Grumpy Boss, Hamel, B. [free novels to read TXT] 📗

Rees to the media?” It was the one question that mattered, and although I knew the answer already, I needed to confirm it. On the off chance that it wasn’t Desmond, despite his letter admitting that it was him, I had to ask and be completely sure. I could tell Rees was on the verge of falling into the deep end, and I didn’t want him to get sucked down into something worthless.

“Actually, no,” Alex said, grinning a little, and he must’ve realized in that moment he had something big. “I can tell you who it is, but that’s a whole different question.”

I grimaced a little, and felt my anger flare. He was right—technically, which was enough. I was a lawyer after all, and technicalities mattered to me, but still. The little weasel was a punk.

“Fine,” I said. “What do you want to know?”

“Who is Rees dating right now?” he asked.

I sucked in a breath and put my biggest, stupidest smile smack on my face, and leaned nice and close to him.

“Me,” I said.

He pulled back. “What?” His eyes went wide, like he was staring into a cave.

“He’s dating me, you idiot,” I said. “Why do you think he hired me? And why do you think I took the job? I graduated third in my class from Penn Law. I could be on my way to partner in some big firm right now, getting rich. Instead, I’m an assistant. Does that make any sense to you?”

“No,” he stammered, and too ka step bac, nearly sideswiping a guy in a suit. The man cursed and hurried on. Cars coursed down the street, and a taxi honked as a black sedan pulled out in front of it. “I just thought you were taking some time off and weren’t ready to take the bar. I had no clue you were seeing Rees.”

“Nobody does,” I said. “It’s a scoop. The best one of your career, I bet. Now, tell me who’s been planting stories about him.”

He laughed, shaking his head, and shoved his phone in his pocket. “Alright, you know what? You gave me something good, so fuck it. The guy that’s been calling is named Kirk.”

“Who the hell is that?” I asked, frowning. It didn’t mean anything to me, and even less without a surname.

“Tell that name to Rees, he’ll know.” Alex shook his head and took a step away, edging toward the curb. “All of that was on the record. So I’m going to run with this story, you realize that, right?”

“Be my guest,” I said. “We’re two single, consenting adults. Maybe you can print something new for a change.”

He barked another laugh, then turned and walked off, pumping his arms, moving fast into the flow of people. I stood and watched him go, then turned and began to head toward the office again, moving slower this time.

Kirk, Kirk, Kirk. I kept thinking the name, over and over, until I reached the far side of the street. I took out my phone and finally hit that call button, ringing up Rees.

It hit his voicemail. The bastard. If I had really needed him—

“It’s me,” I said. “I don’t know why you’ve been dodging my calls, but something big just happened. I met with a reporter and told him we’re dating. Also, a guy named Kirk’s been planting all these rumors in the media. You should probably come into the office.”

I hung up and shoved my phone into my bag. He returned my call a few minutes later, bug I let it go to voicemail. Let him hear that and stew on it for a little while.

14

Rees

The plane vibrated as we hit a patch of turbulence. Millie’s fingers gripped her arm rest and she crossed her legs nervously. Flying private made her nervous—the luxury was nice, but apparently the smaller plane set her on edge.

She deserved it right now.

That god damn voice message. I deserved that, to be fair. I guess we both got what was coming, but still. That voice message set my teeth on edge. I couldn’t believe she told a reporter that we were dating, and for about ten minutes, I was absolutely livid.

Until I remembered—that was the whole god damn point.

It was brilliant, really. This whole time I wanted to use her as a screen to distract the world from the ugly rumors that were circulating, about my relationship with Giana, and my alleged affair with Lady Fluke, and yet I’d been holding back from making it public. I think a part of me was afraid it would put too much pressure on whatever we had growing between us, and might cause it to crack, and break, like a brittle vase.

In one move, she established the story I was too afraid to seed myself while finding out exactly what our next move needed to be. When she said that name Kirk, I knew where I could find Desmond, or at least someone that would know.

“Where are we going, anyway?” she asked, looking at me, chewing on her lip nervously.

I smiled at her. That was my little punishment: I refused to say where we were flying to. “We’re going to meet with Kirk,” I said. “That’s all you need to know, honey.”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on. You haven’t even told me who Kirk is. You showed up in the office, sent me home to pack, then picked me up an hour later. Does Jack know about this trip?”

“Jack knows everything,” I said, somewhat proud of myself for hustling her out so fast and knocking her off balance. “Kirk’s not important, not really.”

“Well that’s straight up not true,” she said, leaning toward me. “Come on. No more games. You annoyed me, I annoyed you. We’re even.”

I touched my chin thoughtfully. “Alright, I’ll accept your apology.” She gave me a look, but I kept going. “Kirk is an old friend of Desmond’s. He was around back when me and Desmond first started together. They knew each other from home, I