Page 71 of Boss Level

The rest of the room exploded in an array of chatter, keystrokes, and other indiscernible white noise.

“You can’t fire me.” Chris scoffed. “I willsueyou.”

Good. He was welcome to fucking try. “The best fucking contract lawyer in the country owes me a favor.” My brain fumbled on the words, but I didn’t let it show. “We’ll mail you your things.”

I stepped aside and let Link and his imposing stature handle making sure that Chris left the building.

“Any questions?” I asked the room. Silence met me, which I wasn’t surprised by. Everyone else here was still part of the team. I needed to dial back the empress inside. “You can come to me if you want to talk privately.” I softened my voice. “Or HR. Or anyone in management. We’ll tell you as much as we can. You’re all doing an incredible job. Keep up the great work.”

No one said anything, but the clacking of keys told me they were messaging someone.

I wasn’t worried about it.

Instead, as I walked to my office, I was worried about my own fuck-ups. I’d been playing house for the last two weeks, and someone in my actual house,mycompany, was fucking with my people.

The conversation with Claire from last night rushed back in vivid, painful detail. I’d sworn when I was younger, when my dad kicked me out, that I’d never lose myself for a relationship.

I’d come close in the last fourteen days. Closer than I should have for Dominic and Xander, and I wasn’t evenwiththem.

It was time for me to let go of the pretending. They were moving on with their real relationship, and I was standing in the middle of what mattered the most to me.

Regardless of what the bitter taste in the back of my throat meant, when I thought about putting distance between me, and Xander and Dom.

24

dominic

The morning was stuck in my head as I walked into the law office. Judith’s panic about the game crashing, about having to hear the news from someone else, was expected.

The way Xander had pulled away from her before that…

Not so much.

I was okay—more than okay—with the idea of sharing his heart with her. I’d always known what they were to each other. The day I met them, I saw their connection as distinctly as if an actual red thread of fate tied them together.

If I didn’t love him, if I didn’t lo— want her to be part of us, it might be a tougher truth for me to face. But I didn’t have a problem admitting I wanted both of them. When I was with the two of them, it was the one time I felt at peace. I was me. I was more than me. I was part of something incredible.

My issues were with asking Judith for the ring back. With telling her the engagement was over. With the way Xander was fighting against her staying in our lives as much as she had been recently.

That she ignored what we were and that he pushed her away.

What was I supposed to do, trapped between the two most stubborn people I knew? And the two people I loved.

“Roger is waiting for you in Conference Room B.” The receptionist’s comment dragged me back to the now. “With Dale.”

What? “Thanks.” Now I was on high alert. I strode toward the room in question, knocked on the closed door, and pushed in without waiting for an answer.

Dale was seated at the table across from Roger, who rose with a smile when he saw me.

I didn’t like the way this looked, and I certainly wasn’t walking into the room without knowing what this was.

“I’m glad you made it back before we finished,” Roger said. “Give you a chance to welcome Dale and his firm aboard in person.”

Fuck me.

The look on Roger’s face was distinctlyplay nice. You know how this works.

I was so doneplaying nice. “I don’t think I will.”

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