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He raised a shoulder. “I thought you knew. The firstDe Ollacafé is in my building.”
Her lips parted. “I thought the owner paid rent!”
He shook his head. “De Olladoesn’t pay rent because it’s a partnership. And yes, I have controlling interest. Or Next Chapter does.”
Emma’s brow puckered. “You and your partner own it?”
“Our company does,” he stressed. “But I did accept a seat on the board at their invitation.”
“Why?”
“Hector’s boss Hilda, who is also his wife, wanted to partner with someone experienced at expanding businesses.” Garrett turned so he was facing her. “Don’t get me wrong, Hector is a decent manager, but he’s a perfectionist. His chief interest is in making sure the recipes he’s using are authentic when mass-produced. Which is a good thing because they make money, but he can’t handle the logistics of more than one café.”
She processed this slowly. “But you can.”
He nodded matter-of-factly. “I push boundaries and excel at seeing the big picture. They decided sacrificing controlling interest was worth having someone like me on board, directing from the top.”
“I did know about Hector’s wife,” Emma said slowly as if the memory had come from a long way away. “I knew she was the company president. But I didn’t know about you. No one mentions it.”
“I wasn’t keeping my position a secret,” he promised. “I’m on the board of many businesses. I don’t do any of the day-to-day. And I won’t have to, so long as they stick to the expansion plan I drafted.”
He waited for a response, but Emma didn’t have one. “Are you upset about this?” he asked.
She closed her eyes. “If you have controlling interest, that makes you my boss.”
His brain filled in what she didn’t say aloud—that this morning her boss had been pressing his cock to her lush ass and fondling her bare breast.
“Hectoris your boss. I don’t intend on interfering.” Not any more than he already had.
Emma looked down at her lap, her hands tightly gripped together. She turned to him, blinking fast.
Fuck, this was bad. He was a monster. Garrett was going to have to sellDe Olla.
“I don’t want to ask you for help.” Her breath was shaky. “But I might need it.”
Oh.Oh…Wait. “Did something else happen?”
She nodded, a tear sliding down her cheek.
What the fuck?Had someone messed with her?
Garrett slid closer to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders. “Hey, you can ask me for anything. You know that, right?”
He expected to be rebuffed. But Emma shocked the hell out of him when she gripped the lapel of his suit jacket, burrowing her face in his chest.
Emma was crying but he hadn’t caused it. She was turning to him for comfort. Garrett’s shoulders straightened, puffing up involuntarily even as he pulled her into his side, comforting her.
He didn’t know if he should be pulling out his wallet or getting ready to kick someone’s ass. Whatever she needed, he’d do.
She sniffed. “There was this man.”
Garrett went from zero to sixty in nothing flat, heat coursing through his veins. “Who is he?Did he touch you?”
Emma raised her face. A tear track stained her cheek.
“No, it wasn’t like that,” she said. But she hesitated, worrying her lower lip with her teeth.
Garrett ordered himself to calm down, but he couldn’t seem to. “Baby, you need to tell me what the hell happened 'cause I’m this close to tearing this bench apart,” he said, holding his fingers a hairsbreadth apart.