She had him at the word boyfriend.

As soon as Goodbye, I’ll Never See You, Again disappeared, Hunter immediately grabbed both his briefcase and cellphone and took off in the same direction after her. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t chase after a lady, and on a Sunday evening just before the start of the school year, but he couldn’t help himself.

She wasn’t just any lady.

She was The Lady. In other words: The One.

He’d known shortly after staring up into those dark, crystal unmistakable eyes of hers.

Listening to the hyenas, as she called them, droning on about him while he pretended to be asleep, irritated the hell out of him. He’d only done it to avoid talking to the females, expecting they’d go away. When they didn’t, Hunter was about ready to give them a piece of his mind. Then, his knight in shining armor came along, and Hunter couldn’t help it. He kept his head down, listening to discover how far she would take it.

And she took it until the very end, even after the hyenas scattered. Once they fled, Hunter decided it was his cue to wake up. After that, one word from those lips of hers, and he could barely remember his name. The world exploded, and for a moment, everything turned black as he struggled to recover his senses.

While many requested him to be the boyfriend, she essentially declared it so. Speaking so openly about him and what he was like down there, all without knowing who he was, despite how he dressed. And Hunter picked the ugliest t-shirt and shorts he could find just because no one spared him a second glimpse when wearing them.

Hunter stealthily followed from a suitable distance behind, observing as she wavered under a tree to deliver a brief text. She grinned at her screen for a few more minutes before issuing a couple of more messages. After remaining under the tree for a full five minutes, she finally strolled off again, following the campus path to the spacious parking lot.

Odd. Why would she be heading away from the campus dormitory?

Fifteen minutes later, Hunter knew why.

Goodbye, I’ll Never See You, Again was staying at one of the faculty residences. If Hunter remembered correctly, this was the Bumblebee Building. The same one the campus offered for him to stay in, but Hunter had declined. Instead, he elected to live off-campus in his apartment. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so quick to decide…?

Hunter lingered where he was from afar, watching as she stopped to talk to a couple of individuals smoking by the steps. They presented her with a cigarette, but she shook her head. Then, a few comments here and there before finally waving goodbye and retreating into the structure.

A gray SUV pulled up next to him on the road, its passenger side window down. “Yo Bossman! What are you doing standing there like an idiot?” His gaze followed Hunter’s, but all he saw was an empty pavement and two humans sitting on the steps of the building. Smoking.

“What time is it?” Hunter countered. He opened the passenger door before climbing in, putting his seatbelt on. “Why are you here? Where’s Adam?”

The person in the driver’s seat was Nathan. Simplistic Nathan, who always wore his emotions on his sleeves. Jet black-haired and blue eyes, and always with that grin, he was the epitome of ease and comfort with the ability to get strangers to divulge their most profound, dark secrets in mere minutes of speaking with them.

Thankfully, Nathan could track Hunter’s location via cellphone, dropping the exact coordinates to the GPS in the car. It was how Nathan found him so efficiently.

Bossman hated waiting for others, no matter friend or foe.

“A little after eight-thirty.” Nathan gave him a peculiar glance before pulling from the curb. “And Adam is meeting with his old man. Who were you staring at? Why are you here and not at the library?”

“A female.” Hunter retrieved his laptop and placed it on top of his briefcase.

Nathan’s jaw dropped, but his eyes remained on the road. “A female….?” Typically it was the other way around. Did he lose his mind while at the library?

Hunter didn’t answer. After typing and clicking twice on his laptop, he continued. “What do you know about Amber Black?”

She may have declined to provide a name. Still, unbeknownst to her, one hyena had mentioned it, saving him countless research and queries. He didn’t need to ask, but he chose to, wanting to hear her voice, to watch her expression, and the way her lips moved, the rise and fall of her chest down to those beautiful long legs of hers. And those hands. Those long, slender fingers made for gripping... She would be a fierce one, both in and out of bed.

Hunter coughed and shifted slightly in his seat, turning his attention back to his laptop.

The fact that she refused to give a name only delighted him more. While he wasn’t in his finest suit and tie, Hunter was still charming, and he did his best to indicate his interest, even going so far as to offer his phone. Something he wouldn’t allow just anybody to touch. All his smiles and sweet words didn’t phase her one bit, much to his delight.

“Who?” Nathan signaled before making a turn, heading downtown.

“Exactly.” Hunter agreed. A few more clicks. “Now it makes more sense.”

“What makes more sense?” Nathan wanted to stop and look at what was on screen, but doing so would probably cause a traffic accident in the middle of the lane.

“Rival company heir,” Hunter murmured, more to himself than Nathan. “Cyber Consulting, Inc.”

“Don’t they already have one?” Now there was a company Nathan had heard of more than once today. He went on, used to these one-sided conversations. “He’s been to some events. What was his name… Liam… Liam Riley, I believe?”

So, there were two heirs instead of one? An unusual development. Not that it mattered, Hunter was only interested in the female. So then, what did that make Amber, and what was her relationship with the other heir? Now he’d almost wish he paid more attention to such a company. But then again, Hunter probably would have skimmed over her in newspaper and magazine covers because he did that with everything in his life unless it mattered. Until it became a chess piece on his board.

Life was one gigantic chess game for him, and he picked the pieces on his board, discarding everything else that didn’t matter or serve a purpose in his life. And he had just found his Queen.

“Bossman, you need me to look into Amber Black for you?” Nathan slowed and shifted into a gated community near the city’s outskirts.

“No need.” Hunter drummed his fingertips against his briefcase, his mind whirling. “I’ll handle it myself.”

Nathan pulled into a large driveway and parked the car before turning to Bossman, hoping to catch a glimmer of what was on display. Bossman was too quick, however, and closed the lid on the laptop, placing it back inside the briefcase.

“But… I wanted to see!” Nathan half wailed, half grumbled, swinging back to shut off the engine.

“What about One Security?” Hunter zipped his baggage and grabbed his phone, unlocking it with the pad of his thumb before swiping at the screen.

“The rumor is true. The company is in contract negotiations with, guess who? Cyber Consulting.”

Not only were they stealing from his soon-to-be-company, but now they were also going to be in breach of contract. Sign another deal with a competitor without notifying them? His old man would not accept the news lightly.

Hunter grimaced, mind whirling once more with the pieces in his head. On his chessboard. A move here, a setback there, but nothing was forever. Soon it would be checkmate.

He’d been bidding his time, allowing One Security to get away with so much, just to cut them off completely when the day arrived. The approach may seem too lenient, but it was all part of the game. He would allow them to get away with more, to grow more confident. Let them believe they were untouchable.

For when it came time to clear out the rats, he would take everything from them.

“Let’s go.” Hunter opened his door and stepped out. “We’ve got work to do.”