AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m good. Seriously. Thanks for that.”
Grayson took over, helping me stand from my half keeled over position, his grip on the back of my neck firm and reassuring.
“You alright?”
I nodded. “All good. You’re the best.”
He rolled his eyes, guiding me back to my seat. It was when we were out of direct earshot that he leaned closer to whisper in my ear.
“You’re fucking dead.”
Chapter Thirty
GRAYSON
I figured something was up when Bennett started acting funny. The man could eat literally anything. I’d never seen him get indigestion in his life. He was basically a goat. So his excuse didn’t make any sense. And when I looked at Luka, he had a shit-eating grin on his face. Whatever was happening with Bennett, Luka was involved. It was probably another one of their prank wars. I told them more than once to leave that shit out of the office, but they never listened.
It wasn’t until Luka started pretending to choke that I figured out what was going on. While everyone else was distracted by Luka, I looked over to Bennett. He would normally be the first one up to make sure his friend was okay. It was just who he was. Instead, he stayed glued to his seat and when his eyes rolled back and he groaned, it all hit me suddenly. I hadn’t seen Julie at her desk when I left my office. I figured she was still setting up down here and we probably passed each other on the elevators or something.
Julie wasn’t the type to get under the desk. Not without encouragement. She was too shy for that. And Bennett would never ask. Which meant Luka put them up to this, and I was going to kick his ass for it. The biggest investors in our company were in this room while Bennett got sucked off by my secretary. The fallout if they were caught would be catastrophic.
I hurried through the rest of the meeting, the task made easier because Julie was diligent when following my directions on how I wanted the process to go. I’d been too busy to do it myself, arguing with a foreign client who didn’t seem to understand that we weren’t miracle workers and the device he was requesting wasn’t possible. I gave her all my notes, as well as Luka’s and Bennett’s, and she put it all together in a presentation that was easy to read and to the point, the accompanying handout containing all the extraneous details that we didn’t need to go over point by point. The whole purpose of the meeting was to show the investors that we were still attaining the goals we set and they should continue backing us. We had one every quarter just to keep them happy.
While I finished up answering questions, my mind was buzzing. There wasn’t a single part of me that believed this was Julie’s fault. She was manipulated, and it would be Luka who would take the blame. It was lucky that no one seemed to have caught on. Had someone else figured it out, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to protect her.
Bennett was quiet now and when we stood to shake the investors’ hands, he stood too, coming around the table to show them out. I waited until he followed them out the door before moving around the table to Bennett’s vacated seat. Without a word, I moved the chair out of the way and offered Julie my hand.
When she realized it was me, she looked terrified, her eyes wide. I hated that look, but I was the CEO and I couldn’t just let it go.
“That can’t happen again. Understand?”
She nodded quickly.
“From now on, all those kinds of activities should be kept outside the office. Risking your job isn’t worth the thrill.”
Her chin trembled, and her eyes dropped to her feet. I felt bad for berating her, but I was trying to protect her. Luka was too cavalier with his job. I didn’t want him getting Julie to act the same way.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to talk to Luka. Do me a favor and check with Priya on the documents for the new client meeting we have scheduled for the end of the week. I believe they were supposed to arrive this morning.”
She bobbed her head, her voice trembling. “We’re still having issues with the courier being late a lot. They weren’t there when I checked before lunch.”
I sighed. Just another thing to add to the list of things to do. “Well, we’ll need to look into a new courier because this can’t keep happening. I’ll see you upstairs.”
She glanced hesitantly at Luka before hurrying out of the room, her face still dark pink and shame filled. I summoned every ounce of patience I had before turning to my friend.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
He was leaning against the table, his arms crossed over his chest. Normally, I’d expect a smug grin on his face, but he actually looked… worried.
“I talked her into it. You shouldn’t get pissed at her.”
I rolled my eyes. “No shit. Neither one of them would do stuff like that without being put up to it. You’re the only one who cares so little for their job to mess around like that.”
He scowled. “I care about my job.”
Narrowing my eyes, I matched his stance. “Bullshit. You’ve always fucked around on the job. You like to push the boundaries and see what you can get away with. With me. With HR. It needs to stop, Luka. I put up with it before now, but you’re not only risking your job, you’re risking other people’s. Hell, I should fire you for sexual harassment for that shit.”
He stiffened, his turgid stance the only indication that he was worried about it. He was still glaring at me, like I was somehow at fault for his behavior.
