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A snort came from Tian’s nose. “He’s no fucking Saint, Gree.”

“I know,” I bit back. “But neither are you, and neither am I. It’s just that-” I cut off with a heavy sigh, wanting to save the effort it was going to take to explain myself in a way that wouldn’t make me feel foolish.

“You blurred the lines between business and pleasure,” he finished for me, in a surprisingly soft tone.

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Yeah, I did.”

It sounded as bad as it felt.

With my heart barely able to function, I picked up my phone, held my breath, and dialed our legal department.

“Julius, we have a problem.”

Chapter 38

-Raf-

Walking down the gangway after arriving at Portland airport, Oregon, I remained blissfully ignorant about the press release back at Landon-Michaels PR. For the next six hours, I had one goal only; locate the seller of a 1959 Cadillac Coupe deVille and negotiate a sale on behalf of my client.

The plan was bust the moment I turned my phone on. Message alerts immediately poured in as I wove my way in and out of the crowd, striding quickly to get to the terminal exit. Multiple missed calls from Greer and Colton caught my attention, and my initial surprise started to ball into dread. There was no way Colt would be calling me like a desperate hookup at three AM unless it was urgent.

Gritting my teeth and dodging people who were not fucking watching where they were walking, I pressed the phone to my ear and growled with impatience as I waited for Colton to pick up.

He sounded breathless when he did. “Fucking Christ, Raf, you sure know how to bail when shit gets real.”

“The fuck do you mean?”

Colt’s laugh was borderline deranged. “What do I mean? The fucking media practically pissing themselves with glee over a new revelation about you; that’s what I mean!”

I instantly grew physically ill. “What the fuck is going on, Colt?” I growled, trying to not draw attention to myself.

“The goddamn press release!” he exclaimed.

Instead of seeking the exit, I detoured to a quieter corridor close to the bathrooms. “Yeah, that should be over by now.”

He coughed in disbelief. “You really have no fucking clue, do you?”

“About what? C’mon, man, I don’t have time for cryptic fucking crosswords; I’m in Portland on my way to purchase a ‘59 Caddy.”

“Two words, man…”

The seconds before Colton uttered those two words felt like minutes, then time slammed home with a force that made me stumble.

“Rafferty Delgado.”

“Fuck,” I whispered, though it was involuntary and more like a final breath leaving my now deceased body.

“Fuckin’ A,fuck!”Colton hissed. “Of all the things, Raf,theseare the skeletons in your closet?”

“No one was meant to know,” I stuttered.

Shock wave after shock wave rolled throughout my entire body. It hurt so fucking bad I thought my chest would explode. Each wave blinded me, squeezed my throat, numbed my limbs.

“No one was meant-” I panted, feeling a full-blown fucking panic attack creeping up.

I made it to a toilet cubicle just in time to purge my breakfast into the bowl, coughing and gagging when the rolling nausea failed to subside despite there being nothing left to give. I managed to keep a grip on my phone while bracing myself on the toilet bowl, completely forgetting that the call with Colton was still connected until his voice echoed around the stall.

“Didn’t appreciate listening to that, dude. Ring back once you’ve pulled yourself together.” The, “Jesus fuck,” was cut off as he disconnected.

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