Page 48 of Nefarious
He fumbled in the other pocket for a set of ear buds and attached them. She put one end in her ear and waited for him to find a recording and forward to a specific point in time.
He hit play, and Noelle’s voice began speaking. “I told you already it was what he didn’t do.”
Val looked up. “When was this?”
Dane held a finger up to his lips. “Listen.”
She missed something Dane said, then heard Noelle again. “Oh, God, no. It just that he’s been promising me a promotion for years, but he never delivered. That plus I haven’t gotten more than the standard cost of living raise in all that time. I finally decided I needed to go.”
When her eyes widened, Dane went to stop the recording, but Val grabbed his hand. She wanted to listen to the end. He didn’t protest and leaned back all casual as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Val had taught him that posture. Still, he looked delicious when he was being devilish, and everything he said to Noelle made her grin wider.
Until.
“You told her you loved her?”
He grabbed his phone back and dropped in his pocket. “Did it not sound sincere?”
It had. Too sincere.
She was beginning to regret hiring her.
If Noelle had nothing more than thwarted ambitions to lay at Geraldo’s feet, she was no use, and Val could dispose of her. She needed to change the trajectory of this game immediately. She needed to get Dane to change his play.“What do you propose?”
She bit her upper lip, considering. “Get her to say something to you that could constitute an act of sexual harassment.”
Dane scoffed. “Oh, is that all?”
“You’ve already laid some groundwork. You could use that as evidence you’d had a pretext to document her interactions with you. Push her.”
“She’s hesitant as hell, Val. If I push her any more, she’s going to bolt.”
“Fine. If you don’t care, I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Dane sighed. “She’s not going to come out and threaten to fire me if I don’t sleep with her. You expect too much. She’s never going to be that reckless. Noelle’s as straight-laced as they come.”
“Her intentions don’t matter, Dane. What people are willing to believe is the only thing that matters. Just finish what you started, and maybe—” she traced a finger along his wrist, tickling the skin below his cuff “—we can have that night together soon.”
“You know if you keep moving the goalposts on our wager, I’m going to start to doubt your sincerity.”
“It’s quite simple, Dane. If you want to prove to me you don’t care about her, sacrifice her.”
He yawned. “I need to head back. My emails won’t delete themselves.”
Val stood. “Seeing as how I waited here for you for half an hour, I’m leaving first.” She walked out of the coffee shop, directly into a torrential downpour.
Dane watched the lines of water sluice across the window for a minute before running a Google search on his own name and looking for any news articles he hadn’t read yet. Right when he’d clicked on a link to Forbes, Anthony poked his head into Dane’s office, a behavior that ranked among Dane’s top pet peeves.
“Can I help you?”
Now that Anthony had walked into the office, he appeared shy and uncomfortable. He rubbed the back of his neck and shuffled his shoes.
“What do you need, Anthony? I don’t bite unless asked to.”
That brought a smile, and the boy relaxed a little. “I’m so sorry to trouble you. It’s just that. Well. Rumor has it that you no longer have a mentee and—”
Dane looked longingly at the article he’d been about to read and said a silent farewell to his free time. “And you’d like to know if you could replace her?”
Anthony nodded and lurched further into the office. “I’m every bit as eager as Selena. I learn quickly. It would be an honor to learn from you. And I’m planning to win the intern contest. I’ll work harder than anyone else.”
