King (33 page)

I
swallowed hard, acutely aware of the gravity of the situation I was in, and
Grayson gave me no time to recover. “It came from your computer Charlotte. You
are suspended immediately” he snapped, turning away from me and gesturing me
out of his office as I stood, feet frozen to the floor in shock as Alison
gently took my arm. I turned to face her, tears pricking at my eyes as I tried
desperately to swallow them back. “I didn’t do this” I stated as firmly as I
could manage and she nodded gently. “We will investigate fully Charlotte and
get to the bottom of it, but for now, everything stays here and you need to
leave the premises immediately”.

My
stomach was churning, my eyes were stinging, growing waves of nausea
threatening to overpower me and I couldn’t get out of there quickly enough,
gasping for breath as I left the foyer, angry tears stabbing at my eyes as I
made my way to the wine bar to tell Katie what had happened. The fucking nerve
of those people, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
 
Jesus Christ, even if it had come from my
computer, I knew I hadn’t been the one to send it. I always left it open, it
was my office for God’s sake and I trusted the people I worked with and I’d
trusted King. More fool me, my inner logic sighed as I fought back the tears,
storming through to the back of the wine bar, noticing Ian Anderson chatting up
one of the poor junior creative’s. Resisting my urge to tell the girl to run
like hell, I sought out Katie, which was much less difficult than usual as she
was stood next to Robbie who towered beautifully above almost everyone in the
room. She gawped at me open mouthed. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost
Lotty
, what’s up?”

The
truth was I didn’t want everyone in the bar to know, they would jump to the
wrong conclusion and assume there was no smoke without fire, but I was
struggling to quell my searing anger and they would know soon enough anyway.
“I’ve been fucking suspended” I all but shouted as she looked at me
incredulously. I knew how she
felt,
I’d had exactly
the same reaction. “What the hell for?” and my loyal colleague was almost as
angry as me. “They’re alleging I shared our creative ideas with King for the
Mercedes pitch” I snapped as her mouth dropped even further. “And before you
ask no I didn’t” and there was no controlling my temper now. “I wasn’t going to
ask, I know you’d never do that” she said, throwing her arms around me as the
tears came and I knew right then, that between my behaviour on Saturday night
and now, everyone would believe Ian Andersons rumour that I was an emotional
wreck, and moreover, they’d probably be right.

 
“Shit
Lotty
” she
whispered against my ear “try not to worry, the truth will come out” she said
supportively as I stood back, Robbie holding my arm gently as I tried to calm
down. “I know
,
I have to go Katie. I just needed you
to hear it from me first” I choked, making my way quickly through the crowd and
straight into the path of a grinning Jason King. “Charlotte?” he said, his
happy demeanour soon evolving to one of outright concern as I barged my way past
him and out into the street. I was damned if anyone in that bar was getting
even more of a show today.

I
didn’t get far before he caught my arm, spinning me around and holding my
shoulders firmly. “Charlotte, what’s wrong?” he asked tenderly, his beautiful
face millimetres from mine as I choked back my sobs, trying to gather myself
together just long enough to say the words as he gazed at me intently. “If I
find out that this has anything to do with you King, I will never fucking
forgive you” I spat, pushing him away as confusion tore through his face, and
running as fast as I could down the street, grateful with every bone in my body
that he had the good sense not to follow me.

Chapter
18

I
couldn’t believe how everything had gone so wrong. My job was my life and Jason
King had burst into that life in the most powerful, wonderful and
excruciatingly painful way, and turned it on its head. I fluctuated almost
hourly between tears, anger and utter devastation at the state of my career and
the state of my heart. It had taken years to get here and right now it was all
unravelling, falling like a set a dominoes, too quickly to comprehend. I had
barely been able to haul myself out of bed for the last few days and I was
reeling. Professionally I had plummeted from the dizzy heights of award success
to just about as bad as it could get, and my heart was shattered and broken and
ached with a physical ferocity I had never known before.

The
Mercedes debacle had knocked me for six and I couldn’t believe that Jason had
used me in that way. I knew he’d do just about anything to win an
account,
it was why he’d been at the top of his game for so
long. He got himself a slot as key note speaker for London Models Inc before
the Tristan Wright pitch and holidayed with Brandon James ahead of the fight
for the Castle vodka campaign, as I’d later discovered. But this, this was
something else entirely. Sleeping with someone to get information to sabotage
our creative and undercut us on Mercedes was a whole new level of deceit. I
couldn’t believe he had done it, but Grayson had been absolutely adamant it had
come from my computer and I couldn’t think of another explanation. The truth
would come out, it had to. Then again, if I had left my computer open with
commercially sensitive information on the screen, and gone to gossip with Katie
in the corridor leaving our direct competition alone and with access to it,
that was probably just as bad. I’d been dumb, irresponsible and despite my
title of Exec of the Year, I would probably be fired. I was pretty damn sure
with that against my name, I’d be lucky to get a job flogging space at the free
weekly, and back in a rat infested shithole in the armpit of London before I
could blink.

He’d
called me enough times at first when my anger prevented me from picking up, but
in the last two days, he’d stopped calling altogether. I couldn’t let him know
he’d broken me. Between that and
Tamsin
Lloyd, I
wasn’t sure I would ever recover fully and my pride had been wounded enough.
There was no way I would let him listen to my heartfelt sobbing down the line
as he tried to apologise his way out of it. All I could hope for now was that
the facts of the leak would emerge with the internal investigation and they
would know it wasn’t me. At the very least they would know it wasn’t
deliberate. Right now that seemed like wishful thinking and there had been too
much of that going on lately.

I
reached for my ringing phone, resisting the urge to ignore it when I saw who it
was. “Have you seen the news Charlotte?” “No”. I said simply. “
Jasmin
Lloyd has just been released from hospital” Sasha
said excitedly as though this would mean anything at all to me. “Who’s
Jasmin
Lloyd?” I said, trying to recall the name, but
drawing a blank. “
Tamsin
Lloyd’s
sister
Charlotte. The official PR line is that she was suffering from exhaustion, but
it’s all over the internet that she had a breakdown a few months ago followed
by at least two suicide attempts, one of which was last Wednesday night”. I
still didn’t see the relevance.
“So what?”
I said,
showing a lot less charity than I knew I should, but right now, I was so
devastated at the state of my own affairs, I just didn’t have the capacity to
worry about anyone else’s. “I know
Jasmin
from the
parties
Charlotte,
she dropped off the scene suddenly.
This is to do with Jason, I know it is” she said quickly, as I finally cottoned
on to what she was saying.

It
would certainly make sense why he was so adamant that he didn’t want to
introduce me to the lifestyle. He’d told me he had done it once and it ended
badly. I virtually imploded. “I can’t believe the bastard would move on to her
sister when the poor girl is still recovering. Jesus Sasha, you’d think he’d
done enough damage to that fucking family, what he’s done to me looks like
childsplay
by comparison.” I almost screamed as I heard her
sighing loudly. “Jason sponsored her, like I sponsored you Charlotte, he wasn’t
sleeping with her,
she
was with someone else.
Apparently he was a really nasty piece of work”. Now it was my turn to sigh. At
least that was something. “He’s still shagging the supermodel though Sash” I
said as the tears started to flow again. “Listen Charlotte, it might be that he
was telling the truth. Apparently they were together in the past and he ended
it, but he’s always denied it’s happening now. You’ve only got her word for it
that he is, and maybe she’s desperate enough to say anything to get you off the
scene. It could be that he’s just offering support because he feels somehow
responsible for what happened to
Jasmin
. I know they
were good friends. If he feels it’s his fault, I certainly wouldn’t put it past
her to play on that to get his attention, would you?”

I
didn’t know what to think, my head was suddenly all over the place. The work
thing was huge but I couldn’t deny I would feel infinitely better at the
thought that he hadn’t been rolling from my bed into hers all this time. That
he was leaving out of a sense of duty to
Jasmin
. “Why
wouldn’t he just tell me though Sasha?” “They’ve been trying to keep it under
wraps apparently.
Tamsins
already famous and her
sister is an aspiring model on the up. They were trying to protect her
reputation and her image. You know how it is Charlotte. People don’t forget
things like that, especially if the press get hold of it” she said and it was a
convincing argument. He had once told me it wasn’t his confidence to break, and
a wave of relief washed over me. If the friend he had sponsored had tried to
take her own life and needed him, and I was begging him on my knees to stay,
I’m not surprised he was torn.

“Have
you seen him Sasha?” “Yes he’s been here almost daily since your suspension,
with Grayson and Alison. King Marketing pulled out of the Mercedes pitch and
there’s something else you should know”. My heart was pounding at the
possibility that Jason could have been telling the truth. If he was speaking to
my employers and had pulled out of a huge potential campaign, what would have
been the point in trying to sabotage it in the first place, none of this made
sense. Maybe he was trying to make it right. “What?” I asked through the sobs
that were now heaving through my body. “He’s suspended all his execs
Lotty
,
and I mean everyone, until someone comes forwards and admits to stealing or
receiving the information” and my heart stopped beating. “He wants answers
Charlotte and he’s not going to stop until he gets them. Every day his execs
are not out pitching campaigns, he is losing money hand over fist. You know how
loyal that team are to him and to each
other,
I don’t
think it will take long before someone cracks. One of them has to know
something” she said and I could barely get the words out through my choking
breaths. I had played this all wrong. “Sasha, I need to see him, find out where
he is” I managed before hanging up the phone, sobbing into my hands. What the
hell had I done?

I grabbed my
phone as soon as the text came through.

He’s pitching to Decadence Inc, King
Marketing
2pm

The
name brought back vivid and wonderful memories of the night I’d been
blindfolded in his creative space as he fed me the wonderful dessert and how
amazing and sensual the experience had been, the emotions roller coasting
through my body, making it even more difficult to come to terms with that fact
that I might have ruined everything. I had to see him, to do it in person and I
had to do it now, even if that meant barging into the middle of the damn pitch
to make him listen. A sudden, crazy thought flashed through my brain. I dressed
as presentably and quickly as I could, running out and hailing a taxi to King
Marketing, desperate to see him, to feel him, to apologise for the way I’d
treated him, stopping quickly at the pharmacy to pick up a handful of sleep
masks, just in case. I would find him and beg his forgiveness no matter what,
and I couldn’t waste another minute.

I
didn’t stop at reception, getting straight into the elevator for the 20th
floor. The beast was on guard at his personal reception and there was no way
I’d be getting past her without a fight. I tried for civilised, friendly calm.
“Is he in Margaret?” “Yes” she said slowly raising her eyebrows at me as I
started off towards his door like a woman on a mission. “But you can’t go in,
he’s presenting” she shouted, running breathlessly up behind me. There were two
things for it, wait politely outside until he’d finished and hope that he’d see
me, or go in anyway and hope he didn’t throw me out before he’d heard me out. I
had wasted enough time already and my heart was pounding as I lunged for the
door, almost falling into the room and stumbling to get my balance as Margaret
barged into my back from behind. “I’m so sorry Mr King, I tried to stop her”.
“It’s OK Margaret” he said calmly, ushering her away, as I lifted my gaze to
meet his and three others who were staring open mouth as I flushed violently. I
thought he’d be angry but he was giving little away, only the slight smirk, the
one reserved for me, playing gently at the side of his mouth, indicating that
he was possibly even slightly amused by the interruption.

“What
do you want Charlotte?” he said, the smirk widening as the dark haired
gentleman and two blonde ladies assessed me curiously. Now I was here, my words
wouldn’t come, what the hell could I say in front of these strangers that
wouldn’t make me look like I was stark raving mad. “I, I...” I started and
stopped again, following the curve of his mouth and his twinkling eyes and
praying he would help me out. He answered my silent wish, just long enough for
me to pull myself upright and my flush to fade. “Everyone, this is Charlotte”
he smiled gently. “Charlotte, this is my mother Anne, my father Robert and my
sister Ellen” gesturing to each of the stunned guests around his table as my
face flared again and I swallowed hard. Think Charlotte, think. Oh my God, I
had never been so utterly mortified. “I thought you were pitching to Decadence
Jason” I said, trying hard to justify my unwelcome dramatic intrusion into
their meeting. “I am” he grinned wickedly, “
they
own
it”. I didn’t know what to say, what the hell could I say?