I arrived to work a little late on Monday morning, and I was surprised when I got to my office and didn’t see Jasmine on her desk outside my door. I frowned and glanced around, only, there was no one around that I could ask. There were two other secretaries on the floor, but neither of them were there every day, and on that particular Monday, they were not there.

“What the fuck, Jasmine,” I growled as I let myself into my office.

Jasmine and I had come to an understanding. After that first day, she was never late. And I’d chosen today to be late on purpose, so that she would be there and I could stop by to speak to her before she got busy. I hadn't planned what to say, but it was useless, anyway, if the woman herself wasn’t even available.

I pulled off my coat and draped it over the back of my chair after putting down my briefcase. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tried to call her cell. The call immediately cut to voicemail and I frowned. Her phone must have been off.

What the hell was she doing?

She hadn't done anything to jeopardize her job before. And while I knew I’d been the cause of Friday night’s situation, it was no excuse to fucking sulk and be late to work. I had work to do for the day, and since I was already late, I wanted to get started immediately.

I sat down in my chair and picked up the work phone, putting in a call to HR.

“Hello, this is the human resource department, how may I help you?”

“My secretary, Jasmine, isn’t in this morning. I wanted to know if she left any word. This is Gabe; I’m on the top floor.”

Maybe she was sick, or she’d asked for time off? That would be better than her being late. I checked my wrist watch and frowned when I saw it was later than I’d thought. It was past nine.

“Just give me a moment to check,” the voice on the line said, and there was the sound of key clicking. Then, “I’m sorry, sir, but we didn’t receive any calls from her. It’s possible she’s running late, or there’s an emergency and she forgot to call it in.”

I sighed and braced my elbow against my desk, and I rubbed at my temple with my fingers. If I couldn’t reach her, and she hadn't informed anyone of her absence, then I didn’t have much of choice.

“I’m afraid I can't wait for her. Can you please send up someone to replace her for the day? In the next few minutes would be good.”

“Of course, sir.”

I put down the phone and leaned back in my chair, thinking about Jasmine. And about the cluster fuck that was Friday night.

It was my fault; I could admit that much. It had been my decision to call Melinda. But besides that, I shouldn’t have pretended that Jasmine was just my secretary, even with Melinda there. She was my favorite for a reason; she would have understood and, maybe, backed off if I promised her something for later, and it didn’t have to be another meet up for sex.

She wasn’t with me just for the money after all; she had plenty of her own. She simply loved gifts, and I loved giving them to her because it was a relationship made simple for the both of us.

So denying Jasmine had not only been the wrong move of the night, but it had also been silly. More than that, it was ridiculous when I couldn’t get thoughts of her out of my mind, even while I sat with another woman. In the end, Melinda and I just had a few more drinks, and I left her to look for fun elsewhere while I went back home.

“I shouldn’t have just gone home yesterday,” I muttered to myself in annoyance. “I should have stayed to talk to Jasmine.”

Fuck, I didn’t even try to contact her over the weekend, because I had the bright idea to leave her to cool down on her own. Only, when the fuck was I supposed to speak to her now if she wouldn’t even turn up at work?

I’d booted up my computer automatically without thinking. Once it was on, I stared at the screen, waiting for me to input my name and ID to log in. I did have work, and there was a secretary coming to help me out…

Instead, I picked up my phone to make the call again, hoping for the best. I just found her contact and was about to tap on it to call, when the door to my office suddenly opened. I looked up, and my eyes widened, my fingers going loose and dropping the phone on the table. Of all people to show up…

“Dad? What the fuck are you doing here?”

He was dressed in one of his expensive, tailored suits, dark blue with a button down shirt in a lighter blue. The last time I saw him, since he’d been confined to the house, he’d been dressed more casual in slacks and a polo. The next time he was supposed to wear a suit should have been when he was taken to court for the case proceedings.

Dad scowled at me. “How is that any way to talk to your father, Gabe. Have some manners.”

I narrowed my eyes and flattened my lips, feeling irritated. “Really, dad. I learned the language from you, remember? Now answer the fucking question. Why are you here, I thought we agreed I would be handling things from now on.”

I got to my feet, so by the time he stood opposite me on the other side of the desk with his hands shoved in his pockets, our eyes met instead of him towering over me. My dad was all about power plays, and you lost easily if you didn’t keep on your toes.

“Well, son,” he said with a sardonic smirk. “Maybe if you were competent enough, I wouldn’t have to be here. I trusted you with everything, and you screwed it already.”

His smile had dropped as he talked, and his face was flushed with his anger. I frowned, though, not sure why he was so angry when I didn’t think it was warranted.

“I don’t get what you mean. I’ve done everything like we planned, remember?”

He scoffed. “Then where is my lovely secretary, Gabe?”

I scowled, immediately hating how he called Jasmine ‘his lovely secretary.’ “I don’t know; she’s probably on her way—”

“Don’t bother expecting her.”

I frowned, confused about what he meant. “What do you know that I don’t?”

He shook his head and looked away, through the glass windows to the city outside. “I told you to go through everything, clean everything up. Make sure all the leads were buried, nothing led back to us—”

“Zip it, dad,” I snapped, cutting him off. “Do I need to remind you I’m cleaning up the mess you created? You know something so just fucking tell me already. I know you’re dying to or you wouldn’t have risked bringing your ass here.”

His lips tightened. “You know that, at least.” Then he sighed and placed fingertips of one hand on the desk. “Jasmine got arrested, Gabe.”

I just stood there, gaping at my father, dumbfounded. Because surely I must have heard him wrong.

“Can you… repeat that?” I asked, my voice small.

The look he turned to me was blank. “You know I have someone in the FBI that’s giving me updates on the case? Well, I got one recently. Jasmine was arrested by the FBI. Someone went to her house to pick her up over the weekend. As far as I know, no one got her out, so she’s still locked up.”

I floundered, opening and closing my mouth as I tried to find words, only I couldn’t. Jasmine had spent who knew how long in FBI custody, and I was… what. Having a crisis about my inexistent love life. Finally giving up coming up with words, I pressed a hand to my face as I squeezed my eyes closed.

Dammit.

“As if everything wasn’t going to shit already.”

Dad snorted. “And you thought you were on top of things? That’s laughable, Gabe.”

I glared at the old man. “I’m going to keep reminding you that all of this is your fault until you get it through your thick skull. Everything would have been okay, had you been careful.”

He shook his head. “Forget about that for now. It’s bad for us that Jasmine was taken, haven’t you realized that yet? There is a chance, no matter how small, this will be coming back to us, and we need to be fucking prepared, Gabe.”