by Tia Siren
There was no doubt who was behind the “sexual harassment” charges. Sid. The seedy fucking bastard had convinced someone to file against me, but I had no clue who it would be. My entire office had been steadfast about not giving out any information about Joanna’s whereabouts. He had obviously slipped through the cracks like the slimy worm he was.
Shelly Combs, my lawyer, had been the one to inform me earlier in the morning that there were indeed sexual harassment charges in the process of being filed. She had been notified of the charges through another lawyer.
“They haven’t formally filed yet,” Shelly said. “A complaint was reported at the police station. I imagine an investigator will be seeking you out to talk about what was said.”
I froze mid-pace at that. “You mean a cop is going to come out here?”
“Possibly. They will stop by the office. They’re getting the union involved too, Bastian.”
“Fuck.” I groaned, pondering if it was too early to have a shot of Jack Daniels to take the edge off my shoulders. “I don’t get this. No one in my office has ever complained about something like this.”
“It’s not against another employee. It’s against you, so whoever is complaining wouldn’t go straight to you.”
I ran a hand over my head in aggravation. “Please tell me you don’t believe any of this horseshit. You know me, Shelly.”
“I do know you,” she said empathetically. “I don’t care to know the rumors that swirl around about you because what you do in your personal life is no one’s business. I do, however, know that you keep your personal life separate from the workplace.”
Hot guilt trickled through me at Shelly’s confident words. I couldn’t tell her that I had technically crossed that line by fucking Joanna every single night. I couldn’t tell her that Joanna had been staying in my mansion for the past week to avoid her ex-boyfriend.
“The only problem I see you facing at the moment is a trial.” Shelly continued on, oblivious to my guilty silence. “I know you’re innocent, so if these charges are filed, then you’re going to fight them. That’s where you’ll get to say your piece in court.”
“There’s only one problem with that, though,” I said grimly. “Do you know how many corrupt police officers there are in this system?”
Shelly laughed shortly into the phone. “Too many to count, Bastian. I’m a lawyer. You don’t have to tell me that there is corruption in police departments.”
“It wouldn’t be a very fair ordeal then.”
“I’ve been your lawyer for a long time now, Bastian,” Shelly said. “Is there anything that you need to tell me? Because I get the feeling that you have an idea of what prompted this type of lawsuit. It’s better that you tell me everything now before it comes out to blindside me. I can do some damage control if I know what is going on.”
I sat down in my office chair with a weary sigh. Twisting around, I faced the window where warm sunlight was streaming in through the curtains. Clear blue skies stretched on forever over the snowcapped trees. It was peaceful out here. The last thing I wanted to do was return to the city to face the problems Sid was stirring up from inside the police department. He wanted Joanna back. It was starting to become clear that no matter how hard I tried to shelter Joanna from him, eventually he would find his way to her.
I took a deep breath. “I’m not sure if anyone has said anything to you—”
“Nothing,” Shelly interrupted. “Nobody has said a word to me, but I get the feeling that they know what is going on, too.”
“My secretary, Joanna Lind, has worked for me for a few years. We’ve always had a good and professional relationship. I care about her well-being. It was over a week ago that I found her boyfriend, who is currently a cop here in Salt Lake, roughing her up outside a club we were both at to watch a band. I tried to intervene, but he pulled a gun on me before Joanna entered his car. She showed up to work the next day with bruises all over her neck, so I helped her move out of her house and into my place here in Park City.”
“My God,” Shelly said into the phone. “While I admire you for how much you apparently care for this woman, she is also your secretary. This isn’t going to help with these charges coming around on you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said flatly. “I don’t care what people have to say about it. I couldn’t stand around to watch someone come into my office with bruises all over her neck from that prick nearly strangling her to death.”
“I realize that, but she needs to file charges above his head. There is a system in place to protect people like her.”
I laughed darkly. “Yeah, and it protects the cop’s ass in the process, too. I’m not going to apologize for doing what I thought would save her life.”
“I understand your point, Bastian,” Shelly said in exasperation. “It just complicates this even more because I’m sure the nature of your relationship with Joanna will come up as testimony against you. Things are strictly platonic between the both of you at the moment?”
“Not necessarily,” I said, grimacing. “We’ve, um, had some other things happen between the two of us. Not on company time, obviously.”
Shelly sighed into the phone. “It’s a good thing you pay me so well to cover your ass, Bastian. I don’t know how I’m going to get you through this one.”
“You’re a lawyer,” I pointed out. “A damn good one, too. You said it yourself that these charges haven’t been formally filed. Plus, you know I’ve never sexually harassed anyone.”
“The charges haven’t been formally filed yet—which means you need to cover your ass if you’re going to weather this one out.”
I gritted my teeth in frustration. The last thing I wanted to do was give Sid the satisfaction of knowing that he had separated me from Joanna, but I had to keep my business in mind, too. These types of charges could put a dent in my checkbook. Not the checkbook that would cover Shelly in court, but the one that would bring in other companies that trusted my company to handle their business.
“What do you suggest?” I asked moodily. “I’m all ears. Whatever it takes until this bullshit goes away.”
“I don’t know if it ever will go away, Bastian. That has to happen with Joanna. We’re dealing with a pissed-off and abusive cop targeting you for revenge. This could go on for a while until she decides to do something about it.”
“Like file charges over his head?”
“Exactly,” she said. “Until then, I suggest that you go back to your office to resume your typical life. Without Joanna there. Maybe also cut Joanna from the payroll to show that you are no longer attached to her professionally. Those are a few of my suggestions.”
“I don’t like any of those suggestions,” I replied honestly. “It’s like I’m throwing her under the rug because I have a fire lit underneath mine.”
“This is your business, Bastian. It’s your life, too. You have to defend it sometimes.”
Shelly promised to call in a couple days to let me know of any more developments. I stared out of the window for a long time while I half-listened to Joanna shuffle about downstairs. I didn’t like to think about it, but Shelly was right from a legal point of view. I had to distance myself as much as I possibly could to weather this one out. No amount of money would make it go away. Sid wanted blood, and he knew where to go to get mine—the business for which I had worked my ass for years to build up with little to no help.
I swiped a shaky hand over my dry eyes. It killed me to think that after how nicely everything had gone for the past few days, now I had to distance myself from Joanna even though I hated the idea of it.
Joanna would be crushed, too. I had done everything I could do to make sure she had no idea what Sid was trying to pull from beneath my feet. Her decision would be to run back to him, to spare me the troubles of battling him. I wasn’t about to let some corrupt cop ruin my life and business. I wasn’t Joanna, who let people walk all over her at times because she wanted to please them more than anything in
the world.
Keeping my distance seemed to be the only option at the moment to protect myself, but also Joanna, from further problems.
I clenched my fingers into fists briefly before picking up the phone to call Roger at the office in Salt Lake. “I’m coming into the office tomorrow morning. Make sure to adjust my schedule around the way it needs to be. I can attend a few meetings, too.”
“I’m writing it all down,” Roger said. He hesitated for a moment. “What about Joanna? Is she going to come—”
“She’s staying here,” I said crisply. “Do what I’m asking you to do.”
I hung up before Roger could reply. Leaving the warmth of my office, I walked down the hallway to my room. I pulled out everything I had brought with me clothing-wise to return to the penthouse for the rest of the week. An entire week back to the normal routine would alert whoever was the mole in my office that I had come back to face reality. Alone. Without Joanna anywhere close by.
“Bastian?”
I kept my eyes focused on my suitcase while I zipped it up quickly.
“What is it?” I asked.
Footsteps approached hesitantly. I felt Joanna’s presence at the foot of the bed, but I refused to look up just yet. I needed a moment to compose myself and to keep the truth from coming out.
“Are you going somewhere?” Joanna asked timidly. “You haven’t packed up once since you’ve been here with me. Is something wrong?”
I set the suitcase down on the floor. “I have to get back to reality. There are a few things that need to be done in the city that I can’t do here.”
“I can go with you,” she said. “It’s time for me to return to reality, too.”
“You need to stay here,” I said firmly. This time, I looked over at Joanna to see tears of hurt glimmering in her eyes. “You’re safer here than going with me. Trust me on that one.”
Confusions swirled in Joanna’s eyes as she crossed her arms to fight off what appeared to be a chill. I finished packing up with her watching me silently the entire time. Even though my heart was aching, I knew I had to do this. I didn’t want to risk losing Joanna to Sid over this entire ordeal.
“There’s something wrong,” Joanna said softly. “I can see it in your eyes, Bastian. What is it?”
I picked up my suitcase from the floor before rolling it to a stop in front of Joanna. The temptation to kiss her surged through my veins. I resisted it by kissing her quickly on the forehead.
“Everything is fine between us,” I said. “I promise.”
Those words felt empty coming off the tip of my tongue. I knew Joanna felt that way, too, from the way her face contorted into a skeptical one, followed by hurt. She didn’t believe it, just as much as I didn’t believe it either.
Chapter 26
Joanna
Waking up the next morning to the cold winter air didn’t faze me. I curled up even tighter underneath the thick blankets I had pulled out throughout the night. The furnace had quit sometime during the night. I had hobbled down to the basement in the dark to find it unusually quiet. I’d crouched there in front of it for hours, trying to figure out why it wasn’t turning on, but ended up embracing the reality that I was going to be cold all night long.
It didn’t bother me. I was already cold from Bastian abruptly leaving the house after two phone calls and being locked up in his office. A part of me now wished I had gotten up to overhear the conversation he’d had so early in the morning. Whatever the call had been about, it had clearly been troubling Bastian when he arrived for breakfast an hour later with a darkness lingering his eyes. He had played it off at first, but the calls had lasted the entirety of our Sunday afternoon. My anxiety had steadily climbed throughout the afternoon while I’d listened to Bastian’s voice occasionally rise in anger and distress.
It wasn’t until I heard him leave his office Sunday evening that I had the chance to finally catch sight of him. Seeing his packed bags and that familiar cold demeanor had sent a jagged knife right through my heart. He didn’t want me to come with him back to the office for whatever reason. He didn’t want to divulge any details about his sudden departure, either.
All he had left for me to chew upon was that kiss to my forehead. That was it. Nothing else to understand what was going on.
The tips of my toes were freezing, along with my nose. I rubbed at my nose to get some warmth back into the skin there before I slipped out of bed. The back door to the kitchen opened, followed by the sound of Marcie’s cheerful voice. Not wishing to be alone, I shrugged into a sweater while I pulled on a pair of warm boots before heading down to the kitchen.
Marcie looked up from the pile of bags on the kitchen counter when I pushed the door open. She rubbed at her hands with a frown before blowing into them.
“What happened to the heat in here?” she asked. “There isn’t much of a difference between here and outside!”
I started numbly in the direction of the coffee pot. “Something with the furnace. It won’t turn on no matter how high you kick it up.”
“Where is Mr. Burke?” Marcie asked, rifling through a few bags. “He would know how to get that furnace going again. I don’t understand why he let the both of you sleep in the cold last night.”
“He left,” I said, scooping a hearty amount of coffee into a filter. “Yesterday evening. He went back to Salt Lake to be at work.”
“So you slept here in the cold?”
I shrugged indifferently while I slid the filter into the right place. I turned to find Marcie regarding me with a frown tugging at her lips.
“What?”
She shook her head at me in dismay. “Call him to tell him that the furnace is out. I don’t think he would like knowing you slept in the cold all night long.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t want to bother him while he’s at work, so—”
“Nonsense!” Marcie exclaimed. “It’s nearly in the negatives out there, Joanna. You could’ve died in that bed up there from hypothermia without knowing it.”
“That’s a bit exaggerated. I don’t think that would’ve happened.”
Marcie threw her hands up in the air in aggravation. “I don’t get it. The both of you seemed fine when I left here two days ago. What is going on now?”
“I don’t know,” I said numbly. “I don’t know what to tell you, Marcie. Everything was fine until yesterday morning when he got a phone call. After that, he just left.”
“To go to work?”
“That’s what he said.”
“That man is just headstrong,” Marcie said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “He wants you to stay here, and yet he takes off whenever he can’t handle something.”
“You’re telling me,” I said and grabbed two cups from the cupboard. “He kept trying to tell me that it was for work and that everything was fine between us.”
I poured a cup for Marcie first. Together, we stood in the cold kitchen, huddled in our sweaters with our hot cups of coffee pressed against our chests for heat.
“I’ve never seen him really recover from Sierra,” Marcie said, sipping her coffee. “He’s always been stuck on that piece of work. He has such a deep heart that I sometimes believe he wants to stuff everything inside to block his heart.” She gave me a long look. “I don’t think he left here without reason. I know how he really felt about you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Hot coffee scorched the back of my throat when I took a gulp to get rid of the chill in my chest.
“It’s like whiplash,” I said. “I can’t figure out what he wants sometimes.”
“All men are like that, honey. My husband still goes through those phases where I wonder if he even misses me during the day.”
“I’m sure that he misses you during the day,” I said comfortingly. “I mean, he’s your husband. He married you for a reason.”
“Just like how Bastian brought you here for a reason,” Marcie pointed out, a smile tugging at her lips. “I kno
w this doesn’t make sense now, but I can tell you that you are the first one I’ve seen since Sierra. He never brings women into his personal life.”
“He doesn’t keep them there very well, either,” I replied solemnly. “I need to get in the shower for the day.”
Marcie set her coffee mug down on the kitchen island. “Give me a few minutes. I’ve tinkered with that damn furnace before numerous times.”
A few minutes later, the heaters clicked back on. I stood on one of the vents in the guest room to warm myself while I checked a couple of the emails in my inbox. I noticed an email from Sabrina at 7:57 a.m. that said, WTF IS GOING ON? I clicked on the link while I held my breath to wait for the message to load.
What is going on, Jo? Sally from payroll came by to tell me that you were no longer an employee here at Burke Management. WTF is going on now?
My chest seized up. No longer an employee? Coldness washed over me again despite the heat from the floorboard heater blasting me.
“Bastard,” I whispered, tears stinging the backs of my eyes. “You wanted me to stay behind just to fire me.”
For years, I had listened to what men thought was best for me. I had wasted so much time with Sid, listening to what he believed was best, and I had done the same damn thing with Bastian. I never once questioned his decisions in or out of the office. He never stopped to ask me what I wanted besides in bed. That was the only time and place Bastian had paused to consider what I wanted.
Not willing to wait for an explanation, I pulled out my phone to call my mother. A part of me dreaded going back home after years of being away, but I wasn’t willing to waste any more time. I knew what a blow-off felt like. I knew what a breakup looked like, too. I wasn’t going to play the clingy part of making Bastian’s ego feel even bigger by begging him for my job back or asking what the hell was going on between us. Not this time.
“Everything all right, sweetheart?”
