I walked into the middle of my office. “Isn’t that pretty obvious by now?”
“I’m so sorry. Joseph, I--.”
I held up my hand. “Mr. Ryker, to you.”
Her face fell. “Please, don’t go back. I like it when you call me Rebecca.”
“But I don’t like it when you call me Joseph.”
I watched a defeated look spread over her face. “Well, if it’s all the same to you, I’m going to go home anyway.”
I nodded. “I expect you to. You have some shopping to do.”
She blinked. “Wait, you were serious about that?”
I held my arms out. “Do I look like I’m joking, Rebecca?”
As we stood there staring at one another, I ran down all the implications of Brittney, of all people, catching us. Had Rebecca not opened her fucking mouth, she probably wouldn’t have even known that it had been her to begin with. Then, I could’ve brushed it off as a random encounter in my office and gotten a slap on the wrist from the board and from Human Resources. But now that the bitch who was out to get Becca knew it was her, we had a serious problem.
Because if she reported the incident and the higher-ups had to investigate, I knew they’d throw me under the bus for being the owner and operator of the company.
And I’d lose everything because of it.
“Mr. Ryker?” Becca asked softly.
I cleared my throat. “What?”
She pointed to the door. “If it’s all the same, I think I’m going to leave now.”
My gaze found hers. “I’ll go outside and take Lexie on an errand. You can take the back elevator.”
She furrowed her brow. “There’s a back elevator?”
I pulled out my wallet and handed her my keycard. “It only uses this in operation. Swipe it against the black keypad and the doors will open, then it’ll take you to any level you want to go to.”
She took it from me. “But there’s a private elevator in this building?”
I grinned. “Of course. Did you really think I’d want to take the regular elevator and listen to all of the stupid gossip coming out of all of my departments?”
She giggled. “Probably not.”
I folded up my wallet and slid it back into my pocket. “No stops anywhere. You get to your car, you leave, and you go shopping. I’ll deal with what just happened.”
“I know she’s going to come by my place during lunch when I don’t come into my office. Not working today might only make me look more guilty.”
I shrugged. “She already knows it was you. You let me handle her. You simply do as I’ve told you. Got it?”
She fingered the keycard as she reached for her purse. “Got it.”
“Good. Now, count to twenty in your head, then slip out and take a left. Go to the end of the hallway, take a right, and then you’ll be face to face with the elevator at the end of that hallway. Repeat it back to me.”
She pointed as she talked. “Out the door, take a left, down the hallway, take a right, all the way down is the elevator.”
“Good girl. Twenty seconds, all right?”
And as I slipped out of my office, Lexie came rushing up to me. “Sir, I am so sorry. She said it was an emergency and she wouldn’t stop even though I asked.”
I leveled my eyes with hers. “What you witnessed was not only private, but consensual. Understood?”
