Page 113 of By His Rule

But my explanation doesn’t pacify them. If anything, it makes them more curious.

“Have you fucked her?” Kieran asks.

I swear, King leans in closer to give himself a better chance of hearing the answer.

Not fucking necessary.

“No. I have not fucked her. Nor am I planning to.”

“Liar,” King coughs like a child, making me roll my eyes.

He might be the oldest, and arguably the most sensible out of the three of us, but every now and then he proves that there’s still an element of that little boy lingering inside him.

“I am not,” I protest, although I’m barely able to believe my own words, so I’m not surprised when they stare at me in disbelief.

“She’s just…she’s having issues with her ex. She’s been the best assistant I’ve had so far, and I wanted to help.”

“By making a spectacle of yourself and the company? Didn’t want to wait until the world wasn’t watching?”

“Saw an opportunity,” I mutter before shoveling a huge piece of chicken into my mouth to give me an excuse to keep quiet for a few more minutes.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” King happily points out. “But you did the right thing. That prick needed to be taught a lesson.”

27

LORELEI

Unknown: My hand hurts.

I’ve been staring at the same message for the last five minutes, trying to get my head around it.

It’s obvious who it is. I don’t need to double-check the number that I haven’t bothered to store in my personal cell.

Did I think he’d reach out after the way we left things earlier? Yeah, I guess I did.

Did I expect him to send something like that, and to my personal cell, no less? No, I really didn’t.

What the hell am I meant to send back?

I’ve typed out a few responses, all of which I’ve second-guessed and deleted almost immediately.

Thankfully, I haven’t heard anything from Matt. However, I can’t help but think that that might be worse.

He could be at the station right now, reporting Kian for assault.

I cringe at the thought.

CFO of Callahan Enterprises arrested for the assault of his assistant’s ex-boyfriend…

That is not the kind of headline news I really want to wake up to.

In the moment, I was horrified at what I was witnessing, but now, a few hours after the event, I can’t help feeling a little smug.

Potential criminal record or not, Matt is currently nursing one hell of a swollen face, and when he wakes up in the morning, I have every hope that he’ll have an ugly bruise that matches his ugly morals.

Unable to come up with something more eloquent, I tap out one single word and finally hit send.

Lori: Good.

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