A Waltz With Wolves (Book II in The Harrison Inc. Series) | ✓

Chapter Forty-Six: Aftermath

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December 23rd, 10:23 PM

SEBASTIAN

It amazes me, how I continuously seem to fuck up the moment I think I'm doing something right.

Leslie just left me. Well, not in that sense—we weren't' together in that way, even though we were only one step away from getting to that point. No, she left me, here in Salvador's library because I lied to her. Well, I lied to her, then yelled at her and told her that Alejandro was playing her in a room of her colleagues; her own assistant (who was fucking Claude behind our backs. I should have known—that bastard, him). I shouldn't have yelled, but the moment my mouth opened, the words wouldn't stop. They just kept flowing out of me; she's such a pain in the ass, the way she interrogates me. I couldn't help myself.

I stand, looking at the door that she walked out of. My chest hurts; the look in her eyes is still engraved in my mind—those big brown eyes, filled with hurt and betrayal. I made myself believe I was doing her a favor by keeping secrets and compromising her privacy. What the fuck was I thinking?

I turn around and look at the three of them staring at me—Claude, Penny and Darcy. Darcy has more contempt in her look than anyone else. Maybe she can't stand to look at Claude (where the stare is deserved) so she looks at me instead. Or maybe she hates me for hurting Leslie. Either one is justifiable.

The anger rises in me as the moment that I screamed in Leslie's face plays over again and again in my mind, and once it rises to the very top, I grab one of the stain-glass lamps on the small table with an eager hand and throw it against the bookshelf, yelling profanities as the glass shards disperse and shatter into millions of pieces. Breaking shit and cursing isn't going to fix any of this—I know that. Claude and Penny know that. Hell, even Darcy knows this. She stares wide-eyed at me and the mess, both literal and figurative, that I have made.

"Sebastian—"

"Don't." I hold a finger up in between Claude and me. I'm fuming. "Don't say a fucking word."

"I know you're upset—"

"That's an understatement, Claude." The more I look at him, the more I want to scream at him. "It's bad enough that the woman I love hates my existence, but now I have to deal with the fact that you slept with her assistant to what? Make your job a little easier?"

Claude scratches his beard, avoiding my eyes. "That was poor judgment on my end."

"Poor judgment?" Darcy stands up, doe eyes in Claude's direction. "So, what we did was 'poor judgment'?"

"No, that's...I-I mean, yes." Claude tries to near her, only making Darcy take a step back. "The motive was poor judgment. But everything else...I meant that."

"How can you mean anything? You...you slept with me so you could spy on my boss. You took my virginity, Claude. You knew this!"

Claude is silent now. I've never seen him so unsure of himself. When we were on our way here with Marcella, we were filled with so much optimism. Marcella was a bargaining chip—a ghost from the Quintanilla's past that would surely grant me my freedom. Salvador agreed to cut ties with Harrison Incorporated and all other affiliates once he knew how much of a threat Marcella was. But he wasn't the only one who knew the threat she posed—Alejandro shit bricks when she came into the house. He was supposed to kill her over a decade ago; Salvador ordered him to. But he didn't. Because he loved her.

Look where love gets us?

Penny acts as the mediator and reminds us of more "pressing" matters—the fact that Leslie knows, and that she is most likely going to press Alejandro about the issue. Now all heads are turned towards me, since I'm the one who couldn't keep my mouth shut.