36. Jack ‘J’
36
JACK ‘J’
J ’s secretary has left him two missed calls since they spoke the other night. He said he’d call her back to discuss the leaked information, but then he’d become distracted with the things Sara had said about not using him. They’d cleared things up, and then he’d become distracted by Sara herself. Lying on her back, knees up, legs parted, perfect little naked body inviting him in. The fact her lips were still pink and swollen from when he’d devoured her in his car, was just another reminder of the things that could happen when they were alone together. Yeah, spending the night with Sara was better than dealing with some jerk-off who thought they could profit from whatever leaked information they thought they were in possession of.
He's about to return the call when Sara’s name lights up his phone instead. He feels himself relax, the tension leaving his body entirely the moment he puts the phone to his ear.
“Hey, everything okay?” he asks, a smile working its way onto his face .
“Ugh, no,” Sara whines. “I feel terrible.”
The tension returns with the force of a sledgehammer cracking him over the head.
“What happened?”
“We got something in the mail this morning,” she begins. “Some idiot sent us a letter addressed to you. Walter opened it…” she trails off.
“Walter opened a letter addressed to me?” J sighs.
“I mentioned I feel terrible, right?” Sara says, the disappointment in her voice sending a wave of discomfort shooting through his veins.
“I’m not mad at you baby, Walter’s a prick.” J reassures her quickly before any guilt because of her idiot boss can settle in. “What’s the letter?”
Her sigh is long and tired. “I think you should come by the office. I’m not really sure what to make of it.”
Less than thirty minutes later, J is stepping into the lobby of Sara’s work. As he crosses the gray and white checkerboard floor, he’s confident the letter mailed to Street Bandit, is the same letter his secretary received. He’d called her, asking for the document to be forwarded so he was prepared if the two ended up matching.
He’s several strides from the elevators when an unwelcome, familiar face comes into view. As soon as she spots J, her strides slow down, her body moving toward him with cruel purpose, her face conveying that she means to punish him for not being in touch with her like she’d demanded. Kandi Lovetti.
“I don’t have time for you,” J growls.
“You should definitely make time, I’m getting impatient.” Kandi narrows her eyes. “And you know I tend to get a little reckless when I’m impatient.”
“Yeah? Me too. Drop it, Kandi.” He sidesteps to get away from her, but she steps in front of him, blocking his path.
“Don’t do the whole mean guy act, honestly, you’re so funny, Jack.”
Jack? Since when does she know his old name? She’s clearly been doing some digging.
He’s about to tell her to push her luck one more time and she’d see that it’s not an act, but the moment he opens his mouth, a ray of light in a lilac dress appears.
“Why’s he so funny?” Sara stands between them, staring at Kandi, her eyes cold like J’s never seen them before.
Kandi pulls a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
Sara looks at him with an expression he can’t decipher.
“Nothing’s funny,” he says before turning to Kandi. “You were just leaving, right?”
Kandi makes a dissatisfied noise. “Whatever you say.”
Then she’s striding away from them, hopefully toward the exit. J doesn’t bother to look because Sara is the one who needs his attention, Sara is the one he has to talk to and make sure she didn’t possibly think that anything was going on between him and Kandi…anything worse than was actually the case.
“I realize how that must have looked.” The words rush out. “But?—”
“Why did she call you Jack ?” Sara interrupts.
Good question. It confused the hell out of him too.
“I guess she did some digging on me. She’s never called me that before.” He winces, because it’s not the way he wanted Sara to find out he and Kandi have a history. Shit, he should have told her before now. Shit, shit, shit. “Remember that situation I told you I was dealing with? Well, it involves her.” He sighs. “I wanted to tell you before now. I’m sorry.”
Sara opens her mouth, then closes it, her eyes searching his face frantically, like she’s adding everything up in her head, and from what he can see, the conclusion doesn’t look great.
“Okay.” She takes a deep breath, like she’s treading carefully. “If she was the situation, that means you knew her before I met you in Maine…” She shakes her head. A disappointed look he would trade his entire world for, appearing on her face. “Which means you’ve known her this whole time?”
Fuck. No matter how he answered this, the truth couldn’t hide that fact. “Yes. I should have told you before now.”
The disappointment is gone in Sara’s face, and now it’s just sadness.
“So, when you saw us together at Midas and discovered we work together…didn’t you think that was a good time to tell me you knew her?”
J jams his hands in his pockets, the urge to fix this coursing through his body like hot lava. “Honestly, I didn’t know how to bring it up. It’s a weird story. One I don’t have the energy to face half the time.”
Sara’s mouth hangs open. “So you think I didn’t deserve your energy about something like this?”
He groans. “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just, there’s legal issues. But I’m going to tell you everything, I’ll tell you right now.”
The frown on Sara’s forehead deepens, and there’s a look on her face he doesn’t recognize. She’s angry. Not like she was on the trails, not like she was when they were at each other’s throats. This anger ran deeper. That’s when he realizes it’s not anger at all. She’s hurt.
“I don’t care how farfetched the story is, Jack. I don’t care if she’s your ex-wife you married one drunken night in Vegas,” she shrieks, then takes a deep breath to steady herself. “She’s one of my colleagues, you should have told me.” She shakes her head. “You asked me to give you honesty. Don’t you think it’s a two-way street?”
She’s right beyond any excuse he can give. He’d just about convinced her that he was worthy of her trust. Only to be bitten in the ass by the one rule he set in place for her, no more games. Honesty. Shit, he couldn’t lose her trust now. Fix this fuckhead.
It’s the worst possible time to hear the grating voice of Walter Schneider coming from behind him. “Rest assured Vandenberg, we have technical support carrying out extensive tests to see exactly who had access to the data. We are, of course, confident the leak didn’t come from our end.” He pauses. “I assume that’s what this serious looking conversation is about?”
Confusion takes over until J realizes he’s talking about the letter he’d come to look at.
Walter continues, “Wasn’t expecting you until later, but I’d be happy to skip my coffee break to discuss further. We both would, right Kirby?”
This guy. Still dictating Sara’s time.
“You got the letter?” J sighs, his mind reluctantly but quickly switching to business.
Walter plucks it from the inside of his jacket, awkwardly handing it to J.
He scans the document, and sure enough, it’s the same one his secretary received .
It’s from a journalist, who’s somehow acquired the figures of the food waste from every Vandenberg Group establishment. The same figures he’d given Sara the day he came to propose the collaboration.
The journalist wants to know why it’s taken him so long to do something about it, and why he thinks it’s acceptable that so many are starving in the city while the company’s food wastage is so high. The same words crop up over and over, greed, selfish…
The only difference with this letter is that it didn’t come with the accompanying letter that went to his secretary. The one threatening to leak to every newspaper in the city if he didn’t deliver a hefty sum. Jesus Christ, could he just get through one day without someone trying to extort the living shit out of him?
“As I said, we’re confident these figures didn’t come from our offices,” Walter repeats. “But you can expect our full cooperation. And just so you know I’m taking this matter seriously, I’d like to offer you a brand new team to work with.”
What?
“What?!” Sara shrieks.
That asshole. That fucking, slimy asshole. Did he just suggest pulling Sara from her own project without even discussing it with her first?
“I have no idea how these numbers were leaked,” Sara tells him. Then to her boss, “I’m sure we can discuss this later?”
A rush of fury travels through J’s veins because the guy has completely blindsided her. How the fuck can she stand to work with this prick?
“The deal goes ahead.” Jack glares at Walter. “With the original team.” He waits for Walter to protest, waits for Sara to say something, to put Walter in his place like he deserves, but she doesn’t say anything, her features speaking a thousand words instead. She’s furious, but she remains composed. It’s killing him. Fuck, he wants to punch this guy right in his nose.
Instead, he draws in a deep breath, gritting out, “Thank you, Walter. That’s all.”
Walter clears his throat, clearly startled by the dismissal. “Very well.” It’s his inability to read a room that keeps him bumbling on the spot longer than necessary. Eventually, he nods. Mumbles bullshit about being grateful to work with him before he finally exits the lobby.
J dips his head, lowering his voice so only he and Sara can hear as he places his hands in his pockets.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she says. “I promise I didn’t?—”
“Don’t,” he says firmly. Then he removes his hands, ready to pull her into him but dragging his hands through his hair at the last moment. “I know you didn’t leak the files. Walter’s an asshole. He blindsided you.”
A rushed breath of frustration slips from Sara’s throat. “I know.”
If only he could get through to her, make her see she’s so much better than working for this idiot. “He was trying to embarrass you. Sara, that man is never going to support you. He should be protecting his team, not throwing you under the bus to save his own ass. He’s dangerous.”
Sara nods, her voice weak. “I know. I’m going to talk to him.”
“Good. How have you lasted this long with him? He’s got no right treating you like that.” Jack shoves his hands back in his pockets.
“I said, I know,” Sara says firmly, looking irritated. “Look, he’s my boss and sometimes you just need to play the game. Not all of us have the luxury of owning a billion-dollar company, Jack.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I hate the way he treats you when I know how capable you are. It’s not the respect you deserve.”
Her eyes are glazed with a layer of moisture. “I don’t like it either.” He has to make fists in his pockets because all he wants to do is pull her into his chest and comfort her. “But I can handle it.”
He sighs. “I know you can. But he’s going to pull the same bullshit again. Do you expect me to stand there and watch as he continues to disrespect you? It’s driving me nuts.”
Her head snaps up like something he said hit a nerve. Her face is anger and frustration and hurt all in one. “And it’s driving me nuts that you won’t stay out of this,” she says like she just wants to dismiss the entire conversation. “I don’t need you to defend me, and I don’t need your opinion on how I should handle my boss in my job,” she tells him firmly. And then, as if that didn’t hit him deep enough in the gut, she adds, “You’re not my boyfriend, Jack.”
He doesn’t move, but something inside him wants to recoil. It’s like his insides are collapsing and his chest is being folded in half, crushing him slowly and there’s not a damn thing he can do to stop it.
He forces an even tone. “I’m not your boyfriend.” He nods. “I know that. Got it…” he trails off, his voice hoarse.
Sara inhales deeply, her movements look strained, and she looks like she wants to be anywhere than standing with him. She blinks, face completely resigned. She shakes her head .
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.” She bites her lip. “I’m sorry. I have to get back to work.”
And then she’s stepping around him, walking away, the girl he’d fallen for too quickly, gone before he can find the words to make her stay.