Page 77 of Just Business

Sam didn’t flinch, didn’t turn away at all, turning into the stone-faced CEO he was so well known for being. “If he’s hurt you this much, I don’t need him at all.”

“Other way around. I... hurt him. I don’t know how, only that I did.” He tried to shrug, but ended up wincing. “You don’t need me.”

The CEO look cracked and Sam threw up his hands. “Look, Michael and I sometimes fight and—”

“He safeworded out of a scene we’d hardly begun—one he asked for—then walked out of my house. That’s what happened.”

Sam stepped sideways, grabbed one of the chairs from the table in the center of the room, and sank down on it. “Oh.”

Of all people, Sam would understand the ramifications. He uncurled himself a bit and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what I did. He hasn’t said a word to me since I cut him off the cross.”

“You... cut him down?”

“He’d asked to be bound tightly. So I used lots of rope.” Hadn’t that turned Justin on? Or had he completely misread the signals? “Shears were the fastest way.”

“You’re too good to screw up rope,” Sam said, his expression far away. “It must have been something else.”

“I know.” A past trauma. A trigger point. Something inside Justin. “I know.”

He wished Sam’s eyes weren’t so blue. They were different from Justin’s but enough of a reminder.

“Yet you think you can’t resolve this.” A statement, not a question.

“He doesn’t trust me.” There was the yawning hole again, the one filled with pain. Noah. His parents. Justin. Noah hadn’t turned from the monster, but there hadn’t been enough time. “If he can’t trust me...” He let the words die. Trust and love. One didn’t happen without the other.

Sam folded his hands and looked down at the carpet for a few moments before looking up. “Yet you want him to stay here.”

Of course he did. “He’s exactly what you’ve been looking for. Young, smart, clever.” He shook his head, stomach still a mass of knots. Last thing Justin—or Sam—needed was for Justin to lose this job. “It’s an issue between me and him. It doesn’t affect his work.”

“Bullshit it doesn’t.” The words were spoken with a vehemence that pinned Eli to his chair. Sam stood in one motion and covered the distance between them in three steps. “He’s as much of a wreck as you. And he handed me a resignation letter this morning.”

No way in hell he was going to let Justin quit because of him. Eli rose up from his chair—and met Sam’s hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

“Get the fuck out of my way, Sam.”

“No.” Sam spoke that single word with such force, it reverberated through Eli’s body to his toes. This wasn’t his friend, but S. Randall Anderson, the man who had been CEO of more companies than Eli had fingers.

Silence was the only answer he could offer.

“Donotforget whose name is on the front door of this office.”

Eli exhaled. “You can’t let him quit.”

“Ididn’t.” Sam paused. “And I’m not letting you, either.”

“Sam—”

“You are exactly what this company needs, as well. Young, bright, intelligent—”

“Fucked in the head...”

Sam didn’t even flinch. “And I’m not?”

Anger finally ebbed from Eli as pain took over. He slumped back in the chair and rubbed his forehead. He couldn’t deny that Sam had his own demons.Except you’re weak. Broken.Sam wasn’t.

“Don’t make the mistake I made, E.”

Oh, he knew what Sam meant. Before Sam had met Michael, he’d run from his past by moving from company to company, never settling in one place. He’d nearly left Michael behind, too.