The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 45

She bustled up to the entrance of the den, but before she could put her key into the lock the door burst open and Emma was wrapped around her, nearly lifting her with the tightness of her embrace.

"We thought you got caught," said Emma breathlessly, pulling back from the hug to look in Kat's face before drawing her in tight again.

"I'm ok, I'm ok," Kat said quickly, returning the woman's embrace. "I'm ok, it's just," she looked up to see the rest of the group watching them from the living room, their faces an even mix of relief and concern.

"It's not bad," Kat reassured them. "It's just that I couldn't talk to Courtney and I couldn't go get the badge because J-Mr. Tillibenton was there today," she said, correcting herself immediately. "He wanted me to write a speech."

"Kat, god we were so worried," said Andy, crossing to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "We didn't know what happened, and we went to Rises to see if there had been messages and you didn't call them, and we just thought..." she trailed off.

"We thought you were at a blacksite in Guatemala getting waterboarded," Brent chimed in, and Conner swatted him.

"We're glad you're ok," He told Kat seriously.

Jack had yet to speak and was still standing in place, his eyes never leaving Kat .

"Jack walked up to the building about 10 times between 5:30 and now," Emma began gently. "Just in case you were leaving late for some reason, he didn't want you to walk home alone."

Kat smiled at him, and he crossed to her and pulled her into a hug, surprising everyone.

"I'm really glad you're ok," he whispered to her.

Kat felt her pulse quicken as she lifted her arms to return his embrace, guilt flooding her anew.

"So, what exactly did he want?" Andy asked when they were all settled on the couches.

"He just wanted me to help him write a speech, it's for a shareholders meeting I guess."

Andy nodded.

"What's the speech about," Emma probed, curled into Conner who had one arm around her.

"Just him, his life, the company," Kat listed. "He kept me there all day. It was the worst," she added. She looked down. "I'm sorry guys, I'm really sorry. I should've snuck away to call Rises, I was just so surprised that he was even there, and I had to be in his office all day and I just," she bit her lip, unable to look at any of them. "I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault," said Andy quickly. "Kat, you are too nice, you always take the blame for other people. It's that asshole's fault for keeping you slaving away for hours on some speech he's gonna pretend he wrote."

"Yea," Kat agreed weakly, thinking of their jokes and stories and distractions, of the light, easy joy she felt whenever she was around him.

"How did you get home?" Emma asked. "Jack never saw you, he just got back from his last trip like 15 minutes ago. You should've run into each other."

"He drove me home."

Emma screwed up her face. "Again?"

"Yea," said Andy. "That's an actual nice thing to do, why would he do that?"

Kat's heart began to race and she willed herself not to redden as all eyes in the room were on her.

"I don't know," she said, the task of speaking evenly a concentrated effort. "I don't know, I guess cause it was on his way or something, i'm not sure."

Emma nodded, placated, but Andy was still examining her carefully.

"I think, actually," Kat corrected. "I think he maybe suspects I don't live in B," she said, looking towards Andy. "Remember, that first time I told you I made it up last minute and I said that thing about low income units and he didn't believe me but the lobby was open so he couldn't prove anything?" she rushed out. "But I still think he knows I don't live there, I think he was trying to catch me in the act, basically."

Andy nodded knowingly. "Of course he was. What is he even trying to prove? Like congratulations, you're richer than your assistant." Andy rolled her eyes. "That makes a lot more sense, it wasn't a nice gesture, it was an attempt at humiliation."

"Exactly," Kat agreed quickly.

"You need to get some sleep," Andy went on, standing up. "It's almost 1 and you still have to talk to Courtney and get the badge tomorrow. We're almost done, home stretch."

Kat stood too, waveringly.

"Well," she started. "He told me when he dropped me off tonight that we were gonna do the same thing tomorrow, that the speech wasn't finished."

"You had all day and you didn't finish the speech?" Brent asked incredulously.

"No," Kat lied. "No, I did, but he just didn't like it. He said," she looked down, hoping her trepidation at the untruth would read as a sudden burst of emotion at her boss's cruel actions. "He said it was terrible," she finished.

"He sucks," said Conner. "Your writing is awesome Kat."

Kat shot him a quick smile.

"The day after then," said Andy. "We can wait one more day, we don't wanna draw any suspicion to you."

The other members of FES nodded and Kat joined them, feeling fraudulent and sick to her stomach.