Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
C ecilia
I was fighting for my life, trying to keep my eyes open. James brought me along for yet another meeting with the design team I’ve been working closely with lately. It seemed as though whenever James needed a break from me, he would pawn me off to the design department. I was pretty much already caught up with everything they were pitching today, hence why I’m so out of my mind bored that it was making my drowsiness start to take over and shut me down completely.
Working for James has been wreaking havoc on my sleep schedule. I was not this early of a riser, and being here was starting to take its toll on me.
My head lulls to the side for the hundredth time, and its jarring weight awakens me for a moment. I lift my head quickly, trying to remain present. As I do, though, my gaze connects with James across the room, and he doesn’t look happy with me.
Someone was attempting to speak to him, trying to show him something in one of their portfolios, but his attention was entirely on me as he ignored them. “Are we boring you?” he bites out, causing the rest of the room to fall silent.
I sigh. I’m too tired to deal with his mood swings today. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just a little tired.”
“Perhaps you should go to sleep at a more decent time,” he challenges.
“Perhaps I should, shouldn’t I?” I snap back, becoming crankier by the second.
He purses his lips together, looking back to the person initially speaking to him, ignoring me altogether now. I wish he’d always ignore me. That way, I didn’t feel so worked up. His antics and all-around mind games are probably what’s exhausting me the most around here. He made me feel…I don’t know. I think that’s just it. He made me feel .
My phone vibrates in my back pocket, rumbling loudly through the wooden chair I'm sitting on. Everyone glances at me momentarily before returning to their work. I reach into my pocket and pull my phone out, seeing it was Lance. I silence the call and set it on my lap, facing the meeting again.
My phone vibrates again, and I silence it once more. This time, when I look back up, I see James glaring at me before he turns away again.
Jeez, something has him in a mood today.
My phone vibrates again, and I actually growl in annoyance, looking down to see it’s Lance once again. Was something wrong at the library? Maybe that’s why he was being so relentless.
“Take your call outside,” James barks out, startling me. I look up, seeing his cold stare at me. “You’ve been enough of a disruption today,” he adds. My cheeks flame at his public reprimand, but I stand and leave anyway, deciding he wasn’t worth arguing with. I was just so tired.
I shut the door behind me, and once I’m in the hall, I dial Lance’s number, who answers on the first ring.
“Jesus, Lia. What is going on? I thought something happened to you,” his voice breaks through the phone.
“To me? I thought something happened to you. Is there a reason you’re blowing my phone up the way you are?”
“I haven’t heard from you in four days,” he says obviously.
“It has not been that long.” Has it been that long? Now that I think about it, I can’t recall our last conversation.
“Yes, it has,” he grouses. “What are you doing? When are you coming home?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I should be coming home soon. I think.”
“You think? Are you just going to forget about all your responsibilities, too? This isn’t like you.”
Anger bubbles inside me so fast, like a volcano, that I can’t stop from erupting. Did I mention I was really, really tired?
“This is like me,” I shout into the phone, completely losing it. “This is like me because it’s me doing it. Quit acting like you always know everything about me or everything that’s right for me. I told you I needed you to cover me for a while, and if you can’t do it, then fine. Just say that. But quit acting like you can control what I do just because you don’t like it.”
The line is silent. Eerily silent. My brain has officially short-circuited and fizzled into nothing. I had nothing else to say. I just wanted him to get off my back for once.
“I think it’s time you talk to someone,” he finally says, and I swear, I think my body has reached a medically concerning state of heat because I was boiling hot. Filled with frustration so potent it made me want to shove my fist through the phone and just Hulk smash his face. “You’ve been acting crazy ever since your brother came back. You’re not handling things well,” he finishes.
“You know what Lance? Screw you! When I get home, you better not even?—”
My phone is ripped from my hand, and I growl in more frustration as I turn behind me, finding James with my phone. His eyes are narrowed on me with a mixture of shock and concern as he observes this heated version of me.
I opened my mouth to yell at him, but he shook his head once. He is so calm yet demanding. He holds his pointer finger out, intending to silence me completely. I was outraged, but then I was curiously struck silent when he lifted my phone to his ear and began speaking into it.
“Cecilia can’t come to the phone right now as she’s in a state of distress, and I suggest if you ever want to speak to her again, you’ll do it with more respect. Are we clear?” He waits silently before a faint smirk curves his mouth. “Very good. Do not call her for the rest of the day.” He then lowers the phone and disconnects the call before handing it back to me.
I’m struck speechless. Did James just come to my defense? I could only imagine what Lance was doing right now. He was probably reeling over the way James just spoke to him. I couldn’t find it in me to care, though. He deserved it after talking to me that way.
Greg leaves the meeting, and everyone else filters out of the room. I notice him walking toward me, and I internally sigh. I didn’t have it in me to socialize today, and James was still searing a hole through me with his stare.
“Hey, Cecilia,” he says as he approaches us. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right. You seemed a little off today in there.”
“Sorry, yeah, I’m ok?—”
“She’s fine,” James growls out, facing him now. “I have her.” Greg’s eyebrows draw together, but he does the smart thing by nodding and leaving. I turn back to James, opening my mouth to ask him what that was all about, but he cuts me off. “My office. Now.”
I follow him as he strides to his office, the air around us feeling heavier the closer we get. He was in a crankier mood than I was. When the door is shut behind us, and we’re alone in his office, he whirls on me, his eyes dark and thin, his teeth bared like he was ready to bite my throat out.
“I’m not sure what kind of bloody barn animal raised you, but when you are in my place of work, even in my vicinity, for that matter, you will act polite. You will not shout and act like an unreserved lunatic, and you sure as hell will listen and pay attention when you are working around my other employees.”
I laugh incredulously. “Firstly, you’re not going to tell me what to do when you can’t even ask nicely, and secondly, I have no reason to pay attention to anything. None of this is what I wanted,” I shout at him. “I was supposed to see what my brother does around here, and I’ve only seen him once in passing. What the hell am I even doing here?”
His eyes widen as his irritation flows into his voice. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”
I point my finger in his direction. “You said I would see Tobias around, but so far, all you’ve done is lock me in your office and send me off into different departments, all while being a complete and total asshole about everything.”
“Your brother has important work to do. I’m sorry I can’t stop and bend the world to your will, Cecilia, but life doesn’t work that way. I needed him to take care of other responsibilities while I was here babysitting you.”
Suddenly, it feels like time slows down.
“So, you…you kept him from me on purpose?” My voice was small, and I hated how he reduced me to it. “You let me come here, knowing I wouldn’t see him. This was all just a big game to you, wasn’t it?” My voice is shaky now, full of emotion I didn’t think he was capable of bringing out of me.
He shuts his mouth, breathing hard in his chest as he stares at me. “I think you should leave,” he says, his voice softer now. You need rest.”
I laugh again, but this time, it's full of defeat. I walk to the chair in front of his desk, swipe my purse that sat in it, and throw it over my shoulder before walking to the door. I leave without saying anything else, and he lets me, also not sparing anything more to say.
When I’m outside, the first number I call belongs to someone I should’ve completely turned to sooner.
“You got something for me, doll face?” Hodge’s thick voice filters through the phone.
“Meet me at our spot in an hour. I have something I think you’ll want.”
His venomous laugh slithers through me like ice. “See you in an hour.” I hang up the phone and hail a taxi back to my hotel to grab James’s hidden ledger under my mattress.
My legs are shaking as I walk back to my hotel. They haven’t stopped since I left Hodge at the bar with the ledger now in his hands. He was all too happy when I gave it to him, his eyes lighting up like a pirate finally finding lost treasure. My stomach rolls at the memory, which is still fresh in my mind. It keeps replaying over and over, taunting me with the anxiety of the final nail that I personally stuck into James Kingston’s coffin.
It was what I had to do. Right?
Ugh, why do I keep asking myself that? Of course, it was. James was playing me from the beginning, offering me what seemed like help, all just to put on a show in front of my face while he kept my brother from me, probably doing all the dirty work I couldn’t see. I felt so stupid and probably looked it to him. I was embarrassed, but the feeling cutting me deeper than the others, the one that came as a complete shock to me, was that, more than anything, I felt betrayed.
At first, I thought he wanted to reassure me, but over time, it turned into a little game between us, one that I thought I was also playing. We pushed and pulled from each other, and I felt alive for the first time in a really long time. I felt seen and felt like I actually belonged somewhere I was considered an equal.
I was wrong.
I was the game James played, and he played it like a king, making me the joker.
I step off the elevator of my hotel and walk down the hall, but I freeze when I see James standing outside my door, knocking on it. I don’t make a sound. He doesn’t notice me standing here as I watch him stand and wait. His hands disappear into his pockets as he does, and he keeps his head down, looking at his feet.
Obviously, no one answered the door, and when he turned to leave, he stopped, finally spotting me. It feels as if my heart stops beating completely when our eyes lock onto each other’s.
Does he know what I just did? Does he know his ledger is missing and is now in the hands of his enemy?
I force myself to move. I try to be strong, proving to him that he did not break me and will never deter me. I keep my chin up, and I walk toward him.
“I thought you might be sleeping,” he says as I approach him. His eyes slide down the length of me, making me feel all kinds of wrong before he meets my eyes again. “You’re still dressed in your work clothes.”
“I got dinner,” I lie quickly.
He glances down at the watch around his wrist. “At 2:30? That’s fairly early for dinner.”
Shit. I forgot I left work earlier today, so that lie probably made zero sense, but I dig my grave deeper, quickly adding to it. “I wanted an early dinner to catch up on sleep when I returned.” I move past him now to unlock my door. “Which is what I’m going to do now.” I unlock the door and step inside, turning to face him. “Was there something you needed?”
He eyes me suspiciously, which isn’t a new look for him when it comes to me. He’s always known I was no ally of his.
“I thought we could talk,” he says. I stare blankly back at him, unsure how to respond.
“Talk? About what? I think we’ve said all we needed to say earlier.”
“That’s my point. I don’t care for how we left things.”
“You don’t care about anything, James, so don’t pretend you do about this. You knew what you were doing and guided me like a master puppeteer. I have nothing left to say to you.”
I go to shut the door in his face, but his hand slams against it, stopping it before it can close. “Please,” he begs, shocking me. “Let me in, and let’s talk.”
I scowl at him. “Do I have a choice, or will you break my door down too?”
He shoots me an unamused smirk as I open the door wide, reluctantly welcoming him inside my hotel room. He walks inside slowly, his eyes falling onto the simple room containing a large king-size bed, a mounted TV, and a cheap white wicker dresser.
“I could have put you up in something nicer,” he remarks.
“I don’t remember an offer.”
He glared at me over his shoulder. “I didn’t think. I apologize.”
“Ugh,” I groan in frustration. “Can you just say what you want to say? I do want to get some sleep at some point.” I needed him out of my hotel room. Out of my vicinity. Why did he have to come here after I had just played a very big role in the beginning of his downfall?
He faces me, both of us only feet apart, as he grabs something from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. His eyes never leave mine as he pulls out a small black box and hands it to me.
“It’s a gift for everything you’ve done at Labyrinth. For… everything I’ve put you through. I didn’t mean for things to turn out this way.”
I eye him skeptically as I slowly take the box from his hand. I hold it, using my other hand to lift the lid off. I gasped when the two moss-green crystal earrings came into view. The ones I saw and liked at this store.
“How did you know?” I ask in disbelief.
He shrugs. “I watched the security tapes back. I saw which ones you were looking at.” I swallow back the knot forming in my throat and let it form in my stomach instead. Why was he being nice? He’s not supposed to be nice, dammit.
“They’re beautiful,” I admit.
He smirks, pleased with himself. “They suit you.”
I looked up at him, trying to remain unaffected while, in reality, I was trying to internally exterminate every single butterfly, flapping their god-forsaken wings in my stomach.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“This doesn’t mean anything,” I blurt out, unable to help myself.
He chuckles lowly. “I’m very aware you still have a personal agenda against me, little owl. I expect nothing less of you.”
I can’t help but smile. Dammit.
“I should get some rest,” I say, trying to change the subject and wanting him to leave. This was all too much for me right now.
He nods, walking back toward the door. “I—” he pauses, unsure of what to say, “I hope you feel better,” he finishes.
“Thanks,” I mutter. He nods again and, finally, opens the door and leaves.
I turn and sit on my bed. My heart thumps anxiously as I stare down at the earring box.
This means nothing. I mean nothing to him, and he means nothing to me. I did the right thing today. He was a bad man, leading my brother down a bad road. I just needed to keep reminding myself of that.