Blaine's POV:

"That's who you cheated on?" Matt stood in the doorway of the conference room.

This was our first meeting with Damien's company and my boss thought it would be a good idea for me to come as a "familiar face". Phoebe was standing next to Damien, the two of them deep in discussion. She was wearing a lacey light blue dress and black heels. Her hair was curled and in a half ponytail. My eyes traveled down her body and Damien looked up to glare at me. I never told Phoebe about Damien's offer, I was keeping it in my back pocket if he ever tried to cross me again.

"I didn't cheat on her for the last time," I shoved him away.

Damien walked over to where I was standing, Phoebe on his heels, "Blaine."

"Damien."

Phoebe stepped in front of him and gave me a hug, "Hey."

I kept my eyes trained on Damien who was trying his best to keep his face neutral. To annoy him even more, I kept the hug going a lot longer than needed.

"You look tan," I pulled away.

"We just came back from Lake George," Phoebe grabbed Damien's arm, "It was beautiful."

Matt held his hand out to Phoebe, "I'm Matt by the way."

"I'm Phoebe," she smiled, "This is my fiancé Damien."

An older version of Damien stood up from his seat at the head of the table and across from him stood my boss, Rick. Rick waved me and Matt over to the rest of our team. I sat beside my boss, watching Phoebe and Damien on the other side of the table.

"He has it out for you," Matt whispered to me.

"Stop your gossiping," Rick intercepted, "We're here to do business."

Rick was a no nonsense kind of man. He served in the military and worked as a computer analyst for the FBI then the CIA. I looked up to him and loved working for his company. He used his military skills to build the company from the ground up and typically employed ex-military men and women.

"I want to welcome you gentlemen to our company," Damien's twin began, "I believe that we can do great things together. I'm entrusting you with not only my company, but my family as well. We expect nothing but the best from you."

Matt scoffed and Rick silenced him with a glare. The rest of the meeting listed out the guidelines of the contract, everything seemed okay. Our pay was the most that we had ever earned on a job. Beside me, I could feel Matt getting excited at all of the zeros. Mr. Zano concluded the meeting and asked Rick to follow him into his office.

"I told you the contract was legit," Phoebe grinned, "We're going to be business partners."

I tried to be as happy as she was, but I could not help sensing that Damien had an ulterior motive. When Rick pulled me into his office and let me know what was going on, I knew that something was up. We were a good business, all of our customers left great reviews, but we were not the best company in the city. Damien was up to something and I needed to find out what.

"Why don't you show Blaine around?" Damien added to my suspicion.

"Why, what're you doing?" Phoebe frowned.

"I need to talk to my dad for a sec. I'll be right back," he kissed her before following Rick and Mr. Zano out of the conference room.

Phoebe's eyes trailed Damien until he was out of distance. I knew Phoebe and I knew that she was not going to let this rest. Our eyes met and she knew that I could see right through her. She tried her best to cover it up and failed.

"I'll show you our gym," Phoebe led us to the elevator.

She gave us a tour of the building, answering all of Matt's insane questions along the way. We ended up in the cafeteria in line with everyone else for hibachi.

"I wish we had a cafeteria in our building," Matt stood in line.

Phoebe laughed, "We have a state of the art, complementary kitchen for anyone works for us, fitness gym, valet parking, free massages once a week, and we're working on an onsite daycare."

"The only other place like this is Grey Enterprise and Google," I said.

Phoebe nodded, "Damien's dad took a few ideas from the Grey handbook after I was hired."

"Must be nice."

"There are more good days than bad ones."

We grabbed our tray of food and sat down at one of the tables. Phoebe had to stop at least a dozen of times to say hello to people within the company. Clearly she was well-liked and it was not just because she was the boss's fiancée. In fact, no one mentioned Damien at all.

"Seems like high school all over again," I sat down beside Phoebe.

"You're just jealous because everyone liked me and thought you were the creep you liked to lurk in the shadows."

Matt laughed, "Really?"

"It wasn't like that at all; Phoebe likes to exaggerate."

"Blaine was my bodyguard and no one knew so they all thought it was weird that he would always follow me around."

We were interrupted by Rick coming through the doors. He was expression was stormy as he reached us.

"We're leaving."

"Is everything alright Mr. Mancuso?" Phoebe stood up.

Rick was known for letting his anger get to the best of him at work. He and I had had our fair share of arguments that have led to blows being thrown, but I had never seen him this upset. Matt gave me a look signaling that we should get going before things became worse.

"There are just things we need to take care of at the office. Please excuse us," Rick's smile was tight.

I gave Phoebe a hug before following Rick and Matt to the car. Rick was quiet during the entire ride and locked himself inside of his office for the rest of the day. I had my own small office in the building right next to Matt and another coworker named Noah. Photos of Caden were scattered across any open space, a constant reminder of who I was doing this for. Elizabeth knocked on my door and let herself in. We had been spending more time together after our first date; I liked being around her.

"So how was the meeting?" Elizabeth sat across from me.

"It was okay, great for the company."

She played with the pen in front of her, "And how was seeing Phoebe?"

Elizabeth was a smart girl. She never asked about Phoebe and I was thankful for that. Elizabeth knew that Phoebe and I had a complicated past, but never asked me to elaborate on anything. I had enough other people always asking questions about her that I did not need to add another person to the mix. I wanted to start something new with Elizabeth and needed to keep my feelings for Phoebe aside.

"She showed me and Matt around the office."

"Cool," Elizabeth bit her lip, "Are we still on for dinner tonight?"

"Of course," I smiled at her, "Caden's excited that you're coming with us."

I wanted to take Caden to this new indoor bounce center tonight and invited Elizabeth to come with us. If things were going to become any more serious between us, I wanted to see how Caden would react.

"Can't wait," Elizabeth gave me a peck on the cheek then walked out of my office.

Damien's POV:

I didn't even bother to knock on my father's office before walking in. Blaine's boss, Rick, sat across from my father looking over his nondisclosure agreement. My father had our lawyers create a binding contract for Rick and only Rick because my father thought the fewer amount of people who knew about this deal, the better.

"You want me to do what?" Rick snapped, "I don't know what kind of business you think I run, but I will not be part of this."

My father stayed calm, "You have three daughters in college and a wife that will miss you very much if anything were even to happen to you. This contract protects not only you, but them as well. I will make sure that they're taken care of if anything were to happen to you."

"You think that I haven't been bribed before? You're not the first multibillionaire dick who's tried to bribe me?"

"Remember you forced me to do this," my father opened his desk drawer, "I want you to think back to a time when you were working undercover as a CIA and fell in love with a Ms. Isabella Cozzo. She was the daughter of one of the mob families that you took down. The two of you had a child together, a son who is now a member of your team."

Rick stood up from his chair, "You bastard."

"No, that's what your children will call their new stepbrother once they find out. I tried to do this the nice way and it was you that made me have to blackmail you into doing what I need. I have other files, I like to do my background checks on everyone I work with."

It was my turn to step in, "Rick, we just need you to make documents untraceable and get some information on our competitors."

"And if I refuse to do it?"

"Then prepare for war," my father said, "A war that will have you begging me to take you back and I won't because this is a onetime deal."

Rick knew he was defeated, it showed all over his face, "Okay."

"Pleasure doing business with you," my father dismissed him.

I waited until the door closed before saying anything, "That was a little harsh, even for you."

"You need to stop being so naïve and learn what I'm teaching you. This is a company, not a social club. We don't work to make friends, we work to make money."

"So you purposely hired Blaine's company in hopes of his boss allowing you to use his company just because of Phoebe?"

My father sat back in his chair, "Who better to blame if anything happens? Scapegoats work out for a reason."

I was seeing another side of my father and I did not like it all. I was not good at lying to Phoebe and my father was putting me in this position.

"I may be naïve, but I would never purposely sabotage someone the way you just did."

"You just don't get it do you?" my father questioned, "You came into this company because of everything that was done before you. You want to make money, but don't want to get your hands dirty. You have no problem taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from me yet somehow act like you're better than me. You're doing what you're doing because you love Phoebe and what I'm doing is no different. I'm not going to have this conversation with you again. Either get with the program or leave."

I avoided Phoebe for the rest of the day. Thankfully I had meetings around town that kept me from having to figure out excuses to why I was avoiding her. Later that night Phoebe was waiting up for me in our bedroom.

"What did you guys say to Rick?" she muted the television, "And don't give me that 'I don't know what you're talking about bullshit' because I know that you're lying."

"We had to renegotiate some terms."

"Like?"

I undid my tie, "I'm exhausted, can we talk about this later?"

"Sure, no problem," Phoebe stood up and gathered some pillows.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm not going anywhere," she handed me the pillows, "You are."

She was being ridiculous, "What?"

"I'm not going to sleep in bed with a liar and since I'm not the one lying I don't think I should be the one that has to sleep somewhere else."

"You're acting crazy, I just told you what we did!"

"No," she shook her head, "You're lying to me and until you feel that you can be honest with me, you shouldn't sleep in the bed with me. I swear to god if this has anything to do with Blaine and I find out I'm going to be pissed."

Blaine, Blaine, Blaine, Blaine. I was going to rip my hair out if I heard his name again. There was no point in arguing. We had taken different turns sleeping in different rooms before. I slammed the door behind me like a child, vowing to curse my father out for putting me in this position in the first place.