Page 27 of How to Get Even

‘You looked like you’d had a shock,’ Chase replied defensively.

‘And your solution is to feed me alcohol?’

‘I asked,several times, if you were okay and you didn’t reply,’ he said, brushing his shirt and tie down with a napkin.

She swallowed around a slightly raw throat – though she couldn’t precisely say whether that was from the alcohol or the coughing and sank into the sofa. Where did she start? She knew where.

‘Why did Julia quit?’ Bella demanded.

‘What?’ Chase’s response to the question was confusion.

‘I want to know why Julia quit?’ Bella asked firmly. Lack of information created a vacuum, a vacuum filled with far-reaching answers, all of which were beginning to make Bella faintly nauseous.

Chase sat in the chair opposite, peering at her until understanding dawned in his eyes. His hands fisted and flexed on his thighs.

He looked her hard in the eye.

‘Whatever you’re thinking, it’s absolutely wrong,’ he said, slashing his hand through the air.

‘You don’t know what I’m thinking,’ Bella replied, trying to keep her cool.

‘Don’t ever play poker, Carmichael.’

‘This isn’t a time for jokes, Chase,’ she said, with all the poise she didn’t feel.

She could see the muscle in his jaw flickering from the pressure he’d applied to his teeth.

‘Julia is in Cabo.’

‘What?’ Bella asked, not expecting the answer.

‘She didn’t even bother handing in her notice. Her father – a friend of Tej’s – called me one morning to tell me Julia wasn’t coming back and that he’d pick up her things just before the office closed for Christmas,’ Chase declared mutinously.

‘Cabo?’

‘Yes, Bella, it’s where…’

Spoiled socialites, Bella’s mind filled in the blank left by Chase’s words.

‘Rich kids go to have fun,’ he finished pointedly, as if Bella didn’t know how to have fun.

She knew how to have fun! Shedid.

Bella sighed, smoothing the sides of her hair back as she gathered her thoughts.

‘She was a silly kid with no skill and a whole lot of desperation, whose father’s intervention put her in a position she wasn’t ready for,’ he explained. ‘There’s nothing more to it.’

‘Okay,’ she said, ordering it in her mind. ‘And the featured artist?’

Air punched out of Chase’s lungs.Jesus Christ, she was hitting him with both barrels today.

‘How did you know about that?’ he demanded, rising out of his chair.

She glared at him and he couldn’t quite work out whether her famous poise was holding her tongue, or just because she was that angry.

‘Our PR firm heard rumours. Do the team know?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he confessed, taking a breath. ‘I’d wanted to be able to present the team with a solution.’

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