AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bash huffed out a startled laugh but didn’t let go of my hand.
Constance Baxter-Hicks, who’d been watching the conversation like she was at a tennis match, pressed her lips together to hide a smirk. And Clarissa’s wife tilted her head, presumably to hear better since she was furthest away from me.
Silas leaned in between Bash and me and spoke in a warning whisper. “Sebastian, stop this immediately. We’re in public, for Christ’s sake. And you’ve known Austin for years. Every report the board of directors has received shows that Austin’s excelled in his role. Surely you’d take his word over… this person’s.” He tilted his head in my direction.
I glanced up at Silas in dismay. Had he been lying when he said he believed me?
“Thank you,” Austin breathed, sitting back in his seat in relief. “Finally, a voice of reason.”
Silas nodded. “But since I happen to know Landry’s date is an Instagram influencer and this whole thing will be on his stories in an hour—”
All eyes swung toward Landry’s date, who shrugged unapologetically over the top of his phone. “What? My followers want content.”
“—you might as well tell us how you came up with the idea for Daisy Chain in the first place.” Silas sounded bored and annoyed. “The last thing we need is rumors circulating that you were dishonest.”
He directed this comment toward Bash, who gripped my hand but kept his gaze on the tabletop.
“As I already explained to Bash, Daisy Chain came about because someone dear to me died of commotio cordis, and I recognized a need,” Austin said primly.
I sucked in a breath. Now I was the one squeezing Bash’s hand. I’d been afraid I’d be thrown out of the gala for lying. Now, just a couple of weeks later, I was getting ready to be thrown out of an awards banquet for assault.
“Did you hear that, Bash? He came up with Daisy Chain because he lost someone. Very noble.”
Austin nodded in satisfaction.
“Just one more question, Austin. When did you start calling Daisy Chain MRO?” Silas asked softly.
Silence descended on the table. I imagined only half of us understood the importance of what Silas had engineered—what Austin had admitted when he didn’t challenge my name for the project, the connection he’d drawn—but even if they hadn’t understood the words, there was no missing the expression of shocked guilt on Austin’s face.
The tide had turned.
Silas had turned it.
“I… it… I didn’t.” Austin flushed pink, and his eyes looked panicked again. “I was confused. I was repeating what you said. I…”
“Save it. That might not be enough admission for a court of law, but it’s plenty for me,” Bash hissed. “Your employment at Sterling Chase is over, and you willneverget your name on the patent for this project.”
Austin’s breath came in shallow pants. Like a gazelle surrounded by lions, his gaze pinged around, from unfriendly face to unfriendly face, and then to the phone Landry’s date held. He inhaled sharply. “You know, Bash,” he said, lowering his voice at last, “I don’t believe you have the authority to fire me. You’re just a member of the board, right?” He conjured up a smile that was half sneer. “Unless you’re telling me you’remorethan just a board member? Silas, Landry, care to weigh in? Just how much power do you have?”
Bash froze, and I heard Silas suck in a small breath as he straightened.
As last-ditch efforts went, Austin’s was devastating. For so long, Bash and his brotherhood had kept the truth of their relationship to the company hidden, not wanting to be publicly associated with ETC and the insane wealth it had brought them. But how well had they really guarded it if I’d figured it out in a matter of weeks? How many people, like Austin, had suspicions? Had Justin guessed when he was spending time with Silas? Had Constance, who seemed to know everything about everyone, ever wondered? How long could their lie stand if anyone had a reason to look?
Already, Clarissa’s eyebrows furrowed as she glanced back and forth from Austin to Silas, to Landry, to Bash, and I could tell by Silas’s angry stillness and Bash’s slackened grip on my hand that both of them realized it.
Suddenly, the award announcer’s voice caught everyone’s attention. “And the winner of the Innovation Award for Food and Beverage Project Development goes to… Austin Purcell on behalf of Sterling Chase, for their work on the CaffApp!”
The audience applauded, and Austin laughed lightly, holding Bash’s gaze as he stood, daring Bash to object, challenging him to make a scene that would end with Austin publicly questioning—in a room full of their peers—who owned Sterling Chase and had created ETC.
Bash and Silas exchanged a look with Landry. Being revealed as the owner of Sterling Chase and the inventor of ETC would change the course of his—and his friends’—future in ways I couldn’t even comprehend. What privacy they had would be gone; Zane’s music career would be overshadowed; shy Dev would be forced into a limelight I instinctively knew he’d hate; and Bash would be hounded by every fledgling entrepreneur, every charity, every greedy soul he’d ever encountered, who’d treat the man like he was nothing more than a walking checkbook.
It was a bell that could not be un-rung, and I could tell by the helpless fury on their faces none of them were prepared. Tension thrummed through Bash’s body, and he gave Austin a look that promised retribution, but he didn’t protest when Austin waved and grinned, then began the long walk to the stage.
Anger surged in my gut, pulsed all the way through to my fingertips.
That smarmy, self-serving asshole thought he could go up there and claim a prize after he’d threatened the man I loved—a man who’d accepted me, cared for me, protected me, and helped me from the first moment we’d met? No.
No.
