Chapter 56
FIFTY-SIX
Reese wanted to be excited for Knight. She’d heard the statements Chatterton and the other executives had made. She knew it was good news, possibly the final piece needed for prosecution. But instead all she wanted was to eat ice cream and buy shoes.
There was a very good reason she’d never been in love before.
It sucked.
Maybe her brother Ryan had the way of it, a merry-go-round of dating and casual sex. Or maybe she had been smarter than she thought in the last couple of years by just avoiding men and a social life altogether.
As she trailed out of the conference room behind the executives, she realized there was another reason to be grateful for the close of this case—she could quit this job.
If she wanted to spend this much time serving coffee, she’d prefer to do it at Starbucks where at least she could get a discount and meet people her own age.
Which was where she might be in a couple of weeks since once she quit Delco she had no job. For a minute, she debated groveling to Ralph to get her job back at the Newark News. She pictured kissing his ass and shuddered.
Markson slowed down and hovered next to her. “Can I talk to you, Reese?”
Did she need this now? She stifled a groan. Markson was a nice enough guy, but he hovered, getting in her way and complicating her life. Like pigeons.
“Later, Stan, okay?”
“This is important. I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
That got her attention. She looked over at him, then past him to where Jenkins was listening with no attempt at discretion. The hallway had high ceilings and sound seemed to bounce all around them, sending Markson’s voice projecting way louder than she would like.
“Can we discuss this in private?” she asked through gritted teeth, not wanting to give anything away in front of Jenkins and his big fat ears. Besides, when she told off Markson, she didn’t want witnesses.
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Markson had become a really phenomenal liar during the course of this case.
She couldn’t imagine why she had ever worried about him, the balding snake.
He looked a little nervous, but overall he looked like a wealthy businessman giving his girlfriend the boot in a hotel hallway.
“This was a mistake. I love my wife, and she deserves better than this. It was fun, but now it’s over.”
Then he walked away. Just walked off down the hall, leaving her staring at Jenkins.
The sting of humiliation and rage left her speechless.
Jenkins wasn’t speechless. “Well, now that you’re free, maybe you and I could go out.”
Sure. Right around the time she could fit into a size two. Not in this lifetime. She fisted her hands, gripping the bottom of her blue cable knit sweater, giving herself a calming moment before opening her mouth and shredding him.
He spoke first. “Then again, if you couldn’t keep a guy like Markson satisfied, it’s probably not worth my time.” Jenkins straightened his tie and started off down the hall.
By the time she had ridden the elevator up to the twelfth floor and opened the door to her room with Knight, she was itching for a fight.
So was Knight, given the scowl on his face. “What took you so long? The meeting broke up over an hour ago.”
Reese bent over and ripped her black pump off her foot and considered beaning him in the head with it. “They stayed and talked about dinner plans and I was needed to make reservations when they made their final decision. Not that I need to explain myself to you.”
“Well, you need to explain this.” Knight held up a pad of paper and threw it on the bed.
“What?” Caught off guard, she looked down at the paper and saw her handwriting. Her notes on Markson. He had found them.
Panic rose for a second before she squelched it.
If he wasn’t going to feel guilty for digging through her stuff, she wasn’t going to feel guilty for interviewing Markson. Besides, she hadn’t actually submitted the interview yet.
Giving a nonchalant shrug, she said, “What’s there to explain? I interviewed Markson, which I guess you can see since you just read it.”
He stared at her, mouth open, shoving his hair off his forehead. “Reese! You should have asked me first.”
Any effort to remain calm evaporated. “Asked you? Why the hell should I ask you?” Still wearing one shoe, she bobbed up and down to stand in front of him. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. This is my career.” His mouth was drawn tight and his eyes were flashing.
He had changed into a pair of jeans and an untucked T-shirt.
He looked disheveled and angry. “I knew this would be a disaster. First moving the damn vase, then everyone thinking you’re screwing Markson, and now I find out you went behind my back, knowing I would say no, and compromised my investigation.
You should have stayed home like I asked you to. ”
Reese felt the blood drain from her face. She held her hand out and backed up. “That’s really what it’s all about, Knight, isn’t it? You want a woman who’s waiting for you at home obediently. Well, that’s not me. You knew that. I knew that.”
Something inside her was splintering, aching, leaving her flushed with anger, yet cold with hurt.
“We both knew this was just a fun…thing.” She swallowed hard. “So I’m guessing now it’s over. I can’t be what you want and I won’t be patronized and bossed around. I spent my whole childhood living with a double standard created by men. I won’t do it again.”
That was as close to a vow as she was ever going to come.
Derek had no idea how the conversation had gone from her betraying him to their relationship being over, but he didn’t like it. If anyone had a fucking bone to pick, it was him.
“Why is it always about you? Just once, I’d like you to take responsibility for what you’ve done.” He grabbed the legal pad off the bed and shook it in her face. “You knew this would piss me off, you knew it was wrong, but you did it anyway. That was selfish.”
Mouth open, she ripped it out of his hand and whacked him on the arm with it. “Why are you going through my stuff anyway, Mr. High and Freaking Mighty?”
He grabbed her wrist as she reared back to smack him again.
It didn’t hurt in the least, but it pissed him off, more than he already was, which was a hell of a lot.
“I went through your stuff because Maddock told me that he saw you hanging all over Markson yesterday. I knew you weren’t screwing Markson like everyone seems to think, but I figured that meant you had something up your Newark News sleeve. ”
Reese jangled her arm back and forth trying to shake him off, her auburn hair flying across her face and sticking to her lip. “Look who’s talking. You haven’t told me anything about this case, forcing me to go out on my own to investigate.”
His anger dissolved into frustration, and down into disappoint and resignation.
They had been over this so many times. If Reese couldn’t respect his professional integrity, she was right.
It was over. He could give up his idea of being with a different kind of woman very easily.
After all, he hadn’t known what he actually wanted until he’d met Reese.
But he couldn’t give up mutual trust and respect.
He let go of her wrist. “I can’t tell you about the investigation, you know that. You know that, and you don’t give a shit. You push and push even when I promised to give you the story as soon as it’s possible.”
“We’re not going to agree on this, Knight. I’m not apologizing for wanting to move ahead, to have a chance to do a real newsworthy story. Markson deserves to tell his side so that he doesn’t get smeared when this hits the stands.”
She sounded so driven, so unconcerned about his feelings, that Derek felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of his lungs.
Jesus, this was it. It was ending, and it hurt like nothing else.
When the tire iron had slammed into his knee, he’d seen the whole world tilt in blurry pain, but this was worse.
There was no surgery to fix this.
“I guess you and I have a different view on relationships. You think they’re all about one person being in charge, calling all the shots, and you want it to be you. I want a partnership, compromise.”
She scoffed. “The problem is, you’re exactly like me. We both want to be in control. I’m just louder about it.”
There wasn’t any truth in that, he was almost sure of it. Didn’t he just about break his back bending over to please her? If Reese couldn’t see that, then to hell with the whole thing.
He lashed out, said the first thing that popped into his head. “I should have let you go. That night in the parking garage I should have just let you take off with the envelope and saved us both a hell of a lot of trouble.”
The color leached from her face, leaving her nothing but white skin and freckles. Tears rose, startling him into swearing out loud.
“Shit, Reese, I’m sorry.”
Jesus, he hadn’t meant to make her cry. Reese and tears didn’t go together, and he had brought her to that.
She drew a shaky breath, while he watched her battle to control herself. Not a single tear actually fell down her cheek. She widened her eyes and squeezed her lips shut. “Don’t apologize if you meant it. Just get out of my room.”
At the last second her voice wavered and Derek felt so lousy he just wanted to scoop her into his arms. Why the hell were they fighting? Did any of it really matter?
“Peaches…” He reached for her.
She took a step back and held out her hand. “I’m serious. Pack your stuff and get out or I’ll take you down like I did in that deli.” She glanced down at his crotch, her voice hard, high, and heading towards hysterical. “Only now I know what side you pack your piece on.”
He didn’t actually believe her. But that spike-heeled shoe went back onto her foot for emphasis and Derek knew it was time to leave.