CHAPTER 37
Aaron
“I’m telling you, we have an airtight plan.” Patrick beamed, nearly busting the buttons on his already-tight suit jacket. For a man with all his money—and I knew all too well about that since I received his invoices—I wondered why he couldn’t invest in a wardrobe that fit a little better.
Then again, the man seemed to gain a little more weight every time I saw him.
“I trust you,” I said. It was so close to being over, I could taste it. Once the firm threatened Reed with the defamation suit, he had to back down, retract his words.
Part of me hoped he didn’t, wishing to see him flayed in open court. There was no way he could survive, not after the evidence Patrick and his team had compiled on my behalf.
I shook hands with all of them, relieved that the nightmare was nearly over. They left the conference room, all of them looking pleased and self-satisfied.
Only Patrick and I remained, looking at each other from across the wide conference room table. The room was completely old-school, reminding me of something I’d once seen in a movie about the nineteen twenties, covered in dark wood and lit using old-fashioned Tiffany lamps. I felt like I needed to whisper.
“So, you’re sure about this? You weren’t just putting on an act for their sake or mine?” I asked, watching him closely, knowing his little facial tics by heart. He was a decent man, but he knew how to spin something to placate a client. I would know if he was lying to me.
He wasn’t. He smiled openly, sincerely. “I’m a hundred percent sure. You have nothing to worry about. By the end of the day, early tomorrow at the latest, we’ll have this thing put to rest. And the world will move on because something else is bound to happen.”
“Amen to that,” I said, grinning. Still, there was a hollow ring to my impending victory. Probably because I hadn’t seen Kenzie since we’d left my penthouse this morning. She hadn’t come back from lunch by the time I left for Patrick’s office, and I’d told Jeanine to text as soon as she returned.
My phone hadn’t buzzed once since then.
Where was she? I couldn’t help feeling a bit worried. More than a bit, actually. I wanted to celebrate my victory with her, not wonder where she’d gone.
“So why don’t you sound happy?” Patrick asked. He knew me, too. I chuckled, chagrined.
“Let’s just say I’ll save my happiness for when it’s all over, okay?” Maybe I was hand shy. Maybe I had already been through the wringer with Reed and knew he always seemed to have one more trick up his sleeve.
Or it could have been the unnerving feeling that while I’d jumped at the opportunity to get revenge on him, he seemed to have planned the whole thing step by step. He was only waiting for a reason to execute his plan. I couldn’t shake that feeling.
My phone rang, and I stood when I saw Stephanie’s name on the ID. I stepped into the hall, wanting to avoid Patrick overhearing the conversation. He didn’t strictly know about my contact at Madison Media Group, and I didn’t want him to find out—mostly because I didn’t want to hear him tell me it wasn’t wise to collect intel.
“You’re not going to like this,” she whispered, instead of saying hello.
“Can’t you ever tell me anything without a long preamble?” I hissed. “What is it this time? Are they coming to burn my building down? Will they be carrying pitchforks and torches to carry me off to the gallows?” I was starting to wish I’d never involved Stephanie in any of this. I had the feeling she got off on the secrecy of it all, feeling like she was important.
“Don’t take it out on me, all right? I thought you should know I just caught a glimpse of somebody walking into the building with Reed. I heard her name is Kenzie Olson.”
My stomach dropped. The whole world dropped.
“How can you know? You don’t even know her.”
“No, but I know people who do and they confirmed it’s her. She worked here for years, Aaron. Just because we’re from different departments—”
“All right, all right,” I said, cutting her off. “I believe you. What in the hell is she doing there?” It was the worst thing I could imagine, short of finding out she’d been in an accident.
“I told you there was something going on with her, right? Well, this has to be it. He brought her in to work here again.”
“Do you know in what capacity? I mean, has he offered her a job title?”
“I was in the elevator with one of the guys from his floor. One of his golf buddies, you know?” I rolled my eyes at the thought of Reed playing golf. What a wannabe big-shot activity. “And I overheard him say that Reed offered Kenzie the senior vice presidency. It wasn’t hard to get more information out of him, since he was pretty pissed about it. You know how easy it is to get people to talk when they’re pissed off. He felt like she didn’t deserve it and wondered out loud if she and Reed were sleeping together.”
I rolled my eyes. Typical arrogant prick. “Sure, sure. What else?”
“A great office right next to Reed’s, a ton of money, executive decisions. She’s second in command, right under him.”
I felt sick at the thought. Didn’t she see he was only using her? Didn’t she see there was something very wrong with the way this was all playing out? How could it make sense that Reed would suddenly elevate her to such heights when she was practically his personal slave for years?
I paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching my fists in time with the tightening in my stomach. I was glad I hadn’t eaten, or I might have gotten sick. Not sick because I was losing—though, for the first time in forever, I was losing—but because he was using her. She would only get hurt in the end. And I had started it, hadn’t I? I’d brought her into the whole thing.
“Aaron?” Stephanie whispered. “Are you still there?”
“Of course, I am,” I snapped. “Sorry, I just need some time to think this over. I have to plan a move.” I didn’t know what, though. He kept hitting me with quick, sharp jabs. One-two. One-two. I could hardly recover from one before the next one fell.
“Well, I can’t stay on the phone with you while you plan it out,” Stephanie said. “Sorry. I just wanted to keep you informed.”
I took a deep breath, regaining a modicum of calm. “Thank you for that. Really.” When I hung up, I fought against the urge to throw the phone through the window. Only the curious eyes of assistants and paralegals kept me from doing just that. I couldn’t let myself fall apart in front of any of them. Or at all.
I stood by the window, my back to the rest of them, breathing slowly. Control, damn it. Control.
I laced my fingers, running my hands over my head, smoothing my hair back as I regained a hold on myself. I hated that Reed could ever make me feel this way. If there was anything I hated, it was the feeling of being out of control.
But you are out of control, a nagging voice reminded me. You’re completely out of it. You never had control over this. He was always ready for you.
I had opened Pandora’s Box, all right, thinking I could make a fool of Reed. Instead, I’d brought something much bigger than a poached business deal crashing down on my head.
Once I was sure I could maintain my composure, I returned to the conference room and grabbed a bottle of water from the credenza. I needed to regroup.
“Everything all right?” Patrick asked. I could tell from the concerned, paternal look on his face that he knew it wasn’t.
“No, not really,” I admitted, sinking into a chair at the table. “Reed just offered Kenzie the title of senior vice president of Madison Media Group.”
“What?” His eyes went big, his mouth hanging open. He looked like a surprised bulldog. “What haven’t you told me about this? What’s she got to do with any of it?”
“I might have given her the position at Ricardo de Lugo to piss him off,” I said, tapping my fingers on the table’s surface. “So this is his way of one-upping me.”
Patrick shook his head as if to clear it. “What did you do to this guy in a past life, kid?”
I snorted. “I’m starting to wonder that myself.” I leaned back, the chair allowing me to recline and stare at the ceiling. I had to regroup, and quickly. “When he didn’t offer her the job as soon as he threatened to, I assumed he was bluffing. He always leaves me waiting just long enough to lull me into a false sense of security.”
“I guess we need to know better, then. Just because he’s not roaring doesn’t mean he’s not out there, waiting.”
“Beautifully said,” I murmured. “He’s out there waiting, all right.” There I was, trying to get the upper hand on him, thinking I could pull one over on him. All the while, he was ready to one-up me.
Would we be stuck in that pattern for the rest of our lives? Always trying to one-up each other? I didn’t think I could live the rest of my years that way, in a constant struggle to prove who the bigger man really was.
I knew I was—I didn’t have to prove it. I only needed to land the killing blow, the one that would put him to sleep for good. I had to find my opening. I had to get in there and land it. He couldn’t keep up his front forever. He would let down his guard.
“What are you gonna do about her? Are you going to call her?”
I frowned. “I hate to say it, but there are so many other things I need to focus on right now.”
Patrick let out one of his patented sighs, and I looked to find him shaking his head, smirking. “What?” I asked.
“I saw that girl with you. I saw you with her. I’m not blind, you know. She cares for you, and you’re not impartial to her. You can’t just let her go as a casualty of war. The poor kid is caught between the two of you, all because you wanted to get one over on Reed. That’s not fair to her. She’s a person, not a toy.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I said, smiling wryly. “I know what’s at stake. Nobody knows better than me. But at least I know where she is, and I know she’s safe and taken care of there. Once we get my name cleared, I can go back in after her.”
“What do you think he could have said to her to make her change her mind like that?”
“I shudder to think,” I admitted. “You know what a piece of garbage he is. He would say anything to win. At least I had the courtesy to leave him out of it.”
“Right, because you didn’t want her to know you knew him.”
“Okay, you got me. Can we drop it for now?” I sat up straight, cracking my knuckles. It was a habit I thought I’d dropped.
Patrick didn’t look convinced that I was ready to let it go, and he was right. I couldn’t. Kenzie mattered far too much for me to forget her. I couldn’t let her get in the way of the main issue, no matter how I hated thinking about Reed persuading her to jump ship. What had he said about me to get her to go with him? I could only imagine.
But he wanted to distract me. That was his plan. Not just to hurt me, but to make me lose focus.
I couldn’t let him do either.
I would clear my name. I would get her back. And I would get him for all of it.
He would pay, dearly.