Under His Skin (For His Pleasure, Book 20) (6 page)

“I’m surprised that you’ve been taken in
by her,” Red said.
 
“It makes me
question whether you’re fit for this position, Easton.”

“I understand your position, but perhaps
you should still listen to what she has to say.”

“Okay,” Red said.
 
He walked to the kitchen and poured
himself a cup of water.
 
“Go on,
Kennedy.
 
Tell me this amazing story
that’s going to make me understand why you betrayed Nicole and myself and this
company.
 
Let’s hear this incredible
tale.”

Kennedy could hardly speak.
 
She couldn’t breathe.
 
Red Jameson hated her, hated her so much
that he couldn’t even meet her gaze.
 
She wasn’t even a real person as far as he was concerned—she was
just a lying piece of trash.

“Red, I want to apologize first and
foremost.
 
I never wanted to hurt
you and especially not Nicole.
 
She’s my sister.”

Red laughed and sipped his water.
 
“You’ve got a heck of a way of showing
your love,” he said.
 
“I’d hate to
see how you treat your boyfriend.”
 
And as he said this, his eyes shifted knowingly to Easton.

“I take full responsibility for
everything,” Kennedy said.
 
“It’s
all my fault.
 
I’ve no excuse, and I
understand that I’m no longer welcome to work at the company or to be in you
and Nicole’s lives.
 
I just hope
you’ll see that Easton tried his best to train me and help me, and I betrayed
him as well.”

Red licked his lips, looked down as if in
thought.
 
And then he stared
directly at her for the first time.
 
“Why did you go to the tabloids?
 
Was it for money?
 
To be
famous?”

“I didn’t go to the tabloids,” she said.

Red’s nostrils flared and he threw the
cup on the floor.
 
Water splashed
Kennedy’s lower legs.
 
“Don’t lie to
me,” he said, his voice gravelly with emotion.
 

“I didn’t do it,” she insisted.
 
“I told the wrong person about my past
and he went to the tabloids.”

“Oh, so now there’s yet another person to
blame,” Red said, his cheeks flushing.
 
“How convenient for you, Kennedy.
 
So much for taking full responsibility.”

“I’m trying my best to tell you what
happened.
 
I understand why you
don’t trust me, but it’s true.”

“You really are a piece of work,” Red
said, as if he’d never seen anyone as pathetic as her in his life.
 
“You need help, Kennedy.”

The tears came to her eyes under his
merciless gaze.
 
She felt like she
was falling apart under the burning hatred that was coming from a person she’d
built up to be a king, someone she’d always admired and longed to impress.
 
Knowing that for Red to be this angry,
Nicole had to be absolutely devastated only made it worse.

“Red, why don’t you back off a little?”
Easton said.

“Excuse me?” Red asked, turning his
attention to Easton.

“You heard me,” Easton said, stepping
forward.
 
“I asked Kennedy to come
here because I thought you should hear what she had to say, and I felt that she
owed it to you to come clean.
 
I
didn’t bring her here for you to bully her and assassinate her character.”

“You work for me, Easton,” Red told
him.
 
His shoulders expanded as his
dark eyes fixated on Easton’s face.
 
“Maybe you’re starting to get confused.”

“I’m not the one who’s confused right
now,” Easton said softly.

Red’s gaze intensified.
 
“Be careful.
 
You’re treading on thin ice as it
is.
 
You’ve done nothing but screw
up recently.”

“Maybe so, but you better talk to Kennedy
with a little more respect, or you’re going to have a problem with me that you
can’t handle.”

They glared at one another, like two
lions on the savannah, kings about to go to battle against each other.

Kennedy’s stomach felt like it had been
kicked in, but her heart was soaring at the way Easton had spoken up on her
behalf.
 
She’d never expected that
from him, and it was far beyond anything she could’ve asked for.
  

Red’s hands curled into fists.
 
“You’re defending the indefensible,” he
snarled at Easton.
 
“Is this really
the side you want to be on right now?”

“I’m not defending that Kennedy made some
very serious mistakes.
 
But I
believe her about not going to the tabloids.
 
There’s nothing in it for her to do
that, Red.
 
She told the wrong
person about her personal business.
 
It could’ve happened to anyone.”

 
Red shook his head.
 
“Bullshit.
 
She’s been lying from the second she
showed up here, and she’s still lying.”

“What if you’re wrong about her?”

“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.
 
My family comes first, Easton.
 
Remember that.”

“I understand,” Easton said.
 
“But you’re wrong about her, Red.
 
She cares about you and Nicole very
much.
 
And whether you like it or
not, Kennedy is your family too.”

Kennedy held back her tears, but just
barely.

Red, for a moment, seemed to be
reconsidering things.
 
Perhaps,
Kennedy thought, Easton’s vouching for her character was finally starting to
make him question his assumptions.

Red’s shoulders relaxed and his hands
unclenched.
 
“Maybe you’re right and
I’m wrong,” he said, and he suddenly looked much older.
 
Almost like a beaten man.

“I think this can be fixed,” Easton said
softly.

“I think so too,” Red nodded slowly.
 
And then he looked up and met Kennedy’s
gaze.
 
“But she can’t be here
anymore.
 
I don’t want her within a
mile of my wife, my child, me or my business associates.”

“I can’t agree to that,” Easton told
him.
 
“I care too much about her.”

“Then you can get the hell out of my
office and don’t come back.
 
You’re
fired, Easton.”
 
And with that, Red
turned around and walked into what had once been Easton’s office, closing the
door.

Easton turned to Kennedy with a tiny
smile playing on his lips, as if he’d gotten exactly what he’d wanted from the
situation.
 
“Come on, Kennedy.
 
I don’t think our presence is
appreciated here any longer.”

They left the building together.

As they got outside, Easton was already
on his phone.
 
He put it to his
ear.
 
“Hey,” he said into the
phone.
 
“Where are you right now?”

There was a pause as Easton
listened.
 

“Well I need you to leave right now and
meet me at the North Street Diner.”
 
Easton shook his head.
 
“No,
Dean.
 
Right fucking now.
 
Get off your ass and don’t say a word
about where you’re going, you understand?
 
Not a word.”
 
Easton hung up and put his phone back in
his pocket, then began walking faster back towards the car.

Kennedy stopped walking and Easton turned
to look at her.
 

“I should go home,” she said.
 
“You’ve obviously got a lot going on and
I’m sure you don’t need me around screwing things up.
 
I really think you should go back and
tell Red you agree with him.
 
Save
your job, Easton.
 
I’m a lost
cause.”

Easton just stared at her.
 
“You’re not getting off that easy,
Kennedy.”
 
He came back to where she
was standing.
 
“Besides, it’s not
safe for you at your apartment.
 
They know where you live, and they’re not going to stop looking for you
simply because I put a beating on a few of their guys.”

Kennedy realized he was right about her
apartment being unsafe.
 
She nodded
slowly, her eyes searching into the distance as she tried to figure out what to
do next.
 
In her whole life, nothing
had prepared her for these circumstances.
 
“Maybe it’s time for me to really go home.
 
Not back to my apartment, but back to
Boston—back to MIT.”

Easton folded his arms.
 
“Is that really what you want to do?”

“Of course not.
 
But everything here is ruined.
 
And I’m even starting to ruin your life
now, and Nicole and Red’s.”
 
She shook
her head.
 
“I can’t keep doing this
to everyone.
 
If leaving will make
everyone’s lives better, than maybe I owe it to you all—“

“Stop it, Kennedy.”
 
Easton’s gaze hardened.
 
“Stop looking for excuses to run away
from your problems.”

Her mouth shut abruptly.
 
He was staring at her, and it was as if
he was looking directly into her soul.
 
She felt like he could see everything, all of her secret fears and
hopes, wishes and shame.
 
How could
he see her so clearly? She wondered.

Was she imagining it?

Easton reached a hand out and touched her
cheek.
 
“The only way to repair the
damage is to start fighting for yourself,” he said.
 
“You have to set things right, not run
away to let other people clean up the mess.”

Kennedy nodded.
 
“Okay.”
 
She took a deep breath.
 
“I’ll try.”

“No, you’ll succeed.”
 
He withdrew his hand.
 
“Now come on, we’ve got to get to the
diner so I can figure out what my brother has to do with all of this.”

He started towards the car again, but
Kennedy stopped him.
 
“Wait,
Easton.
 
I need to ask you one more
thing.”

Easton sighed, but he was smiling
now.
 
“You really don’t ever give it
a rest, do you?”

“I just need to know why you were willing
to be fired over me.
 
You said
yourself that I deserved to lose my job—that I’m untrustworthy, I screwed
up, all of it.
 
So why did you let
Red fire you on my account?”

Easton continued to smile.
 
“I’m not sure,” he said.
 
“Maybe it’s that, from the moment I saw
you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.
 
Or maybe it’s because you’re the most
intelligent person I’ve ever met.
 
Despite your stunning lack of common sense, you never cease to amaze and
surprise me.”

Kennedy was shocked to hear him say those
things.
 
“Thank you for saying
that,” she replied, her voice constricted from the emotion she was feeling.

“Now don’t let it go to your head,” he
told her.
 
“I’m putting my neck on
the line because I believe that underneath it all, your intentions are
good.
 
Please prove me right,
Kennedy.”

And then he was off, and Kennedy was
running back to the car to keep up with him.

***

Easton’s brother Dean was already at the
diner by the time they arrived.

The place was fairly crowded, but he was
sitting in a booth sipping coffee, waiting.
 
He seemed haggard and tired, his eyes
had dark bags under them, and he looked like he hadn’t shaven in a week.
 

When Dean saw them enter, his eyes
sharpened, and he stood to greet Easton with a strong handshake.

“Hey, brother,” Dean said, smiling.
 
He turned his attention to Kennedy.
 
“And who’s the lovely lady?”

“This is my assistant, Kennedy Saunders,”
Easton said.
 
He sat down and slid
into the booth so Kennedy could sit next to him.

“Assistant,” Dean said, nodding
approvingly at her.
 
“Must be nice.”

“But I brought her along today because
she’s involved, unfortunately, in some other events that have come to my
attention.”