Page 42 of Boss Level

Elliot scrubbed his face. “It’s not. You know I can’t give this place up any more than you can.”

I did. This would be a lot easier if I believed otherwise. “If you stayed, would you stop seeing Link?” I already knew the answer, but if I was wrong, if I had that to go into the meeting with, it would be an angle to negotiate from.

Elliot’s lack of an answer was all the confirmation I needed. He loved the job, but even if he hadn’t admitted it to himself, he loved Link more. I couldn’t imagine, but I’d be glad he had that if it wasn’t threatening to cost him so much.

I had other meetings to be in before the big one, so I pushed back from my desk. “Stay here until it’s time. I’ll see you in the meeting.”

The mood in the office was somber and oppressive. A week ago, we’d all been riding the high of a game launch, and now everyone was wondering if we were about to lose one of our own. By the time the board meeting rolled around, I needed a resolution.Now.

As I was heading toward the small conference room, my phone rang. “This is Judith.” I paused in the hallway as I answered.

“Hi, it’s Claire. Dale’s wife?”

What? “I remember you.” And I didn’t have the time or patience for small talk. “I’m sorry, I’m about to walk into an appointment.”

“That’s okay, it won’t take long. I was wondering if maybe you and Dom— Dominic want to have dinner with us tonight.”

Double what? I really didn’t have the bandwidth for this. “I don’t know. I’ll have to call you back.”

“Yeah. Okay. Talk to you in a little bit. Good luck in your meeting. Appointment.”

“Thanks.” I’d wonder more about the call, but I was walking into a shark tank.

There was no need for introductions. Elliot, Scott, Grant, Oliver and I were the board, and Ivan would take notes.

“So there are no misunderstandings, we need to state why we’re here, and what we need to accomplish by the end of the meeting.” Grant had been an investor in Rinslet since its early days, and was happy to fund AcesPlayed when we branched off to do our own thing. He was typically a silent partner, unless he thought his money was at stake.

And I didn’t like him stepping in and taking control. This was my meeting. “The chat logs from our game that were recently made public involve Elliot Howard, one of our board members and one of the more public faces of the company. While this exposure wasn’t his doing, the content contained within puts us at a serious legal risk.”

“But does it really?” Elliot asked. “Nothing contained in those chat logs violates the rules of the game—a game that exists specifically to allow this kind of interaction, among other things. Anyone who supports the game can’t find fault with what I did.”

I was torn between wanting to gag him and agreeing completely. The problem here was that we could only govern ourselves until we had to mingle with the outside world. Then we were subject to their perceptions.

“It’s not about what you did, it’s about who you did it with,” Oliver said.

The edge in his voice added to the one slicing through me. Xander was positive he’d vote to keep Elliot. That Oliver was here to represent the majority interest at The Raphael Group.

I wasn’t sure I trusted that.

“Who I did it with? A woman whose face I never saw and whose real name I never asked for or wanted? Who, the chat logs will show, consented to and appeared to enjoy everything we did.”

I already hated that Fallyn had been sucked into this. A woman I really only knew through videos, but whom I had the utmost respect for. She wouldn’t be his shield in this meeting. “Do you want to bring her into this? Because that’s one more name—one more person you benefit from influencing—and things are already bad for you. And her.”

Elliot snapped his jaw shut.

“We’re talking about a man who works for you,” Scott said. “Whose career you hold in your hands. Who you have power over and who you have the ability to fire in a blink or destroy his career.”

“But I wouldn’t.” The force of Elliot’s retort came fast and hard.

Scott frowned. “It doesn’t matter.” Did his tone soften? “You could.”

“You’re going to look me in the eye and tell me you would’ve done things differently with Kenzie? With—”

“Watch it.” The warning leaked into Scott’s tone.

What I was doing with Xander—was it the same thing we were talking about stringing Elliot up for?

The thought hit me hard.

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