None of that seemed to work on Gina. “I’m not on the clock. You can wait until I get back.”
That was rude by anyone’s standard, Mistress, boss, or human being. Tori stared at Gina, so she missed the moment that Reena, the always cool never flustered Reena Barrett, lost her mind.
Reena gripped Gina’s arm and yanked her toward the front door. “I said now. If you want to be angry with me, fine. But this is about Nell, so I thought you might want to know.” As suddenly as she’d grabbed Gina, she dropped her hold. “Really, though, I suppose whatever bullshit you resent me for is far more important than your friendship with Nell. Pardon me all over the place.”
Tori stared at Reena. In the years she’d known the woman, Reena had been cool, collected, and serenely untouchable. Tori knew the relationship between Reena and Gina was fraught with conflict, and not just because their names paired together seemed to be part of a bad limerick.
As Gina lowered her voice and listened, Tori stayed out of earshot. If this was something she was supposed to know, Gina would tell her. The two women spoke in low tones, and suddenly, Gina raised her voice. “I don’t believe you.”
Without another word, Gina stormed out of the restaurant. Before Reena could give chase, Tori stepped in front of her. “Leave it alone, Reena.”
The woman turned that stony stare directly at Tori.
She couldn’t help it. She dropped her gaze to the floor.
“You know what I am,” Reena snapped.
“Yes.” Tori almost added Mistress, but it seemed to be unspoken, hanging in the air between them.
For a moment, Tori thought Reena was going to verbally blast her. Instead, after a tense moment, the woman sighed. “Nell is going to need a friend, Tori. Can you do that?”
“I already do. Why?” She asked the question but kept her attention on the floor, so when Reena gripped her chin and made her look up, she was startled.
“Because I think shit is going to hit the fan. Soon.” Reena dropped her hand and strode out the door.
Tori blinked and headed for her car.
She was back from lunch late, and even with everything that happened at Rita’s, she anticipated another spanking from Finch. As she hurried through the lobby of the office building, she cursed herself for not keeping track of the time.
Riding up the elevator, she thought about Nell. Her friend was clearly happy with her boss, Mark Conners. But the warning Reena had given her and Gina’s reaction to whatever the woman had told her seemed to mean something bad was going to happen.
Tori checked the wall clock as she practically sprinted to her desk. Only three minutes late. Three wasn’t so bad.
But Finch didn’t seem to want to spank her for the infraction. His face was tight, bleak, as if he’d been severely disappointed.
She stopped short and stared at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Come in here.”
Mystified, Tori followed him into his office. He wasn’t stern like he often was when he disciplined her for her lateness. He was cool and professional.
“What do you know about Pete Dawson?” Finch’s voice was cold.
“The reporter from the L.A. Times? Not much. Reena contacts him for publicity and interviews. Why?” Bewildered, Tori tried to figure out what Finch’s expression meant.
“I have meetings this afternoon. Hold my calls.” Without another word, the man picked up his briefcase and walked past her.
What the fuck was going on?
She went down the hall to Nell’s office. Somehow, this had to be about why Nell was going to need a friend. Tori was sure of it. As Tori came down the hall, she heard a door slam and the door to the stairwell open and close. As she rounded the corner, she noted that Nell’s desk was empty.
The last person she expected to see was Jerry Arnold. And to see the software manager with a smile on his face was even more surprising. She studied the man while his attention was on the door to the stairwell. He wasn’t very tall, not very imposing, but he was handsome in a compact sort of way. Compared to Finch, Jerry was less than mediocre.
When Jerry spotted her, his smile widened. She never liked it when he grinned. He resembled a shark. And like most sharks, his bite was way worse than his bark. “Well, if it isn’t Victoria.”
She tried not to react. Everyone knew that Finch was the only one who called her that. Jerry was trying to needle her again. “What are you doing here, Jerry?”
“I came to finalize my transfer to San Francisco and arrived to see the fireworks.” His eyes narrowed on Tori’s face. “I’ll bet you knew about Mark Conners’s past.”
“What past?” She was baffled.
Jerry cackled. “His father was an Internet entrepreneur. Stole millions from his investors.” He held out a newspaper.
Tori took it and stared at the story on top.
It was dated for the next day, but the story was damning. It had everything about Mark’s past, his father’s disgrace as a businessman, and exposed his whole family.
The missing money was attributed to Mark, which was ridiculous. She and Finch had traced some of those to Yarina Tourine’s department. No one knew about the missing pension restoration money.
And larger than life, next to the article, was a picture of Nell in Mark’s arms, the electricity between them leaping off the page.
She stared at Jerry. The self-satisfied little prick. “I don’t believe it.” She threw the newspaper onto Nell’s desk and curled her lip.
Jerry hopped off Nell’s desk and rubbed his hands together. “Believe it, Victoria,” he sneered. “Best of all? Nell is the one who gave the story to the L.A. Times. Everybody knows the Dragon Bitch hobnobs with that writer over there.”
“Bullshit,” Tori said and stepped closer to Jerry. “You spread that shit, Jerry, and I’ll make sure everyone knows about the dick shots you sent me and at least two other female employees. You’ll not only get fired, you’ll be up on charges.” She glared at him when he snarled at her.
“This company is going down, and I’m going to watch it fall apart with great satisfaction.”
Jerry started to walk away, but Tori stopped him with her last words to him.
“Believe me, Jerry. If ConFed goes down, you’re going to go down with it. You get me?”
His gaze narrowed, and he clenched his fist. “I get you. But sleeping with the boss doesn’t save your ass when the company takes a shitter.”
As he disappeared down the hallway, Tori rubbed her temples. She took the elevator down to Gina’s office. Her friend’s face was white, and her hands shook.
“What the hell is going on, Gina?” she demanded.
Gina didn’t say a word but handed Tori the newspaper.
“I’ve seen this. Jerry was trying to say Nell gave that asshole the story. Where is Nell?” Tori wanted to know.
“Reena said that she told Mark to ‘fuck off’ and resigned.” Gina held up her phone. “She’s not answering.”
“Are you telling me that Mark believed she did this?” Outrage made Tori’s blood boil. That explained Finch’s cold demeanor. Those bastards. All of them. Sexual Dominants, arrogant and smart, but apparently not trusting to the point that they were willing to believe the worst. And it stuck out all over Nell that she was in love with Mark Conners. He wouldn’t have missed that little detail. So how the hell could he believe she was the one who released that ugly shit?
“The board is calling for Mark’s resignation,” Gina said. “They’re having a meeting tomorrow.”
“I need to get ahold of the L.A. Times. We have to know what’s going on.”
* * * *
It had taken time, but Tori discovered that Nell had immediately done damage control with an interview. By the time Tori got information out of the reporter, Pete Dawson had already consented to print the rebuttal the next day. Tori obtained the advance copy, but she’d had to wait until it was printed, and she wasn’t going into the office until she had it. It was after four i
n the afternoon before she had the next day’s paper in her hot little hands.
Tori didn’t think Finch would want to spank her for being late today.
Those fucking assholes. Mark had clearly believed that Nell, the woman he’d claimed as his submissive, had given that story to Pete Dawson. Well, Tori would take care of that.
The emergency board meeting was already in session but Tori didn’t let that stop her. She practically kicked the damn door in. There were things those bastards didn’t know, and she was going to tell them.
Anthony Fedder sat at the head of the long conference table with Atticus and Reena to his right and Mark on his left. The rest of the board members were strangers, people she knew were upper-level bean counters and lawyers.
Atticus shot to his feet. “Tori, don’t.” Tori? Now he was going call her Tori?
“You can go to hell,” she snapped. Mark had glanced up, and she walked right up to him, furious. “Is it true? Did you think Nell was the one who gave that toad the story about your father?”
Mark stared at the surface of the table. “It seemed reasonable.”
Reasonable? Unbelievable. Tori had seen Nell’s dreamy expression, had seen the love shining from her friend’s face. Nell had given her heart to Mark, but it had to be one-sided. If the bastard was in love with her, could he believe that she’d betray him in the most heinous way possible?
“Get up, you prick,” she said, barely able to speak through her rage. “Get up so I can kick your ass.”
“Tori,” Atticus said, and he used that tone he often used before he— No, none of that mattered. He was just like Mark. Good thing she never told him anything.
She glared at him. “Fuck. You.”
After the weeks spent with Finch, she knew when he’d been pushed too far. His eyes narrowed, and lines appeared beside his mouth. “That’s it,” he said, his voice harsh.
But Tori didn’t care. These assholes were so fucking clueless. “Tell them,” she said, speaking to the one person in the room who knew the truth. “Tell them who gave you that information you passed on to Mr. Secretive here. Tell them who provided all that perfect intel so that the great Conners and Fedder could buy the stock. Tell them who really orchestrated the takeover for ConFed.”
Tori glared at Reena. She knew how that information had been passed on to the ConFed team. The woman had the grace to look uncomfortable.
Reena cleared her throat. “She asked me to keep her out of it.”
“Because she thought no one at Sunsoon liked or respected her,” Tori said through clenched teeth. No matter what Gina and Tori had said, Nell had believed that no one would listen to her. “She knew they called her ‘Dragon Bitch.’ She figured if the information came from the beautiful Reena Barrett that everything would go smoothly.” She turned and faced Finch. “But you realized what she really was to all the employees. You set her up as a mother hen”—she whirled back to Mark—“and then you had the unmitigated gall to think she’d sabotage you.” The bastards. All of them.
“Reena, would you like to explain why you didn’t tell me this?”
Tori couldn’t even look at the woman as she explained. Reena’s voice was calm and reasonable. It made Tori want to bite something.
“The company was in free fall, and Victor wouldn’t budge. Dover wouldn’t fire Yarina for the misappropriation of the money in her department.” Reena finally raised her head and tipped her chin defiantly. “Victor was going to lay off hundreds of Sunsoon employees. Nell thought they’d have a better chance with you. And she was right.”
“But someone leaked this crap to force the stock down,” Atticus said. “Clever. They must have known that Nell was—” He stopped and glanced at the directors. “They must have realized you’d blame her.”
Right. Don’t admit that Nell was head over heels in love with that bastard Conners. That she had known all that information about him before ConFed had bought Victor Tourine out and could have leaked the story to stop the hostile takeover. Someone knew Mark would turn on her.
Yeah, why not? Wasn’t that what love was all about? Tori’s bitterness spilled over. “Well, Nell took care of it.” She tossed the newspaper she’d gotten in front of him. She turned away, but not before she saw Mark’s abject misery and almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
She was done. Whatever happened, it wasn’t worth staying in this fucked-up company. “My resignation is on your desk.” Where he’d spanked her. Where she’d found relief.
“I won’t take it,” he snapped, and she realized he was as pissed off as she was, and she didn’t care.
She blinked at him for a moment and then stomped out of the conference room.
She went back to her desk and started packing. Twenty minutes later, Finch showed up, his glare and his clenched fists showing he wasn’t totally indifferent. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like?” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m quitting, resigning, giving you the big fat finger,” she said and proceeded to do just that.
“Is that an offer?”
“You’re kidding, right? If I want to make an offer to fuck, Finch, I’d be a little more accommodating.” She tipped her head back and stepped closer to go toe-to-toe with him.
She squeaked when he picked her up like a sack of potatoes and tossed her over his shoulder.
He hauled her into his office and slammed the door behind them. “You need a lesson in professionalism. So far, you’ve decked me, embarrassed me at a board meeting, and now, flipped me off. How the hell did you stay employed here for so damn long?” He dumped her on his desk and trapped her hands behind her back.
She squirmed and tried to escape his implacable hold. “They weren’t fucking assholes.”
His dark gaze held hers, and she froze. His voice was low and sexy as he said, “You like it when I’m an asshole.”
He swooped in and took possession of her mouth, giving her no choice but to surrender. His right hand gripped her wrists, keeping them restrained, and he controlled her head with his left. He pulled on the strands of her hair, angling her so he could kiss her breath away.
She couldn’t stop the needy groan that escaped her throat or when her legs wrapped around him. For weeks he’d tempted her, driven her into the executive bathroom to get herself off. She wanted him. Now.
He tore his mouth away and glared down at her. “I do not accept your resignation, and if you try and find another job, I’ll cuff you to this desk for a week. You’ll have to rely on me to eat, to pee, everything. You’re not going anywhere. Do you understand?”
“Finch—”
“I know you,” he said in a low, intense tone. “You want to be taken, kidnapped, forced to obey. If you defy me, I promise you the fantasy will be more than you can handle.”
Her panties were wet from the sound of his voice and the content of his words. He did know her. Of course, she wanted to defy him, to force him to punish her, to give herself no choice but surrender.
She was so gone she wasn’t even sure what she had been going to say, but Finch’s cell phone rang, and then the office phone started to ring. Damn it. He dropped his hands and backed away to answer his phone, and she escaped to her desk.
She would have packed up her desk then and there if it wasn’t after five and she had to get home. Finch was still on the phone as she fled the office.
On her way home, she made a frantic phone call to Nell. Her friend didn’t seem surprised to hear that Finch wouldn’t accept Tori’s resignation. She almost told Nell everything, about her mother, about the lies, about the spankings. Instead, the moment passed. Tori could only hope Nell would forgive her when the truth came out.
But the next few days were too busy for that. Victor Tourine, the former owner of Sunsoon, now in forced retirement and apparent mastermind behind a plot to destroy Mark, had come to the office to kill the younger man. Somehow, Mark’s mother had been shot in a confusing turn of event
s that Tori didn’t understand, and he needed her as his secretary since he still hadn’t made up with Nell. The idiot.
Working for both Mark and Finch was almost more than she could stand. Finch no longer spanked her. She didn’t realize how that morning ritual had centered her, and she didn’t have time to take care of herself anymore, so she was on edge.
The relief she felt when Nell returned was overwhelming. As Nell disappeared into Mark’s office to face him and probably receive appropriate apologies and kisses, Tori’s phone rang. She was stunned to see it was Yarina Tourine.
“Hello?”
“You guys think I’m the one who stole all that money? You of all people ought to know better,” Yarina said, her voice trembling.
“Me? Why would I know?” Bewildered, Tori shook her head. “Yarina, what the hell are you talking about?”
“I didn’t do it. I didn’t sell all that shit Atticus said I did either.” Yarina sounded like she was in tears. “And my father—” Her voice broke. “That asshole believes you. You told him you didn’t do it. But you could have.”
“I was one of a long list of people who could,” she admitted. “You were in charge of the department. You must have seen those invoices.”
Yarina snorted. “Right. I must have, right? Except I didn’t. But every single one of those invoices was signed off by someone with written authorization from me. Only I didn’t authorize them. You tell me what I should do, Tori. Stand by and let Dimitri follow me home every night?”
“Follow you home?” What the hell was the Italian Stallion doing?
“Yeah. Apparently, your boyfriend sicced the risk manager on me, and he follows me home every night. Not that he isn’t nice eye candy, but I’d rather know what the hell I’m supposed to have done.” Yarina sounded convincing.
“Your father said you were the one who created the security items and sold them, pocketing the profit.” Would her father lie? And if he did, why?
Yarina sighed. “Why does anyone believe anything my father says? He’s a bastard. I’m sure you have the paperwork to back this shit up.”
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