Page 93 of Off Her Game
“That makes sense.”
“Then what happened afterward with Jake?” Emma asked.
“He pretty much chewed me out for harassing Noah. Said I was itching to have a come to Jesus momentwith him. I haven’t even tried to talk to Noah since he showed up at my place that morning you were there. Look at me. I’m a catastrophe. This is not me.”
“It’s been a lot of stress for the past few weeks. Someone just told me Josh was being a bit of an ass to you for some reason. Your team is really protective of you, you know. It’s fascinating. I think their loyalty is not only driving Jake crazy, but also he’s jealous of you.”
“Really? Jake is jealous?”
“Yep. The team is supposed to give him details when he asks, but they all hedge and tell him to ask you. Then you give him nothing, which means he has no idea what’s going on with one of the biggest projects set to launch this year. He asked me to try to get info from the team, which means you. I didn’t want to get in the middle of his problem. So, perhaps his attitude toward you has more to do with frustration. And…” She scrunched up her face. “He’s pissed at you for taking the code. They came to a conclusion this morning on what to do, but I wasn’t allowed in on that meeting. No one seemed happy.”
“The code. Yes, that is a problem.” How she wanted to blurt the whole story, but she’d promised Sam. He needed time to figure out if there was someone who’d been working for Symphis in the company.
“I tried to help. To explain to them why you did it. That you got him. I think they understood that. From their perspective, though, it puts their whole company at risk if you did it once.” Emma sat next to her and nibbled on one of her French manicured nails. “I saw Mr. Harrison, er Noah, yesterday. He looks like baked-over roadkill. I’ve never seen him look so bad.”
“Did he say anything about me?”
Emma laughed. “Want me to slip him a note in homeroom for you?”
“That came out wrong. I don’t really want to know. No, that’s bullshit. I do want to know.” She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyeballs.
“You’re ruining your makeup more. You’ve got it bad for him, don’t you?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You’ve practically got stars in your eyes when you say his name.”
She blew her nose again, indelicate and loud. “Should I quit? I’m crying on your sofa during work hours over a man I’m not sure I even had a real relationship with. A man who’s our boss. Putting aside the FBI and being used to take down illegal gaming, which almost got me killed, everything with Noah felt real.”
“You’re not going to quit your job, and you’re not going to quit Noah, either.”
“I don’t want to be like this.”
Emma waved her hand dismissively. “You’re Tori. Tough-ass, hardcore bitch who doesn’t bawl about guys on her sister’s sofa. Get it together over there. First, send in Leo. Find out if it’s just you Josh is keeping away from Noah. Maybe Josh is also worried Noah isn’t running on all cylinders right now. If he’s blocking everyone, then barge your way into Noah’s office. He can’t deny you face-to-face. I have a feeling he wouldn’t deny you very much if you asked him nicely. Wearing skimpy clothes might help.”
She frowned. “I resent the skimpy clothes statement.”
Emma laughed. “That’s the Tori we need.”
“I saw him with another woman.”
“Who? What other woman?” Emma made a no-way face.
“The woman was all over him.”
“Noah has women all over him all the time. Sometimes he has trouble getting them off him because he’s so worried about hurting their feelings. The poor man has no clue how to deal with them. The first time he reciprocated feelings back, that I’m aware of since I started as his assistant, was with you. Based on the pitiful few details you provided I think he’s very into you. Jake might be behaving oddly in order to damage control this situation and get the old Noah back, the one who only liked to work and not chase after a girl. Jake doesn’t handle drastic change well. You and Noah would equal catastrophic change in his mind.”
That made sense. “I owe you.”
“I know you do. Now, let’s fix your makeup and find out if Noah is as into you and I think he is.”
As she left Emma’s office her phone dinged with a voice mail message. She cursed the building’s unpredictable reception. The message was from Quan.
Quan sounded rushed. “Tori. I’m not sure when I can call you again. I’m in Baltimore right now. Probably not back until tomorrow. Martin’s dead. He was killed somehow. Looks like poison. No one’s even sure how it’s possible since he was in a high security FBI detention center. He said something last night during questioning that… Shit, I don’t think it’s over. When someone asked about why he’d phoned you when Symphis never did personal calls before he’d been surprised. Martin said: ‘He likes her. A girl’s good for the Stadium.’ Crap, Tori. I don’t think Martin was Symphis.”
