Page 86 of Conspiracies and Chemistry

I leaned a hip against the booth’s worn upholstery. “My god. Are we going to need all that?”

“I’m being prepared.” She splashed tequila into six glasses and handed me the saltshaker. “Let’s get started.”

I waved off the salt. “I’m driving.”

“Danny’s brother Leo will drive you home in your car. Now drink.”

Once Lucie had an idea, there was no stopping her. So I tossed back the shot and chased it with a squeeze of lime. My friends did the same.

“Sit,” Lucie said, “and tell us what happened.”

Despite my attempts to position myself so I could flee, I ended up wedged between Bridget and Savannah in the center of the booth. “You all know what happened. Oliver and Maya Perrell lured me in and let me think I could save the company, but they’d been planning to sell all along.”

Lucie tipped her head. “Why did that bother you so much? You helped the company grow to a stronger position. Maybe selling is the right next step for it.”

My stomach hollowed out. “I had a bad experience before.”

I’d thought I could shut down the conversation with that, but five pairs of eyes watched me, waiting for more. Bridget knew the story, and she leaned her shoulder against mine, supporting me. I supposed it was time they knew what I’d foolishly done when I was younger and why what Oliver had done hurt so much. Then they wouldn’t try to talk me into forgiving him.

So I told them all about Harry, how he’d used our sexual connection, my emotional one, and my pain to convince me to sell Red Rover. How he’d leveraged my trust to hide that the buyer, MuskOx Tech, planned to change the employment model to cut costs and all of our people would become independent contractors and lose their health benefits. And after, he’d let me take the fall in the media.

“So that’s why those women were so rude in Target that day?” Savannah asked.

“One of them lost her sister. Because of me.”

“It wasn’t only you,” Justine said. “Your board of directors and Harry all agreed to the deal.”

“Red Rover was a family—myfamily. I made promises to my people. Which I broke. I deserved everything that happened.”

“You tried your best to make it right,” Bridget said. “Your foundation helped. And your philanthropy is unmatched. If only everyone knew?—”

“No one needs to know,” I interrupted her. “I should have stayed hidden. Now when everyone at Discovery loses their jobs, they’ll hate me because I was complicit.”

“But you weren’t,” Carly said. “You didn’t know what they had planned.”

“I should have seen it. Bringing me in was their attempt to buff up the company. They probably positioned me to the buyer as some sort of exit-strategy specialist.” I gripped my glass to hide the tremble in my fingers.

Lucie poured more tequila into my glass and topped it with a splash of margarita. “If Oliver did that, he’s truly a dick. Danny’s got some beefy cousins who can go to his place and?—”

“He’s not like that,” Carly said. “He loves his company. He was trying to save it.”

“You talked to him?” I asked, my voice low.

“He came over the other night to get some advice from Andrew. He’s all alone,” she said, “now that you’ve left.”

Something cracked in my chest. I remembered the feeling of Red Rover slipping out of my hands like sand. Of feeling abandoned by everyone I’d cared about. Now he was going through it too. Despite how he’d broken my trust, I felt sorry for him and the pain he was experiencing. Only a little sorry. He was still a lying douchebag.

“He thought he could prevent the sale from happening,” Carly said. “If it helps, he regrets keeping it from you.”

“Regret doesn’t help anyone,” I said. “I should know, since I was holed up with mine for years. Only action helps.”

“Maybe you should take some action,” Carly said, “and try to help him.”

“At least help the people you worked with,” Bridget said. “Before it’s too late.”

“I don’t know.” I shifted in my seat, but stuck between Bridget and Savannah, escape was impossible.

Savannah put her hand over mine. “I think you feel conflicted because you love him and he hurt you.”

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