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  “You aren’t…mad?”

  “Not particularly, no. It’s more accurate to say I’m irritated. I have a lot of work to do, and this is interrupting me. I simply want to come to work, do my job, and go home.”

  Mary stepped in. “Davis is a unique employee.” She filled Newport in on the basics without violating HPPA laws about the things Davis had revealed to her department about his condition, or making him sound like a sitcom caricature, both things he appreciated her for doing.

  “Why were you filming her, exactly?”

  “Reasonable accommodation,” Mary said. “That was a stipulation of his employment when he was hired. It’s in his contract. We signed off on it. He has appropriate signage on his door and in his office about it.”

  The lawyer seemed to be evaluating him. “How long was the previous relationship going on between you and Ms. Cockpher?”

  “It wasn’t a relationship so much as it was a number of casual sexual encounters.”

  “Then give me that.”

  “The number of times, the number of years, or both?”

  Newport’s head slumped and he muttered something Davis assumed was an epithet. “Years?”

  “We’ve had seventy-two sexual encounters over the past six years, excluding the last six months. I’ve been with the company eighteen years. I can give you the exact dates and approximate times and durations of my sexual interactions with Ms. Cockpher, if you’d like. Many of them happened here in her office, the rest happened at her home.”

  “Fuck me,” Newport muttered. Then he let out a sigh. “Okay. At any time before now did she try to coerce you?”

  “No. I was willing to oblige her as long as it didn’t interfere with my work or outstanding plans with my family.”

  “Family?” Mary asked.

  “My brother and parents. But now I’m in a committed romantic relationship. I’m no longer available to her for sex, casual or otherwise. I also no longer desire to have sex with her because of my committed relationship, and due to her failure to disclose her other sexual relationship to me. At least one incident of which happened here in her office.”

  The lawyer picked up a pen and twirled it around in his fingers for a moment before he reached for the phone on his desk.

  Five minutes later, the three of them were gathered in James Darby’s office. Gil Newport explained the situation to the man and then showed him the video. Darby looked outraged upon viewing it.

  “I’m sorry, Davis,” Darby said after it ended. “You’ve been with us a long time, and I’m sorry she took advantage of you.”

  “I didn’t mind our liaisons before now. It was consensual on my part. My complaint isn’t about that. But it’s not going to happen again, and I don’t think it’s very professional of her to threaten me just because she isn’t happy with my decision.”

  Darby slowly shook his head. “I had my misgivings about hiring you in the beginning. Fortunately, you not only proved me wrong, you made me rethink how I handled hiring personnel. My daughter, on the other hand, begged me to take her on when she was ‘laid off’ from her previous job.” Darby used finger quotes around that phrase, so Davis assumed it was meant to indicate either a euphemism or sarcasm.

  Darby focused on Mary Selman and Gil Newport. “From this point forward,” the man said, “Davis and his entire department report directly to you.” He pointed at Mary Selman. “And you report directly to me as needed. I’ll eventually fill that position but that’s how it’ll work for now.”

  The attorney scratched at his jaw. “What about Felicity?”

  “I’ll handle her.” A scowl darkened Darby’s features. “Won’t make holiday dinners very pleasant around our house this year, but our company can’t afford to lose Davis. I can hire or promote another VP to do Felicity’s job. I’ll move her over to the wholesale division. We have someone leaving in a couple of weeks.” He dismissed them but then called out to Mary. “Oh, please get me a copy of our company’s sexual harassment policy ASAP. E-mail it to me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The three of them walked out and regrouped in the attorney’s office. “Well, you heard him, Davis,” Newport said. “Is this handled to your satisfaction?”

  He nodded. “It is. Thank you. May I return to work now?”

  Newport looked at Mary Selman. “Is this guy for real?”

  She smiled. “Yes, he is. That’s one of the beauties of working with him. You never have to guess what he’s thinking. He’ll simply tell you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Davis left work approximately the same time he did most days and headed home. Unlike most days before this, his thoughts turned to Melanie. Yes, she was a complication and a distraction, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Weighing everything, his life was far better with her in it.

  Even the business with Felicity didn’t hold his concentration because he trusted Mary Selman, Gil Newport, and James Darby would follow through and deal with it. They’d told him they would, and he had no reason to doubt them. That was their job and in the past they’d always followed through.

  Kirby was already home when Davis arrived. “Mel’s coming over at seven,” Kirby called out from the kitchen.

  “I know. Were you reminding me or confirming that?”

  “Confirming it.”

  “Good.” He continued on to his bedroom. He wanted to get a shower before she arrived.

  When he emerged from his bedroom he headed for the kitchen where Kirby was cooking dinner for them all. “That smells good.”

  “Thanks. So how was your day?”

  Davis pulled a gallon of iced tea from the fridge to pour himself a glass. “It was fine. I had to file a sexual harassment complaint against Felicity. Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty?”

  Kirby didn’t respond. When Davis looked, he found his brother staring at him, jaw gaping.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Back up, Davis. What did you just say?”

  “I asked if the dishes were—”

  “Not that! The other thing.”

  “I filed a sexual harassment complaint with human resources against Felicity.”

  Kirby pointed at him. “That. What the hell happened?”

  Davis recounted it and showed him the video.

  “Fuuuck.” Kirby leaned against the counter. “You have to tell Mel. Immediately, when she gets here.”

  “Why?”

  “I mean, not the second she walks in the door, but you have to tell her.”

  “I don’t want to upset her.”

  “Not telling her will upset her more if she finds out later. Trust me on this one. And play her that video.”

  “All right. If you feel that’s best.”

  “I know that’s best.”

  In fact, when Mel arrived, once she’d greeted them and they’d both kissed her, Kirby took the decision out of Davis’ hands.

  “Davis needs to tell you about something that happened at work today.” Kirby pointed at him.

  * * * *

  Mel turned to Davis. “What happened?”

  He repeated the story, then showed her the video.

  Her face went white, then red. “That fucking goddamned bitch! Do you have her address? I want to fucking pay her a visit and—”

  “Whoa,” Kirby said. “Hold up, baby.” He walked over and pulled her in for a hug. “Davis handled it. I told him he needed to tell you about it immediately. Let it go.”

  “Let it go? Did you seriously just say that to me?”

  “I did.” He played dirty, grabbing her by the ponytail, tipping her head back, and kissing her again. “Be our good girl and trust us, please?”

  She held on to him, her body now warring between her outrage and what was quickly becoming something akin to an automatic response on her body’s part any time the men grabbed her like that.

  “What if she tries to retaliate?”

  “She can’t,” Davis said. “I hav
e paperwork from HR that I filed a report. I have the video. Mr. Darby was outraged that she did that.”

  “She can’t try to claim he was harassing her,” Kirby said. “He’s got the video. And she can’t claim she didn’t know she was being filmed, because he’s got the warning signs and it’s common knowledge there that he does it.”

  Mel struggled to rein in her anger. “So you’re not working for her anymore?”

  “No. Mr. Darby said my department is reporting directly to Mary Selman until he replaces Felicity. He’ll move her to the wholesale department.”

  “So you won’t have contact with her at work anymore?”

  “I can’t promise you that. I don’t know if her office will be moved. I no longer report to her.”

  She was nitpicking now, and she knew it.

  It had to be good enough.

  It was good enough, because she trusted Davis.

  She walked over to him and hugged him, glad when he hugged her back. “Promise me that if she says something to you, you’ll tell me?”

  “Can you be more specific? Do you want me to report any contact I have with her?”

  “Dude,” Kirby said. “She means if Felicity tries something else. Not normal business stuff. Personal stuff.”

  “Oh. Yes, I promise. Are you upset with me?”

  “I’m pissed the fuck off, but not at you. At Felicity.” She looked over at Kirby. “Why can’t I go punch her?”

  He grinned as he walked over and sandwiched her between them. “Because you probably wouldn’t get conjugal visits, for starters.”

  “Oh. There is that.”

  “Please don’t contact her,” Davis said. “I trust them to follow through with what they said they’ll do to rectify this. If that changes, I’ll tell you.”

  Was it worth ruining her night with the men?

  No.

  She kissed Davis, then Kirby. “Okay. I’ll be good. But if she tries anything else, I want her ass nailed to the wall.”

  Davis scowled. “Figuratively.”

  Kirby snorted. “Sure. That.”

  * * * *

  Kirby knew he couldn’t blow his cool. He had to stay the voice of reason, because while he sensed Davis understood Mel was pissed off, he wasn’t sure if Davis understood exactly how pissed off she was.

  Not that he blamed her in the least. He was pissed off, too, that Felicity had basically used his brother for years and had zero empathy for him. It was one thing when they had a mutually beneficial arrangement. Davis was an adult and could make his own damn decisions, even if they weren’t decisions he’d make. Having a friends with bennies relationship was one thing, but he couldn’t sleep with someone unless he had an emotional attachment to them.

  He’d met Felicity before, at a company Christmas party, and she reminded him of a barracuda, and not in the good ways.

  They salvaged the evening, having a nice dinner, playing around a little with Mel and all three of them ending up coming before they sent their happy and sated subby girl home for the night.

  When they returned to the house after watching her drive away, Kirby stopped Davis before he could disappear.

  “We need to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “About what happened today.”

  Davis scowled. “Regarding?”

  “Dude. Felicity.”

  “I thought we talked about that already?”

  “We did. Now I need to talk to you about it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you don’t. That’s why we’re having this conversation.” He took a deep breath. “Mel has some emotional issues about her past. Trust issues. She trusts us. Please don’t do anything to destroy that.”

  “I thought by telling her what happened that was supposed to help her trust issues?”

  “It did. I’m saying if Felicity tries something else, immediately let me know, before you even tell Mel.”

  “Why you?”

  “Because based on what it is, there might be better ways of responding or presenting it to Mel than you might consider on your own.”

  “If I present the facts, isn’t that enough?”

  “It’s how you present the facts. You saw how angry she was earlier.”

  “I’m pretty angry myself because it happened to me. I started out irritated, but the more I think about it, it’s actually anger and resentment. I’m the one Felicity took for granted and assumed wouldn’t mind being lied to.”

  “I get it. Exactly my point. This is an emotional issue. Please, just promise me you’ll tell me first.”

  Davis finally nodded. “All right.” He started to turn, then stopped and faced Kirby again. “Why do you think Felicity thought it was okay to not tell me about the guy she slept with?”

  “I don’t know. That’s a question only she can answer. But I beg of you, do not contact her and ask her.”

  “I wasn’t going to. I’m going to go out of my way to avoid her at work.”

  “Good plan.”

  Davis didn’t move. “Do you think it’s possible she lied to me about other times?”

  “Truthfully? Probably. Not just probably, but likely. The only reason you knew about this time was you happened to go to her office and heard her. No telling how many times it happened before, at her house or elsewhere. Someone like her, that’s likely not the first time she’s done something like that.”

  Davis nodded, and Kirby felt sorry for him.

  He still didn’t move. Kirby waited him out.

  “Will you promise me something?” Davis asked.

  “Sure, buddy.”

  “If you ever think Mel’s lying to us, please tell me. Obviously, I don’t mean the good kinds of lies.”

  “Good kinds of lies?”

  “Like not telling me about a present she bought, or a surprise party.”

  “Ah. Gotcha.” He stepped closer. “Buddy, if I ever think she’s lying to us in the bad way, I will immediately tell you. I doubt that will happen. I think she’s put herself much farther out onto the limb than we have to trust us the way she does.”

  “There are times I wish I believed in religion.”

  “Why?”

  “Because then I could pray and ask why I was born like this. The reason for it. I mean, I know it’s who I am. I’m at peace with that. I’m happy with it. I wouldn’t want to change myself even if I could because, when I look at my life, I have a good job and I have a good relationship with you and our parents, and now we have Mel. I’m a very lucky man and wouldn’t trade that for anything. I have a good life. I don’t want to change any of that. The allowances I need to make, in the grand scheme of things, are nothing. But it’d be nice to know…why.”

  “Ask god or ask DNA, you’ll get resounding silence from both. It just happened. Asking why is a waste of time. The best thing to do is what you’re already doing and look at the sum of the whole.”

  “I know. It just…frustrates me sometimes. Especially when my life makes others frustrated. Especially people I care about. I hate that Mel is angry because of this situation.”

  “You didn’t cause it.”

  “But I had the relationship with Felicity.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t know she would do what she did. Did you stop to think that Felicity has a problem? A functional adult wouldn’t have lied to you, for starters. Secondly, when you said no, that would have been it. She wouldn’t have tried to force you to comply by threatening you. When I compare you and Felicity, you are the ‘normal’ one by far, and she’s the ‘weird’ one.”

  Davis seemed to need a moment to digest that. “I didn’t think about it like that.”

  “Yeah, well, reframe it exactly like that. In fact, I see Felicity as a predator. Very few men would have put up with what you did from her even before you discovered her lies. As soon as she started sleeping with another guy, they wouldn’t have let her come back.”

  “But that was the arrangement we had and I didn’t h
ave a problem with it.”

  “I know. I’m saying she used you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh.”

  Davis slowly nodded. “Is that all?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I ordered Melanie a collar and cuffs last night.”

  Okay, that was a hard left turn. “You did?”

  “Yes. I finally found ones I like. They’re a hand-made matched set. Collar, and wrist and ankle cuffs. They should be here tomorrow. I ordered them shipped next day air.”

  “How much do I owe you?”

  “Nothing. They’re from both of us. I know over the years we’ll both be buying her things from both of us.”

  That was Davis. Full of wonderful contradictions. “Thanks, Davis. I’m sure she’ll love them. When do you want to give them to her?”

  “I wanted to talk to you about that. Maybe you could plan that part? I want it to be perfect for her.”

  “Okay. We’ll talk about that later. We’ll keep it a surprise for her for now.”

  “Good night.”

  “’Night.” He watched Davis walk to his room and shut the door behind him.

  He was going to go to bed, but he reversed course, headed for the kitchen, poured himself a shot of bourbon, and downed it.

  Then he headed for bed, hoping they’d heard the last of Felicity, but not exactly convinced of that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Melanie was at work early Friday afternoon when her boss knocked on her office door. She sat up and pulled her attention from her computer screen, where she’d been working on processing that week’s payroll.

  “Hi, Mr. Mattlin. What’s up?”

  When he stepped in and pulled the door shut behind him she felt a ripple of fear roll down her spine. Instinctive.

  “I…uh, we need to talk.”

  “About what?” She sat back, studying him.

  Normally, he was a smiling, amiable man. Always quick with a family-friendly joke or a compliment.

  Today he looked…disturbed.

  And when he tensely settled in at the old chair in front of her desk, it didn’t help the wave of nervous jitters dancing through her. “We have a…situation,” he finally said.