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Lola’s smile was wide and dazzling. “I’m delightful.”

Minutes later, they were still standing in the elevator, Bamford’s assistant blocking them from getting into the penthouse. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. Ms. Bamford can’t speak with you because she’s been subpoenaed as a witness.”

“What? That’s not how that works,” Lola shouted with surprising, if not misplaced, confidence. “Did you even tell her we’re here? Tell her she’s liable for that crazy—”

“Wrecking ball,” Carmen whispered, her hand on Lola’s arm.

“You’ll have to speak to her lawyers,” he repeated, like it truly pained him to turn them away.

Carmen took the card he extended toward them before Lola could snatch it. “Thanks. We’ll do that.” She stepped back, pulling a raging Lola away from the doors with her.

“What the fuck do we do now?” Lola’s voice thundered against the elevator walls.

Carmen gritted her teeth. “I’ll handle it,” she said, mind racing.

CHAPTER20

Lola was focusedon looking for the trap while she walked back to her office. It was stupid to trust Carmen. There was like no chance she wasn’t going to screw her over into holding the bag for eleventy-billion dollars.

But what choice did she have? After her mother talked her out of money for lip fillers because she was feeling depressed and unattractive, probably based on something Andy said to her, she didn’t want to spend more than she had to. Not until she broke out with Kiki and landed herself a respectable bonus at the end of the year.

As soon as she was back in Dominion, Lola forced herself to snap out of the fog. She couldn’t have her attention dulled. Opening her phone, she checked for a message from Kiki. When she didn’t have one, she went to her profile and opened her latest social media post.

Sitting poolside in a bathing suit that flaunted every deep curve and thick swell of her body, Kiki had braided her hair and added copper extensions. Smiling brightly at her growing number of followers, she looked like a goddess while talking about the surrounding frenzy.

Lola didn’t get a chance to hear any details before a familiar presence, tall and commanding, stepped in her path. Looking up from her phone to Natalia’s intent, dark gaze, Lola had to stop herself from taking a step backward. Adriana wouldn’t move away.

“You’re back from your little lunch date,” Natalia said, Birkin bag under her arm and leather satchel in her hand.

Lola straightened, as if that might make Natalia any less tall and intimidating. “I was working,” she corrected, pit opening in her stomach.

“That’s not what I heard.”

In the bullpen, Martina stood up as if there was any doubt who would tell Natalia of her whereabouts. Heat flickered in her belly, flames licking at her chest and tugging at her lips. She glared at Martina, but that only made the woman smile.

Lola was debating whether Martina had managed to bug her. Maybe she’d planted a listening device on her somewhere. There was no other reason she’d know what Natalia was talking to her about. No way to hear over the constant noise of a dozen assistants talking and typing and answering phones.

Maybe she learned to read lips that miserable—

“Then where the hell have you been?” Natalia asked, blunt bob almost brushing her shoulders when she moved. “You didn’t have a client meeting on your calendar.”

“I was with Carmen—”

“I know,” Natalia said, annoyed at the repetition of information like words cost money.

Lola’s gaze cut to Martina, flinging imaginary javelins that only made her more amused.

“Fortune, the woman—” Lola started to explain before realizing that the details didn’t matter. “I have it under control,” she promised.

Natalia’s face was unmoving, her eyes frozen pillars of judgment and lingering disappointment. “See that you do,” she said before starting for reception.

Fury roiled in Lola, a molten core of solar flares and combustible fumes. Her quads twitched, back muscles pulling, fingers aching to curl into fists. Martina deserved to get dressed down. To be put in her place.

Lola should call her out in front of everyone. Unveil her as the conniving snake that she was, but she was so transparent that it wouldn’t be news to anyone.

Martina wanted her job. Wanted it bad enough that she tried to discredit her and make her look unprofessional at every turn. Well, fuck that. Lola had worked too hard to throw her position away.

Stomping toward her office, Lola contained the nuclear fallout of her meltdown. She wasn’t going to give Martina what she wanted. Wasn’t going to embarrass herself.