Page 99 of Perfect Assumption

“Good. Then she can tell me all about it while I introduce her to a few friends who aren’t in the business.” An unspoken conversation occurs between the two men.

“I’ll be fine, Ward. Go do what you came here to do,” I encourage him.

His jaw clenches slightly, but he doesn’t say anything when I step forward to take Kristoffer’s arm.

We’re a few steps away when I glance back over my shoulder to find Ward already engrossed in a conversation with the bass player from Nocturne. I tip my head up to meet the hawkish features of the music mega-giant. “Thank you.”

“Of course. And none of it was a lie. I do want to hear how Carys and David are getting along. As you know, when I’m normally on the phone with her, she can be very vexing. How is young Benjamin?”

“Adorable.” I pause when Kristoffer nods in the direction of the Spine Wrecks. “A few weeks ago, everyone was out at my place north of the city to play in the leaves.”

“And did your home fare well in the recent thundersnow?”

“It did.” We pause at the outskirts of the room near the steps for the wine cellar. I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “How do you handle it?”

“Handle what?”

“The constant media attention?” I hold my breath while I wait for his answer.

“I largely ignore it.” He stops a passing waiter and lifts two glasses of champagne. He holds one out.

“No, thank you,” I decline politely.

A trace of understanding flashes across his face. He leans slightly closer. “Angela, right there is how you handle the media—by retaining your power in situations where you think you might lose it.” He stops a different waiter, who’s walking by with a small minibar on a trolley tray. “What are you drinking?”

“Just cola.” I watch carefully as the can is freshly popped before it’s poured into a crystal glass. Mine is exchanged out.

Kristoffer is silent through the exchange. “Carys always said you were a brilliant employee, Angela. As fast as she was traveling up the ladder, Carys would have brought you and David with her. Nothing in your background would have stopped you from succeeding.”

I take a sip of my drink as I contemplate my words. “But would I have stopped myself? I wasn’t ready then.”

“You are now.”

“And now, I don’t want to leave. I’m happy.”

He tips my glass in understanding before taking his own drink. “You handle vultures by letting the people who love you inside and holding them close. Then nothing will ever… Ah, Kody, Meadow. You made it!” Kristoffer lets me go to greet them both warmly.

A man with reddish-blond hair appears to my left. “We had babysitting issues.”

“That’s because you felt the need to lecture Elise on everything that could possibly go wrong.” A beautiful brunette fits herself to his side after Kristoffer releases her, and she holds out a hand. “Meadow Laurence. I manage Nature’s Song.”

“Angela Fahey. I work for an entertainment law firm that does business with Mr. Wilde.”

“Angela, after all these years, don’t you think you could manage to call me Kristoffer?”

“No. Especially since I’m certain my boss and Becks would kill me.”

Kristoffer turns to the others with a pained expression. “See what my life has come to? I can’t manage to get this young woman to call me—a quiet, unassuming old man—by his first name.”

I snort. I can’t help it. Three sets of eyes immediately flash in my direction. “I’m sorry. You were laying it on a bit thick with the ‘quiet, unassuming old man’ farce.”

Kody and Meadow gape at me as I smack down my former boss’s boss.

He strokes his silvery beard with a wicked glint in his eye. “Whatever would make you say that?”

“I’ve heard you curse worse than Becks, and that was during negotiations with my boss only last week!” I exclaim.

“Now, wait just a damn minute, Angie. It was your boss who started that,” Kristoffer fires back.