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“Or he had a similar experience with a friend, exactly as he told Bash. It would be very hard to prove he didn’t.”
I knew Silas was right, that what he said made sense, but I could feel my anger ratcheting up anyway in the face of his cold, emotionless presentation.
Bash put a hand on the small of my back and rubbed his thumb in soothing circles. “It’s convenient that Austin’s earliest documentation is missing from our servers when he should absolutely know better than to delete anything.”
Silas inclined his head, granting Bash that point. “Still doesn’t prove anything.” He looked at me, narrowing his eyes. “What specifics can you provide showing that Austin personally received the paperwork you submitted?”
I blinked. “I have his rejection emails.”
“Which only shows that he rejected a project called Daisy Chain. You can’t prove he received your second packet containing all the background documentation. You can’t prove that he stole anything. It would be his word against yours, and frankly…” He shrugged.
I knew exactly what Silas wasn’t saying out loud. That anyone looking at my lackluster resume, especially someone who knew that I’d lied about being Sterling Chase, would give my claim serious side-eye.
Bash’s arm closed around my waist protectively, and he bristled with anger, but I laid a hand on his thigh before he could say something he might regret. “Silas is right. We need to connect Austin to Daisy Chain somehow.”
“Still no results on the search for the term Daisy Chain in our current project files,” Kenji inserted quietly. “If there ever was any, it might have been in Austin’s missing documents—”
Kenji broke off as someone knocked on my locked door.
“Hey, hey!” a voice called from the hall. “Bash? I was sorry you couldn’t make it downstairs, but I brought you a burrito. Do you have time for a quick chat?”
“Austin,” Bash muttered under his breath. “Fuck.”
Kenji’s teeth ground together audibly. “It’s like the man doesn’t understand what a closed door means.Insufferable.” In a louder voice, he called, “Bash and I are in a meeting, Austin. Drop the burrito on my desk and walk away.”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Kenji reminded me of Daisy. I thought he was someone I might like to be friends with, under other circumstances.
“Rowe and I need to get out of here if we want to keep Austin from getting wind of this,” Bash said, nodding toward the door. “We’ll work remotely.”
“You mean from your apartment?” Kenji rolled his eyes. “Where I can only assume Landry is, at this moment, throwing a sex orgy for every male model in the area since that’s his favorite pastime when he’s not gorging himself on my desk candy? I don’t know why you didn’t insist on him getting a hotel when he followed you home from Philadelphia.”
“Shit. I’ll take Rowe to my Hamptons house instead. It’s private there.”
Bash looked at me as if waiting for an argument, but he wasn’t going to get one. For one thing, I wasinthis now, and I didn’t want Austin to get away with his crimes. For another, I’d googled the Hamptons this week after Bash mentioned having a house there and found some interesting information thanks toReal Housewivesthat made me really want to see the place for myself.
And, okay, yes, I also wanted to spend every possible second with Bash while I could, but I was going to pretend that wasn’t actually a factor in my decision.
Silas’s exhale had attitude this time. “Sebastian, can I speak to you privately?”
“Fine.” Bash gestured Silas toward the door. “Make sure Austin’s not out in the hall, and I’ll meet you in Kenji’s office.” He kissed me softly on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a minute, then we’ll swing by your cousin’s place to get your stuff, okay?”
I nodded and tried to give him a smile, though my stomach roiled with nerves.
Once the two of them left, Kenji remained seated, his eyes on me. “Bash likes you,” he said at length. It sounded a little like an accusation.
“I like him,” I admitted. My gaze darted toward the closed door like I was searching for one more glimpse of Bash. “Possibly too much.”
“Then you should know Bash doesn’t do relationships. He doesn’t fall for people. Not in the whole time I’ve known him.”
I nodded. “And he certainly wouldn’t fall for someone like me. I get it. You don’t need to warn me off, Kenji. I’m very aware that he exists in a different world than I do. I don’t have any long-term expectations. No hopes of a fairy-tale romance.”
Oh, look who’s decided to be a lying liar again.I only hoped Kenji couldn’t read me as well as Bash could.
He leaned closer. “I’m not warning you off. Not at all. You seem… nice. Dedicated. Despite the lies—metric fuck tons of them, mind you—there’s something strangely authentic about you. And I have to admire the way you knocked Bash’s perfectly tailored life off kilter. He needed some excitement.”
I snorted. “We’re talking about a man who climbs mountains and jumps off cliffs. I don’t think he was lacking excitement.”
“Mmm. Maybe. But I think that stuff was just a mask for what he was missing: something,someone, in his life who was worth taking arealrisk.”
