“Zander Frolos invited me. I’m here to negotiate the purchase of the London slip,” Colin said.
“We’re closing the deal and this wasn’t even announced publicly.”
“I know, I didn’t find out about this publicly.” Colin winked at me and I frowned. But Leo looked like someone just kicked him in the stomach. “The old man may be on board with you, but his son, the one who is set to run this whole thing, likes my offer better.”
Leo looked ready to spit daggers. He glanced over his shoulder at the meeting room where both Frolos men stood. Jes, the father, looked surprised, and Zander looked victorious. Like this little coup of secretly inviting Colin was about to work in his favor.
“You really do have a fine assistant. But when I told Zander about her questionable past, there was hesitation to sell a family-run company to someone like you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Leo said.
Colin smiled and looked between Leo and me. “She didn’t tell you? Seems Miss Levine has an affinity for, shall we say, using her assets to get what she wants from her bosses. So much that it involves missing money.”
I shook my head but my body tingled with fear. “That’s not true.”
“So you don’t fuck your bosses?” Colin said and glanced at Leo.
“I . . .” I looked at Leo and again shook my head. Leo was different, had been from the beginning. But Colin phrased this so I couldn’t win, and he knew it. And I wasn’t about to lie to Leo. The truth was on the table, ready to be dissected. Problem was, I couldn’t get myself to breathe right.
“Paige, what the hell is he talking about?”
“This,” Colin said, shoving his phone at Leo with the report about the scandal. Leo glanced over it and looked at me.
“This isn’t true?”
I shook my head. “There’s truth to some things, but—”
“And what things are those, Paige?”
“I didn’t sleep with Bill.”
“And what about Colin?”
“Never!”
“I’ll let you two work out this train wreck while I go say hello to Zander.” Colin walked into the room, leaving Leo staring down at me.
“Colin said some odd things the night at the gala . . . now it’s all making sense,” Leo said.
“What?”
“He knew about the slip, Paige. Right after you danced with him and left, after we were on the terrace, he said things that hinted he knew. How would he have known?” The insinuating tone of Leo’s voice cut through me.
“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him.”
“Then how the fuck did he find out if not from you?” Leo looked beyond mad—he looked destroyed. Like seeing my face caused him pain and disgust. “Is he the one you met with the night before we left for London?”
My eyes shot wider than I ever thought possible.
“Don’t look surprised. I went to find you and you were gone and didn’t return to the property until several hours later.”
“You were watching me?”
“I was waiting on you,” he snapped. “Apparently just so you could make a fool of me.”
“Leo, I didn’t meet with Colin the other night.”
“Then who was it?”