CHAPTER 27
Emma pushed back from her desk with a groan. Fresh air. Fresh air would clear her head. Help her chase the cobwebs away so she could think. Grabbing her sweater, she made her way to the rooftop garden that sat atop Royal Fountain’s building at Sixteenth and Main.
The week had crawled by, punctuated only by the hassle of purchasing a new phone, and remotely shutting off the stolen devices. Wherever they were now, they’d be nothing more than paperweights. The worst? The most heart-wrenching confirmation that Sterling meant every word he’d spoken to her? His silence.
Emma sighed heavily as she pushed through the doors and into the late morning sun. The spring air was ripe with possibility. A riot of color exploded from several large planters near the balcony. Hyacinths, tulips, and a few late daffodils remained, scattered among the Japanese maples and weeping cherries. Dropping to a bench in her favorite corner, she leaned her head back and let the sun kiss her face. Maybe if she stayed here long enough the ice cube that had taken up residence in her chest would melt.
Sleep pulled at her. She’d forced herself into a brutal schedule of sixteen-hour days, working round the clock to catch up with clients and projects she’d neglected over the last three months while she’d devoted her energy to Resolution Ranch. She should feel proud that her efforts, combined with Sterling’s, were closing in on the half-million-dollar mark. Instead, she ached.
Her muscles ached when she dragged herself out of bed in the mornings, groggy from poor sleep. Her face ached from smiling. She’d avoided talking to her family because she couldn’t talk about the ranch without spilling her guts, and the last thing she wanted was for her brothers to “have a talk” with Sterling. She couldn’t make him want her. Even now, the vision of his face, tight and cold, brought tears to her eyes. He’d been so swift, so unequivocal in his rejection. “Better to have loved and lost than never loved at all,” she muttered to herself. Stupid axiom. Tennyson had obviously never had his heart stomped to pieces.
Lying there, she let her mind wander over the details of the upcoming concert. Sound system rental. Check. Backstage and VIP tents reserved. Check. Security. Check.
If the past weekend was any indication, security wouldn’t be an issue for the upcoming concert. Weston had stepped up police presence at key points, and many of the guys she’d gone to high school with had volunteered for security detail. Most had already volunteered to help with the next event.
The raffle prizes would be delivered the day before the concert, and Jamey and Dottie were taking care of food. The only details left involved the poker tournament and Sterling had volunteered to coordinate most of that. She’d have to call him to check in at some point, but she could wait. Let her heart heal a bit longer before she heard his voice again.
The only thing not checked off her mental list was confirming final contributions from her big donors, and she could take care of that this afternoon. Maybe she needed to book that trip back to New York now. Why wait until after the final fundraiser? A weekend of pampering, girl-talk, and Cosmos would be just what her bruised heart needed. She could probably nab a three o’clock flight and be back Monday afternoon. She reached for her phone, then remembered she left it downstairs.
Refreshed from the sunlight and the possibility of a diversion, she hurried back to her office. When the elevator doors opened, Gina, her assistant, rushed in, bringing an air of panic. “Ohmygosh I’m so glad I found you. I don’t know what’s going on, but your phone has been lighting up like a Christmas tree, and Mr. Prince came looking for you.” She looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “In person.” Gina’s eyes were like saucers. “And he looked thunderous.”
“Calm down, Gina. Probably just an issue with ZurichZeit. They’ve been a bit high maintenance lately. But it’s nothing we can’t fix with a little hand-holding.” Gina was a fantastic assistant. Highly organized and detail oriented. But she also had a penchant for melodrama. Apparently, she’d been a theater major in college. “Do me a favor?” she asked, keeping her pace unhurried. “Book me on an afternoon flight to LaGuardia? And use my miles to upgrade me to first class?” There was a champagne glass and a linen napkin waiting for her with her name on it. Maybe she’d chat up a nice businessman. Anything to get her mind off the buff cowboy who held her heart.
Strolling into her office, she grabbed her phone. Her eyes widened at the onslaught of notifications. Gina hadn’t been kidding. Her heart kicked up a notch as worry threaded through her. Had something catastrophic happened to her family? Had a bomb gone off somewhere? She thumbed through to the top of the notifications. The first had been from Alex Jordan, not thirty seconds after she’d left for the rooftop.
A: Call me. We need to talk asap
Then three missed calls, all from Alex.
Then 2 missed calls from Travis, and a text.
T: Where in the hell are you? Call me.
Her heart started racing. She went through where everyone was supposed to be this morning. Maddie would be teaching at K-State until two. Her brothers would all be out on the ranch. Hope was driving back from Oklahoma… Her stomach sank. Oh God, had there been an accident? Or worse, a tornado? That would explain why Mr. Prince had come looking for her.
Her heart smashed into her throat when her extension rang. She steadied her shaking hand as she answered. “This is Emma.”
“Prince. I need you in my office immediately.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be right there.”
The air left Emma’s lungs, and she struggled to grab air. Her palms started to sweat. Grabbing her phone, she trotted down the hall to the Owner’s office. Her phone buzzed three times in the thirty seconds it took to reach his door.
“It’s open,” he called as she raised her hand to knock. He was standing at the window, hands in his pockets as she entered. “Shut the door.”
The door swung shut with an ominous click. “Is everything okay?”
The older man who had been her mentor since her sophomore year in college looked at her, brown eyes hard as steel. “I don’t know how to have this conversation, Emma.”
“Oh God.” She interrupted him for the first time in her life. “Please tell me my family is okay?”
His mouth thinned. “They’re fine, but they won’t be by the end of the day.”
“I don’t understand.”
He inhaled, nostrils flaring. “I have never, in my forty-two years of running a company had an hour like the last one.”
“What’s going on?”
“Shall I start with the failure to comply with a non-disclosure resulting in a lawsuit? Or the indecent exposure of one of my employees caught in flagrante with a client?”
“Did something happen with ZurichZeit?” She mentally rescheduled her trip to New York, deciding to ask Gina to find her an overnight to Zurich. Maybe she needed to pay them another visit.
The tension crackled off her boss. “If only. Are you sure there isn’t anything you want to… disclose to me?”
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He pointed to an envelope on the table by the window. “Let’s see if this jogs your memory.”
She pulled the papers out of the envelope, quickly scanning. Heat raced up her spine as she read the civil suit from Kaycee accusing her and Royal Fountain of breaching a non-disclosure.
Was this what Travis had been calling about? “I don’t understand. There are only four others who know about Kaycee. We all signed.”
“This alone would be grounds for dismissal.”
“I understand, but I didn’t do anything, sir. I’ve followed protocol to the letter.”
“Have you? I also received a call less than an hour ago from a reporter at The Pitch asking me to comment on a story they are running this afternoon. Something involving a sex tape between an employee and Alex Jordan of the Kansas City Kings?”
“What?” The blood rushed to her toes, leaving her body hot then cold.
“No need to act surprised, Emma. There’s no doubt it’s you.” He sounded resigned. Disgusted.
This couldn’t be happening. She and Alex had secretly dated for about six months, and during that time, they’d… played around. But she’d deleted every video in her possession. And there was no way Alex would let them be seen, if he even still had them. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.
Mr. Prince’s cheeks flushed. “Don’t worry, I stopped it as soon as I recognized you.” He shut his eyes, grimacing. “You’ve been with us for eight years, Emma. Eight years.”
“Sir, I don’t know–”
He raised his hand. “Stop. You’ve shown so much promise over the years, and I had been looking forward to promoting you this summer.”
Panic hollowed her stomach. This couldn’t be happening. That tone of voice. The look on his face. “I can explain. Please let me explain.”
“Royal Fountain has always prided itself on its standards of excellence and discretion. Our reputation is impeccable. Unassailable. I know that you know we have a strict no fraternization policy with our clients, as well as confidentiality clauses. We discussed this the first day of your internship eight years ago. You’ve seen colleagues let go for lesser offenses.”
She braced herself for the guillotine.
Mr. Prince shook his head. “I’m so sorry. But I need to request your resignation. Effective immediately.”
She cried out as the shock of it sank in. “Mr. Prince. I don’t know how this could have happened. I really don’t.”
He smiled wryly. “Usually, it starts with inappropriate sexual relations.”
She’d have laughed out loud if she wasn’t so horrified. Was this why Alex had called her? To warn her? Anger surged through her. He’d promised to destroy their playful evidence. And why now after they’d been broken up for two years? None of this made sense.
She locked her knees as a wave of nausea rocked her. Her clients… what would this do to her fundraising efforts for the ranch? She could lose all of them. And she wouldn’t be allowed to contact them after she left the office. This could ruin everything. Hell, who was she kidding? It had ruined everything. “Mr. Prince? Please, the donors who’ve offered to sponsor the fundraiser at Resolution Ranch. May I please be allowed to contact them?”
His eyes softened, then filled with regret. “I’m sorry. We have those rules in place for a reason.”
She must be having a heart attack. She couldn’t feel her fingers and her lips started to tingle. Was she having a hallucination? A waking nightmare? Maybe someone had slipped drugs in her coffee. But if that was the case, she shouldn’t be able to hear the tick-tocking of the wall clock behind his desk. Filling the silence, demanding that she say something. She stifled a sob, wanting nothing more than for the earth to swallow her whole. “I understand. I’m sure someone will be contacting them to explain the situation?”
He nodded. “And we’ll give them the opportunity to stay on, provided you are not their point of contact.”
“I understand. I can arrange for Ster-, the ranch foreman to take over with anyone who wants to stay on.” She took a deep breath. “Is there anything else, sir?”
He faced the window again, dismissing her. “I think that’s quite enough.”
“Mr. Prince?”
He turned his head.
“I’m so very sorry about this.”
“I am, too. Please leave your company technology on your desk. Someone will show you out.”
Leaving his office in a fog, she blindly retraced her steps to her office. Her phone buzzed again. She clung to it like a lifeline, refusing to check it until she was seated at her desk for the last time. She waved off Gina and made a beeline for her chair, collapsing into it, shaking like a leaf.
“You’re booked on the three-ten to New York,” Gina said quietly, placing a steaming cup of coffee on the desk in front of her.
“Good, I’ll need it,” she answered dryly before turning over her phone.
On her screen was a text from Travis and a link.
T: What the *fuck* is this?!?!?
She clicked the link, then choked on her coffee, nearly spitting it out. A headline read Kaycee Starr discovered hiding in Kansas. The video she’d taken of Kaycee singing in the barn, took up most of the page, and below, a short paragraph offered all the details.
Country music darling, Kaycee Starr, has been hiding out in Prairie, Kansas, apparently working on a new album. Her agent could not be reached with details.
She put her head on the desk, focusing on the cool wood beneath her forehead. The video had gone viral, with thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of views. She dialed Travis as the pieces started to fall into place.
“You better have a damned good explanation for this,” he growled, not bothering with niceties. “Paparazzi are crawling all over town like cockroaches.”
“Travis, I swear, I’m as surprised as you are. And I don’t understand why this had to escalate to a lawsuit.”
“Do you understand what this is going to cost her? And us?”
“I do. Sterling is the only person who saw the video, and then he insisted we come see you. Which we did.”
“Well the cat’s out of the bag now, and Kate and Cash have gone underground. And I think that pretty much ruins our chances for a concert in three weeks.”
“No. I can fix this. I won’t let you down.”
“You’ve already let me down. How could you be so careless with that video?”
“I wasn’t. I had my phone–” Shit. Her phone. Her body clenched. “My phone. Travis. Whoever stole my phone must have hacked it.” Her brain went numb. What else had they discovered? But those videos had been deleted years ago.
Gina waved at her from the doorway, motioning that someone was coming. Great. Could her world be more fucked up?
“This is a disaster, Emma. A total fucking disaster.”
No shit, Sherlock, she wanted to snap.
A security guard hovered in the doorway. Of course. Because now she needed to be publicly escorted out of the building. “Travis, can I call you back? I swear I’ll do whatever I can to make this right. And I hate to do this, but I have to run.”
She handed the security guard her laptop and her company phone as her personal phone rang again. “Alex. I think I know what happened.”
“Emma, what in the hell is going on? You told me you deleted that stuff.”
“I did,” she cried out. “I–” Her stomach pitched as she marched down the hall to the elevator, security guard trailing behind with a small box of her personal items. “I think my devices got hacked.”
“What? Didn’t you wipe your drive? You’re always supposed to wipe your drive.” She didn’t even know how to do that. That’s why every company had a tech department. The horror of everything began to sink in as the elevator opened. “Can I call you back?” she said with a hysterical giggle. “I’m in the process of getting sacked.” She followed the security guard into the elevator and let the call drop.
Forty-five silent seconds later, she stood on the sidewalk on Main holding a small cardboard box, spring sun blazing brightly, breeze dancing down the street, her life in tatters at her feet.