he picks up a folder on the left side of his desk. It wasn’t hidden, but it’s not labeled and it looks like all the rest.
My eyes follow his movement and my brow furrows until he opens it.
“The hotel had cameras. And of course they’re gone now, but a few snapshots were taken. Some I think you’d find particularly interesting. Maybe enough so to stay.”
I can imagine what they are before he flips the folder open. The eight-by-ten glossy photo paper shows the one thing that proves I lied. I’m walking into the hotel lobby I claimed I didn’t enter. And I’m not alone. Standing right next to me is Tony. Only hours before he was found dead in the rec room of the hotel. The one reserved for our company and the division Bruce is the head of. Seeing Tony and his bloodshot eyes takes me back to that night. To the moment I found him dead on the floor.
My limbs freeze in waves. Like the betrayal that moves through me.
“It’s just a security net on my end,” James says and then closes the folder, pulling it off the desk and into his lap.
His prized possession. My heart thuds in my chest. The one out I thought I could take so I could hide from everything that’s happened, slips away from me.
“So if I quit,” I start to ask, but instead I just stop and stare ahead out of the window. I want to kill him. There’s never been a time in my life when I’ve desired someone dead. But right now, it’s all I want.
“Then I assume it’s for less than moral reasons,” James spells it out for me. “I need to protect myself.”
“That’s bullshit,” I tell him and my words are hard. My hands turn to fists as they tremble with the need to get this anger out.
“I know, trust me I know,” James says. “And I don’t like this any more than you do.”
A sarcastic huff of a laugh leaves me. “Fuck off,” I sneer at him.
I stand up from the office chair so quickly it nearly falls over. I grip it so tight I think I’ll break it. Fuck, I want to break it. I can picture beating the piss out of him with the broken wood.
My body is hot, my mind in a daze of regret and sickness.
“I’m leaving,” I barely speak as I turn my back to him and start to walk off.
“The fuck you are,” he seethes.
My body whips around, tense and ready to let it all out. Every day it’s been building and building, the tension winding tighter and the need to destroy something climbing higher and higher. I only took a few steps away, and with his words I’m right back across the desk, ready to do something stupid.
My body heats as my fist moves from the chair to the desk and I lean closer. He may not want to show it, but I see the fear in his eyes.
He should be scared. He’s fucking with me. Threatening me. No one is going to take my wife from me. I won’t allow it.
“I need to get away from this. From you.”
I never should have listened to him and try to cover it up. He set me up. He used that night to his advantage and I played right into his hand.
It takes everything in me not to reach across the desk and haul him up by his collar. To fist the fine cloth in my grip and spit in his face.
Pure rage and adrenaline pump through my blood.
“Careful now,” James smiles as he says it, but I notice how he leans back. Both of us know he’s scared. If I throw this punch, if I push, he could bring it all to light.
And then I’ll lose her forever.
“I’m going home, and I’ll let you know when I’m available again.” Never. The word is whispered in the back of my head. I’m never returning to this office. I’m never doing another thing for this fucker.
“You can’t leave me. I’ll ruin you,” he practically whispers with nothing but hate. He says the words I already know.
“Ruin me then,” I tell him, looking into his dark eyes as I turn the doorknob and leave him behind me. On the surface I’m calm, but brewing just beneath my skin is nothing but chaos. Everything I’ve feared has finally come.
Proof I was there.
Proof I lied.
I leave the office with the threat echoing in my head.