Page 95 of Boss from Hell

“Great job, Max. Well done.”

“All the credit goes to Lillian and her two wonderful little nieces,” I said feeling on top of the world.

“Have you told Lillian how you feel about her?”

“Not yet.”

“Not yet? Get off the phone now and go get her, man. Full throttle. No more ifs or buts.”

“On it, boss. That’s exactly what’s next on the plan.”

Chapter 55

Lillian

Iwas just putting away the washed dishes when Max came back. He looked almost as if he was vibrating with suppressed excitement.

“What’s going on?” I asked curiously.

“Sit down and I’ll tell you.”

I sat down on the sofa and curled my feet under me while he perched on the edge of the sofa next to me.

He took a deep breath. “Okay. Let me start at the beginning. Soon after you arrived, we lost the La Zaire deal. Someone front-ran us and bought the company before we could, but the funny thing was they had also already anonymously contacted Jed Burner to ask him to run the company for them, exactly as we had planned to do. So we knew we had espionage in our organization. Chris did a sweep of our whole building and found out that both my office and phone were bugged.”

I stared at him in amazement. So that’s what happened to the La Zaire account.

“We planned to dangle another company we already owned as bait to see if we could flush out the mole. Until today when the kids mentioned the cookies, I had completely forgotten thatElizabeth had brought them, or even connected her appearance with the spying. But now, I’m certain it is her. She knew I would be at a meeting because everybody in the industry attends it every year. She had the means and she had the motive. She just took over the company from her father.”

I felt cold suddenly. Things were falling into place in my head. Things that didn’t make sense were rapidly making sense. My voice sounded far away when I spoke.

“You’re certain it’s her now. Who did you think it was before today?”

He flinched. “You.”

I blinked with hurt. “I see.”

“I’m sorry. Everything pointed to you. You had the opportunity, you needed money, it happened just after you arrived. What else could I think?”

There were tears, an ocean of tears were waiting to fall, but they didn’t because a rage I had never known swept through my body like wildfire.

“So the whole time you were fucking me and pretending to be interested in me, my life and my financial problems, in reality, you thought I was your enemy and you were trying to trap me into revealing myself as the mole.”

He scowled. “No. Okay, yes. That’s true, but I was-”

Before he could carry on, I sprang to my feet and started running for the door. He caught me by the arm. I didn’t think. I just reacted. I swung my arm as far as it would go and slapped him. So hard the sound was like a clap of thunder. His head jerked sideways, and my hand left a white imprint on his cheek.

“Don’t touch me,” I yelled. “I can’t believe you did that to me. How could you? I thought you were a difficult man, but a good man. I was wrong. You are a monster. A heartless cruel monster. You used me.”

I pulled my hand out of his slack grip and ran from his home.

My eyes were so full of water I couldn’t see properly and I had to stop my car by the side of the road, but I actually felt nothing. I was numb.

I looked at myself in the rearview mirror. My face was white with disbelief.

How could I have been so wrong, so blind about him? But it all made sense now. All of it. The way he blew hot and cold. The little odd questions. I cringed when I thought about the uninhibited way I responded to him sexually. I’d given him everything. I never held anything back.

And he had betrayed me. The betrayal was spectacular, so unexpected, so completely that I felt numb with shock.