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Fucking Scarlett. She’s done the one thing I can’t stand. The one thing I won’t stand.
Scarlett lied to me.
I’m in the office early, even for me. And I know I look like shit.
That’s not surprising as I couldn’t sleep.
I picked up the phone about ten times to call her. And put it down each and every time.
I thought about calling Kingston or Magnus. Ryder was out of the question, because he’d just say fuck her, use her, move on. To be fair, they all would, but that would be the beginning and end of his advice. And with the others…there’s nothing they could say I haven’t thought myself.
My door is firmly shut with strict orders not to be disturbed left via text with my receptionist as soon as I got here.
Except, that is, Scarlett.
The fucking liar.
I don’t have long to wait when the work day starts. After a crisp knock, Scarlett breezes in, smiling and happy and I take her in, my blood ice in my veins, anger beating in my heart.
She looks like that flower field, fresh and bright like the sun’s just kissed the morning dew. How she worked out to play me for money is anyone’s guess. She’s not my type. Yet she worked some kind of dark magic on me, anyway.
She’s wearing a very pretty dress, all flowy in the right places, the tiny cream dots on the black material fetching against her dark honey hair. And beneath her arm is that manilla folder I forgot to take from her desk.
“Scarlett.”
She starts to bound over to me but she sees something in my face and stops, a small frown forming as the morning sun decides to struggle out from the blanket gray sky and adorn her just like she’s in that stupid field I made up.
I really am the worst kind of moron.
“Hudson? Is something wrong?”
“You tell me.” I fold my hands in front of me on my desk and keep my best poker face on.
“Well—”
“I’ll help you out, Scarlett. You lied.”
She goes pale. Not even the hint of dew about her now, but I bet she smells just as good as always.
I wait for her to say something, anything, but she doesn’t. She’s seemingly stuck to the spot, unable to move or speak, so I help her out.
“You lied to me. I don’t know how you got away with it or why you did it…” I rake my gaze over her. “Money, I’m guessing.”
“Hudson—”
“But that doesn’t matter. You lied and that’s why this whole thing won’t work. We’ll never get through this.”
“We can, I know it. I’m sorry, I should have said something earlier. But I do know Sarah.”
“Oh, I know. It’s in the report I got on you. I had you investigated, Scarlett.”
The look of horror makes me laugh and I’m feeling mean.
“What? You thought I wouldn’t do that? I told you there’s a lot riding on this, and I told you I expected the best and I expected honesty. The only thing I screwed up was trusting you and not fast tracking the investigation.”
She walks right up to the desk. “It’s not what you think—”
“Oh, so you’re not…” I pull the papers to me, and flip to the page I’m looking for. “From a poor, struggling family where your deadbeat parents took everything and left, and your grandparents ended up bringing you up on what? Hope and a handout?”
