16. Sofia
Sofia
Spending the weekend at Rick’s place was just what I needed. While Saturday had been filled with sun and outdoor activities, Sunday was perfectly ordinary, with beautiful laziness.
We dragged ourselves out of bed late and ate blackberry French toast with Cool Whip, which Rick made on his back deck. Drinking coffee out of oversized mugs, we watched three white-tailed deer grazing quietly near the tree line of the yard.
For lunch, we ordered Chinese takeout from the place downtown and sat on his living room sofa to watch whatever live sports were broadcasting.
We cheered on our favorite teams and bet against the next plays, something I had always done with my family.
Rick got into the challenge, but I smoked him with most of my predictions.
At the end of the night, we were tangled in blankets watching an old thriller movie. It was the most normal, perfect Sunday I had ever had.
Then, Monday morning crashed in.
The transition from Rick’s peaceful sanctuary back to the chaotic grind of work was jarring.
Rick had dropped me off at my place to change into work clothes, and I arrived at my office early.
Thankfully, the office was still mostly dark and quiet when I stepped in.
I set my iced coffee down, kicked off my heels under the desk, and booted up my computer.
I waited as my inbox populated, the little numbers ticking upwards until I wanted to pull my hair out. When it was done, I skimmed past the internal design notifications until I locked onto a subject line that sent a sudden, icy shock straight down my spine.
From: lwhistler@
Subject: You haven’t won!
You think you’re so fucking smart? You think you can completely humiliate me and take credit for my vision?
You have no idea what you’ve started with your lies.
I am going to do everything in my power to make sure you lose everything.
And don’t think that I’m only coming for your career.
I personally guarantee you are going to regret ever crossing me. Watch your back, bitch.
Reading his words, my breath caught in my throat. My fingers were frozen over the keyboard, and my heart was hammering violently against my ribs. This wasn’t just a bitter corporate email. It was a vicious, unhinged personal threat. Leonard was crazy.
“Hey, I grabbed those app analytics you wanted…” I jumped as Nova opened my door. Then her eyes landed on me and she frowned. “Whoa. Sofia? What’s wrong?” Nova rushed over to my side, worry filling her eyes. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What happened?”
Without a word, I pointed a trembling finger at my monitor.
Nova leaned closer, her eyes darting across the screen quickly.
As she read Leonard’s email quietly to herself, the color drained from her face.
Almost instantly, it was replaced by a look of pure, protective fury.
“That absolute piece of shit,” she said, her voice turning dangerously low. “He’s lost his mind.”
“I… I should,” I stammered, my instincts screaming to run down the hall to Rick’s office. Into his arms for safety and comfort.
“Hey,” Nova said firmly, grabbing my shoulder. “I’ve got you. I’m calling HR and legal. They are trained to handle things like this better than we are. We have to protect you first. Physically. Legally.” She squeezed my shoulders lightly. “Got it?”
Before I could even protest, she grabbed my desk phone and dialed a three-digit extension. “Brenda in HR is a bull when it comes to this stuff. Brenda? This is Nova. I need you and David from legal in Sofia’s office right now. Leonard just sent an unhinged email to Sofia, threatening her.”
Was he actually threatening me? I looked to the screen again, but my eyes stung and blurred to where I couldn’t read the text. Pull it together, I kept telling myself, but I just couldn’t seem to do so.
The next half hour passed in a surreal, clinical blur.
Brenda from HR and then David from legal took over my office, treating the email with the absolute gravity it deserved. Because Leonard had been terminated and then threatened a current employee, David said he had to take over. This wasn’t an HR problem but a real legal and police matter.
“This crosses the line into criminal harassment and intimidation,” David assured me, his face grim as he printed out three copies of the email.
“I am notifying the police immediately as well. We need a formal police report on file, and I will make sure that security will bar him from the building. Something that should have been done from the moment he was fired.”
“Should we call Rick?” I asked, my chest tightening. I hated the fact that he was completely out of the loop while the police were being called from my office.
“Rick is currently in a quarterly projection meeting with Jax and the regional directors,” Brenda answered. “I will fill him in when he gets out. Let’s let David and the police see what they can do first. Don’t worry, we will do this by the book.”
Twenty minutes later, two uniformed officers were escorted into my office, where I had yet to move. I had a cup of iced coffee, no doubt thanks to Nova, since it was my favorite flavor.
For the most part, I sat there in a daze, answering their questions, explaining all about Leonard’s termination, while David gave them copies of the email he’d printed out.
Just as the officers were wrapping up their questions and shaking hands with David, the door to my office swung open.
I held my breath as Rick stepped inside. His face was completely pale. He looked at the two police officers, then at Brenda, then at Nova, before his blue eyes finally locked onto me. The sheer, unadulterated panic in his expression made my throat ache.
“What is going on in here?” Rick’s voice boomed, rich with an authority that had the officers turning around. “Why are the police in my building?”
“Mr. Mylonas.” Brenda stepped forward, keeping her voice calm. “We’ve had a security breach regarding a former employee, who sent an email and threatened Sofia. We are handling it according to corporate legal protocol.”
Hearing this, Rick walked past her, his eyes entirely focused on me. “Good, thanks. I’ll take it from here.”
David motioned for the officers to follow him into the hallway, and Nova and Brenda stepped out after them. Nova pulled my office door shut behind her to give us privacy.
My relationship with Rick might have been a secret from everyone at the office, but Nova wasn’t everyone. She was my best friend. She’d known about us five minutes after I’d kissed Rick that first time.
I’d shared every juicy detail with her, including how I really felt about my boss. How I was falling hard and fast for him. She even knew about my worry that I was going too fast and far. That I feared I was in love.
The second the door clicked, Rick dropped to one knee beside my chair, his hands instantly gripping mine. They were warm, solid, and slightly trembling.
“Sofia,” he breathed, his voice thick with a mixture of terror and fury. “Are you okay? What happened? Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
“I’m okay. I promise,” I said softly, squeezing his hands tightly, letting the familiar warmth of him finally calm my racing heart.
“Leonard sent me an email. It was… just an email. But it was pretty bad. I guess it shook me up. So much so that I froze. Nova sort of took over. He threatened my career and told me to watch my back.”
A dark, dangerous shadow crossed Rick’s face, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles jumped. “I’m going to destroy him. I’ll have our legal team sue him, again, this time into the Stone Age. I found out the police were in your office from a text from Jax after our meeting—I almost lost my mind.”
“I should have texted you,” I whispered, leaning forward into his arms. “But look at you right now. You’re ready to burn the city down.
If you had stormed in here earlier, I think it would have complicated everything.
We had to handle this strictly by the book.
Plus, if people saw you reacting like a protective boyfriend instead of a managing partner, it would have put a target on our relationship before we even had a chance to announce it. ”
Rick stared at me, his chest rising and falling heavily as my words penetrated the panic. Slowly, the rigid tension in his shoulders began to ease, replaced by a profound look of admiration. He brought my hands up to his lips and pressed a fierce, lingering kiss against my knuckles.
“You are entirely too smart for me,” he murmured, a rugged, breathless chuckle finally escaping him. “I bet they’re talking now. I wasn’t too subtle when I came barging in just now.”
“We can brush it off as a worried boss,” I suggested.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No.” He looked at me. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to make this”—he waved between us—“public.”
“It’s okay with me. I should warn you, though. Nova already knows.”
He smiled. “Jax knows too. So does my family. They’re all okay with it.
Dad really likes you.” He stood up, but didn’t let go of my hand.
He pulled me up with him until I was safely tucked against his side.
“But by the book or not, nobody threatens you. Ever. We’re going to let the police do their job, but you’re staying with me tonight. Agreed?”
I looked up at his stubborn, protective face, and for the first time all morning, a genuine smile touched my lips. “No arguments from me, boss.”
Over the next two weeks, the threat of Leonard ended up doing something I never expected—it fast-tracked our relationship.
What started as packing a temporary overnight bag for me to stay at Rick’s place for safety quickly turned into a more permanent routine.
Every morning, I’d grab work clothes from the master closet of Rick’s rental, and every evening, we’d drive back up the mountain together.
In a beautiful, roundabout way, I had moved in with him.
We fell into a comfortable pattern that felt less like a new relationship and more like coming home with one another.
We cooked together, debated work or the brewery app analytics over breakfast, and somehow kept each other grounded.
With the security team on high alert, Rick decided it was time to put our cards on the table. He scheduled a meeting with Brenda in HR to officially disclose our relationship.
By that first afternoon, the corporate grapevine had done its job, and the news spread through the office like wildfire.
To my immense relief, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
There were a few raised eyebrows, sure, but Rick’s father, who was technically still the CEO and the ultimate boss of the firm, put out a memo that there was no real conflict of interest. He had even gone to the board with this news and no one saw anything wrong, since Rick was only acting CEO at the moment.
Mostly, everyone just looked relieved that the two most intense people in the building were on the same team.
With our relationship out in the open, it was as if a huge weight was off our shoulders. So, we took the next step to make sure we had covered all bases and officially filed a restraining order against Leonard.
But when the Golden police showed up at the new agency where he worked to serve the paperwork, they hit a dead end.
The officers called David in legal, who passed the update directly down to us: Leonard had already been laid off.
Apparently, his new firm had hired him under the assumption that he was bringing the Clear Creek Brewery account with him.
When we won the account, they had cut him loose on the spot.
Even worse, the police checked his last known address only to find it completely empty.
He hadn’t even left a forwarding address.
He was off the grid, a ghost with a grudge.
“It’s going to be fine,” Rick reassured me, pressing a comforting kiss to the top of my head as we walked out to the parking lot on Friday evening. “The police have a flag on his name. Let’s just focus on tonight.”
That night was a massive milestone. We were leaving early to head down to Denver for an official meet-and-greet dinner with my parents. It was the first introduction—the moment Rick was going to meet the family as my boyfriend.
I was adjusting my mirror, checking my lipstick, while Rick started the Audi. The late summer evening air was still warm, and despite the lingering worry about Leonard, a nervous, happy flutter was building in my stomach.
“Do I look okay?” Rick asked, tugging slightly at the collar of his button-down shirt. “Your dad isn’t going to grill me too hard, right?”
“You look perfect.” I laughed, reaching over to smooth down his lapel. “And don’t worry, my mom will love you, which means my dad will have to behave,” I joked.
He smiled, leaning over the console to kiss me, but just as his lips touched mine, the sharp, demanding ring of his cell phone cut through the quiet cabin of the car.
Rick sighed against my mouth, pulling back with a small groan. “I should ignore it.”
“Check it first,” I whispered. “If it’s Marcus about the last app updates, I want to know.”
Rick pulled the phone from his pocket, his brow furrowing as he looked at the screen. “It’s Jax.” He swiped the screen and brought it to his ear. “Hey, Jax. We’re actually just heading out to dinner with Sofia’s parents—”
He stopped.
In a fraction of a second, the easy, relaxed warmth drained completely from Rick’s face. His eyes went wide, turning a stark, piercing blue as the color vanished from his cheeks. His grip tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
“What?” His voice cracked, dropping into a hollow, breathless whisper that made my stomach instantly drop. “When? Jax, slow down. Where is he?”
I froze, my hand hovering over his arm, my heart suddenly hammering in my throat. I could hear the faint, frantic sound of Jax’s voice buzzing through the receiver, tight and laced with pure panic.
“We’re on our way,” Rick choked out, his voice thick with a sudden, suffocating weight. He hung up the phone, his hand trembling as he dropped it into his lap.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, terror gripping my chest as I looked at him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
He turned and looked at me, his expression completely fractured. “It’s my dad,” he whispered, his chest heaving as he struggled to find his breath. “He was out on the course for a sunset round of golf. He… he had a massive heart attack. They’re rushing him to St. Anthony’s right now.”