Page 21 of All Jacked Up

“Than, I don’t have time for your shit today.”

“Testy, testy,” he drawled and dropped the envelope on the desk.

I fought the urge to snatch it up. He’d be more curious if I did.

“You haven’t told me how our sis is doing since getting back from DC,” he said, plopping down in one of the chairs across from my desk.

This was on purpose. He was testing me to see just how important the contents of the envelope were.

“She’s Opal. Living her life of politics among the privileged. What do you want to know? Go see her yourself.”

He sighed and stretched out his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. “I want her to meet Montana,” he said. “Thinking of taking her to DC for a visit.”

“You do that,” I said. “But right now, why don’t you go do something? Try working.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ve been working. All damn day. It’s after three.”

I hadn’t looked at the time in a while. “Then leave, but I have to finish this, and I can’t with you yapping.”

When he straightened, I wanted to sigh in relief but held it in until he stood back up.

“I’m out then. See you at the house. We’re coming to dinner tonight.”Wemeant him and Montana.

He’d moved out of the house with the rest of us and into a house he had moved onto Carver property so that she’d live with him. I was so fucking confused by that shit, but whatever. He had always been the soft one.

I nodded and stared at the spreadsheet like I knew what thefuck this all meant.

The moment the door closed, I lifted my gaze and stared at it as I listened to his footsteps fade away. Getting up, I walked over and locked it, then watched the window for him to pass by on his way to his truck. As soon as he was inside it and pulling out, I went to the envelope and broke the seal to slide out the papers inside.

Although I hadn’t asked Noa about the bastard who had upset her this weekend again, I hadn’t let it go. It infuriated me that some piece of shit had upset her. She’d had enough crap in high school—until I got to know her and shut it all down. Noa might not have a lot going for her in the looks department, but she was kind. She was fucking funny too. And she was smart. I enjoyed our conversations.

Thinking about her sitting in a small office all day with manuscripts that weren’t hers, editing them all the time, was depressing. I knew she didn’t have a social life. She’d probably not changed much since high school. Only gotten more reclusive. When she hadn’t answered my text, I’d been ready to hunt her down and make sure she wasn’t dead in her apartment.

She must have been upset to not text me back and to ignore that many of my texts. Whatever had been said to her was bad and hurt her enough that she closed herself off. That shit wasn’t going to happen. I mean, there was someone for everyone. If she’d get out there and maybe fix herself up a little, she’d find a guy or girl—hell, I wasn’t sure what gender she was into. I hated thinking of her alone. She deserved companionship. Someone would be lucky to have her in their life.

Sitting down back at my desk, I put the papers in front of me. Smiling at the face I remembered. It was her senior picture in the yearbook, along with her former address, her mom’s name, no father listed. She never talked about her parents. I was curious now.

It went on to list her full-ride scholarship, which I had known about. I turned the page to scan through most of the things I already knew until I got to something that wasn’t correct. Her place of employment. It said she’d graduated from college and moved to New York City to work as a junior editor for Wilson Roe Publishing. That wasn’t a small publisher. That was a fucking big one. The same one that was going to publish Opal’s book.

Had Ted made a mistake? He never made fucking mistakes.

Then I stilled as I continued to read. The name of the senior editor she worked for was one I didn’t want to see again, especially on this paper. It was the same motherfucker. Arden Neilson was her boss. Why had she lied to me about her job? She’d made it sound like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. This was a huge deal. Her office wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall somewhere. She was on fucking Fifth Avenue.

When I turned the page, ready to text her ass and demand why she’d lied to me about her career, a photo of Juliette Romeo stared up at me. Was this her fucking client? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I had planned on making a reason to see her again, but if Noa worked with her, which would make sense, then that fucked things up. Made it weird. Arden was Juliette’s editor, so Noa would also work with her. Or at least know her.

I picked up the picture and stared down at the author headshot I’d already seen online when I googled her, forgetting for a moment that I was trying to find out who had hurt Noa. Remembering that Juliette wasn’t my concern right now, I set the picture to the side, and I realized there was another photo of her. But not a posed one. This was taken of her stepping out of the front door of the publishing house. She was wearing a white sundress that hit at her knees, floating around her upper thighs as the breeze blew it.

Fuck, those tits in this dress were better than at dinner theother night.

But why had Ted given me another picture of her? Where was Noa? This was supposed to be about Noa. I kept getting distracted by images of Juliette.

When I moved that photo aside, there was yet another one of Juliette, but this time, she was laughing with her head thrown back, exposing her smooth, delicate throat as she leaned on some man. I tore my eyes off her to see who it was she was cuddled up against, and the picture began to tremble as my grip tightened on it. Arden Neilson. His arm was around her as if she belonged to him. They hadn’t appeared that way at dinner the other night. Was this why? They’d dated, and it was over. Now he was being a complete dick to her.

Slapping the picture down hard, I glared at the papers. Why was there no photo of Noa?

My eyes scanned the new page until it got to the words that sucked the wind right out of my lungs, to the point that they began to burn.

Pen Name: Juliette Romeo

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