69

“Drake . . .” I shook my head as I gazed at the woman I loved. “You have to know that if I was in your shoes, as a partner, I would have been treated the same way. Our in-house counsel has standard operating procedures. All she was doing—all we were doing—was following them to protect Hooked. This wasn’t personal, trust me when I say that.”

“I know,” she replied.

“We didn’t want to do this, Drake,” Holden added. “We didn’t want to have that meeting. We didn’t want to even consider that you had something to do with the Dating Place or that you were acting as a mole or that you had sent that email. But for the sake of Hooked, we had to do our due diligence. Although none of us were able to voice this, we didn’t think for a second that you were involved in any way.”

“Shit no,” Grayson said. “If you wanted access to our system, you would have hacked in—we all know that. You wouldn’t have wasted your time and taken a job here.”

Holden chuckled. “What he said, but that still doesn’t change