Arson & Ache (Surrender to Them 8)

“I’ve got two point five—do I hear two point six?” The auctioneer looked towards Olivia Adams, but her paddle didn’t move again.

I won—but I wasn’t sure what winning was going to cost me. I needed to call Ms. Stone before she heard about the auction from someone else. If I was going to get fired, then I might as well find out before she showed up for our double date—there probably wasn’t even going to be a double date. I would be lucky if I wasn’t banned from the building. Mr. December tried to motion for me to come join him at the front of the room for a photograph, but I couldn’t even think about him. I ran to the edge of the crowd, pushed my way through the people standing near the door, and pulled my phone out of my purse. My fingers fumbled against the front of my phone and started to tremble as I hit the button to call Ms. Stone.

“Livingston Capital—Ms. Stone’s office. How can I assist you?” It was Hannah’s voice.

“Hannah! Hannah, I need to speak to Ms. Stone immediately.” I felt my heart racing in my chest.

“Marissa? Hold on. Let me see if she’s available.” The phone went silent for a second and then the hold music started.

Please don’t fire me—oh god, please don’t fire me.

“Marissa?” Ms. Stone’s voice echoed on the other end of the line. “I’m busy—I told you, I’m dealing with an emergency situation with one of our biggest accounts!”

“I know, Ms. Stone. I’m so sorry—please don’t hang up.” I walked further away from the crowd and tried to fight back tears.

“Please tell me that you didn’t fuck up a charity auction. I’m not even sure how that would be possible.” Her voice raised, and I could hear a hint of annoyance in her tone.

I started blabbering as fast as possible, and most of what I said was incoherent until I got to the part about Olivia Adams. I barely understood the words coming out of my mouth, but somewhere in the mixture of muttering and apologizing, I told her what I did. My stomach twisted into a knot and I thought I was going to throw up when I told her that I spent two point five million dollars of the company’s money. Except I wouldn’t have been able to throw up, because there was a knot that had practically sealed my throat shut. All I could do was apologize and hope for the best. There was silence on the other end of the phone for what felt like an eternity. Did I literally render Ms. Stone speechless? That would be a first. Suddenly, the silence was broken—by laughter. Ms. Stone was laughing? She never laughed.

“I can’t believe I wasn’t there to see that defeated look on Olivia’s face.” Her laughter settled into a chuckle.

“You’re—not mad?” I blinked a few times in surprise, even though she couldn’t see my face.

“No.” Her tone settled back into the ice-cold one I was familiar with. “Good job.”

Good job?

Oh my god—a compliment? Two in one day? This can’t be real life.

“Thank you, Ms. Stone!” The nervousness faded, and I started to gush with excitement. “I knew we couldn’t lose to Olivia Adams—I was just so scared that I spent too much money!”

“Fuck the money.” Ms. Stone exhaled sharply into the phone. “Knowing that a room full of people watched Olivia Adams get thoroughly dominated by Livingston Capital is worth every penny.”

“Okay, so—what now? Do you want me to arrange a dinner somewhere? What time will you be free?” I immediately snapped back into secretary mode.

“Well, here comes the bad news.” Ms. Stone sighed. “I’m not going to be able to leave the office. I’m probably going to be working late into the night.”

“Um…” I felt the nervousness return. “What do I tell the firefighters?”

“I guess you’re just going to have to go out with both of them.” The phone slammed down before I could respond.

What? Both of them?

Donovan

“At least I’ll have a passenger on my ride to hell.” I looked up at Kincaid as he walked backstage.

“Yeah.” He muttered under his breath and sat down. “I guess we’re both going to be put through the ringer tonight so Livingston Capital looks like the most charitable company in the world?”

“Look at it this way. All of the shit you’ve been asking the chief for in order to assist with your investigation? You just get an opportunity to earn it.” I chuckled and sat down beside him. “Man, I really don’t want to go out with Veronica Stone.”

“It’s too bad we’re not going out with the girl who was doing the bidding. She was hot.” Kincaid leaned down and started removing his boots.

“Yes, she was.” I nodded quickly.

Hot enough to make want to start a fire and put it out.

I knew there was a very real possibility that I would end up going out with Veronica Stone if I agreed to appear in the Heated Hunks calendar. It was for a good cause, but she was a straight up ice queen. The guys that had the misfortune of being chosen as her date at the auction never had good things to say. They described it as punishment, torture, and the worst evening of their life. My only hope was that with two of us, it wouldn’t be quite as bad. I had no idea why she decided that she needed two faces on her company website to prove that they gave back to the community, but her motives were always pretty damn confusing. There were plenty of charities in New York City that she could throw her money at, but the fire department seemed to be her favorite—especially if she had her representative lay down so much money for Kincaid. That crazy bitch definitely didn’t like losing.