Page 45 of Enemy Boss

“Correct,” I say icily and then I elaborate slightly. “In fact, they are the company’s biggest competitor, and the McPherson Financial Solutions contract was going to ensure that we stayed heads and shoulders above them. And it still will, no thanks to you.”

I expect my final line to get some sort of a reaction. A denial or the startled look of a rabbit caught in headlights, but no. She has the fucking audacity to look at me like I have the lost the plot. I am not going to fall for her shit. She knows exactly what I’m talking about, and I know she does, and what makes it even worse is that at this point, she knows I know that she knows. But maybe she still doesn’t know for sure how much I know, only that I know something. It’s time to lay my next card in her lap.

“Ok, I get it. You want to know how much I know so that you know how much to admit to. Well, I know all of it, but I’ll play along,” I tell her. “Bill Bryson is the head of new customer acquisitions at Cyber Safe. Do you know what his job is?”

“No, because I don’t know him,” Max says. She stops there and I wait, an old police trick to keep a suspect talking by leaving an uncomfortable silence they feel the need to fill. It works, but what Max says next doesn’t give much away. “But if I had to guess, going off the job title, I would say he is in charge of getting new clients for his firm.”

“Ring a ding ding,” I say sarcastically. She looks like she’s about to say something else, but she had her chance to talk and it’s my turn now and I don’t let her interrupt me. “Imagine my horror when I get a call today from Bill Bryson. Because we might be rivals, but Bill is like me – old school, and he likes to play fair. He told me that he got an email from you with the full proposal I put forward for Mr McPherson. Care to explain that?”

She blinks at me a couple of times like she is shocked I have said that, but I think she is using this time to come up with a response. I wait. I have all of the time in the world for this.

“I can’t explain someone else’s actions, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say he is doing it to put you on the back foot and make you question who you can trust. That gives him the opportunity to sweep in and take McPherson Financial Solutions business for himself while you flounder around wondering what happened,” Max finally says.

I almost laugh. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it as sure as hell wasn’t that.

Chapter 34

Cullen

“Wow. You are brazen,” I say. I don’t laugh, but I do shake my head in wonder. “In a grudging way, I almost admire the sheer balls it takes to sit there and not only lie to my face, but to then have the sheer audacity to look angry at me.”

“I still don’t know what the hell you are getting at here Cullen so instead of sulking and making half accusations, can you please just tell me what the hell it is that you think I’ve done?” Max says, her snapping tone matching her angry expression.

Fuck it. I’ll tell her exactly what she’s done.

“Bill didn’t lie about getting an email. He knew every detail of the proposal down to the price I was charging and why I was offering such a big discount. And he told me the email was sent from you,” I tell her.

“And you just believed him?” Max says, doing a decent impression of a shocked expression.

“Of course not,” I say.

I’m well aware that I don’t need to explain myself to her at this point, not after what she has done to me both personally and professionally, but I also want her to know that I didn’t automatically think the worst of her, that I did at least consider the fact that Bill could be lying for some nefarious purpose, much like the excuse she gave me earlier where she said he might be doing it to get in my head and distract me from the end goal. Max raises an eyebrow like she doesn’t believe I would question it, and although I again tell myself that I don’t need to prove myself to her, I find myself explaining what happened just the same.

“I gave you the benefit of the doubt and told him to prove it. He forwarded the email to me and then I couldn’t tell myself he was lying anymore after that. I don’t get it Max. What did I ever do to you that made you want to destroy me like that? I gave you a job when no one else would, and you sell me out like that. What did he offer you? Extra money? A company car? Better annual leave? What? And you know what? I couldn’t have forgiven you, but I could have shrugged it off as it being business and some people can’t be trusted. But you would have gotten inside information like that about the company without you worming your way into my bed as well as my office,” I say.

I didn’t mean to let the hurt show, but I can’t help it. At least I said bed and not heart. Max is looking at me like I’m crazy again and it makes it worse that even now with the evidence lined up against her and the damage done, she still wants to keep up her story.

“Are you fucking kidding me Cullen? It’s bad enough that you think I would leak company information to anyone, but for you to actually think I would seduce you just to play with you. What sort of a person do you think I am?” Max demands.

For a moment, I pause, not wanting to go down this path, but no. I will have my say. After what she’s done, she doesn’t get to sit there now and take the moral fucking high ground.

“I don’t know anymore. I thought I knew you, but obviously I didn’t know you at all. You know, you shouldn’t be wasting your time working for me or Bill Bryson. You should be an actress because by God you are good,” I say.

“It’s easy to act innocent when you are innocent,” Max says.

I don’t know why it keeps surprising me that she’s still sticking to her story, but it does. I figured there would come a point where she would have to admit defeat and just admit what she had done, but it seems that nope, it’s not going to come to that. I wonder if I had footage of her sending the email – which I obviously don’t – that she would still try to say it wasn’t her, that the cameras were somehow wrong. Probably if her insistence on her lie right now is anything to go by.

I have had enough of this dance now and I no longer need her to admit the truth to me. I have accepted that isn’t going to happen, and I will learn to make my peace with it. I just need her out of my office and out of my life.

“You know what? I’m done. You’re not going to have the balls to admit to my face what you’ve done, so whatever, go and slither off and find someone who employs snakes, because you’ve shot yourself in the foot at Cyber Safe, they don’t work like that. And you’ve certainly shot yourself in the foot with me. You’re fired Max. Get your stuff and leave immediately. And get your stuff out of my house before I finish here today because anything of yours left behind will be getting thrown into the trash,” Cullen says.

I watch Max as the mask of anger slips off her face, and instead, she looks upset. Tears come to her eyes and start to roll down her face. At first, it sends a pang of pain through my heart to see her crying, and it takes everything I have not to go to her and hold her, but I stop myself. She is playing me still and I’m still falling for it. I roll my eyes like there was never any danger of it working on me.

“Save the water works for someone who hasn’t seen through your bullshit,” I snap.

I was probably harsher in my tone than I meant to be, but I’m fed up with her taking me for a fool and maybe it’s about time she knows that her actions will have consequences, including me telling her it like it is.

My harsh tone seems to get the message through in a way my questions didn’t penetrate, because Max stands up finally. I remain sitting and wait for her to leave. She has one more parting shot before she leaves and she bends down slightly and puts her palms on my desk and then she looks me in the eye as she speaks and her voice, although slightly tearful, is clear and strong, and for a moment, she almost has me fooled once again.

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