BILLIONAIRE: Protected (A Dark Billionaire Romance) (8 page)

Liam was on a business trip to Bangkok, or at least that was what we told people. He was actually visiting family in Melbourne. I was entirely overwhelmed trying to prepare for a company press release without his help, but he insisted that it was the only way to smother the office-wide rumors about us. It had been almost a week since his abrupt departure and I was both lonely and overworked. My patience was beginning to wear thin.

              “Ally?” a voice asked. “What do you want?” I snapped. I turned on my heel and realized that I had snapped at Patrick. Part of me knew that I should feel guilty, but another part of me felt like he deserved it. After all, he was the primary reason that Liam had to leave.              “Wow, someone's a little grumpy this morning,” Patrick noted in a patronizing tone. “Listen, I need a favor.”

              “
You
need a favor?” I repeated, impatiently. I was a little taken aback that he would ask me for anything, considering he was well aware that he had nearly destroyed my reputation.              “Yes, that
is
what I said,” he replied, airily. “Anyway, I need you to fast-track this to Goldfield and Nelson. I know you know people over there. Thanks in advance!” He plopped a black folder on my desk and then hurried out of the room. Suspiciously, I reached for the folder and opened it. To say that I was angry would be an understatement. I was
livid
.              “What the hell is this?” I yelled after him. “Why are you sending your goddamn portfolio to Goldfield and Nelson?” Patrick turned on his heel and walked back into my office, a guilty expression plastered on his face. His coworkers' eyes were boring into the back of his head as he sat down and I could not help but smirk. He finally knew how it felt to be the target of office gossip. “You weren't supposed to look in it,” he hissed, sitting in the leather chair opposite my desk. “That's private.”

              “
You asked me to fast-track it
. Patrick, how could you betray me like this?” I asked.

              I noticed that my office door was still open and everyone had left their cubicles to gather around it. I scoffed and got up. “Get back to work!” I demanded and closed it in their faces. I was not concerned about being rude. Patrick's subersiveness had blinded me to office etiquette. “I didn't think you'd take it so personally,” Patrick said. “You humiliate me in front of my employees and then you have the
audacity
to apply to another job?” I accused, making angry, wild gesticulations. “How could you even do this to me?”             

“I knew you wanted me gone the second I accidentally said something about Liam,” he hissed. “You made it obvious enough.”

              My blood was boiling. Even after he had nearly aired my personal business in front of everyone in the office, I bought him lunch and managed to stay civil. In no way had I implied that I wanted him to quit, but he had seemingly convinced himself otherwise.

It was difficult to stomach his disloyalty. We were supposedly best friends and not only had he gossiped about me, but he also was going to quit when I needed him the most. I was beginning to question our entire friendship. “I have been nothing but cordial to you,” I sneered. “I admit I've been a little annoyed but anyone would be. I trusted you and you stabbed me in the back and now you've done it twice!”

              “Stabbed
you
in the back? You're the one that lied to me!” he accused. “If you had been honest from the beginning, none of this would've ever happened!”

              “So you admit it!” I yelled. “You slipped up on purpose!”

              “I—no, that's not what I said!”

              “You were mad that I didn't fill you in so you started dropping clues on purpose!” I shouted. “Okay, so maybe I did,” he confessed in an angry tone. “You should have told me. I hate being lied to. You know that.”

              “You have to know you're a bit of a gossip,” I pointed out. “Come on, Patrick. Remember that time I told you not to mention my dad's drinking when he came to visit and you offered to take him to a meeting? Do you remember that? Because I do.”

              “Oh come on, that was funny.”

              “It wasn't funny! It was the last time my dad came to visit because he thought I was trying to get him to go to therapy,” I replied, sadly. “I just couldn't trust you with something that could ruin my career. And I was right not to, clearly. You blabbed less than twenty-four hours later. How can I trust you when you do things like that?”

              “Is that really how you see me?” he asked. “Just some office gossip?”

              “Well, that's kind of the position you put yourself in,” I said, sitting in my office chair and crossing my arms. “Then maybe it's time I find a new office to gossip in,” he replied, snidely. “Maybe it is,” I agreed.

              “Fine! Maybe they'll appreciate me at Goldfield and Nelson!”

              “Maybe they will!”

              He got up from his chair and stormed out the door. It took me a moment to comprehend everything that was happening, but once I did, I realized that I was in over my head. Somehow, I had to prepare for a press release without my assistant
or
my business partner.
It was not going to be easy.

              “Don't forget your things on your way out!” I yelled after him.

My cell phone rang and I seized it from my desk. I had been waiting for a phone call from Liam all morning. I looked at the caller ID and frowned. It was not a number that I recognized and it certainly was not an Australian number. My thumb hovered over the screen as I pondered whether or not to answer it. After a few seconds, I put it face-down on my desk and scoffed. It had been two hours since the time that he promised to call me. What could possibly be taking him so long?

              I tapped my pen against my kneecap, impatiently, and sucked on my teeth. Suddenly, a knock on my office door interrupted me.

              “Who is it?” I shouted through the closed door.

              It was unprofessional and I did not care.

              “It's Phoebe,” a smoky voice answered.

              I furrowed my brow. Phoebe was one of the security guards for the building. She was not my direct employee and the only time that I saw her was on the rare occasion that I had to look over security footage to make our annual quota.

              “Come in...” I replied in an unsure tone.

              The door opened and the large woman walked inside. Her hair was short and had a very poor dye job. Her grey roots were grown out a few inches. Oddly enough, they matched her uniform.

              “Hi Miss Barr,” Phoebe said, closing the door behind her. “You're probably wondering why I'm here.”

              I nodded and responded, “Yes, I am curious. Is this about the situation with Patrick? I think he stole a few pens when he left—”

              “This isn't about that,” she interrupted, seating herself in the chair across from my desk. “
This
is why I'm here.”

              She tossed a disc in a jewel case onto my desk. I looked at her suspiciously before picking it up and looking at it. There was no label.

              “What exactly am I looking at?”

              “Put it in your computer and see,” she suggested.

              I furrowed my brow, but decided to humor her. My curiosity was certainly peaked. I placed the DVD in my desktop's disc drive and pushed it in. Phoebe was looking at me, expectantly, and I was beginning to get a bad feeling about what the content might be. I took a deep breath and waited for my media player to load it. After a moment, a still of my office was displayed on the screen. Patrick, Liam, and myself were inside and my stomach churned. With a big, nervous, gulp, I pressed the play button.

              “You know what it is, don't you, Miss Barr?”

              I looked back up at Phoebe and her eyebrows were raised. I wish that I could say I was shocked by the security footage, but I was not. My confession to pursuing a relationship with Liam was all recorded. My career would be ruined.

              I pursed my lips and looked Phoebe in the eye.

              “Why are you doing this?” I asked, quietly, a tear falling down my cheek. “What do you want from me? You don't work for me. I don't give you orders. I've always been nice to you when you come in my office.
Why
are you doing this?”

              “I don't want you to lose your job, Miss Barr,” she replied, shaking her head. “I want a good reason to destroy this video file.”

              I should have known. It was all blackmail. I let out a heavy sigh and closed my eyes.

              “What's your price?”

              “Nine hundred dollars,” she answered all too briskly.

              I was surprised. She could have easily asked for a much larger amount of money. If I were in her position, I would have. I should have bit my tongue, but I had a hard time believing that that was all she wanted.

              “That's all?” I asked, suspiciously.

              She frowned.

              “Miss Barr, this sorta crap happens all the time and my son needs braces. I ain't trying to get rich off you. I just want my kid to have straight teeth and less than nine bucks an hour ain't gonna cut it,” Phoebe said.

              She snorted and wiped her nose with her wrist. I wondered what she meant when she said that what was going on between Liam and I happened all the time. Did other executives get caught doing the same thing before us? Did it never get out because they offered her payment? I wanted answers, but I wanted to guarantee her silence first. I pulled my checkbook out of my desk drawer.

              “Nine hundred, was it?”

She nodded. I began to fill out the check and she peered across the desk, biting her cracked lip. I ignored her and finished writing it. Raising my eyebrows, I pushed it towards her. She picked it up and took a moment to read it before nodding. She stood up, her back cracking loudly. “Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, walking towards the door. “Wait!” I said, getting to my feet and walking close to her so nobody could hear our conversation. She turned to look at me and raised her eyebrows, expectantly. “What do you mean this happens all the time?” I whispered. I looked up at the camera and pointed to it, adding, “That thing can't hear me, can it?” Phoebe chuckled and shook her head. “It can't pick up on whispers. They put in the cheapest mics they could,” she murmured. She let out a heavy cough. “Sorry, sorry. Need to quit smoking.” I looked at her, skeptically. She had not answered my question. “Phoebe, what do you mean this happens all the time?” I whispered again, reaching in my purse. “Can you tell me for, say, another hundred bucks? In cash?” She looked around the room, warily. “You do realize that I can go and get rid of all the evidence of this conversation, right?” she whispered. “We don't have to whisper like this.” My face flushed. She obviously would not want any video evidence of accepting bribes, so I had no reason to concern myself with the security cameras. I pulled out my wallet and fished through my cash before grabbing two fifty dollar bills and sliding them towards her. She seized them and slid them into her breast pocket. She coughed again before she continued her explanation.

              “Miss Barr—”

              “Please, call me Ally.” She looked shocked, but did as I asked.

              “Ally, we see this kind of stuff all the time. Hoffman himself was caught with at least four women in his office since he's been married to his third wife,” she started. She coughed and continued. “You did the right thing by firing that Patrick guy, though. I got some footage of him trying to tell some immigrant woman about it but lucky for you, she didn't speak English.” I groaned. He was even worse than I had thought. Suddenly, my cell phone began to vibrate and I flipped it over. Liam's name flashed across the caller ID.

              “I have to take this,” I said. “Thank you so much. You've been a great help, Phoebe. I'll put in a good word to try to get you a raise.”

              “Tell Mr. Manning I said hello,” she replied, eyeing the screen of my phone. “It was good doing business with you, Miss B—I mean Ally.” She stood up and left my office, coughing heavily. I slid my finger across my cell phone screen and held it to my ear. “You called like two hours late,” I accused.

              “I know, I know. I lost track of time trying to get my plane ticket sorted,” Liam replied. “Are things looking better over there?”

              “Well, Patrick quit and a security guard just blackmailed me, so I guess you can figure it out from there,” I retorted. “Wait, did you just say plane ticket?”

              “What kind of blackmail?” he asked. I was irritated that nobody seemed to be able to answer two part questions, but I took a deep breath in an attempt to stay calm. Overreacting would do me no good. “Just a grand,” I murmured. “Apparently this kind of thing happens all the time. Did you know Hoffman had at least four women in his office since he got married in fall? And you didn't answer my question. Did you say you were getting a plane ticket?”

              “Four? Really? That's disgusting,” he replied. “Anyway, yes, I'm at the airport. I decided to cut my trip a little early when my Aunt Mary asked me to check her toenails for fungus.” I made a throaty noise of disgust. “At least you'll be here to help me with the press release,” I replied. “I'm up to my neck in work. With both you and Patrick gone, I've been working fourteen hour shifts just to try to catch up.”

              “That sounds awful, babe,” he murmured. “I feel like I'm about to explode. Won't be able to keep my hands off you once I get back.”

              “Aren't you in an airport?” I whispered. “That's a little personal.”

              “I forgot how Americans can be so uptight about sex,” he replied. “We're a lot more open here. I can say this in front of people's children and they won't care.”

              “Please,
please
do not talk about this in front of any children,” I begged.

              “You know you want it too.”

              “Obviously, but we have to wait until you get home. When will you get in?”

              “Four o' clock tomorrow.”

              “That's a long flight,” I said, sadly. “Are you even going to have the energy to...you know?”

              “I have needs, Aaliyah. Of course I'll have the energy,” he replied. “I have to go, we're about to board. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?” He hung up and I smiled. I had not expected him to be back for another two weeks, so it was a pleasant surprise. I knew that I should have been happy. My disloyal assistant was gone. I paid off the only person left in the office with any evidence of my wrongdoing. However, I still had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something was not right.

*****