7. Just A Fool

Katherine

Jason: Dinner tonight? My treat.

Me: Dinner sounds perfect. Have you checked your pants pocket yet?

He doesn’t respond right away so I’m assuming he’s rummaging through all of his pockets.

A smile splits my face as I wait for his text messages. Who knew it could be this fun to tease him. I’m so lost in my own world messaging back and forth with Jay that I miss the blonde-haired woman scurrying past me. I try to grab her attention and rush after her but she storms into David’s office and slams the door in my face.

I know I should’ve quit after the fiasco at my apartment but I was called in to a meeting with David and an HR rep where he apologized for his behavior in his office and very expertly avoided the topic of what happened in my apartment. He said that it would never happen again. And for some fucked up reason I agreed to stay on at my job.

Jay wasn’t very happy about my decision (he did eventually find out that David is my boss), and every day since when five o’clock hits, there’s a member of his team walking up to my desk and waiting for me to gather my stuff before escorting me downstairs and to my apartment. I don’t care to fight him on it. It’s better that he knows I am safe, and I also don’t care to have my boss on the 6 p.m. news as a murder victim. Because if David touches me again, Jay will kill him. It isn’t an idle threat.

Voices carry from inside and I know I shouldn’t eavesdrop but I’ve never seen that woman in here before and she looked like she knew the place. Call it curiosity or whatever, but I press my ear up to his door.

“David,” she almost sings as she strolls further into his office.

“Jane,” David acknowledges her, his voice moving over to the far wall. “Drink?”

“No, gross. I don’t know how you can stand that stuff.”

“What can I help you with?”

“Why haven’t you pulled the trigger yet?” She sounds impatient.

“Because I haven’t.”

“David, you know how Daddy gets when he doesn’t get what he wants. And he wants her.”

“I’m well aware of that, Jane.”

I quickly glance over my shoulder and make sure that nobody is coming down the hall before pressing my ear back up to the door.

“Holy shit, you’re falling for the little bitch.”

He doesn’t respond but I hear heels clicking on the floor and rustling.

“Honestly, Jane. I don’t have time to deal with your bullshit right now. I have work to do.”

“That’s what you’re calling them now? Your little conquests? Work?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The little brunette sitting out there. Seriously, David? In the office of all places.”

My eyes widen at the realization that the only person they could be talking about is me. Now I’m not so sure if I should be eavesdropping but I can’t seem to pull away now.

“Don’t get too attached to her, David. Soon she’ll just be another missing girl. And we’ll be laying on a beach in Mexico.”

“I’m not fucking falling for her. And it’ll get done when it gets done. Now, get out, Jane.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I have to get back to work and figure out how to not make all this fall back on this company.”

Pushing away from the door I rush over to my desk and grab my purse and cellphone before hightailing it out of there. There’s now no doubt in my mind that they were talking about me. But why? And what were they planning?

Soon she’ll just be another missing girl.

Dry heaves rack my body as soon as I step out onto the sidewalk and I have to throw my hand out against the wall of the building to keep myself from doubling over. My brain conjures up an image of the blonde-haired woman and David sitting around in his office with cocktails and discussing the best way to make me disappear. It makes my stomach roll.

A cab pulls up against the sidewalk in front of me and as soon as the couple get out I push past them and give the cab driver the address to a local pub. I don’t even care that it’s only two o’clock in the afternoon, right now Jose is calling my name and I’m about to answer with as many shots as I can consume until I either pass out or forget about what I heard in that office.

When I walk into the dimly lit pub I’m not expecting to see Jay sitting at the bar nursing a beer.

“Fancy meeting you here,” I remark, placing my purse on the bar top and slipping onto the barstool next to him. I order a shot of tequila and a beer when the bartender comes to take my order.

“Hey, stranger.” He nudges me with his elbow.

“Long day?” I ask tipping my chin at his beer.

“My job is made up of long days,” he replies while watching me take the shot of tequila and suck on the lime. “Long day?”

“Don’t want to talk about it.” I hold up my shot glass to the bartender and he refills it.

“Ah, one of those days,” he smirks, ordering two more shots.

“Yep,” my lips make a popping sound with the word.

He and I go shot for shot until we’re practically hanging off each other and the bartender eventually cuts us off. When my phone beeps for the tenth time since I entered the pub, he reaches over and snatches it up. I don’t bother stopping him. We don’t have any secrets between us.

His eyes harden when he sees the message. “He lay a hand on you again?”

He tries to raise an eyebrow but he fails miserably when both of his eyebrows rise at the same time. I can’t help the laugh that breaks through, and he reaches out to grab my arm when I almost tip the barstool over.

“No. He wouldn’t dare do that again,” I laugh, not caring if everyone in the pub hears me. It’s a nervous laugh though. When I’m more steady on the stool and feel confident enough that I’m not going to fall over again, I slap my hand on his back and lean into him. “You wanna know the funny thing? I got this vibe about him when I first started working there, like something wasn’t quite right but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then he touched me. Twice.” I jam a finger into my chest. “I ran out early today because I overheard him making plans to have me ‘disappear’.”

I shake my head and reach out to take another shot before realizing that the bartender has already cut us off. “I’m not even sure what that means, and I didn’t stick around to find out because I’m not wearing underwear,” I mumble, hanging my head.

He sputters and chokes next to me. “You what?”

A slow grin tugs at the corners of my mouth when I lift my eyes to his. “I’m not even wearing underwear. Have you not checked your pants pocket yet?”

Jay’s face falls and his hands immediately go to searching the pockets of his tactical pants. His frantic search halts when his left hand slowly starts to pull out a piece of silk thong. “Jesus Christ. I’ve been walking around with these all day?” He throws some bills down on the bar and grabs my hand, pulling me behind him out of the pub. Instead of heading toward a waiting cab as I expect, Jay walks us back towards the Walker Advertising building

“Where are we going?”

“You’re going to wait in the lobby while I go and have a little chat with your boss.”

“Jay…”

My sentence is cut off when I see Parker, Mike, and a third equally menacing, step out of a blacked-out SUV.

When the hell did he text them?

“Cole,” Jay barks at the third guy. “Stay down here with her. I don’t want her upstairs while we’re up there.”

He nods. “Yes sir.”

When Cole moves to stand next to me, even through my tequila-fogged brain I notice that his eyes are a unique shade of green.

 

***

 

Jay, Parker, and Mike were up there for a while before the elevator pings and the three of them walk out. Jay is wiping something off his knuckles with a paper towel.

Is that blood?

When they reach Cole and me, Jay nods towards the men and the three of them head off again. Jay doesn’t say anything to me while he slips his arm around my waist and guides me into a nearby cab. Silence clouds us as the driver takes us closer towards my apartment.

“What happened?” My voice sounds small.

Jay runs a hand through his hair and blows out a breath. He doesn’t say another word until we’re pulling up to my apartment building and he’s walking me to my door.

“What are we doing?” I press.

“You’re not wearing panties,” he growls.

“Jay – “

“No, Kat. You can’t fucking say shit like that. I…fuck.” He drops his head to his chest and runs another hand through his hair.

The look in his eyes when he lifts his head again has me backing up against my door but he follows, placing one hand above my head on the door and leaning in. His other hand grips my hip.

“What did you guys do up there?”

“You belong with me. You’re mine, Kathrine. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you,” he whispers. “You said you overheard him talking about making you disappear. So, we questioned him, and that’s all you need to know for now.” His mouth is less than an inch away from mine.

Heat travels up my body and he groans when I bite my bottom lip between my teeth. Jay and tequila are a deadly combination. It’s like wanting that last slice of chocolate cake but knowing that you’d have to run twenty extra miles on the treadmill tomorrow just to burn it off. But that damn chocolate cake keeps calling your name and you have to use all your willpower to resist the temptation. His mouth crashes down on mine, and all my willpower evaporates. I didn’t have much willpower anyway.

I’m what you call a touchy-feely drunk, but most of the time I can still control my actions after a few shots. But not with Jay.

When I’m drunk on tequila shots and he’s around, all my rules and inhibitions fly out the window. It’s like tunnel vision takes over and the only thing I see is him. I can’t get enough of him. At that point he stops being my best friend and becomes the man I want to get lost in for a few hours.

He pulls away and leans his forehead against mine, our breathing heavy. “You’re drunk,” he breathes.

“So are you.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. You only want me when you’re drunk.”

“And you’re complaining? You’re about to get laid.”

“I want you to want me when you’re sober.”

I pull further away from him and lean my back against my apartment door. “Why? Why can’t you just take what I’m giving you, Jay? This is all I have to give.” My arms lift and then drop to my sides again.

He takes a step back shaking his head. He slips his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and eyes me with hurt swimming behind his intense stare.

“I don’t believe that,” he says and walks a few feet away before looking back over his shoulder. “You will be mine. The sooner you realize that, the better it’ll be.”

The minute the elevator doors close with him on the other side my phone pings with a new message.

David: Where are you?

Argh, not with you, asshole. Well, at least he’s still alive.

What pisses me off the most is that Jay had a point.

He was right.

I did want him when I was drunk because I was too scared to admit how I felt when I was sober. Except for that one night in Toronto. But that’s all we could have. One night.