Villain (Hero 1.50)

“What would you suggest?” I attempted not to seethe.

Mitchell shrugged. “Shoes?”

He and Dick laughed but I noted Lexington didn’t. He seemed embarrassed for me.

Or for my dinner companions?

“Oh, I know,” Mitchell leaned toward me, “I have a question that’s plagued me for a while now. Is… is your ass real or is that surgery? Because if it’s real… Jesus H. Christ.”

My stomach roiled as Dick laughed beside me and offered, “It’s all real,” like he knew from firsthand experience. Which he did not.

“Okay, gentlemen,” Lexington patted Mitchell’s shoulder again, “I think you’ve had too much to drink. I’ll need to ask you to remember your manners.”

“Oh, we’re kidding. She knows that.”

Inside I was screaming.

Two months ago my life was going somewhere. I was successful, respected, and popular.

Lately I felt like a play toy in a man’s world, and I thought I’d left that feeling behind.

“Mitchell,” Lexington warned.

The Asswipe sobered and held up his hands in surrender. “I apologize.” He turned to me and took my hand in his to press his lips to my knuckles. “I apologize, dear lady.”

I wanted to rip my own hand off and beat him over the head with it.

Instead I gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Excuse me, gentlemen.” I used the term loosely. “I need to visit the restroom.”

As I got up and walked away, I heard Mitchell say, “You’ve got to admit, though, that is quite the ass.”

Alone in the ladies’ restroom, I was shocked to discover how badly I was trembling.

No job in the world was worth this.

No.

Never.

Tears burned in my throat as I tried to catch my breath and make my decision.

I was quitting.

And tomorrow I was going above Lexington to tell Caine Carraway everything.

Decision made, I knew I couldn’t crumble when I went back out there. I would excuse myself and then call Dick when I got home to tell him I quit.

Throwing open the door, I came to an abrupt halt at the sight of my boss glowering outside of it.

Dick gripped my right bicep and hauled me none too gently down the empty corridor out of sight where he practically threw me against the wall.

Fear and anger pulsed through me and I made to shove past him but he trapped me with the entire length of his body. His heat and hardness overwhelmed, his cologne suffocating me again. The feel of his hot breath on my forehead made my breathing tight and short. When you wanted a man’s attention, the weight of his body could be comforting; when you didn’t want a man’s attention, the weight of his body could feel like a two hundred-pound prison.

Revulsion shuddered through me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re playing at? When we get back out there, you’re going to start acting like the little whore I know you are and get me this investment.”

“You are so done,” I hissed, enraged.

He bowed his head so his lips were almost touching mine and I struggled against him as he pinned my wrists to the wall at my sides. “There is only one way to get your way, Nadia. Appeasing me.”

“Forget it,” I tried to head-butt him but he jerked back in surprise. “That story on Carraway is never going to see the light of day. I was never going to let it.”

Anger flooded his face red. “The only way that story will die, the only way you can get anything you want, is by doing what I want. I’m your boss, princess, and I make or break you.” He rubbed against me. “We both know you’ve spread to get ahead before so let’s stop playing the innocent virgin. It doesn’t do it for me.”

“I’d rather lose everything… you piece of shit.”

The scent of his cologne abruptly dissipated, my body released from the weight of his. I blinked as the blur in front of me focused into Henry Lexington pinning Dick to the opposite wall with an arm at his throat.

I thought I’d seen Henry mad before now.

But I was wrong.

His face was dark with fury as he bared his teeth at Dick. “Blackmail, Dicky boy? You are so fucked.” He flicked a look back at me. “You okay?”

I glared at them both. “How long were you standing there?”

“I heard everything.” He turned back to Dick. “And she’s right. You are so done. Someone has been a very bad boss.”

My stomach dropped.

He’d let Dick pin me to the wall that entire time?

He should have ripped the fucker off me as soon as he saw what he was doing, not stopped to eavesdrop!

Yes, by eavesdropping Henry gave me a witness to Dick’s crimes against me, I knew that. I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that I should be relieved and grateful. The relief would come, but gratitude? No.

I couldn’t get over the fact that Lexington had stood and watched Dick assault me and hadn’t done anything to stop it until he knew I was innocent of crimes against his friend.

I was done. With both of these men.

So I left them to it, hoping they ripped each other apart until there was nothing left of them.

* * *

Suffice it to say I didn’t sleep much that night. I vacillated between the horror of wondering how long it would’ve taken me or some kind stranger to save me from Dick’s assault at the restaurant, and worrying about my future. When I closed my eyes, I could hear Dick calling me a whore, and I could feel his body on mine again. I’d shudder and my eyes would fly open in the dark. Keeping my eyes open was the only reminder that I was safe. But I wouldn’t continue to be safe if I stayed in that job. Despite my anger toward Henry for waiting it out to hear what he wanted to hear before rescuing me, the relief did come. I finally had a witness to Dick’s harassment. If shit hit the fan, I would hopefully have Henry’s testimony. Until when, or if, that ever happened, I was walking away with my career untarnished.

So when I arrived at the station the next morning, looking like hell I might add, it was with every intention of quitting.

However, it soon became apparent that there would be no need for such drastic action on my part.

“

Did you hear?” Barbara approached me as soon as I walked in.

“About?”

“Dick.”

My heart thumped in my chest. “What about him?”

“He was fired. Apparently, he was arrested last night. Caught on camera slipping Rohypnol into a girl’s drink at a private nightclub last month.”

“What?” I breathed. “How?”

“Apparently the nightclub ‘lost’ the footage and then it miraculously turned up.”

“Miraculously,” I muttered.

Or not so miraculously.

My PI found nothing but apparently, Lexington’s PI was better than mine.

“I’m running the show until they send us a new guy.”

“Glad to hear it.” I suddenly hugged her.

Barbara tensed in surprise and then hugged me back. “Sweetie, are you okay?”

The powerlessness I’d felt these last few weeks, the renewed shame and guilt, the exhaustion, and yes, the fear, coalesced inside me. My control was decimated. Tears filled my eyes and a sob slipped out before I could stop it.

“Nadia?” Barbara drew back, took one look at me, and hurried me into a conference room for privacy. “Did Dick do something to you?”

I couldn’t tell her any of it because telling her would mean talking about Carraway and it wasn’t my right to. I brushed away tears. “I just didn’t like him.”

“Sweetie, I’ve never seen you cry. There has to be more to it than that.”

I shrugged, deciding to go with a half-truth. “He was getting more suggestive. And yesterday at lunch with Mitchell Montgomery… they…” More tears spilled as I remembered. “I felt like nothing. A piece of ass. Being there, letting them talk to me like that, it felt like I was giving them permission to do whatever they wanted to me. And that scared me. I was going to quit this morning.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Barbara hugged me again. “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? And next time,” she pulled back to stare sternly into my eyes, “you tell me. There are a few bad apples still left in our line of work, and sometimes it’s hard for a woman. But not if we stick together. Okay? Promise me.”