Page 80 of Serving the CEO

A minute later, Derrick’s name jumped out at me, bold and stark in the sender line, the email subject left blank.

Dread gripped me by the throat as I opened it.

Ms. Ellis:

Since you decided to break our contract, please be advised that our agreement is null and void, effectively immediately, resulting in the following:

Ms. Gold is no longer employed at Broker Publishing. She may collect her personal belongings from the HR Department after noon on Monday or you may retrieve her things for her.

The book contract you wanted to offer Ms. Hayden is off the table and I don’t believe she’s a fit for us. She’s welcome to submit the work to me personally but I’m unlikely to change my mind.

Your parents will be expected to vacate the building as previously scheduled, along with the rest of the tenants.

The permanent position offered to you in the company is withdrawn. You will now report directly to Drew Wolff for the remainder of your original contract, after which point your employment with us will be terminated.

Derrick Thomas

CEO, Broker Publishing

Numb, I leaned back against the headboard and stared blankly at the screen. I’d understood all of the words, of course, but my brain refused to process what they meant.

This couldn’t be happening.

Logically, I knew I shouldn’t really be surprised. We had signed a legally binding contract and I’d been the one to breach it. Sure, I hadn’t expected to fall for him, but this…This wasn’t the behavior of the man who’d run across the yard to save my cousin’s hand or who’d scoured the city for a poetry book I’d once mentioned in an interview. No, this was the guy who’d fired my friend for a mistake. I hadn’t wanted to believe that the latter was the real Derrick Thomas.

Jami had tried to tell me.

Even my own instincts had been clamoring for me to listen up.

But I’d thought there was something more to him.

Apparently, I’d been wrong.

Squeezing my eyes closed, I breathed out slowly and tried to cool the pulse of anger beating inside me but I wasn’t having much luck.

Theasshole.

I’d given him threefuckingmonths and he yanked everything back?

Everything.

But of course he did.

The prick.

It didn’t even matter that Jami had been specifically requested by Martin Danbridge, or that the project had been falling apart without her. No, all that mattered to that fucking bastard was that he have his revenge for not getting what he wanted, the rest of the world be damned.

How could I have fallen for an asshole like that?

Noise at the door had me leaping up, my mind crazily painting a picture of Derrick waiting on the other side of the door to tell me that he’d made a huge mistake.

I was halfway across the living room when the lock was flipped and Jami came in, carrying an insulated tote in one hand and a reusable cloth shopping bag in the other.

She caught sight of me, and her eyebrows went up.

“You look ready to kill,” she said. “And here I am, bringing ice cream and booze, all the shit you need for a good, long comfort chat between girlfriends.”

“Give.” I held out my hands and madegimmemotions. “I need booze and ice cream, so I don’t commit murder.”

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