“I would have done worse,” I assured him. “Can you stay with Finn and Smith? I need to go talk to them.”
Andrew followed my stare toward the backs of two of the partners at my firm before they disappeared into the conference room.
“Of course.”
Smith looked so worried he was ready to crawl out of his skin, but his attention darted from Finn to Andrew and back again after I headed toward the conference room. This was definitely not how I’d imagined the night was going to go, but my brothers were with each other and Silas and Marshall were on their way to find Lincoln, and I would wrap this conversation up in record time before joining them.
I closed the conference room door behind me, crossing my arms in front of my chest and narrowing my eyes at Shaw. He sat on the edge of the conference table, still bleeding from his nose. No one had gotten him a towel, and I fought the instinct to be the one to do it for him. The collar of his shirt was stained red with blood already, and Winters looked sick from the sight of it.
“What happened?” Winters asked.
I shrugged and jerked my chin toward Shaw. “Ask him.”
“Your brother hit me.”
“Why?” I prompted.
“He didn’t say.”
“Was it because you were trying to blackmail my boyfriend?”
At the ask, Winters’s brows shot up into his hairline, but Shaw didn’t even have the decency to look offended.
“He’s a cam boy.”
“He’s not yours,” I hissed.
“You could be blackmailed or bribed because of him,” Shaw went on. “Trying to keep his work a secret when the whole world has already seen him naked. What a violation of our morality clause.”
“His work isn’t a secret,” I said. “And that’s rich considering you were the one trying to blackmail him into sleeping with you.”
“What?”
My comment was enough to shock Winters back into the conversation, his confused look landing on Shaw, whose nose had finally stopped pouring blood.
“You can tell him,” I said.
Shaw, thankfully, didn’t say anything.
“You tried to make my boyfriend sleep with you because you—incorrectly I might add—assumed I didn’t know about his work, which is a preposterous observation. You, of all people, should know to never make assumptions about intent or impact in this line of work.”
“Is this true?” Winters asked, and I didn’t know which of us he was speaking to.
“Yes,” I answered. “And if this is an issue, I’m happy to call all of this a wash and walk away from not just this offer of partner but the firm as a whole.”
Winters held up both of his hands, one palm toward me and one toward Shaw.
“Not so fast,” he said. “Let’s not be rash.”
“I’m not being rash, but I refuse to work with that man,” I said, pointing a steady finger at Shaw. “So you can let me know later if I’m coming to work Monday or coming to pack my things, but I honestly have more important things to do right now.”
“A complete lack of dedication,” Shaw muttered under his breath.
I gave the man one last look and sighed heavily, glancing at Winters’ unreadable expression before turning on my heel and leaving the both of them in the conference room. The party had absolutely thinned out, which was not a surprise, so the first people I saw after closing the door behind me were Andrew, Finn, and Smith. The three of them had fresh drinks in their hands and looked as comfortable together as they looked with me.
“Everything good?” Finn asked.
“I need to go find Lincoln,” I told him.
