Page 113 of The Monster and the Masochist

“Of course, Mrs. Walker.” Alyssa nodded, scurrying to take my Chanel. I kept my coffee though, knowing I’d need the caffeine if I was going to be dealing with both Nolan and Reverend Fuck Face at the same time.

Ugh.

‘No rest for the wicked,’ my monster mused, and I rolled my eyes.

I hated it when it was right.

The boardroom’s walls were glass, so I could clearly see what I was walking into before I entered.

Nolan was sitting across from the reverend in the center of the massive conference table, and he had his laptop out, I assumed to take notes… but he wasn’t typing on it. To my surprise, he was staring at the reverend with one of his most stone-cold looks.

To anyone else, he appeared professional, cool, and aloof. But I’d been working with Nolan for years. I knew him, and he was pissed.

What was going on in there?

The moment I opened the door and strode in, Nolan’s entire body seemed to sag in relief. Crossing the room, I pulled out one of the leather swivel chairs next to him.

“Good morning. My EA informed me there was an emergency?” I greeted them both coolly, smoothing my skirt down as I sat.

Whereas Nolan looked relieved that I was there, the reverend looked irritated.

His heavily lined face was tight, and he was sitting board-straight in his seat, glaring at me like I’d interrupted something important.

“Hope you didn’t get started without me.” I gave him a sickeningly sweet smile, which only caused his expression to darken further.

My demon snickered in my head, and my lip twitched.

‘This one is too easy to play with.’

‘No kidding.’

“Mr. Cross insisted we wait,” the reverend growled, and I smirked, taking a sip of the coffee Theo had made me.

“Well, I’m here now. Shall we begin?”

The reverend’s lip curled in distaste, and he turned to face Nolan, shifting his entire body in an attempt to make it clear he didn’t want me to be a part of the conversation.

“As I was trying to tell you before this… gender traitor interrupted… Another girl has come forward with false accusations. She’s a member of my flock, and this behavior, frankly, doesn’t surprise me. She has always been an attention seeker. I’m sure she’s seen how much media coverage the complaining witness is receiving, and she’s greedy for it.”

I blinked as his words rolled through the room, and my monster literally laughed in my head, its raspy chortles scraping down the sides of my skull.

“Gender traitor? How medieval.”

My lip twitched, and I was about to open my mouth to speak, but Nolan beat me to it.

“If you use derogatory language in reference to my colleague again, this meeting will be over, Reverend,” he snapped. His voice was so cold, it shocked me.

I glanced over at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at our client with an absolutely furious look on his face. There was a weird muscle pulsing in his jaw, and I raised an eyebrow at how worked up he was over this.

“Thank you, Mr. Cross,” I said smoothly, turning my attention back to our client. “But frankly, I’m more concerned with these new allegations than I am with the fact that our client is clearly a bigoted homophobe.”

The reverend’s face turned red, and I smiled.

“I’ve been doing quite a bit of background on you, Reverend, and you have an interesting past. An interesting past indeed.”

I had his attention now. He was staring at me with those black, soulless pits he had for eyes, and it was clear he thought I knew something he was trying to hide from us.

The giant gap in his digital history was a glaring red flag. There was something there that he was trying to keep buried. I hadn’t figured out what yet, but I was hoping I could manipulate him into telling me.