Page 52 of A Little Red
“I cannot believe…” He shook his head. “This is so not where I thought I would be a few months ago.”
“Well, Wolf, that’s what you get for talking to strange girls you meet in the forest,” said Scarlet primly.
“Little Red,” he said, leaning down to kiss her. “I do believe that you have completely lured me off my path.”
“Have I?” she asked, her eyes going big and round and innocent. “No, it couldn’t be. Everyone knows I’m the good girl.”
“Very good,” he agreed, kissing her again. “Very good, indeed.”
Episode 25
Afterward
Liam
Liam skimmed through the final page of the report and hit send.
“Mr. Grayson,” said his new secretary, giving a soft knock to his open door. Her name was Delores, and she smelled of menthol cough drops and wore a lot of cardigans. She was efficient, had three kids and gave zero fucks about being friends with him or knowing about his personal life. In other words, she was perfect. “I just got a warning flare that Brett is pissed about something and heading your way.”
“I’m expecting him,” said Liam, with a smile. “Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and let him in.”
“All right,” she said with a nod.
Moments later Brett stomped into the room, slamming the door behind him.
“You got something to say to me?” demanded Brett, waving the sheaf of papers that Liam had left on his desk.
“I thought those pretty much spoke for themselves,” said Liam, standing up.
“What the hell is this?” growled Brett.
“It’s your twenty-minute head start,” said Liam.
“What?” Brett paused, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
“Those are the emails from you to Applecourt that you tried to delete off the main server. You were helping him and those emails prove it. At the end of the week, I’m going to be sending them to our legal department and to Grant. I’m showing them to you now as a courtesy to give you the opportunity to quit.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” snarled Brett, striding forward to lean on Liam’s desk.
“Oh, Brett, you really ought to reconsider,” said Liam, smiling. “After all, I’m pretty sure you’ll need some family leave time to deal with your cousin’s funeral. Or haven’t they released his body from the morgue yet?”
Brett licked his lips and hesitated.
“Your cousin was Sam Hubbard, right? Did time for assault? Card carrying Nazi party member and the Temple of the Unified Vision?”
“I barely talk to that side of the family,” said Brett, backing off a half-step. “I don’t know what they’re up to.”
“But you told him about me, didn’t you? And you pulled Scarlet’s HR file—found out where she lived? You gave him that address?”
“I saw the way the two of you looked at each other. You were totally banging your secretary. I figured a little blackmail wouldn’t hurt.”
“Blackmail? You think that’s what was going on?”
A look of worried confusion flashed across Brett’s face and Liam could smell the sour stink of fear on him. Brett hadn’t known what his cousin was up to, maybe he’d suspected it was a little more than blackmail, but he hadn’t questioned it. And that was why all he got was a head start.
“Brett,” said Liam, baring his teeth in what might have been a smile, “you’re going to quit or I’ll do to you what I did to Sam.”
Brett took a step back, breathing heavily. “They said Sam was torn apart by coyotes or wild dogs or something.”
