Page 237 of Enthrall Shadows
Reese and Lilly exited the car behind him. Finally, I withdrew from the shelter of our luxury limo.
Immediately I was met by flashing bulbs and a barrage of questions. Taking the slow walk down the red carpet, I felt loneliness sharpen its blade.
Politely, I addressed the occasional question.
Avoided a few, too.
Though mainly, I stood back and let others enjoy the limelight.
Just inside the hotel foyer, I waited for Reese and Lilly as they scurried off to the restroom, taking this time to check for any new messages.
I was disappointed not to see a text from Lotte. That made me uncomfortable. You don’t experience that much intimacy and not feel the loss of someone.
A young man in a bad fitting tuxedo walked up to me.
Shay intercepted him.
“I need to talk to you!” said the guy.
We’d never met, but I recognized his face from the reports I’d read on his company. This was Jasper Green, co-owner of Dandelion Diva.
We’d discoveredhisspy at Cole Tower over a week ago.
Only he didn’t know that yet. Or maybe he suspected it.
Our lawyers had struck a deal with Felix Jones, his corporate spy, providing more time to track messages between them. Dandelion Diva had continued to dig themselves into a deeper hole. They were amateurs.
They’d wanted to mimic Cole Tea and in doing so had inadvertently destroyed themselves.
By now, Jasper would have discovered his distributors had dumped his product.
“Did you gatecrash?” asked Shay.
Jasper’s face flushed with rage. “Mind telling me why our product is no longer being made?”
I straightened. “You need to get ahead of that.”
He glowered. “You overbid for shelf space in every store in the U.S.”
“We have a new product coming out,” I explained calmly. “My team may have overenthusiastically prepared.”
“Bullshit,” he snapped.
Shay pressed his hand on Jasper’s chest. “Step back.”
A wave of security guards appeared around us.
I raised my hand. “Let him have his say.”
“Reverse engineering is not illegal,” he said.
“But spying is.”
He swallowed hard. “Prove it.”
“Felix Jones no longer works for us.”
“Not heard of him,” he said, shaking off a guard.
