Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
I t was probably only half an hour later and Steph was already bored and despite the work she’d got piling up on her desk, she couldn’t focus or concentrate. Getting to her feet she walked through to Jelly Bean’s office as she liked to think of it and then went as far as Jon’s office that made her sad by its emptiness, by the lack of her husband nearby.
“Steph!” she heard Charlie call a little panicky from her own office.
“In here,” she called back, feeling suddenly tearful.
“What are you doing? You okay?” Charlie put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.
“I’m scared and bored and suddenly very skittish and in need of seeing my husband,” she admitted sadly.
With his grip on her tightening, Charlie kissed the top of her head. “Come and see the entertainment we’ve lined up for you.” Leading Steph back to her own office, she came to a standstill and stared at the man behind her desk.
“This is quite a cushy number you’ve got here Stephie.” Jason smiled as he spun in her chair.
“What are you doing here?” She returned her brother’s smile.
“Your old man decided that you might need babysitting today.”
“You are kidding me? You!”
“Hey, I resent that! I got your back, Jack,” he said with an offended expression that made Steph feel guilty.
“Sorry and thank you.” She smiled. “Shall I organise us some lunch then?” she asked looking between Charlie and Jason.
“Not for me. You two behave and any problems call me, Jay.” Charlie was already preparing to leave.
“Course, laters Charlie,” Jason called.
The door had barely closed when Jason turned to his sister with a serious expression. “He won’t get within twenty feet of you, sis, and if he does I will kill him, for real,” he said darkly. “Now, you sort lunch and I will see exactly what I can play or watch on this computer of yours.”
Shaking her head at her brother she wondered how his moods could be so mercurial from murderous to hungry and in need of entertainment.
“No porn,” she warned. “They’re work computers. I mean it. I’ll sort some lunch.”
Lunch consisted of sandwiches, crisps, cakes and chocolate. Steph had picked at it but Jason had devoured his and washed it down with gallons of fizzy pop.
“I need to do some work,” Steph announced, seeming to startle Jason.
“You’re the boss, well the boss’ wife at least,” he said with a frown that suggested that she didn’t have to do anything, least of all work.
“Yeah and I have to earn my very generous salary.” Steph smiled, feeling a little happier at the familiarity her brother brought.
“I was going to watch the next instalment of this series,” he said, gesturing down at the screen in front of him.
“I’ll just go through to Jon’s office and work, I’d hate to keep you from your viewing.” She grinned before walking back into Jon’s office with an armful of files.
After another hour of restlessly shuffling files and tapping away on the computer, Steph cast it all aside and made her way out to find Rosie and Andrea chatting, although the conversation ceased as she appeared.
“Don’t mind me,” she said attempting to leave the office.
“Steph, we have instructions that you’re to stay here,” said Rosie, getting to her feet.
Steph laughed, wondering what Rosie was considering doing to prevent her leaving.
“I am aware of orders, but I am going stir crazy. I thought I might go for a wee and check out the new conference room and then I am considering popping down to accounts to speak to Martin and then I will make my way back here, okay?”
“Sorry, but that’s against all orders we’ve received,” explained Rosie, looking genuinely apologetic.
“Whose orders?” she asked tersely, although she would have put money on the first name being her husband’s.
“Mr Brooker’s, Charlie’s . . .” began Rosie before Jason’s voice interrupted from behind his sister.
“And mine! You are a bloody nightmare, sis, and if I have to call Eddie and the others to work as a tag team I will, now either get your arse back in there or let me accompany you wherever you want to go.”
“You are kidding? You want to come for a wee with me?” she asked turning to face Jason who smiled broadly.
“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve shared a toilet, we used to share a bath,” he said looking across at Rosie and Andrea. “And I still reckon I wasn’t the only one who pee’d in it.”
“You really are disgusting,” Steph told him but was grinning.
“But you love me anyway. Even if I pee’d in the bath from the opposite side of the room,” he boasted proudly, making Steph laugh out loud.
“Come on then, pee, conference room and then we’ll pop down to accounts. If you two need to report to anyone don’t let me stop you,” Steph told Andrea and Rosie who both reached for their phones where Rosie called Charlie and Andrea called Jon. “Unbelievable,” she mused making her exit with Jay hot on her heels.
They actually did go to the toilet, together which wasn’t as much of a shock for Steph as it was for the three women using the ‘ladies facilities’ when Jason appeared from the confines of the cubicle he’d been in.
“Good afternoon, ladies.” He winked making Steph laugh. “Why aren’t men’s toilets as nice as women’s? Yours even smell nice!”
“Because men use them!” replied Steph, with a smirk. “However I am sure the men’s facilities here are up to scratch, maybe you should check ‘em out,” she suggested laughing and then turned to pass the three women still there.
They stared wildly at the man before them until they turned and found the laughter belonged to Steph.
“Mrs Brooker,” one of them cried, shocking Steph as she had no clue who the women were, but again everyone seemed to know who she was, who Mr Brooker’s wife was.
“I apologise for my crazy brother,” she replied. “Jay, wash your hands and then let’s clear out.”
“I am not crazy.” He protested, making the three women smile at him, “Misunderstood and in need of love, but not crazy,” he said, seemingly addressing a young blonde woman with pretty eyes and a huge chest.
“Jason!” Steph reprimanded.
“Sorry ladies, bossy sister calling, but I guess you lot already know what a slave driver she is.”
They all giggled at him while Steph held the door open and shook her head as he leaned towards the busty blonde to say, “What’s your number, I’ll call you.”
Holding his phone in his hand, preparing to input a number Steph coughed loudly.
“Sorry, Mrs Brooker,” the woman said, looking more uncomfortable by the second.
“No way,” cried Jason, looking between the pretty woman he was attempting to pursue and his sister. “Steph, you can’t do this to me, you’re not the boss of me. Please don’t cock block me,” he whispered with a pout.
“What the fuck,” she sighed, turning to face the embarrassed young woman whose friends looked as though they were more embarrassed than anyone else present. “If you really want to give him your number go for it but this has nothing to do with me now or in the future,” Steph said, exiting the bathroom to the sound of Jay’s voice chastising her for swearing.
After their bathroom trip, Steph took Jason downstairs to the coffee shop where they met Sonia Hansen who was her usual friendly and chatty self before they returned to the lift to go back up to accounts and finally her office.
Jason went back to watching shows on the computer and Steph suspected texting the woman from the toilet, Clarissa. Steph had returned to Jon’s office and was putting together the best bits of Richards that Brookers might be able to acquire at a knock down price. It was another couple of hours before Steph’s belly began to grumble loudly reminding her that she needed to try eating something again before the dreaded nausea kicked in. She wandered next door where Jason was watching the closing credits of the series he’d started that morning.
“I could get used to this. I found these on Rosie’s desk,” he announced holding up a large box of chocolates, very expensive designer chocolates.
“Ooh, does Rosie know you’ve lifted them?” Steph asked reaching across for the box.
“They’re for you,” he explained holding up a gift tag that simply said:
Steph x
“Cool, let’s crack them open then, Jay.” Steph smiled remembering that she’d received a box of these particular chocolates previously and they were gorgeous, if a little rich, so she needed not to ram a load into her mouth at once or the nausea would go into overdrive.
She selected a praline and left the box on the desk as she made her way back to Jon’s office to continue working, all thoughts of a snack beyond chocolate forgotten.
“These are not the usual crap you pick up from the petrol station, so don’t eat them all,” Steph called.
“You never used to be so selfish,” Jason shouted after his sister, laughing.
“No, well you used to bully me before I had a big, rich husband.” Steph dipped back into the room to laugh at her brother. “Oh and my Jelly Bean needs more chocolate.”
“You’d better remember that at some point your Jelly Bean is vacating your womb and if I don’t save you from this chocolate you will look like the back end of a bus with all of Jelly Bean’s extra chocolate,” he taunted like only a sibling could. “But don’t tell your big, rich husband I said that!”
“You are such a shit, and you’re supposed to be looking after me not insulting me, but I love you anyway.”
“I love you too, and you’re not supposed to be swearing, but I’ll try to save you a chocolate.”
Steph was still giggling as she sat back in Jon’s chair and prepared to devour her chocolate. She was still trying to remember who’d bought her the last box of these chocolates as she bit into the praline and immediately knew something was wrong.
She was beginning to panic as the frighteningly familiar sensation of anaphylactic shock kicked in, coinciding with the door seeming to burst open startling her further as Jason’s voice shouted from the other room, getting louder as it got closer.
“Don’t eat the chocolate Stephie, it’s been fucked with!”
He came to a standstill as his gaze settled on his sister struggling to breathe and reacting to the toxin more by the second while Jon, who had just arrived stood in the doorway.
“What the fuck?” Jon asked, heading for his wife who was somehow slumping to the floor.
“The chocolate, it’s been tampered with, fish stuff I think,” Jason explained as he reached for his sister’s bag while Jon attempted to cradle his wife as he called orders to everyone around.
“Somebody call an ambulance,” he screamed to Andrea and Rosie who stood in the doorway with Charlie and another man.
Andrea grabbed the phone on Jon’s desk and called 999 as Jason found the adrenalin filled pen in his sister’s bag. Immediately, he messed with it, removed the top and was pressing it firmly against Steph’s outer thigh.
The next half an hour seemed to pass by in a blur; Steph’s state of near unconsciousness, Charlie coordinating the arrival of the paramedics, Andrea and Rosie calling anyone who needed to know what had happened, including the police and most surprising of all was Jason taking charge of the whole situation while Jon did nothing beyond holding his wife, cradling her, willing her to wake up and be okay. The paramedics quickly assessed the situation and once they were happy that Steph was stable they were taking her to hospital with sirens and lights. Charlie grabbed the chocolate Steph had been eating and followed the ambulance with Jason whose control was beginning to slip.
“What the fuck is going on here Charlie? Is this all Simon’s doing? You know that I never really liked him, but he has completely flipped to do this, to try and hurt Steph, proper hurt her.”
“I have no clue what’s going on with Simon, not beyond him kidnapping his kid and thinking Steph holds the key to him keeping him,” Charlie replied, coming to a sharp stop at the traffic lights that had just changed to red, unlike the ambulance that was sailing ahead of them.
“See, that’s what I don’t get about this. He is relying on Steph coming through for him, to help him so why would he send her chocolates that he knows could kill her? If she is his one chance to keep his son, why wipe her out? I know he is a knob and treated her badly, and even with his weird behaviour of late, this doesn’t seem to be his style, however, I will be kicking the shit out of him if I get my hands on him for everything else he has ever done.”
“Mmm,” replied Charlie, thinking that Jason was making perfect sense, surprisingly so.
“I know it’s a shock, seeing Steph like that. But is Jon up to the job of looking after my sister? Taking proper care of her and the baby, forever, come rain or shine or is he a bailer, he looked like he was ready to bail back there.”
“He was out of his depth, Jay. Like you said it’s a shock and he’s trying to process everything. He discovered this morning that someone posed a real danger to his pregnant wife, while he was in Italy, too far away to protect her. The fact that the threat has already proven itself as dangerous more than once makes it even more of a threat. Since he heard he has done nothing but make plans to get back here and has already sorted out increased security, at home and work. He loves Steph. There is nothing he won’t do to keep her safe, her and the baby, so yeah, he’s up to the job, but he’s never seen her like that and knowing it was a deliberate attack, not that I am sure he has figured that yet, it’s a shock. He’s reeling from that and the fear of if she’ll be okay, so go easy on him.”
“Fair enough, but he needs to get his head around how serious her allergy is because if he doesn’t, I can’t promise not to point out his short comings.”
A look of concern spread across Charlie’s face, knowing Jason rarely possessed tact and diplomacy but even less so where his sister was concerned.
“He needs to remember that she may be his wife but she is also my sister, my baby sister, always has been and always will be.”
“I know.” Charlie offered Jason a reassuring smile as he pulled into the car park.