Big Pickle: A Secret Boss Romantic Comedy - JJ Knight Page 0,70

your room. If you’d been at the dinner last night, he would’ve handed it to you. Come on.”

I do not want to follow Max and Nova to the bay of elevators, but I have no choice. Inside my gut, everything is roiling like I’m a volcano, ready to spew lava over the land.

While we wait, Nova says to Max, “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for my raise and bonus. The first time I heard you speak, I realized it was you I talked to that day.”

She doesn’t even glance my way.

Max beams at her. “Anybody can see you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to that crappy little deli in Austin.” Then he takes Nova’s hand and tucks it in the crook of his arm.

What? Was he moving in on Nova? Had they been seeing each other since she got here?

I do not pause even a moment to think I might be wrong, or this isn’t what it looks like.

The red flares up behind my vision, and before the elevator even arrives, I shout, “Hands off her, mother fucker.”

And I plow my fist into his jaw.

34

Nova

Oh no, oh no, oh no.

As Jace’s fist connects with his brother’s face, I spin to come between them.

“Jason!” I shout, forgetting that he’s Jace now. “Stop!”

Max, who easily outweighs his older brother with fifty pounds of solid muscle, barely flinches from the blow.

But either Jason doesn’t hear me, or he doesn’t care, because he swings a second time.

I duck to miss getting hit myself and ram my head into Jason’s belly.

Jason stumbles back, and I lose my balance. We both tumble to the glossy floor.

Jason’s arms come around me to soften my blow. I land on his chest, but as soon as we’re both down, I scramble to get away from him.

“Damn it, Jace,” Max bellows. “Why the hell do you have to make a scene?”

He reaches down to pull me up by the hand. “Are you okay, Nova?”

Jason leaps up with a roar. “Keep your hands off her.”

I whirl around him. “What has gotten into you? He was helping me up.”

“Don’t touch her,” Jason growls again, eyes on Max.

Max holds up his hands. “I don’t know what you think is going on here, bro, but you can back the fuck off.”

A tall man in a black suit approaches. “Is there something I can assist you gentlemen with?” He’s completely composed for someone walking up to a brawl in his posh hotel.

“We’re fine,” Max says. “We’re heading up to our floor.”

The elevator has opened and closed since this altercation began. Thankfully the lobby is fairly empty mid-morning.

“We’re okay,” I tell the man. This is more than I bargained for.

Jason looks out of sync with the rest of the hotel in his Austin Pickle shirt and jeans. For possibly the first time I’ve ever seen, he is the least dressed-up person in the room.

I try to sound soothing. “Jason—Jace, I mean. Let’s go upstairs. The first meeting has probably already started.”

Max takes my arm again, and his threatening look tells Jace he better back off.

Still, I unravel my arm from his. “I’m okay. I can walk on my own.”

The three of us load into the elevator, sullen and quiet.

Max has been super great since my arrival in New York. He and Audra have shown me around town, taking me to restaurants and getting us private visits at some of the big destinations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, and parts of the Rockefeller Center closed to tourists.

It’s been a fantastic two days, but I know what Jason saw when he spotted me and Max together at breakfast. A closeness he didn’t expect. A breakfast date that suggests maybe something else had happened.

I decide to just get it out. “I’m not sleeping with your brother,” I tell Jason. “I wouldn’t do that.”

Max makes a strangled sound. “What?”

I glance up at him. “We were seeing each other in Austin. It didn’t end well.”

Max clears his throat. “That explains a lot. We knew he was wrecked. I guess we should’ve known it wasn’t someone from his usual crowd.”

Jason stares sullenly at the wall, his fists tight like he’s trying not to punch something else.

We arrive at our floor. Jason follows behind us as we head toward the meeting room at the end of the hall. We’re late, but since I’m walking in with two of the brothers, I don’t worry about it. Jason is my boss, and if I’m with him, then I’m probably where