Page 48 of Man of the Year

He motions to the door. “Come with me.”

“Julien?” I insist, not moving. “Where’s the girl?”

“I said, inside,” he snaps, making my stomach turn. Julien doesn’t snap. He doesn’t raise his voice, doesn’t lose composure. Except tonight.

We walk down the hallway to the staff kitchen. It’s empty. No Rosalie. No catering staff.

“I thought you were supposed to keep an eye on everyone here,” I say bitterly and cross my arms over my chest.

A familiar voice out in the hall approaches, and Nick storms into the kitchen, followed by Rosalie.

“He wasnotsupposed to drink tonight!” Nick shouts, whipping around to confront her as she lowers her head submissively, her eyes cast down. “How did he get ahold of booze? How?”

It’s the first time I’ve seen him angry. He stalls when he notices me, but his eyes right away shift to Julien. He steps up to him and grits out, “Ex-plain.”

Julien’s jaw tics. “I saw one of the caterers give him a drink. It looked like iced tea.”

I still like an iron rod. Julien just covered for me. Nick is the one who hired me, I’m sure he wouldn’t say anything to me. So then why did Julien lie?

“Iced tea?” Nick snarls. “Iced tea doesn’t get him deliriously drunk. Why didn’t you check?”

“Check what, Nick?” Julien asks, standing in front of him in his usual bodyguard pose. “What was I supposed to do? Come up in front of a hundred people to my boss, take the drink out of his hand, and sniff it?”

Nick ruffles his hair, rolling his neck in annoyance.

“The caterers weren’t warned about Mr. Rosenberg and alcohol,” Julien continues, blinking slowly. “We can’t exactly tell them, ‘Don’t serve booze to the guy who owns the house, the billion-dollar company, and everyone else around.’ And we can’t tell them he has a drinking problem. Not now. Not when his company is about to grow tenfold in value.”

Nick rubs his face with both hands, exhaling in frustration. “We are all supposed to make sure things go smoothly. Not like the last time. But here we are!” Nick looks at Julien again. “Did you send the girl home?”

“Yes.”

My eyes snap at Julien, who ignores me like I’m not here.Send her home? That’s how Nick put it? Does he even know she was drugged?

Nick sighs loudly and leans on the counter with both hands, hanging his head. “When he wakes up tomorrow, I’msofired. All of us are.”

Rosalie looks from under her eyebrows between Nick and Julien. “If I lose my job, I’m blaming you two.”

That makes Nick chuckle as he pushes off the counter and walks toward the door. His last words before he walks out are, “Let’s hope he doesn’t ruin our lives in revenge.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

NATALIE

“Your shift is over,” Julien says to me when Nick walks out. “Meet me outside when you get your stuff.”

I get my things out of the locker and walk out into the night. It’s quiet outside. Someone must’ve turned off the music on the terrace. At the front of the house, car doors slam and tires hiss against the driveway as the last guests leave. There’s no one around, and this might not be a good time to be alone with Julien, but I need answers.

“What did you do with the girl?” I ask as I stop in front of him.

We are standing just outside the staff entrance. The night is pleasant, but this place suffocates me with its secrets. I can’t wait to get out of here.

“We took her to her place and called 911,” Julien says, his hands in his pockets.

“And you know where she lives?”

“We know everything about all our guests. This is not exactly the average Joe’s crowd.”

“She was unconscious, Julien. I heard a gunshot. Tell me what happened.”

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