Chapter 11
Eleven
James
He wanted to shove the words back down his throat. Fuck, had he really said that to her? It was literally her job to worry, but he cared more about looking heroic. He wanted to smash his head against the wall.
She blinked and stepped back. “Excuse me?”
He winced, wishing more than anything he could take back the expression on her face.
“I know one client besides Fukada has found its way back to Lotus, and I know you don’t think that’s enough,” she continued. “You hired us for a reason, so why aren’t you letting us do our job? Why aren’t you letting me?”
“Sophie, please. I hadn’t counted on any of this happening.”
“But it did! So explain to me right now how that changes anything.”
He jammed his hands in his pockets and looked at the ceiling. Fuck, he hadn’t expected to explain himself to her. He had never had to explain himself to anyone, now that he thought about it, not since he was young, at least.
“You don’t … no, you do, probably better than anyone. You know how important this is to me,” he started, lowering his gaze back to her.
She tipped her chin in ascent.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got the guy who tried to take my company down,” he continued. “I can’t wait around for the way things are done to catch up to him.”
He left it at that and silently begged her to see his reasoning.
His mother’s words from years ago echoed back.
‘Remember, boys. Our last name holds meaning, but it doesn’t define everything. There are more options in your future than just staying with the family.’
He was the only one who took her words to heart, with Adam choosing promised security.
But now, he was in danger of losing it all.
So really, if Sophie were in his position, she would be doing the same thing, too, wouldn’t she?
Neither of them said anything, and she continued to fix him with that same frozen stare.
He was being splintered apart by it, sliver by sliver, but dammit, he couldn’t tear himself away.
“Fine,” she said. “Just … don’t do anything drastic.”
It was like someone punctured a hole in his lungs to let all the pent-up air escape. He couldn’t promise that, but he nodded along anyway. “Of course.”
A wry smile tainted her lips, and she extended a hand to him.
He stared at her upturned palm before taking it. But his heart still beat rapidly.
The truth was, the call set him on edge more than he’d like to admit. Now, he doubted if Torrence really was their man at all.
But … James needed someone to blame, at least until they found the actual perpetrator. With the correct wording, he could easily blow things out of proportion.
Growing up, he wasn’t blind to the privilege his last name brought. And like any sixteen-year-old, he had plenty of things that’d pissed him off.
But unlike most teenagers, he had access to the money needed to solve them.
He learned that long ago with his dad, who harbored a plethora of things that could take him down. And like any good businessman, he had shoved it out of sight with money and power.
But if you knew where to look, that same money and power could unearth it again.
Angry and fed up, James had compiled a bundle of incriminating evidence against his dad and had been that close to releasing it. But then … Philip had come.
He was the only friend he had who remembered a time when James’s mom had been around. That being said, he was one of the only ones who had been able to talk James off the ledge, so to speak.
Maybe it was because Philip had just been kicked out and disinherited that made James scrap whatever he had on his dad. But he hadn’t delved into that territory again until he started Lotus and found that he needed to in order to survive.
Now, the issue with Torrence was no different than any of the other hurdles that James had to overcome.
Torrence had hurt him and, involuntarily, hurt people he cared about.
For that, the bastard deserved a lesson.
“James Tian.”
“Hey, James. It’s Raymond Laveau.”
James pressed his cell to his ear with his shoulder and typed away on his monitor. “Oh, hey. Find anything?”
“Uh … nothing helpful,” Raymond started. “I dug a little deeper and found a string of emails on Torrence’s computer. It’s funny, he thought, if he deleted them, they were gone forever. You think he’d know better, working at a secur—”
“Raymond.” James played with a pen, rolling it between his thumb and index.
“Right, sorry.” Raymond cleared his throat.
“Long story short, someone planted Torrence as a red herring. The emails came from a random account asking Torrence to spread crap about Cross and Delacroix, which, after they laid him off, he was more than happy to do. The account’s been discarded since, obviously, but I’m working on tracing the IP address. It’s still taking me a minute, though.”
James sighed and rubbed his temples. “Alright, so if I’m getting this right, what I’m hearing is that Torrence might not have been directly responsible, but he’s still guilty by association, right?”
“Yup.” Raymond popped the ‘p’.
James clamped his phone between his ear and shoulder again and hummed.
Aside from the scrape with Cross and a brief stint in jail for a minor crime when Torrence was in his twenties, he was clean. But now … now they had this.
James could play with this.
“Perfect, thank you so much, Raymond,” James said.
“Of course, I’ll let you know when I know more.”
The beep signaling the end of the call slid into James’s ear, along with someone clearing their throat. A chill worked down his spine as he glanced up.
Jackie darkened the entrance to his office, shock coating her features.
“Tell me you didn’t,” she said.
He broke out in a cold sweat. “I’m sorry?”
Did she overhear? Or did she somehow find out about him and Sophie? If so, he was sure to get an earful about ethics.
Jackie didn’t seem to care that he was her boss, and it was within his power to fire her. She never had the entire time she worked for him.
His assistant narrowed her eyes and walked into the office, shutting the door. She took a seat in front of his desk. “You might be the big, scary CEO, but you’re still younger than I am. Which means I get to worry about you, including what you do under the table.”
He kept his hands above the desk, resting them on top of his keyboard, though his leg bounced nervously.
Did she actually know about him and Sophie? Had Jackie somehow found out about yesterday?
“I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said coolly.
He had done nothing wrong.
Besides, there was no telling if what Jackie was going to say was about Sophie, anyway.
“Did I just catch you on the phone with Raymond at Key Security?” Jackie asked. Her eyes widened, lashes fluttering as she blinked. “James, are you serious?”
James sighed. “Okay, I just—”
“No, absolutely not,” she interrupted. “Honey, you went to Covey”—she shook her head—“you don’t get to blackmail the guy.”
“But—”
“No.”
He swallowed whatever fight he had left and gave in. Resting his head back against his chair, he closed his eyes. “Fine. Sorry.”
She clicked her tongue, and chair legs scraped. When he opened his eyes again, she was gone.
He hung his head. Well, so much for that lead.
The clacking of Jackie typing greeted him as he opened his office door. It was nearing ten p.m., and he had sent everyone else home earlier, including the other C-Suite members.
“Jackie, seriously, go home,” he said.
She shook her chestnut locks away from her face and looked up from her computer. “I’m your assistant; I can leave when you leave. Besides, it’s not like I’m dying to get home.”
He smiled wryly. “I just have some emails to send. I’ll be fine.”
She studied him for a moment, fingers laced. “Okay. They’re not illegal emails, are they?”
He snorted, though his gut twisted. He knew she was joking about it, but it still put the fear of God into him.
Her hazel eyes twinkled. “Also, as long as I have you, do I want to know why that woman from Covey was in your office for so long today during lunch?”
“She came over to discuss some things on Marilyn’s behalf,” he blurted, faster than intended.
If Jackie hadn’t suspected, she sure as hell did now.
His assistant hummed. “Of course. That explains why your door was locked.”
“How do you know it was locked?”
“I tried to drop some papers off and couldn’t turn the handle. I asked you if you were okay, remember?”
His jaw clenched. “Oh, right.”
But honestly, he couldn't remember much. Sophie had his dick in her mouth, and everything else had been a bit … foggy.
He laughed to throw Jackie off, but fear coursed through him again. There was no telling what she heard. “Night, Jackie.”
Closing his office door behind him, he sank into his desk chair, groaning.
Aside from the Fukada deal, which he still had to follow up on, there were also a slew of other cases that needed his attention. Plus, he had been in and out of meetings all day. He was exhausted.
Clicking open his email, he took a deep breath and flexed his fingers over his keyboard. Maybe he would respond to one email and then go home.
When he sent it off, his phone buzzed, and he glanced at the message on the screen. His insides went cold as his eyes picked up on his dad’s name.
We need to talk.
His dad never just wanted to talk. If he spoke to his son, he yelled. If he wasn’t yelling, it was a barb wrapped in a thin layer of kindness.
Still, something in James made him swipe on the message and respond.
When?
He hoped his dad didn’t want James to call him. James didn’t think he had the mental energy for that.
Did you forget about dinner on Saturday? Bring that girl you’ve been seeing with you.
James went completely rigid.
How had his dad found out about Sophie? And if he knew, who else did?
He forced his fingers to move across the screen.
There’s no girl
That’s not what your brother said. Bring her. End of discussion.
He gritted his teeth as he put his phone down.
Of course, Adam had told their dad. But how…
Oh, fuck. Lina.