Chapter Four
Jamie
The nausea I felt wasn’t going away and it had been several days since I’d thrown up. I hated stress. I guessed no one really enjoyed it, but I’d had my share of it over the last few years. I’d always stressed about money, even though it had somehow always fallen in my lap when I needed it.
This was no different. Well, actually it was. I definitely wasn’t thankful for how this money had fallen into my lap and what it meant.
I swallowed deep as I felt the saliva thickening in my mouth. A sure tell sign I was about to throw up again. I cranked up the air conditioning in the Jeep and a took a deep breath.
“You can do this,” I said to myself. “He isn’t going to hate you. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
But I had. At least it felt that way. No, I hadn’t slept with him for money, even though that had happened, but now I felt dirty and despicable.
I rehearsed what I was going to say to him the moment I walked through the door, assuming I didn’t puke all over his office first.
I pulled into the almost empty parking lot of Velocity Capital. Other companies did business in the building, but Chase’s occupied the top floor. A few cars took up some parking spaces, and there was Chase’s, the steel gray Mercedes sports coupe. I could almost smell the leather from the first time I’d ridden in it. That had been a good night. It had been the first night we slept together.
When all of this had started.
“Focus, Jamie,” I said as I took one last look at myself in the rearview mirror.
Every ding of the elevator brought another flip of my stomach and another shiver of nerves. The elevator doors opened when I reached the top floor, revealing the large logo of Velocity Capital in silver.
The doorway to the left was dark and secured with a security reader that flashed red. The main lobby doors were lit behind the receptionist desk. I tugged at the door, pulling it open and stepping inside.
The floor appeared to be empty and I attempted to remember where Chase’s office was. I had been drinking last time I was here and when I left, I had simply followed the exit signs, not paying much attention. I’d been too embarrassed about how his coworker had caught us.
I turned the corner and saw the light on at the end of the hall. Taking a deep breath and holding it, I started down the hallway, letting a little air out with each step I until I reached his office.
“Hello? Chase?” I peered inside the office to see him sitting on the couch in the same place I had left him the last time we were here. Only this time, he was dressed.
“Hey Jamie, come in.” He stood up and moved toward his desk, not even attempting to really greet me with a hug or a kiss. He took a seat behind his desk and motioned for me to take a seat in the guest chair. It felt almost as if I had just walked into an interview. “We should talk.”
This is it, now or never. “Chase, before you say anything, I need to tell you something.” The feeling of nervousness and sickness had fled my body and instead was overtaken by my fight or flight instinct. “I was paid to get to know you.”
His eyebrows rose.
The words shot out of my mouth like the vomit had the other night, uncontrollable and messy. “I mean, I wasn’t paid to sleep with you, I did that on my own. But I was given money to find things out, but I didn’t know it was about you until the other day.”
He templed his hands in front of his face as he listened, not saying a word. He stared intensely at me. The silence was killing me.
“Can you say something?” I asked. “Please?”
“I see,” he said, nodding. “So, all of this—us, the other night, here at the office…it was because you were paid?” He leaned forward and placed his hands flat on the desk. “And what was it you were paid to find out?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t know, until I came home the other night. Things weren’t making sense. This guy, he paid me to flirt, he didn’t tell me with who, he had just pointed at you and Grant.” I swallowed heavily again, trying not to choke on the saliva thickening in my mouth. “And, well, things got out of hand. I mean, I needed the money. At the time, it was just to flirt and…what did he say. Um, make it look good.” I leaned closer to him across the desk. “I only intended to flirt, then we hit it off. I thought that was it.”
“So, this guy just showed up, told you to flirt, offered you money. And you didn’t ask any questions?”
“It wasn’t like that. I told him no. Then this envelope showed up with a note and money. I looked for him, but he was gone. I had no way of getting in touch with him, so I did it. I thought it was over and I just figured I was paid to meet this amazing man. You.”
“But it didn’t end there, did it?” Chase’s voice had an edginess to it.
“No,” I said, looking down at the desk. “He showed up again. This time he left an envelope. There was a photo inside, and more money.” Tears began to fill my eyes. As I explained everything out loud, I realized how stupid I had been. “It…it was a picture of us. The first night we had met, me flirting with you. He said if I didn’t do what he asked, he would release the picture to the university. You’d be fired, I’d be kicked out of school.”
Chase clenched his jaw and paused, his hands turning to fists. “This was the short bald man? He’s the one who gave you the message? What’s his name?”
I could feel my mouth fall open as I realized Chase already knew everything I was telling him. “I…I don’t know. How do you know? What do you know?”
“I know enough,” he said as his brows furrowed.
“Chase, I promise I didn’t know any of this was going on. He’s blackmailing me. Originally, I thought this was about Grant. Then I realized it was about you. He told me to find out about Dunamis and I had no clue what that was. I swear to God, you have to believe me. The second I realized it, I knew I had to tell you, especially because of how I feel.”
“Stop.” Chase stood up, looking down at me. “He mentioned that name? Dunamis? What else did he say?”
“Nothing, it was all text messages.” I pulled out my phone and brought up the messages. “See?” I held out my hand showing him the messages. “And he called, once.”
Chase grabbed the phone and scribbled down the phone number. “If you hear anything else, if he calls, meets you, shows up, you let me know. Got it?”
“Yes.” Tears streamed down my face as I bit my lower lip. “Chase, I’m sorry. I’m here because I had to tell you. I don’t want anything to happen to you, to us.”
He took in a deep breath and walked around the desk. As he approached, he placed the phone back into my hand and then wiped the tears from my eyes. “Jamie, thank you for being honest with me. I want to believe everything you’ve said, I honestly do. But unfortunately, I’ve been in this situation before.” He reached down and grabbed a tissue from the box on his desk, handing it to me before continuing, “Let me handle this. For now, don’t say anything to anyone about this. Act like everything is as it was.”
“Okay,” I sniffled. “And us?”
“I don’t know, just yet,” he said. “Let me get to the bottom of this.” He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, his stubble scratching me.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried to pull him in closer, but he resisted as he glanced toward the door.
“You should go,” he said, pulling away. “I’ll call you as soon as I find something out.”
I made one last effort, standing on my toes and kissing him squarely on the mouth. This time he didn’t resist, but he didn’t return the kiss, either.
I turned the leave, to find we had been caught, again.
The woman at the door said nothing, but she looked from Chase to me, and back to Chase again. Eventually she stepped into the office. “Hi, Chase.”
The room stayed silent and I took that as my cue to leave.