Page 27 of Lying Lainey

“I have no doubt,” he answered with a smirk. “We both know who really runs that place when it comes down to it.”

“Only when it comes to operations. Anything else, and it falls on deaf ears,” she grumbled as she stood. “Ms. Collins, it was a pleasure, and don’t forget about what I said. As long as I have a job with New Wave, the offer stands.” Pulling a card from her purse, she passed it over to me.

It never made it into my hand as Halstead snatched it first, crumpling the thing in his hand. “I like you, Tabitha, but don’t go poaching my people while I’m sitting the fuck here.”

“Oh good, you do realize she’s something special,” Tabitha quipped. “A brilliant mind like that shouldn’t be put in the corner to take notes, Halstead. Next time we meet, she’s going to be sitting at this damn table. It will either be by your side or mine, but she’ll damn well be here.”

The two shook hands, and Halstead walked Tabitha out of the conference room, leaving me there, too stunned to move. What the hell just happened? One minute I was worried they’d hate the idea only for it to become the deal they could both agree upon. Dropping my head into my hands, I massaged my temples, trying to figure out what threw me the most—the fact I was actually good at this, or I was enjoying it.

Being a con artist taught me to analyze people, find out what they were all about, and then manipulate weaknesses to get what I wanted out of the deal. Here I was doing the same thing, but instead of using it against them, it helped me to negotiate terms that might be agreeable to both parties. This was like doing a job on the fly, using the limited time I interacted with them, coupled with the basic research I’d done beforehand. Interestingly enough, I didn’t research Tabitha herself, just the company, since I didn’t expect to interject myself into the situation.

“That was certainly unexpected,” Halstead commented.

Not bothering to lift my head, I just grunted. Things all day with Halstead had been hot and cold, leaving me with no clue how to navigate our situation. Honestly, I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on it all that much. My mission was to get Kerian to stop writing the code, destroy said code, and find a way to make sure the code was never going to be recreated. Playing nice with Halstead was important to keep this job, but I felt I’d more than demonstrated I could be useful to him today. There wasn’t much else I was willing to do beyond that since he was in a relationship with Quinton, and my guess would be Kerian too.

“Can we talk for a moment?” Halstead asked.

Raising my head, I found he was standing on the other side of the table from me. “Did you have a particular subject in mind?” I sassed, knowing full well he wanted to address last night.

“I deserve some of that attitude, but I will remind you that I’m still your boss,” Halstead cautioned.

I planted my hands on the table and stood, trying to keep my face clear of the irritation I was feeling right now. “Then unless this is a work-related conversation, I think it’s best we leave all other topics alone. As you pointed out, you are my boss, and we wouldn’t want anyone here to get the wrong idea about us. I have a feeling it could really upset others if the wrong impression of us were to spread.” Grabbing my notebook and the few files Halstead asked me to bring in, I started to head out of the conference room.

“Quintin and Kerian are both my lovers as well as business partners,” he announced.

“Yes, I gathered that,” I tossed over my shoulder. “I’ll make sure to keep it to myself. Don’t worry.”

This was the last thing that I wanted to deal with at the moment. After the encounter with that creep of a pharmacist, I’d had my fill of men thinking I was some easy target. These men might be my scent matches, but if they never found out, it would be simple enough to leave them behind when this was all over. Just another reason I needed to get this job done a hell of a lot sooner than two fucking months. How hard could it be to destroy a code? I’d done work like that many times before. The trickiest part would be getting to his devices at home. My guess is he put it on a central cloud location to work on it in real-time, no matter the device. However, I wasn’t going to chance that, not with everything on the line.

Entering my office, I set the paperwork down and sat at my desk. There was some prep work I wanted to do on Solarbyte to see just how bad their situation was. One thing Enigma didn’t need was bad press. If Solarbyte knew about this issue and ignored it or if there was some other dirt such as this happening in retaliation for something, I wanted to know.

“Elaine, we can’t go to dinner tonight without having this conversation,” Halstead stated as he walked into my office and closed the door.

Clearly, he wasn’t going to drop this, so I crossed my arms and waited. There was no fucking way I was talking first—I’d done nothing wrong. He’s the one who showed up at my door after hours and needed to chat.

“I feel like I should tell you both of them know what happened between us. Quintin asked that I tell you what happened this morning had nothing to do with that matter. It’s not my place to go into detail, but let’s just say that Quintin faces a fair share of demons. Simply meaning that not every situation is handled as people expect from him,” Halstead explained.

Hell, if I didn’t understand that on a soul level. You roll with the punches until one comes at you out of left field and knocks you on your ass.

“First, I would like to once more apologize for putting you in that position because of my poor choices,” he offered. “It was wrong of me to even think it was a good idea to visit your home after hours alone. That put you in a situation you never should’ve been in. Secondly, it’s not your fault for what happened with the kiss… you didn’t know I was in a relationship with my partners. That was all on me, and I’ve made it clear to Kerian and Quintin of this fact. Neither holds any ill will toward you, nor do they see you being at fault.”

While I can’t say my anger or irritation over this matter lessened, I did appreciate that he took full responsibility. It was refreshing to see a man who could own up to a mistake. He didn’t try to sugarcoat it or tell me I tempted him into doing it because if I’d known he wasn’t single, it never would have happened.

“I appreciate your apology and accept it,” I said, knowing he wouldn’t let this go until I gave him the resolution he clearly needed.

In the long run, none of this mattered. I was going to be gone and out of their lives when this was over, letting them return to their normal routine. Allowing my emotions to tell me I should feel slighted and lied to, I had no room to talk. If they found everything I’d been lying to them about, they’d have every right to be furious.

“I’m not sure I deserve to be let off that easily with how I handled this whole mess, but I’m grateful for your forgiveness. My reasoning for pushing this conversation is that Kerian and Quintin will be at dinner tonight, and I wanted you all to be on the same page. It wouldn’t be fair for them to know all the details and leave you in the dark,” he explained. “You’ve impressed me today, Elaine. The suggestions and insight into matters are exactly what I’m looking for in an executive assistant. My hope is that we can build trust between us and see if we’re the right fit for each other.”

Relief flooded through me as I realized he was genuinely pleased with how things had gone with Tabitha. Standing, I walked over to him, reaching out a hand. “Why don’t we start things over? Hi, I’m Elaine Collins, feel free to call me Elaine. I look forward to working with you and this company.”

He smirked as he took my hand. “It’s a pleasure, Elaine. I’m Halstead Norlund, one of the owners of Enigma. My two partners and packmates, Quintin and Kerian, also own this business with me. Welcome to the team, and I hope this works out for the best.”

“Me too,” I answered with a genuine smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to do a deeper dive into Solarbyte. You know, to make sure nothing bites us in the ass taking them on as a client.”

Halstead chuckled. “Be my guest, but we’ve had them looked into before accepting the meeting.”

“Not by me,” I countered. “As you’ve been made aware by my previous employers, I have certain skills for finding things they don’t want to be found.”