Page 29 of The Relationship Clause

“You’re dang right you should have.” Shane is pacing. He’s been pacing off and on for ten minutes now. Gone is his happy-go-lucky demeanor. He’s in full-blown panic mode, a side of him I haven’t seen in a long time. “You should have told me the moment you caught even the smallest whiff of something going on. We’re partners, Owen.”

“I know, I know. But I haven’t been ignoring it either. We’ve got a handle on it. We’ll find out who’s leaking our ideas and hit them with a lawsuit. I’ve got our lawyers ready for when we find the mole.”

Shane stops, head whipping toward me. “Excuse me, ‘we?’ ‘We’ve got a handle on it?’ Who else knows?”

Oooh shoot. My eyes immediately go to my closed office door behind Shane where Junie’s desk is. Shane looks back and forth between the door and me, wheels turning until an obvious lightbulb goes off in his head.

“Junie? You told Junie about the mole before you told me?”

I am an idiot.

“Look, I didn’t tell her about it on a whim; it’s part of the reason I hired her. She’s helping me find out who the mole is. She has strict orders and permission to snoop around, ask questions, and report back to me weekly.”

Shane squeezes his eyes shut and sits down hard in the seat in front of me. For half a second, I worry he’s going to blow up all over again, but then he steeples his hands in front of himself and speaks, though it seems to take a great deal of effort to be calm.

“Fine. Okay then. It’s a little late to question you, so let’s suspend reality for half a second and pretend this is a good idea. Have you found out anything yet?”

“We’re narrowing down our suspect list. Whoever’s behind this has been pretty careful, so we haven’t been able to see any blatant sneaking around on video or anything like that, but we have ruled out more than half the people here.”

Shane nods, eyes focused on something far away. “That’s good, I guess. I could probably also beef up our computer security. I can install some code that will notify us if certain files are opened by anyone but you or me.”

“That’s brilliant, Shane,” I say, leaning back in my chair. Of course it’s brilliant. He’s the one with the computer know-how. I should have realized he’d have a solution like this.

“Yeah. If only you’d told me about this sooner,” he says through gritted teeth.

I hold my hands out. “I know, I know, and I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” Shame fills my chest, and I hang my head. “Honestly, part of the reason I didn’t tell you right away was because I wasn’t sure if maybe you…” I can’t even bring myself to finish the sentence, but I don’t have to. Shane seems to understand, and he shakes his head.

“Seriously, man?”

“I’m the worst.”

In all honesty, it was a worry I didn’t even admit to myself. It would have been the worst possible scenario and the ultimate betrayal. The more Junie and I looked into things, the more apparent it became that Shane wasn’t involved, but I was still relieved by his reaction to the article I showed him. That, more than anything, was as good as cold, hard proof.

He doesn’t answer for a beat. “I guess I can’t blame you. If I’d caught onto it first, I probably would have looked into you right away too. There’s a lot of money in this stuff, and I’ve heard of plenty of people who’ve been betrayed by someone they thought they trusted. Still, I don’t think I would have waited this long.”

“I know. I never should have doubted you. I know how protective you are of your tech.”

An alarm goes off on my phone, notifying me that it’s almost eight o’clock and time to wrap things up so we can get started with the rest of the work day. We give each other a brief hug. It’s less of a hug and more one of a pound-each-other-on-the-back exchange. Things don’t feel completely settled between us, but it’s better than what it was, and I look forward to smoothing everything out over time.

“Can I treat you to dinner again sometime?” I say as we separate.

Shane smirks. “You know, you can’t always expect to buy my forgiveness back with expensive food.”

“Yeah, yeah. Text me with where you want to go and when.”

“Sure thing. Or maybe you could pay for a little dinner out for me and Junie.”

“What?” My blood immediately goes hot, and something that feels similar to panic rises in my chest, which is weird because I have zero feelings for Junie.

“Kidding,” Shane says as he exits my office, giving me a cheesy grin.

I turn the opacity of my windows off to watch him walk away. I half expect him to stop and flirt with Junie, but she’s already in the company of a few other guys, so he tips his head to her as he passes. She smiles and waves, then turns her attention back to the other men in front of her.

“Careful, Owen, or your face will freeze like that.”

I jump at the sound of my sister’s voice. She’s standing right in front of my desk, but I have no idea how long she’s been there or how long I’ve been staring at Junie. “Huh? What?”

“Your face.” She points. “The one that makes it look like you’ve been force-fed a rotten apple. It’s going to freeze like that sooner or later.”

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