Page 8 of How to Get Even

So, it had been a blessed relief to be able to beg off the family festive joy a little and focus on exactly what would be the perfect karmic comeuppance for a man like Chase Miller. And while her family thought that she was prepping for a job interview, which shehadbeen, she’d also been working out how to make a man like that hurt.

Because it wasn’t through his heart. He clearly didn’t have one.

No. It was his ego. His reputation. His standing in the art world.

Bella

Oh yes, don’t you worry about that. I have a plan.

* * *

Chase Miller had a headache. One of those take-me-out-back-and-kill-me-now kinds. It had, perhaps, been stupid to try and ‘smash it out at the gym’, even though sometimes that did actually work. Especially when the headache was hangover-related. Which it was. But the gym hadnotworked today, he reluctantly acknowledged as he swallowed down an entire bottle of electrolyte water.

Sweat stuck his vest to his chest, and his gym shorts to his ass in a unique and distinctly uncomfortable way. He just needed to get back in to his apartment, and then he could drown under the weight of the, as promised, impressive jets of water in the en-suite shower. Man, Tej really did love talking about that shower.

And he had not lied. It was an excellent shower.

He massaged his temples as the elevator rose from the basement gym to the lobby, where the doors slid open. Eyes closed, he heard someone shuffle their way into the elevator, just as his phone began to ring because, thanks to Tej’s insistence, the entire building was wired for Wi-Fi. Chase bit back a groan, accepted the call and tried to ignore the walking pile of boxes next to him.

‘You are not allowed to scare this one off,’ Tej announced by way of a greeting.

‘This one what?’ Chase growled. It was the third call he’d fielded from his old friend/new business partner that day.

‘You can thank me later.’

‘Thank you?’

‘You’re welcome,’ Tej announced with glee.

‘No, wait. What?’ Chase asked as he dug a thumb into his throbbing temple and fielded the cell and his water bottle in the other hand. ‘Who?’

‘The new director of comms. She starts Monday.’

Chase let out a scoff. ‘Shouldn’t I have had some say in hiring?’

The mountain of boxes next to him shifted their weight from one high-heeled foot to the other.

‘Yeah, well. We didn’t really have time to fuck around, my friend. We’re opening in just three months, and your last hire quit.’

‘Before I could fire her,’ Chase pointed out.

‘And this one can start tomorrow. So there.’

‘Name.’

‘Bella Carmichael.’

Chase frowned. Why did he recognise that name? Did he? Or was he just so hungover his brain was playing tricks on him?

‘She’s—’

‘A pampered princess socialite,’ he remembered now.

The boxes shifted again.

‘She has a degree in Business Management and Communication from Harvard.’

‘Theyallhave degrees,’ Chase ground out. ‘Isn’t her father something big in aerodynamics?’

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