Erin began to shake her head in a negative sweep. “You’re just putting off the inevitable. You can’t expect me to take such a chance. I…can’t…”

“And I counted on you as a friend,” Mitch spat out with a bitterness that chilled the air.

“I—we are friends.”

“No, you’ve got that one wrong, Erin, dead wrong!” he snapped, waving an angry accusatory finger and his cigar within inches of her face. “We were friends when it was convenient for you—when I was your boss, and I could help you. Especially when that jerk of a husband dumped on you and you needed a shoulder to cry on. But now, when the tables have turned, our friendship seems to be wearing a little thin, doesn’t it?”

Erin drew in an unsteady and disbelieving breath. “You can’t possibly mean what you’re implying. You know that I care for you—I always have—but you’re asking the impossible!”

“Ha!”

“Mitch…don’t…”

“Don’t what, Erin?” he taunted, all of his hatred coming to the surface. “Don’t overextend your friendship? Don’t ask you to help me, after I helped pull you back together during your divorce? Don’t ask you to do anything that might endanger your fragile relationship with your new boss?”

“What?” she gasped, but the meaning of his words was clear.

“Don’t give me that wide-eyed shocked virgin routine, Erin. It won’t work. Besides, it’s demeaning. I know that you’re Kane Webster’s mistress, and that you’ve been hopping in and out of bed with him since he first set foot in this town!”

All of the color in Erin’s face washed away with Mitch’s cruel words, and little protesting, choking noises came from somewhere in her throat. But Mitch’s vicious tirade wasn’t finished.

“You’re surprised, aren’t you. Well let me tell you this—it’s all over town!”

“No!”

His eyes narrowed evilly. “I never thought you would stoop so low as to sleep with such despicable scum as Webster. But then you’ve never had very good taste when it came to men, have you?”

“That’s enough,” she gasped, finding her voice and her purse at the same moment. “I’m leaving!”

“What’s the trouble, Erin? Am I getting too close to the truth? I should never have promoted you over Olivia Parsons eight years ago. That’s where I made my mistake.”

Erin’s lilac eyes flashed fire. “I’m sure she would agree with you.” She stood and hurriedly pulled on her coat. “I don’t know what it is that’s making you so bitter….”

“The prospect of prison, Erin. It can be very frightening!”

“I’m sorry, Mitch, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do.” Her poise was beginning to come back to her. She sighed heavily. “But no matter what, if it’s any consolation, I do wish you luck today.”

“Sure you do,” he echoed sarcastically. “Thanks but no thanks. I don’t need your good wishes, Erin. Not now, not ever!”

Erin turned on her heels and didn’t bother to say goodbye. Her back was rigidly straight as she marched to the door and never looked over her shoulder. She felt tears begin to pool in her eyes, but she determinedly pushed them backward. She refused to cry over Mitch, not after the way that he had treated her today. She knew that she was trembling and weak-kneed by the time she reached the rain-dampened streets, but she ignored her weakness and the drizzle that collected on her hair and ran down the back of her neck. A queasy, nervous feeling of desperation was churning in her stomach.