How to Rebuild (Hearts & Horsepower #4)

by A. K. Evans

  This was really happening.

  Kat was there.

  And she was sitting across the table from Skye.

  Fuck.

  Fuck!

  Needing a minute to pull myself together, I dashed into the bathroom. Once I confirmed nobody else was in there, I leaned over the sink’s edge and took several deep breaths.

  Why was Kat here with Skye?

  Suddenly, it all hit me. She’d been acting strange lately, making odd faces and seeming lost in thought all the time. And she had advised we move forward with the formal launch for the spring collection when Porter and I had shared we were considering the soft launch. Recalling her reaction that day, I remembered how passionate she was about us doubling down our efforts for this launch.

  Oh, God.

  Was she plotting with Skye the whole time?

  Were the two of them working together to try and destroy my company?

  Was this launch in jeopardy, too?

  I needed to get out of here and get to work.

  But before I left, I needed to take care of this.

  I quickly used the facilities, washed my hands, and took one last determined look at myself in the mirror.

  Then I opened the door and walked out. Instead of returning to the table I shared with Scarlet, Kendall, and Avery, I turned and moved toward Skye and Kat. When I stopped next to their booth, Kat’s horrified eyes came to mine.

  Steeling my spine, I spoke in a low, serious tone. “I trust that you already understand why there is no need for you to show up to work tomorrow, this week, or at any date moving forward. Your position has been terminated.”

  “Elise—” she started, but I cut her off by lifting my hand.

  “Save it,” I clipped. “I trusted you. Both of you. I don’t know why you’ve done this, but I intend to find out. God, doesn’t anyone know anything about loyalty anymore?”

  With that, despite a feeble attempt on Kat’s part to say something, I turned and walked away.

  Terrified that they’d already done something to the products, I felt an awful churning in my belly. When I walked up to the table, Scarlet asked, “Elise, are you okay?”

  I shook my head and said, “I’m suddenly not feeling well. I need to go.”

  “Do you need one of us to take you home?” Kendall offered.

  “No. I’ll be fine. I just… I need to get some fresh air. I’ll call you,” I assured them.

  Before they could respond, I took off. The minute I pushed through the front door of the restaurant, I jogged over to my car. I got in, took a few deep breaths, and shoved the key in the ignition. Then I drove right to the office.

  Not again.

  Not again!

  Collapsing onto the couch in my office hours after I’d arrived, I had no answers and felt nothing but defeat.

  Nothing. There was nothing here.

  But I knew there was something. There had to be something.

  It was now dark outside. That’s how long I’d been here searching for anything—though I didn’t know what—that would lead me to an explanation for why Kat was out for lunch with Skye. This wasn’t just about two people who were once co-workers wanting to catch up. Skye had blatantly sabotaged the company, putting not only the entire brand itself but all the employees at risk. Kat was one of those employees.

  This didn’t make any sense.

  It was even worse because I was stuck. I left the restaurant in a hurry and came straight to the office. I was convinced I’d fire up Kat’s computer, search her emails, go through her desk, and find it.

  There was nothing.

  I checked and double-checked the formulas that were sent to the lab. Even though I was the one who sent them, I’d rechecked them. In fact, I had purposely not chosen anyone from the list of names Kat had given me weeks ago to possibly fill the lead project manager position because I wanted to keep the spring collection launch on my shoulders. If all went well, I’d reevaluate in a few weeks.

  But now I didn’t know what to do.

  All I knew was that the list was growing, and I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle it. That list being the one that now had another name. Kat. My assistant had joined the ranks with Skye and Elliott.

  How many more people would I add to it before I ran out of space?

  That thought sent a shiver through my body. Because as much as I wanted to think I knew everyone in my circle well enough to know they wouldn’t end up there, this incident proved just how bad my judgment was.

  Never did I think Kat had something like this in her.

  And Skye was someone I thought was even less capable of pulling off something so horrible.

  My hand flew up over my eyes as I sighed.

  I was beyond frustrated, and I had no idea where to go from here.

  I convinced myself I’d get here, check Kat’s emails, and figure it all out. Of course, now I realized just how ridiculous it was to think that she and Skye would use the company email to conspire to take down my company, but in my panic, that was my first thought.

  Right now, I could have used Porter’s advice, but I didn’t want to call him. He’d called me yesterday when I was at Kieran’s and sounded awful. The reason for that was two-fold. First, he was sick with the flu. While we were on the phone, he’d barely stopped coughing long enough to tell me what was going on. The other reason he sounded so terrible was that he knew there was no way he’d be able to come into the office for a few days and risk infecting others. Typically, this wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, with a product launch this week, the timing couldn’t be any worse.

  So, calling Porter was out of the question.

  And that’s when it all hit me.

  I had nobody left to turn to. Sure, there were other employees, but I considered Kat and Skye to be the most trustworthy employees I had. Given that I’d been wrong about them, I didn’t think it was wise to make a judgment call on the rest of my employees’ integrity. I wanted to believe we’d hired good people, but my faith was waning with the latest incident.

  This was going to fall on me. I was the face of the company; I owned the company. The tough decisions rested on my shoulders. And the choice I had to make now was whether or not I would risk moving ahead with this launch when I believed there was some plot between Kat and Skye to bring me down.

  I wasn’t a quitter. I didn’t give up.

  But if Flynn Beauty ended up in another scandal with the product launch after the last one ended in disaster, I knew it’d be impossible for the company to survive and thrive.

  Unsure of what else I could do here at the office, I decided it was time to go home. Maybe I’d have a different perspective tomorrow morning after a night of sleep.

  Not caring that I’d torn the office apart, I grabbed my bag, my phone, and my keys. Then I locked up and left.

  When I was back home, hours after I had expected I would be when I woke up this morning, I had enough energy and focus left in me to lock up, climbed the stairs, and get ready for bed.

  I was exhausted. And yet, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to sleep well.

  By the time I crawled under the covers and settled my head on the pillow, I closed my eyes, and a million thoughts ran through my mind. Many of them were the same as they’d been all day. What were Skye and Kat up to? Would I figure it out? Was my company going to become the laughingstock of the beauty industry? Should I put the brakes on the launch?

  Even though so many questions filtered through my mind for a bit, they paled in comparison to the thoughts I began having about Kieran.

  What had I been thinking of getting involved with him?

  I allowed myself to be blinded by all that he gave me when we were together. A distraction from what was on my mind, comfort when I was feeling overwhelmed, and strength to take the lead in our relationship. But more than that, even though he hadn’t said the words, he did give me love.

  Or something very close to it.

  It was in everything he did. The
phone calls when we weren’t able to see each other, the flowers for Valentine’s Day, the laughs he gave me. It was everywhere.

  But that’s how it always started. Sure, maybe Scarlet, Kendall, and Avery had all managed to have success in their relationships. And maybe they felt so strongly for their partners early on. That wouldn’t be me.

  I knew differently.

  People showed me one side of who they were in the beginning. They got me to trust them, and then they left. The circle of people I had close that I believed I could trust and depend on was getting smaller and smaller. It wasn’t even a circle anymore.

  I had Scarlet.

  I had Porter.

  I considered Kendall and Avery to be friends, but I didn’t quite have the attachment to them that I did to Scarlet or Porter. Even though I’d given them more than I’d given Kat, I felt like I’d had a deeper connection to her simply because I’d known her a lot longer. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean that I thought Kendall and Avery were terrible people. This situation would halt any progress I’d been making to let them in.

  Then there was Kieran.

  He had been slowly but surely finding a way in. I was letting him in. I invited him in. If I wasn’t careful, I was convinced he was going to destroy me, too.

  And Kieran wasn’t a man I’d so easily be able to recover from when it happened.

  One step closer.

  That’s how I’d been living my life since Elise left my house early yesterday morning. Each step I took was one step closer to the day I’d be able to see her again.

  It seemed crazy that it hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours since I last saw her and talked to her, and yet I missed her this much.

  What could I say?

  I had fallen in love with her.

  And every day that I saw her, every day I talked to her, that feeling grew stronger and stronger.

  Now, I was stuck having to wait to see her until after the launch of her new collection. While there was a small part of me that understood where she was coming from when she requested I not be around her during this launch, there was a much bigger part of me that believed it was a ridiculous idea.

  No doubt about it, I was frustrated.

  If this worked out for us long term the way I hoped it would, I wondered how she planned to handle it down the road. Sure, she had said it was just something she needed for this launch, given what she and the company had gone through following what happened with the winter launch, but I still thought it was ludicrous.

  I wished she would have felt different because I would have loved to be there with her and celebrate the success when it happened. I knew it would happen. She was the most determined woman I’d ever met, and I was convinced she’d do whatever was necessary to come out on top again.

  But since I knew she was still struggling a bit with the whole idea of us, I figured it was best to give her the space she wanted. And when I got to see her again after these long days passed, I’d celebrate with her then.

  For now, I was going to take my time to get things done at the shop and try to get ahead. There was no question I’d want to spend as much time as I could with Elise once she got through this week, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to stay late a few nights now when I wouldn’t be able to see her.

  Opening the front office door into LT Motorsports, I stepped inside and saw Avery sitting at her desk.

  “Morning, Kieran,” she greeted me.

  “Good morning, Avery,” I replied. “How’s it going?”

  “It’s a Monday, so there’s a million emails and voicemails to get through,” she returned. “How’s Elise feeling?”

  Thrown off by her question, my brows pulled together. “Good, I guess,” I answered. “She’s busy preparing for her spring collection launch this week.”

  Nodding, Avery insisted, “Yeah, I know that. I meant, how is she feeling now? She left lunch in a hurry yesterday, saying she didn’t feel good.”

  “What?”

  “Didn’t… wait, didn’t you talk to her?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “No. She told me she was going out to lunch with you, Scarlet, and Kendall, and then she was going to go home so she could do some work before heading to bed early. What do you mean she wasn’t feeling well?”

  Concern littered Avery’s features. The troubled look on her face had my stomach roiling. Elise got sick, and she didn’t call me?

  When Avery didn’t respond, I called, “Avery?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What was wrong with Elise?” I pressed.

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Kieran,” she lamented. “I don’t know. I just assumed she would have talked to you. We had all finished up with lunch and were just chatting while waiting for the bill. Elise excused herself to use the bathroom, and when she came back a few minutes later, she looked horrible. Scarlet immediately asked her what was wrong, and she said she didn’t feel well. Before really giving any of us a chance to say much, she tore off out of there. We tried to run after her, but she was in her car and out of the parking lot before we could even get out of the restaurant.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  Avery nodded.

  What was going on?

  I realized she had said she needed me to keep my distance this week, but that was so she could focus on the launch. If Elise had gotten sick, her focus wasn’t going to be on what she needed it to be on anyway.

  Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I said, “Thanks for letting me know.”

  As I pulled Elise’s name up on my phone, I walked down the hall to the cleanroom. I stepped inside the room, closed the door, and listened to the phone ringing. Four rings later, I got her voicemail.

  “Hey, it’s Elise. Leave me a message.”

  “Elise, it’s me,” I started. “I know I’m not supposed to be calling you right now, but I just got to work, and Avery told me you were sick yesterday. So, I’m breaking the agreement we made. Give me a call, so I know you’re okay.”

  I ended the call even though I wanted to tell her I loved her. The first time I said that to her was not going to be via a voicemail. Hell, it wasn’t going to be done over the phone at all. If I had my way, I’d be saying those words to her when my cock was buried inside her.

  Assuming—or perhaps just hoping—she was running around like crazy this morning at work, I decided to focus on what I needed to get done this morning. With any luck, she’d call me in the middle of it.

  Hours later, approaching lunchtime, Elise still hadn’t returned my call. I tried calling her again and got her voicemail.

  Something just didn’t feel right to me.

  Worried about her, I decided I was going to go out for lunch today. Only I wouldn’t be eating out. I walked out of the cleanroom and back down the hall toward the front office. Just as I was about to pass the break room, Logan called, “Hey, Kieran!”

  I stopped, took two steps back, and looked inside the room. Logan, Ryker, Nash, Knox, and Avery were all eating together.

  “You joining us for lunch?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I think I’m going to go check on Elise,” I told him. “Avery told me this morning that Elise left lunch with the girls yesterday feeling sick, but she never called me. I called her this morning and haven’t heard anything back. I want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he replied. “Kendall mentioned that to me yesterday. She was worried about her.”

  My eyes went to Ryker’s. “Do you know if she talked to Scarlet afterward?” I asked him.

  “Nope,” he answered. “Scarlet tried calling her last night, but Elise didn’t answer. She assumed she must have gone to bed early.”

  I shook my head. Something was wrong.

  My gaze slid to Logan. “I’m going to go,” I said. “I might be late coming back.”

  “Take your time,” Logan insisted. “It’s cool. If you need to stay with her, that’s cool, too. Tell her we hope she feels
better.”

  “I will. Thanks.”

  At that, I turned and walked the rest of the way down the hall and out the front door. Then I jogged to my truck.

  The Flynn Beauty office was on the way to her house. I would stop there first to check and see if she was trying to be a hero and work while sick. Assuming she wasn’t there, I’d go to her place to check on her.

  As quickly as I could, I drove to Flynn Beauty.

  Sure enough, Elise was proving just how determined she was because, sick or not, her car was parked outside.

  But it was then I realized something was wrong.

  Because two women were being escorted out of the building by security guards.

  I didn’t know who they were, and I certainly didn’t recognize them, but my gut told me that whatever was happening with these women had something to do with Elise.

  This day just couldn’t get any worse.

  If I didn’t already have a pounding headache, I would have started banging my head on my desk.

  Not only that, but I also needed to do damage control. After the scene that just happened in this office, there was no time for me to waste. Everyone saw it. All of the staff was already feeling worried about how things would go with the spring launch. Now I knew they were frightened about what was happening and why it seemed the staff’s trusted members were dropping like flies.

  No. That wasn’t correct. It didn’t seem that way; it just was that way.

  After spending most of the night awake, tossing and turning, I got out of bed early this morning and returned to the office. Unfortunately, the revelation I’d been hoping to have while I slept never came.

  I was still as stuck as I had been yesterday when I was here.

  And now things were even worse.

  Because what had been something only I was aware of was now going to spread like wildfire through the company. The rest of the staff would now know that something else, something not right, was brewing. Admittedly, they didn’t know what that was just yet, but there was no way they didn’t realize it was coming.

  I hated that.

  I hated that for them.