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He pinned her with a stare. “No, you’re fine. We’re going to wait until Sloane Glass, the ballerina who danced through her heat, gets it right.”
Dion went for the door, and Ian pointed at him. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going—”
“Don’t you fucking move,” Ian snarled. “Any of you. You go tattling to management and I will end your contracts.”
“What is wrong with you?” I turned to see the voice. Jacob. The corps member who made sure I was okay with Ash, and a general sweetheart. “Is there a reason you’re such a dick to all of us? The whole company? Sloane in particular, but also Dion, Claire, Skylar, Isabelle, Chloe, Ash? Pretty much all the principals. Don’t think we haven’t noticed.”
Ian glared at him. “What’s your name?”
“Can’t end my contract if you don’t even know my fucking name, can you?” Jacob smirked. “You’re an ass to everyone, but at least the corps have it easier because you ignore us.”
I held out a hand to him. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” Brette said. “It very much isnot.”
“Stop talking,” Ian said. “This company is due for some new talent. So by all means, keep going.”
Looking around at everyone, I held my ground. “Don’t do anything that will cost you your jobs. I can handle it.”
“Of course you can. Why wouldn’t you? Sloane Glass can do anything she wants, right? Even the impossible?”
I stared at him, my mind unable to find where the hostility was truly coming from. “Is this about the meeting? How long are you going to make me pay for being late to a meeting I didn’t even know you would be present for? It was five minutes.”
“It’s more than that.”
Crossing the distance, I stood in front of him. “Then explain it to me.” I lowered my voice. “You know we were all excited for you to come here? The amazing Ian Chambers. We all heard such amazing, glowing things about you and your vision. I’m not sure what we did to deserve this side of you, but I’m sad I never got to see the other one.”
“Give me respect, and I’ll give it to you.”
Straightening, I kept my cool, resisting the urge to tell him that respect was earned, and he hadn’t, just like Dion said. “I’m not afraid of you. Whatever this is that you need to get out of your system, I can take it. So let’s get it over with.”
“I don’t take arrogance well, Miss Glass. Whatever you present will be served right back to you.”
A clatter drew all the eyes in the corner, Claire falling halfway down the barre, nearly to the floor. “Sorry. Tripped on a bag.”
In the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Dion leaving the room. I didn’t say anything. Instead, I locked eyes with Ian. I wouldn’t pretend to understand, but I wouldn’t let him affect me. Whatever the hell was in his head? It had nothing to do with me, and it would bite him in the ass as soon as Dion got where he was going. “Where would you like to begin?”
“The top of the sequence. No traveling this time, and your arms are sloppy. Just likeGiselle.”
Pushing the pain in my foot and leg to the side, I boxed it off in my mind. Ian had already put all of us through hell, and I’d already danced through worse. Nothing in the world would compare to the pain and fear of last night. Ian Chambers and his grudge couldn’t touch me.
The piano started, and I began.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
________
GABRIEL
Irubbed my temples and tried to focus on the numbers in front of me. The same numbers I’d been asked for while balls deep inside Sloane. The board meeting was tomorrow, and Montmay wasn’t wrong. The year-over-year numbers didn’t look right. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure outwherethey went off track.
Not to mention, I didn’t want to be here.
Every instinct told me to be with my pack, making sure they were okay. Between Asher’s grief and the determination verging on rage Sloane had in rehearsal? None of us were really coping well.
Someone knocked on the door. “Yeah?”
