Chapter 397

“Fuck you, John,” Joy said.

“No thanks,” you smirked.

“What do I need to do to get you to delete whatever photos you took and let me walk out of here?”

“Seriously? After all the shit you pulled, you think I would let you off the hook?” you asked. “You sexually assaulted me, slapped me, tried to blackmail me into sex by threatening my friends, and were just generally rude and insulting.”

“So what?” Joy spat. “That’s the corporate world, John. Take the advantages you can make for yourself. You could have had it easy - just be my little fuckboy for the summer and you’d be doing barely any work and come out to the Hamptons with me and my friends. Now you’re here at eight on a Friday night working like a dweeb instead.”

“I’ll take honest work over a lazy silver spoon any day of the week,” you said.

“So what do you want, then?” Joy demanded. “Want to bend me over my mother’s desk and fuck me? We can have some hate sex, and then both go our separate ways. I guarantee you that it would be better than whatever you’ve got going on with blondie.”

The sound of the elevator back down the corridor opening was dim in the back of your mind.

“I wouldn’t have sex with you if I was being offered something I wanted,” you said. “You think I’m going to do it to let you get away?”

“Fuck you,” she said. And then she did something you really hadn’t expected despite everything that had happened. She charged at you.

She had to be trying to get your phone. That was the only thing that really made sense. But in that split second of decision-making time you weren’t really thinking about what she was trying to do, you were just reacting. You backpedalled about three steps as she lunged forward, and you started to pivot. Somewhere behind you Ben the Security Guard should be coming down the hall towards your voices.

Joy snarled, arms reaching forward, long nails looking a hell of a lot like claws.

And then Sabrina burst out of the doorway to the office you’d initially been hiding in. She hit Joy in the side, shoving her hard with both hands and sending the taller woman off balance. Joy careened into the door jam of the office opposite Sabrina’s, the smack ringing just slightly with a hollow metal sound and a loud pop that was definitely not good.

Joy’s wails started almost immediately after she hit the ground, splayed out awkwardly.

“You’re never putting your hands on him again, bitch,” Sabrina growled loudly, standing over Joy like a conquering Amazon. Her hands were balled up into fists and you got the distinct impression that she wanted to kick Joy while she was down. “You try to fucking rush him? Are you fucking serious!?”

“You brobe by nobe!” Joy wailed, rolling to her side as she clutched at her face. Blood was already streaming down her chin and dripping onto the carpet.

The heavy sound of the security guard’s footsteps as he jogged down the hall was accompanied by the jangle of his keys. He came to a stop next to you, looking down in concern at Joy on the ground starting to get covered in drops of blood, then up at Sabrina. “What the fuck?”