Page 28 of Break Me Not

The security my company provided was one of the reasons I and many others felt safe here.

Sloan looked at me, still waiting for an answer. We both knew it wasn't about if I could do it, but when. I had an extremely trustworthy and well-trained staff. And that didn't just fall out of thin air. It took time.

Time to train.

Time to move around.

And I needed to make sure all my clients were taken care of. They trusted me with their safety, and I owed it to them to make it work.

“I can have everything done before the opening in three months. But if Ax wants it faster than that, I won't be able to do it. You're not my only clients, you know?”

“But we are your most profitable,” she replied as she nudged me.

“Rushed work equals rushed service, and I’m not willing to compromise on quality.”

She pushed her dyed silver hair out of her face, the smile never dropping.

“Just take from other clients! I’m sure some contracts are coming to an end.”

I gave her a look.

“Okay, okay,” she said, raising her hands. “Speaking of clients, how did it go with Liz? She sounded a bit upset.”

I shifted on my feet, not sure about how much I wanted to tell Sloan. Liz’s trust at this point was my main concern. And if she heard that I'd been blabbering to Sloan, she wouldn’t like it. No matter how close we all were.

“Nothing that I can't help with. Though she did find out about my relationship with Claire and was rightfully upset about it.”

Sloan’s eyebrow piercing glittered as she raised her brow.

“Found out? Meaning you didn't tell her?”

A shameful heat spread through my body.

“I was going to, but Claire decided to have lunch with her mom at her office, and… Well, she got to her first.”

“Damn… I gather she didn’t take it well?”

“That’s an understatement.”

“What are you going to do?”

I shrugged.

“My job, for starters.” I couldn’t help the smirk that spread across my face. Though it quickly dropped when I remembered just how against us she was. “But… I put myself out there. Let’s just hope at some point she will change her mind.”

Sloan clapped me on the back.

“Looks like you have some groveling to do, but knowing her, I'm sure she would really enjoy⁠—”

My phone started vibrating in my pocket. An overwhelming feeling of unease rushed through me as soon as I felt the vibration, so I took it out, and looking at the caller ID only confirmed my suspicions. It was the security team assigned to Liz.

“Speak.”

“There was an incident at the gallery. Someone broke the window, and we had to close the event early. Ms. Thorne said she would head home, but one of my guys is following her and says that she's going in the opposite direction.”

I could hear a rushing sound in the background, like he was in the car driving.

My heart dropped into my stomach. My gut was telling me there was only one person who would do this. After all, how many enemies could one curator have? It had to be that douchebag but…