Sloane continued on her way down the sidewalk, her high heels clacking. I turned back to Linda, who was staring at me with angry eyes.
Linda,” I said to my old boss, “I didn’t do anything. You know me. Can I talk to you about this?”
“No,” she said and brushed past me to catch up with Sloane.
****
The sun rose, and light streamed into the windows of my small apartment, not that I’d gotten any sleep. I groaned and shifted my aching shoulders back. I was still sitting at my computer desk. I’d spent the night researching encrypted emails. For a monthly fee, someone could set up untraceable email addresses that promised emails which would vanish five minutes after they were opened. So that explained the threatening emails disappearing.
How was I going to prove that I wasn’t connected to Simon or this mess in anyway? I sighed and pulled my hair out the messy bun I had put it into sometime last night. I ran my fingers through my locks and tried to relax. Eileen and Mandy would find something, some little tidbit and I’d be okay. Kane would find out it wasn’t me and everything would be forgiven. I just had to find out who it was.
I clicked around on the internet till I couldn’t see straight. It was pointless. Huffing out all my breath, I put my head down on the desk and wallowed in my misery. I was screwed. If Sloane wasn’t behind this, was everything Simon’s doing? Had he set me up after getting fired? Was this his way of getting revenge on me?
Simon was still MIA. I had no way of contacting him because his number had been disconnected. I looked at his Facebook page and his Instagram, but he hadn’t posted in weeks. It was like he’d disappeared off the face of the earth.
I buried my head in my hands and allowed myself to cry with body-wracking sobs.
I wished I’d never agreed to go to the art gallery with Simon. I wished I’d never gone into the bathroom with Kane, because the second I did, my fate had been sealed, and that fate could mean the rest of my life in prison for embezzlement.
I reached up to my neck and held onto my star pendant. I needed some good luck, and I needed it soon.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kane
I knocked back my third glass of Glenlivet. Drinking whiskey that cost over 25k a bottle on the job wasn’t something I’d ever done, but yesterday and today had been a shit show.
The missing money would never be retrieved, but insurance would cover it. For a company like mine $5 million wasn’t a problem. The problem was the humiliation of having someone I trusted steal from me. Someone I’d opened up to. Someone I’d fallen for.
I still couldn’t conceive that the woman who had lain over my desk, the woman who had trusted me with her body would do something so vile. So underhanded. But the proof was irrefutable. Every lead went back to Reese.
Even thinking her name was hard. She was so quirky and funny and sexy. The way she said Sir had sent chills down my spine. She was becoming such a good pet and I might have been falling in love with her. But that was all a lie.
I pulled open the top drawer of my desk and ran my fingers around a black box. Inside was a set of nipple clamps I had just purchased for Reese. I remembered back to that first night, when she had fucked herself before my eyes and told me about every fantasy she had. She had wanted nipple clamps, so I got them. They were supposed to be a gift.
I pulled the box out of my desk. It wasn’t very large or heavy. Turning it slowly in my hands, I thought about her betrayal. Did she really love Simon that much? Five million was nothing compared to what I would have given her as my pet…or my wife.
My whole body shook with rage. That I would even think about someday marrying Reese was a joke and the joke was on me. I cupped the box containing the clamps and tossed it with all my might. It shattered against my door, spilling its contents out in a mess of the carpet. I dropped my shoulders and looked down at my desk.
My door opened. Figuring it was Melissa, I didn’t look up.
“I’m fine. Everything is fine. Go away,” I ordered.
She didn’t move. Annoyed, I looked up. Sloane stood in my doorway, her narrow face pulled into a sneer.
Oh, what now!
“Sloane, leave!” I barked.
She didn’t move. She was looking down in disgust at the broken box and the nipple clamps.
“Sloane!”
“The mentee program wasn’t what I thought it was, was it?” she asked, still looking down.