I SAT BACK IN MY chair and steepled my fingers as the top men of Wonderland, Inc. filed into my office one by one.
Cal stood in the corner behind me, casually observing like always. Outsiders might think he was there as a means of physical backup, but insiders knew I never needed any.
“Where are we on the software?” I asked Eric as soon as he cleared the threshold.
He glanced briefly to the others before smiling. “It’s ready.”
The fuck. I knew it was ready. I’d seen to it myself. But thanks to Harrison’s digging, I also knew there was more to Eric Queen’s meetings with Charles King than originally met the eye. He’d become greedy and smothered by my good authority, and according to Harrison’s intel, Eric was done with it. With some fancy talking, he’d convinced King to go against me too.
But he’d forgotten this wasn’t my first fucking rodeo, and I’d been groomed by the best. They were both fools, and I was several steps ahead of them.
“Good,” I said roughly, and Harrison’s jaw hardened as well. He’d wanted to take care of Eric immediately. I wanted the fuck to suffer.
Sure, I could’ve had the knee-jerk reaction of making an example of Queen before he’d had the opportunity to try to fuck me over. But I’d never been one for impulsive decisions. In fact, I prided myself on carefully calculated solutions to problems.
And Eric Queen? He was now a problem. One I’d fix real fucking soon.
When Eric’s gaze met Mickey Moosa’s, Mickey turned and addressed me. “I have something I’d like to discuss, Matt.”
This should be interesting.
“All right,” I murmured, offering him the floor with a sweep of my arm.
“I’d like to discuss Alex.”
Cal shoved away from the wall, but I stopped him with a hand in the air. Irritation spiked in my veins just like it obviously had in Cal’s, but that was the purpose of this conversation—I could tell. To do none other than push my buttons.
But Matt fucking Hadder had nary a button to be pushed. I did the pushing, and if not, I did away with the pusher.
“And?” I asked calmly.
“It seems like she’s moved up in her role here in the organization pretty quickly. Given how we first met her, we don’t even know if we can trust her.”
“She hasn’t shown any signs whatsoever of leaking any information. Information, I’ll add, you made accessible,” Cal interjected, glaring at each asshole individually.
If this had been happening under any other circumstance, I might have smiled, but the whole thing was a cluster. Not only was Alex the last person I wanted on Eric’s radar, it seemed I had more than just him to worry about.
“She showed signs last night,” Jaybird insisted, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
That got my fucking attention, but not for the reason they thought. Their bullshit words held a different meaning than what they were trying to portray. They were acting on the defense, toward a girl who had never shown the slightest ill intention toward anyone or anything within the Wonderland organization, mind you.
Defensiveness derived from two things: insecurity or dishonesty. And most times, they were both at play. That knowledge left me reeling.
What in the fuck had they done to Alex last night?
I cut my eyes to Damien, and he gave me a silent nod of understanding. He’d be finding out what the fuck had actually gone down at that party last night, right under my fucking nose, and he’d be doing it soon. Or else.
To the room at large, I remained neutral. My refusal to react made it impossible for them not to. They weren’t like me. When someone baited them, they followed. “And what signs did she show last night?”
“Talking to guys she shouldn’t be. Flirting with them.”
I nearly rolled my eyes. The only man Alex had flirted with last night was me, and she’d done it by wrapping her mouth around my cock. On the other hand, we were finally getting closer to the truth—men who shouldn’t be flirting at Alex—and the idea of it made me want to strangle them all one by one.
“That’s all?” I asked.
Mickey looked to Eric and then back to me. “No. She also followed us. Listened in on a conversation. We think she might just be storing up as much information as possible before taking it to the authorities. She might even already be working for them.”
“And what authorities would those be, Moosa? The ones in our pocket, or the other ones in our pocket?”
“Matt—”
“Fucking enough. This is childish bullshit. She’s new, she’s done well, she’s moved up. All of you fucks should be asshole deep in making sure this nomination goes off without a hitch, and you’re busy worrying about a woman we met at a goddamn child’s birthday party while she was wearing a fucking rabbit costume?”
Eric’s eyes danced as Mickey and Jaybird seemed to become more and more disenchanted with me with every word I spoke.
So maybe they weren’t completely on board before, but Eric was fairly certain they were now. The prick.
Jaybird’s eyes widened just slightly in fear as I reached over and touched the letter opener.
Still, he opened his stupid goddamn mouth anyway.
“She also…came on to me. All of us, actually.”
“Jay,” Eric chastised, trying to look like the hero—the one to keep his mouth shut.
“She did,” Mickey affirmed. “Asked to suck my cock. Told me she’d let me fuck her any way I wanted if I didn’t tell you.”
Jealousy raged inside me despite the falsehoods. Just hearing them talk about her like that, pretending they had the right to touch her anywhere, to give her anything, made me feel like I’d come out of my skin.
I fought to keep it on the inside. Despite winning the battle, my order was still a roar as I dismissed them. “Get out!”
Eric’s saunter was cocky, confident, even fucking pleased, as he made his way out of the room with Mickey and Jaybird. He, of course, mistook my anger as directed at Alex—at the situation. Perhaps at the fact that I had to question if I could trust my lover.
In reality, Alex was trustworthy. I knew it in my soul, and he was lucky I didn’t slit his goddamn throat on the spot.
“Damien,” I called, just before he made it to the door. Harrison looked back over his shoulder, but he moved on when I released him with a nod.
Cal moved close as Damien approached my desk after closing the door. Cal’s skin vibrated, he was so fucking pissed. Apparently, I’d done a good job of endearing him to my Alex. He’d look out for her no matter what happened to me—not that I planned on going anywhere anytime soon. “Find out what the fuck happened. Get video. I want to know every fucking thing that happened after I saw Alex follow them down that staircase last night.”
Damien nodded. “You got it.”
I shooed him with a flick of my hand, and he didn’t dawdle. Cal’s voice was edgy when the door closed behind him. “I’ll cut off their balls myself if they touched her.”
“You’ll have to settle for one ball each, Cal,” I muttered. “The other is mine.”