Page 94 of Book Club Confidential

“It might make sense,” Jenny said. “But it isn’t right.”

Tessa shrugged, though Jenny couldn’t see her. “There isn’t really anything more I can do.”

“What if I tell them to contact you directly?”

Tessa considered her words and her quiet, slightly scandalous tone. “I’ve called everyone in my contacts list and let them know about my situation. They know I’m no longer with Hello, Marketing.”

“Yeah,” Jenny said. “That’s why they’re calling. They’re pissed.”

Tessa stilled. “What?”

“Millie says you never signed a noncompete agreement, and Cindy in human resources says there’s nothing legally stopping you from working with those accounts.”

Tessa’s heart rate increased, and her breaths grew short and shallow. “But—”

“It’s none of my business,” Jenny said. “I know, and like I said, I wasn’t sure if I should call or not, but it just makes me so mad. And I’m not the only one. I’m just the only one willing to call you about it. I’m graduating in the spring and going home to Minnesota, so getting fired won’t end my career. Assuming I get caught,” she added.

“You’re leaving after graduation?”

“A lot of us interns are,” Jenny said. “I don’t know what’s going on around here, but things have changed since we started, and not for the better. Personally, I blame Tim in IT for filtering the applications.”

Tessa kicked back on her couch, interest piqued. “IT filters the applications?”

“How else do you think we ended up with an intern staff that’s either drop-dead gorgeous or a friend of Peyton’s? Hell, how do you think Peyton got the job?”

“How did Peyton get the job?” Tessa asked.

“He was Tim’s roommate in college.”

“Tim from IT,” Tessa said.

Jenny’s responding silence suggested Tessa needed to keep up.

She mulled the information, noting briefly that Jenny considered herself drop-dead gorgeous, and nodding props for the young woman’s confidence. “Jenny?” Tessa asked, fresh questions forming in her mind. “Tim helped Peyton, his former roommate, get the job?”

“Yep.”

“By filtering the applications that came in?”

“Uh-huh.”

Tessa shook her head. Slimy. Absolutely awful. She knew he wasn’t qualified for his job. Which brought another question to mind. “Do you know what Peyton majored in?”

“Yeah, cybersecurity.”

Tessa’s mouth formed a small O. Tim in IT had gotten Peyton hired by filtering applications. She wasn’t sure about the details, but she remembered a time the agency was growing and they weren’t getting many applicants. Clearly the IT guy had a hand in that. Peyton was hired, and they continued to filter applications to hire people they wanted to hang out with all day every day. Peyton wasn’t even a marketing person. He was a cybersecurity guy.

That thought gave her further pause. If he’d pulled strings to get the people he wanted hired, himself included, what else might he have manipulated to get his way?

And how easy would it be for someone with some tech knowledge to access her ideas file when it was on the network.

“Oh my God,” Tessa said, another realization hitting her hard. She’d kept the Lilacs and Lace file on her laptop, but Nina used the company network like everyone else. Peyton saw her working with Nina in the small conference room. He didn’t need Tessa’s file. He had Nina’s. And he’d presented their work, just as Tessa said he had, during the meeting when she’d made the accusation. “That little snake.”

“Listen, I have to go,” Jenny said. “I can send over a list of everyone calling here to complain, if you want. I just thought you should know what’s happening. They want you back.”

Tessa sat taller. “I’d like that list, Jenny. Thank you.”

Chapter Twenty-Five