Page 56 of Under My Skin

“She’s dead,” Dani choked out. “She died from a postpartum infection four nights ago. After she gave birth to his son. Can’t you just pass on a message?—”

“I don’t care if she was abducted by aliens! Braden isn’t interested! He had her calls forwarded to mebecausehe didn’t want to deal with this! Now, if I hear from you again…”

Tears started to blur my vision and I choked down a sob as I shoved my chair back from the table, rose to my feet, and stormed out of the room. I couldn’t hear any more of this. I couldn’t listen to a woman I’d trusted to help me manage mycareer shattering the already-broken spirit of the girl I’d come to care so much about. I couldn’t sit here and watch her try to justify what she’d done.

As I looked for somewhere –anywhere– I could go to hide from the rest of the prying eyes in the office, my eyes landed on the sign for the men’s room. Clearing the distance in three long strides, I threw the door open and marched directly into one of the stalls, sliding the flimsy lock into place behind me.

“Fuck!”I choked out, slamming the side of my fist into the weak door, then leaning both elbows against it as my forehead met the cool metal.

There was nothing I could do that would even begin to make up for what Dani had been through. No gesture I could make to help her understand the depth of my grief and regret. She hated me, and she had every right to. Because someone she had thought was speaking for me had completely shattered her already-fractured spirit.

I had no idea how long I’d been in here when I heard the creaking of the bathroom door opening again and a single set of footsteps walking across the tile floor.

“B?” Malachi called quietly. “You in here, man?”

“I’m here,” I sniffed, taking a deep breath and scrubbing the back of my hand across my face to dry my tears before stepping out of the stall. “Sorry. I just…I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t listen to any more of that call. Or hear her trying to justify it.”

“Oh, she tried. But they shut her down within three seconds. Told her she was fired and called security in to escort her to her office to pack up her shit. Glenn served them with the paperwork to terminate our contracts, and with the lawsuits against Vicki and the company.” He clapped me on the back. “You ready to get out of here?”

I nodded tensely.

The lawsuits against the company and Vicki personally – for negligence and emotional distress – had been Glenn’s idea. I hadn’t wanted to do it because no amount of money could bring Amara back from the dead or give me back the time I’d lost with my son, but he’d wanted to impress the gravity of the situation on everyone involved. He’d also pointed out that the money could go into the trust I was setting up for Isaac, so at least some good could come out of it.

“Okay. Come on. Wash your face, and then we’ll get the fuck out of here and go pound on some punching bags until you have to get ready to meet your girl,” he said with a sad smile.

With another nod, I went and splashed some cold water on my face, then grabbed a wad of paper towels to dry my face and hands before following Malachi out the door. Glenn was waiting right outside, and the three of us started to head to the elevator.

And I immediately wished I’d spent just two more minutes in that damn bathroom. Because Vicki was standing there with a big file box full of random-ass shit, a security guard right next to her.

“Let’s take the stairs,” Glenn said quietly.

But it wasn’t quiet enough. The devil’s spawn turned toward us, a smile forming on her face the moment she saw me.

What the fuck did this bitch possibly have to be happy about? She’d just lost her job and gotten slapped with a million-dollar lawsuit.

“Braden, honey,” she said with an exaggerated snivel.

“Don’tfucking talk to me, Vicki,” I growled.

“I did it foryou! That girl was obsessed with you. I had to protect you,” she whimpered. “If it hadn’t been for me, you would have had another stalker to deal with.”

Bile rose in my throat as my brain slammed on the brakes…too late to avoid the oncoming crash of thoughts that flew through my mind.

How the fuck did Vicki know about my stalker? I’dnevertold her about the emails I’d been getting. I hadn’t trusted her enough to disclose that information to her. Granted, maybe she’d figured it out because she had access to my emails, but there was just something about the way she was acting – the way she’dalwaysacted around me – that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

And if I was right, it finally made sense why she would have kept the truth about Isaac from me. Why she would have been so unbelievably cruel to Dani and Amara. It even explained why she hadn’t told me about my uncle’s death. It had nothing to do with her trying to protect me or manage my image in the press, or with her just being a fucking flake who couldn’t do her job. It was because she’d been trying to isolate me. Cut me off from everyone who cared about me. Take away my family so I had no one to turn to. It was a move straight out of the obsessive stalkers’ handbook.

“You and I havenothingto talk about,” I bit out, doing my best to keep my voice even. “If you have anything to say to me, do it through my attorney.”

As I turned on my heel and headed toward the staircase, I could hear her muttering under her breath, and it made the blood in my veins turn to ice water.

“I fuckingtoldthat bitch to stay away from him.”

Once we were outside, Malachi and I said our goodbyes to Glenn before heading back to my car. And only once we got into the vehicle with the door locked did I pull my cellphone out and scroll through my contacts. Pressing the call button, I held the device up to my ear.

“Bobbi Franks,” came the chipper Southern drawl.

“Bobbi, hi.” I took a deep breath. “It’s Braden. I need you to run a background check on someone for me.”

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