Page 56 of Sweet Spot

“Believe it or not, yes. I played the hooky the other day so I have to make up for it now.”

“Well, I hope you did something fun ‘cause it’s not worth it otherwise. Not on a perfect day like this!”

“Trust me, it was worth it,” I smirked, heading for the elevators.

“Well, she must’ve been a very special lady!” Jack called after me.

“Very,” I called back, grinning when I heard his belly laugh again, echoing with my footsteps in the empty marble lobby. Hoult Tower was usually busy every day of the week, Saturdays and Sundays included. But it was oddly empty today. Forty-six floors in the building and it honestly felt like Jack and I were the only souls inside.

Though in all likelihood, there was at least one other poor bastard in the building. Riding the elevator up the quiet floors, I sent him a text.

ME: You here?

The response shot back fast.

JULIAN: If by here you mean the office then yes.

ME: You’ll be proud to know that I too am working on the weekend

JULIAN: I’ll believe it when I see it.

I snorted, slipping my phone back into my pocket as the doors opened onto my floor. The walk toward the glass doors was eerie without the lights on. Thankfully, I kept a few lights on in the office at all times but still, something felt off as I walked toward the doors.

Pressing my key card against the lock, I pushed through and immediately heard the sound of scurrying heels. I frowned when I saw who’d just run to reception from the back.

“Noelle. What’s going on?” I asked. It wasn’t uncommon for her to work on weekends but today she looked uncharacteristically haphazard, in just a ragged T-shirt, cotton shorts and flip-flops. It was alarming, if only because she was usually so proud about looking and dressing a certain way at the office. I’d seen the woman go through entire boxes of Band-Aids just to avoid taking off a pair of painful heels.

My concern jumped up a notch as she stood staring at me, tears starting to well in her eyes.

“Noelle?” I stepped toward her but before I could ask again what was wrong, I saw another figure appear from the back of the dark office.

I went numb the second I recognized Cam. Like a light, the emotion in my eyes flicked off and my stare went blank as he walked in front of Noelle to give me an easy grin.

“Working on a Saturday, dude?” he asked incredulously. I ignored him to look at Noelle.

“How’d he get you to do this?” I asked. For all the issues between us, I still knew with certainty that Noelle wouldn’t betray me out of bitterness. Not with Cam. Her mouth trembled open and she stuttered the start of several sentences before I held a hand up gently. “It’s okay. Come here,” I said, eyes still on Cam as I held my hand out to get her the hell away from him. The second she touched me, I heard her burst into tears and whisper “sorry” but now that I had her shielded behind me, my attention was a hundred percent on him. “What do you want? There’s nothing for you to take here. You want a computer? Take one. Take two.”

“Fuck off, Hendricks,” Cam spat, tugging on the collar of his blue button-down. “I was just here to… look around for something I dropped awhile ago,” he laughed since we both knew he was lying. “But since I have you here now, I should tell you straight up that I’m going to ruin your life if you don’t legally void the contract. I will,” he nodded earnestly. “You seem to forget who gave you your connections in the first place. You forget the fact that my family is royalty in the world of pro sports. I mean it when I say I’m going to bring this company to its fucking knees by the end of the year and while that’s happening, you should know that I’ll be keeping a close eye on you. Anything you do, anything you say. I can smear your reputation fast.”

“Can you?” I wasn’t even faking my boredom. “Well, I look forward to seeing you try.”

“Hey. We all know you’ve slept with your fair share of women. Had to have been someone barely legal in there,” Cam smirked.

“Do your best,” I ground out as I took my phone out to call the cops. “But you won’t put a single dent in this company. It’s been here too long and in case you don’t realize, no one’s trusted you for years. You never did anything on the business end, so why would they? My network outgrew yours a long time ago, Cam, and I know you know that,” I said calmly, putting the phone to my ear. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so fucking insecure as to try and get to me through Tess,” I muttered just as someone picked up. “Hi, I’d like to report a break-in on the thirty-first floor of Hoult Tower. The address is seven twenty-one – ”

I cut off to shove Cam away from me. With a handful of his shirt, I held him away from my body as he swiped again at my phone. Were I not so pissed off I’d have laughed in his face. He had nothing on me. In size or smarts. It had been like that from the start but throughout college, Cam didn’t care. After all, I was poor, the son of addicts. He was from money, the eldest child of a notable family. He was used to having so much more than me, to being my savior and looking comfortably down on me. I should have known things would change when I started out-earning him, in regards to both money and respect. He had always been the type to feel easily threatened.

Just not by me.

“They’re on their way,” I said to Noelle when I hung up the phone. With a shove, I released Cam and stared at him. “You’re free to walk out now if you want. Either that or stay and walk out in handcuffs. You choose.”

“I know everyone at every precinct, asshole,” Cam hissed. “They’ll literally drive me to the station, say sorry and let me go.”

“Whatever gets you out of my office,” I said with a carefree shrug I knew would piss him off. Like clockwork, he started to lose it. I knew the look he got when he had nothing left in his arsenal – it was a stupid, bug-eyed face. “Go for it, Cam. Let’s hear whatever low blow you’ve got for me now. Talk about Wyatt all you want. I don’t care. Just get it out.”

“I don’t give a shit about Wyatt. What can he possibly do for me now?” Cam sneered, snorting when my lip curled. “Honestly, I’d just like to know more about the pretty thing I saw you with at Tessie’s apartment,” he said, breaking into a big grin when he saw me take pause. “Don’t flatter yourself, I wasn’t following you. Just thought I’d drop off a note for when Tess got back and what do you know, you’re walking down the stairs looking awfully fucking cute with some chick. Serious question – since when did you hold hands and all that mushy shit?” Cam asked. “I mean that shit normally makes me sick but she did have a hell of a fucking rack on her.”

“Watch it.”