Chapter Twelve
NOVAK
“You’re late,” Donna Deloya says as I step into my office.
She’s sitting behind my desk, with both palms pressed against the dark wood. I am late; by an hour and a half, give or take.
“I had to attend to a personal matter.”
Tardiness isn’t a trait I display often, but after the weird shit that happened last night, I had to make sure Tess was safe. Instead of leaving her to her own devices, I decided to follow her to work. A personal escort to ensure her safety.
Not that I’d ever tell her about it. There isn’t really any way to explain haphazard stalking, even if it is to protect her.
“Which reminds me, I’ll be heading out at lunchtime, too. Might miss a few extra hours.”
Tess gets off work at noon today, and I want to ensure her safe passage home. The messages I read on her phone left me with the suspicion that whoever sent them had an eye on our house.
“Late and leaving early? One might think you’re slacking.”
I laugh at her attempt to show off some power. “I started working at this company while you were sucking on jelly shots in a college dorm room and I’ve never taken a day’s leave. If being late is a problem, I don’t mind taking the day off. Hell, maybe the whole week. I’ve earned it.”
Donna’s jaw nearly smashes through the table at my remark. I’ve never been a pushover, but I’ve never snapped back out of annoyance before either. Today isn’t the best day for this bullshit, though. I don’t want to play office politics when I’m worried about Tess.
Besides, I know what Donna’s trying to do.
She’s hurt because I rejected her, and she’s doing whatever she can to regain an inkling of power in our dynamic.
I won’t be bullied by a spoiled brat that has seniority over me, only because her father is a part-owner of this company.
I work too hard and do too much for those old bastards to get rid of me because I denied this bitch a night out.
“What are you doing here, Donna?”
“Miss Deloya,” she says in a cold parody of her former flirting. She tugs on the end of her sleeves.
“What do you want, Miss Deloya?” I speak with the same intensity I use while ordering Tess around, but allow a smidgeon of sarcasm to leak into the way I say her name.
“I…”
My tone has caught her off guard and she’s stammering to find words.
“I’m here about the Truman case?”
“Again? Is that a question or a statement?” I walk around my desk. A job is a job, but I’m sick of this bullshit as it stands. If this is what gets me fired, so be it, but I’m not going to be pushed around because of my decisions.
In a different life, Donna would’ve made an exquisite lover. She’s stunning from head to toe. Her bright eyes and perfect smile light up any room she walks into. She carries herself with confidence and knows exactly who she is.
But I don’t want that.
I don’t need someone polished or well-adjusted.
I’m not searching for a soulmate to walk hand in hand with me through life.
As the night wore on and I turned the thought over in my mind, I realized my decision had nothing to do with Donna Deloya herself.
I don’t dislike her. She doesn’t irritate me.
I just don’t want another puppet.
The reason I declined her advances is that I don’t need her.
I have the only woman I need. Tess Murrow.
She understands me on a deeper level. She’s seen my good side and peered into the darkest parts of me, but still, she stays with me.
She’s claimed her stake in my mind, my body, and my heart, and I won’t share it with anyone else.
It’s a strange conclusion to come to. Tess and I have spent the last three years avoiding one another, unless we were rolling between the sheets.
No part of me has ever seen her as the person I wanted to spend my life with.
But the fear I saw in her eyes last night, and my burning desire to hurt the ones who scared her, brought me to this conclusion.
Would I throw myself into the fire if she was just another piece of meat I used for my pleasure?
Had it been Donna in the same position, would I have given a shit about her newfound stalker’s obsession?
No. I’d have left her to the wolves. Why do anything without getting something in return?
“A statement,” Donna finally says after some deliberation.
“We went over the ins and outs of the Truman case, yesterday. I explained why I won’t be taking it.”
“Yes, but…” she trails off.
“What are you really doing here?”
“I’m not used to people saying no to me,” she admits.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Donna’s head droops and she stares at the ground.
It’s not my intention to be unnecessarily cruel.
What happens behind closed doors with Tess doesn’t come out into the real world.
But I have to drive the point across with Donna.
I can see these problematic encounters increasing if I don’t shut things down.
“Do yourself a favor, and start considering this relationship strictly professional. I have no interest in you and my patience is wearing thin. You should go now, with your head held high and your dignity intact.”
To my surprise, she listens. She lifts her handbag from under the table, slings it over a shoulder and heads for the door. In a sudden flash, I see the sadness in her eyes. The grim realization that I’m serious and I want no part of the game she’s trying to play.
“You said you’ll be out at noon,” she says, as she gets to the door.
A last-ditch effort at conversation? Or is she trying to find something to nail me with?
“For a few hours, yes.”
“I’ll see to it that the office knows, so no one comes knocking while you’re out.”
Unexpected and unnecessary. I’ve told my secretary already, and she’d have sent the message along to the two people I have meetings with. But I don’t stop Donna. She wants a small win, and if it’s telling people I’m not around, all power to her.
“Thank you.”
She steps out of my office and disappears down the hallway.