“So I was just some big charity case when he kissed me? Was that all part of his cheer-up-poor-pitiful-Lexi plan?”

“You kissed him?”

“Correction, he kissed me.”

“Bullshit.” Jade’s whole body tensed.

“Twice.”

“Miss Goodie Two Shoes, that whole I-won’t-do-anything-while-he’s-stillwith-you speech was a big lie. You’ve been throwing yourself at him all along.”

“No, I told you, he kissed me. I think all that hairspray is messing with your hearing. We would have done a hell of a lot more than kiss too, if I hadn’t stopped it. Twice.” Lexi mockingly held up two fingers to Jade’s face.

“He doesn’t love you.” Her lip curled in disgust. “He couldn’t.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But based on the way he kissed me, I think he definitely feels a little something for me. It wasn’t like kissing your grandmother;

there was tongue, and lots of it. He’s a really great kisser, by the way.”

“I know he is,” Jade screeched again, losing her temper. Lexi held back a smile. “Stay away from him.” Jade shook her finger in Lexi’s face.

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“Not possible. We work together, very closely.”

Fire burned in Jade’s eyes. “For now.” Suddenly her mood shifted, her anger oddly turning into amusement. “Enjoy it while it lasts, Lexi. I can’t wait to watch you crash and burn, you insignificant little bug.” She got right up into Lexi’s face, her red lips turned up into a sneer. “I’m going to ruin your life.”

“Do your worst. You don’t scare me.” Lexi watched a group of Jade’s pals make their way to the bathroom. “Better go scurry off with your friends before all the coke is gone.” Jade’s eyes flashed black as she stopped dead in her tracks. “Lucky guess, but thanks for confirming it.”

Jade stormed away as Lexi closed her eyes and began banging her head on the wall behind her. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She repeated her mantra, unable to believe she had been so idiotic and told Jade, of all people, that she was in love with Vincent. “She’s going to make your life a living hell.

Nothing new there,” Lexi said to no one in particular.

When Jade stormed off into the bathroom, Vincent breathed a sigh of relief. He even had to stop himself from smiling as he watched Lexi have an entire conversation with herself, throwing up her hands in the midst of her little rant.

“Vincent?” Elizabeth tapped her son on the shoulder. “Are you okay?” She followed his gaze to Lexi. “She’s a lovely girl, Vincent.”

“I know.”

“She makes you happy.”

“I know.” Vincent smiled as he watched Lexi storm off toward the bar. “She is the most selfless person I have ever met.”

“I know.”

“You love her.”

“I – I …” Vincent stammered, caught off guard. “I need to talk to her.”

“Yes, you do. But first, I think you need to end things with Jade. Until that’s cleared up, I don’t think Lexi will be very receptive to any ‘conversations’

with you.”

Vincent nodded his head in agreement, then turned to Elizabeth, who was beaming with excitement. “Don’t get your hopes up, Mother. This all might not work out the way you hope it will.”

She hugged her son. “Yes it will. Trust me.”

Lexi downed two glasses of wine and was reaching for her third from the hunky bartender with the baby blue eyes when Erica swooped in and stole her away. “Hey, wait. He had a drink for me.” Erica quickly walked Lexi to the back of the room and stopped. The look on her face was grave.

Any buzz Lexi might have had was killed in that instant.

“What is it?”

Erica went in her purse and pulled out several folded pieces of paper and thrust the pile at Lexi. “You know how you left me that mysterious message about keeping my eyes open for anything strange? Well, I think you need to take a look at this.”

Cautiously, Lexi opened the papers, and as soon as she glanced at the first one, all the color drained from her face. “Wh-where did you get these?”

“David was looking at them one day. I walked in the office, and he tried to hide them but accidentally stuck them in the folder I needed. When I saw your name on them, I knew it was bad. I made copies and stuck the originals back in the file. About five minutes later he came flying out of his office, demanding the file back from me. I played dumb.”

“This is the Excalibur account. How did he get these? These look like,” Lexi held the paper up close to her face, examining every detail, “pictures of the boards. Photographs of everything. Now that’s odd—this one is different.” She continued to flip through the pages, her stomach dropping.

Excalibur had been her baby, Vincent trusted her with it, and she somehow let it slip through her fingers.

“What the hell is going on? How does David have your mock up? What does he care?”

“Someone at Hunter has been leaking our ideas to competitors. Vincent has no idea why, or who it is. This,” she waved the papers at Erica, “is the account he gave me. The one he wanted protected above all others. Now I have to tell him David has the information, including private meeting notes, and our presentation date. This is bad.”

“Oh my God,” Erica gasped.

“Yeah.”

The papers in her hand were all the proof they needed that someone was selling Hunter ideas, but as far as she could tell, nothing about them would be helpful in finding the culprit. “Can I keep these? I need to show them to Vincent.”

“Absolutely. Now that I know what I’m looking for, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for anything else fishy.” Erica hugged Lexi and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too. I’m sorry you had to put up with David being awful just so you could give me this.”

“Don’t worry about it. I figure I’m just gonna get him liquored up and let him make a fool of himself. If I’m lucky, I can get my next Christmas card picture tonight.” She earned a wry smile from Lexi.

After a reassuring squeeze to Lexi’s arm, Erica disappeared back into the crowd. Lexi’s mind reeled as she tried to figure out when the files could have been found and photographed. She had kept everything under lock and key, no matter where she was in the building. Maybe she thought she had locked the drawer one day, and it was actually left open. Vincent was going to be furious. He might even fire her. Everything she’d worked for would be taken away. A sudden wave of nausea hit Lexi, and she needed to get some air.




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