But Lexie seemed to roll with his demands despite the fact that he could be a pain in the ass. The truth was, there was also part of him that liked to see how far he could push people before they walked away … because they always did.
Except for Derek, Luke, and once upon a time, Julian. Brothers in fraternity and in reality. Julian had chosen drugs over his best friends. Demons and addiction had driven him. Kade didn’t worry about anything pulling Derek and Luke away. They were solid. They were his family.
Now there was this spitfire of a woman who’d barreled into his life twenty-four hours ago, and he couldn’t think of anything else. He’d be a damned liar if he didn’t admit that after she’d left, her scent lingering in his apartment, he’d wrapped his fingers around his cock and brought himself much-needed relief. He’d come all over his hand like a horny adolescent, Lexie’s face in his mind, imagining it was her body he was fucking instead of his hand.
He tried to remind himself that she worked for him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He still wanted her. Just as he knew she could and probably would let him down.
Without warning, his office door banged open, hitting the wall behind it, and his partners stormed in.
Derek took one look at him and asked, “What’s with that grin on your face?”
Feeling like an ass, Kade ignored the comment. “What’s wrong?” Because they hadn’t come barreling in for no reason.
“We have a fucking problem,” Luke said.
Derek slammed the door shut and hit the lock. That meant shit just got real. “What’s going on?”
The two men glanced at each other.
“Just spit it out,” Kade ordered them, not enjoying being in the dark.
“Somehow Julian knows,” Derek said. “And this company and everything we’ve worked for is in jeopardy.” He didn’t need to elaborate.
There was only one thing Julian could have uncovered that would threaten everything they’d built—were building.
Kade was the weak link and he knew it. “How?” he asked his friends.
“He hired a PI who went digging through your past.”
Kade didn’t have to ask why Julian had gone after him and not the others. When shit had gone down with Julian, it was Kade who’d stood by him the longest … until he hadn’t. Couldn’t. Not anymore. Once he’d sided with Derek and Luke, agreeing that Julian’s refusal to get treatment would only drag their business down, Julian had been thrown out of anything to do with Blink—and the money that came with it.
Julian made it clear he blamed Kade. Because he’d been closer to Kade than to the other two men. It was Kade on whom he’d seek revenge.
Although Kade’s father had tried to make certain the past stayed buried, nothing was foolproof.
“How did he uncover the information?” Kade asked.
Derek ran a hand through his dark hair. “He found Lila.”
“Fuck!” Kade slammed his hand into the wall, not caring about the consequences.
“Hey, man, calm down. We’ll counter anything he throws at us,” Luke said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Really? We’re taking this company public. You think a date rape accusation against one of the CEOs won’t hurt? No matter how false it is?” His breath caught in his throat, panic surfacing along with the memories.
He’d been twenty-one and a cocky college junior, home from school for Thanksgiving break, and determined to break free from the geek stigma he’d been nailed with in high school, like he already had in college. He’d met Lila at a neighborhood bar. He’d been attracted to her the minute she walked through the door, with her short skirt and I’m available attitude.
They’d fucked that night and he’d felt like a king. Until her parents showed up at Kade’s house, accusing him of raping their daughter. When she’d come home the night before, her controlling father was waiting up, figured out she’d been with a guy, and turned furious. She’d claimed Kade had drugged and raped her.
Kade had wanted to fight the bullshit accusation, but his father preferred to pay in order to make problems go away. Without Kade’s knowledge, he’d gone to Lila’s parents and thrown money at them to prevent his son from being arrested and put in jail, the rest of his life ruined.
Except Kade knew he hadn’t drugged or raped the girl, and going to the cops would have at least proved she’d lied about being slipped a roofie. There was no evidence now beyond he said, she said. He’d begged his father not to pay them off. But Keith Barnes had spent his life trying to make it up to Kade for losing his mother and brother. He thought money fixed all things, and there’d been no deterring him. He’d paid off the family.
Kade’s father wasn’t an idiot. He’d had the parents sign a nondisclosure agreement. But they could have run through the money, or Julian, the bastard, could have offered them even more to snitch.
Fast forward to today—he said, she said was enough to scare off potential shareholders in his soon-to-be public company. So was the payoff. Everyone would assume Kade had something to hide. For all these reasons, he’d confided in Derek and Luke just last year. He felt they needed to know before they took this company to the next level. They’d immediately stood by him.
“Breathe, man,” Luke said. “We’re going to get enough on Julian to bury him. That’ll ensure this stays dead and buried too. I already called Evan Mann. He’s a PI with a solid rep. We’ll get this sorted,” he assured him.