Page 68 of Hard Limits

“She isn’t, but she doesn’t mind taking one for the team if the need arises.”

“But…but…” For once in his life, Brax was speechless. “I mean, how did she get involved? Jerry disappeared after we left Blackstone.”

“She might have disappeared from your life, but she never disappeared from mine.”

So many secrets…

“What did you do, call her up and ask her to honeytrap my wife?”

“Pretty much, yeah. She hates Carissa too.”

“I didn’t realise she’d ever met Carissa.”

“She hadn’t, but Carissa finished her shampoo once and failed to replace it. So inconsiderate. Anyhow, enough chat about the past. Let’s worry about the future. There’s nothing in your prenup that says the adultery has to be with the opposite sex. Don checked.”

How had they even gotten a copy of the prenup? Brax opened his mouth to ask, then closed it again. He kept a scanned copy on his laptop. Alexa rooted through his files at will.

“That’s correct,” Don confirmed. “There are no restrictions on species, gender, or sexual orientation.”

“Your court appearance is at four, and Don’s started revising the settlement to represent the fact that you spent eight years making all the money and she’s just been spending it. But you’ll probably want to get your lawyer on board as well. He’s more familiar with the details.”

“How did you know?”

“About the court appearance? It’s in your calendar.”

As a private appointment, but that made no difference to Alexa.

“No, that Carissa would go for Jerry.”

“Oh, that was thanks to Ruby. She mentioned to Grey that Carissa hooked up with a friend of hers, remember? You told me two months ago.”

“How did that help? It happened before we got married.”

“Because I asked Grey for more info, and he said it was a bartender named Tony.”

“And?”

“Ruby’s bartender friend was Toni with an I, not Tony with a Y. Antonia. A woman. So that piece of info set the ball rolling. Did you know Carissa sleeps with her assistants? Every single one of them is either bi or lesbian.”

Chase moved his legs in a hurry as Brax slumped onto the couch. His head was pounding now.

“No, I didn’t know.”

“We started going after the ones who’ve quit, but they’re under heavy NDAs. Hea-veeee. I’m talking black holes. Ari’s been chasing them all over the East Coast, but only one would talk, and that was off the record. Carissa’s been rubbing your nose in it for years, dude. While you’ve been losing your mind through abstinence, she’s been having nooners before she goes to the spa. But her current squeeze is on vacation, so we figured she’d be gagging for it. A splash of alcohol, a few suggestive words, and voilà! She has a thing for redheads. Did you spot that seven out of her nine assistants have had red hair?”

“I never noticed.”

Should he have done? Carissa had never gone out of her way to introduce Brax to her staff, but the information had probably been in the investigative reports. Now he was kicking himself.

“That was actually Ari’s observation. Anyhow, it’s done. Now you can negotiate a new settlement and drop-kick the bitch out of your life. I need more coffee. Can someone get me more coffee?”

Chase jumped to his feet. “On it.”

Brax needed to call his lawyer and get him here pronto. Alexa…she’d just changed everything. And so had Meera. By resisting temptation that night in Virginia, she’d allowed him to keep the upper hand, and now he’d win the war. Brax rose too, and this time, he kissed Alexa on the head.

“Yeuch,” she said.

“Thank you.”

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