“Because he’s a fucking bastard!” Theo exploded.
“Oh, for God’s sake—you know what, I can’t deal with this.” She tossed the papers to the floor and turned on her heel. “I’m leaving.”
“Jen. Get back here. Right fucking now.”
“Fuck you.”
“Jennifer!”
She heard him coming after her, but it was too late. She opened the door and found Martha already staring. Jesus, just how loud were they? Wincing, Jen patted self-consciously at her hair and turned to glare threateningly at Theo.
“I’m going back to my desk, Mr Chamberlain. Thank you for your time.”
Then she slammed the door shut and stormed off down the hall.
Shit.
Chapter Nineteen
A blood pressure headache threatened as Jen stepped into the lift. Yes, her desk was only one floor down, but she could not be bothered with all those stairs right now.
Practically vibrating with indignation, she jabbed the button and stepped into the lift. After all of ten seconds, the doors slid open onto her floor.
And there stood Ollie Hatton.
“Oh,” she said, like a fool, and stepped out of the elevator. “Ollie.” He was carrying his briefcase, wearing a vast grey coat and a thick scarf. Weakly, she gestured at its red and gold stripes. “Gryffindor, eh?”
He looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. Perhaps she had. But then his bewilderment turned to disgust.
“You,” he spat. “Had a nice visit with Mr Chamberlain, have you?”
“Um—I—“
“Bet you spent most of it on your back.”
Jen gasped. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me,” he sneered. “All that time you were playing the frigid little bitch down here. I can’t blame you for holding out until you caught a bigger fish.”
“Ollie, I don’t know what you—“
“Oh, don’t try it. God, the women in this office are fucking ridiculous. You’ve got to be a partner to get any fucking pussy around here.” He swept past her into the lift, his lip curling. “Maybe I should’ve been fucking a partner this whole time. It got that other bitch far. I bet you’ll be in management soon too. Hope you enjoy it.” The doors slid closed.
“Well,” Jen said to the empty hallway. Blessedly, the receptionist, Tyler, was nowhere to be seen. “Goodness me. That was not very Gryffindor-like.” Was that even a word? No. It definitely was not. Oh, whatever.
Chewing the inside of her cheeks, Jennifer made her way to the safety of her desk. God, Ollie had been rather angry. That was quite the rant. Although what he’d meant with that comment about management, she had no idea.
Jen sat down and searched her desk drawers for some emergency sugar supplies. She found a little packet of Belvitas and opened it, munching away. Her gaze settled on the door to Priyanka’s office. Hopefully the poor woman was feeling a bit better now. Maybe she’d…
Wait.
Wait.
Holy crap. Jennifer dropped her biscuits and stood up, rushing towards Priyanka’s office. She burst through the door and cried, “It was Ollie! Ollie told Lilliana!”
Then she blinked as she realised that Priyanka was not alone. She was in her plush leather chair, sitting on Rich’s lap.
“Oh my God,” Jen said. She shut the door. “I’m so sorry. Oh my God!”
“It’s fine, Jennifer.” Priyanka got up awkwardly. “I… I told him.”
Jen wrung her hands and avoided looking at Richard. Awkwardly, she shuffled further into the room. “Um. Good. That’s great. Sooo… What are you going to…”
“What are we going to do?” Richard asked. Reluctantly, Jen forced herself to meet his gaze, her cheeks flaming. She supposed he was handsome, in a silver-fox kind of way. And she was happy that Priyanka was getting some, even if it was hardly in ideal circumstances. But Lord, she couldn’t shake that awful, hilarious night when she’d heard the two of them going at it.
“Rich has a plan,” Priyanka said, smiling over at him fondly.
“Oh,” Jen said. “That’s… That’s great.”
“But what’s this about Ollie?” Rich frowned. “Ollie Hatton? He told Lilliana?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m sure of it. He must have overheard you two at some point.”
Priyanka blushed. “Oh, shit. Is that how you knew?”
“Um…”
“Never mind! Don’t answer that!”
“What a little shit,” Richard fumed. “That fucker. Where is he? Pri, call him in.”
“Ah, she can’t.”
He looked up at Jen. “Why the hell not?”
“Theo already sacked him.”
“Theo? He knows about this?”
“Ye-e-s,” Jen lied. “That’s why. He found out.”
Richard grimaced. “I see. Hatton could still cause problems, though. For Priyanka. Nope; we’ll have to include him too.”
“Include him in what?”
“The plan,” Priyanka said wickedly. “Stay, Jen. I think you should be there as well…”
◆◆◆
Lilliana Taylor-Thomas scaled the stairs in killer heels, because she was that kind of girl.
Such feats were, she thought with satisfaction, the reason for her killer carves and impeccably round backside. Not to mention, the exercise would give her skin a slight glow. Perfect for her illicit, after-hours meeting with darling Rich.
She’d known he’d come around.
Really, she couldn’t believe it when that snivelling cretin Oliver had told her about Rich’s affair with the raggedy little coloured woman. But men liked a taste of the forbidden. That’s what Lilliana’s mother always said. And he must be tired of the old bat, now, because he’d called Lilliana to the office after hours. And his tone had been quite… Well. She smiled secretly to herself as she scaled the last of the steps.
She entered Brown Cow’s offices and made her way down Richard’s private corridor, the silk lining of her fur coat teasing her nipples as she moved. She looked absolutely fantastic. Beyond fuckable. And the view was even better once the coat came off.
Her belly tingling with anticipation, Lilliana opened Rich’s door and strutted in, sliding the coat off her shoulders as she stepped over the threshold.
“Richard, darling,” she purred, planting her hands on her naked hips.
“Lilliana?” A voice choked out. That wasn’t Richard. It was…
As her eyes adjusted to the low light, she saw Oliver fucking Hatton sitting there, opposite Richard at his desk. And there was that fucking Asian bitch, and oh, God—even the idiotic woman who was handling her social media account, staring at Lilliana’s tits like they were atomic fucking bombs or something.
Rolling her eyes, Lilliana bent to retrieve her coat. She shrugged it around her naked form, keeping her cool with aplomb.
“Richard,” she cooed. “What’s all this, darling?”
His lips curved, but there was no warmth to the expression. He looked at her like she was a particularly exotic bug that had just scuttled out from under his bed.
“We need to talk, Lilliana.”
“Well, yes,” she murmured. “You did say something along those lines. But I rather thought you meant…”
“Lilly,” Ollie whispered. The dreadful boy. “What are you doing here? I thought you and I—“
“Oh, do shut up, Oliver. You’re boring me.”
“I bet,” the little brown woman smirked. What was her name again? Something vulgar.
Purposefully ignoring her, Lilliana turned to black girl—Jennifer—who still looked vaguely mortified. How quaint.
“And what are you doing here, Jennifer? Are you fucking Richard too?”
“No!”
“She’s fucking the other one,” Ollie muttered glumly.
“Theo?” Lilliana murmured. Now she was shocked. “He’s certainly handsome. But so very sensible. How did you catch his eye?”
The girl looked distinct
ly uncomfortable.
“Oh, never mind,” Lilliana sighed. She turned to Rich. “Go on then, you awful man. What’s all this about?”
“I know that you blackmailed Priyanka,” he said. Priyanka. What a vile name. “Unfortunately, I can’t allow that to continue. So both of you, please. Listen closely.” He speared first Lilliana, then Ollie, with a look. Yawn. “Lilliana; you are no longer represented by Brown Cow.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh. However will I go on?”
“Furthermore, should I hear a whisper from you—whether that be about Brown Cow, the work of Jennifer here, or about Priyanka and myself, I will contact your father.”
“And?” She drawled.
“And I will show him this.” He held out his phone. Suddenly nervous, Lilliana stepped forward and took it. The screen showed a video file. She pressed ‘Play’.
And then she watched in horror as a close-up of her face filled the screen. She was wide-eyed and gleeful, her pupils blown, white powder smeared across her face. Giggling maniacally, she leaned down and snorted a line of coke off of a very taught, brown buttock. She couldn’t recall who the buttock belonged to, but that didn’t really matter.
“Where did you get this?” She hissed.
“You should be careful about how you treat people,” Rich said dispassionately. “Loyalty can’t be bought.”
Lilliana thought fast. “Show my father!” She blurted out. “He loves me! He won’t care!”
“Ah, Lilliana, you forget. I know your father. Very well. He most certainly will care. In fact, I’d bet my life that he’ll disinherit you if he sees that video. But you know that, don’t you?”
She felt icy beads of sweat trickling down her spine as Rich’s cool, blue eyes stared her down. “Don’t do this,” she whispered.
“Don’t make me,” he said, his voice clipped.
Lilliana took a deep breath and gathered her confidence like a cloak. Then she flicked a disdainful look at the occupants of the room, looking down her ski-slope nose as best she could.
“Oliver,” she called. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, no,” Rich smiled. “I’m not done with Ollie just yet.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” The idiot stuttered. Had she really given this imbecile a blow job? The things she did to get the upper hand. And it hadn’t even worked!
“I know that Theo already sacked you,” Richard was saying, “but I just wanted to make one thing clear. If I hear even a whisper of a rumour about any of this—Priyanka, myself, your outlandish claims about Jennifer and Theo—you will never work again. And I don’t mean in this town, or in this business. I mean in general. You will never work again, because I will hunt you down, and I will tear you limb from limb with my bare fucking hands.” He stared at Ollie calmly. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” Ollie whispered. Pathetic. He looked ready to shit his pants.
“Oliver,” Lilliana snapped. “Come on, I said!”
He scrambled up out of his seat, his eyes still on Rich. How fucking embarrassing. She stormed off, and he followed like a dog. She couldn’t believe she’d ever wasted her time on him—or on Richard. Just think! To choose that woman over her. It was simply unbelievable.
But as Lilliana climbed back down the stairs—ignoring Ollie’s whining about his bad knee—she couldn’t get that bitch Priyanka’s smirk out of her head. It taunted her, as if it was seared onto her brain somehow. I won, that smirk said. I’m better than you. I’m more desirable. And if I can take the man you want, small and dark and old as I am, what worth do you have?
And so, when Lilliana found her Lexus in the building’s dark and dreary carpark, she didn’t speed off right away. No. She dragged Ollie into the back seat and let him fuck her brains out, just to remind herself that she was still sexy as shit.
Which is how she was still around to see what she saw, half an hour later.
Chapter Twenty
“That was unbelievable,” Jen laughed.
“I know,” crowed Priyanka. “Did you see the bitch’s face? When she dropped that coat I thought I was going to pass out.”
“Lord,” Jen said, pressing her hands to her overheated cheeks. “Oh my goodness. I’d die of shame.”
“Lilliana has no shame,” Rich said. “I don’t know what drives that woman, but I’ve never met anyone like her.”
“Oh, I’ve met lots of people like her,” Priyanka said wryly. “The only difference is, they’re usually men.”
“You’re always maligning my gender!”
“I’m sure you’ll live.”
“Come here, woman,” Rich growled, and he grabbed Pri by the waist and pulled her into his lap.
Suddenly feeling beyond awkward, Jen fished out her phone from her pocket and started scrolling through her emails as the couple giggled together. Shoe sale, Boots sale, an email about gig tickets forwarded from Aria—and oh, crap. An email from Harper’s. Was it time to pay the bill already? Surely not.
Jen opened the email and scrolled anxiously down, looking for the due date. She didn’t find one.
It wasn’t a bill. It was a receipt.
Someone had paid for Grandma’s place and nursing up until—Jennifer gasped. 2025? Holy shit. The sum typed out on the screen made her eyes water.
Or were those tears?
Theo. It had to be Theo.
“Jen,” Priyanka said. “Are you okay?”
She looked up and found Pri and Rich staring at her, concern on both their faces.
“Oh, yes, I’m fine,” she said. Then, as reality sank in, her weak smile widened into a manic grin. “I’m great, in fact. But I have to go. Um—I’ll see you on Monday?”
“Okay,” Priyanka said slowly. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’m perfect,” Jen laughed through her tears—where had those come from, anyway? “Absolutely perfect. Bye! Have a nice weekend!” Rushing out of the room, she pulled up Theo’s number and hit ‘Call’.
She took the stairs, since signal was impossible in the elevator, but Theo didn’t answer. So she called again, and again, not even caring that she must seem like a total stalker. She didn’t care about anything. She didn’t even know if she should accept this—but then she thought of her grandma, of what might happen if Jen wasn’t able to pay her bill. What if something happened to Jen? Grandma’s life would be turned upside down.
But not anymore.
Bursting out into the icy-cold carpark, she gave up on getting Theo to answer and simply left a message.
“Hey,” she began after the beep. “I just— Harper’s emailed me. A receipt.” Pure joy ran through her, bubbling into laughter. “I can’t believe you! I don’t know where you are right now but I hope you’re at mine. Because I’m coming home to thank you. I-I’ll pay you back. I will. I just… Wow. Do you know what this—?”
A sudden blow sent her phone flying out of her hand. She turned sharply, confusion filling her mind as she tried to figure out what had happened.
“Wha—?” She blinked as the man’s face came into focus. He grinned wide, those little round eyes gleaming. And then he raised his fist and swung again. This time, he caught her square in face. She heard a crack, felt pain explode across her cheekbone. Then everything faded to black.
◆◆◆
Theo stepped out of the shower with a sigh. He dried off with one of Jen’s scratchy little towels and wondered how she’d react to what he’d done.
He wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly why she was so uptight about work, and it had nothing to do with her love for the job. Places like Harper’s didn’t come cheap.
And if she wouldn’t move in with him—or let him buy her some decent fucking towels, or anything along those lines—than at least he could take that one weight off her mind. He just hoped she saw it that way.
Moving into the bedroom, he sat down and picked up his phone, ready to waste his time scrolling through emails. Instead, he found several missed calls and a voicemail from Jen.
&nbs
p; Shit.
He called her back, but there was no answer. Feeling slightly nervous, Theo tapped the voicemail icon, half-ready to hear a tirade.
Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to hear Jen, sounding breathless and beyond happy.
He shook his head as she swore “I-I’ll pay you back. I will.” He should’ve expected that. But he’d talk her out of it later. “I just… Wow. Do you know what this—?”
Then there was a crash, and her words cut out. Theo frowned. Her heard her voice, suddenly distant, but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Still, she sounded… Bewildered. Upset? Afraid?
Something was very wrong here.
The message continued for a while, but there were no further voices; just faint sounds of the city streets, car engines and rolling wheels. His fingers clumsy and his blood ice-cold, he hung up and called her back. No response. Cursing, Theo put down the phone and shoved on his jeans.
“Aria,” he shouted, bursting out of the room with his phone in one hand and a T-shirt in the other. “Jen’s…” There was no other way to put it. “I think Jen’s missing.”
“No she isn’t,” Aria called from the kitchen. “I told you, she’s at work. Some weird thing with her boss.”
He came into the kitchen to find her perched on the counter, chomping away at a slice of toast.
“No, she’s not,” he said. “Listen to this.” But before he could play back the voicemail, his phone rang. He answered the call immediately, the pounding of his heart beginning to slow. “Jenny?” He said. “Is that you?”
“No,” came Rich’s grim voice. “It’s not. And I was really fucking hoping that she was with you.”
Theo’s heart dropped.
“What’s going on?” Aria hissed. She slid off the counter and came to stand by his side, leaning in to hear the phone call.
“I thought she was supposed to be at work?” Theo gritted out.
“She was. But she left in a hurry a bit ago, and now Lilliana’s up here—“
“Lilliana?”
“Long story. But she’s claiming that someone knocked Jenny out and dragged her into the back of a van.”
Bad for the Boss_A BWAM Office Romance Page 15