He nodded meekly, the color draining from his face. “Yes,” he squeaked.

“I know people in business. I know lots of people in the business world. I have good relationships with those people because I don’t screw anyone over. I was going to introduce you to my friends at Good Vibes because I liked your idea,” she said, savoring the wince on his face when she said Good Vibes. It was the wince of a man who’d been bested, who’d lost out from his own hubris. “But do you think I will now?”

“Umm,” he began.

She stabbed a finger against his desk. “That’s right. The answer is no. And it’s not because I’m cutthroat. It’s not because I’d do anything for a deal. It’s because I care about the people I work with and the products I sell. And you, Ethan, do not. But maybe I will reach out to the Pierson. Maybe the Pierson would like to carry The Wild One. Because from what I know about management at the Pierson, they don’t play these kind of bullshit games.” Then she paused, took a deep breath, and hit him hard with her final words. “By the way, do you know what they say about this woman in business?”

He shook his head meekly.

“I’ll tell you what they say. That I’m fair and honest. And I’ll tell you what I say to people who aren’t. And it’s this. You lost out. Because no one fucks with me, my company, or my family.”

She turned on her heels and marched out.

Five hours later, the board meeting ended and his Skype call was finished, and Nate couldn’t wait to track down that slimy fucker and give him a piece of his mind. Admittedly, there’d been a moment in his meeting when he’d doubted his ability to judge people, but then he reminded himself that he hadn’t let Ethan far enough into his life for the man to do true harm. Ethan wasn’t a best buddy who’d turned on him. Ethan was no Bryan or Jack in his life. He was merely a colleague that Nate had tried to give a small bit of help too, and the guy had turned out to have one hell of a chip on his shoulder. Nate was not going to beat himself up over having had a few drinks with him in the past.

He was, however, going to let the bastard know not to pull that shit with him or Casey ever again. The elevator shot him down to the lobby, and he tapped his foot, anxious for the doors to spread open. When he reached the lobby, his eyes were treated to his favorite sight.

“Want to know what I’ve been up to?” Casey asked invitingly, as if she had a naughty secret.

“I do.”

“I paid a visit to Mr. Holmes,” she said then proceeded to narrate in fantastic detail, acting out the priceless moments of her encounter with Ethan. “And then I marched out, and it was awesome,” she said, and the expression on her face was one of pure victory.