“No one else knows,” he said reassuringly. “You can trust me.”
“Mack owns a whole bunch of nightclubs and bars in the area,” Liv said.
Mack dug a business card from his wallet and slid it across the table. “My main office is at Temple. It’s one of my nightclubs.”
Jessica nodded. “I know that one.”
“I also own several other smaller clubs.”
Jessica bit her lip. “What kind of jobs do you have?”
“I’ll make one up for you, if necessary.”
“You’d do that for me?” Her voice held the awestruck tone of a girl who’d just met a superhero. Liv sort of understood because, in that moment, she sort of felt the same.
“You can start today if you want. You never have to go back to Royce Preston.”
And just like that, the spell was broken. The utterance of Royce’s name seemed to break something inside her. Jessica shook her head and shoved Mack’s card in her pocket. “I need this job. The pay is better than anywhere else I can find, and the connections . . .”
“I know,” Liv said. “It’s the same reason I started working there too. You think your career is golden if you work for the great Royce Preston. But look at what it’s costing you. No job is worth that.”
Jessica’s lips pinched together in a tight line. “Or maybe you just want revenge. You want to use me to get back at him for firing you. He said you would try it.”
“Are you defending him right now?” At that, Mack reached over and squeezed Liv’s knee.
“Do you know what he could do to me?” Jessica fired back. “All I want is to be a chef, like you. He’ll ruin me.”
“Not if we ruin him first.”
“See? You just want to hurt him. I used to hear you talking in the kitchen. You hate Royce. You always have.”
“Trust me, Jessica. The easiest thing I could’ve done that night is walk away. I got absolutely nothing out of defending you.” Mack’s fingers dug into her knee. She glared at him, and he responded with a tiny shake of his head.
Jessica snapped her laptop shut. “I wish you had just walked away.” She hauled her backpack onto her lap and started shoving things inside.
Liv leaned toward her. “Jessica, he can’t be allowed to get away with this. Who knows how many other women he has done this to? Doesn’t that matter at all to you?”
“That’s not my problem.” She rose from her chair.
“Let us help you,” Mack said calmly.
“You want to help me?” Jessica slung her backpack over one shoulder. “Leave me the hell alone.”
“Jessica—” Liv said.
Mack squeezed her knee again. “Let her go. We can’t force her.”
Liv rubbed her eyes. “Now what?”
Mack stood. “Now I get you some barbecue.”
CHAPTER NINE
An hour later, Liv took out her frustrations on an unsuspecting pulled pork sandwich while sitting in Mack’s office. The thud-thud-thud of the base from the live band made her insides shake and her glass of lemonade ripple.
“I don’t get it,” she said, mouth full. “Why won’t she leave? What possible reason would someone have to want to let him get away with it?”
Mack dipped a fry in ketchup. “Fear is a powerful motivator.”
“But we’re giving her a way out. What’s there to be afraid of?”
“Until you’ve been in that position, you can’t possibly know.”
It was basically the same thing Rosie had told her, but Liv still didn’t buy it. “No,” she said, reaching for her lemonade. “Bullshit. You can’t tell me a woman would willingly stay in a situation like this for any reason.”
“Kind of judgmental, don’t you think?”
Liv reeled back. “Excuse me, but whose side are you on?”
“Yours. Which is why I’m going to be honest with you.” Mack wiped his mouth with a balled-up napkin. “You were a jerk back there.”
“I was not!”
“You basically blamed the victim.”
“Screw you. I did not.” But her brain betrayed her ego and started replaying her own words back to her. Who knows how many other women he has done this to? Doesn’t that matter at all to you? She sank into her seat. “I just don’t understand.”
“Not everyone is like you, Liv.”
She scrunched her eyebrows. “What does that mean?”
“Not everyone is willing or able to take on the world in a great big fight. It doesn’t make them weak or wrong.” A spark fired in his eyes, and he suddenly leaned forward on his elbows. “Did you know a woman will go back to an abusive relationship