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Fucking disrespectful little shit.

I’m already on the move when his fingers graze hers passing the coffee. Oh, fuck, yeah, he’s making out it was an accident as she looks back and takes the cup from his hand, but that was no fucking accident. The room has gone silent around me as I storm their way.

He doesn’t even see me coming. Not until it’s too late.

His eyes go wide as I wrap my fingers in his collar. I don’t say a thing. I lift him off the floor, sending him crashing back into the coffee machine as I press him against the wall. His arms are raised, his head shaking as he tells me he didn’t mean it.

Which means he knows what he did.

Fucker. What is he? Nineteen? I should tear each of those fingers off that touched her.

“Cade, man, calm the fuck down.” Davis pulls at my arm, trying to release my fingers from the coffee boy.

I shake my head. “He’s fucking fired.” I glare. “You hear me? Get the fuck out.”

He nods, avoiding eye contact. But fuck if he doesn’t look at her again…dead man walking.

I cock back, but Davis is there, holding my wrist and doing his best to talk me down.

“He gets the idea, Cade. He’s gone. Let him go, and let’s start the meeting, yeah?”

I glance back and see Lennie staring at me with tears in her eyes. And that’s the only thing that stops me from twisting his head from his neck.

With a grunt, I drop the barista and turn away, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as I lead her to the table. She has her coffee, she’s next to me, the meeting can begin.

Davis sits on the other side of Lennie, which I appreciate. I know the other agents are all looking at her when they don’t think I notice. Well, let them look. I have nothing to hide.

“Start the video,” I say to Davis, and a click later, there it is.

This footage, shot by someone at the party, was on every news channel in the country this morning, including most of those worldwide. It’s out of context, but it doesn’t look good. Lennie starts tapping her foot beneath the desk as the footage shows me pummeling Ryan Nolan. Blood spurting from his nose.

No more than he deserved.

When Lennie starts to tap the underside of the table with her fingers, I reach for her hand, hook my foot around the leg of her chair and pull her closer.

I tug her hand into my lap. Which is a fucking mistake because the moment it’s there, my cock is straining to get at her, straining to slide between her fingers and rub itself to relief. And even I know that’s not a good idea in the middle of a fucking containment meeting.

“What’s the legal situation?” I ask as the video ends, glancing over at my head counsel.

I pay him enough that whatever this is should be over before it begins, but I also know I have to listen to his bullshit if he wants to tell me how stupid I’ve been. I look him up and down in his expensive suit and slicked-back hair and wonder if he’s trying to emulate me.

He draws a deep breath, then clears his throat before he begins. “No charges have been filed. Yet. If they are—”

“If they are, we’ll deal with them then,” Davis cuts him off, and I nod his way.

He always did have my back.

“The biggest problem is what he’s saying.” Alisha Taylor draws my attention. She’s nearly sixty, but what she doesn’t know about PR can be written on the back of a postage stamp. “Do we have the footage, Davis, Sir?”

Davis nods, clicks a couple of buttons on his laptop, then points at the video screen. An interviewer sits opposite Ryan, looking sympathetic as he talks about what happened.

Shit. I have to admit. He looks good in an interview especially all beat to shit. Everyone here knows I suck at interviews, so they didn’t suggest I get ahead of it that way I usually end up walking off or telling someone to go fuck themselves.

“Obviously, Mr. Jamison is a big deal,” the interviewer says, frowning dramatically. “A lot of people won’t know his name, because he tends to stay out of the limelight. But they’ve probably heard of his late wife, Lilith Sparrow.”

Nolan nods. “I have a lot of sympathy for his situation, Claire. But it’s been years since his wife passed, and just randomly attacking people like he did—”

“You sayrandomly attacking. Do you have any idea why he went after you like that?”