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“Not at the moment,” Graham grunted, and then a loud thud echoed over the speaker before he shifted the phone and his voice became clearer, “What’s up?”

“I have a case for you,” Brandon lifted his eyes to mine, and I fought the urge to shrink into my seat, “One of my employees is being charged with assault but needs someone to help him prove it was self-defense.”

“Ah,” Graham grunted again, and part of me wanted to ask what the hell he was doing, but I refrained, “Was there video footage of the incident?”

Brandon gave me a questioning look, so I leaned forward to respond, “I can ask the pub we were in. I’d be surprised if they didn’t.”

“Excellent, send me the details.” Graham hung up the phone after that.

I gave Brandon a nervous look as I spun the pen right out of my hand. It flew across the room, smacking against his wall. I jumped out of my seat to retrieve it, before turning back to the CEO.

Brandon was just studying me, a blank expression on his face.

“I apologize,” I scratched the side of my head with the cap of the pen, “I know this doesn’t look good for me. Or you.”

Brandon shrugged his shoulders, “Vincent probably deserved it.”

I blinked at Brandon, “What? You know this prick?”

Brandon sighed and nodded, “He came here a few weeks after Jacqueline started.” I widened my eyes in shock because I had no idea, “He heard I was interested in hiring employees from Blix and tried to convince me to hire him on. But he gave me an uneasy feeling,” Brandon frowned, “I tend to trust my gut about these things.”

I sat down in the chair again, my attention completely focused on the CEO, “I kindly turned him down. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept emailing me. Even showed up a handful of times, inviting me out to lunch with him. As if I didn’t have a full schedule.” Brandon shook his head, “When I was following him out of the building, he noticed Jacqueline leaving the lot,” I held my breath as Brandon leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms again, “Let’s just say, he felt too comfortable voicing his thoughts about her in my presence. I told the building’s security not to let him back on the premises. He then sent me a very colorful email letting me know what he thought of that.”

“Jesus Christ.” I leaned back in my chair, surprised to hear this from Brandon Moore of all people.

“I ended up reaching out to my connections at Blix, which filled me in on some unfortunate circumstances that, I assumed, led to Jacqueline being interviewed and hired here.” Brandon raised an eyebrow, “What I want to know is, howyougot involved with him.”

The heat of embarrassment rushed under my skin before I realized that the answer to this question wasn’t as scandalous as it could be.

“Jacqueline and I went to that new taco joint a couple of blocks away, for lunch,” I jutted a thumb over my shoulder, probably in the entirely wrong direction, but whatever, “He saw her there and started saying some crude things about her.”

“Not surprised,” Brandon chimed in, a frown pulling at his lips.

“I told him to sod off—then he threw the first punch,” I rushed to say, because for some reason that detail felt important, “Though, I threw the last. I didn’t realize it would knock him on his arse…but I wasn’t upset about it, either.”

Brandon nodded, his eyes landing on the stack of papers on his desk.

“I never told Jacqueline that Vincent came here after she was hired,” Brandon pressed his lips together in thought, “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. There’s a reason we promoted her to CHRO, we don’t want to lose her. However…” Brandon sighed and rested his elbows on his desk, a pinch forming in his brow, “I’m wondering if we should tell her about this.”

“This,” I pointed to my assault charges, “I don’t think she needs to concern herself with. This is between me and him. Her name isn’t anywhere on these documents. I checked.”

Brandon nodded, “I’ll check in with building security to make sure he’s still not allowed on the premises. It’s not a good thing that he’s still so bitter years later. A man who is willing to hold a grudge for that long is probably dangerous.”

I agreed. It made me sick to my stomach, but I also didn’t want to ruin Jacqueline’s day with drama from her ex-boyfriend. I didn’t want my assault charges to give her any reason not to keep seeing me the way I wanted to keep seeing her.

Perhaps it wasn’t fair to keep her in the dark.

He was her ex-boyfriend, after all.

But I wasn’t a perfect man by any means, so I decided I would tell her about it after it was all taken care of.

* * *

A week later,I met Graham Moore in person.

And the lad was fucking fit.

Brandon gave me Graham’s number after I approached him in his office, and Graham and I have been in contact since. Thankfully, the pub did have video footage of that night and was very happy to hand it over for our case. They also had statements from employees working that day who had already dealt with Vincent’s volatile behavior before Jacqueline and I showed up.