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“I honestly don’t know.” Chase looks at me.
“Thornton, these are the new members of the board. You lose.” I laugh like I’ve got him.
Thor advances on me, but I don’t see hate or anger in his eyes. Instead, I see raging desire. Chase steps between us, stopping him from getting close to me. Just like a brother would do for his sister.
“Watch yourself,” Chase growls.
I hate that because of me these two men no longer have the relationship they had before.
“I knew you were fucking her!” Thor erupts, and it’s like he slapped me.
I gasp. My hand goes to my mouth to hold back the sob as tears brim my eyes. Why does he think that?
“I should kick your ass, you dumb motherfucker. I’d never sleep with her, not because she isn’t beautiful, but because she is like my sister.” Chase defends me.
I try to push between them, but Chase won’t let me.
“Stop opening your mouth.” I look into Thor’s eyes. I see pain in the green depths, but I don’t understand it. “Just stop right now, Thor,” I beg him softly.
“You don’t win. It’s a tie.” He smirks as blood drips from his broken nose.
I laugh at him because he thinks this is over. He thinks he won. I look at a fifth board member.
“Next.” The member stands and walks out. “I’m the fifth vote. Chase did everything he could. Punish him with a week off unpaid, but he shouldn’t lose his job.” I pull out the chair, ready to sit down. “Don’t make this battle go to a real court, Thornton. You and I both know I’d win. Let Laya stay. She didn’t do anything wrong but fall in love with a good, kind man. Your best friend.” It kills me emotionally to be here. I hate that my love turned to hate for him. He chose this though. I plead with my eyes for him to stop this.
“Why do you work for BUTEE?” Thornton’s voice is quiet, but I hear the gruffness in it.
“Someday I’ll explain that to you,” I say and wave him off. That will be the day I make him really rue hurting me. “Now, I need to finish telling Chase everything.”
The conference room doors burst open, and Summer and Devin rush into the room.
“She went with them. Briar, she got in the car and ignored us. Why?” Summer’s voice rises with each word.
Fuck. I say the curse word in my head because I’ve learned to watch my mouth with a five-year-old running around behind me.
“Who?” Chase demands.
“Shit.” The word slips out of my mouth, and I swing to look at Chase as he chuckles at me.
“Girl, you’ve cussed more in the last half hour than I’ve heard from you since Rion came into this world.” He stops, and both of us realize what he said. My eyes flare wide. I refuse to look at Thor to see if he heard. I’m not ready for that to come out yet. I still have so much to do before that happens.
“Let’s get out of here.” I get up from my seat and turn toward the doorway as I hear Thor talk to Elora.
“You win this time, Danvers. But you won’t the next time. I’ll get Briar away from your company. She will be working for me soon enough.” Thor pauses, and I hear movement around the room before I catch Chase nodding in my peripheral. I exposed some of our secrets today. “Why, Elias?” The pain in Thor’s voice is almost too much for me to bear, but I keep moving away. I barely hear the response.
“Thor, the Ryder Corporation is a managing partner of the BUTEE Corporation. Yvonne had a soft spot for female-owned companies and was the first and primary investor in it.”
“What?” Thor’s voice rises. “Stop,” he barks at us, but we keep moving. Devin and Summer walk with me, while Chase brings up the rear.
“Someday I’ll explain,” Chase tells him the same thing I said.
“You’re on leave for a week without pay. She’s welcome to come back.”
“I have to get her back first.” I hear the strain in his voice. He’s scared, but he has no idea how bad it really is.
It’s going to take several hours for all of us to explain everything to him. The plane ride ahead of us should help.
* * *
