Jack: Too much, too soon? I’d say I was sorry, but I wouldn’t mean it.
Dakota: If I see you when you’re being this affectionate and loving, I might crumble. I’ll stop thinking again. And that’s the only thing I need right now to think. Don’t make me ask again.
Three dots appear, vanish, and appear again.
Finally.
Jack: I understand. I won’t ask again. Just know, I’m here.
Yeah, he’shere…
But what does that even mean if I have to hide in the shadows like some paid plaything?
CHAPTER 16
JACKSON
When I wake, I check my phone. Dakota still hasn’t replied. I’ve got a pit in my stomach every time I think about last night. My voice cold when I told her to hide, like I thought I was her goddamn boss. How could so much heaven be followed by so much hellscape?
My cell phone rings in my hand. It’s Shane, my CFO. “How soon can you be in, sir?”
“Good morning to you too,” I say dryly.
“Sir, the stock… it’s dropped. Because of last night.”
I stand quickly, head buzzing. How the hell would anyoneknow? There weren’t cameras in the office, were there? Did someone see us go in together? There would’ve been cameras in the corridor, most likely. Or what if—no way—but what if Dakota went public?
“Sir?”
“I’m here,” I growl.
“Are you well enough to come in?”
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I be?”
“That’s why the stock dropped, sir. Reports of you leaving the event early last night because of some mysterious illness.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I snarl. “I leftten minutes early.”
“The board would like a meeting.”
“I bet they fucking would.”
“I miss the days when it was you and me in a garage,” I tell Pete.
“Times change,” he mutters.
“Can’t even go for a drive without putting the whole damn company in jeopardy,” I grunt.
“No offense, Jack, but this attitude isn’t going to fly in there. They need to see you calm, poised, and in control.”
I almost laugh. I’m none of those things right now. I feel like a tripwire attached to a stack of dynamite. Every time my phone buzzes—journalists, my creative and RP teams, key shareholders—I pull it out, praying it’s Dakota.
“Jack?” Pete says.
“I heard you.”
The elevator door opens onto a glass hallway leading to a larger glass room. The board members have already seated themselves around the enormous conference table, I see.
