Page 78 of Under the Mistletoe
“Hmmmmm… are your services available for other… businessmen?” His finger comes to my jaw, trailing down my skin, and I want to vomit.
“Don’t touch me,” I bite out as I slap his hand away.
“Whatever you think you saw today… you didn’t.”
“I know what I saw. I know who that man is,” I tell him, wondering if I could be any more stupid. I should’ve denied it. But I want to know the truth, and by the look he’s giving me, I’m right. He’s in business with Teflon Teo. I suspect that’s where the money for his expansion is coming from.
“Let me be really fucking clear…” He steps even closer to me, his face right in front of mine, trying to intimidate me, and it’s working. “You saw nothing… because if you did, Donovan wouldn’t be the only man indulging in your… services. Do I make myself clear?”
“Is that a threat?” I stand taller. I should be running. I’m a desk girl. I work with spreadsheets. What the hell am I doing here, going toe to toe with a guy who’s threatening me with harm? But it’s Donovan’s business that’s going to suffer due to him and his illegally funded expansion. Teflon Teo has deep pockets. Who knows what they’re going to do with the docks and what else they plan to buy. It could derail the entire industry.
“No… that's a promise.” He finally steps away, and I stare at him for a beat before I move.
I walk as fast as my small heels can carry me. Gordon still waits out front, and by the look of the way he jumps into action when I step outside, he can tell something isn’t right.
“Miss Johnson?” His brow furrows.
I don’t know what to do. Do I go back to the office and pull Donovan from his meeting? He’ll want to know, but right now, I don’t have a lot of evidence. Do I go home? I’m not sure I can sit in my office all day with this kind of information and pretend that it’s business as usual. I start to panic. What if the threats are real? My apartment is standard; there’s no security. Half the time, the main door is unlocked. What if Marcus Jasper would do the things he said?
“Miss Johnson? Are you alright?” Gordon brings me back to earth, and with one more pull of a breath, I know what I need to do.
“Can you take me to the penthouse?”
He nods quickly, and I slide into the back seat, my laptop open as I get straight into work.
Because I don’t deal with people. I deal with data. And I need to pull and connect every thread I know and get a solid case. If Marcus Jasper is colluding with one of New York’s biggest mobsters, this isn’t just unethical business dealings. This is now criminal, and I’m right in the middle of it.
33
Donovan
It’s been a hell of a day. I thought things would settle down but they haven’t. The media are still relentless. Like they know our whereabouts and are privy to all kinds of information that doesn’t sit well with me.
When I look at the timeline of events, it started heating up when I met Jessica. The media interest in me has always been intense, and I somewhat expected it to increase when they saw me with the same woman multiple times. But the way we were hounded in Milan, the way Jessica’s itinerary wasn’t hiccup free, the way Ashley acts lately is all pulling my mind in one direction.
So I pulled her into my office and fired her. It wasn’t without her pleas and blaming Jessica for all of it. But I had too much proof. Her company-owned laptop and cell both provided a wealth of evidence to tip-offs and office gossip that had been going on for weeks.
After firing Ashley, I spent the entire afternoon with Mabel, which was like cleansing my soul. We came up with a plan that will look after her, that Jessica will love, and I feel in my bones will be an excellent addition to York Enterprises. I could’ve talked with Mabel all day, but when Gordon called me, telling me that Jessica was here at home and something happened today, I left in an instant and came straight here.
“Jessica?” I call out the minute the elevator opens into my penthouse.
“In here!” She sounds okay, and I walk into the living room to see her.
I pause when I spot her. “Are you okay?” She looks beautiful, as always. In my shirt, her hair is in a topknot, which is secured by a pencil. Her glasses are on, and her eyes are laser-focused on her laptop in front of her. Around her is where things get messy. Newspapers, articles, files. The TV is on, rolling coverage of Asia news. She has another monitor set up, this one displaying a map of Asia.
“What’s going on?” I step toward her slowly, not wanting to interrupt her.
She pauses and looks up at me. I see a look on her face that I haven’t seen before. A mix of fear, excitement, worry… it has me on edge.
“Sorry I’ve created a bit of a mess.”
“Yeah, well, I fired Ashley today so… I did as well.” I grin as she looks at me in surprise.
“What happened?” She knows as well as I do it needed to happen.
“I had the IT guys scrape her cell and laptop. Found evidence of her tipping off the media and spreading rumors around the office. She was escorted out of the building.”
She shakes her head. “Wow. How did she take it?”
