Page 15 of Undeniably Corrupt
“I was. More or less.”
She shakes her head before she tilts it and studies me with narrowed eyes. “Vander, I haven’t seen you in—” Her voiceabruptly cuts off before she bursts out laughing, only there’s no humor in it. “It was you. It was you in the coffee shop. It was you in the club, too. Wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
She blusters out a harsh, nervous breath. “Oh my god. How did I miss that? Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
“I was shocked to see you, and you didn’t recognize me.”
“How is this even happening?” She covers her face with her hands before they fall to her sides, and the accusation is back. “How did you even find me? Are you stalking me?”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “No. It was all a coincidence. I swear. I recognized you in the coffee shop, but unless you recognized me, I wasn’t anxious for that reunion with how I looked. I told you I was working a case, and I was at the club for the actor. Not you. I wasn’t following you. I promise.”
She shifts her weight and glances past me toward the window as she tries to work this through. “Um.” She licks her lips and twirls her bracelet around her wrist, a nervous habit she’s always had, when her gaze slingshots back over to me. “Wait. What does that mean? There for him? Working a case? You’re not a cop.”
I don’t answer her, and when she realizes it, she runs her hands up her face and back through her hair.
“Funny how some things never change. Still evasive, I see. And I used to think it made yousosexy and mysterious.” She rolls her eyes derisively. “Okay. Fine. I’ll let that all go. But this morning. Just now.” She squints at me. “Did you get me fired?”
I nod and answer the same as before. “Yes, I did.”
She grits her teeth and grips the back of the chair she’s standing behind, looking like she wants to pick it up and throw it across the room. Or possibly at my head. “Why? Why would you do that? I need that job, Vander.” Her voice climbs in agitation. “I have a child to support, and that job got me a daycare slot at the university.”
The reality is, I can’t tell her the truth behind why I did all of this because she can’t know I hacked her. That I know all about her financial situation. All about her daughter, Hazel, and her ex. It’s a tricky conundrum.
“We have a daycare here that would be part of your employee benefits. It’s on the first floor, and I’m told it’s very good.”
She shakes her head and looks away, her chest heaving. “What the fuck is going on here? Like, for real. Please tell me now because this isn’t right, and it isn’t cool.”
I stand and head toward the window, keeping plenty of space between us. I fold my arms and lean back against the glass. “You’re a nursing student, and you dance at an exotic club. I was also at the café yesterday when you got a call from a daycare. I’m a smart guy, as you might remember, so I put two and two together. Liora, I want to hire you to be my executive assistant. The job pays a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, has full medical and dental benefits, tuition reimbursement, and as I just mentioned, daycare.”
Her eyes are wild, searching me for the truth. “Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you offering this to me?”
“Because I think you need it. Because your brother would want me to look after you.” Because I can’t stand the thought of you struggling when I can fix it.
She stares at me as if I’ve lost my mind. “That’s not your call to make. What gives you the right to do all of this? To insert yourself—unwantedly, I might add—into my life and fuck it all up? And how dare you throw Cass into this as an excuse to play twisted games with me?”
“I…” I trail off. But fuck, she’s right. What gave me the right to do that?
Holy shit. I stare at her bewilderedly.
Nothing gave me the right. I just did it as I always do. I expected her to be… I don’t know. Relieved, maybe. I didn’t expect her to put it together that I got her fired, but then again, she’s insanely smart, and I should have realized she would. Regardless, she’s right.
She’s totally and completely right.
What I did was sick and twisted and wrong. I thought I was being helpful. I thought I was doing right by her for once, when the reality is, I’m no better than her ex. I took from her. I manipulated her. Hell, I fucking hacked her. I inserted myself into her life when she didn’t want me there.
She has every right to question and be distrustful of me.
It’s the oddest thing ever. All the things I’ve done, all the people I’ve hacked, and I’ve rarely, if ever, felt any remorse about it. Until now.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” she berates. “What you’ve cost me? And for what? So you can feel like the hero? Take the girl out of the strip club and into the office, and hallelujah, she’ll be saved.” Her hands fly in the air before she regrips the chair, her eyes burning with vitriol. “Did you think because I dance in a club and show my tits that I’m a whore? Did you think I’d be so grateful for your offer that I’d blindly take this job and fuck you for good measure?”
My hands butterfly behind my head in frustration. “What? No. I. No. That’s not what I thought. I was trying to give you a job that?—”
“You think I’m going to start working here for you after what you’ve just done? You’re duplicitous and deceitful. Undeniably corrupt. I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
I stare at her, at a loss for words as a pervasive guilt burns through me, making my skin itch and my hair feel like it’s on fire.
