Page 85 of Bad for Business
“Sorry?” Dad laughs before shaking his head. “Sorry isn’t an explanation.”
“I was sick,” I begin, telling a half-truth. Iwasreally sick. It just didn’t last three days.
Dad watches me for a moment, his eyes narrowed slightly as I can pretty much see the gears in his head turning. Does he believe me? Maybe. Is he still pissed? Absolutely.
I keep quiet, knowing that’s the best thing to do right now. I have no idea why the two of them are standing here, and I really want to ask, but I’m also trying to figure out how I play it off so they don’t suspect anything is going on between Ryker and me.
My heart pounds as I try to come up with a way to spin this. It’s my job to spin things, to tell half-truths and polish up lies. I can do it this time too.
I just have to think.
“Wait, baby!” Ryker calls from down the hallway, his voice closer than his room.
I close my eyes, a pit settling deep in my stomach at what’s about to happen. I can’t even open them when I hear Ryker’s footsteps get closer. Dread spreads throughout my entire body because this wasn’t supposed to happen. Things are about to take a turn for the worse, and I have no one to blame but myself.
I was careless.
I knew better.
What was I thinking?
FORTY-THREE
RYKER
My stomach dropsthe moment I see both my dad and Camille’s dad sitting at the kitchen table.
“Fuck,” I curse, the word leaving my mouth in a hurry. I look over at Camille, but she won’t look at me. I want to reach out and touch her, to have some sort of connection so she knows that we’re going to figure this out, but I know that’s the last thing she wants me to do right now.
A sinking feeling settles deep in my bones as she continues to stare at her feet. I can’t help but worry that all the progress we’ve made and everything we’ve been through will be for nothing.
“What the hell is going on?” Troy asks, his voice low and controlled, as if it’s taking everything in him to keep his composure.
I look at him, wishing I wasn’t having to meet his eyes as I stand in nothing but my boxer briefs. “We can explain,” I begin as I look at Camille once again.
She’s shifted her attention to her father instead, and I don’t know if that’s better or worse.
I need to know that the woman who asked me to stay is still in there. That our fathers finding out doesn’t change things. I need to know we’ll figure it out, because while this is incrediblyinconvenient and I know both dads are probably going to be pissed, I don’t care what happens as long as things don’t change with Camille.
“Is this how you do your job?” Troy asks, his voice getting louder as he stares at his daughter. “You whore your way into your client’s bed to get him to listen?” he spits.
Camille jumps at his words. It’s small. A reaction so minuscule that anyone else might even notice it. But I did, and his words, coupled with her reaction, have me seeing red.
I take a step forward. My posture is rigid as I meet his angry glare. “Don’t talk to her like that,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
Troy has the nerve to fucking laugh. He cocks his head to the side as he looks between Camille and me. “I’ll talk to Camille however the hell I want,” he barks, and the way he speaks about her makes my skin crawl. He says it with zero respect and absolutely no love, which only makes her words from a few minutes ago ring through my mind.
This man has never shown her love, and yet it’s obvious by the way she looks at him that his opinion of her matters. He doesn’t care about her the way a father should care for their child, but she clearly cares for him, and I fucking hate it. This man doesn’t deserve anything from her.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Troy demands. “Tell me that you didn’t break the biggest policy I have in place. Tell me you didn’t crawl into the bed of a man so pathetic that he had to hire help just to get his family’s board to like him.”
“Troy,” my dad warns, his tone pissed. “You don’t get to speak to my son like that. Take a breath.”
Troy’s head whips to my dad. “Take a breath? I haven’t heard from my employee in over a week, and when I arrive to check in, I find her fucking her client instead of working. I have the rightto react however I want since it’s my employee and my name she’s representing.”
I rip my gaze from Troy and look at Camille. I don’t miss how he doesn’t even call her his daughter. He calls her hisemployee.
All she does is stare at her dad. There’s a resigned look in her eyes, one that I hate. She doesn’t stand up for herself. She doesn’t fight him. It’s so unlike her that it breaks my heart. I’m well aware of how much she likes to argue. How much she can fight back. I never expected her to let anyone talk to her like that, but it seems to be different when it comes to her dad, and I can’t wrap my head around it.
