Page 32 of The Mood Board

“What are you doing in here?” I asked again, coming into the room.

Something wasn’t right. I knew it.

“Liam put me in charge in the interim,” she replied as if that were an everyday occurrence. “He asked me to get something here. Didn’t I tell you?”

“You talked to Liam?” I asked, taking another step closer. “No one could talk to Liam—they wouldn’t even let me talk to Liam.”

Something was wrong here, and I could have sworn I saw Janelle’s nostrils flare for a moment, but I couldn’t be sure. She did lift her chin, though, waving off my concern.

“Of course not. Tom told me this morning—I guess it was something they worked out.”

Something they worked out? Janelle had worked at the office for less than a month, and we certainly hadn’t known anything about Liam getting arrested. More than that, she was the company’s first chief information officer. And I highly doubted Tom and Liam and the rest of the executive team would have made an odd future-casting rule that, should something happen to Liam, the CIO was automatically in charge.

“You need to leave.” The words left my mouth before I had even thought about it.

Janelle’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“You need to leave. Whatever you’re doing here isn’t okay, and you need to leave.” I pointed at the door.

Her eyes narrowed further. “Liam is the CEO—”

“Liam might be your boss, but I’m his fiancé, and this is my house. Leave. Now!”

For a tense few moments, I thought maybe she wouldn’t, and I wondered what I would do. But then Janelle huffed and threw up her arms.

“Fine. Whatever—that’s a nice way to treat someone who was being nice to you.” She pointed an angry finger in my direction. “You know what? I know you’ve never liked me. You’re jealous.”

Had it been any other time, her comment would have had me backtracking, apologizing, telling her I didn’t know what had come over me. But my gut was telling me just how wrong this entire situation was, and even though her words had a ring of truth to them, it wasn’t enough for me to back down.

“And you’re trespassing in my house. Get out before I call the police.”

Janelle’s hands fisted at her sides, and she glared daggers at me, her green eyes full of dislike. Then she stormed past me and out of the room—I had to step aside before her shoulder knocked into mine.

“Jealous bitch.” The words reached me just before the sound of steps pounding down the stairway, and a moment later, the door opened and then slammed shut. I waited until I heard an engine coming to life and her car pulling away before I moved, my heart still pounding and my hands shaking.

What the hell had that been about? Whatever it was, one thing was clear—there was more to Janelle than met the eye.

Maybe my gut hadn’t been so wrong about her after all,I thought as I dumped the uneaten bagel and eggs into the trash.