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  Boss Woman

  Boss #4

  Victoria Quinn

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  * * *

  Hartwick Publishing

  Boss Woman

  Copyright © 2018 by Victoria Quinn

  All Rights Reserved

  1

  Hunt

  Fuck.

  How did this happen?

  The day started off so normal. Her panties were sitting in my pocket, we were text-flirting back and forth, and then out of nowhere, a bomb was dropped.

  It destroyed everything.

  Titan gave me the benefit of the doubt to get things cleared up with the reporter. She was pissed beyond reason, but she had the logic to hear me out. She still had enough affection for me to give me a little bit of room to make my case.

  But all that went out the window when she saw the files sitting in my bottom drawer.

  There was no coming back from that.

  It was incriminating as hell. It was the smoking gun, the physical proof that I’d snooped around in her business. When I said I got the information but never looked at it, even I could barely believe myself. There was no way a smart woman like Tatum Titan would buy it.

  I was in such deep shit.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  I didn’t know where to begin.

  How did I fix this?

  I started at the New York Times. I walked into the building and asked for Jared Newman. After waiting for nearly forty-five minutes, I was finally taken to his office. This guy was just a faceless name, but I wanted to murder him right in front of dozens of witnesses. “Why did you name me as the source in your article?” I didn’t introduce myself or make small talk. Getting myself vindicated was the only chance I had to get Titan back.

  He looked at me over his desk, slightly timid by the ferocity in my gaze. He looked like a typical reporter, wearing a light blue collared shirt with glasses. He was in his early forties, his eyes beginning to crinkle around the corners. “Because you were the source—and you told me I could name you.”

  “When?” I hissed. “You and I have never spoken. We’ve never even emailed each other. Who did you speak to?”

  “You,” he said in a bored voice. “At least, that’s what I was told at the time.”

  “Did this happen over the phone?” I should take a seat but I couldn’t. I was far too maniacal not to stand. There was so much adrenaline, so much destruction inside my veins. I wanted to trash his office the way I just trashed mine.

  “Yes.”

  “When? I want all the details.”

  “Three days ago. You called at four in the afternoon, said you were Diesel Hunt, and told me your story. Told me to name you as the source. You sent me a packet of documents from the police department to prove your story.”

  Someone was out to get me. But who? “Don’t you have a process to actually check your sources before you name them? I never called you. I never sent anything. Someone else impersonated me. I’m being framed here.”

  “Framed?” he asked. “You aren’t being accused of a crime.”

  “Tatum Titan is my business partner. She thinks I threw her under the bus when I didn’t. This has to be cleared up.”

  Jared shrugged like he didn’t know what to do. “All the information checked out, and the papers said they were from you. The damage has been done. The story is all over the news. What am I supposed to do? I can’t write another article just to say the source was unknown, not you.”

  “Damn right, you can.”

  “No one is going to read it. And we aren’t going to print our mistake.”

  “Don’t you think there’s a story in this mysterious person who went through all of this?” I pressed. “Don’t you think there’s a story to tell there?”

  “Give me evidence, and I’ll look into it. So far, you haven’t given me any proof that it wasn’t you that I spoke to. Now that you’re taking heat, maybe you’ve changed your mind about the whole thing. You want me to clear your name when you still did the crime.”

  I had to remind myself murder was illegal. I couldn’t kill this guy without spending the rest of my life in jail.

  “The best I can do is call Tatum Titan and explain to her that there’s a possibility someone posed as you when they gave me this information.”

  “It’s gotta be better than that.” I could pay anyone to call her and pretend to be a reporter. That won’t mean shit to Titan.

  He shrugged again. “Then there’s nothing else I can do. Unless you provide substantial evidence that your suspicion is right, I can’t print anything else.”

  “You know what you could do?” I clenched my jaw as I stared at him. “You can make sure you get the right source next time. What is this? A high school newspaper?” I stormed out of his office and tried to break the door when I slammed it.

  I was exactly where I started—at the bottom.

  * * *

  When I reached her building, there were a dozen reporters outside. Like zookeepers waiting for a wild animal to emerge, they had their nets and cages ready. They wanted to swarm Titan the second she made an appearance and bombard her with questions she didn’t want to answer.

  Ridiculous.

  Being seen walking into her building would just give them something new to print, so I returned to the back seat of my car and called her.

  No answer.

  “Fuck.” I tried again.

  No answer.

  I rested my head against the dark leather and closed my eyes, feeling the sinking sensation inside my chest. I felt weaker than I ever had. My entire life was a mess, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Titan wouldn’t speak to me, and I knew it would be an uphill battle just to get her to listen to me for one minute.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  If it were me, I wouldn’t even return to my penthouse. She must know about the reporters huddled outside. She probably checked in to a hotel room or was staying with someone.

  That thought made me think of Thorn.

  She was probably with him.

  I had Thorn’s number, so I called him. I didn’t expect the conversation to go well. I didn’t even expect to get what I wanted. But I had to start somewhere.

  It rang three times before he answered. When he spoke, he sounded more menacing than I’d ever heard him. Our mutual jealousy over one another seemed like high school drama compared to the threat in his tone. “The only reason you are alive right now is because I haven’t figured out how to get away with murder.”

  I didn’t doubt him, not when he’d actually killed someone once before. But the threat meant nothing to me when all I cared about was Titan. “I didn’t do it, Thorn.”

  “Give it up, jackass.”

  “I didn’t,” I repeated. “I just went down to the Times and—”

  “I don’t care. Titan doesn’t care. The only reason why I answered the phone is so I can give you our stance on the situation. You are officially our biggest nemesis. You are marked as our enemy. And you’re about to find out what we do to our enemies.”

  “Thorn—”

  “Titan will meet you at Stratosphere tomorrow morning. You’ll come to an agreement on what to do with the company. In the meantime, don’t bother either one of us. You’ve done enough.”

  Click.

  2

  Titan

  Reporters were pestering me left and right, and new a
rticles were surfacing on the internet. My worst nightmare was becoming a reality, and I prayed people wouldn’t dig any deeper. I could live with the scar the public was painting on me, as much as it killed me, but I couldn’t let this ruin Thorn.

  Not when he was the only person in the world I could trust.

  He deserved better.

  I stayed at his penthouse because I couldn’t go back to mine. Reporters camped out there overnight, waiting for the chance to interview me. Even getting a glimpse of me on camera was good publicity for them. Just when my image had reached new heights, it came crashing down all over again.

  I was livid with Hunt, so angry that I didn’t have a chance to feel the heartbreak that was bound to follow. Above all else, I felt so goddamn stupid. He lured me right into the trap, and I fell for it.

  How could I let this happen?

  How I could I trust him so easily?

  Thorn hung up the phone and tossed it on the table, not caring about the livelihood of his device. He sighed and massaged his wrist, a habit he’d had for years. He needed to do something with his hands when he was angry, to concentrate on something so he wouldn’t explode.

  I didn’t ask about the conversation because I heard every single word. Hunt continued to proclaim he was innocent even though the writing was on the wall. He’d already made a fool of us once, and now he was trying to do it again.

  Not gonna happen.

  My glass was firmly in my grasp, the ice cubes getting the surface cold. I set it down because it was empty. I was too depressed for another drink—and that was a first for me. “Thorn…I’m so sorry.” I closed my eyes, so ashamed that I couldn’t look at him. “I never wanted this to happen to you. I never should have told him…”

  “Titan.”

  I didn’t open my eyes.

  “Titan,” he repeated.

  I took a deep breath before I looked at him, squaring my shoulders and appearing as strong as possible.

  Thorn flashed me his merciless stare. “Don’t apologize to me. Tatum Titan doesn’t apologize to anyone.”

  “But I’m not Tatum Titan right now. I’m just Tatum when I’m with you. I could handle this so much better if it affected only me. But I know how bad this could be for you.”

  “It’s going to be fine,” he said confidently. “There’s not enough evidence to pin anything on me. Even if Hunt is trying to incriminate me, he doesn’t have any evidence. He only has what you said. Even if he recorded you, he can’t use it in a court of law. And if a jury ever were to ask you what happened that night, I know you would cover for me. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

  I suspected this wasn’t over. I suspected this nightmare was only beginning.

  “This is how we’re going to handle this,” Thorn said. “You’re gonna go on about your life with your head held high. You aren’t going to stop going to work. You are only going to take one interview, one that really matters. You aren’t going to lie about what happened. But you’re gonna make everyone feel like shit for ever asking you about it.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was talk about it. Now everyone was painting me as a domestic violence victim. I used to be a symbol of strength for women everywhere. I didn’t put up with bullshit, ever. I held my head high. Knowing I ever let someone defeat me emotionally and physically was devastating to everyone. How could I be a champion to the world?

  “You’re going to change the narrative,” Thorn said. “You’re gonna come out on top. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I don’t know about that…everyone is judging me as we speak.”

  “And we’re gonna make them feel like shit for doing it. You’re going to prove to everyone how strong you are. You’re going to prove to everyone that you can still come out on top even when you start at the bottom. If anything, this is going to make you an even bigger role model, Titan. You’ll see.”

  “I hope so…” Even if we could bury this, it didn’t change the biggest issue in my life. My business partner betrayed me. The man I fell in love with never loved me. His only interest in me was to destroy me. It was only a matter of time before he told the world about our arrangement, that my relationship with Thorn was nothing but a big hoax. He was going to destroy my reputation. He was going to burn me alive.

  I wanted to kill him.

  “You had Hunt sign an NDA, right?” Thorn asked.

  I closed my eyes.

  Thorn knew the answer. “Shit.”

  “He refused to sign it…said we didn’t need it.”

  “Fuck, this nightmare just keeps getting worse.”

  Now I knew why he didn’t sign it. Now I knew it was his goal all along.

  “You’re meeting him tomorrow. Buy him out even if he price-gouges you. Just get rid of him. You want me to be there?”

  I put on a brave face, but I was broken underneath. It would be so much easier to let Thorn handle this. But I couldn’t let Hunt know he ruined me. I couldn’t give him the satisfaction of victory. I’d been demolished a lot in my life, but I always put the pieces back together and built myself back up. This would be no different. I would look him in the eye, wear my hardest expression, and show him he didn’t make a single dent in my hard exterior. “No. I can handle it.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.” I was Tatum Titan. Nothing could destroy me. I could do this.

  * * *

  I was purposely late, wasting Hunt’s time intentionally.

  The elevator doors opened, and I walked onto the floor where our four assistants sat. They all looked at me differently, every single one of them having read the article from top to bottom.

  I was going to get this look a lot, so I had to deal with it. “Morning, ladies.” I walked by them and into the conference room, my stilettos tapping against the floor as I walked absolutely straight. My posture was perfect, my outfit was sophisticated, and I wore a slight smile like today was just like every other day.

  Hunt stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, his hands in his pockets. His ass looked tight in his slacks, and his jacket fit over his broad shoulders precisely. Slim in the hips and broad across the back, he was the same masculine man he was before.

  But I refused to feel anything.

  My stilettos announced my presence.

  Hunt spun around and looked at me with those mocha-colored eyes, the ones that used to stare at me when we were in bed together. He still wore that look of devastation, like this was all as much of a surprise to him as it was to me. “Tatum—”

  “I prefer Titan, Mr. Hunt.” I took a seat at the head of the table and opened my folder. “Please take a seat so we can get started.” I didn’t look up as I organized my things, treating him like any other client I had to deal with. I’d dealt with assholes all my life, and I did it with the kind of poise that only annoyed them more. Hunt was no different.

  He moved swiftly across the room and dropped into the chair on my right. He leaned forward, invading my space with his magnetic field. “I talked to the reporter, and he said he spoke with me over the phone. Apparently, ‘I’ mailed him the police reports, and that was why—”

  “I’m here to discuss business, Mr. Hunt. Nothing else.” I pulled the first page from my folder and placed it in front of him. “This is my offer.”

  “Your offer for what?” He didn’t look down at the paper sitting on the mahogany table. His eyes were glued to my face, where they stayed without deviation. The only thing he seemed to care about was me. Not business. Not numbers.

  “I’m buying you out. Stratosphere will be a Titan property.”

  He pushed the paper back without looking at it. “Forget business for a second.”

  “Business is the only commonality between us.” I slid the paper back toward him. “I have no interest in discussing anything else. I don’t care for an explanation, an apology, or a justification. It is what it is, and I’d like to move forward.”

  “We aren’t moving forward.” He lowered his voice,
his tone turning deadly. Every time I tried to control the situation, his aggression rose a few degrees. His magnetic field increased, affecting me and everything else in the building. He was a stronger opponent than all the others I’d faced. He got between my legs, made me fall in love with him like I didn’t have a choice, and now he was still affecting me with his raw masculinity. I could smell testosterone in the air—because it was his cologne. “I didn’t squeal to the New York Times, but I’m still trying to get sufficient proof for you. The reporter said the person called him on the phone. That’s why he assumed it was me. I know that folder in my desk was incriminating. I don’t blame you for assuming I betrayed you. I’d assume the same thing—”

  “Then let it go. You got me. Good job.” I finally raised my head and met his gaze, doing my best not to give the slightest reaction. I didn’t show my rage or my heartbreak. Like I was speaking to a wall, I showed him the same indifference.

  “Titan, it wasn’t me. I had my PI get that information for me nearly two months ago. I admit I was going to read it. I wanted to know everything about you. I wanted to know why you were the way you were. But I didn’t read it because I knew it was wrong. I respected you way too much to pry into your private life. When you were ready, I knew you would tell me. And that’s what I did. I know that’s hard to believe—”

  “And I don’t.”

  He sighed in agitation, like I was the one being difficult. “You have to believe me, Titan. Because if you don’t, you’re going to have a bigger problem on your hands. There’s obviously someone out there who has it out for you. If they’re framing me, then they know we’re together. And if they know we’re together, then there’s another scandal coming your way. We have to figure out who it is—together.”

  When I listened to the sincerity in his voice, the obvious care in his tone, it made me want to believe him. My life would be so much easier if he were telling the truth. Being with Hunt was pure happiness. I’d never smiled so much. I’d never felt so at ease. Having that brutally taken away from me was just as bad as the actual betrayal. But all the evidence was stacked against him.