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“Who else would I be talking about? She’s all that’s been coming out of your mouth lately. It’s fucking bizarre.”
“Well, you’ve seen her.”
“I have. She’s hot,” Julian said. I laughed in surprise. It was a two-word admission but coming from Julian, it was a miracle. In terms of dating, my standards were high but his were astronomical. Borderline offensive. In all fairness, he harbored a pretty inhuman addiction to work so as far as women went, only the one percent had a shot at tempting him out of the office. He sucked a breath between his teeth and shook his head to make it clear that Lia fell within that group. “You’re just lucky you saw her first.”
“Again, fuck off. And don’t ask me about her till the end of the week. She has to write up a proposal for some big meeting on Friday so I’m barred from distracting her in any way till then.”
Julian looked impressed. “Damn. Really does sound like my kind of woman.”
“If I catch you looking at her, I’ll kill you.”
“It’s already like that? I’m surprised. You’re usually so eager to pass them off to Emmett after one night. To keep them from calling you, correct?”
The doors opened to two women who smiled shyly at us. I had no doubt they’d eavesdrop but I still lowered my voice. “There are different rules with this one. Neither of you are to ever go near her. Regardless of how it goes between us.”
Julian cocked an eyebrow. “So she’s on the untouchable list.”
“Sure.”
“I thought only Emmett kept one of those. It’s such a romantic, middle school girl notion,” he smiled. “Guess you’re both getting soft.”
“There’s a chance. Being even a little happy will do that to you. You should try it sometime.”
“Fuck off,” Julian laughed as the doors opened on my floor. “Get to work, asshole. You’re unbelievably late.”
I smirked. “I’ll meet you at The Pike at seven.”
The girls in the elevator giggled as I walked out of the elevator and down the marble hall that led to the glass doors of The Hendricks Group. A few weeks ago, the lettering behind reception still read Hendricks-Cameron. Now, I could hardly remember what that looked like. If only I could get rid of Cam as easily as I got rid of his name on the company.
Fucking hell.
“Is that him on the phone?” I asked the new girl upon walking through the front doors. She nodded, visibly rattled in her chair as she watched Noelle, who’d clearly just taken over the call for her.
“I mean it, Cam,” Noelle spoke low but clearly. “You can call from however many numbers you want but if you threaten Ashleigh again, I’ll personally go to the police and – ” She cut off when she spotted me motioning for her to put him through. Holding her hand over the receiver, she hissed at me. “Are you serious? You haven’t talked to him in a month, Luke, and it’s not like he’s gotten rational since. Just hold off for a bit.”
“I can handle it today. Put him through.”
I heard her heave a sigh before I closed my office door behind me. Talking to Cam for the first time since the buyout was probably the best way to kill a good mood but I wasn’t going to let him harass my staff another day so seating myself behind my desk, I took a breath. He fed off my anger so I wasn’t going to give him any. I’d already ripped him several new assholes the last time we spoke so today, I strained the emotion from my voice before picking up the phone.
“Cam.”
There was a long pause. It was like he couldn’t believe he’d finally gotten through.
“Fucking coward,” he finally hissed, sounding already unhinged. “You fucking piece of shit. You really think you’re going to get away with this? What the hell do you expect me to do with this contract? Huh? How am I supposed to get back on my feet?”
I tried not to laugh.
“You did this to yourself, Cam. I gave you ample time to read the terms. If you disliked them so much, maybe you shouldn’t have signed.”
I’d deliberately taken his legs out from under him with that contract. With the help of Julian’s artfully cunning attorneys, I’d designed it to specifically confuse my former partner – to make him only see the dollar signs. I said the buyout price would be cut in half if he didn’t sign within forty-eight hours, so he did and in the process, he unknowingly forfeited his right to speak to any former clients or employees. All athletes in the tri-state area were off the table, too, and he was to wait twelve months before setting up a new business. In that time, I planned to have him blacklisted by everyone in real estate.
Apparently, he’d only just caught on.
“You’re fucking unbelievable, Hendricks.” I could actually hear the spittle flying out of Cam’s mouth as he snarled into the phone. “I have my lawyers on this so you should know that unless you decide to get fucking smart and void this contract, I’m suing you.”
“I’ve had my countersuit ready for a long time, so by all means. Sue.”
He held the phone away and gave a long, comical growl. It sounded like something out of a goddamned Disney movie and if I didn’t know better, I’d laugh. But I did know Cam and I knew that sound generally preceded some sort of low blow – some cheap, last-ditch effort to piss me off. And I was prepared for it. It made my blood fucking boil, but I was prepared to hear him talk about Tess. About how he’d probably laughed behind her back while tricking her all those years. About how he toyed with her, treated her like his own personal doll – his “plaything,” as he liked to call it.
