Of course, I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I dodged around him and hurried back to my desk. But I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me. When we were outside his office, he grabbed my wrist and squeezed. I made a small sound of distress, which only seemed to make him grip me harder.
“As if he’ll care,” he sneers. “Now, are you actually threatening me?” He gave my wrist a firm shake that had me stumbling to the side before he yanked me back up. I looked up and down the corridor frantically, but it was deserted. Tabitha must be in Felix’s office with him. “You’ll regret this.”
“Let go of me,” I said, trying to sound strong and annoyedby how shaky my voice came out. But nobody had ever grabbed me in anger and I was terrified.
After a long moment he released me and I skittered back, cradling my wrist.
He rolled his eyes. “Bloody hell, you’re so dramatic. I barely touched you.”
“S–stay away from me,” I stammered. “I don’t even know why you’re complaining. I’ve been doing your job with the publicity department.” His eyes flashed with pure fury at that comment as he took a threatening step towards me and I took a corresponding one back.
“Watch it, Hop-a-long.” His voice was softer now but somehow almost more menacing. “I could finish you at this company and with your precious Felix.”
With that he turned away from me and stormed off towards the conference room.
I stood there for a moment, rubbing my wrist and trying to calm my breathing. There would be no two weeks’ notice. I wasn’t spending one more second working with that psycho. I grabbed my coat, swiped all my nick-nacks from my desk into my bag, along with all the mountains of stationery I kept scattered about for emergencies, and I booked it out of the building. What I didn’t do, unfortunately, was remember to take my notebook from the top drawer.
Chapter 21
You have a deal
Lucy
“Jesus, you look awful.” Madeline was not known for her tact.
“Thanks, Mads,” I said as I took the seat opposite her at the café she’d asked me to meet her in. I loved the place. There were bookshelves everywhere, but also lovely wide alcoves with huge windows – we were in one of them now so that we had the bookshelves behind us and a great view of the street to the side. Madeline poured my tea just how I liked it, and I forced a smile for her. “It’s been a rough day, actually.”
My throat closed over. Coming here was a mistake. I was still so shaken up by what just happened with Will. I should have gone straight to HR to report him. To be honest, I should have gone to the police. I rubbed my wrist which was still throbbing, and I felt tears sting my eyes again.
“Oh darling,” she said in a soft voice, stretching across the table to lay her hand over mine. “What’s happened? Has that hunky posh boy broken your heart?” Madeline knew all about Felix. She’d known about him for a while, even before I’d cometo London. I’d made the mistake of telling her who the fae prince was based on once, and she’d been too curious not to over-Google the poor man.
When I moved to London and started working for Felix, Madeline had been annoyed. I did have deadlines after all. But she’d accepted that I needed to be in the real world for a little while to force me out of my shell, and agreed that it would help my writing. Even if my books were based in a world I’d created entirely in my head, they were very character-driven, and I still took inspiration from the people and situations around me. She was also hopeful that it might lead to me being able to tackle public events. But when I got together with Felix, she’d been worried.
“Men like that,” she’d warned me, “they’re a lot to handle. And you’ve liked him for such a long time, Luce. Don’t get too invested.”
But Mads didn’t know Felix. She didn’t know how he held me, how funny he was, how he made me feel beautiful, how kind he was, how thoughtful. Everyone at the office was drinking iced lattes and fanning themselves all day as Felix still refused to lower the temperature below twenty-five degrees, but all he cared about was whether I was comfortable.
“It’s nothing to do with Felix.” I took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky exhale. “That guy I work for, Will. He… well he was angry and he grabbed me.” She gasped when I showed her the red marks on my wrist.
“Oh my God, Luce,” Madeline said in horror. “Have you called the police?”
“The police?” I frowned at her. “I, er… isn’t that going a bit far?”
Madeline’s eyebrows went up. “Heassaultedyou, Lucy. No, it is not going too far. At least tell me you’ve been to HR and reported him there.”
I bit my lip, and she growled in frustration. “Right, straight after this you’re going back to that shithole and going directly to HR. Then you’re going to tell loverboy that his employees are abusive arseholes. Understand me?”
“Okay, okay,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender.
“I can come with you if you want,” she offered, her voice softer now.
I was tempted to say yes but I shook my head instead. I had to start standing up for myself. “Thanks, hun but I’ll manage. Look, let’s go over the plans for next month.”
She gave me a close look, patted my hand once then pulled back to get some contracts out of her bag. “Right, well, this is the paperwork for the translations. I’ve renegotiated the Italian deal. They were lowballing us – it was insulting.”
My eyes went wide at the figure on the front of the contract from the Italian publisher. “I’m not sure what your idea oflow-ballingis, but if this is my advance then you might want to readjust it.”
She smiled. “I told you I re-negotiated. This offer is still insulting if you ask me, but I couldn’t push them up anymore, and we need to get you into Italy asap.”
