Page 19 of Executive Privilege (Event Horizons Agency #1)

The coffee shop on Sixth is exactly the kind of trendy Austin establishment that looks designed for clandestine meetings—exposed brick, dim lighting, enough ambient noise to cover private conversations.

I arrive ten minutes early and choose a corner table where I can see the entire room. My heart is racing, palms sweating like I'm about to face a job interview or a root canal. In a way, I suppose I am.

She arrives exactly on time.

Victoria Sterling is nothing like I expected and everything I feared. Tall, elegant, with auburn hair and green eyes that assess the room with calculating precision before settling on me. She's beautiful in the way that comes from good genetics and expensive maintenance.

She looks like someone who could seduce a successful CEO and convince him to trust her with his vulnerabilities.

"Sadie Reynolds," she says, settling into the chair across from me without invitation. "You're younger than I expected."

"Victoria Sterling." I keep my voice steady despite my nerves. "You're exactly what I expected."

Her smile is sharp. "I assume Nicholas has told you about me."

"Actually, he hasn't. He's never mentioned your name."

"How interesting."

Victoria signals the barista for coffee, settling back in her chair like someone preparing for a long conversation. "Don't you know it's a bad idea to date your boss, Sadie?"

"I'm not dating him. We work together."

"Please. Everyone knows you're sleeping with him."

Heat rises in my cheeks, but I don't deny it. "What do you want, Victoria?"

"To save you from making the same mistake I did."

"Which was?"

"Thinking Nicholas Blackwood was capable of genuine emotional connection instead of just professional manipulation disguised as intimacy."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. You probably think he's damaged but redeemable. Wounded but worth fighting for."

"And you're here to tell me I'm wrong?"

"I'm here to tell you that Nicholas Blackwood doesn't have trust issues because he was betrayed. He has trust issues because betrayal is his default strategy for maintaining control."

"What does that mean?"

Victoria's coffee arrives, and she takes a deliberate sip before answering. "It means he'll push you away when he's done using you and will find an excuse to discard you without looking like the villain."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

My stomach clenches because her description is uncomfortably close to what's just taken place over the last few days.

"You're wrong." I want to argue, but something cold is spreading through my chest. The Hartwell crisis did come right after our conversation about caring and trust. Right after the cabin in Dallas where we'd been more intimate than ever.

"You don't know anything about our relationship," I say, but my voice lacks conviction.

"I know everything about your relationship because I lived it first. The intense chemistry, the professional collaboration, the way he makes you feel like you are partners in something meaningful."

She's describing everything that made me think Nicholas cared about me.

"And then," Victoria continues, "right when you start believing it's real, something will happen to shatter the illusion. A crisis that required him to question your loyalty. A situation that justified pushing you away for 'professional reasons."

What the fuck? How could she know that?

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because eighteen months ago, I was sitting where you're sitting now. Believing in a man who was using my feelings to advance his own agenda. And when I served my purpose, when he'd gotten what he needed from the relationship, he found a reason to make me the villain."

"What happened between you two?"

Victoria's expression hardens. "I was a senior marketing director at a competing agency. Nicholas pursued me aggressively—flowers, expensive dinners, weekend trips. He made me feel like I was the most fascinating woman he'd ever met."

My chest tightens. with jealousy.

"He was building Event Horizons, trying to establish credibility in the Austin market. Dating someone from an established agency gave him access to industry connections, client insights, strategic information. I didn't realize I was being cultivated as a business asset until it was too late."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he used our pillow talk to steal clients, our intimate conversations to understand competitor strategies, our relationship to gain insider knowledge about agency operations.

And when I finally realized what was happening, when I confronted him about using me for professional gain, he turned it around. "

Victoria takes another sip of coffee, her green eyes cold.

"He accused me of industrial espionage. Said I was using our relationship to steal Event Horizons' client strategies for my own agency. Had security footage doctored to show me accessing areas I'd never been in. Destroyed my reputation so thoroughly that I had to leave Austin to find work."

"That's..." I trail off, because the story at odds with everything I know about Nicholas.

"That's exactly what he'll do to you," Victoria finishes.

But there's something about Victoria's version that feels like gaslighting. Manipulation. She thinks I'll just believe her? A total stranger. She doesn't know me. Doesn't know how I can read people.

"You're lying."

"Why would I lie? What do I gain from warning you about Nicholas Blackwood?"

"I don't know. But something about your story doesn't add up."

"What doesn't add up?"

"A master manipulator who's using emotional intimacy for business gain would have had nothing to gain from me. I was already his employee. I have nothing more than my skills and experience to offer, which are both already at his disposal."

Victoria stares at me for a long moment, something shifting in her expression. The calculating coldness wavers for a split second.

My phone buzzes with an incoming call. Nicholas's name appears on the screen, and my heart rate immediately accelerates.

"I have to take this," I tell Victoria.

"Sadie." Nicholas's voice is strained, almost desperate. "Where are you?"

"Getting coffee. Why?"

"You need to come back to the office. Now."

"What's wrong?"

"Someone called the office asking for you earlier today. Said they were from Hartwell Industries, wanted to verify your employment and role in their campaign resolution. When we asked for details, they hung up. But not before Frankie gave them your cell number."

My blood runs cold. "Nicholas—"

"Someone's investigating you, Sadie. Someone who knows about your involvement in the Hartwell situation. This could be connected to the original leak, or it could be someone trying to use you to get to Event Horizons."

Across the table, Victoria is watching my face with sharp attention.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes," I say.

"Be careful. If someone's targeting you because of your association with Event Horizons, if they think you have access to confidential information—"

His stress levels are through the roof. He's spiralling and acting paranoid. I wish I could comfort him. Tell him everything is fine. But I can't say anything with Bitchtoria listening.

"I'll be careful."

After I hang up, Victoria raises an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Victoria," I say, trying to appear as though I'm struggling with my thoughts. "It's been interesting meeting you, but I have to go. My sister has an emergency. You've given me some things to think about. Thank you."

I look around. Pull my eyebrows together as though struggling with my internal thoughts. "Can I have your card so I can call you. I'm so confused. Maybe we can talk some more about Nicholas?"

I give her my best pleading, I'm really just a bimbo look.

She stands to leave as well, pulling a card from her purse and handing it to me. "I think I can really help you, Sadie. Save you a lot of trouble personally and professionally."

She sighs, suddenly seeming bored. "Nicholas Blackwood is very good at creating situations that justify his emotional retreats. And I think you're about to become the villain in a story."

Walking back to the office I process everything she told me. The pattern of pursuit and discard. The professional manipulation disguised as intimacy. The convenient timing of the crises.

But I also think about Nicholas's face when he told me about falling from the tree. The genuine terror on the climbing wall. The way he looked when he thought I might have betrayed him—not calculating or manipulative, but devastated.

Either Victoria is lying, or Nicholas Blackwood is a better actor than I ever imagined.

Either way, I'm about to find out which version of him is real.

When I reach the office, Nicholas is waiting for me in the lobby, his expression tense with concern.

"Are you okay?" he asks immediately. "Did anyone approach you? Follow you?"

"I'm fine."

"Someone knows you were involved in the Hartwell resolution, which means they either have inside information or they're monitoring our business communications."

Or monitoring our personal interactions.

Nicholas guides me toward the elevator, his hand on my lower back in a gesture that's both protective and possessive, and I missed it so much. In the elevator, I watch his reflection in the polished mirrors and try to reconcile what I'm seeing with Victoria's accusations.

He looks genuinely worried. Not manipulative or calculating, but concerned for my safety.

"Nicholas," I say as we reach his office, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"The timing of the Hartwell crisis. Right after Dallas, right after we'd been more intimate than ever. Did that seem coincidental to you?"

He pauses in closing his office door, something flickering across his expression. "What do you mean?"

"I mean emotional intimacy makes you uncomfortable. And a crises that requires questioning someone's loyalty give you an excuse to retreat from that intimacy."

"Are you suggesting I manufactured the Hartwell situation?"