Page 74 of The Bargain

“Great and possibly terrible. I might have found a job, but what I need is to find Sebastian. Do you know where he is? Has he returned to the office?”

“What do you need him for? Has he screwed up something else?”

“No! No!” I tapped my brakes as the cars ahead of me slowed. “I need to find him to apologize to him about how I overreacted.”

“Um…from what you told me, you didn’t overreact at all. I’m pretty sure you went too easy on him.”

His kind words made me smile, but this was not helping me right now. “Kaylan,” I growled. “Have you seen him? I need to beg him to give me a second chance.”

“Really? Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Kaylan! I thought you liked us together!”

“I do. Er…I did. But he hurt you bad, and I think he should suffer a lot more. You lost your job, and that put your family in danger.”

“Oh my God, when I see you, I’m going to strangle you. Sebastian didn’t mean for this to happen, and he’s already done so much to help my brother. I need to see him.Now.Please…”

“Okay. Okay. He’s here, in the office, but not for long.”

“What?” I screeched. “What’s wrong? Where’s he going?”

“Um…his private jet is fueling up at Lunken now. He’s flying over to Paris for a week or so to meet with the distribution team there.”

“Shit,” I hissed. My hands were so tight on the steering wheel, my knuckles ached. “He’s there. Do you know for how much longer?”

“Well, he popped down to talk to the CFO, but after that he has to come back up to collect the information I’m compiling for him and a couple of other things.”

“I need you to stall him.”

“What?” He sounded as though he thought I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had, but I didn’t care anymore.

“I just passed the BMW Store and Red Bank Road. That puts me about ten, maybe fifteen minutes from downtown. Call security and arrange for them to allow me up. If Sebastian tries to leave before I get there, stall him.”

“How? Should I tell him you’re coming to see him?”

“No! Don’t do that!” For a second, I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest. “What if he doesn’t want to see me? Telling him I’m coming there could make him leave even faster.”

“And this is the guy you want to make up with?”

“Kaylan! You’re killing me!” I whined. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Okay! Okay! I still think he needs to suffer, but if you think he’s going to make you happy, who am I to stand in your way?”

Fucking exactly.

“I’ll go break the printer and call up IT to mess with it. That’ll definitely buy you at least twenty minutes.”

“Oh sweet God, thank you,” I moaned, no longer wishing I could pound my head on the steering wheel. Kaylan wasn’t normally this difficult. I couldn’t only imagine that managing Sebastian was driving him a little crazy.

“Don’t forget that you’ve got to park under Fountain Square when you get here. That other lot close to the office is full at this hour. Come up using the south staircase.”

“Got it! Thanks for your help!”

Kaylan ended the call, and at last I could breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he’d reminded me about the parking. There was one lot near the office that was exclusive to Courtland employees, and I would have gone straight there out of habit. The only problems were that I wasn’t an employee, and it would be completely full at midday.

But now that I had Kaylan working to keep Sebastian in place for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, I could focus on the next problem—what in the world was I going to say to Sebastian that would convince him to give me another chance? How was I going to prove that I was worthy of it? That I would not abandon him the next time things became difficult for us?

I mean, the first test was a hard one. I’d lost my job and had no way of supporting my family. My reputation had been ruined, or so I’d thought.

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