Chapter Twenty-two
Mac never answered her calls and Jessie couldn’t get a flight to New York until early the next morning. Dragging her suitcase along with more questions than answers, Jessie marched into the ITAL offices itching for a fight.
“Oh, look who it is, the golden girl of ITAL On Air.”
She turned to see Mercedes coming down the hall, her old smug expression gone for the moment.
“How?” Jessie demanded. “How did you find out?”
Mercedes brows drew together in a frown, then relaxed. “Mac told me. But as far as I’m concerned, you won by default. My interview blew up in my face, thank you very much. My guess is you knew it would and set me up for a fall. And who knew the Prince of England would refuse to talk about his mum? Or his love life. Just a tour of some castle, which is not ITAL On Air worthy.”
Jessie shook her head, not caring about any of what she was rattling about. “How did you find out about Garrett’s marriage?”
She shrugged. “Mac sent me the transcript of your interview with that stupid plan to do something bicoastal and have both of us on the air. You knew it wouldn’t work, didn’t you?”
A transcript of the interview? A slow burn crept up her back. “No.” She shook her head, not able to even handle this news. “Never happened. No. No. I never wrote down a single word.”
“I should have known when he told me you were a hundred percent on board with sharing the first show with me and letting the viewers decide.” She snorted. “As if they’d rather look at you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jessie looked past her to the empty cubes and halls toward Mac’s office.
Mercedes reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone, tapping the screen. “Here’s the email all about how we’d co-anchor and that was the only way to get it done, and that’s the attached transcript.”
With unsteady hands, she took Mercedes’s phone and skimmed Mac’s lies, then tapped the document at the bottom, her heart hammering as it opened.
The notes were stream-of-consciousness shorthand, but almost every word was taken directly from a private, intimate conversation. Not word for word, but close.
She was scared…terrified at the whole idea of being a single mother…thought I loved her…had to look at that man every single day and know he was the father of a child I was completely prepared to treat and raise as my own…such an arrogant prick, I honestly didn’t think that thing had been serious…
And she had not written one word of that.
Her vision blurred as the words actually made her dizzy. “It was like he was in the room.”
Mercedes rolled her eyes, not buying it.
“He would have had to have been in that room or…” Was it possible? Could he have listened in on the conversation? “He bugged my room?”
“You can sing that song all you like, Jessie. It doesn’t matter. You won. You got the job. Your story is the feature lead on Wednesday night. Hardly a fair win, but that’s the name of the game in this business.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. “I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care what I have to do, I don’t care about anything except that story is going to be killed. They can’t use a word on Garrett Kilcannon. Not one mention of his name.”
“What about your story? Mac said the raw footage is amazing.”
“They can’t use it. I won’t allow it. I won’t let them have anything that was shot. They can’t use it without my implied and express permission.”
Mercedes leaned forward. “Only if you’re not an employee, hon. You’d have to quit. Don’t you want the job?”
Not like this. “But how could he have done that? How could he know where I was staying? How…”
She closed her eyes, visualizing the room that night. The fire. The wine on the night stand. The laptop Garrett had set on the dresser. The laptop…the laptop. Open on the dresser.
She slammed both hands over her mouth, sucking in a breath.
“What?” Mercedes asked.
“He watched. Through the camera. On my laptop!” She whirled around to grab the case, her hands shaking so hard she could barely unzip it.
“That is so creepy.”
“Beyond creepy. It can’t be legal.” She pulled the computer out and whipped up the slim screen, willing the thing to give up its secrets.
“I think you have to tape over the camera,” Mercedes said. “Did you?”
“No.” Because who would do that? She ran her finger over the tiny camera lens. “Do you have tape over yours?”
“No, but I will now.” Mercedes bent over and squinted at the lens. “Is it on now?”
But Jessie was replaying another conversation and Mac’s words came floating back to her. I’ll help you. I can watch out for you and help move things along on this end.
By spying on her?
“Mac is going to get what he deserves for his unethical, disgusting, manipulative behavior.”
“You think so?” The words came from behind her, accompanied by the not-so-subtle stench of Aqua Velva. “Jessie, get in my office, and we’ll go over the production schedule for Wednesday night’s show.”
Fury bubbled up as she whipped around, eye to eye with him. “We’ll go into your office and bring the lawyers in, Mac, because I am going to see you go so down for this.” She held the computer up. “You spying bastard.”
He gave a soft laugh that only made her angrier. “Jess, how many times do I have to tell you to do your homework? That’s a company-issued laptop, and you signed a piece of paper that said you would use it exclusively for company business, which you do, I notice. But it’s legal for this company to put any software we want on it, and…well, we do.”
Beads of sweat formed on her neck. “Software to spy on private conversations?”
“Just that one, I promise. You keep that laptop closed unless you’re writing, I noticed, so I didn’t see anything, you know, really private if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Mercedes backed away, her lip curling. “I’m pretty grossed out by this.”
Mac looked sideways at Mercedes. “I’m grossed out by how you mismanaged the biggest bombshell interview anyone ever gave you. Get comfortable in print, Mercedes, because you don’t have the chops for TV.”
“Screw you.” She pivoted and walked away, holding up her middle finger.
He stared after her. “That’s a fine way to say thank you for the biggest break in your career!”
“Mac.” Jessie’s voice was barely a whisper. “What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” he fired back. “Do you want to be in this business or not, Jessie? It isn’t for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. But you do have the chops and they agree in broadcast. Swallow your pride, get with the program, and meet me in my office. I’ll bring you coffee.” He put one of his fat little hands on her shoulder. “And, I have more great news. I’m accepting the job as executive producer of ITAL On Air. We’re going to be a great team.”
She jerked out of his touch. “No, we are not going to be anything.” She poked his chest, stabbing hard. “You are going up to broadcast to tell them that I’ve resigned and every single word about Jake Chamberlain, Claudia Chamberlain, and Garrett Kilcannon is off the table. Unreleased, unsourced, unauthorized, and cannot be used.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Watch me. If one syllable about Garrett Kilcannon runs on ITAL On Air or appears on the website, I will go public with the fact that this company spies on its employees. You will not like the publicity, Mac. You will not enjoy job hunting.”
From behind his glasses, light brown eyes flickered with fear. “I don’t have a story for Wednesday. I worked like a dog for this promotion.”
She snorted. “Don’t insult dogs like that.” She pivoted and scanned her desk, trying to decide what to take, her gaze landing on her favorite quote.
Success isn’t the key to happiness; happiness is the key to success.
Right now she wasn’t either one. Unless…she changed that.
“Get real, Jessie. You don’t have anything else. This place is your whole life. Your job defines you.”
“Not anymore.”
She reached for the framed quote and lifted it off the hook, and handed it to Mac. “Here, you need this more than I do.”
“What are you going to do?” he demanded.
She took the Paris picture, and the butterfly, and left everything else. Including her damned computer.
“I don’t know.” She closed her fingers over the handle of her suitcase and gave him a tight smile. “Maybe I’ll get a dog and write some books.”