Chapter 81

Jesse

“Wait, stop!” Elaine called out as Jesse reached the door. Finally, too angry to maintain her composure, Jesse whirled back around to look at the older woman.

“I already wrote you an article on Roberts,” Jesse said through clenched teeth. “And I will not write another one. Ever.”

“You and I both know that you threw that article,” Elaine hissed at her, and Jesse was embarrassed to be a little frightened by the tone of her voice. “Look me in the eye and tell me right now that the article you gave me was the article that was supposed to get your name out there and start your real career as a journalist.”

Jesse clenched her teeth and shifted uncomfortably where she stood. She could say a lot of things about the article she had written, but Elaine was right. It had been a toss out.

“That’s what I thought,” Elaine said, her voice softer. “Now please, sit down and listen to what I have to say.”

Reluctantly, Jesse did sit.

“Now, I can understand why you did it,” Elaine said, nodding in understanding. “I know how easy it is to get swept up in the charm of an alpha male and forget what you were even doing in the same room with him in the first place.”

Jesse stiffened, and she felt her stomach drop.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jesse denied. “Every encounter we had was for interview purposes.”

“Really?” Elaine raised her eyebrow. “A restaurant and a coffee shop are hardly the proper places for an interview, wouldn’t you agree?”

Jesse blushed a little, embarrassed that Elaine had brought up her brief appearance in a photograph with Hal.

“Besides,” Elaine waved off the previous comment. “If you were interviewing him, why did your article consist of facts and figure that anyone could have found in an unedited Wikipedia article?”

Jesse was a little stung by the comment, and it must have shown on her face.

“You and I both know that you probably had more than enough material to write the article that I wanted,” Elaine said ominously. “And now, I can guarantee you have even more.”

Elaine bent down behind her desk to withdraw a file, which she then slid across the desk to Jesse. Jesse looked up at Elaine before slowly opening the file.

Jesse’s stomach dropped at what she saw. The file was full of pictures of her and Hal at his cabin. Jesse blushed as she realized that they had caught them outside in the pool, from the first night they had been there. They seemed to have pictures of just about everything that had transpired out of doors and even a few shots through windows.

Jesse closed the file and looked up at Elaine, who was once again smiling over her, looking for all the world like a wolf descending on a flock of sheep. Or rather, one sheep in particular.

“How did you know?” Jesse asked, her voice blank.

“A little … birdie let me in on your little vacation,” Elaine smiled, and with her finger, she mimicked the action of a helicopter propeller.

Phillip.

Jesse felt sick.

“People will tell you just about anything you want to know if you have a little bit of change to offer them,” Elaine said smoothly. Jesse clenched her teeth and said nothing, merely waiting for Elaine to continue.

“Now you see,” Elaine spoke again, her tone as imperious as ever. “I have all the leverage here, but you still have what I want. I can see that you’re torn, and I can hardly blame you. But if I were you, I would maybe take a step back and ask myself: is this really the type of man I want to be in a relationship with?”

Jesse narrowed her eyes and looked up at Elaine, who smiled wider.

“Aren’t you curious as to why I wanted the article in the first place?” Elaine raised a brow. “I mean sure, he’s rich and famous, but there are so many others like him. No. Ever since his movie came out, I suspected that there was something else going on with him. Maybe something in his past or just some kind of mental illness. And I think that surely, you’ve realized that too. And at this point, you’re in the perfect position to find out all the things I want to know. All the things the world wants to know.”

Jesse’s eyes widened a little, and she felt sick. She was taken back to the night in the cabin when Hal had snapped. She was also very well aware of how similar what she was doing now was to what he had initially accused her of. She was filled with immense guilt just by being in the same room with Elaine.

More than her guilt, though, she felt an eerie sense of truth in the words Elaine had said. She already knew that Hal had experienced severe loss and strife in his past, and it was surely enough to leave anyone with scars. When she thought back on the night he had raged at her, she remembered the crazed, vacant look in his eyes.

It had almost been like it wasn’t him.

Jesse felt sickness in her stomach that was not completely related to the disgust she felt at Elaine’s proposition.

“Oh, and of course,” Elaine went on, pulling Jesse from the recesses of her thoughts, “if you won’t come back to work for me, I’ll have little choice but to post these photographs in the next volume of The Edge and leak them to every other major magazine in the city as well. But of course, in the end, the choice is yours. However, I think the pros far outweigh the cons in this situation, don’t you?”

A long silence filled the space between them, and Jesse’s thoughts were actively racing through her mind. Elaine was simply waiting on her response, and as of yet, Jesse didn’t know what on earth she was going to say.

Jesse glared across the desk at Elaine, a feeling of pure rage and hatred bubbling beneath the surface. The older woman sat with her fingers set in a steeple in front of her face, smiling as though she had already won this battle. The woman was right. She had a full house, and Jesse knew very well that she was not bluffing.

Jesse had seen the pictures herself, and she knew that Elaine had the means to offer her a better position at The Edge. She knew that Elaine had all the means to ruin the rest of her career, and while a part of Jesse was deeply disappointed by the knowledge that she seemed so completely trapped, she was at the same time empowered with the knowledge of what she was about to do.

Jesse knew that there was not enough money that could be offered to her or enough scandalous pictures to expose her in the world to make her turn her back on Hal.

Jesse also knew, now, that all of Elaine’s chips were on the table, set out as bait just to trap Jesse.

And Jesse was not about to take the bait.

Jesse allowed a smile to cross over her face, and she delighted in the bewildered look on Elaine’s face as she uttered a single syllable.

“No.”

Elaine blinked at her, her mouth dropping open.

“Excuse me?” the woman pressed, narrowing her eyes at Jesse.

“I said no,” Jesse said, reaching to collect her bag.

“You can’t be serious,” Elaine said shortly, obviously in denial. “If you don’t do it, I’ll just find someone else who will.”

“Find them, then,” Jesse said with a shrug as she arranged her bag to sit more comfortably on her shoulder.

Elaine seemed to gape for a moment before she hastily picked up the file from her desk.

“The photos!” Elaine interjected a little desperately. “I will have them released. Every single one of them. Do you really think any respectable magazine or paper would really hire someone who behaved so scandalously with an A-list celebrity?”

“Release them,” Jesse said simply. “I won’t even blink. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done. And if going without work at some paper or magazines means that I don’t have to worry about working for someone like you, then I couldn’t be happier.”

Elaine’s expression grew dark.

“This was me giving you a second chance,” Elaine fairly growled at her. “And believe me, if you turn me down now, there will never be another shot for you. Not just with me, but across this entire industry.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Jesse conceded. “But it will all be worth it, just because I get to leave here with the knowledge that I was the one who put that desperate look on your face.”

Elaine bared her teeth at Jesse’s words, and Jesse could see veins in her neck beginning to protrude.

With that, Jesse gave Elaine one last smile before turning her back on her and heading straight out of the office, not even hearing whatever Elaine spat at her as she opened the door and left the office.