Chapter 5
BLAKE
I was halfway down the hall when I realized I had no idea where Cassandra’s office was. Or if she was even going there. It was lunchtime now. Maybe she’d left, and I’d have to find her phone number to call her. But I didn’t want to do that. This had to be dealt with in person. Then I heard voices.
I found Cassandra around the corner, standing with another woman dressed all in black. The other woman looked up when I appeared, and Cassandra turned around, following her gaze. The way she stiffened when she saw me made my guts twinge, but I gave a smile as if nothing was the matter.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said.
“Can it wait?” She still wanted to murder me.
Maybe if she gave me a chance to explain, she wouldn’t have to keep being so goddamned angry.
“Not really.”
Cassandra’s eyebrows went up.
“It’s fine!” said the other woman. Clearly, she sensed the tension.
“Reese,” Cassandra said, putting on what might be construed as a smile. But it was nothing like her real smile. I knew what that looked like.
For a flash, I was back on that island, her lip under my thumb.
“This is Blake Harrington,” she said finally. “He and his wife Lila”—once more she punched the word out—“are the consultants I mentioned at the manager meeting last week.”
If I heard wife come out of her mouth one more time…
“They’re going to be doing an operational review on the resort. Blake, this is Reese Franco, L’Aubergine’s manager.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Reese,” I said, forcing myself to look at the other woman and extend my hand. She was pretty, with sandy blonde hair tied up in a bun.
“We need to talk,” I said to Cassandra, trying to contain my impatience.
“I’ll see you later, Cass,” Reese said after politely shaking my hand.
“We’re short-staffed this weekend, so I’m heading to the floor.
I’ll be at dinner tomorrow too,” she said to Cassandra.
“I’ll take your table until Coco takes over at nine.
” At this, Cassandra looked relieved, though she only smiled briefly. “Thanks Reese. I appreciate it.”
The other woman was just walking away when she froze, her eyes widening.
I turned to see Eli, similarly frozen, behind me. I could sense the awkwardness as they exchanged stiff hellos, then both carried on, Reese down the hall and Eli out the door, but not before glaring at his sister.
When I turned back to Cassandra, all I saw was her back as she rounded the corner up ahead.
“Cassandra,” I said, my voice hard, jogging after her.
“They have history,” Cassandra said, without turning around. “They dated, briefly, after Eli’s divorce. Being an idiot, he dumped her and is now pissed that I dared to hire her at the restaurant.”
Frankly, at the moment, I didn’t give a shit about Eli and his relationship issues. “She seems nice,” I said vaguely as we reached the exit door.
“Oh, are you interested?” She pushed through the door, sending sunlight streaming inside. “I think she’s single.”
That was like a swift kick in the gut. “Jesus,” I said.
“I’m not—” I followed her outside, heat roaring in my chest. We were on the back side of the resort.
Out here, beyond the concrete landing and steps, thick trees lined a forked path—one side led into the trees and the other around the building.
“Goddammit, will you let me talk?” I snapped. Right. Yelling—that would solve this problem.
Yet it seemed to work for the moment. Cassandra turned around, fire in her eyes. “Why should I let you explain yourself? There’s nothing you could tell me that would make what happened this morning okay.”
I gritted my teeth. “Cassandra, it’s not how it seems between me and Lila.”
“Oh no? What, do you have, some kind of open relationship?”
“It’s not like that either.”
“So you were just going to cheat, then?”
To my astonishment, her eyes went glassy with tears.
I knew, then, why this was so huge. Someone had done this to her.
I took a step toward her. “I would never cheat. My dad, he cheated on my mom,” I said.
“Several times.” I couldn’t keep the vitriol from my voice.
“It destroyed our family.” Dad had left Mom for his secretary—the most clichéd trick in the book. He was now on wife number three.
Cassandra studied me. For the briefest moment, I could swear it looked like she wanted to believe me. And that somehow felt worse than her not believing me at all.
“I was going to fire you,” she said. “But you knew that, didn’t you? That’s why you launched into your little sales pitch. You wooed my brothers and sister right under my nose because that’s what you do, isn’t it? You spin things.”
The heat came back, burning up my lungs. “That’s not fair—”
“Oh yes it is. You think I can’t fire you now? Because I can. I—” she took a breath, hesitating. Then she said, “Actually, you know what? I am firing you. Right now. I didn’t want to hurt your wife by letting you go, but—”
“We’re not married.”
Cassandra froze.
Fuck.
Exactly three people knew our marriage was a sham. Cassandra made four. I fisted my hands, but I didn’t let my eyes leave hers. I was trusting her with the truth. Which she could easily use to destroy me.
Cassandra’s brows bunched together. “What?”
Absurdly, I thought of something my father used to say. He may have been the reason for every single one of my issues, but he’d wedged a few gems between his constant disapproving remarks. Don’t be chickenshit, Blake. When you mess up, say what you need to say and do it with surgical precision.
“Cassandra, I should have told you who I was this morning. I didn’t recognize you at first. But when I figured it out, I should have said something.
But I was afraid of…” I realized I was afraid of this.
Of fucking blowing it. “We were never married. There was a wedding, but the paperwork wasn’t real.
We’re not in a relationship at all.” Surgical precision.
A beat passed. Then she said, “Why?”
Where everything had come out clean a moment ago, here I hesitated. This was Lila’s secret. But it wasn’t entirely, was it? It wasn’t only for Lila that I kept this charade up. In the end, I settled on the least complicated part of the truth.
“It’s for our business. We’re Mr. and Mrs. Shark. It gives us our competitive edge.”
“Bullshit. I saw you up there. You were on fire. You could do this work on your own, and she could too.”
But she was wrong about that. “Why did you hire us? I know you called Goldman.”
I didn’t have confirmation of this, but Lila said after she talked to Cassandra that she’d said she was looking at all her options. Harrington and Goldman were the top options.
Cassandra pinched her lips.
“You liked that we were married,” I said. “Right? Lila and I are good on our own, but we’re exceptional together. Better than Goldman at what we do. But people don’t know that. They go with us because they like the image we present. Devoted, loving, husband-and-wife. We make them feel good.”
My tone was bitter. I knew it. But I couldn’t stem the anger spiking through everything.
This was the life I’d gotten myself into.
It was my own damn fault. Maybe I could branch out on my own.
But it wouldn’t be the same. It would be like starting over.
I’d have lost everything I’d worked for.
Plus, I had no idea how to work without Lila.
We were a well-oiled machine. And what would happen if that broke?
If I had to start all over again—maybe not from the bottom, but definitely from several steps back?
A whole flight of stairs back? What would my father say?
What would Lila’s parents say? They were the reason for this whole charade. I hated them.
Lila would be disowned. While she wouldn’t face the kinds of repercussions she might have back when she was still living at home, her relationship with her parents was everything to her.
They were close. She was their darling—they’d named their foundation after her.
For her, that relationship was more important than her business.
It was her whole damn life. And mine. If Lila and I went our separate ways, I’d also have to face the fact that I spent so much of my life hiding behind a facade.
“I won’t do it,” I said. I used a tone that told her I wasn’t going to back down on this one, because I couldn’t. I made a promise to Lila. I’d made a promise to myself.
Cassandra examined me for a moment, then shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Blake. I have no way of believing anything that comes out of your mouth.
I don’t even know if what happened this morning was—” She flushed.
“I’ll get my lawyer to sort out the contract.
We’ll terminate, I’ll pay you what we owe you and we can—”
“You can’t afford what you’re paying us.”
She froze.
The words were harsh, but they landed right where I wanted them.
“Of course I can.”
“No you can’t. I saw the financials. You’re running on fumes. You’re banking on us turning you around so you can pay it all off after.”
She gritted her teeth. I was right. She knew I knew it.
“That’s why I’m going to make you an offer,” I said. I wasn’t going to lose this project. I wasn’t going to lose the chance to show her I wasn’t the asshole she thought I was.
“What could you possibly offer me that I’d want now?” Cassandra asked.
“Don’t fire me. I’ll waive the retainer and expenses. If I don’t turn your resort around, you don’t have to pay us. Since you likely won’t—and shouldn’t—take my word for that, I’ll have my lawyer write it up into our own contract. Between you and me.”
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then she said, “What’s in it for you?”
“You don’t tell anyone my secret. And you do everything I say in regards to your business.”
Her brows lifted.
“If you succeed, I succeed.” To her hesitation, I said, “This is the deal of the century for you, Cassandra. And if you walk away right now, it’s off the table.”
Just then, there was a bang as the door behind us opened. A couple of staff in gray uniforms came out, looking surprised when they saw their boss on the steps. Their eyes went wide at the sight of me. Maybe I was looking intense. Or maybe they sensed the tension between us.
Cassandra smiled, softening for a moment. “Julia, Louise—how are you two? How’s your daughter, Louise?”
“We’re great, ma’am,” one of them said. “So are they. They’re going home with the baby tomorrow.”
“Amazing,” Cassandra said, sounding genuinely happy.
“See you at the all-staff meeting next week?” the woman asked her.
“Can’t wait.”
The way she was with her staff—it made me twist inside.
Cassandra was a good person. Too good for my life of lies.
I wished I’d never embroiled her in my shit.
I wished I’d stayed the hell away from her on that island and acted like a decent human being.
Or never suggested we take this job in the first place.
The moment the two had gone down the stairs, I stretched on my jacket, which I’d been gripping in my hand, suddenly feeling done.
Done bargaining, done begging. I was going to go home to New York, pretend I never met Cassandra Kelly.
We hadn’t started here yet—I could make another client our 100th.
I’d just have to trust she wouldn’t tell our secret.
I was at the second-to-last step when Cassandra said, “Wait!”
I froze, my foot hovering over the last stair.
Cassandra came down the steps behind me, circling around so she was below me, looking up.
What I’d fucking give to be just a fisherman in the river who’d saved her.
To be a simple man who’d met a beautiful, strong-willed woman.
I wish we’d kissed and stayed all day on that island and had completely different lives than we did.
“Okay,” she said.
It was there, still, that heat from before. But I couldn’t let it control me. I pressed it down, shoving it as far as I could.
“Good. See you next week, Cassandra.” Then I walked past her, leaving her standing behind me, watching me go.
It should have felt good. It was a victory, what I’d pulled off there. So why did it feel so fucking hollow?