Page 36 of Exposed

Me: Aren’t you supposed to be working?

Dominic: Securing you in every way is my job.

I smirked. Looking around the room, I figured I could sneak out for a few minutes.

Me: Okay, what suite number?

Dominic: 203, princess.

Me: Coming now.

“I’ll be right back. I need to slip to the ladies’ room.”

“Take Emmanuel with you.”

“I’ll be fine, too many people around for anything to happen to me.”

“All right, I will wait to do the intro until you come back,” Danielle called out.

Slipping off around the corner, I stepped on the elevator and headed up to the suite that Dominic reserved for us. A few seconds later, the doors opened, and I stepped off walking down the hall and knocked on the door. I checked the handle and saw it was already open. He must have gotten it ready for me knowing I was coming up. Opening the door, I walked inside and saw candles lit all around. I covered my face in shock.

“Dominic, this is beautiful. Where are you?” I remarked, shutting the door.

“Not here,” I heard a woman’s voice announce, and I turned to see Carol pointing a gun at me. Her face held a hard glare.

“Carol! Where’s Dominic?” I questioned, nervously stepping toward the door.

“Stop moving!” she shouted.

I jumped, stopping in my tracks. “Sorry, okay. What are you doing?”

“I’m claiming what’s mine. I’m tired of being dismissed and pushed to the side. You're not worthy of being the face and taking all of my ideas and becoming the star. I’m done fighting for my position to be the CEO of Raven.”

“I’m not the enemy, Carol, put the gun down and let's talk about this.” I tried to step back slowly toward the door.

“Stop talking! I knew if I could get Jacinda to pick up a story about you and cause a little interruption in the media, they would drop you and let me step in like I wanted in the first place. She’s too high up Dominic’s ass to see the bigger picture. Even those text messages they traced went back to her phone. I had everything planned out to get you to quit on your own and you didn’t. So now I have no choice but to end you,” Carol stated.

“You were the one that sent the first message talking about being my biggest fan?” I asked, remembering how the first one started right before I signed my contract.

“I didn’t expect for them to bring in a security team and Josslyn’s dumb ass kept emailing me about the formulas changing on her shifts.”

“You purposely shipped out a bad product to see the company fall.”

“Raven Cosmetics would be nothing without me!” she screamed.

Chapter Twenty-One

Dominic

Signing off on the last round of guests inside the party, I headed over to check in with Danielle and Zoe in the ballroom. My family was laughing and dancing with Novah and Emmanuel, and Lauren’s parents near the stage. I looked around and didn’t see Lauren with them and that wasn’t like her to not be in the center stage. Tapping Danielle on the shoulder, she turned, giving me a one arm hug.

“How is everything looking?” she asked.

“Everything is good, and we haven’t had any issues all night. Where’s Lauren?”

“She said she was going to the bathroom, but that was fifteen minutes ago. You think something’s wrong?” Her brow creased in worry.

“Raven Cosmetics went all out for the party tonight, I see,” Jacinda spoke, grabbing a glass of champagne off the tray the waitress held. I took it out of her hand and told her she didn’t need it.

---