Page 37 of Married to My Master

Jas smiled uneasily and gave Emily a confused look. “Uh, sure?” she asked, her laugh uncertain. “Is that okay with you, boss?”

Emily glanced up at Dane and could tell from the slight curl in his lip and the glint in his eyes that it had better be okay with her. “Why wouldn't it be?” Emily asked, like she knew she was supposed to, smiling widely. “Let me go get some shoes on and put on a change of clothes, and I'll head right out.” She disengaged herself and headed back to her bedroom, her palms clammy with sweat.

“Why don't you have a seat in the living room?” Dane asked Jas, as Emily turned the corner and headed down the hallway.

That look in his eyes had been unsettling—almost terrifying. What could she do, though? Emily trusted him not to hurt Jas, as long as Emily kept her end of the deal, but what if something happened to her on the way?

“Hey, babe?” Dane called down the hallway, as he went to catch up with her. “Hold up a second.”

Emily turned as he came down the hallway. “What?” she hissed quietly.

“Two hours,” he said, his voice low and menacing as he snatched her arm and pulled her close. He leaned down, his face barely an inch from hers as his eyes stabbed her through like knives and held her attention. “That's all you get. You bring me the back-up files, you keep the cops out of it, or you know what happens to Jas. You know I'm capable of it, too.”

Two hours? That was it? Emily swallowed and shook her head. “What if I get into a car accident? Or something happens to the file?”

“Guess you're going to have to pray for good luck,” he growled softly, then pulled her in and gave her a cruel kiss.

She grunted, but kept herself steady, feeling that familiar warmth within her growing between her legs. He was such a terrifying bastard, but there was still something about him that really got her engine going. Her legs even began to wobble as he reached down, grabbed her ass hard, and pulled her into him.

He pulled away, breaking the kiss. Her lips still stung with his heat. “Two hours,” he reminded her.

She nodded, her knees still weak. “Two hours,” she whispered back, as he released her from his hold.

Chapter Sixteen

Emily

She stormed into Edward Barker's office and slammed the door behind her.

She was livid. Not only had this man betrayed the trust of thousands of first responders by forcing a drug on them that didn't work, but his actions had also gotten her and Jas wrapped up in the middle of this whole thing with Dane. Responsibility rested squarely on Edward's shoulders, and she knew it.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Edward said, getting up from his desk, hands out in front of him, a stark look of surprise on his face. “Don't shoot, Emily, I come in peace.”

“Shut the fuck up, Edward,” she snarled, as she planted her fists on his desk and glared right at him.

“Hey,” Edward said, taking a step back as he made a disgusted face, “I don't need to take that shit from you.”

“You don't need to take that from me, huh?” she spat. “You, the lying bastard who got Hymalete through approval, when you knew it was a faulty drug?”

Edward's face went carefully neutral, and he simply shrugged, then gave a little grin as he sat back down in his chair, like none of this was anything major. “What of it? Of course, I got it through approval. That's part of what we do. We sell drugs, and we make money. This is America, Emily.”

“But our drugs didn't work,” she hissed. “There are people who took it, hoping to end their suffering, and it wasn't any better than a goddamn sugar pill.”

“But they made us a lot of money,” he retorted.

“I should have you fired for this,” she growled, channeling a little bit of Dane.

Edward looked levelly at her, his eyes searching. “Oh,” he said, smirking. “You're serious, aren't you?” He cackled, actually cackled, a sound as annoying as broken glass and nails on chalkboards. “You think I managed to swing this on my own?” he asked, laughing again.

“When the board hears about—”

“The board?” he asked, cutting her off, then sputtering out more demeaning laughter. “The board, Emily? Do you know who helped me do all this?”

They actually helped him? They were in on it the whole time, and maybe directed him to commit fraud like this? Was this a wholesale conspiracy on an institutional level? She straightened up and took a step away.

“You know,” he said smoothly. “If you keep pushing and pushing and pushing on this, Emily, I think you're going to find that the tables can turn on even the CEO of a company. You think they're going hang their head of sales and marketing out to dry? A man who's made billions for them? Or some upstart CEO who just got the position? In fact, as much as it's already hurt us to quietly remove Hymalete from the market, you might be pushing them too far already.”

She thought she just might break down in tears right there. Not from sadness, or from hurt, but shear anger over how completely she was painted into a corner. Emily cleared her throat and took another step towards the office door.

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