My mouth continued to hang open as I watched my friend completely lose his cool. Essie looked extremely uncomfortable, and April—well, she had her head down, her face curtained by swaths of thick, dark hair.
“Someone who works here filmed an intimate moment and then uploaded that to the Internet for the world to see. The moment they did that, they involved this company. And I don’t know how you feel about your jobs here, but it should offend the hell out of all of you that someone did that. That someone represented your company that way. That they had that little respect for the institution to which all of you dedicate a great amount of your time, effort and brainpower. I’ll tell you right now, that pisses me off. Because I spend a pretty large chunk of my life to make this a great company, and if I ever find out who did this…well, they’ll be looking for a new job before they can blink.”
The room was silent now, faces down. No one was meeting Adam’s gaze and people clearly looked ashamed. However, none of them were responsible for the tape.
I should be the one ashamed—and I was. I cast a guilty glance in Adam’s direction, once again cursing my thoughtless actions. We’d both worked so hard for this, built this company from nothing in almost five short years. And with one drunken night of hot sex—and apparently poor choice of hot partner—I’d endangered all our hard work.
Thank the gods above we were asked to return to our desks soon after and let out early by a somewhat exasperated and exhausted Essie.
Chapter 11
April
The minute the meeting let out, I fought my way out the door, ready to bolt back to my desk and huddle into a little ball. In all likelihood, I’d be hard pressed to keep it together until quitting time. That was not to be, however. Cari came up beside me, hooking a hand around my arm.
“Hey, April,” she said with that super-fake, sing-songy tone she used. Dread knotted in the pit of my stomach. I had no desire to talk to her right now.
“Hey, Cari…sorry, I gotta get running. I have tons of stuff to get done before—”
But as we moved down the hall, she abruptly turned down a side hallway, jerking me along with her. “Ow! What the—”
Cari turned to me, her crazy eyes burning bright. “Did you see how hot he was just now? I am so turned on just hearing him yell at everyone like that. I bet he’s so commanding and dominant in bed.”
Oh, fucking hell. I had real shit to worry about—like having caused an honest-to-goodness scandal. And here she was still nurturing her unrequited lust for the boss? I jerked my arm out of her grip. “I have a ton of work to do right now—”
“Come on, April. You can help me. You’ve got a position working up front. I’m not going to give up on this. It’s the only thing that has kept me going for the last few months—kept my mind off all the crap going on in my life.”
I swallowed, genuinely sorry for her. She blinked tears out of her eyes and gave a shivery sigh. I couldn’t help it. Cari was bordering on psychopathic obsession with this, but I still felt sorry for her. I wondered what it must be like to lose a sibling, to have that pain constantly. I had siblings, but they were a lot younger and practically strangers. My own fault, really, as the Queen of Avoidance.
“Cari, you’re so beautiful. There are tons of great guys out there for you. But—”
She jerked back. “I want the best one. I want him. Please say you’ll help.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but what could I say? Adam had already found someone. Someone who made him happy. Cari had no right to horn in on that.
“It would really be a shame…” she began with narrowed eyes.
I frowned but didn’t say anything, suddenly feeling a dark premonition. “After hearing him talk like that…I’m sure our upset CEO would be very interested to know just who is responsible for that video.”
The blood drained from my face.
She saw my reaction, a satisfied smile hovering on her lips. “Your secret’s safe with me, April. But you’re going to help me, right?”
My fists tightened at my sides. She noticed my silent protest and arched an eyebrow. “Because if you don’t—”
She stopped when footsteps approached behind me. I swallowed a knot of fear but didn’t dare look over my shoulder. Cari looked up at whoever it was—whoever must have heard our conversation. Her eyes widened.
“Oh…hey, Jordan. How are you?”
I took a deep breath and let it go, unable to turn and look at him.
“I was doing just great until I overheard someone threatening my assistant with what sounded a lot like blackmail.” His voice was even, clipped, low, probably to prevent someone else eavesdropping on us. But I could tell he was ragingly pissed off. And for once, I wasn’t the target of his anger.