Page 94 of Due Diligence

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t think I should be talking about the guy I used to screw with the guy I’m currently screwing.”

I clicked my tongue. “I’m a details guy, so knowing there’s a story here without getting the full picture is going to eat away at me.”

“Are you jealous?” She canted her head to the side, just as the light from the window caught her hair. It pained me she had to be so gorgeous yetjustout of reach.

Quickly, I caught my bearings and said, “Depends. Does he fuck better than I do?”

“No.” Cass’s response was quick—quick enough that I could potentially believe her.

“Oh,” I commented, raising both eyebrows. I sat on this revelation before I said, “Yeah…I thought that reassurance would be enough for me to just let this go, but it’s not. What’s his name?”

“Trevor.”

“And he’s the one?”

“The one?”

“The one that you dropped out of law school to be with. I didn’t realize he was still around.”

“Well, he usually isn’t,” she explained. “I guess he’s just in town and he asked to see me. I haven’t seen him in three years.”

Of course. Of course this fucker would show up, just when Cass and I had a good thing going. I changed my mind—my karma was shit. I wasn’t blessed for good deeds in a past life—I was being punished for some capital malfeasance. Clearly.

“Great fucking timing,” I murmured.

Frowning, Cass looked up at me and shrugged. “I guess. We’re meeting up on Friday…Marcus, I thought you were okay with this.”

“I am.” It was a lie. It was a bald-faced lie. In fact, it was the first lie I had ever told her, and it was such a big lie that it was a genuine miracle I was able to deliver it with a straight face. “I just didn’t realize I was sharing you with an ex. I thought it would be random guys at bars and parties.”

“You’d prefer that?” Her tone was dubious. “You would be happier with me fucking a stranger?”

“Who cares what I prefer? I don’t get a say.”

“But if you did?”

Six-second reset.

“I’d pick the randos at the bars, Cass. I remember that guy who was trying to pick you up at Shelf Atlas the night we hooked up. He was spineless.” I shook my head. “No competition there.”

My laptop pinged and I looked down. I had a meeting with Alex on my calendar.

When I stood up to go and I explained this to Cass, she seemed surprised. I got it. Cass and I had been working together foralmost a month now, and this was the first real meeting I’d ever had with Alex.

I didn’t bother saying anything else to her about Trevor as I left. It was a welcome departure from a miserable conversation—and we both knew it.

Seconds later, when I walked into Alex’s office, he was lounging in his chair as usual. He smiled when he saw me.

“So what’s up with the big meeting? You calendared it and everything.”

I was still reeling from Cass’s announcement, but I shook that off quickly. I was the COO, and I still had an obligation to figure out what the hell was going on with our ledgers—even if all I wanted to do was fuck my due diligence analyst until she didn’t crave any cock but mine.

I took a seat on the other side of his desk. “I wanted to talk to you about some of our finances,” I said as I laid out the printouts I prepared for him. “I’m finding some inconsistencies I can’t account for and I’m hoping you can help me out.”

“In the finances?” Alex clarified.

“Yep.”

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