Page 26 of The Master

“If any of this comes to criminal charges, I’m going to refer you to a friend of mine. He’s expensive as hell but worth every penny.”

The fact that she’d cursed told me how pissed off she was. She was a ball-buster both in and out of the courtroom and swore like a sailor when around friends, but I’d never heard her use any vulgarity when working.

“Do you think it will come to that?” I asked.

“It’s hard to tell. In this charged political climate, with men all over the place being charged with all sorts of harassment and the like, the police might decide to investigate even if those three don’t officially file charges.”

I nodded, letting out a breath. That’s what I’d been thinking.

“I’m going to ask you some things that you probably don’t want to talk about, but I need you to be completely honest. I’ve been outlining strategy since I first saw the news, but what path we take is going to come down to what answers you give me.”

“All right.”

“Have you talked to any of the three women involved, Calah Evenstar, Flora Watts, or Roma Lynn, since the story broke?”

“No.” I didn’t add that I’d wanted to but decided against it because I knew things would be bad enough when I told Jailene about paying blackmail money to Flora.

“Good. Have you had sex with all three women?”

She knew about Calah since there’d been some speculation after the issues with my brother and the band made a few waves.

“No. I was with Calah only that once, years ago. Roma was my girlfriend for a while, and she wasn’t happy when I ended things. Flora was an employee only. I’d never even spoken to her before she was suspended for inappropriate workplace behavior.”

“But you did fire her, correct? Not just suspend her.”

“Right. I filed all of the necessary paperwork with HR. There was a follow-up incident too, with a friend of Flora’s, a young woman named Clara Dayton. She was fired after stealing a flash drive of proprietary information from another employee’s desk.”

Jailene frowned. “Did she act alone or with Miss Watts?”

“Flora was already gone when Clara did that, but the two were known to be friends, and the woman Clara stole from was one Flora was angry at.”

“Would that be Ashlee Webb, the woman named by all three women as having slept with you in order to receive a promotion?”

Just the mention of the accusation made me clench my jaw. “Yes.”

“Have you slept with Miss Webb?”

“Yes.”

Jailene sighed and rubbed her forehead as if I was giving her a headache. “When?”

“When have I slept with Ashlee?”

“Yes, Nate. When did you sleep with your employee? Was it before or after she was promoted?”

I bristled at the implication but held myself in check. Jailene had to ask questions like this, and I needed to remember that what I’d done hadn’t been smart, but it also wasn’t what I’d been accused of.

“The first time Ashlee and I had sex was a few months after she was promoted. I hadn’t even spoken to her beyond a basic greeting.”

“The first time?” Those slate blue eyes narrowed. “How many additional times have you had sex with her?”

“She’s my girlfriend,” I said bluntly. “That word makes me feel like a teenager, but it’s the truth. We’re dating. We were actually in the Hamptons together when the story broke.”

“Lovely,” Jailene muttered. She jotted something down and then looked at me again. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. I hope you don’t have anything else to do this afternoon.”

Not anymore, I didn’t.

If I was lucky, I’d be able to head over to Ashlee’s after Jailene and I were done. Before I got the chance to find out if she wanted a visit, however, a text came through. Jailene wasn’t happy that I paused our discussion about whether or not my recordings of my time with Roma would have a positive or negative effect on my circumstances, but she appeared slightly mollified when I had information for her.

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