Page 79 of Violent Hearts

"Rough night," I say. "But nothing you have to worry about. It's all under control."

I get up from the couch and move over to my office chair, taking a seat at my desk.

"You turned your phone off," Silas says in an accusing tone, walking around the desk and building himself up in front of me. "You can't fucking do that, Jared."

"Calm your shits, it was just for a few hours."

"What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing," I assure him, leaning back in my chair and trying to be as nonchalant about the whole matter as I possibly can. "All you need to know is that the girl is gone. I don't need her. On the contrary, I've decided that she poses an unnecessary risk. My campaign is better off without her."

Silas rolls his eyes.

"And no, before you ask," I hurry to say, "I won't be looking for a new one. I'm sure we can do this without a fake girl at my side, don't you think?"

Our eyes meet across the desk, and I try to make sense of his expression while he processes my words.

"What happened?" he wants to know.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Jared, of course this concerns me," he insists. "But you don't have to tell me. Would you allow me to guess?"

I look at him, knitting my eyebrows. "Whatever you may think, you're-"

"She was approached by the press, wasn't she?" he interrupts, causing me to shut up and be all ears within a split second.

"She was approached by someone who offered her a lot of money to sell him some dark secrets about you, wasn't she? She had a very lucrative offer to sell you out, and you think she was ready to do it?"

I continue to fixate on him with a frown. "She told you?"

Silas shakes his head. "No, Jared, she didn't tell me. She didn't have to tell me because I already knew about it before it even happened."

"What?"

I can practically feel myself going pale as he speaks.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Silas?"

He looks at me, biting his lip and turning around to close the door before he deigns me with an explanation.

"You know, I've had my doubts about her, as have you, with her being a reporter and all," he starts. "I didn't trust her, and I didn't like the way you were with her. She grew to be a little too special to you, Jared, and that could pose an actual problem, if she can't be trusted."

I glare at him, twirling my hand to beckon him to go on when he adds an unnecessary pause for emphasis.

"So I wanted to make sure that she could be trusted and that she was sticking to the contract, even if someone presented her with a pretty lucrative opportunity, offering more than you were willing to offer her, a temptation that would be impossible to refuse if she was the person I thought she was," he continues.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I staged it," he says. "I hired a guy to make her believe there was money to be made, a financial gain bigger than what you've promised her, if she was ready to betray you. We did some research on her. I even sent the guy by her old office. It was a pure coincidence that she showed up that same day, getting into that argument with one of her colleagues. Our guy saw it, and we thought it was time to make our move. She seemed unstable and troubled."

My blood is boiling. She never told me about this. I know that she went back to her co-working office a while ago because she had to clear her desk. But she never mentioned that she ran into any trouble that day.

My heart is racing, beating in loud and aggravated beats against my rib cage. I doubt that a person could feel any more betrayed than I do right now.

"You paid someone to trap her?" I ask.

Silas sighs. I growl with anger, jumping up from my seat ready to storm the fuck out - or to burn this entire place down.

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