Page 66 of How to Get Even

‘God no, I need to save his career while he still trusts me to do it. If he gets wind of this, there’s no chance he’ll let me anywhere near him or the gallery ever again.’

‘Of course.’

‘I just need time to think.’

‘But if you need anything…’

Bella nodded.

‘It’s going to be okay,’ Sienna assured Bella.

‘It really is,’ Paige echoed.

They just had to bring Chase’s reputation back from the brink and assure that from the ashes of almost assured destruction, Nayak New York would rise like a phoenix.

She didn’t have the faintest idea how, but if she could get him into this mess, then she would get him out of it.

She could do this. She had to.

* * *

Bella would never know how she got through the rest of the day at the office after Tej dropped the truth bomb on her. But she did know that she strong-armed the PR company back in line, barely letting Chase or Tej get a word in.

‘What kind of PR firm can you call yourself if you fail to handle one single defamatory article for your client?One. Has anyone come out of the woodwork with anything other than rabid curiosity? No. Has Julia made any statements to any kind of misbehaviour on behalf of Nayak’s Gallery Director? No. Have clients? No. Have fellow artists? No.

‘And are you not currently representing one aspiring senator with several pending criminal charges and one banking CEO with five fraud charge? Yes.’

‘They were just charges.’

‘And this isjust an article. Pull up your sleeves, and get to it.’

Despite taking a chunk out of Magenta for getting cold feet, she and theybothknew that ignoring the article would get them only so far. They’d brainstormed a few ideas throughout which Chase had rolled his eyes and groaned, stopping only when Bella had glared across the table at him. He wasstillfrustrating her at every turn, even now that she was trying to save him rather than ruin him.

What they currently had planned for the promotion leading up to the opening would stay in place, but they needed somethingmore.

When Bella had mooted the Harrison’s annual charity gala at the end of the month, Magenta had scoffed, and Chase had growled. Tickets sold out usually on the day of release which was an entire eleven and a half months ahead of the infamous event that was the Met Gala of the charity calendar.

Cara from the PR firm had suggested that she call her father and the room had gone deathly quiet.

‘I won’thaveto call my father if you do your job,’ she’d said snappily and conversation had been quickly steered towards what Nayak could offer. It was at that point that Chase had reached his limit and she had closed down the meeting before it could get any worse.

As they’d left the office, she could have sworn Tejyou go girl’d her, under his breath. Chase had simply watched her, his gaze unfathomable.

Bella let out a half growl, half urgh, that sounded something like someone being murdered and stared at her computer screen two hours later. It was all very well and good to bring publicity to the gallery. But what they needed was something very specifically aboutChase. They needed something redemptive. A Good News Story. Which of course he would hate. Which had her growling again.

‘Go home, Bella,’ Chase ordered as he stalked past the office that she was in alone.

‘You’re still here,’ she yelled back.

‘Go home. I need you back here bright, sparkly and slightly less murdery tomorrow,’ he said, stalking back past the office on the way into his.

She glared at him, but he was right.

She needed to get out of here. She needed to get back to her apartment and she needed the girls.

* * *

‘How’s she doing?’ Tej asked, passing Chase a beer and lifting the lid on the most delicious pizza any New Yorker had ever known.

---