Enemies With Benefits (Loveless Brothers 1)

“A photo which clearly shows her acting inappropriately on company property.”

“—and sending it to you without her permission or knowledge. Tell me who sent it.”

“Get out.”

“Tell me —"

“Get out before I fire you both and cancel that check,” he says, standing slowly, adjusting his tie. He’s still bright red with anger. “I don’t want to lose either of you, Elijah, but so help me God if you don’t leave my office this instant you will both be out of a job.”

I don’t give a shit about my own job. I’m seething with rage, tempted to just grab his computer and leave with it, see if I can’t find out myself.

But I can’t do that to Violet. As furious as I am, I can’t get her fired, too.

I turn and leave without another word. His secretary goggles, and I ignore her, stalking back into the hall, winding through the maze of offices.

I have a pretty good idea who did this. I don’t know how he knew there were pictures like that on my phone. I usually leave it in my locker. Maybe he’s been going through my things this whole time.

When I get to Martin’s office, my rage has simmered to a slow, even boil. I walk inside and he looks up, then looks worried as I shut the door behind myself.

“Congratulations on the —"

I grab him by the front of the shirt and pull him bodily from his chair, his arms windmilling.

“What the —"

“I know it was you,” I say, and shove him against the wall. “You’re a vile fucking piece of trash.”

His eyes go wide in fake shock. I know a liar when I see one.

“Know what was me?”

His hands grab at my wrists, but I’m locked on, rage-fueled.

“Don’t fucking play,” I say, keeping my voice down. “I know it was you, I know what you did, and you’re going to fucking pay for it.”

Martin’s breathing hard. He’s average-sized, but I’m bigger, and more important, I’m angrier. His eyes search mine.

And then, I swear to God, he smirks at me.

“Prove it,” he says.

It takes all my self-control not to strangle him. I want to. I want to give him two black eyes and a broken nose for what he did to Violet, for going through my pictures of her, for sending them to her boss. Nothing seems like enough for violating her like that.

“I will fuck you up,” I say, getting right in his face. “If you ever so much as look at Violet again I’ll rip your heart out and serve it as an appetizer.”

Then I let him go, turn around, and leave his office before I can do something that could land me in jail.Chapter Forty-OneViolet“Everyone heard it,” I say through my hands, leaning both elbows on Adeline’s kitchen table. “Everyone. The kitchen staff. The planning people. They probably heard it out in the Lodge. Jesus, they probably heard us fighting in Roanoke —”

“There’s too much road work on Interstate 81,” she says. “Don’t worry.”

“I can’t go back there,” I say, taking a deep shuddering breath. “My boss has seen my tits because my ex-fuckbuddy screwed me over for twenty grand.”

Adeline just strokes my hair, but I see her fist clench on the table.

“I can’t believe that’s all it took,” I say, and by the time I get to took my voice is nothing more than a high-pitched squeak. “Who does that? Fucking Eli couldn’t just dump me, he had to —”

I break off and take a deep breath.

“He’s a fucking snake,” she says, and her voice is soft but there’s steel in it.

“I told him I liked him,” I say, miserably. “Like five days ago. God, I’m so dumb. He said we were gonna go on vacation together to a cabin with a hot tub and I bet the whole fucking time he’d already sent Montgomery a picture of my tits in the barn.”

“You’re not dumb,” Adeline says, pushing my hair out of my face. “You’re human.”

“For money,” I say, for at least the thousandth time.

I start crying again. I don’t know how the hell I haven’t cried all the liquid in my body out today, but apparently there’s more. Fuck.

“I knew how he was. I fucking knew, Adeline. And I went and let him take a picture of my tits anyway.”

She doesn’t say anything, but a muscle in her jaw clenches.

“And he fucked me over for twenty grand,” I say.

My chest feels hollow, like someone’s scooped it out, except I’m still breathing and my heart is still beating so I guess I’m fine, technically.

“Do you want me to help you hide the body?” she asks, her voice perfectly gentle.

I grab a tissue and blow my nose.

“Where?” I ask.

She leans her chin on her own hand, still stroking my hair. I let her, because it feels nice, and because my hair’s a wreck right now anyway.