Chapter Twenty-Four
Lily
The frother on Jackson’s coffee machine hummed away as it heated the milk for my morning coffee, and I yawned and re-read the note he’d left for me. It’s seven-thirty – didn’t want to wake you. Have to go sort some stuff out. I’ll be home around nine-thirty or so. Sleep well, angel.
I frowned and checked the wall clock on the other side of the kitchen. It was already five past nine; I’d slept in very late. Not surprising given the hectic nature of the previous day, but it was good to get it all out of my system and relax myself.
The doorbell chimed, and I glanced over at the foyer, wrinkling my forehead with confusion. It was a Sunday, and usually the mailman didn’t come out to this area on weekends, so it couldn’t be a letter or package getting delivered. We weren’t expecting anyone either, unless there was something Jackson forgot to mention to me, so I had no idea who might be at the door. My father, perhaps?
I walked over and tentatively turned the handle just as someone sharply rapped on the door again, making me jump. A familiar face stood on the other side, but it wasn’t my dad. I instantly regretted opening the door.
“Hello, Lily,” Kaye said calmly, giving me an expectant look.
Shit.
There were already rumors floating around about me and Jackson, so what the hell made me think it was a good idea to open his front door on a Sunday morning wearing nothing but pajamas? It was obvious to anyone with half a brain cell that I’d slept here.
Maybe I’d lost all my brain cells overnight.
“Kaye…I…the wiring at my dad’s house is being worked on, and we have no power, so Jackson offered to let us stay for the—”
As I stumbled over my terrible excuse, Kaye snorted and rolled her eyes. “Save it, Lily. I know about you and Jackson sleeping together. I have for weeks.”
I swallowed hard. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Don’t worry, I haven’t told a soul. It’s still just a rumor at the office and at the gossip columns. I certainly haven’t confirmed it for anyone.”
“Well, thanks, I guess. Anyway, Jackson isn’t here,” I said.
“I know. I saw him leave over an hour ago. I came to see you, because I think it’s high time we had a little chat.”
I wrinkled my nose. “You’ve just been sitting outside the house for an hour?”
“I had to make sure he was really gone. For all I knew, he might’ve realized he forgot something halfway up the road and popped back after two minutes.”
“Uh…right. So why did you want to see me?”
She pulled a flash drive out of her handbag and dangled it in front of me. “I have a feeling you'll want to see this. So are you going to invite me in?”
I hesitated. She was Jackson’s executive assistant and therefore trustworthy according to him, but I’d never been sure about her. She’d never been anything but bitchy to me at work, and I’d always gotten the impression she wanted Jackson to herself and saw any other women as obstacles in her path. Then again, she’d just admitted to knowing for sure that Jackson and I were together, and she hadn’t told anyone as far as I knew, so perhaps she was more trustworthy than I thought.
“Okay. Come in. I just made coffee,” I said, standing aside.
She gave me a smug smile and sauntered in, quickly taking a seat at the kitchen table. “Do you have a laptop, Lily?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Go and get it.”
I did as she said, and when I had it all set up on the table, Kaye plugged the flash drive in and opened a folder on the screen.
“As I said, I’ve known about you and Jackson for weeks. This is how,” she said, her voice syrupy sweet. She clicked into a video within the folder, and I squinted as I watched, my heart thumping as recognition dawned on me. It appeared to be Jackson’s private office at the campaign headquarters, and the video showed me in there with him a couple of months ago. It showed everything.
Me stepping so close to Jackson that we were practically nose-to-nose, save for the height difference.
Me slowly touching my breasts and slipping my hand into my skirt as I licked my lips and gazed at Jackson.
Me sliding my panties off.
Jackson’s hands stroking my arm.
My heart began to pound even faster, and my blood ran ice cold. “How did you get this video?” I asked.
“That’s irrelevant. What matters is that I have it, and I’ve been sitting on it for quite some time,” she replied coldly, pausing the video.
“It’s not what it looks like. Really! Jackson actually rejected me that day. If there was sound on the video, you’d hear that,” I said.
Kaye arched an eyebrow. “But there is no sound, is there? So it’s your word against anyone else who watches it. And it looks like there’s definitely something going on between the two of you in this video,” she replied, pointing to me and Jackson on the screen before rewinding it to the part where I slowly slid my panties off, looking into Jackson’s eyes the whole time.
I stood up. “Why did you show this to me, Kaye?”
She stood up too, trying to assert her dominance by towering over me. “Like I said earlier, I haven’t told a soul about you two. Well, I may have leaked a rumor or two around the office, and I may have made an anonymous tip to the gossip columns to make you and Jackson nervous about your little relationship…” she said, putting the word ‘relationship’ in sarcastic air quotes. “But as I said, I haven’t given anyone any direct proof. Haven’t confirmed anything.”
I looked at her, aghast. “It was you behind all the gossip this whole time?”
She nodded. “Yes. I was hoping the rumors alone would be enough to make you two stop your silly affair, but it didn’t,” she said. “But anyway, just because I haven’t given anyone any proof yet doesn’t mean I won’t. Because believe me…I will. This video was my insurance policy in case you didn’t do what I wanted before now. So I’m cashing it in.”
I crossed my arms. I knew what she was getting at now. “Right. So let me guess. I have to give you something to stop this video from being sent to the news sites, right?”
She nodded. “Yes. I doubt many people will vote for a man who is clearly having a torrid affair with a teenager, so unless you want to see Jackson’s campaign destroyed, you’ll do as I say.”
“What do you want me to do, Kaye?” I asked stiffly, although I already knew exactly what she was about to say. She’d made that pretty damn clear.
“I want you to dump him. I don’t care how, just do it. And don’t tell him why.”
“Why? What will that achieve?” I asked, though I suspected I already knew the answer to that as well.
“He’ll be alone again. Just how I want him,” she replied airily. “And I’ll be there to comfort him. Then, finally, he’ll see what he’s missed all these years. He’ll see what’s been under his nose this whole time.”
I scoffed. “What, you?” I said. “That’s just sad, Kaye. You’ve worked for him for nearly a decade. If he was ever attracted to you, he’d have done something by now. So take a hint.”
Anger flashed in her blue eyes, and she yanked the USB stick out of the computer. “Remember this, little girl,” she said, waving it in my face again. “This isn’t the only copy I have, either. So end things with Jackson right now or I’ll send it straight to the media. You think Jackson will be happy with you then? You think he’ll be happy to stay with the girl who wrecked his political career and reputation?”
I took a faltering step back. “You’re insane. Seriously. I can’t believe you’d do something like this to try and get Jackson. It’s pathetic. I bet you even think it’s romantic.”
She glared. “Oh, you have no idea just how far I’d go to get him!” she snarled, her eyes glinting dangerously.
I shrank back even farther. “How far?” I asked. Then I blurted something out before I could stop myself; before I could realize what a stupid thing it was to say. “Did you help my mom kill Jenna Potter? Did you help her run away and hide afterwards?”
Her smirk changed to a look of utter confusion. “What?”
“You said you’d do anything. You said I had no idea just how far you’d go to get Jackson. Maybe that involves convincing a mentally unstable woman like my mom to knock off his girlfriend back then. I just found out last night that Jenna was scared of someone before she died—someone who might not have been my mom—and my dad also told me he saw you fighting with her a few months before she was killed. And Jenna was screaming ‘K, don’t’ before she died. I thought it was K for Karen, because that was my mom’s nickname. But maybe Jenna was saying ‘Kaye’?”
Kaye snorted. “Even I wouldn’t go so far as collaborating with a psychotic murderer like your mother, you stupid little girl. That was all her. So sorry, sweetie, you’re still probably the craziest one in this room, given those crazy killer genes you inherited from mommy dearest.”
I narrowed my eyes and stepped forward. “Get out, Kaye. I’m not breaking up with Jackson, no matter what you do. No matter what you threaten me with.”
“That’s my girl,” said a familiar masculine voice. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Kaye and I whirled round to see Jackson standing nearby, watching us with interest.
“I…how long have you been standing there?” Kaye asked, her eyes bug-wide.
“Long enough,” he said calmly, stepping closer. “I’m glad you’re here, actually. I was going to try and see you today anyway, because we have very important matters to discuss. Sit.”
“Jackson, I—”
“I said sit,” he commanded.
Kaye did as he said, shrinking back into one of the kitchen chairs. Her bony hands were trembling, but I didn’t feel even remotely sorry for her.
Jackson put his briefcase down, removed his coat and hung it over the back of another chair, and then he sat down too. “I’ve found out some very interesting things about you recently, Kaye,” he said. His tone was still cool and composed, but there was a deadly edge to it. It reminded me of the calm before a storm. “For instance, who knew you were such a gun nut? Frequent flier at Gill’s Guns in Piedmont, apparently.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Kaye replied stiffly.
Jackson waved his hand. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the reason I was going to see you today. But it does speak to your character. It shows me that you’re the kind of person who presents herself as being one thing while actually being another. Two-faced and filled with deep dark secrets. And that is part of the reason I was going to see you today. All your secrets, Kaye.”
“Jackson, what’s going on?” I asked in a small voice.
He smiled at me. “Oh, you’ll see, baby girl. Take a seat. You’ll want to see this too.”
I did as he said, and he pulled something out of the briefcase he’d set on the floor before he sat down. “You’re not the only one with a flash drive, Kaye,” he said, giving her a genial grin as he held up a black USB stick.
“What’s that?” she asked, her eyes flashing with suspicion.
“Well, as you told me weeks ago, someone has been spreading rumors about me and Lily,” he said. “For weeks now. It had the potential to get serious, so I started mulling over who it could be. And then a few days ago, I had a breakthrough. I suddenly recalled something from months ago. I remembered that I went into my office one morning, and things seemed to have been rearranged. I also remembered smelling something faintly for a second. Something floral. Violet. It went away before I recognized it, but when it all came back to me the other day, I could only think of one person. You, Kaye.”
Kaye’s face was impassive, but she was turning pale.
“You wear violet perfume, don’t you?” Jackson went on. “So I had to ask myself—what was Kaye doing sneaking around my office when I wasn’t there? Spying, perhaps? And so I looked. I found the little camera you must’ve stuck on the light fixture when you sneaked in. I guess you looked around first, moved a few things around while you searched for the perfect spot, and that’s why I vaguely noticed something was amiss that morning. I have to admit, though, the light fixture was a good place. I had no idea you were secretly watching me for so long. But now I do.”
“How long have you known?” Kaye asked, her voice quiet.
“A few days now.”
My eyebrows shot up. This must’ve been what Jackson was talking about yesterday, when he said he had an idea of who was behind all the office and gossip column drama.
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. “Why didn’t you take the camera down? The feed is still transmitting to my computer at home. I just checked two hours ago.”
I rolled my eyes. She was seriously insane if that’s what she was asking in this moment.
“I had to wait before I confronted you. Didn’t want you to know that I knew what you were up to just yet,” Jackson replied, his face breaking into an inexplicable grin. “Because I was waiting to get something from a certain someone.”
“Who?” I asked.
He patted my hand, but his gaze remained on Kaye. “Our office IT guy, Jerome. He’s always been good to me. Discreet, trustworthy, reliable. I asked him what was possible, technologically-speaking, in this situation. He gave me an idea. He said he could piggyback onto the feed so that we could also access all the footage that’s been stored in it and transmitted out. So for the past couple of days, I’ve had him going through it all, just to see what it was you thought you had on me. I know what’s on the video you brought to show Lily today. In fact, I just saw it myself half an hour ago. I figured you were planning on using it to try and break us up, just like you’ve been trying to break us up with all these rumors over the last several weeks. But there’s other stuff on that footage too, isn’t there, Kaye? Stuff you probably wouldn’t want to get out.”
Kaye was white as a sheet now. “You…you’ve seen all the footage?”
Jackson nodded, smiling even wider now. “Yes. I just picked up this flash drive from Jerome about fifteen minutes ago. It contains another video he isolated from the footage. A video you certainly wouldn’t want to be released. And there’s more than one, according to Jerome. So how about we settle on a mutual understanding? You don’t release the video of us, and we won’t release any humiliating videos of you.”
Kaye looked down at the table, nervously picking at her talon-like nails, and I frowned. “What’s on the other videos?”
He slid the USB stick into the laptop and clicked a few icons. The video began to play, and I gasped as the scene unfolded on the screen before me.
The footage showed Kaye sneaking into Jackson’s office after hours about three weeks ago, according to the time stamp. She slid her shoes off before sitting down in his chair, making herself comfortable. Then she leaned forward, seemingly sniffing at all the objects on his desk, and then she picked up a sweater he’d left folded there and began to sniff that too. One of her hands hiked her skirt up as she began to writhe on his chair, and then that same hand pulled her panties down and began to furiously stroke. The sweater was still in her other hand, and she alternated between smelling it and mouthing what looked like ‘Jackson’ in between gasps.
“Oh my god!” I said. I looked over at Kaye. “You’re so obsessed with him that you go into his office to do that?”
“I…I…”
She couldn’t even get a proper word out. She was probably already imagining what would happen if this particular footage went viral on the internet, and all the humiliation that would come with that. I could picture it myself, could even picture the local gossip blog article titles people would likely come up with.
Crazy woman flicking the bean in senate candidate’s office!
City Hall? More like Clitty Hall – Assistant caught singing soprano in popular city councilman’s campaign office!
Yes, Boss….Jackson Barker’s assistant caught on camera masturbating in his office!
I stifled a laugh at the thought of it.
“Quite a few people have told me over the years that they thought you had a crush on me, Kaye, but I ignored them. Thought it was silly gossip,” Jackson said. “I wish I hadn’t ignored it. I wish I’d realized just how deep this crush went, because it’s clearly made you quite unwell in the head. Unwell enough to concoct a ridiculous plan to try and ‘catch’ me doing something bad enough for you to blackmail me with. But I bet you didn’t think I’d hijack your footage and use it against you, did you?”
She was still speechless, and I smiled. There was no way she’d seen such a genius move coming—her own creepy secret spy footage used against her to foil all her bullshit. I only wished Jackson had filled me in on all of this sooner, because it was downright incredible.
“Do you have anything to say, Kaye?” Jackson asked. “Anything at all?”
She looked down. “I knew I was right about her,” she said softly. “As soon as you told me she was starting an internship at the office, I knew something would happen between you and her.” She paused to glare over at me before continuing. “I was desperate. Desperate for you, Jackson. I’ve waited so long. Long enough. I couldn’t have her come along and stand in my way. So I planted the camera straight away. I thought…I thought if I could get some evidence that would force the two of you to stop seeing each other, you’d…”
“Fall into your arms for comfort, then end up with you instead?” he said. “Yeah, I figured that was the game plan. But I would never do that. I’m with Lily, and I want no one else. Even if you went ahead and released the video you have of us, I wouldn’t care. I’d give it all up for her. The campaign, my career…all of it. So even if I hadn’t found something to reverse-blackmail you with, your plan still wouldn’t have worked, because you’d never have me. Ever.”
I smiled. I’d never been so proud to be with this man.
“Please, Jackson,” Kaye said, jerking her head up. Her eyes were shining with tears, and I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. “Can’t you see how right we are for each other? You’re all I’ve ever wanted. I love you! That’s why I did all of this! Can’t you see that?”
“You love the idea of me,” Jackson said coldly. “You don’t even know me, Kaye. Not really. And you never will. I don’t take kindly to threats against my career, and I am even less receptive to threats against my Lily’s reputation. You’re damn lucky I haven’t had you arrested for illegally surveilling my office yet. I’d be well within my rights to do so.”
Kaye reached out to grab his arm, but he firmly pushed her away. “Please!” she shrieked, springing to her feet. “I did so much for you! All for you!”
“I’m fresh out of fucks to give, unfortunately. It’s time for you to go, Kaye.”
She stood frozen by the table for a full minute, her chest heaving. She was practically hyperventilating. Then she narrowed her eyes and looked at me again. “I hope…I hope you die, you slutty little cunt. You stole him from me!”
I rolled my eyes. This was just getting pathetic now. Jackson opened his mouth to say something in my defense, his face thunderous, but I held my hand up to stop him so I could speak for myself. I didn’t always need my daddy to do it for me.
“I didn’t steal him from you, Kaye. He was never yours to begin with,” I said.
Kaye huffed, snatched her handbag from the table and flounced out of the kitchen, and as she headed for the front door, Jackson winked at me and then turned to call out after her. “Kaye? I forgot to tell you something.”
She turned around, blue eyes wide with hope as if she thought he might forgive her after the terrible things she’d done and said. It was actually kind of sad, and if she hadn’t just called me the C-word and wished death upon me, I might’ve actually felt bad for her. “What is it?” she asked.
Jackson smiled. “You’re fired.”