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Remi stands up and comes between us.
“Listen, I’m not here to be referee. Barry, this isn’t dictatorship. But, Confidence, I think we should at least entertain an offer. Let’s see what they come back with,” Remi says and the stony glare on his face doesn’t leave room for any push back.
The conference room doors open and hits the wall behind it so hard it bounces off.
“You’re fired,” Ms. Swanson says when she bursts into the room.
Barry glares daggers. “Look what she’s done,” he hisses and points at me accusingly.
“No, I’m talking to you,” Ms. Swanson says to Barry. “You are fired. We want her. You don’t care about us. We’ve been talking and we don’t want to settle. We want someone who will do what’s right and not what’s easy. And if we can’t get her, then we’ll go somewhere else, and try to convince them to hire her over there. But either way, you’re fired.” Then she turns and storms out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
“You know what? Good luck,” Barry snaps. “And Remi, just a heads-up since you’re clearly too blind to see it, but Hayes Rivers is fucking her. Or at least, he wants to.” His eyes rake over me with a lascivious, angry light in his dark eyes. “And maybe you do, too, because I don’t know why the fuck you hired her.” He gathers up his files and briefcase and storms out of the conference room.
Remi shakes his head and looks at me as he starts toward the door.
“I’ve got to leave for the day. I have a client to see. I’ve got some questions I need you to answer. And consider yourself the new lead counsel for this case.”
“You’re not going to fire me?” I breathe out in a rush before I can stop myself.
“No, I’m not,” he says like he can’t believe it himself. “You better be worth all this trouble.”
Relief—rich and hot—floods through me, and I wonder if this is how people who receive a reprieve from death feel.
“I promise I—”
“I run at seven a.m. every morning,” he says abruptly and that shuts me up and brings my eyes to his face. He’s frowning at me.
“Good ... for you?” I say when he doesn’t elaborate.
“Very good for me. And, while I’m running, I want to be reading your answers. I’ll expect them in my inbox by then. You’re down a team member, so plan on being here all night, Ryan,” he says and then he’s gone.
SETTLING
HAYES
“You can’t go in there, Mr. Rivers.” The frantic voice of the woman sitting at the desk outside of Remington’s office calls after me as I walk right past her into his office.
“Wilde, what the hell—” I stop in my tracks. He’s not alone. Confidence, that asshole who’d talked to my woman like she was beneath him, and two men and one other woman are sitting huddled around the small conference table in front of the corner window of his office.
“Rivers, what the hell?” Remi stands up and looks over my shoulder.
“Mr. Wilde, he just walked right past me,” the woman says from behind me.
“Rachel, it’s fine. Just shut the door behind you,” he says to her before he looks back at me.
Confidence is watching me like a deer caught in the headlights.
“What are you doing here?” Remi asks and I look back at him.
“You rejected our settlement offer. Last week when we met you seemed ready to entertain it. Do you know how hard I had to lobby to get them to agree to the terms we presented? You will not get a single dime more out of us,” I warn him.
“Oh, yes, we will,” says Confidence as she stands up.
The other man slams his hand onto the table. “Remi, I am not going to sit here and watch this shit. You hired this person over my objection. You’re letting her pilot this and she’s decided to go full kamikaze.”
“Barry, we’ve discussed this.” Remington’s voice is low, but it’s got a thread of steel in it that raises my already high esteem of this guy even higher. It says more than the four words he spoke.
But Barry’s rage has blinded him to the danger.
