Page 21 of Misunderstood Hacker

“Sure.”

A couple minutes later, my door swung open, and Joana was standing there with a fresh cup of coffee for me. She handed it over before sitting down in one of the brown leather chairs in front of my desk. Her long blond hair was up in a bun, and her blue suit fit tight against her curves.

“What’s going on?”

She was fiddling with an internal office envelope in her hand. “I was going through the interoffice mail for you. This was in there. I didn’t know if you’d want me to contact someone about it.”

A sick feeling was growing in my stomach. “Can I see it, please?”

Her hand was shaking as she reached across my desk to hand me the yellow interoffice envelope.

“I really think Brock should be here when you open it.” She let out a sigh before continuing. “Or maybe get Patty on the phone.”

I imagined whatever was in this envelope was linked to the events going on around me. Since learning today that Axmed and his crew were behind the car accident and the bomb, I was stressing about what was in the envelope.

I set it down on my desk and took a drink of my delicious coffee. Joana must have thought I decided not to open the envelope because she visibly relaxed when I didn’t open it immediately.

Setting my coffee down, I grabbed the envelope back off my desk to take a look. Joana’s worried face had my stomach doing flips. The envelope didn’t have any markings on it other than my name.

I pulled the flap of the envelope open and slid out a pack of pictures. The second I saw the top photo, I thought I might vomit again. I shoved them all back into the envelope and took deep breaths to get myself under control.

“Thank you for giving these to me. I’m sorry you had to see them, but please don’t tell anyone I have them. They are a part of my past I don’t like to talk about. If you need to go home for the day…” I could see she was about to protest. “Please, go. I don’t want to talk about it.”

I didn’t want anyone to see the contents of the envelope, especially Brock. I reached over to my top drawer, pulled it open, and grabbed my cell phone. One person had been there when I was kidnapped and had seen me at my worst. I would let him know what was going on and try to have the case taken away from Brock.

I swiped across my phone to unlock it and dialed Neal’s number. It only took a couple rings for him to answer, “Jessica, listen—”

“Shut up. I’m still pissed at you. I need you to come get me now.” The phone was shaking in my hands.

There was a long pause on the other end before he finally answered. “I believe Brock is on his way right now.”

“I don’t want to see Brock. I want you to come get me, and if needed, I will stay at your house.” Not wanting to argue with Neal any longer, I hung up the phone.

Time crawled by as I waited for Neal to show up. I was shutting my computer down when the door swooshed open. It was Neal, but he wasn’t alone. Brock was with him. I wasn’t ready to confront Brock in person. I had hoped to get to Neal’s house and lock myself away before Brock arrived. Saying what I needed to say in person was going to crush him and me both.

“Jessica, let me explain,” Brock said, coming toward me.

I needed to stand behind my decision no matter how hard it was. I held up my hand, motioning for Brock to stop. He did immediately, and he looked lost.

“Nothing you can say will change the fact that you withheld important information from me.” I was shaking on the inside. I needed this to be believable, but at the moment, all I wanted was for him to pull me into a hug and tell me everything was okay. But there was no way I was going to let him see those photos. He would never be able to look at me the same. He would only look at me with pity.

“Jessica, I was doing it to protect you,” he demanded, pounding his fist on my desk.

“No, you did it because you didn’t believe I could handle the truth. I was developing feelings for you, and you chose to hide important information from me, to treat me as if I were weak.” I was past developing feelings for him. Over the last few months, I had fallen in love with him. But I couldn’t say that now.

It was too hard to face him. I would break down and run into his arms if I stayed in my office much longer. I reached down, grabbed my purse, and headed for the door. I had to dodge to the side when he reached out to grab me. I hurried my steps as I walked by him because tears were running down my face.

I was leaving the man that meant the most to me because he didn’t need to see those photos.

I motioned toward the door and tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. “Neal, let’s go.”

When Neal went to speak, I shook my head, but Brock spoke instead. “This is not over, Jessica. Neal, take care of her. She means the world to me.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I hurried toward the elevator, not watching to see if anyone was following.

Neal was the only one that got on the elevator with me.

“What the fuck is going on, Jessica? I know Brock withholding information from you was not what led to that scene in your office.”

I was too upset to talk about anything. I shook my head, and Neal ran his hand through his hair.

“Once we get to my apartment, you will explain what’s going on.”

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