Page 59 of Rise

“Why the hell don’t you answer your phone?” Yasmin shouted.

“What? I was in the shower.” What had happened now?

“Get back to LA like right now. Like yesterday.”

♦

Chapter 17

“Megan.” Leo came around the corner of her cubicle. “Got a minute?”

“Got a minute” were the three little words no minion ever wanted to hear from their manager. Even last night’s marathon phone call with Alessandro couldn’t protect Megan from the dread that clutched her heart. She stood and followed Leo back to his office. Heads turned to follow her passage. She kept her head up, but her brain was pinging around like a squash ball, trying to find the file where she kept tips for dealing with being fired from your own family’s business.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Leo said as soon as he’d closed his door behind her. He didn’t even ask her to sit. “I just want to know if you’re okay.”

“Oh.” Megan let out her breath, which turned into an exasperated “Huh!”

“That good, huh?” Leo smiled.

“I’m sorry about last night,” she said. “And this morning.” She waved a hand at the floor. As though she could see down nine floors and outside to the so-called journalists who had accosted anyone who came out of the building last night, asking if they knew her. Terry had met her at the elevator and all but mowed the cameras down getting her to the car. This morning, tape was in place and extra security guards were checking building IDs before letting people through. Her circus was turning into a… what was crazier than a circus? A monster truck rally? And Megan and her colleagues were somehow stuck on the dirt, dodging the amped-up trucks, breathing in the toxic fumes of tabloid journalism and celebrity gossip.

“Don’t apologize,” Leo said. “But…”

She knew it.

“Look,” he said. “You’re the best employee I’ve got. Forget about your last name. I mean you.”

Megan hadn’t expected that. A little of the pride she’d felt at being good at her job came back to her. She’d all but forgotten it. “Thanks, Leo. That really does mean a lot. And for what it’s worth, this has been my favorite department of them all. By far.”

His lined face relaxed. “I appreciate that. It was going to be hard to say goodbye to you anyway. But since you were going to move to manufacturing at the end of the month and your projects here are pretty much wrapped up, we were thinking—”

We.

As if summoned, Kane threw open the door to Leo’s office and strode in. “C’mere,” he said roughly and pulled Megan into a back-cracking hug.

Megan hadn’t realized until right then how much she needed that hug. She clung to Kane, not caring that Leo was watching. He was the father figure Kane had needed, so he was family.

“Why didn’t you call any of us back?” Kane asked, pushing her away from him so he could look her in the eyes. “Not even Thea or Sam?”

Or him, she read in his eyes. “I just needed a break,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t understand.

“Are you mad at us, too?”

Megan looked away, shielding herself from the hurt in his voice. “No. I just… needed a minute.” She didn’t know how else to say it. She couldn’t tell him that she now understood how much of a strain being around her family was, just as much as being around strangers. It wasn’t their fault; they hadn’t asked her to do it. But Kane would be even more upset if he knew, and Megan wasn’t going to do that to him.

“I hoped you’d come see me yesterday, but then we got the word about the crowds, and I had to work on the security, and then you were gone. And you didn’t answer your phone. Again.”

“I have a new phone,” she said, remembering anew as she said it. How was she going to get used to this? “I’ll give you the number, and I’ll pick up. I promise.”

“And will you talk to—”

“No.” The very hint of talking to Cat made her stomach drop. “Not yet.”

Kane dropped his hands from her arms. “She doesn’t understand what she did.”

“She”—Megan backed away from him, reaching for the tips of her hair—“didn’t do anything. Not specifically. Not on purpose.”

“So why—”

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