Page 98 of Never Again

“Is that what I’m doing?” Bailey asked, slowly exhaling as she placed her hands on the table and sat down.

“Open the laptop,” Jess said firmly while Bailey sat there wondering how she’d missed the signs.

Jess had always been…Jess.

From the first day that she’d met Jess, she’d always had a warm smile on her face, was always there for her, and kept her sane by sneaking her coffee from across the street when Nathan wasn’t looking. She was one of her best friends and part of her family and this just didn’t make any sense, Bailey thought as she pushed the can of Coke in front of her aside and reached for the sleek laptop that would have normally had her fingers twitching with the need to explore but only filled her with dread at the moment.

“You want to tell me why you’re doing this?” Bailey asked as she opened the laptop and felt her stomach drop when she saw the login page for the personal server that she’d set up years ago with her login already typed in the box.

“You really have no idea what you took from me, do you?” Jess asked, sounding amused as Bailey’s gaze flickered to the woman who was breaking her heart.

“And you have no idea how much I loved you, Jess. You were one of my best friends,” Bailey said as she searched Jess’s green eyes, looking for any sign that the Jess that she knew was still in there somewhere. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Start typing,” Jess said, shifting the gun to the right so that the gun was aimed directly at her chest.

“No,” Bailey bit out as she thought about everything that happened over the past year, the attacks on their server, on her and just how easily someone that she loved could have been caught in the crossfire. “You pushed me in front of the bus, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Jess said with absolutely no hesitation. “And jammed the lock on your office door and arranged for the inspector to remove several vital bolts on the fire escape.”

“And the break-in?” Bailey asked, wondering just how far Jess was willing to go.

“Was bad timing,” Jess said with a heavy sigh. “You were supposed to be in a meeting, but instead, Quinn showed up and my guy had to improvise. I’ll admit that I wasn’t happy when I found out that Nathan hired Quinn to take over security, but then, I thought about all the possibilities. With that security system alone, I was able to move more freely throughout the building, allowing my men to come and go as they pleased and keep an eye on you.”

“You hacked into the security system and used an old feed to trick Quinn’s men,” Bailey guessed, watching as Jess’s lips twitched.

“It made my life easier,” Jess murmured as her gaze flickered back to the bedroom door.

“The condoms?” Bailey asked as she thought about everything.

“A distraction,” Jess said, shrugging it off as she shifted her focus back to her.

“The attack on Haven Technologies when I came back from Georgia?” Bailey asked, struggling to wrap her mind around everything.

“A little misdirection to force Quinn’s hand,” Jess said, making her frown.

“You wanted me to leave again,” Bailey mumbled with a frown and-

“My laptop. You needed me to log into my server so that you could gain access,” Bailey said as she thought about the virus on Quinn’s iPad.

Nodding, Jess said, “And you left it behind.”

“And you were hoping that by framing Kelly and Quinn that I would come running back, thinking that it was all over,” Bailey guessed.

“But you never believed that they would betray you, did you?” Jess murmured, looking thoughtful.

“Not even for a minute,” Bailey bit out.

“So loyal…” Jess said with a pitying look.

“Which is why I never saw any of this coming,” Bailey said, realizing just how incredibly foolish she’d been.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?” Jess asked, watching her curiously for a moment.

“Meaning?” Bailey asked as she sat there debating the odds of being able to send a message to Nathan before Jess could pull that trigger only to decide that they probably weren’t very good.

“When I showed up for the interview, I was sure that you would recognize me, but you had no idea who I was,” Jess said, shaking her head in wonder.

“And that worked for you,” Bailey guessed.

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