Undeniably His(62)

We let Kalin rest for the rest of the day before letting in more visitors.

The next day, Kalin is able to breathe with a lightweight tube in his nose instead of the oxygen mask. Madison Jacobs, one of the marketing VP’s, comes into the room with flowers, balloons, treats, and a full-wattage smile. Kalin shakes his head and returns her smile.

“Madison, can we afford to not have you in front of clients?” He grins.

“I’m making an exception today.” Madison patters toward the bed and gives Kalin a hug. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. The doctor said I just need a few weeks of rest and I should be as good as new.”

Madison places her hand to her heart. “Thank goodness.” Her eyes drift to me and I stand up. “Hi, I’m Madison Jacobs.”

“Madison, this is Annabelle. She is my new marketing assistant.” Madison is stunning, and I can immediately see why Kalin hired her. I know she must be smart, but she also interacts face to face with clients. So Kalin made sure she was also beautiful. Her wealth of wavy blonde hair accentuates her azure blue eyes, and her ivory-smooth skin shades with a healthy pink flush in her cheeks. Her small chin and full lips give her a devastating combination of innocence and beauty. I can imagine that just about any man would take a double take watching her go by. Kalin knew exactly what he was doing.

“You’re Annabelle! It’s great to finally meet you. I’m Madison Jacobs. I heard Kalin hired a new marketing assistant.” She touches my elbow in a friendly gesture and gives me a small hug.

“It’s great to meet you. I’m trying to ease into it. I am pretty new at a lot of this, so be patient with me.” I smile.

“Don’t let her fool you, Madison. She’s wicked smart and dangerous as a jungle cat,” Kalin teases.

I quirk my lips at him and rub my hand on the nape of my neck. “No, it’s true. I have no idea how to do any of this yet.”

“We are here to help, Annabelle. We are all family here.” Madison places the assortment of flowers on the table and breaks out a bag of goodies. “We have homemade fudge, homemade carrot cake, homemade cookies.” She lifts her head up from the bag and smiles. “Oatmeal and raisin, and chocolate chip.”

“Are they trying to kill me?” Kalin teases.

Madison opens her mouth in exaggerated shock. “They love you, Kalin. The employees made these for you. Kim in accounting, Robin in IT, a lot of the executives’ spouses. Let’s just say they saw a lot more of their spouses when you were there. They know you cared about them, Kalin. They all want you back. We all missed you. They even saw through that bullshit in the newspaper article.” She grimaces.

“What article?” Kalin’s forehead creases.

I bite my lip. “One of the local papers said you were driving recklessly and may have been drinking. It was a hit piece. The police said they do it all the time to sell papers. I didn’t want to mention it.”

“I’m sorry. I thought you knew,” Madison groans.

“It’s such bullshit.” I glower.

“The police are right. The paper just prints what sells. I’ll tell my lawyers to make them retract it. Even better,” Kalin smiles, “They can be bought.”

“Kalin, I thought you didn’t do that.” I frown.

“Annabelle, people pay to have lies told. Sometimes you have to pay to have the truth told. It is, sadly, how the business works.”

“We know what happened, Kalin. We can send an update to all the managers in the company,” Madison says.

“Good. Also have my lawyer contact the paper and tell them if they don’t retract the story based on the evidence, we’ll make sure they are out of business.” Kalin creases his forehead in thought, and brushes his fingers against his chin. “Actually, call the reporter who wrote the story. Tell him to give up all his contacts, those who fed him this line of bullshit. I want to know who they are.”

“Kalin, why would he do that?” I ask. “He’ll protect his job and his sources.”

Kalin narrows his eyes. “These aren’t sources providing news, Annabelle. They are simply the ones who have the most to gain from spinning a news story. I want to know who they are.”

“Sure thing.” A surge of hope courses through me, and I find myself smiling again. Kalin is in his element, and I’m loving it. These bastards don’t stand a chance.

“See, Annabelle. Having money is not such a bad thing. Is it?” He grins.

I place my hand in his. “It depends on who has the money.”

My eyes dart from Kalin to Madison, who is arranging the flowers. She turns and smiles at us. “Oh, you guys are old news,” she says with a flick of her wrist. “We already know about you two.”