He rolled his shoulders. “No such thing as a coincidence. So, the question now is what the hell are we going to do with her?”
“Devil’s advocate. Maybe she was there for another reason. Trying to get information on the Van Linsteds. We need to look into her.” You know who she is. But what if I didn’t?
He sighed. “We’re sitting on a powder keg. We need to know who she is. If we got it wrong and she made a copy of the file, or worse, if she was able to decrypt it, she’s going to have blackmail information on Elite members, men who would do anything to hold on to power. We need to find out what she knows, and in the meantime, get her some protection. If she’s innocent, we just put the target on her. If something about the pass wasn’t clean, we’re obligated to look after her, but there’s no way she won’t ask questions.”
I swallowed hard. He was right. But it was my responsibility. “I got her into this.”
He sighed as he crossed his arms. “We’re a team, mate. We’ll take care of this.” His silvery gaze bore into me. “Is she a problem for you? Can you stay detached? Unemotional?”
I ground my teeth. I knew what he was asking. “She’s not Lila.”
“That’s not what I asked. We’ll protect her. But if we find out she’s not who she claims to be, can you keep your shit together? The stakes are higher now.”
“I’m tight.” Total bollocks. I was already fucked in the head over her.
“I was giving you shit the other day, but if you’re spinning, you can tell me, mate. You know that.”
I swallowed hard, trying to fight through the wall of emotion. Olivia wasn’t Lila. She wouldn’t shag me, pretend to love me, then try to upgrade to my bloody father. And I would not go off the rails like before. We couldn’t afford for me to.
There was a shuffling near the door, and I lifted my gaze. Dark eyes met mine. “I should have known it was you, arsehole.”
I inclined my head. “Mina, always nice to see you.” And by nice, I meant I had the inexplicable urge to do murder. Just kidding. It was explicable. She was a conniving bitch. I could see right through her.
She pursed her lips. “It’s late, Bridge.”
“I know, babe. We’re just having a quick drink and catching up.”
She glowered at me but turned and sauntered off.
“Nice to see she still adores me.”
“I don’t know what it is with you two.” He shook his head.
I knew what it was, but I wasn’t telling him. Mina was a class-A viper. She’d gotten her hooks into him early, and there was nothing about her I trusted. She didn’t love him, at least not that way he really should be loved. Bridge needed someone that would warm up his life. Mina wasn’t it. But it wasn’t my choice, so I kept my mouth shut. “Not sure. But hey, she’s not mine to shag. She’s all yours.”
Bridge snorted. “One day, I’ll find out why you two don’t get on.”
If it was left to me, he would never find out. I wouldn’t be the one to break my best mate’s heart.
I shoved my hands in my pocket to ask my next question. “We haven’t had a chance to talk about all of this. But you okay after seeing Emma?”
Bridge was usually so good at masking his emotions, but his eyes narrowed imperceptibly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
I lifted a brow. “C’mon mate. I remember your face the first time you ever saw her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look like that since.”
He shook his head. “That was kid’s stuff. Been a long time since we were kids.”
I searched his gaze, but he was too hard to read. Running my hand through my hair, I muttered, “Right. A long fucking time.” He wouldn’t say shit until he was damn well good and ready.
He frowned down at my hand. “Mate, your ring?”
I knew what he meant right away. I’d taken it off before my Olivia outing. “Would you believe it itched?” I rubbed the tattoo on my thumb, the one that was usually covered by my signet ring.
He pressed his lips together. “Mate, however much you hate them, it’s your job to play the part.”
He was right. I knew he was right. “Yeah, fine. I hear you.”
“Put it on, Ben. Appearances are everything.”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
Livy
After our adventures with Jack the Ripper, I’d expected Ben to act different in some way, but he was mostly normal. He’d been out of the office on Friday but had emailed to let me know the police would be by to take a statement.
And that had been all he’d said on the matter. He mostly let me get on with it as if nothing had happened.
Which was handy because there was a lot to learn about the running of the business. I had my work cut out for me.
As annoying as Ben was sometimes, with his deep voice and strutting around here like he owned the place, which he did, I really, really liked the job. It was challenging. I had to bring up all my organizational skills and put them to good use.
But however the hell they’d organized things before didn’t make any sense. The folders were difficult to find, I could not locate our clients, and half of the department didn’t really communicate very well, requiring everyone’s bosses to get involved to make any sort of decision.
Things would be so much better if they just organized cross-functionally. So I put together a report outlining a better way to work. If there were project teams and everyone had a stake in it, then resources would be sorted across teams as well. And for every project, it would be a renegotiation of what team it would end on. Why didn’t they know this?
I also learned that everything was pretty much siloed under each of the CEOs, which was ridiculous, considering they managed one company. And as resources went, that meant if someone was being underused on one side, it was almost impossible to reallocate them.
I’d already started implementing some of those changes. I was pretty sure Ben hadn’t even noticed. Which was fine. I got to do my job and be left alone. I really didn’t want his input anyway, nor did I need his ire. It wasn’t my fault I’d been mugged twice in one week.
After a series of three meetings back to back, I was relieved to finally reach my office again. All I needed was a good couple of hours of uninterrupted work. I’d been digging in so hard in my new role, that I’d been getting home later and later each night.
Granted, Dexter hadn’t exactly been home to notice. Most of the time he texted me to say he was working late. And to be fair, I didn’t even notice that he had texted until I got home and he wasn’t there. Which probably said something.
Like how long are you going to put up with this? It had been going on too long. We needed to have a sit down because really, we were just glorified roommates. My mother hadn’t wanted me to be alone, but I was certain she didn’t want me to be unhappy either.
We would talk at dinner next week. It would be fine. We’d either work this out or realize that we couldn’t. It made my heart squeeze a little. This was Dexter. He’d been there for the toughest parts of my life. I didn’t want to just give up.
And the guilt still ate at me. Everything had changed because of me. And that was a hard pill to swallow.