Page 26 of Playing with the Boss

“I’d rather not, Mr. Roberts.”

So that’s how she wants to play it. “You have fifteen seconds.” I squat beside the open door and pull my phone out.

“What are you doing?” Her eyes narrow in on the device in my hand.

I pointedly wait a few seconds before answering, all the while typing a message to myself. “Sending a text to Alf to let him know you tendered your resignation in light of recent findings.”

Silence.

I chance a look at her to find those delicate nostrils flared wide, her brow crushed into a rather unattractive scowl.

“Anger is really not a good look on you,” I bait, dropping my gaze back to my phone. “Should I say you gave one week’s notice, or two?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You think?” I twist my lip as though in thought. “I’ll say one. Makes it less stressful if you’re not hanging around like dead weight.”

She huffs out her nose, slamming her arms across herself. “You’re bluffing.”

Select all, copy and… paste. “Am I?” I twist the device around to show my text is now, in fact, in Alf’s message thread.

“You know,” she states incredulously, “that’s the second time you’ve blackmailed me.”

“Some habits die hard.” I wiggle my thumb over the Send icon. “Shall I?”

“God, you’re a nuisance.” Her hand smacks down on the far door, and she rises on the opposite side of the vehicle.

I step back and shut my door in victory. “Not so hard, was it?”

Her head hangs, lips pursed tight as she sighs. “I guess not.”

I turn for the lobby, expecting the sound of her heels on the pavement to follow. Instead, I get another fucking door closing. My heel bites into the concrete as I spin around to see what the hell she’s up to now, only to find Lisa in the front passenger seat and the fucking driver peeling away from the curb with a smarmiest grin on his wrinkled face.

Fuck.

Goddamn woman outplayed me.

With a disgruntled sigh, I thrust my phone in my pocket and head for the lobby. The unmistakable swoosh of a message as it sends has my blood slowing into an ice-cold trickle. Oh, shit.

I can’t scramble that thing out of my pocket fast enough.

Not that there’s any hope of saving my ass now.

I just tendered her resignation.