Corrupted Chaos (Tarnished Empire)(14)

“Oh my God, right?” Cassie’s drink sloshed as she shoved it into the middle of our bar table and held it high. “Cheers to our impenetrable data barrier.”

Everyone hooted and hollered, throwing their glasses in too.

Lucas eyed me as he slurped down his drink while our team dispersed to talk amongst themselves feverishly. “Not drinking?”

I shrugged, not sure I wanted to bring down the night by sharing where my head was at.

“Something wrong, Izzy?” Lucas had been on my team since the day I started at Stonewood Enterprises. He’d been in the advertising department but had found me in the work break room one day, scrolling the Narcotics Anonymous program on my phone.

The man asked me to be his sponsor right then and there. I hadn’t known if he didn’t have many friends or if he was hitting on me. Turned out he just needed a good friend. He worked a lot of hours and had moved from Georgia, fresh out of rehab, after being honorably discharged from active duty when his Humvee was attacked overseas. He’d come to work at Stonewood Enterprises after meeting one of the Stonewood brothers when they’d given a motivational speech at his rehab center.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I told him. “I just hate parties.”

Unlike Lucas, I was good at respecting people’s boundaries. He’d told me early on that he’d share his trauma when he was ready. It took him months to confide in me about his PTSD, how he got addicted to prescription meds, and how he fought every day to stay off them.

As for him asking me questions, he had no boundaries whatsoever. “Did your dick of a boyfriend do something?”

“Jesus, Lucas,” I groaned and waved my hand about. “Can we not talk about it at the party?”

“Why? You actually want to enjoy yourself tonight?” He took that moment to hold me out at arm’s length. “You upped the costume game with this fucking outfit. I always wanted to fuck the shit out of Harley Quinn.”

I lifted an eyebrow.

“And I want to even more now that I’m staring at you.” He chuckled.

“You’re an idiot,” I told him. I knew that Lucas was gay, but no one else did. His parents were very strict with their beliefs, and it frustrated me every day that he didn’t tell them to shove it. Lucas was perfect in every way to me, his parents be damned. Hiding who you are took a toll, but it wasn’t about when I was ready. He had to be ready and accepting his process was most important to me.

“I’m just saying the female form is a beautiful thing . . . especially yours, okay?”

I took the compliment with a shrug. “If you say so.”

“Hey, a girl’s been eyeing me up from marketing all night. Just play along.” He winked at me as he said it quietly. I was practically the man’s beard half the time.

“I’m here to be whatever you need,” I whispered into his ear and laughed.

“You know how I know that’s true?” he asked as he took me by the waist and started walking me to the bar. “Gerald practically foamed at the mouth the last time he saw us together, and you didn’t falter once.”

“Yeah, well, Gerald and I are no more.” I looked toward the ceiling, trying not to make it a bigger deal than it was. Quite frankly, it was nothing compared to what had just happened to me in the elevator.

He glanced at me with his light-blue eyes and didn’t even bother hiding the delight in them. “Thank fuck.”

“Lucas!” I shoved his massive shoulder, but it didn’t move at all. “I’m sad.”

“What for?” He waved off the idea and then flashed me a look of concern, his brows furrowing. “Really? Because if you need to get out of here, we can go.” Lucas was as much my sponsor as I was his.

“No. No. I want you to enjoy yourself, and it's good for me to be out mingling and networking.”

“This isn’t a work event, Izzy.” He scoffed as we got to the bar and waved over the bartender to ask for a nonalcoholic cocktail for me.

I smiled at him remembering my drink order. “It’s the definition of a work event, Lucas. Even if we’re supposed to have fun, we showcase our best selves for the corporation. They might not say it, but our bosses are watching us.”

“Are they?” He glanced around wildly. “Show me where Cade is then.”

“Well, whatever. Juda is the manager. We don’t need the boss here.”

Lucas laughed. “I don’t think Juda has done any work since you relocated.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I’m happy he gives me his work so I’m not stuck doing generic IT all day.” I’d been assigned that on my first day and been seething mad, but Juda had been more than ready to offload his duties to me when I’d complained.

He chuckled. “You know, if Cade were here, he’d probably thank you for working two jobs instead of one.”

That comment had me gulping down my Shirley Temple rather than responding. What annoyed me was that I didn’t want to share my encounter with Cade in the elevator just yet. It was as if I was holding on to our ridiculous moment, like it was ours. Why did it feel special when it shouldn’t? Why could I tell Lucas about Gerald but not Cade?

I hated that I wondered where he’d gone, why he’d haunted the beginning of my night only to disappear into the shadows when the party was a public display of our accolades. He’d come for that, right? What other reason would he have to be here?