Someone came up beside me, reaching for that fucking newspaper but I was faster. I jumped out of the chair, taking it with me.
“David—”
I raised a hand, cutting off the rest. I skimmed it, to get the gist of it. Then I read it again, slower so I could make sense of it all. Someone had sent copies of the spreadsheets for each of Rick’s companies to this reporter. But they didn’t match up. One set of spreadsheets were identified as the true financials. Another set were allegedly doctored. The prose said that the differences were in the millions. The unnamed whistleblower said that I had managed to embezzle the amounts and sock them away in offshore accounts. This anonymous liar had provided all the proof needed to put me in prison for the rest of my life.
“No. NO!”
I closed my eyes, scrunching the paper up and wringing it into a twisted mess. My heart slammed into my ribs. My head throbbed along with the bite marks and I just wanted to run away. Run fast and far. Run where no one could find me again.
“No. I didn’t. No. This can’t be happening.”
Rick managed to pull the paper out of my hands and threw it on the floor. He put his arms around me and massaged the back of my neck. Rick was whispering in my ear—no, he was singing. Singing some silly melody with words that made no sense. Not that I could focus on them. I held on to him, my hands resting against his muscular back. I buried my face against Rick’s neck, fighting the urge to cry like some dumb little kid. I wasn’t a kid. I was a grown ass man. The steadiness of Rick’s body only served to illuminate how hard Iwas shaking. Fear? Anger?
“Shhh. Shhh.”
“I’m not crying,” I insisted. “I’m just pissed.” But I wiped my eyes and cheeks anyway. “Why would someone do this to me? What the fuck did I ever do to anyone?”
Rick poured a finger of bourbon and gestured to the seat. “Sit. Let’s figure this out. Because I can think of one person right off the bat.” He handed me the glass.
I had a feeling I knew where he was going with this. “Elyssa? But she’s out of the country.”
“Do we know that for sure?” Rick sat back down at his desk, balancing on one hip while crossing a leg. “Have you heard from her at all to know?”
“No,” I answered. “Which is not a bad thing. To be honest, the way things ended, I’d be damned surprised if she did call me. And I don’t want to talk to her either.”
Rick nodded, no expression on his face whatsoever. Nothing to give away what he might be thinking or feeling about my ex–. Rick was still carrying an amount of guilt for having brought the two of us together to begin with. Especially after the Niko incident. I kept telling Rick there was nothing to feel guilty over, and I sure as hell didn’t blame him for what happened. I don’t know if Rick even believed me when I said I didn’t blame him. But I needed him to believe me about this.
“Rick. I didn’t do this. I swear to God, I did not steal from you. I would nev—”
His man Monday
By Siobhan MacKenzie
Novella 4 — Chapter Excerpt
Rick gave me the paper, saying nothing either. He sat back. Waiting.
The paper in my hand was rattling. The air conditioning was on but that wouldn’t make the paper rattle like that. It wasn’t blowing hard enough. I looked down and saw that it wasn’t the paper, it was my hand that was shaking hard. My lips were dry and I licked them, knowing that would chap them worse, but it was a habit I just couldn’t seem to break. Nerves. It was all nerves. That’s what it was. Rick was trying to smile at me. Trying to give me something.
Come on, Johnson. Just open the damn paper.
The headline was huge. An inch tall that screamed, Rickman Employee Embezzles. A smaller second headline, Second in Command Stole Millions.
That paper felt like it had burst into flames in my hand and it landed on the desktop, still open to show that bullshit lie. I’d completely forgotten how much I was hurting again. My mouth dried up. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t look away from it. I didn’t want to see it anymore and I couldn’t look away from it. The hateful headlines burned into my eyes, searing in the back of my brain. Rickman Employee Embezzles.