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DAMON WAS TEMPTED TO bump Hayden aside when he brushed past, but as much as he disliked the man, Damon did work for them, and until his firm either left NSS’s employ or fired Damon, he was stuck being civil. “We should get back.”
“Hang on.” Hayden grabbed his arm. Damon turned a glare toward the hand wrinkling his suit, and Hayden let go and shoved his hands in his pockets instead. “We’ve got a few minutes.” His voice was low and he looked left and right between sentences. Which meant he didn’t want to be heard.
The body language both piqued Damon’s curiosity and set every inch of him on high alert. “Right. What can I do for you?”
“Hands tied. Vivian?”
God damn it, he had heard. Damon thought he’d been quieter. He had to assume Hayden heard everything, but at the same time, Damon should give away nothing. Irritation churned inside, mixing with concern this could get out of hand. Better defuse the situation fast and get back to work. “Our past isn’t on trial. We’ve never made it a secret we used to date.”
“Right. But Vivian, tied up? Literally? I can’t even picture it. Well, I can, but not with her as a willing party.”
Damon clenched his jaw and tried to be subtle about drawing in a deep breath and counting to ten. “Your sick fantasies are none of my business.”
“She’d never do that now.”
He needed to change the subject, cut the conversation off, and get back to the conference room. Damon summoned the calm exterior he used in tough cases and pasted it in place. “I’m not interested in what you think the people in this office would or wouldn’t do. You’re not as good at reading people as you think.”
Hayden raised his eyebrows. “You’re saying she’d do that. Submit.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Damon’s mind spilled through a twisted combination of irritation, fantasy, reason, and the desire to deck Hayden. The latter was winning, and that wasn’t good. “I’m saying, if you had this gift you believe you have—to look at someone and know what they’re thinking—the young lady whose job you threatened and code you appropriated would still be working for you. Instead, she’s engaged to the Skriddie head of IT and is their primary witness in this case.”
Hayden snorted and shook his head. “Bet me whether or not Vivian would still do anything bondage related.”
“No.”
“Because you know I’m right.”
“Because it’s none of your fucking business.” Common sense Damon to step back, but he wouldn’t be the first to turn away. If he were a better man, maybe not so stubborn, he might convince himself to leave without finishing this conversation. Since he couldn’t hit Hayden, Damon’s pride refused to let him go without getting in the last word.
“You’re wrong about her, and your ego won’t let you admit it.” Hayden dropped his voice another notch in volume. “Or maybe when the two of you say you dated, it’s an exaggeration. I see the appeal in that. Meet an attractive girl in college. Take what you want, with or without her permission. Force her to yield. Convince her to write it off, years later, for the sake of career—”
Damon grabbed a fistful of Hayden’s jacket and guided him into the closest empty office. It took effort to move his jaw when he replied. To not speak through clenched teeth. “A few things. Speaking as your attorney, never let anyone hear you talk like that. Speaking as the guy who did hear it, if you ever imply that again—about me, yourself, anyone—you’ll wake up on the floor, with a mild concussion. First time’s free. Lucky you. My relationship with Vivian or any woman was, is, and always will be consensual.”
Hayden jerked free of his grasp. Despite his squared shoulders and the hard set to his eyes, he stayed out of arm’s reach. “Protesting much? Thinking a thought doesn’t make a guy guilty.”
Damon growled, clenched his fist, and took a step forward.
Hayden held up a hand. “So prove me wrong, tough guy. You don’t want to be here anyway. You made that clear. Anyone can see the tension between the two of you goes both ways, but I call bullshit that she surrenders control anywhere. If I’m wrong, you fly home early. Your team handles the depositions, like they were supposed to, and you go back to that little charity case of yours.”
A million options raced through Damon’s head, including several ways he’d punch Hayden right now and how much jail time he’d do for assault. Damon knew better than to let his temper take control, especially when someone tried to rile him up. He’d learned from his father at an early age that appearing to yield up front, while finding a smarter way out, was sometimes the best solution. “If it’s a bet, you want equal wagers on the table. You’re not right, but what do you get if you are?”
Hayden smirked and brushed past him. “Your job. Bet’s on, asshole. Don’t touch me again.”
Damon snarled at the back of Hayden’s head, and then composed himself before stepping back into the hallway. It was a bullshit wager. Vivian didn’t deserve to be in the middle of it. He needed a little time, to cool down and figure out how to deter Hayden, and the details wouldn’t matter.
The clenching rage and frustration in his joints disagreed, but it was ebbing adrenaline, not a nagging feeling this was a horrible idea.
****
VIVIAN COULDN’T GET the morning encounter with Damon out of her head. She knew the teasing was a bad idea, and she fell into it anyway. The attention was nice. Their shared past didn’t have anything to do with it. Or at least not much. She was really letting this loneliness get to her.
She shook aside the rambling thoughts and focused on her work again. Chatter and laughter rolled into her office from the hall, and she glanced at her computer clock. Almost two. The legal team had to be wrapping up a late or long lunch, or both. She felt bad about shrugging the work off on Tate; his schedule was as busy as hers. At the same time, she was relieved she had some distance from Damon, to deal with this glitch in her brain.
“Got a minute?” Tate’s question and knock drew her attention.
Good. A distraction. “What’s up?”
He stepped inside, closed the door, and took a seat. He hesitated before answering. “You remember that night in Vegas?”
Tate’s stiff posture, combined with the wandering thoughts of Damon that Vivian didn’t want to entertain, made the muscles in her neck tighten. She wanted to make a joke about having been too drunk, but she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Sounds familiar.” The one that lead to these depositions. The cramfest of uncovering how NSS gained access to the Skriddie networks, and making sure the threat was removed and prevented in the future.
Tate sighed and sank further in his seat. “Apparently the four of us aren’t the only people who do.”
If she’d been on alert before, it was nothing compared to the alarms clanging in her head now. She didn’t think any of the four of them said anything then that could be used against them in this lawsuit, but they’d pulled an all-nighter, and like now, tensions had been high. She didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. “What are the claims?”
“They’ve got some kind of evidence that Mikki gave us proprietary information about the NSS network. Now they’re suggesting she always worked for us and took your offer back then, and that her signing on with NSS was nothing more than a front.”
Vivian swallowed a frustrated growl. “They know this is a business, not double-oh-seven, right? Only spies and corrupt companies come up with that kind of convoluted, double-agent bullshit.”
He shrugged. “We argued that, when they dumped this in our laps during scheduling, this morning. Their response was that’s the reason it never occurred to them until this whole legal mess started.”
“Jerks,” Vivian muttered. “How did they even get that information?”
“They’re holding their source close for now. I was hoping you might have some thoughts.”
Defensiveness spiked inside her. Or was that guilt, over flirting with the enemy? “Why are you asking me?”
“Because your office is closest to the conference room, and I kind of hoped this had already come up but wasn’t in the hand-off information. I’m asking Jared and Mikki next.”
“Right.” She blew out a long breath. “Sorry.”
“Vicker’s really knocked you off your game.”
“It shows, huh?”
“Only to me.”
That was something. “I’ll dig while you’re in there. See what I can find. It’s the least I can do, for dumping this on you last minute.”
“You’d do the same for me.”
It was true. Vivian would pull out the stops for any of them, which was why she wouldn’t let them crucify Mikki, for doing what was right. “Regroup tonight? Dinner?”
“It’ll have to be tomorrow morning, before the meetings start. Lys finally found the crib she wanted. I made her promise not to move any furniture around on her own.”
Vivian was surprised he got Alyssia to agree to wait, even eight months into her pregnancy. The woman wasn’t comfortable sitting and waiting for someone else to do things for her.
Tate paused with his hand on the doorknob. “Speaking of tonight, though...”
“Hmm?” Vivian didn’t like that oh-by-the-way tone.
“The entire group—their legal, ours—is going out for dinner. If you want to join them. Off the clock, no talk about the case—all that stuff.”
Perfect. This gave Vivian an excuse to ignore how much she didn’t want to spend the evening alone. As long as she could get her head on straight before spending that much time with Damon. “Everyone?”
He gave a half-shrug, half-nod.
A muddled mixture of anticipation and dread spilled through her, souring in her gut and making her pulse race. No reason to let that show, though. “Absolutely. I’ll make sure the boys don’t get into any trouble.”
Just keep yourself out of trouble in the process. Irritating voice. She’d be fine.