Chapter 33
THE CEO
DANTE
“Ican assure you, Mr. Hudson, that Miss Chloe Sterling no longer lives here.” The manager of Chloe’s building crossed his arms. “I told you this last week and the week before as well.”
“I’m just checking to see if it changed,” I said. “Did she mention where she was going?”
“No, sir.”
“What about a forwarding address?”
“It’s still a no.” He held up his hand. “Before you ask, I don’t know where her former roommate Marie went either. They both just left without giving a heads-up to me or anyone else.”
“But what about—” I stopped myself. I was certain I looked pathetic.
“Thank you for your time, sir.” I returned to my car and pulled onto the street.
Then, like I’d done several times before, I took the long way to The Holden and tried not to think about Chloe.
It took all of five seconds for me to fail.
Visions of her puffy pink lips and memories of her raspy moans settled deep into my mind, and I suddenly felt the urge to run my fingers through her hair while she screamed my name.
Shit…
Shaking away the thoughts, I looked outside my window at The Holden.
Its bottom level was now blocked off with a series of “A New Hudson International Project is Coming” fence banners. The bulldozers and cranes hadn’t moved in over a week, though.
All because of me…
I parked in front of the soon-to-be lobby and waved at Anthony.
“About time!” He opened the passenger door and slipped inside with a coffee. “Was there that much traffic at this hour?”
“Something like that, yes.”
“Oh. Well, I’m not sure how much longer the crew can hold off on starting this thing, Dante.”
“It’s not like I’m holding off on paying them,” I said. “They’re getting a paycheck just for showing up and playing cards.”
“Their passion is in construction.” He looked at me. “Your passion has been buying this building, and you finally have it, so it’s time for you to pull the trigger.”
“I’m still thinking about the final design…”
“Then call the engineers,” he said. “They’ll make whatever changes you want, and you know that.”
“Will do.” I shifted the car into drive, but I couldn’t pull off just yet.
“Have you seen her?” I asked him. “Where the hell has she been?”
“She as in Sarah?” He tilted his head to the side. “You treated her to a month-long vacation. And no—you still can’t have your personal phone back until she gives me the green light, so please don’t ask me for it.”
“I’m talking about Chloe.”
“Oh…Well, your guess is as good as mine on that one.” He shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“She hasn’t come into work since the approval ceremony,” he said. “She didn’t give a quitting notice or a decent reason, so…”
“So, what?”
“Human Resources emailed her termination letter and placed all her things in a container for whenever she wants to come pick them up.”
“They did that without talking to me about it first?”
“Since when do you care about what happened to a lower-level employee?” He sipped his coffee. “Miss Sterling was quite talented at her job, and she definitely improved your image in ways I never thought possible, but she was just…”
His words trailed off as he looked at me.
“Oh, god. You didn’t…Did you?”
“Some context for your question might help…”
“Did you sleep with Chloe Sterling?”
“That sounds like a super intrusive question.”
“It sounds like a ‘yes or no’ one.” He leaned close. “Yes or no.”
“I’ve never slept with any of my employees.”
“Until Chloe?”
“I don’t appreciate your accusations, Anthony,” I said. “I’m just concerned because she left something important on my desk, and I want to give it back to her.”
“What was it?”
“A pen,” I said. “A very important pen.”
“So, you definitely slept with her.” He groaned and stepped out of the car. “I’ll have Harris come and get me. I need to think.”
“About what?”
“About how I can get legal to find out where she is, so we can make sure she’s not in the middle of filing a sexual harassment lawsuit.”
“The sex wasn’t harassment. It was consensual.”
“I want a twenty percent bonus for dealing with this on your behalf,” he said. “Twenty percent.”
“I’m not paying you extra for a pointless task I didn’t ask for.”
“Okay. Thirty percent.” He crossed his arms. “I’ll stop increasing it if you tell me you’ve never sent her any threatening texts since she’s been gone…”
“Thirty percent is fine.”
“Thank you.”