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“She knows the person who she paid, on behalf of Donner apparently, to pay for it to occur. Are you aware that the latest acquisition of your father is something Donner was trying to underhandedly take over?”
I frown as I think about Dad’s latest projects. “He’s working in a variety of companies and revamping an older Ravenscroft Hotel’s interior. I wasn’t aware Donner was looking into any of those locations except for outbidding me on the overseas location I wanted.”
“Apparently this is the fourth time your family has outbid him on a contract,” King shrugs. “So he was pissed off.”
“Enough to dose me and possibly have me raped?” I swear to God if Bex wasn’t holding my hand to keep me anchored, I’d march right out of here and fucking throttle Donner for all the bullshit he’s put me through. “How reliable is her statement?”
“It’s currently being checked out,” King says. “Apparently when you came forward, the person who she paid told her if he was going down, so was she. Her preemptive move was to come forward first, give all the information, and hopefully take on less charges than the rest of them.”
I scoff. Of course this is all about saving her own ass. If she was actually a decent person, she would have come forward long before now. At least the police have more information to go off of and can end this thing once and for all. The only thing I want is to move on from this media circus surrounding my supposed drug addiction and my relationship with Bex being orchestrated for media purposes.
“This is ridiculous,” Bex grumbles from beside me. “So now we have to wait for the court to do its job and arrest everyone?”
“If they can prove it was Donner,” King sighs. “They’ll have to have actual proof to go after him for attempted assault. Even then, they can’t prove anything was done to Thorin besides being slipped the GHB and that falls directly on the person who gave it to him. But Donner still won’t face the worst penalties because he’s just the guy spouting off ideas, he didn’t force anyone to do anything.”
“Even though he’s in a position of power?” Bex growls. “How is that fair?”
“It’s not,” Emilia mutters. “The law doesn’t necessarily protect him, but with all the he-said she-said going around, it’s not going to gain any real traction for jail time or anything serious.”
Aillard clears his throat, gaining our attention as he curls his arms around Whitney. “We could do something.”
“You mean publicly shame him for his part in this? I fully plan to,” Bex snaps, looking like she’s ready to go into a boxing ring and deck anyone on my behalf. “He deserves to have his name drug through the mud like he’s done to Thorin.” She straightens beside me. “Nana Noel and I will throw horse shit on him.”
Whitney chokes on a laugh, even though Bex seems decidedly serious, and even King smirks at my girlfriend’s outrage.
“As appealing as that is,” Aillard grimaces, “no, that’s not what I’m referring to.” He locks his gray eyes with King. “We could take his company down.”
“Absolutely not,” I cut in. “You’ll be risking yourselves for me and I’ll be fine.” Whatever idea running through Aillard’s mind isn’t worth it. Neither of them need to do anything besides let the officers do their job. My legal team will take care of them in court, so I’ll make sure to push for the narrative of it happening to those less able to be heard and stopping them from doing so again. It might not be much, but I’ll make sure they pay somehow.
“I understand you don’t want this to go on for longer than it needs to be,” Aillard insists. “The idea I have does not impact King and I anymore than any other day.”
“I’m listening,” King says.
“Me too,” Emilia encourages Aillard to continue with a smile.
All of them completely disregard my scowl. Even Bex, who tightens her fingers around mine and leans into me, is intent on listening to whatever Aillard has to say. I swear under my breath, but no one cares about my opinion on this anymore.
“Gabriel Donner uses my technology,” Aillard states. “I can withdraw my support.”
“He’s a paying customer,” I interject, hoping he’ll see reason.
“So I’ll corrupt his system and conveniently forget how to fix it,” Aillard shrugs.
I roll my eyes. No one is going to buy for one minute that Aillard’s computer genius brainforgothow to fix his own damn coding.
“I can sink his stock and blacklist him and threaten to do the same with his shareholders,” King offers. “Many of them are high profile and use my company from time to time to save face in the media. They won’t like backing a falling horse.”
“Again, paying customers,” I firmly state. How are any of them willing to risk a hit to their business in profit over something like this? They’re behaving irrationally.
“We can go after him for defamation of character,” Emilia tells me. And for once, the idea actually doesn’t sound bad. “He’s made himself a spectacle in the media by going after you.”
King turns my way again. “Alright, if you don’t want us to personally go after him to sink his business, how about we sue him? Emilia’s right, you have a case for defamation that almost guarantees you’ll win. How about instead of getting our hands dirty, we let the media do what they do best by going after Donner?”
Dammit. “Alright,” I admit begrudgingly, “you have my attention. What exactly do you want the media to do?”
“Put Donner’s personality out for public opinion,” King answers easily. “He set you up, we have corroborating witnesses who will state that. It will be public knowledge due to his former assistant coming forward. We’ll plant seeds with reporters about how many times Donner might have done something like this and gotten away with it. How if it’s easy enough for a millionaire like him, imagine the people this could happen to well beneath him who can’t prosecute?”
“If he’s willing to go after one of the world’s richest men, then he could go after your average woman or man who stands in his way or turns him down,” Emilia quickly tacks on.
