Page 102 of Forbidden Grumpy Boss

And then my phone rings.

I glance at the screen. It’s Richard.Prick.

“What do you need?” I ask when I pick.

He snorts. “Why do you assume I need something?”

“Am I wrong?”

The last time he called me, he needed me to bail him out of jail after driving drunk and fearing his father’s reaction. That was before Richard Sr. took ill. The time before that, when Richard called me, he needed something else, although it’s been so long that I can’t remember.

“Actually, you are,” he says, sounding proud of himself.

“Don’t waste my time, Richard.” I glance at Cassian, who’s shaking his head at his phone. He looks up at me, and I can see that he is dying to tell me something as well.

“Ugh. You’re gonna thank me when you hear this, but Henry Caldwell is dead. Just came in. Figured you’d want to know.”

I end the call, setting the phone down with a sense of finality. Cassian’s eyes meet mine, a quiet understanding passing between us. “Did he tell you—"

“Henry Caldwell is dead, yeah.” I nod, thinking of Kane. He must be devastated.

“This is an opportunity, you know,” Cassian says, his tone careful. “Shit, I don’t want to sound callous. I mean, I met Kane, and he was a great guy, but this is what you’ve been waiting for.”

“An opportunity,” I echo, the words feeling hollow even as I recognize their truth.

My fingers hover over the screen as I call Kane Caldwell, my voice steady as I offer my condolences. Kane’s response is brief, but there’s a hardness in his tone that wasn’t there before. “Silas, I’ll honor the agreement, but there’s one condition.”

I brace myself, not entirely sure what he’s about to demand. But then, I remember what I told him before I helped with his family’s debt. I made him fix things with his fiancée, Tamara.

“Are you gonna tell me to—"

“Fix things with Leah?” he asks. “Yeah. Fix things with Leah, man. Do that, and yeah, we’ll work out the deal.”

“Kane, look, this is different from—”

“I have to go make arrangements for my father’s body, Silas. It was good talking to you. We’ll circle back when it’s done.”

The call clicks off.

His words land like a punch, the final blow to an already bruised spirit. For a moment, I’m at a loss, caught between disbelief and the faintest spark of hope.

“What did he say?” Cassian leans forward. “You have to go to London?”

“He gave me a condition.”

“What?”

“Fix things with Leah,” I repeat the words with a bitter echo. “He wants me to fix things with Leah before we can talk business.”

Chapter thirty-five

Leah

If finding a jobwithout accidentally ruining my life were an Olympic event, I’d be taking home gold right now. Or maybe bronze, at best.

I’m staring at my laptop screen in a quiet little coffee shop a few blocks from my apartment, desperately trying to avoid my father’s world of corporate hell. At this point, I’ve almost convinced myself that sending out resumes to random companies is a sign of progress. Penny is across the table, grinning as she raises her phone.

“I don’t want a picture,” I say, covering my face with my hands.

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