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This is it, our new reality. People are coming after him, after me, after us.
“Enough!” I growl, pushing him away. For a second, he tries to cling to me, and I realize he’s trying to escape this fucked up mess just as much as I am.
But I break free and grab his phone from his desk. My first instinct is to chunk it to the floor, stomp on it, and release the war cry that’s churning in my soul. Instead, I hand it to Dylan, slamming it into his palm.
“Fix this. I don’t know how, but please, fix this. Do whatever you have to do so that you’re okay,” I plead.
He looks at me in surprise. “You mean so that you’re okay. Your name, or close enough to it, is the one splashed all over that article that everyone’s reading and talking about.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t care what people think about me at this point, because losing everything I’ve worked for in one fell swoop is nothing compared to what could happen if your investors think you’ve been played by some ‘sexual siren’ looking for a sugar daddy who pays with insider information. The consequences of that could be catastrophic, Dylan.”
Because that’s the worst part of this. He’s right that the article is about me, which is infuriating and makes me feel nakedly vulnerable even though it’s all lies, but at its foundation, the article is about Dylan and how he’s been so easily duped by a pretty face and some pussy.
And that could bring Dylan’s entire empire to the ground.
I refuse to be the bringer of his ruin. I will not be his destruction.
Because I love him. I love him too much, but I don’t know what to do.
So if I have to sacrifice myself to save him, then so be it.
“A sugar daddy?” he repeats what I said with disbelief. “Raven, no one thinks that,” he says, but I pin him with a knowing look. That’s a lie and we both know it. There are plenty who will think exactly that based on one little gossip column and my sudden switch from Evan’s side to his. “Fuck!” he hisses, admitting that I’m right.
“I’m going to go home for the day, I think. If you need me, call, but otherwise, I understand that you have to do what’s needed to save yourself and what you’ve worked so hard for.”
Before he can argue, I lift to my toes, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, and then I leave before he can stop me. Tamara side eyes me as I pass, her glasses magnifying the sadness I see in her gaze.
“Tamara!” Dylan shouts, and she jumps, getting up to rush into his office.
As I head downstairs, hurrying to grab my bag from my locker, sadness and anger war for top billing.
I hold it all in, saving it for the moment I can collapse in a fit of tears in private.
CHAPTER 29
DYLAN
“You look like a man out for blood,” Austin says as he comes over with a tumbler of scotch. I take it, and he sits down in his chair, swirling his own tumbler around. “Tell me what all happened.”
“You read the story, I assume,” I start, and Austin nods. “What did you think?”
“That was the worst gossip line of shit I’ve read in years,” Austin says. “I thought Vanna was better than that. Have you reached out to her?”
“She’s not answering my calls.”
“Ah,” Austin says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. “Give me thirty seconds.”
It actually takes him less than that, as he sets his phone down on his thigh in speaker mode and Vanna’s voice comes out. “Austin?”
“I’ve got you on speaker, Vanna.There is an interested party listening in, one whom you owe an explanation to,” Austin says. “Please don’t tell me that you think you’ve outgrown your limits? That’s going to seriously piss me off if you have.” There’s a threat laced through his words, a warning to Vanna in his dark tone that she should take seriously.
“No! No, God, no!” Vanna says, her voice tight with fear. “Austin, I’m not answering the phone from your… friend because I’ve got people paying very close attention to me. They’re tracking who I’m talking to now.”
“Hard position for a gossip columnist,” Austin says. “So, can you speak freely?”
“I can speak. They’re not tracking this program,” Vanna says. “You’re the only one who calls me on it.”
I glance from the phone to Austin, finding him looking at me with a small smirk on his lips. He lifts his finger to his lips, silently telling me ‘shh’, and I realize Vanna, in her distraction and upset, has accidentally revealed one of her sources… Austin.
