He tips an imaginary hat at me before he turns. “Jax. You’re looking lovely as ever.”
Then he and his boys walk out, and I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole. He’s trapped us in a never-ending spiral, and we all know it.
How the fuck are we going to get out of it?
Chapter 26
Gray
I’ve been sitting at my desk, staring at the wall for almost an hour.
When I arrived at work this morning, I had a calendar full of meetings, but since the weekly ops meeting was cancelled before lunch, I’m sitting staring into space like an idiot.
The break is extremely unwelcome.
I’ve never been so shocked at my own naivete before. I had thought, at thirty-five, I could read people pretty well, but all of that went out the window when I saw Jax counting dollar bills like her life depended on it.
Jesus. Why did I think she wanted anything from me but my wallet?
I scowl at myself, glaring at my liquor cabinet, wondering if I could have a whiskey without everyone in the office smelling it on my breath this afternoon.
I knew it was just a job to her. Of course it was. So why can’t I get that image out of my head?
Rising, I walk to the window, looking down at New York beneath me, staring at the tiny dots skittering about on the sidewalk. My hand moves to the inner pocket of my jacketautomatically, and I pull out the coin, flipping it through my fingers as I inhale a deep, cleansing breath.
I’m an idiot.
What do I really know about Jax in reality?
She could be fucking guys every night at the club she runs for all I know. My fingers curl against my palm as I grit my teeth. The idea of her being touched by another man is so abhorrent to me that I have to fight the urge to punch something.
She’s an escort, and I’m thinking of her as if she’s my property.
Isn’t she, though?
I try to dismiss the misogynistic thought, but it persists, lingering at the back of my mind. If she’s fucking anyone else, I should be allowed to kill them with my bare hands.
“Goddamn it,” I mutter into the glass, and turn around, pocketing the coin and heading to the door.
When I open it, the office is almost deserted, with most people already gone to lunch. There are a couple of people by the elevator, but no one else is nearby.
I turn to Jax, inventing something in my head that I can demand, just to make her day more difficult. This woman is a cocktease who wouldn’t even fuck me when I asked her to, despite me paying her for it. That’s clearly all she wants.
Then I look at her and find her asleep at her desk.
I stop dead in my tracks, staring at her. She’s still upright, but her eyes are very obviously closed. Her fingers rest against the keyboard, as if she’s attempting to type even while she’s asleep.
What the hell?
“Jacqueline!” I bark, noting the people in the distance turn at the sharpness of my voice.
She jolts awake, her eyes fluttering open as she focuses on me, and for a second, I feel a bolt of discomfort as sympathy riseswithin me. She must be exhausted if she’s falling asleep during work hours.
But that’s not what I pay her for.
“Get in here,” I snap, and walk back toward my desk.
I have several accounts I need to process, and I plan to have her complete them today. Usually, each one takes an hour to upload onto the system, and there are six. She’ll have to work late, and I get a perverse sense of satisfaction from knowing how pissed she’ll be.
