Page 101 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
“I handled it,” Ethan says. His voice is a low, dangerous rumble. He turns slowly to face me. “I secured the asset.”
“Secured the asset?” I let out a harsh, incredulous laugh. “Ethan, she looked like she was walking to her own funeral. You didn’t secure anything. You broke her.”
“I did what was necessary.”
“Did you fire her?”
“No.” Ethan walks to his chair and sits down heavily. He picks up a pen, but his fingers are trembling. “She quit.”
The realization slams into us.
“She quit?” I repeat. “But the contract… the signing bonus…”
“She found a loophole,” Ethan says, his eyes flashing with a mix of fury and begrudging respect. “She got another job. Nebula.”
Ice floods my veins. “Nebula? Markus Vance?”
“Yes.”
“And they’re covering the clawback?”
“Full buyout,” Ethan confirms. “Plus twenty percent. She walked in here, looked me in the eye, and told me she is signing the contract on Monday. She is taking the ‘Be Seen’ brain trust to our biggest competitor to buy her freedom.”
I stare at him. “Holy shit.”
It’s a nuclear move. It’s brilliant. It’s ruthless. It’s exactly the kind of thing we would do.
“She’s bluffing,” I say, though I don’t believe it.
“She’s not,” Asher’s voice cuts in.
We both look at the door. Asher has entered the room silently, as usual.
“Vance has been trying to poach her since she graduated,” Asher states, walking toward us. “I saw his name pop up on her screenon Tuesday when I fixed her dual-monitor setup. If she called him today, it wasn’t a pitch; it was an acceptance. She has found her exit.”
“She’s really going to leave,” I whisper. The reality of it hits me like a punch to the gut.
Tessa. Gone.
No more clicking heels. No more arguments about fonts or laughing over oysters. She’s going to go work for Vance, a man who treats women like accessories and branding like warfare. She’s going to be in his office.
A spike of jealousy, hot and acidic, burns through my veins.
“We can’t let her go,” I say.
“We have no choice,” Ethan snaps. “If we sue her, it’s a PR nightmare. If we let her go to Nebula, she could destroy us in the market. She has us as a checkmate.”
“I’m not talking about the market, Ethan!” I shout. “I’m talking about her!”
I pace the length of the office, running my hands through my hair.
“We pushed her too far. You with your ‘liability’ bullshit. Me with the mixed signals. We drove her away.”
“She is a liability!” Ethan roars, standing up. “Look at us! We are fighting in my office forty-eight hours before the biggest launch of our lives because of one woman! She fractured the Unit!”
“The Unit was already fractured!” I yell back. “We’ve been broken for years, Ethan! We just used the work to glue the pieces together! Tessa didn’t break us. She just… she woke us up.”
I stop pacing. I look at my brothers.
