Page 55 of Big & Bossy
“Then I guess we can just get straight to business, Jack,” she chuckled. She pressed a clicker in her hand, lighting up the far wall with a projector, a few scattered pictures of me and Mandy littering the poorly painted drywall. “Here’s the thing, bud. The plan's working.”
I nodded as I stared at the photo hovering in the top right, the one of Mandy feigning excitement in her black dress as I held the ring in front of her. I want that. I want that to be real excitement. “I figured as much. There weren’t any reporters outside her office this morning and I’ve not seen many articles about us recently, either.”
She nodded as she clicked to the next slide in her presentation. A few emails littered the screen. “We’re mostly being contacted specifically about J.B. Tech now. Media houses want to know about Infinius, the new campus, and its grand opening.” Another click, another slide. A few well-known actors and actresses popped up on the wall. “There have been quite a few new relationships and engagements coming out of Hollywood that have broadly taken over the spot you two were filling.”
“That’s great news.” No, it isn’t. I don’t have an excuse to be close to her anymore unless she wants me to be. I booted up my laptop, my mind too full of emails and worry to really focus. “The break-in hasn’t made the news, right?” I asked absentmindedly, logging in to the server.
“No, we bought every photo off of the press that was taken. No one has the rights to the story but us, and if they try to publish it, we can get it taken down fairly easily,” Jason said.
“Perfect.” I scrolled through email after email, trying my best to look as though I was paying attention. The new secretary had done a good job of filtering through the bullshit, but some of it still made its way through to me. Clear threats against Mandy for being ‘engaged’ to me and stake claims on either of us were being sent straight through to security as requested, but the juvenile ones that were nothing more than empty threats or silly statements, were still slipping through. “Any updates from security?”
“Uh, we don’t really handle that,” Jason said.
“Can you get one anyway?” I pressed, trying not to let the irritation seep into my voice. An email less than twenty-four hours old caught my eye. READ ME, JACKSON BIG.
“Online security will let us know if anything comes in that is particularly worrisome, Jack. The moment anything comes through about the new campus or a direct threat toward you or Mandy, it will be investigated.” Samantha slid her stack of papers across the table toward me, but I ignored them. “That’s everything they’ve found so far, but none of it has been worth speaking to the police about.”
Temptation and sheer curiosity made me open the email. I’d avoided my inbox for days, leaving it up to those I’d hired to sort through the mess, but this one felt like it was something worth reading, and it had slipped through undetected.
My breath left my lungs as I started to read.
You would think that a billionaire like you would hire someone specifically to keep your ‘fiancée’ safe. But you haven’t done that, have you, Jackson? At least not well enough. Not secure enough to keep me out of her house.
I laid in her bed. I showered in her bathroom. I know the layout of her house by memory now. Don’t worry, I was smart. They won’t find a trace of me left behind, and really, I have you to thank for that.
Didn’t you learn anything from your past? Or was all that military protection enough to make you forget? Or, better yet, do you just not care because of all that money you’re making?
I would care if I were you, Jackson.
Chapter 26
Mandy
Twenty minutes. That was all the time I had until Jack would arrive to get me and then head to the airport. I was a bit uneasy about going back to where everything had been set in motion for us, but I hammered it home to myself that this was just a networking event, an opportunity for me to meet new people, create new connections, and to get more ideas. It wouldn’t hurt.
“I don’t understand why you even need to go in the first place,” Harry grumbled, his back against the doorway of my private office. “We have plenty of clients. We’re good.”
“We’ll need more after we finish up with J.B. Tech if we want to stay afloat. You know that.” I grabbed my stack of business cards and shoved them in my purse, along with a folder full of examples of L&V Interior’s work. Harry had been short with me ever since I told him that I was going with Jack to the conference. In truth, I was genuinely excited to talk shop with new people, but he was souring the mood.
“If this is such an important thing, surely I should be coming along,” he snapped.
“Yeah, sitting on a plane with you and Jackson bickering for four hours sounds like a great idea,” I mumbled as I zipped up my bag.
“It would be if Jack wasn’t going.”
I glared at him as I grabbed my coat off the back of my chair. “Jack is the entire reason I even get to go in the first place. He deserves to tag along.”
“Hasn’t all the media attention you’ve been getting enough to draw clients in?” Harry asked, his eyes fixed on me as I pulled my jacket over my arms. He’d been out of the office pretty frequently lately, working from home, and I could tell from the dark circles under his eyes that he wasn’t getting much sleep.
It almost made me not want to argue with him, almost. “The attention is dying down. We’ve gotten a few new clients from it, but it’s not enough.”
“It’s dying down?” He asked, his brows raising, his body more alert. I knew what he was thinking already—I could stop being around Jack so much. He could stop worrying about it. “Does that mean the fake engagement is over?”
I shook my head and checked the time on my phone. Nothing from Jackson yet. “No, not yet.”
“Ugh,” he groaned, crossing the few steps between us and picking up my left hand. He inspected the ring again, his face contorting. “Can’t you just ask him to call it off? I just want to get back to normal, Mandy. It’s concerning, you being with him all the time.”
“I’m not his boss. I don’t get to make those calls, and I’m fine being around him,” I snapped, pulling my hand back. “You don’t need to worry.”
