almost smiled when her spine stiffened and her face pinched.
Direct hit
.

Stepping away from the windows, Gabriella slowly walked toward him, her eyes never leaving his. She didn't stop until she was practically toe to toe with him. “I know you think if you push the right buttons I'll just up and leave. Well, I hate to break it to you, but it's not going to work. I've worked beside you for too long to fall for any of this name-calling crap, so do us both a favor and skip it.” She paused and tried to gauge his reaction. Other than a light tic in his jaw, his expression never changed. “I don't mind working for Ethan, but I'd rather work for you. God only knows why.” The last was mumbled under her breath as she stepped away from him and walked toward the kitchen.

“What do you think you're doing?” he yelled after her.

“Clearly you've hurt yourself and you're bleeding all over your crutches and the floor.” A minute later she was beside him, putting a wet cloth in his hand and then crouching down with another to clean up the floor. When she stood back up, she met his angry stare. “Now are you going to tell me what you did to your hand?”

Zach carefully made his way over to the sofa and sat down. Without looking at Gabriella, he cleaned up his hand first. When he was done, he leaned back and sighed. “The therapist was pissing me off. We were in the middle of a session and I asked for a drink. She said I had to finish my reps before we could break. I asked her again and she declined.” He shrugged. “Finally I walked around her, grabbed a glass of juice, downed it, and told her to leave. She yelled, I yelled, and when she refused to go, I punched a hole in the wall.”

So many things whirled through Gabriella's mind. First, what kind of therapist deprived a patient of something to drink? Was Robert aware of the kind of people who were being sent here to help his son? Next was how it must have damaged Zach's pride to lose his cool in front of anyone.

She looked him over and was again taken aback by his appearance—and the fact that he wasn't as far along in his recovery as she had thought. While Ethan and Summer had kept her up to date with Zach's progress, she had thought maybe they were overexaggerating. Clearly they weren't. It was going to make her time with him even more challenging. If he was this angry and had let himself get to this low point, he was going to be nothing short of a nightmare to work with.

Even more so than he usually was.

Oh joy.

“Do you need a Band-Aid?” she asked quietly.

Zach shook his head and sighed again loudly. “Look, I don't need you here playing nurse to me, too. I've got enough of that going on with my family and the steady stream of therapists coming through here. I just need to be left alone for a little while. So go back to the office, where you're actually needed, and let me handle things from here.”

A slow smile crossed Gabriella's face. “I'm not going back to the office, Zach, so deal with it. I've got a ton of files in my satchel for us to start going over. We have a phone conference on Friday with the MacMillan people, and it's important for you to be on the line with them.”

“Ethan can handle it.”

“Actually, he can't.”

“Why the hell not? I thought he was some sort of superhero who was ready to jump into my damn spot!”

“Ethan doesn't want your job, Zach. No one does. But if you're not going to do it, then your father is going to make Ethan do it.”

“Doesn't answer my question about why he can't handle the call,” Zach said defiantly.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and sighed. “He's flying up to Seattle Friday morning to meet with potential clients and then he and Summer are heading back east for the weekend to check on construction of their house.”

“So tell him to work in the phone conference. He can do it from a plane.”

“Do you even hear yourself? Why can't you do it? There's nothing wrong with your head or your voice. You were the one who set up the contract with MacMillan so it only makes sense for you to talk to him.” She stood and walked over to her satchel. “I've got their file here with me. They're interested in branching out…”

“Tell it to Ethan.”

Throwing her head back, she growled with frustration. Taking a deep breath, she stomped over to Zach and flung the file in his lap. “No.”

Zach glared up at her before flinging the file onto the floor. He crossed his arms over his chest and winced when he tried to close his injured hand into a fist.

Gabriella mimicked his pose. “Did that make you feel better? Because I have to tell you, you're acting like a child.” She bent down and picked up the papers and placed them on the coffee table. “Let me ask you something. Do you want Ethan to take over as president?”

“Hell no! This is still my company!” he roared.

“Then act like it!” she yelled back. “There is no reason why you can't be doing the work you did before the accident! You don't want to come into the office? Fine. Don't. But at least be man enough to work from home and save your sorry ass!”

“How dare—” Zach went to stand up and immediately fell back onto the sofa. He cursed violently before turning his anger and frustration back at Gabriella. “Don't try to fool yourself, Gabs,” he snarled. “You're not doing this out of the goodness of your own heart. Chances are if I'm gone, you'll soon follow because Ethan will bring his assistant with him and then you'll be out of a job. So save me from your
martyr
routine.”

Wow. Everything inside of her simply clenched. How had they gotten to this place? How had they gone from a team who worked so well together to this openly hostile mess? She wanted to cry out that she was concerned about him—and only him. If he wasn't at Montgomerys, she didn't want to be there either. He was the one person who had challenged her, someone whom she had looked up to at one time.

Even when he was acting like a complete jerk.

Her jaw clenched and tears threatened; she willed them not to fall. It wasn't often Gabriella let it show when someone hurt her—she'd learned a long time ago that people often mistook being hurt for weakness. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she did her best to hide the fact that his words had hit their mark and pasted a serene smile on her face.

“Think what you want,” she said calmly, smoothly, “but you're wrong. Believe it or not, Zach, I'm not concerned about my job. I already know if Ethan took over as president and brought his assistant with him, I'd have another job within the company waiting for me. Your uncle assured me of that.”

Zach's eyes went wide. “What? When?” he demanded. “When did William offer you a job?”

“Back in Alaska. We talked about my job experience and how working as an assistant was really a little beneath my skills. He offered to find me a more challenging position, but I turned him down.” Feeling somewhat satisfied that he was momentarily speechless, she took a seat in a chair opposite him. “So you see, my future is fine. No worries in sight. You, however, should be thankful you have someone on your side who is willing to make sure you're not displaced.”

“Don't go getting all smug,” he grumbled. “I hate this. The whole damn thing. It's not right.”

“I agree,” she said. “I told both your father and your uncle that I was not on board with their decision to remove you from your position—even temporarily. It's why I'm here, Zach. I'm not the enemy. Let me help you with this. We'll work just as we always have. We'll just be working from here rather than the office.” She paused and waited for him to argue with her.

And waited.

And waited.

Zach raked a hand through his hair and was clearly agitated by the situation. He shifted and met her gaze. “We'll try it. For today. If by the end of the day I find it's not working, then that's it. No arguments. No snarky comments. You leave and let me handle things my way.”

“No.”

He cursed. “What is it with you lately?” he demanded. “Why is this so damn important to you? Why would you want to be here when you're clearly not wanted?”

Gabriella had seen the changes in Zach—particularly in the months before the accident—but in all that time he'd managed to be all bark and no bite. The man sitting opposite her now was just…mean. Deep down she questioned whether he was on to something. What kind of person would purposely open herself up to endless hours of verbal abuse?

Leaning forward in her seat, she made sure her eyes never left his. “You know what? I think you need me. You may not want to admit it and you sure as hell don't like it, but the fact is the only person helping you keep your title, your company, is
me
. You're not used to needing someone to lean on and you don't like it. Just like I'm sure you don't like having to use those crutches to walk. The situation sucks all the way around, Zach, but it is what it is. You can either accept my help and keep what is rightfully yours, or I can walk out of here and you'll have to sit here and stew, knowing Ethan and Summer are calling the shots at the company you started. It's your choice.”

“Some choice,” he mumbled before reaching for his crutches and standing up.

He was halfway across the room before Gabriella called out to him. “That's it? You're not going to say anything? You're just going to walk away?” She stood up but refused to go after him. “Answer me, damn it!”

Zach stopped but didn't turn around. “I'm going to take a shower. You can set up everything that needs to be looked at. I'll be about thirty minutes.” Then he walked into his bedroom and slammed the door.

* * *

Zach looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and frowned. When had his life gotten so damn out of control? There had been a time when people actually listened to him—damn near hung on his every word!—and now it seemed like everyone felt they had the right to run his life for him.