“Well, a potential disaster,” Suri said. “Think we can head it off at the pass?”
“No. If that man is determined to meet with her, he’ll meet with her.”
One thing I knew about Dane Davenport: the world gave him what he wanted. As a teenager, he was already rich, entitled, and cold as ice.
He was vicious.
He was smart.
I shuddered to imagine what kind of man he’d grown into.
And now he had a sex tape scandal looming in his wake.
In a mere few hours, he was meeting with my loose cannon of a boss, and I could not let her destroy us.
I rose slowly from my chair. “We need to get in on this. It’s our only option here. We can’t leave this up to her.”
“Okay. What can I do to help?”
I tried to focus on Suri’s face. “I need the name of the restaurant they’re meeting at. I need my schedule cleared. Lizzie or Chaz can cover for me at any of my meetings that can’t be rescheduled this afternoon. I need to crash this restaurant meeting with a pile of hard evidence in-hand to demonstrate that this agency is a success, despite whatever the hell falls out of Janelle’s mouth in front of that man. Valhalla Media is a massive company. I doubt he’s very familiar with our agency. We’re probably fucking mouse nuts to him. So I may only get this one chance to impress him. Versus Janelle’s one chance to blow this to high hell.”
Suri cringed again.
“So,” I went on, “tell Claire to drop whatever she’s doing right now. I’ll need access to some of our financials. Maybe a snapshot of the last few years’ revenues, whatever she’ll let me have. We’ll need an intern or two, whoever’s available. I’m going to need documents printed, model comp cards gathered, the works.”
“For sure. Do you want me to give Janelle a heads up? Let her know you’re coming to help?”
I considered that. “No.”
No, I would not give her a heads up. She didn’t give me a heads up when she decided to sell the agency, did she?
No. I was descending on that meeting uninvited and unannounced for some serious damage control.
“Got it,” Suri said. “I’m on it.”
As she headed out, my eyes met Dane Davenport’s through my computer screen again, and I felt that distinctive chill down my spine. “Suri?” I called after her. “Is the air conditioning on or something?”
“Uh… no,” she said. “It’s October.”
“Right. Thanks.”
She hurried off to get to work, and I clicked away from the search page, getting those gorgeous, frigid eyes out of my face. Then I texted my best friend.
Me:I NEED YOU for cocktails and girl talk sometime in the next 48 hours. Please. XO
Then I tried to blank the wordsSex TapeandDane Davenportout of my mind and got right down to business.
When the devil came to town, a smart woman knew it was not the time to lose her shit.
Instead, launching a full defensive campaign was in order.
There’d be plenty of time, later, to lose my shit about the fact that a guy I once went to school with—and hated—had somehow become my employer.
Chapter Three
Dane
One beer with Shane and Johnny turned into one-and-a-half. Then I decided to split before Shane could rope me into something I’d regret.
