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The door edges open.
“This better be important.”
Rylee’s face appears, her long red nails like blood-tipped talons as her fingers curl around the edge of the door. “Do you have a minute, Cash?”
I should have known. She’s the one person who can get past Hayley.
“It’s not a good time, Rylee.”
“It’s important, Cash.”
Colton and Noah head toward the door. “We’re done here anyway,” Noah says.
“We’re on it, bro,” Colton adds. He pats my shoulder on the way out, feeling my pain, maybe, not just about the SEC bullshit but also about Rylee. My brothers happen to know that her inability to take no for a fucking answer is giving me some hell.
I grit my teeth, stopping myself from saying something extremely rude to Rylee as she walks into my office. The woman has a knack for terrible timing.
Rylee Winters and I had a very brief relationship around four months ago, right before she was headhunted by Noah. Noah didn’t realize that the two of us had “dated” at the time he poached her from another company.
Rylee happens to be a savvy investor with a history of finding lucrative needles in hard-to-predict haystacks. Her grandfather was one of the early executives of a major hedge fund and she once told me that, instead of reading her bedtime stories, he taught how to read spreadsheets. Even I can admit she’s good at what she does.
Rylee started working for Invested Enterprises right around the time things ended between us. I happened to be away on a work trip the week Noah hired her. By the time I got back, she’d already signed the contract.
My hope was that she’d forget about our brief and now-completely-over history, like I have.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way.
“Let me know what you find out,” I tell my brothers.
Colton has a way of laughing off stress. Nothing really bothers him. And Noah’s like a weathervane when it comes to reading a situation. If Noah predicts storms, then that’s probably what we’re about to get.
The fact that both of them look more agitated by this new development than they’d like to admit sets my teeth on edge.
Noah catches my eye before closing the door behind him, leaving me alone with Rylee. He’s assuming she’s come back here to beg. Which is probably true.
“What do you need, Rylee.” It’s more of an annoyed statement than a question. I don’t have the patience for this right now.
I watch her as she moves across my office on six-inch heels. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Then get on with it. I’m busy.”
“There’s no need to be so rude about it, Cash.” Instead of taking one of the chairs, Rylee perches on my desk, twisting her body toward me, tapping one of her long, painted nails on a pile of paperwork.
Here we go with the petty games. It was the reason I couldn’t handle more than a few weeks of a relationship with her. She’s a card-carrying bitch, is what it boils down to. Harsh but unfortunately true.
I must have found her borderline attractive at some point. She’s got a reasonable amount of surface beauty. The long blond hair. The curves, which she’s doing her best to show off. But her beauty doesn’t go any deeper than that and it’s a detail that, right now, is pissing me off.
“Do you ever miss me, Cash?”
“No. I don’t miss you. And I don’t have time for this today.”
“You never have time for anything. Especially me. You never did.” She didn’t take our break-up well. She’s been hounding me ever since.
I’m about to go to the door, open it, and order her to leave. But then it crosses my mind: is she that hellbent on revenge that she’d try to bring down the entire company? Just to get back at me for not wanting a relationship?
It seems too obvious. She’s a shark but she’s also very serious about her career. A move like that would get her fired. And no one else would touch her, after word got out. Gossip travels as fast on Wall Street as it does on any small town Main Street.
“Why do you have to be so uptight all the time?” she whines. “We were so good together.”
