Page 94 of Unbossly Manners

He smiled sadly. “I’m not sure I believe you.”

I whimpered and in that little room, I admitted something I hadn’t even admitted to myself yet.

“I’m not sure I believe me either,” I murmured.

My eyes were downcast and he lifted my face with his finger on my chin.

“Are you mad?” I asked, my face red and puffy.

Sympathy covered his features. “Of course not. I suspected you liked him. Even when we went out.”

I shook my head. “I really liked you. But this kind of blindsided me.”

His thumb brushed my cheek, and I leaned into it, welcoming the affection after the slashing my emotions had taken over the past few weeks.

Someone knocked on the doorjamb.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

My spine tightened and I swiped my wet eyes.

“Analise wants the three of us in the Thinktank.” Jackson’s eyes swept between us. There was a nasty bruise running from his right eyelid to his forehead. A bandage covered his brow, and his wrist had an Ace wrap around it.

I stood, and Derrick stepped back from me. My heart hammered in my chest and I willed my nerves to chill out.

“Hi, Peyton,” Jackson said. His light eyes scanned my face, searching for… something.

“You’re back.” My fingers itched to touch him, to reassure myself he was alive; to feel the heat of his skin, hear his blood rushing through his body, his heart beating behind his lungs.

“I am.” He stepped out of the office. “The meeting starts in five.”

Analise had my excel file projected on the white wall at the end of the conference table when Derrick and I walked in. Jackson sat at the long side of the table between Analise and Isaac. Derrick and I took the seats across from them.

She ran through our theory and pointed out the events we could remember. Isaac and Derrick jumped in with things they recalled, and after twenty minutes we had a solid list.

Brody was the only one not affected as I had noticed earlier, and seeing it on the big screen suddenly made it glaringly obvious that something was wrong with that. Yeah, he was an intern, but there was no reason he would’ve escaped all this unscathed.

I voiced my thought to the group.

“He hardly had any responsibility in the company until recently.” Isaac shifted in his seat. “Whoever’s doing this probably knew he was expendable and not much damage would be done if they messed with his emails. I mean, it’s not like he had big meetings to be canceled, trips to be messed with, important clients he was dealing with. He gets coffee, returns phone calls… grunt work.”

Isaac was defending him too much. Was he afraid he’d be blamed for not seeing it? Brody could’ve targeted Isaac so he could gain his trust and access his accounts. There was just one last thing I wanted to check. I searched my emails and found what I was looking for.

I cut and pasted a quick image together, then projected it on the wall.

“What’s that?” Derrick asked.

“The date on the left is when we suspect the sabotage began.”

Isaac leaned forward his hands tightening into fists in his lap.

“And the second date?” Jackson asked. It was three days before the issues began.

“Brody’s start date.”

thirty-five

All hell broke loose after that.

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