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“Catherine is on her way, but since it will effect you too, I wanted to let you know.”
“I’m on my way, too. Do we need anyone else?”
“You don’t have to come,” she pushed.
“Don’t do this right now, please? I’m coming. It’s our business, and I’m going to be there. If you don’t want me at your place, then everyone can come to mine, or the restaurant, or, hell, go neutral and use Catherine’s office, but you’re not blocking me out of this.”
She listened and swallowed. He had a point, and she was being petty. “Here. I’ve had wine so I don’t want to go anywhere if I don’t have to.”
“Then I’m on my way over,” Evan said.
The call ended and she struggled to do anything. It was like she was frozen as the full shock sunk in while she was waiting on people to come and tell her what to do. Catherine had a plan, she’d even worked on it with her, but she couldn’t remember what to do.
Dinner was completely forgotten. She sunk further into the sofa, wishing she could sink all the way in and stay there. It was awful. She didn’t look at the emails anymore.
Tilting her head back, she stared at the ceiling and willed it to fall. It would be an improvement to everything else right now. This was becoming too much.
Eventually, Catherine knocked her tell-tale knock, letting Kayla know who it was. She opened the door for her to find Evan in the hall as well.
“Come on in.” Kayla held the door wide for them.
Evan stepped in, took a look at Kayla, and hesitated. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. He raised his hand like he was going to reach out to her but then dropped it back to his side and went the rest of the way inside.
Kayla closed the door and turned to them. “I haven’t opened any emails.” She was scared to open them and see what everyone was saying.
“That’s okay. We have a plan, remember?” Catherine pulled her laptop out and sat at the table.
“Wanna fill me in on that?” Evan asked.
“It’s nothing special. Kayla had insisted that we come up with how to handle it if things went wrong. I need to adjust since no information was released, but I think we can make that work even better.”
“Okay,” Evan said.
“Just update my statement to say I was there. It’s the truth and adds to the no-information bit,” Kayla joined them.
“You’ll need to go through your emails; we can set up an automatic reply. Get your employees notified first, and then reply to the ones that came in. Also, check for any from the blackmailer. They didn’t give you a deadline, so it’s weird that they went with this show of force so quickly,” Catherine told her.
“Evan, can you go through the emails? I can’t look at them,” she asked. If he was here, then he could do that for her.
“On it,” Evan said. He reached for the laptop. “Shit, I didn’t bring mine, we can’t both work on the same one.”
“I’ve got my tablet,” Kayla said. She slid her computer in front of him and then stood to go to her room for the tablet.
“The blackmailer sent a new one!” Evan yelled.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Kayla
“What does it say?” Kayla ran back into the room. Looking over Evan’s shoulder, she read the message.
Kayla,
I had believed you to be smarter than this. Imagine my disappointment when no money came through to the account. Disappointment goes both ways, though.
I have not released any of the details to the gossips yet, but I will. You have until Friday to wire the money through. Make no doubt that I will release all the information if you do not pay this time. I trust you to make the right decision this time.
Awaiting my money,
