Trust in Advertising (43 page)

Lexi had never done a thing to Jade other than stand up to her instead of cowering at her feet. That was one of the things Vincent admired most about Lexi—the fact that she wouldn’t let Jade intimidate her.

He also wasn’t exactly sure that Jade was telling the truth on this whole phone call incident. Julian had never once mentioned Jade when he described the look he’d prefer for the models in the print ads. As a matter of fact, he wanted to do something completely away from Jade’s severe, high society look. If he had contacted Jade’s agent and was actively pursuing her, that would have come up during the meeting. Sean’s words again floated into his head.

Screw Jade.

Jade’s screeching pul ed Vincent from his thoughts. “You have to be blind not to see that she wants you. Her eyes are always on you, like you’re the source of the air she breathes. She gets this puke-inducing grin on her face when you thank her or tell her she did something right.” Jade crept closer to him, her finger pointing in his direction as she spoke. “When you have your back turned, her eyes are all over your body, and the little stolen glances and smiles between the two of you are downright disgusting. I get the feeling you’re quite enjoying all the attention from the Girl Wonder too. Doesn’t Hunter have a no fraternizing policy?”

“For the last time, we are
not
fraternizing.” Vincent’s voice was cool and icy, his fury bubbling under the surface. If he lost his temper, he knew he would be confirming Jade’s suspicions about his interest in Lexi and just how much he had thought about fraternizing with Lexi as he made the long, lonely drive home from Anna’s that night.

There was a swift knock on the door, interrupting the argument.

“Come in.”

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“Vincent, I need to talk to yo—” Lexi stormed into the room and stopped mid-sentence when she saw Jade perched with her hand on her hips in the center of the room. “I’m sorry, I’m interrupting.”

“Why do you do that? Why do you let her cal you Vincent when every other person in this office has to call you Mr. Drake? What makes
her
so special?”

Jade snapped.

Without acknowledging Jade, he turned his attention solely to Lexi. “Would you mind excusing us, please? But don’t run off, I need to talk to you when we’re done in here.” The warm tone of his voice and his smile caught Lexi totally off guard and made Jade fume all the more. She dared a quick glance in Jade’s direction to find her eyes blackened with hate as she glared back at Lexi.

“Um, okay, sure. I—I’ll be at my desk,
Vincent
.” She raised an eyebrow at Jade in challenge then quietly left the room.

“Did you see
that
?” Jade screeched as the door closed.

Vincent shrugged and picked up his coffee. “You started it, and she just finished it.” He knew he was goading Jade into a fight, one that would end badly, but maybe he was ready for that.

“Why do you always defend her?” She inched closer to him, scrutinizing his expression. “You like her.”

“She’s my friend, Jade. We went to high school together.”

“Oh please. You had no idea who she was, so don’t act like it’s some long lost Lifetime Television reunion special. What could you possibly see in her?

Is it her chunky body? Do you like your women plump? Or is it her little doe eyes and the way she bats her eyelashes adoringly at you, worshiping the ground you walk on? Tell me, Vincent, what is it about the little mouse that gets you all hot and bothered?”

“Stop it, Jade,” Vincent warned.

“Why should I? I was just asking a question.”

“Careful what you ask for. You might not like the answer.” Vincent’s face was rigid, his jaw clenched as he watched Jade seethe with anger.

“She’s not even attractive,” Jade mumbled as she checked her reflection in the window and combed her fingers through her hair.

“Jade.” He couldn’t wait any longer and tried to start the difficult conversation, but Jade was granted a small reprieve when her phone rang.

Irritated that in the middle of an argument she would answer the phone, Vincent sat down and spun his chair, turning his back to her. He had no 260

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interest in a single word she was saying. He simply wanted her to go away. As she clamored on and on in hushed tones and then louder cackles of laughter, he turned to face his desk and decided to busy himself. He replied to an E-mail, all the while mentally preparing the complex speech he would give Jade when she hung up. It was time to part company.

“Are you sure about that?” He heard Jade say in a raised tone. She gasped and held up a single finger to Vincent when he met her gaze. She continued listening intently to the mystery person on the phone. “Thanks for letting me know. Sure, I’ll ring you later. Ciao, baby.” She dramatically snapped the phone shut and sat down in one of the chairs beside Vincent’s desk.

He turned off his monitor and sat back in his chair, steeling himself for her latest drama. “Jade, I really think it’s time we—”

“Vincent, we need to talk,” Jade interrupted.

He could tell she would not stop until she had her say, so he deferred to her. “So talk.”

“I think you have a mole here at Hunter.”

She kept talking, but Vincent wasn’t listening. His brain stopped functioning the moment he heard the word mole. Any thoughts he had of breaking up with Jade were pushed aside as his mind worked to process this shocking information. A mole, a spy, a traitor. Someone in a position of trust was betraying his family. A list of suspects immediately popped into his head, and his cousin was at the top in big, bold letters. Jade’s whiny voice kept droning on and on, interrupting his train of thought. Finally, he held up his hand and yelled, “Enough!”

Jade froze with her mouth open, mid-word.

“Why do you say that?” Vincent bit out each word as he leaned forward across the desk, his intense gaze daring her to try and withhold any information from him.

“W-well like I said, that call I just took, it was from Lauren, one of the girls I was down in Jamaica with these last few days.”

“And what the hell does this Lauren know about Hunter?” Vincent snapped, not caring about being calm or polite.

“Listen, this is all hush-hush.” Jade got out of her chair and sat on the edge of his desk, tipping her head to reveal her big secret. “So, Lauren is sleeping with someone fairly high up over at Reid. The girl’s a whore, spends most of her time on her knees if you know what I mean.” Vincent’s lack of a response 261

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and infuriated glare made Jade shift uncomfortably. “She wouldn’t tell me who exactly, because she knows we’re dating and doesn’t want to get the guy in trouble. At least I think it’s a guy. She could be bi; you never know these days.”

Vincent rolled his hand at her, encouraging her to get to the point. “And?”

“I’m getting to it,” she snapped right back at him. “While we were in the hot tub, she let something slip about how her agent got her the gig with Tony Walker for the print ads of his national shoe line last week.”

“She had the job that long ago? This happened the first day you arrived in Jamaica? How was that possible? We hadn’t …”

“You hadn’t even given your final presentation. It gets worse. She was complaining about it because she has to go to
Alaska
for a week to do the shoot.”

Vincent’s entire body coiled, his muscles clenching as he tried to control his anger. “Alaska? Snow? Reid’s idea was centered around a winter shoot too?”

Jade nodded her head. “As soon as she talked about Alaska, I was suspicious because I saw your mock ups that night at your apartment. I remembered you’d talked about snow acting as the clean palate of it all. None of it made sense, but then I got to thinking, what if there was someone leaking information to Reid.”

Overcome with anger, Vincent began pacing the room like a caged panther.

The power he showed with each graceful stride made him look deadly. “Who’s feeding them the information?”

“She didn’t know. She never admitted they were being fed information. I pumped her full of tequila that night to get her to talk. She kept claiming she didn’t know anything about who came up with the Walker idea, and after five shots, I tend to believe her.”

“So, what was that call about?”

“Oh, well, when she got home, her boyfriend, being the thoughtful guy he is, wanted to spend some time alone with her because
he
had missed his girlfriend who had been gone for three days. After he,” Jade made a gagging noise, “welcomed her home, she dragged a little more info out of him. Men are so easy to get information out of after sex.”

Unamused, Vincent punched his fist into the top of his desk. “What did she say, Jade?”

“She said two days before they were set to give the Stone presentation, David walked in and demanded everything be changed. Her boyfriend was pissed because they all had to scramble for forty-eight hours straight making the changes he orchestrated.”

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A colorful string of profanities flew from Vincent. “He’s done this twice.

This is going to end, now.” He grabbed the phone and began furiously pecking on the numbers.

“Wait,” Jade ripped the phone out of his hand and slammed the receiver back into the cradle.

“Damn it, Jade.”

“What good is it going to do for you to go off half-cocked and basically let him know you’re aware of his bullshit? It will stop for a while, but you won’t ever figure out who here at Hunter is screwing you.” She squeezed his hand encouragingly. “Whoever this is isn’t very smart or subtle. I think we can flush them out pretty easily. Let me help you.”

Vincent removed his hand from hers and fell back into his chair, feeling like he had just been kicked in the stomach. Whoever this was had to be stopped, and surprising as it was, Jade was right. If he let his temper get the better of him, he would never be able to figure out the source of the leaks. “I need to think about how to approach this.”

An evil grin spread across Jade’s face. “No worries, baby. I have an idea.”

Lexi sat at her desk, trying to keep busy, but every few minutes she glanced at Vincent’s door, wondering what the hell was going on in there. Jade had been visibly pissed when Lexi walked into Vincent’s office, and thanks to Lexi’s smart mouth, was even more infuriated when she left.

So much had happened, and it wasn’t even noon yet. Lexi and Vincent had a lot to talk about. She wanted to know exactly what his feelings were about her working with him on the Stone account. He might have thought it was a good idea yesterday, but maybe after sleeping on it he would regret the suggestion.

If that wasn’t enough to agitate Lexi, there was the lingering topic of the kiss. The topic didn’t feel closed, but what more could she even say about it?

“Thanks for making me hot in all the right places with one kiss?” or even worse,

“Kiss me again?” There was no way she’d ever be able to discuss the topic with him openly and honestly because to do so would reveal how much she cared about him. Once she did that, she would just look desperate.

There were times when the small touches they shared, their playful banter, the way his eyes darkened while he spoke to her, or the way they lingered on her lips made her think that maybe he felt something for her too. In those 263

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situations, she would get a glimpse into what it would be like to be loved by Vincent Drake, and it felt wonderful. She let herself imagine the two of them working together, side by side, and the connection that would grow between them. Their budding friendship could deepen and turn into something more, something she had only dared to dream about until now. The naughty part of Lexi wondered what would happen if she, for once, went after her heart’s desire.

While she waited for Vincent, she worked on everything that had piled up with her being gone the day before. She had just clicked open a message when she heard a familiar voice. “Hey, Lexi!”

Christina stood in the doorway with her long, auburn hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. Under her arm was tucked a shiny, black motorcycle helmet.

Lexi found herself feeling genuinely happy for the first time that day.

“Christina, what are you doing here?”

“Are you telling me you didn’t get my E-mail?”

Blush flooded Lexi’s cheeks as she glanced over at the monitor. “I was home sick yesterday and have been running around like a lunatic since I walked in the door this morning. I was just about to check it now.”

“It was no big deal. I wanted to see if you were free for lunch.”

“Lunch with you, sounds fantastic.” Lexi desperately wanted to get away from the office and have a little girl talk with someone who might actually understand what she was going through.

“Well, it was supposed to be lunch with just me, however, when Julian found out I was having lunch with you, he wanted to come, and then when Peter heard,” she flashed Lexi a cheeky smile, “he wanted to tag along too. Something about wanting to see you again.”

Lexi couldn’t miss the teasing way she mentioned Peter. Christina was playing matchmaker.

“What’s with that?” Lexi asked, eyeing the helmet Christina had tucked under her arm.

“We brought their bikes. Ever been on a motorcycle before?” Christina smiled wickedly at Lexi, tapping her nails against the top of the helmet.

“Seriously? I think it’s just what the doctor ordered.” She glanced down at the clock. “I do need to talk to Vincent, though, before I go, or at least make sure I can get ten minutes with him when I get back.”

“No problem. Let me run downstairs and let the guys know. They can race to the pier and back. That should occupy them for a few minutes and let them 264

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get that need for speed thing out of their system.” Christina winked and took off down the hall toward the elevator.

Lexi tidied up her desk as she waited for Vincent to finish up with Jade so she could let him know she was leaving for a while. After five minutes, she was ready to risk interrupting them again when the door opened and Jade’s short mop of brown hair peeked out.