“Having my wife work with a company who would place profit before her safety is not making me very comfortable,” he said firmly, leaving no doubt in her mind at least that the man didn’t play games when it came to his wife.

“I support Mr. Quinn’s decision to cancel the promotional dates considering the situation,” Rick said. “Between the video and the threats I think he made the right choice.”

“It wasn’t his call to make,” the woman with the severe bun explained tightly.

That was the main problem? Jamie thought with an inward snort. Well, she could clear that up right now. “Mr. Quinn didn’t cancel the rest of the tour I-“

“I canceled the tour,” Nick explained, cutting her off as he gave her hand a warning squeeze, “because I could not guarantee her safety as long as there was a threat out there. After speaking with the police it was agreed that until they caught whoever sent threats was identified or caught that it would be better to get the attention away from her.”

“You should have spoken with us before you made that decision,” the man with the crisp voice said. Jamie looked to her right to find the man sitting next to the still smug Holly was the one who had spoken.

“I apologize for that. However, I felt an obligation to cancel the most immediate dates out of respect for our contracts. I explained the situation and told them that the contracts would be honored as soon as the matter was cleared up,”

Nick smoothly explained. The men and women didn’t look happy about it, but they did seem less tense at the moment.

“Right now my only concern is Miss. Harris. There’s obviously a very disturbed person out there with a fixation on her. I don’t think it would be appropriate or fair to ask her to put herself in danger to promote her books. Until the matter is settled I believe there are other methods better used to promote her books at the moment that I think should be utilized,” Nick suggested calmly.

“Thank you, Mr. Quinn. We’ll look into it,” crisp voice man said in clear dismissal.

“Fine,” Dana said with a sigh as she got to her feet. “Just let me know where you end up or if you decide to start your own company and I’ll be more than happy to sign with you.”

“Wait!” crisp voice man said, sounding desperate. “Please reconsider, Mrs.

Pierce!”

Jamie tightened her hold on Nick’s hand as she took a deep breath and stood up, hating all the attention as every set of eyes settled on her expectantly, but she had to do this.

“This is probably where I should tell you that the last two books that I contracted with Rerum Publishing are done and that I won’t be renewing my contract as well.”

With that announcement that seemed to have stunned everyone including Nick into silence she walked out of the room, forcing herself to walk slowly until she reached the hallway and closed the door behind her. The second it was closed she turned and rushed off towards Nick’s office in desperate need of that coffee roll now more than ever.

Chapter 29

“Good luck, Nick,” Dana said softly as she gave his hand a comforting squeeze but his attention was on the double doors. He wanted to go after his little recluse and make sure that she was alright and of course didn’t consume a shit load of sugar, but he had to fix the damn problem she’d just created for herself.

She’d worked too damn hard to throw it away now and as much as he appreciated her trying to help him out he could take care of himself. He knew that every publishing company in the world would probably kill to sign her, but he wanted her here where Rick could watch over her. Once Dana and Edward walked out of the room all hell broke loose.

“Can somebody please explain to me how in the hell we just lost our two top clients in one day?” Jonathan demanded in that crisp voice that always annoyed him.

“Because instead of allowing me to explain the situation you listened to Miss.

Johnson,” Rick explained tightly as he stood up and walked over to the mini bar to poor himself a drink. “And now we not only lost one of our best editors,” he said, gesturing towards Nick with his drink, “But two of the top authors in the world.”

Who in the hell was Miss. Johnson, he wondered as he joined Rick at the bar for a drink. Since no one had called security on him yet he thought he’d stick around and try to fix this mess before his little recluse got in over her head.

“I’m not too concerned with my job, but I think you should reconsider your position on Miss. Harris’ job. She’s a damn good editor and our clients trust her.

They rely on her in fact and taking her away will be like taking away their support system,” Nick said before taking a sip of his drink.

“He’s right. The second they hear that she’s no longer working for us they’ll pull back and the ones that were considering signing with us will go elsewhere,”

Rick said, backing him up.

“I didn’t want to fire either of them in the first place, but after what Miss.

Johnson said I didn’t feel as though we had a choice and now look at the mess that we’re in,” Margaret said, running a hand over her tight bun as she walked over to the bar and gestured for him to get her a drink.

With a shrug he made hers a double as he asked, “Who is Miss. Johnson and what exactly did she say that cost me my job?” he asked, forcing himself to remain relaxed as he wondered who had just f**ked them over.

“Holly,” Rick drawled.

Nick looked around the room for the woman so that he could strangle her, but at some point she’d snuck off. He should have known the woman would do something when he sent her packing, but admittedly his focus had been elsewhere.

“Oh? What exactly did she say?” Nick asked in a bored tone as he took a sip of his drink, welcoming the burn as it coated his throat.

“Apparently she decided to go behind my back after I refused to allow her to return to help with the tour,” Rick said, surprising him. The woman actually tried to come back? That was a little odd.

“She claimed that under your direction Miss. Harris wasn’t getting much work done and you were ignoring your duties to be with her. At first we didn’t think much of it,” Jonathan said as he joined them for a drink. “But after that video, the tour cancelation and of course the complaints we received in the past couple of days”

“What’s this about complaints?” Nick asked, interrupting the man.

Anthony, who’d been pretty quiet up to this point, joined them for a drink.

“We started to receive calls that you and Miss. Harris were caught in several indecent situations over the past couple of days. There were also complaints that the two of you were constantly ducking out of conventions. When we asked Miss.

Johnson about it she reluctantly admitted that it was difficult to find you, you refused to help her and that Miss. Harris disappeared for a good hour, leaving the convention coordinators high and dry.”

“Why didn’t you ask me what happened?” Nick asked, pouring the man a drink and handing it to him. “I could have cleared this whole thing up. I don’t know about the complaints, but we never left a convention early. In fact, Jamie worked her ass off and stayed as long as it took to meet every single fan because she felt bad about them waiting to meet her and in case you haven’t noticed she’s painfully shy and that was a hell of a lot of stress for the woman, but she did it,” Nick said, noting the look his bosses, well, technically ex-bosses now, shared.

His little recluse had worked her ass off and shouldn’t be facing this bullshit.

She had enough to deal with. Her family screwed her over and lied to her and thanks to a few well placed calls he now knew they’d f**ked her over once again.

She just lost her home. She had a psycho on her ass and he’d be damned if he let them take away something she truly enjoyed doing.

“As far as Miss. Johnson is concerned,” he said tightly, “I’m afraid you’ve been mislead. During the brief time Miss. Johnson accompanied us on this tour she proved to not only be incompetent, but resentful as I explained to Rick. She caused problems that I was forced to deal with and she left Miss. Harris near tears. Before the convention was even over I decided that she was not capable of doing her job and asked Rick to remove her.”