The Price Of Scandal(93)

“Fuck. That.”

“So you won’t be CEO, big deal. They can’t take your shares from you. You’ll still make money as a shareholder.”

“It’s not about the money!”

“No need to scream. I can hear you just fine, slugger. Ah, Jesus H. Christ. Your mother’s calling me again. Nine a.m. tomorrow. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

He disconnected, leaving me shaking with rage.

“How bad?” Jane asked. “Road-side tacos with a side of salmonella bad?”

I shook my head as my stomach lurched. “No food could ever fix this.” I whispered it so I wouldn’t shout.

My cell phone rang again. Derek.

I stabbed Ignore.

It immediately began ringing again. I picked the phone up and hurled it across the room. It bounced off the wall and splintered on the floor.

Everyone froze.

Implacable Jane pulled a piece of gum from her pants pocket and unwrapped it. My assistants stood, mouths agape, in the doorway.

Lona, because of course a journalist was here to witness my humiliating demise, stood silently behind them.

“I got Jenny,” Easton said. “She’s on her way over.”

“I’ve got an address for Nina,” Valerie said, her gaze sliding to the corpse of my phone and the dent in the drywall. I could practically hear her add “call maintenance” to her to-do list.

“I’ll go,” Jane decided, shooting me a look that said clearly I couldn’t be trusted.

“Call Lita and ask her to come back, will you, Valerie?” I asked calmly.

“Absolutely.” Her head bobbed on her neck.

“Can we do anything else?” Easton asked, his voice barely a squeak.

“Get me a copy of my contract,” I said and headed to the bathroom.





Executives at the French cosmetic company weighed in on the shocking results of competitor Flawless’ new scar treatment. “It’s unfortunate that Ms. Stanton and Flawless rushed their product into testing. We at La Sophia believe that there is nothing more precious than your skin and treat our product testing accordingly. We’ve been working on a special formula that shows great promise and will bring it to market this fall…”





43





Derek





“Emily Stanton’s 21st birthday ended with one dead”

“Billionaire CEO under fire for past indiscretions”

“Is this the end of Flawless’s IPO and CEO?”





“We’re under attack,” Rowena said, her lips clamped around the stick of a lollypop she’d chewed to pieces an hour ago. “These stories are everywhere.”

“Goddammit, I want to talk to your city editor now,” I snapped into my cell phone at the unsympathetic customer service rep. I wrestled my tie open. “Then tell him it’s about a pending defamation lawsuit.” Grating hold music did nothing to soothe my temper.

I picked up the desk phone and dialed Emily’s number again. No answer.

The stories were everywhere. Someone had orchestrated a media blitz, doling out old college photos and new accusations faster than I could threaten lawsuits.

Emily was being attacked on all fronts, and I was fucking helpless to stop it.

“Fuck.” I hung up both phones and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Okay, gang. This is what’s going to happen. Rowena, you’re going to call Jenny Langosta on Flawless’s legal team. Get her here. I don’t care what it takes.”

“On it,” she said, popping a new lollypop into her mouth. “I always wanted to abduct someone.”

“Ancarla!” I shouted.

She swiveled away from her workstation. “D?”

“Run down the college sources from those goddamn articles and get me everything on them. Then get me Nina Nowak on the phone.”

“Yup.”

“Jude?” I said in the general direction of the phone. “Where is she?”

Jude’s voice filled the conference room from the speaker. “On the move. Just walked out. Big, cat full of canary feathers smile on her face. I’m following.”

“Stay on her.” I dialed Emily’s number again. It went straight to voicemail. I hung up and fired off a text.

Me: Trust me. Please.





There was no response.

It killed me. Emily needed me now more than ever. But she wouldn’t let me near her. And I couldn’t blame her. I’d let her down. I’d failed her. Spectacularly.

“Fucking Lita, you know?” Ancarla complained, hitting redial with a restrained violence. “She set this whole thing up just to tear her BFF down. Who does that?”

Fucking Lita was right.

I dialed her number.

“Well, well, well,” Lita purred. “How are you going to fix this one, Derek?”

“I’m going to tell the world that you’re behind this. Let them rip you to shreds.”

“Oh, too bad. I was expecting something a little more creative from you. Besides, I already told Emily this is all your fault. You came on to me. I bravely resisted. Because I’m the loyal friend. You stole the formula from the lab. You do have sticky fingers, don’t you? Once a thief. Always a thief. And Emily and I have history. We’ve been together since the beginning.”