Page 81 of Roots of the Wicked

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chase

Pain gripped me in a chokehold. Its bone chilling fingers tightening, as it shook me with enough force to rattle my teeth. I had lost Jax. I had the world at my fingertips, but she was all I wanted.

In order to get her back, I needed to find a way to prove my innocence. First, I had to find a way to stop the virus. The members of our IT team took turns working vigorously to restore my computer, as I stood hovering over their shoulders. However, they were at a loss as to how to stop something they or I didn’t fully understand.

My gaze fell to my ringing phone as Pac-Man continued to eat my files. It was Landon calling. I was in no condition to talk to anyone, but I picked up anyway.

“I can’t talk right now. I have shit happening I need to get fixed.”

“I know. Travis called and said I needed to check on you. He said you had a big fight with a woman that yelled at you loud enough to melt the paint off the walls. When I didn’t answer, he continued, “Are you okay? I’m driving over right now. Is this about the new lady you’ve been seeing? The one you hinted about at lunch when you asked me and Ethan about interracial dating. I saw the pictures, Chase. She looks good on you.”

I didn’t need or want his opinion on the matter. I needed to call our security team to pull surveillance footage. If someone had been in my office, it was a major security breech.

“You didn’t go through with one of those plans we talked about on how to trap a woman, did you?” His tone lowered to an audible murmur. “Did you try out one and it backfired? Is this what the fight and these pictures circulating the news and Internet is about? Chase, man tell me something.”

“I’ll talk to you when you get here. I need to make some calls.”

I hung up. He wasn’t going to stop until he bled me for every bit of information on Jax. Damage control measures needed to be put in place. My obsession with her, had forced me to make questionable decisions I wasn’t proud of, and I needed to fix it.

Me without Jax wasn’t an option. I was willing to do anything to get her back, even if I had to lie, plan cover-ups, and bribe.

***

My words spilled out before my phone reached my ear. The members of our IT team were still at it, working, but failing to stop the virus. At this point I had lost business, deals were going to fall through, and a ton of money was being lost.

I snatched my phone up, making the tech currently working on my laptop jump.

“I need you to find me the best IT expert in this city. Search this country if you have too. I don’t care what you pay them. I need them in my office right fucking now!”

Travis was the lucky recipient to catch the brunt of my frustration. I yelled enough about work that he was used to my outbursts.

“I hear you, sir, but one of the best tech people I know just left your office.”

The veins in my forehead and neck nearly burst, I yelled into my phone so loud.

“Did I ask for your opinion? Find another one or two if you have to. Get someone who knows what the hell they are doing into my office ASAP!”

The hard slap of my desk phone on the receiver sounded like a cannon blast. It surprised me I hadn’t cracked it in half. On the business aspect of the situation, I could find ways to savage some of the many contacts by using my managers and analysts. Even my assistants, whose computer should have almost mirrored mine. However, I was losing the only woman who I ever loved, and it was my own damn fault.

Knowing I was the reason for Jax’s distress, sent me into a restless mixture of fear and anger. I glanced at my phone, but determined it wasn’t wise to call her while she was so upset.

Jax was smart. She was going to clear her head, so she could figure out I didn’t do this.

Would I do about anything to keep Jax? Yes. However, I would never do something to hurt her.

The people, or person setting me up was doing a hell of a job. Why? Minutes before Jax had shown up at my office, I had gotten a call from our R&D department confirming a Swift Capital Drone had flown across international waters on the date and time we had been spied on.

The kicker, the drone had been signed for by me. The moment I had cast a glance across Jax’s shoulder, and spotted the drone, I suspected it was one of ours, but how had someone made it appear that I had signed for it? If only I had informed her of my suspicions before things had gone this far.

At this point, the only way I was clearing my name, or getting Jax back was by figuring out who had set me up. If people hadn’t figured out who was in the leaked picture before now, I’m sure they would soon have an idea.

Two hours after Jax stormed from my office, the help Travis had enlisted arrived. At first glance, he looked thirteen. His thick glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, and his clothes hung loosely on his lanky frame.

He reached out his long, boney hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Taylorson. My name is Max MacKenzie.”

It must have been the pinched expression Max noticed because he answered the question on my mind.

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