by Jagger Cole
“Absolutely,” I snarl.
She smiles thinly. “Good. Here’s your secret weapon.” She turns and goes to the door. She opens and beckons. A second later, a pretty but frail looking girl with dark hair steps in.
“Barrett, this is Amanda.”
I frown. “Amanda…?”
“Roland drugged and assaulted me eight years ago,” she says tightly.
My eyes narrow. My jaw clenches again. This is the girl Roland hurt, who’s family his father paid off. This is the reason Delphine cut herself off from that toxic family.
“Christ,” I growl and shake my head. “I’m so sorry, Amanda.”
“Delphine was just telling me I’m not the only one Roland and that family have stepped all over.”
My mouth thins. “No. But what happened to you…”
“What happened to me is why I’m here,” she says, anger in her voice.
Delphine glances at me. “Amanda will accuse Roland on record of what he did.”
I frown. “I like where you’re going with this, but you said yourself, there’s a gag order?”
Amanda nods. “And a non-disclosure agreement.”
I sigh and shake my head. “If they’re from Roland and your father, they’re going to be iron-clad, Delphine. I want to throw up a billboard over the whole city that announces what a piece of shit Roland is too. But the legal shielding he’s got….”
Delphine smiles thinly. “See I’ve heard that the King Equities legal team are superheroes.”
I frown. “Look, maybe they poke holes in it. But it’s not going to put him in jail or anything.” I look over at Amanda. I shake my head remorsefully. “You took the money. I’m sorry, Amanda, I really am. But you did. That negates any chance of contract coercion. And this was what, eight years ago?”
Amanda nods. “Yes.”
“In New Jersey, where the statute of limitations for a crime like this is five years, even if you didn’t take the money.”
Amanda looks down sadly. My heart wrenches for her, but it’s the cold truth.
“I’m sorry, Amanda. I can’t help you put him behind bars.”
“But you can ruin him,” Delphine hisses. I look up. She looks furious. God, she’s beautiful when she’s angry like this. I realize I’m staring, but I don’t stop. She looks right back at me, and her lips curl into a small smile.
“Yeah, I can,” I grunt.
“Ruining him means his company fails,” Delphine nods. “Which means…”
“I take the clients back when Simmons Financial implodes from the negative press on this.”
“Bingo,” she says softly.
I turn back to Amanda. “Are you really ready to move forward with this? Once we do, there’s no—”
“I’m very fucking ready,” she seethes.
I smile thinly. “Good.” I turn my gaze back to Delphine and grin. “Well, let’s go to war. Alicia!” I call out the door.
My assistant pokes her head in. “Sir?”
“Get the legal team in here. All of them, and Ravi’s math wizards too. Oh, and Alicia? Call security and have them detain and lock down Ms. Hammerschmitt the second she steps foot in this fucking building.”
Alicia looks surprised, but she nods. “On it, sir.”
The legal team and Ravi and his team pour back into my office. I fill them in on what’s going on, and what the plan is. Ravi looks downright gleeful. The legal team sits down with Amanda, who assures me again that she’s fine and ready to do this.
Then, I turn to Delphine. I take her hand, and I pull her away from it all. I take her up the stairs to my desk area, and then over to the window. I turn to her and take her hands in mine.
“Delphine…”
“It’s fine, Barrett.”
“No, it’s not,” I growl. “I’m sorry.”
“Barrett, it really is fine,” she smiles. “Look, if the roles were reversed…”
“You’d have given me a chance to speak.”
She giggles. “Honestly? I probably would have fired you too.”
I roar with laughter and pull her close to me. She grins up into my face. Her eyes shine, and my heart soars. My brow furrows though.
“Delphine, this game we’ve been playing…” I shake my head. Her face falls a little. “I don’t want to play this game anymore.”
She looks down. “I…I understand…”
“Because I’ve already won,” I say quietly. She looks up, and she starts to grin widely. “I’ve already won, baby girl,” I whisper. “I’ve just been too fucking stupid to stop playing it.” I groan and pull her tight to me. My eyes pierce into hers.
“I’m in love with you, Delphine,” I growl. “And I’d give this all up—”
“Or maybe you just shut up and kiss me?” She giggles.
I grin. “Yeah, I think I could do that.”
I close the distance between us. My lips press hotly to hers, and I wrap her in my arms. I’m aware that my entire legal team is looking at us and probably having heart attacks. But I don’t care. I keep kissing her until my lips are numb. When I pull back, I glance at the open door to my office and chuckle.
“Jenna?”
Delphine frowns and glances at the door too.
“Jenna.”
Timidly, the head secretary peeks out from around the door frame with a red face.
“Uh, yes, Mr. King?”
“Why don’t you go fill in the rest of the secretaries about this.”
Jenna blushes and scurries off. Delphine cracks up against my chest and then looks up at me grinning. “Wait, I didn’t just imagine that, did I?”
“Jenna? No, she’s the biggest gossip in the fucking building. Sometimes I lurk outside the break room just to get filled in on—”
“No, Barrett,” she rolls her eyes. “Did you just say you were in love with me?”
“That I did.”
She grins. “Well, not that your ego needs a single bit of fluffing. But just so you know, I’m pretty sure I’ve been in love with you for the past ten years.”
“Only pretty sure?”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
I chuckle. But then I lean down, cup her face, and kiss her slow and deep. “Maybe,” I growl against her lips. “But that doesn’t change that I’m fucking crazy about you.” My eyes lock with hers. “I love you, Delphine.”
“I love you too,” she whispers.
“Now the thing is,” I grin. “Are you still going to love me after fifteen of my most aggressive lawyers give us both a lengthy talk on the dangers of office dating and sexual harassment lawsuits?”
“Well, I’m guessing we’ll be finding out sooner than we’d like?”
“Guess we’d better get as much physical affection in now while we have a chance.”
“Guess so,” she whispers.
I lean in, pull her close, and kiss the woman I love with all that I am.
Epilogue
Delphine
If this were a fairytale, Roland would have gone to jail. But real life isn’t always like a story. Unfortunately, he didn’t. Barrett was right; the statute of limitations was long over. And as horrible as it was, Amanda and her family had accepted money and signed contracts. So, she couldn’t sue him either.
But that’s where Roland’s luck ran out. Amanda knew all of this. She knew she couldn’t put him in jail or get any money out of him. But she still went after him. Honestly, she’s the real hero of this story. She’s certainly braver than I would have been.
With Amanda’s public allegations, stories started to come out of the woodwork. Within days, it was clear she was hardly the only girl my half-brother had ever done this to. More and more allegations came out, and some were still very much inside the statute of limitations.
It got even better. One girl actually had a recording of Roland bragging about dodging a drug charge when he was nineteen. On it, he even went into details about our dad bribing a cop and donating to a judge’s cand
idacy run for State’s Attorney General.
They couldn’t charge either my dad or Roland with anything, with the time that had gone by. But it did do one good thing: with the new evidence, Barrett’s conviction was overturned, and his record expunged. It’s not like he needed it, being a billionaire and all. But it was still a victory for the world to acknowledge that he’d been innocent.
Simmons Financial went belly-up in under a month after all of it came out. And most of the investors ended up coming back to King Equities. Especially once it was known that Helen had been lying to them all about Barrett. Roland may not have gone to jail, but he lost almost everything. He’d been propping his failing company up with his and my dad’s money for years. When the bottom dropped out, he lost out, big.
And while nothing much legally could be done about my half-brother, Helen was another story. Barrett was able to go after her for about a dozen breaches of corporate contract. During one of the trials, it was also discovered that she was selling stolen software from companies King Equities was invested in to unvetted Chinese tech companies. Except some of this software had been developed along with government defense contractors. Which made selling it to random Chinese companies an act of espionage. Forget about Barrett suing her…Helen is now on trial versus the United States. Yeah, good luck with that.
Barrett and I survived the legal inquisition. We had to sign a ton of very unsexy and unromantic legal documents. But then, we were mostly free to be us. Ella was bummed, but I moved out of my place and into Barrett’s. Of course I did. I mean who gets engaged and lives separately?
I also moved up to a senior analyst job on Ravi’s team. Barrett went on helming the company he’d built with his bare hands. Oh, and in case you were curious, I still don’t wear panties to work. Shh…
But what really matters is that in the end, the bad guys lost, and love won. And a King found his queen. Actually, maybe this is a fairytale after-all.
For me at least, I know it is.
Looking for more from Barrett and Delphine? Sign up for my newsletter and read a steamy extra scene! This isn’t an epilogue or continuation to Bosshole. But this extra hot “follow-up” story is guaranteed to fog up your Kindle! You’ll also get a free full-length book when you join!
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Also by Jagger Cole
Standalones:
Her Rough Mechanic
Cherished
Captivated
Roping His Bride
Stalker of Mine
Hungry For Her
Wrapped Up In Her
Bosshole
* * *
The Scaliami Crime Family:
(All standalone books which can be read in any order.)
The Hitman’s Obsession
The Boss’s Temptation
The Bodyguard’s Weakness
* * *
Power Series:
(All standalone books which can be read in any order.)
Tyrant
Outlaw
Warlord
* * *
Wants & Needs Duet:
All He Wants
Everything He Needs
* * *
Forever Always Duet:
Forever His
Always Hers
* * *
Tuff Built Series:
Big Deck
Hard Screw
About the Author
A reader first and foremost, Jagger Cole cut his romance writing teeth penning various steamy fan-fiction stories years ago. After deciding to hang up his writing boots, Jagger worked in advertising pretending to be Don Draper. It worked enough to convince a woman way out of his league to marry him, though, which is a total win.
Now, Dad to two little princesses and King to a Queen, Jagger is thrilled to be back at the keyboard.
When not writing or reading romance books, he can be found woodworking, enjoying good whiskey, and grilling outside - rain or shine.
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You can find all of his books at
www.jaggercolewrites.com
