: Chapter 39

I pace up and down Julian Barnes’s office, unable to sit calmly like West, who’s taking point on the questions. Lily’s been lying to us, and I have no fucking idea why. Surely Bree was wrong about this though. She can’t be writing an exposé on us. She wouldn’t.

“What exactly can I help you with?” Julian asks.

“Lily Sloane is writing an article for your magazine, yes?”

Julian eyes him warily. “Yeah.”

“What’s it about?”

He scowls. “That’s between Lily and me.”

West bangs his fist on the desk. “What the fuck is it about, Julian?”

“I just told you, it’s between Lily and me.”

“If you like your job here …”

“If I like my job, what? Are you fucking threatening me, Mr. Archer? Otherwise, allow me to remind you that you might own this company, but I am still the editor of this magazine. As long as my name is on that issue, I will not be bullied by men who can’t handle that their girlfriend has a life that doesn’t revolve around them.”

Let me beat the shit out of him, West. Just say the fucking word.

“That’s not what this is,” he says, his tone a little calmer. “I just want to know what her article is about.”

“Ask her.”

“I’m asking you.”

“And like I already said, I’m not telling you. So, please leave. I have a magazine to run.”

I bounce on my toes, ready to tear this prick a new asshole, but West stands and shakes his head at me, leading me out of the office.

I stop just outside Barnes’s door. “What the fuck was that?”

“There are other people we can ask,” he says, keeping his tone level while his eyes tell me to drop it. “Let’s go.”

He stalks down the hallway, and I fall into step beside him, ignoring the worried glances of the staff as we pass. West stops at an office at the end of the hall and walks inside.

“Andy,” he barks.

The guy in question sits behind his desk, twiddling a paperclip, and he looks like he’s about to shit his pants. “Y-yeah?”

“You have your finger on the pulse around here, right?”

That makes Andy sit up straighter, and he puffs out his chest like a peacock. “Yeah.”

West closes the door behind us and takes two menacing steps forward. “What article is Lily Sloane working on?”

Andy swallows, his eyes darting between the two of us. “Why? What have you heard?”

Fuck. I don’t have the time or the patience for this. “That it’s about us.” I narrow my eyes. “An exposé.”

Licking his lips, he leans forward. The way his head bobs up and down reminds me of a weasel. “That’s what I heard too.”

“So she is writing about us?”

He shrugs. “Julian’s keeping it pretty close to his chest, but yeah, that’s the rumor. I mean it makes sense that he wouldn’t tell anyone if it’s about his new bosses. An article in your own magazine wouldn’t look good, would it?”

“Motherfucker,” West mutters.

“If I hear anything else, I’ll be sure to come straight to you, Mr. Archer. And if you’d like me to keep tabs on Lily for you, you know, keep a note of who she speaks to and stuff, just let me know. I’d be happy to oblige.”

His lascivious grin has me seeing red. “You stay the fuck away from Lily.”

His hands shoot up in the air like I’m pointing a gun at him. “Okay, okay. No worries, bro. But you should know that you have some enemies in this office. But not me! I’m on your side. One hundred percent loyal.”

West merely grunts at the guy, then looks at me and cocks his head toward the door.

I wait to speak until we’re alone in the elevator. “You think he was telling the truth?”

West pinches the bridge of his nose. “All I know for certain is that the only two people who know what the article’s about aren’t talking. And two separate people connected to this magazine have told us that it’s about us. What the fuck else are we supposed to think?”

“Maybe we could hack into her laptop and see this article for ourselves.” It’s a longshot. “You can do that kind of shit, and if you can’t, I know a guy.”

West shakes his head. “It would take a few days, and the article comes out next week. We need to fix this now, Zeke.”

“So, she’s just been playing us all along?” I blow out a breath. “What I don’t get is how she could have planned this. She had no way to know we’d end up living together.”

“Think about it. How she met all three of us on the same day and then showed up at our club that night. She could have orchestrated the whole thing.”

“But she couldn’t have known we’d be there that night.”

“Maybe she went every week until she bumped into us. Or maybe she got lucky on the first try.” He levels me with a stare. “Think about it, Zeke. The way she’s just too fucking perfect for us. How easily she adapted to the three of us and how she fits in with each of us like the missing piece of a puzzle. Like she’s …” Clenching his jaw shut, he shakes his head.

“Too good to be true?” I finish for him. “So, how the fuck do we handle this?”

“We fucking cut her loose. We let her go and we discredit her. We make sure that nobody believes a single goddamn word that comes out of her mouth ever again.”

Considering his idea, I nod. “And how do we do that?”

“The launch party tomorrow night. How about we show Lily exactly who she’s fucking with?”