Page 112 of Power

“Holy crap.” Her jaw dropped.

“What he did yesterday meets the definition of assault.” I fidgeted with a pen on my desk. “In hindsight, I should’ve gone straight from the office to the police station, but I can’t change that now.”

“Good. That asshole deserves to be arrested.” Her nostrils flared with righteous anger.

“There’s a chance he won’t be arrested,” I clarified, tapping my pen against the desk in frustration at the words the officer warned me. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of evidence.”

“What? That’s bull.” Dakota’s cheeks flushed red.

“Iknow. I’m not saying it’s not possible. I’m just trying to brace myself for that potentiality.”

“Then why did you go to the police first? Why not rat him out to HR? The guy doesn’t deserve to have a badge after how he acted.”

I gave her a knowing look. “If I went to HR first, there’s a chance they’d try to bury this. This company is in a massive acquisition with a lot of investors’ eyes on it. Having a sexual harassment accusation backed up by an assault involving one of their leaders would cause them major problems.” I ticked off points on my fingers. “They’d have every incentive to bury it, fire me, and paint me as a disgruntled employee.”

“I’m sure Jace would intervene and insist they fire him or whatever,” Dakota countered.

“I think you’re right, but I’m not taking any chances.” My voice hardened. “I’m not placing that kind of control in anyone’s hands except for mine.”

Not even the hands of a sexy billionaire who made my toes curl. Especially not his.

Dakota leaned back in her chair and arched her eyebrow. “Damn, girl. Smart.” She tilted her head.

“With any luck, he’ll be arrested by the end of the day.”

I could only pray that Marcus was bluffing about telling Jace’s dirty secrets. Or hope that Jace had enough protections in place where it wouldn’t destroy his company.

That guilt, that fear, had kept me up all night. And now, there was no going back.

“Today’s going to be a very interesting day,” Dakota said.

58

JACE

“Sir, we have a problem,” my assistant said, hurrying to match my stride as I barreled down the hallway.

I had no idea what problem she was referring to, butminetrumped everything else.

“I want every HR leader and all of building security in my office within the hour.” Surely, HR would have that damn list of interviewees by now, and we could compare that to the footage.

“Sir—”

I stopped short when I got close enough to see that the conference room table in my office was unexpectedly occupied by a familiar set of faces. Eight pairs of eyes locked on to me.

“What the hell is the board doing here?”

“This is what I was trying to tell you, sir.” My assistant’s voice dropped to a whisper. “They took the red-eye and flew in for an emergency meeting.”

“An emergency meeting for what?” I muttered through clenched teeth.

Seriously, what the hell could they have a problem with now? These guys had been a thorn in my ass since I firstcreatedthis board of directors. At the time, the concept made sense.Lockwood Holdings was expanding rapidly, but my capital was completely tied up in acquisitions. I needed outside investment to fund the growth. Investment that came with strings attached, like a board of directors.

The private equity firm had insisted on board seats in exchange for their capital infusion. I’d thought I’d found like-minded individuals who wanted to do good with their money, thought I’d vetted them thoroughly, but as soon as the ink dried on the contracts, as soon as they had their official seats, they showed their true nature.

And their true nature was like most every other corporate shark I’d ever met: opportunistic. It was all about the bottom line. And don’t get me wrong; I was a businessman, so I understood the importance of profits. But not when it came at the expense of doing what was right.

I mean, honestly, what happened to people’s souls on this planet?