Page 86 of Date with a Devil
They sat quietly and stared at the waiting room TV.
He had to admit, he was disappointed. If anygood could come from this broken hand mishap, it was that they’d have a few more months together before he got traded—maybe that would be just long enough to see if they had a future together. He understood she felt guilty for hurting him, but wasn’t she at least alittlehappy to hear that he wasn’t going to be traded right away?
But she just stayed silent, her expression grave, as if something greatly disturbed her.
Dane wrapped his hand around her thigh and gave her a shake. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
“Sorry. I’ve got a lot on my mind.” She shook her head. “Dinner was really weird.”
“That’s right—the promotion. How’d that go? You said something about Thayer being a creep. What happened?”
She blew out a heavy gust of air. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“How about the beginning?”
After a lot of hemming and hawing, Austen finally started telling the story. As it turned out, her old position was eliminated. And thenewjob sounded great, until, well, Thayer made it clear that he was expecting sex in return.
“Jesus,” Dane said, clenching his good fist. “That rotten sonofabitch. I told you he was a piece of shit. I couldkillthat guy.”
“Please don’t. After everything else I’ve done to your life, I’d really hate to be the reason you end up thrown in prison.”
“Why don’t you complain to HR? Get his ass fired for sexual harassment. That kind of shit doesnotfly these days.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“He’s got blackmail on me. Although now that you’renotbeing traded because of me, I’m not even sure if it matters anymore?” Her eyes rolled upward in thought. “Ugh, I don’t know. I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do, Dane.”
“Wait, what? Blackmail?”
Austen explained how she’d threatened to write about Hathaway and Campbell and the gag order. Thayer threatened her and said if she caused any problems with the trade, he’d ruin her life.
“And how exactly could that loser ruin your life? What kind of blackmail could he possibly have on you?”
“He knows aboutus.”
“Bullshit. Even if he did, so what? How would that ruin your life?”
“Take a look for yourself.”
She opened her bag and pulled out a folder. She reached into the folder and pulled out a stack of photos that she handed over to Dane.
Dane saw the first one, of Austen standing by his front door last night. “Whoa, what the hell? He hired a PI?”
“Yup.”
He flipped through the first few photos. “Okay … but how much could they have really seen? There’s no way they got any pics of the pool. I’ve got a ten-foot tall privacy fence surrounding my backyard.”
“Skip to the photos towards the back, then.”
Dane flipped to the back, and his eyes bulged when he saw the photographic evidence of Austen’s head bobbing over his lap.
“God damn. Sneaky fucker must have one hell of a camera lens. I’m kinda impressed.”
“Do you get it now? Thayer says if I write anything about your situation, he’ll leak these on social media. It’ll destroy my reputation, Dane. Google my name and this is what you’ll find. How am I supposed to work in the media after that? How am I supposed to workanyjob after that?” She sighed. “So that’s it. Thayer won. And now that I’ve broken your hand, you won’t be traded. So he just might release these and destroy me anyway, because I dared to get in his way.”
Dane looked at her. A smile crept across his face, growing wider, until he began to shake with silent laughter.
