Page 88 of Bookworm and the Beast
Jack pinned me with a dark, accusatory stare. “Don’t play innocent with me. The flash drive you used tocopymy book.”
He pointed up. “From my laptop. In my office. Did you sneak out of bed in the middle of the night and go up there?”
The nausea increased, and my ears rang with the sudden roar of my heartbeat. This was a nightmare.
It was like the first day we’d met when Jack had acted so beastly, only much, much worse.
He was the Beast on steroids. I couldn’t believe he’d even ask me such a thing. Especially when he was supposed to love me.
“Of course not,” I said. “I got up early because I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t copy anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He narrowed his eyes and marched over to the desk, spinning my laptop to face him and opening a browser window. He tapped on a few keys then spun it back around so the screen faced me.
“You knowexactlywhat I’m talking about.”
Heart beating nearly out of my chest, I approached the desk, sat down, and focused on the screen.
It was a website purporting to offer “free” downloads of popular books—clearly a pirate site—therewereno legitimate, legal websites that did that. Either they were run by hackers who wanted to fill your computer with spyware and malware, or they’d stolen the material from authors who would never get paid for their work.
Featured prominently on the page was a passage, apparently written by Jack, apparently from his new book. I scrolled down. There appeared to be several chapters there.
Horrified, I looked back up at Jack. “Is this legitimate? It’s from the new book?”
His sneer was matched by his cynical tone. “Youknowit is becauseyougave it to them.”
I stood again, reaching for him. “Jack… no. I didn’t. It wasn’t me.”
“Oh, I guess it was a remote hacker then? How else would the first five chapters of my book from mypersonalcomputer make it onto the internet if you didn’t upload it?”
He stalked toward the fireplace. Grabbing his hair in both his fists, he let out a roar.
“I am anidiot! I can’t believe I fell for it—again. I was happy when it was just me and my writing, before you came along, before Claudia. IknewI was better off alone where no one could betray me.”
He turned around to glare at me. “I want you to get your things and get out. You’re fired.”
The words snapped me out of my shock-paralysis. And my heartbreak over Jack’s accusation morphed into something else—anger. I went to my purse and began re-loading it, stuffing in my belongings with vigorous motions.
“Fired?” I barked a harsh, bitter laugh. “I don’t work for you, but if I did, I’d quit.”
I had thought we were past this. I’d thought we trusted each other. I thought he’d opened his heart to me.
But he wasn’t even listening to me. He didn’t care about the truth. He saw what he wanted to see—an adversary, a risk too great to take.
Tears swam in my eyes and leaked down my cheeks, making it impossible to retrieve all my things.
All I wanted to do was leave, get as far away as possible as fast as possible from thisimpossibleman.
Grabbing my purse, I headed for the door. Jack followed.
“Why areyoucrying? I’m the one who’s been played for a fool,” he said.
“No, Jack,I’mthe fool.”
The rightness of the words sank in as I said them. I turned around to face him.
“Yes, I went into your office that day a few weeks ago—because I wanted to see the view my ‘favorite writer of all time’ took in while writing his amazing books. Looking back on it now, I think I was already half in love with you, and that’s why I did something so foolish. But now I see the stupidest thing I could have ever done was fall in love with you. You don’t want love. You want safety. You want the complete absence of risk. Well, guess what? Loveisa risk. For you, for me, for anyone. I thought it was worth it for you. I guess I was wrong.”
He was calmer now, his face betraying the first hints of uncertainty.
