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“You think I should shack up with the woman who leaked our info to the press?”
Axel sighed, betraying the fact that he was torn, just like me. Neither of us truly believed Jessa had leaked anything. But she was the only one who made sense. And if not her,then who?
“Damian, you’re better off,” Francis added consolingly. “Harper is a catch, and I’m sure she’d love to start coming back to the office.”
I schooled my annoyance. “I don’t need the love life input, thank you, Francis.”
“You never liked Jessa, did you, Francis?” Axel asked, jerking his chin in Francis’s direction.
“Not one bit,” Francis said, which made my heart wrench. “Those dresses weretoo much.And she always needed everything repeated. It took her a million years to catch on.”
I fought the rebuke that so desperately wanted to erupt from me. I didn’t want Francis—oranyone—talking about Jessa like that. Furthermore, that didn’t sound a bit like Jessa. She’d always been so snappy, so smart. Sure, she’d needed time to adjust to life in New York. But all transplants did, and she’d done it quickly.
“Can we just not talk about Jessa, please?” I snapped, my fingers clenching into a fist beneath the table. I couldn’t hold it in. The next negative word directed at Jessa would result in a punch to somebody’s face.
Axel looked over at me, mildly amused.
Trace lifted a brow. “You’re a lot snippier now that Jessa is gone.”
“Okay, are we done here? I have work to do.” I pushed to standing, more than ready to get the fuck out of here. I needed space to process. And more than that, I needed Jessa.
She was all I could see, all I could think about. I knew she’d have something comforting to say, something to yank me back into perspective. But I’d fucking fired her.
Every cell of my body knew it had been wrong. The more time that passed, the more confident I became. Evenwithoutthe data, which disturbed me. But I knew there was something waiting for me out there. Some clue, some piece of information.
I just needed to find it.
“I think we had some more to cover—” Francis began.
“You can finish without me,” I told them. “I need to think.” I lifted my fingers in lieu of goodbye and left the conference room.
Once the door to my office clicked shut behind me, I let out a deep, raggedy breath.
Everything continued to dissolve, despite my ejecting Jessa from my life.
What if you had kept her around?
I needed to clear my head, and the best route to even attempt such a feat was through work. I sat at my computer, pulling up the call logs Jessa had collected for me on Monday. I also started some computer scans—aka light hacking—in the background that searched for keywords likeJessa Walton, Big Apple, Ian, Gary,and more.
A phone call interrupted my search—Jeremy.
I sighed, unsure if I should answer it. It could have been the most awkward call of my life. But I had just fired his sister, and he was probably curious for my side of things. I owed him that much at least.
“Jeremy,” I said, trying to sound jovial when I was anything but.
He let out a long sigh. “Damian. I heard what happened.”
“Yeah…I wondered if you’d…you know. Talked to Jessa.”
“I am so, so disappointed,” Jeremy said. “She said that some leaked information was attributed to her or her new roommate but that she wasn’t sure how it had gotten out. I don’t know, it kind of confused me. But it sounds like she dropped the ball.”
“It’s a tough situation for everyone,” I said, eager to move past this conversation.
“I knew she couldn’t hack it out there,” Jeremy said mournfully. “We all warned her.”
Sadness tremored through me. None of Jessa’s family had ever believed in her.Fuck.I rested my forehead in my hand as I spoke.
“Let me be clear, Jeremy. She did a good job for me. She really did. But these were extenuating circumstances…I was left with no other choice. It’s nothing personal. I still think she’s a good person with tons of smarts, and no hard feelings, buddy.”
