: Chapter 25

“And they weren’t here when you came in this morning?” Brick repeated the very question he’d asked me about a dozen time since he’d walked in the door. “None of them?”

I shook my head and bit my lip. “At first, I just thought you’d put them somewhere.”

“Where the fuck would I put them?” he exploded, losing his cool. “This was the best place to leave them. Christ.” He gripped his hair with both hands. “That was the best fucking portfolio my people had ever put together.”

Wringing my hands, I looked around the office as if hoping at least one of the prints we’d assembled yesterday would suddenly appear from thin air.

“You know who’s behind this, don’t you?” he raged, pacing the floor like a captured wolf, ready to tear out the throat of the first person who opened the door to his cage. “My vindictive bitch of a mother, that’s who. Well, this is crossing the line. Chasing away all my women was one thing, but this shit ain’t cool. She not only messed with my work, but my employees’ work. No one gets away with fucking over my people. Those were original, one-of-a-kind designs, and they put a lot of heart and soul into drafting them. Now we’re going to have to scramble to come up with some shoddy, second-best piece of shit presentation because Lana Judge cares more about her son’s misery than getting quality performance from her own company. God! The more I think about it, the more it just… Pisses me off! I’m going to go talk to her. I’m going to wrap my hands around her lying, wrinkled, old throat until she tells me what she did with my goddamn—”

“Hey. Hey!”

Ezra appeared in the opening of the office, his hands lifted, as he blocked the way to keep Brick from leaving. “What the hell is going on in here? I could hear you shouting all the way from my office.”

Cringing, I glanced out the glass walls to see more than a couple people curiously trying to get a peek inside. Whoops.

Meanwhile, Brick ranted loudly, filling Ezra in on everything.

“Our portfolio for the presentation tomorrow is missing. The whole damn thing. And I know exactly who took it. My pathetic excuse of a mother, that’s who. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a woman to choke.”

He tried to barrel past Ezra, but Ezra merely set a hand on his chest and pushed him back into the office. Then he entered with us and shut the door behind him.

“First off, take a breath, man, and calm down.”

Brick gaped at him as if he were insane. “Calm down? How the fuck can I calm down when she—”

“Calm… Down,” Ezra growled, pointing at him.

Brick shot him a look to kill and growled deep in his throat. But when Ezra narrowed his eyes, standing firm, he sniffed out an aggravated grumble and turned away. He paced the floor silently for nearly a minute, until he stopped walking and stood in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips.

“Okay,” he said, sounding tons better. “I’m calmer.”

“Good.” Ezra nodded. “How sure are you that Lana took them?”

“A hundred percent,” Brick started, only to glare at me when I shook my head over such a high number.

Ezra glanced between the two of us.

Relenting his first claim with a huff, Brick said, “Okay, ninety percent sure. But who else could it be?”

Nodding, Ezra rationally answered, “You’re probably right. But you can’t just blow into her office, making a claim like that.” When Brick opened his mouth to argue that point, Ezra went on. “This is business, so I’ll talk to her and ask if she knows anything about the portfolio.”

“Oh, I want to be the one to talk to her,” Brick said.

Ezra shook his head. “No. That’s not a good idea. Meanwhile…” He glanced my way. “Wouldn’t it be nice if someone had made copies of the entire portfolio, so you could use that as backup if you have to?”

“Ooh!” I hopped on my toes, realizing he was right. I’d totally forgotten. “Me! I scanned copies of every page.”

Brick whirled to me, his shock evident. “You did? Are you fucking serious?”

I nodded. “Yes. We might not have the originals, but we still have every design we wanted to present.”

“Holy fucking shit, kid.” He breathed out a drained breath and stalked toward me. “You’re a lifesaver. Thank you.”

He pulled me into his arms and gave me a bone-crushing hug. I met Ezra’s gaze over his shoulder, so I could mouth the words thank you to him for reminding me all wasn’t quite as lost as we’d feared.

He nodded with a small smile before taking a step backward. “I can’t guarantee you anything, but I’ll see what I can do about retrieving those originals for you.”

“Thanks, man.” Brick dropped his arms from around me so he could loop one over my shoulders as he turned to face Ezra. “And thanks for calling me off the edge. I don’t even know what I would’ve done to her if I’d gone down there in the mood I was in.”

Ezra glanced at me before giving my stepbrother a single nod. “No problem.”

And then he was gone.

As it turned out, he never did get our portfolio back from Lana, and the pages never showed up in our office again.

When Ezra arrived at my apartment that night, we made love frantically as if we feared our time together was limited, as if we were going to wake up one morning with our relationship stolen right out from under us, just as that portfolio had been. We held each other close afterward, staring up at the ceiling of my bedroom together, before he kissed my hair and said, “It’s going to be okay.”

But was it?

Really?

“We just have to be more careful,” he assured.

I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, memorizing it in case one of these days, it was all I had left of him. A memory.

On Friday, I followed Brick into the company’s smaller conference room, where eight large empty easels were set up around one big table in the center of the room. The nerves in my stomach bundled into a tight ball as I took in the people already present. Most of all the other departments had arrived and waited silently, staring at each other in tense suspense.

For this presentation, only departmental heads and maybe their assistants plus a top designer or so were allowed to attend, so less than twenty people filled the entire space.

Ezra sat at one end with his assistant, Winston, positioned to his right. Hayden wasn’t too far down the table with two members of his team. Lana sat with Shyla at the opposite end as Ezra, where she tapped her blood-red fingernails impatiently against the tabletop and stared at my man as if she wanted to tear into him with her teeth and claws so she could feast in decadence over his delectable flavor.

Resisting the urge to do something dramatic to put my claim on him so she’d stop staring so hungrily, I stiffly took a seat next to Brick. Then I discreetly glanced Ezra’s way, but he was busy reading something on his tablet to pay attention to anyone else in the room. Suddenly worried I’d just given myself away, I glanced Lana’s way, only to find her glaring daggers quite openly at me as she picked up a pen and repeatedly clicked it as if every push of her thumb was the blade of a knife she was plunging into my chest.

Lovely.

She looked suspicious as hell.

“Ignore her,” Brick whispered, leaning toward me. “We’ll be the last ones laughing when we come up with a better portfolio than her department ever presented.”

I took a breath and nodded.

Shirts was the last group to show. I blinked, surprised, when I recognized the designer who entered behind the head of the department. Gavin, Christopher’s boyfriend, looked disheveled and on the edge of sanity with dark gashes under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. When he glanced around the room and spotted me, he went even paler.

Christopher must’ve warned him how perilous his job here had become. Poor guy. Or not. I felt sorry for him as much as I wanted to lecture him about how stupid he’d been, because it was his own fault he’d gotten himself in this mess, even though I’m sure it’d been a struggle to make it to work on those days he’d been filled with knee pain and depression.

If only he’d talked to a supervisor for leniency instead. The department head for Shirts had always been so kind and understanding. Surely, she could’ve found him some extra medical leave to use. But, no, he’d just had to cheat.

Ezra glanced up, looking distracted. “Everyone here?” he asked. When no one answered, he said, “Alright. Let’s get started.”

“Oh! Are you moderating today’s event, then?” Lana asked cattily as she lifted arched eyebrows. “Good to know.”

Ezra narrowed blue eyes her way before taking a brief breath. “I apologize for not consulting you first,” he ground out. “But you’ve never seemed interested in the task before. Would you like to take over today?”

She sniffed, glancing down at an open planner on the table before her. “Not really.” She waved the backs of her fingers his way. “Continue.”

He rolled his eyes. Then he made eye contact with me before he seemed to bolster his patience.

“Fine,” he said. “Now that I have your permission… Dresses.” He returned his attention to my stepmother, his gaze narrowed with how much he despised her. “Would you like to go first?”

Lana’s smile bloomed with pleasure as she looked up. “Why, certainly I will.” She nodded toward Shyla, who scurried from her chair so she could set up their posters with all the design ideas the Dresses department had on one of the bare easels surrounding the table.

As Lana began talking, describing aspects in each design, I leaned forward, squinting because I couldn’t see them as well as I would’ve liked to. From where I sat, all of them looked grand and majestic, like something a fairy princess should wear. I was suddenly glad I didn’t have to be the one to make any final decisions, because that would be tough.

“We’ll get to walk around and look at everything once everyone has their portfolios set up,” Brick whispered into my ear.

I nodded, actually excited to see everything up close and, frankly, honored I was able to participate in the presentation at all.

After Dresses set up their designs, Shirts went next, followed by Belts, and then Shoes. I squeezed Brick’s leg under the table when I saw my shoe appear next to about a dozen other choices. He sent me a wink and grinned at my anxious expression.

I glanced Ezra’s way, wanting to share my nerves with him too. He’d gotten to listen to me go on and on the night before about how worried and excited I was about my design. He must have some clue what my guts were doing right now.

When he didn’t return the glance, disappointment rose up my throat, until I noticed two fingers on the hand he was using to rest his chin on wrapped together as he crossed them, silently wishing me good luck.

A grin enveloped me. He knew. He knew how freaked out I was and he’d crossed his fingers for me.

Love swelled in my chest.

After Hayden’s team set up their portfolio, Ezra and Winston went next for the Jackets department. Then Pants, Undergarments, and finally Purses.

Brick cleared his throat when it was our turn. “We’ll have to show our designs a little differently than everyone else,” he announced as I rose from my chair. I made my way to the screen projector in the back of the room, near Lana, where I plugged in a flash drive.

As I worked, Lana demanded, “What do you mean different?”

The smile Brick sent her was narrow-eyed and brittle. “Ah, yes. That. Well, you see, Mother, we had a perfectly good portfolio finished and ready to go until it suddenly and mysteriously vanished from my office.”

Lana glanced toward Ezra, scowling. “Yes. I’d heard about that. So unfortunate.” Her gaze strayed back to her son, and the witch actually had the gall to sound hopeful when she asked, “Are you saying you don’t have any designs to show us today, then, darling?”

“Oh, on the contrary,” Brick announced with a jovial grin as I made my way to the other end of the room to pull down the projection screen from the ceiling. “We still have every single design my team created for the presentation. My assistant had enough foresight to scan the originals before they went missing, so we may not have physical copies, but we can still show you our entire portfolio.”

He sounded so smug and proud I couldn’t help but smile as I rose up on my tiptoes, trying to reach the pull-string for the screen.

Lana didn’t sound pleased at all when she bitterly responded, “How… Resourceful of her.”

I reached for the screen string again, barely brushing it with the ends of my fingers and unable to get a good enough hold to pull the entire screen down.

“Here,” Ezra offered, since he was probably sitting closer to me than anyone else. “Let me.” He popped from his chair with a bit too much enthusiasm and reached past me so he could grab the string and pull the screen down.

When he finished, he finally looked my way, only to catch his breath, most likely realizing how close he’d stepped. And I certainly couldn’t step back. I felt paralyzed by his presence. He smelled too good for me to be physically capable of going anywhere. Memories of the night before swelled, making me wonder if he still had marks on his back from when I’d scratched him as he’d made me come for the third time in a row.

I think we realized we were both just standing there, lost in delicious memories, about the same time the rest of the room seemed to realize it. Not only that, but we had essentially spotlighted ourselves because we stood in the lighted projection of the Purse department’s portfolio.

Brick cleared his throat loudly, from somewhere behind us. “Ezra, I don’t think you’ve met my new assistant yet,” he emphasized. “This is Kaity. She only just started working for me on Monday.”

We both glanced at him as if he’d lost his mind, but then I guess we realized at the same moment he was trying to save our butts, so we turned back to each other.

“Nice to meet you,” Ezra murmured, nodding and not holding out a hand to shake with me.

I nodded back, keeping my hands to myself as well. It was way too dangerous to be touching him right now. “You too.”

Then, unable to contain my curiosity, I glanced Lana’s way as Ezra returned to his seat. Her eyes were narrowed as they shifted between us, but I don’t think she could ascertain whether that was really the first time we’d met or not.

“And, Mother,” Brick went on. “I know you’ve already met Kaity, since she’s your stepdaughter and all, ergo no introductions needed there.” While everyone who didn’t know who I was gasped and gawked at me over this surprising revelation, Brick innocently clasped his hands together, as if his duty were done, before saying, “Kait…” He lifted his eyebrows expectantly before nodding his head toward the screen.

“Oh! Sorry.” Realizing I was still standing in the way, I blushed and stepped to the side, exposing our portfolio on the screen.

Forgetting all embarrassment, pride bubbled in my chest. Each handbag outdid the other, I swear. We had excellent designs and an awesome variety. If Mabel Blanchette’s granddaughter, Camille, were here right now, I had a feeling she’d pre-order the entire collection.

Brick caught my gaze and smiled, letting me know he shared the sentiment.

As I returned to my seat, Brick expounded on the details, and my delight over our accomplishment only grew stronger.

When he finished, Ezra cleared his throat and took over, describing how the rest of the presentation would progress. Feedback was welcome from everyone on all the designs, but ultimately, the final decisions would be made by him and Lana. Finally, we were invited to browse the room to study everything all the departments had displayed.

Brick and I stayed together, making our way around the easels. He, of course, had cutting sarcasm for the designs he didn’t like.

“Looks like the kind of belt a guy would hang himself with,” he said about one, making me elbow him in the gut and tell him to behave.

He only shrugged, refusing to take back the sentiment. When we passed the Jacket designs, I nodded respectively at the picture with patches on the elbows. “Huh. It didn’t turn out half bad. I thought it was going to suck monkey balls.”

“Which one?” Brick asked.

When I pointed out the jacket I was talking about, he nodded, gave a meh face and said, “Yeah. I’d probably wear it.”

For him, that was a seal of approval.

He squeezed my elbow when we passed the shoes, and murmured in my ear, “Yours is the best.”

I glanced at him and bit my lip, wondering if he was just saying that but hoping he was right.

After everyone looked their fill, we reconvened around the table, where people tossed out their opinions, mentioning what they liked, what they didn’t, and what they’d be willing to see more of if there were revisions. Neither CEO commented; Ezra was busy taking notes on his tablet while Lana studied her fingernails, letting Shyla scribble madly on a notepad for her.

Finally, the time came for Ezra and Lana to cast their votes. While they silently did that at opposites ends of the table, Brick leaned in to whisper in my ear, explaining to me how they used to verbally vote, until Ezra grew fed up with Lana voting against everything he voted for. Now they had to write down their final decisions and then compare the two after they were both done.

“It’s the only way to get them to agree on anything, I swear.”

I smiled at that, just as Lana and Ezra seemed to finish at the same time.

Winston took Ezra’s piece of paper and Shyla took Lana’s, and the two assistants met in the center of the room to compare notes until they each decided on what the two CEOs agreed upon.

After they returned to their respective CEOs, Lana glanced over the final outcome and sniffed, rolling her eyes as she muttered, “Whatever.”

Ezra nodded and read off the results so everyone else in the room could learn them.

Four dresses were chosen for design, six undergarments, eight purses, three jackets—one of them being the patched elbows—four belts, five shirts, five pants, and only two shoes. I held my breath when Ezra read off which shoes they’d picked. Under the table, Brick squeezed my hand.

When the one I had made was called as a keeper to make a prototype of and put into the spring fashion show, Brick shook my fingers in congratulations. Ezra glanced my way, but I was too stunned to give him an inconspicuous sign, letting him know he’d chosen my design.

My head went dizzy with shock, black spots danced in my vision, and euphoria along with a bit of fear clogged my throat. But oh, God. My shoe was going to grace a model’s foot. It was a dream come true.

What was even sweeter, across the table, Hayden met my gaze and gave me a nod of approval.

Day made.