Chapter 4

“Where are we going?”

Seated at the back seat of Nathan Tate's sleek grey BMW, I felt lost. My insides were in turmoil.

I couldn't get the picture out of my head. Who could have done it? It was just the two of us in the room and judging from the angle it was taken, whoever took it wasn't at the door. That left one option — hidden cameras.

“Don't worry you're not being kidnapped”

Nathan sat behind the driver. His gaze fixed on the iPad in his hand.

I scoffed and folded my arms. 

“I have a tracker on me anyways, you'd be found in minutes if you tried that”

“Oh really? We'll see then”

“What?” A slight tremor ran through me. Was I actually being kidnapped?

I reached into my bag for my phone. How was I going to call the police when my kidnapper was right next to me?

“Don't do anything hasty Madeline, why would I want to kidnap you?”

His eyes raked over me disapprovingly.

I was instantly pissed off. His disapproving attitude was getting on my nerves.

“Well, I don't know. Why am I in your car then?”

“I don't remember throwing you in”

Was he serious?

“You clearly asked me to come with you and I did”

“Yes. Asked, not forced. You came willingly. That's not how kidnapping works”

“Stop the car”

The driver glanced at me through the front mirror but continued driving.

“Stop the car or I will call the police”

I ignored the side eye Nathan threw my way before he leaned back in his seat.

“Stop the car Andrew”

I was out as soon as the car came to a halt. I didn't spare Nathan Tate a final glance.

“Good riddance” I mumbled under my breath.

Hopefully this whole photo fiasco would die down and I'd never see him again.

                  ________________

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, the weather felt I deserved a little more.

I'd just gotten out of my car when the first drop of rain hit me.

The sky turned grey fast.

I barely had time to hurry into the tall multistorey building Camille had directed me to before it showered down mercilessly.

Apparently it was a Tech company and she had a friend that worked here that could help with my online disaster.

I caught my reflection on the reflective elevator wall on my ride up and almost grimaced. The rain had wet my hair, making some strands to stick to my forehead.

My mascara was a bit messed up.

Thanks to my blazer, my sundress had only mostly got wet in the chest area.

So in general I looked like a discarded ragdoll.

I felt like one too.

My phone had been blowing up for almost two hours but I already knew why.

“Good day. I'm looking for the Chief Information officer. Could you direct me to his office?”

The receptionist looked up slowly, a bored look playing on her face as she scanned me with her eyes.

“Third office on your right, down this hallway”

“Thanks” 

All this stress had better be worth my time.

I knocked gently on the door before letting myself in.

“Good day—” 

I stopped dead in my track.

At that point I just decided the universe was playing some kind of shitty joke on me.

“You?!”

Nathan sat cross legged in the large office, sipping what seemed like wine comfortably.

“Took you long enough” Nathan's cool but intimidating gaze was fixed on me.

“Oh, is this her?” 

I was so shaken by Nathan's presence I hadn't even noticed the other man sitting across him.

Nathan nodded.

“Good day Miss…?”

“Madeline” I took the seat farthest from Nathan and forced myself to completely ignore him.

“Well, nice to meet you. I'm Caleb Coleman, CEO of this company” The man had a lively aura about him.

His brown eyes held a twinkle of mischief.

“Oh. I was hoping to meet the Chief Information officer”

“He's kind of indisposed at the moment. But I know your issue and we were just talking about it before you came in”

“Okay…any progress then?”

“Well…I can take down the photos and posts completely”

A surge of joy rushed through me.

“Oh thank goodness! Thank you so much…I'll have to pay right?”

“Before you get too chipper, you should hear him out” he gestured towards Nathan.

“I'm thinking of leaving the posts” Nathan folded his hands across his broad chest as he spoke.

A blanket of cold silence fell over the room.

I blinked at him. Had I heard correctly?

“What?! Why?” Panic slowly crept back in. This could not be happening.

“We could use it to our advantage”

“We? There is no ‘we’ Mr. Nathan! I have a life, a reputation that's at stake here. You can't just make this decision! I'm in the picture too”

“Calm down and think about it”

Again with his ‘oh so chill’ attitude.

Was this man insane?!

“Calm down? Oh my God. We finally have the opportunity to fix this mess and you're just going to let it go?!”

“The picture is at three million views at the moment. Everyone's reposting it. Taking it down will be very tasking”

“At least we can try! I don't get what you're trying to do”

“I'm trying to turn this disadvantage into an advantage”

“Oh and how do you plan to do that?”

“It's complicated, I'll explain in details. But firstly, how about we sign a contract?”