AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know. But don’t leave me, okay?”
“Not a chance.”
* * *
Caroline pacedaround Jason’s office while he checked out her computer. Her poor thumbnail was going to be chewed down to the quick. “Is it bad?”
“It’s not legal,” he responded. “There’s a program exporting your data.” Jason closed the laptop and called his assistant, Harper, who was in the next office. “Get someone to take this down to Nolan in the security lab. Tell him to check everything running in the background. There’s an exploit program on here.”
“That motherfucker.” Josh was practically snarling.
“Really? Little Rossi has a stalker?” Harper asked.
“Looks like it.” Jason’s brow furrowed. “Have him look everything over and do a full back up.”
“Got it.” Harper left the room without even acknowledging Caroline. Personally, she didn’t love Harper Poole. She was gorgeous and smart, but Harper was also cold and calculating. But Jason’s business couldn’t run without her. Caroline knew there was a human being in there because Harper had jumped in and helped when Jason and Meg’s custody situation with Molly got ugly.
Caroline plopped into one of the two large leather chairs near Jason’s desk and Josh crouched down in front of her while Jason sat in the other chair. “You want to tell me what’s happening?” her brother-in-law asked.
“This is all crazy. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to me, Jason. I’m not the type of girl who inspires mad passion and gets stalked.”
“Caroline? Come on. What’s happening?”
She launched into the story, telling him everything about work, Mark, the things he’d done, everything.
“Damn, the guy has a couple of screws loose.”
“You could say that.” Caroline spoke in a suffocated whisper. She’d never been so scared.
“And you’re in trouble... why?”
God, there was so much. Her crazy behavior, Mark, her desire to write, the guy thing... she really had to pick just one. “I don’t know why this is all happening, Jason, but he knows things about me that he shouldn’t. It scared the crap out of me. He was asking about my writing, if I used a pen name. If it was hot. The whole thing skived me out.”
“I want to kill him.” Josh was still squatting in front of Caroline, holding her hands.
Jason grinned. “I got that, but I have a better idea.”
“I just want to get away from here.” Caroline seriously felt likes she was losing her grip.
“I bet.” Jason paused. “It’s going to take a while, but we’ll figure out. It’s a good thing he tripped himself up. Otherwise, who knows how long he would have grabbed your information.”
“Thank God I don’t have to go back to that place for long.”
Josh rose and perched on the arm of Caroline’s chair. “She just landed a great job with a new firm. She’s starting next month. But I don’t think you should go back at all,” he said to Caroline.
“That’s not a bad idea. I hate quitting like this, but... I wish I had more nerve.”
Jason smiled and reached out, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Caroline, you never cease to amaze me. The engineering has always boggled my mind, but the writing—that’s pretty cool. And as for having nerve, you have it in spades. Don’t let an ass like your boss define you.”
“It’s hard. People don’t take me seriously. Meg called writing my ‘little hobby.’ My mother told me to focus on my career. You were there.” She drew a deep breath and continued. “Plus, I write romance. It used to be everyone thought it was just trashy writing, but now people equate what I do with porn.”
“So, you’ve kept it all under wraps at work?”
“No one knew at work. Mark made it sound so dirty and now he’ll use it to cause problems for me.” Caroline trailed off, thinking about how she’d hidden what she loved from everyone, but mostly from the people who were most important to her. Except Josh. She turned her face toward her guy. “I hate it.”
“I know, baby. I know.”
Jason leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms over his head. “So, when were you going to tell us you guys were an item?”
