Page 58 of Office Affairs

The large pendulum clock in the corner ticked away the passing seconds. I left them all sitting there, stewing, while I considered the best approach. “We’re not leaving here today until we have everything out in the open.”

Garrett’s mouth opened, and I warned him with a look that snapped it closed. I meant everything. Even our relationship with Sabrina. One look at her and the hardness gripping my heart eased. She’d worked her way through every defense I’d built into my life, the missing piece of happiness I’d chased for years. Now that I had her, I refused to let her go. Maybe that was wrong of me, of us, considering her father was our friend. Love never understood those types of boundaries. Love conquered almost every obstacle, if people were willing to take the risk and fight for it.

Taking a moment to compose my thoughts, I shoved my emotions back into their box. “It makes no sense that Sabrina would be involved.”

Chase surged upright, only for me to push him back down again with a warning look. “She didn’t disclose her identity.”

“No.” I agreed easily enough to settle him. “But we were missing tech before she arrived, and we haven’t lost any since she started.”

“Could be a fake trail. Get us focused on one thing, while she takes it all.” Garrett’s hands locked so tight together that his knuckles cracked.

I didn’t believe that, but I had to let them get their thoughts out in a calm, rational manner so we could make progress toward our goal. They were hurt by what they considered Sabrina’s betrayal. It bothered me too, but I was willing to look past that in hopes of reaching a real conclusion. I expected Chase to come around as well. Garrett worried me the most. His temper typically burned out, but not this time. Not based on the glaring looks he kept sending Sabrina’s way.

“She came into our office with all these ideas and helped us better our company,” I reminded them.

Leon sat back in his chair, his face a mask of confusion. The man had no idea his daughter was amazing. “She never should have been there.”

“Why not?” Sabrina stood and moved to my side. Anger flashed in her eyes and she gave Chase a fuck-you look that made me smile. “I’m good, Dad. If you would have just listened to me. I wanted to work for you. I begged for a job, but you ignored me, shunted me aside, and basically told me I’d never make anything of myself. Now you have the gall to be mad because I took the initiative and made things work my way?” Her body shook, the repressed anger in her voice dropping it to a tone I’d never heard from her before. “You don’t get to treat me like that. Like I don’t matter.” She thumbed her chest. “I matter. I matter and Keith matters. And what we need matters. They gave me that.” She included all of us with a broad sweep of her hand.

Leon’s face purpled. “What does that mean?” The color deepened all the way to his hairline, where a vein pulsed. He glared at Chase. “Earlier, you asked if she told me about you. You said us. What did you mean?”

Chase’s expression cracked, a split-second of his emotions filling his eyes when he turned away and scrubbed both hands down his face. “Christ, Leon.”

“You slept with her.” Leon gripped the chair arms, his fingers digging into the soft fabric.

“We all did,” I admitted my part with pride, including Garrett because it mattered. “We didn’t know she was your daughter, but it wouldn’t have mattered.”

Sabrina sucked in a shocked breath and staggered until I rested a hand on the small of her back.

“He’s right.” Garrett’s anger shifted and retreated. He entered his protective mode with the same kind of intensity he put into every aspect of his life. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I’m sorry that it happened this way, and you found out like this. That we all found out like this, but it’s too late to take it back, and I wouldn’t even if I could.”

I’d never seen Garrett string together so many words in one breath unless fueled by anger. Seeing him driven to guard Sabrina out of love, it gave me hope for the future.

Leon’s look of disgust tightened my hand on Sabrina’s back. Her spine stiffened beneath my palm. “I knew who they were, and I did it anyway. I’m not sorry either.” The look she gave her father bordered on hatred. “You never cared what I did before. Why bother now?” With that, she turned away. “Come on, Keith. We’re going home.”

I followed her to the couch where Keith had watched everything happen. A ball of regret punched through me. That was the only thing I’d take back, that the poor kid saw all this and would have the memory living in his head for the rest of his life.

Quiet voices filtered in from Chase and Leon. The two continued the conversation, with Garrett emphasizing certain points throughout. “I don’t think it’s any of your business,” he said in response to Leon asking how many times Sabrina slept with us. “Did you ask her previous boyfriend that?”

“Is that what you’re calling yourselves, her boyfriends?” Leon sounded furious, which fueled Garrett.

His scoff carried more weight than a submarine on land. “Please tell me you’re not going to try and school us on our relationships. Not when your wife kicked Sabrina out of her own home.”

“Sabrina.” I hated the thought burrowed in the back of my mind, but something about the way she looked at us bothered me. I understood that things were stressful, but even last night when we first arrived at her house, I’d felt the change in her.

Sniffling and dashing away another stream of tears, she held Keith’s hand and started toward the door. “What?”

I let her get far enough away that no one would hear me ask, “Is there anything else you need to tell us?”

Pure, unadulterated panic snapped onto her face and jerked her to a stop.

31

SABRINA

“Not here.” I tucked Keith in close, and the fact that he didn’t complain worried me. He was appropriately affectionate but had reached that stage where hugs from Mom were borderline gross. “Please, Russell. Not right now.”

He must have read the need in my expression because he backed down. Where Chase or Garrett would have pushed, Russell gave me room to breathe and I took it. “When?” Quiet concern made me ache to reassure him. Anything else I might have said disappeared with the look in his eyes. It hooked deep and asked me to have faith in him. In them. I didn’t know if I had any left to spare. “Tonight.” I risked squeezing his arm. “Call me once they’re ready to talk.”

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