A Reclusive Heart

by R. L. Mathewson

  “He did,” Rick agreed, finishing off his drink. “If you had explained what was happening I would have been more than happy to go over this with you.”

  They let out a collective sigh as they shared another one of those looks that gave him hope that they’d let his little recluse back. “I apologize for the misunderstanding, Mr. Quinn. Would you please consider forgetting this incident and continuing with us?” Jonathan asked, looking suddenly exhausted. Not that he could blame the man since this little episode left his head reeling.

  “As long as you allow Miss. Harris to do the same,” Nick clarified.

  Jonathan didn’t bother looking at his partners as he nodded. “Consider it done.”

  “Thank you,” Nick said, more than willing to let this go as long as his little recluse was safe and happy. He was just about to head after her when one of the secretaries burst through the doors. “The police are here and they’re looking for Miss. Johnson,” she said anxiously.

  For some reason he really wasn’t at all surprised, he thought as he put his drink down and went to hunt down his little recluse.

  ******

  “Stupid lock,” Jamie muttered as she gave up her attempts to break into the filing cabinet and rescue her poor lonely little coffee roll that desperately needed her attention.

  She was a little stressed out and honestly, she didn’t do well with stress. She needed a sugar fix and she needed it quick. Then when she was done she fully planned on trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life since she’d just lost her job and pretty much her contract within the last hour. Her game plan had been to follow Nick wherever he went, but now that she was out of that situation and thinking a little clearer she realized that he just might not appreciate that one bit.

  After all he’d just lost his job and probably his reputation because of her.

  Why would he want her to go with him? He probably wanted to get the heck away from her as fast as he could and she really couldn’t blame him.

  She needed chocolate, sugar, caffeine, just something sweet to calm her down, she thought as she left his office. For a moment she stood there contemplating her options. There weren’t many. For one thing she couldn’t leave the building. Well, she could, but then she’d have to face the paparazzi that were stationed outside.

  She did have her car, but she doubted they’d let her get to it without harassing the heck out of her.

  Granted, she had to leave sometime. Why not now? She needed to get some sugar, clear her head, and think and there was no way that she could do that with an office full of people who’d seen her have sex. Yeah, it was definitely time for her to leave, she decided as she lowered her gaze to the floor and made her way to her office.

  Less than five feet from her office the scent of cheap perfume hit her hard.

  She wrinkled her nose up in distaste at the offending odor as she headed for her door, hoping the scent hadn’t seeped into her office. When she opened her office door she was hit full blast by the eye stinging aroma. It took her a moment before she managed to get her focus off the horrible scent and onto the woman standing frozen at her desk in front of her laptop computer, her laptop computer that should still be in her bag and beneath her desk, but wasn’t.

  “What are you doing in here?” she asked, walking to her desk just as the woman ejected a disc from her laptop and placed the disc in the front pocket of her brown blazer.

  “I was just leaving you a note,” Holly said, smiling as she stepped away from the desk and headed for the door.

  “On my computer?” Jamie asked, frowning down at her computer. It was open to her desktop and she wondered how the woman got past her password.

  “It was open,” the woman lied.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Jamie said, clicking open the recent documents folder and what she saw there had her seeing red. “You went through my books and private files?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Someone must have gone through it before I walked in, Miss. Harris. I only came in here to leave you a note,” she explained as she headed for the door.

  “Then where’s the note?” Jamie demanded, fighting back tears of frustration.

  Even though everything in her screamed for her to shut up and leave it be she just couldn’t. The woman had gone through the books she’d just written, her e-mails, and the two lists she made.

  Out of everything the lists were the things that upset her the most. She’d accepted that people took one look at her and realized that they could walk all over her without a problem, but they couldn’t have known about the things that she’d inadvertently admitted to in the list. No one knew that she was a virgin, they could guess, but they would have never known for sure. Worst, Holly now knew that she’d never been kissed before Nick.

  It didn’t bother her that Nick was the only man she ever kissed. Actually it made it feel even more special. She liked the idea of Nick giving her her first kiss.

  He was so sweet with her, kind and funny and took such good care of her. The way he treated her and looked at her made her want to hope for the impossible, that he was truly in love with her, but she wasn’t an idiot.

  There was nothing even remotely special about her. She might look better than she did a year ago, but there were still prettier and sexier women out there and Nick could probably have any woman that he wanted. Unfortunately for her she was also still Jamie. Just because she’d expanded her outlook on life and tried new things didn’t change the fact that deep down she was and probably always would be the painfully shy woman that hated to be the center of any sort of attention.

  Nick didn’t need a woman like her by his side. He was handsome, charming and didn’t mind having all eyes on him. He needed a woman that was outgoing and matched him in personality and looks and she was not that person. As much as she would love to be she could never be that woman. She didn’t know what hurt worse, the knowledge that she would always be “Jamie” or that she didn’t have what it took to keep a man like Nick.

  “I figured out what I needed so I guess I didn’t need to leave a note after all,”

  Holly said, dragging her attention to more important matters like the woman who’d just gone through her personal files.

  Maybe she wasn’t the old Jamie after all, she thought as she picked up phone. The old Jamie would have simply shut her mouth and wallowed in self-pity, but she was done with that. She might not turn into the life of the party, but she was done with allowing people to push her around.

  “Fine. Then we’ll just let Rick handle this,” she said, starting to press the extension for Rick’s office only to find the phone suddenly pulled away.

  “You can’t do that!” Holly snapped, looking nervous.

  “Watch me,” Jamie said, reaching out to take the phone back only to find the woman jumping back and out of reach. “Holly, give me-What the heck did you do to my computer?” she practically screeched as she watched the icons on the desktop begin to flicker before disappearing all together.

  She ignored the woman in front of her as she tried to figure out how to stop whatever was happening to her computer. Every time she tried to click on an icon that icon would disappear instantly. She watched in horror as everything on her desktop disappeared until the screen turned a stomach clenching black and she knew that all of her work was gone.

  Two books that she’d slaved over whenever she had a moment of free time no matter what time of day it was were now gone. Not only were they the two books she owed to Rerum Publishing and were due next month, but they were probably her favorite books so far. There was no way that she was going to be able to write two new books in time. Even if she worked day and night there was no way that she could do it.

  “Why?” she demanded, fighting back tears as she looked up at the woman who looked on the verge of panicking.

  “I-I…..,” the woman stammered as she put the phone down and moved to flee from the room, but Jamie cut off the taller woman by stepping in her path.

&
nbsp; “Why did you destroy my work?” Jamie demanded.

  Holly noticeably swallowed as she shifted to the side to dart past Jamie, but she wasn’t having that. She was done with letting people push her around. All her life people took advantage of her, walked all over her and openly dismissed her not caring that it left her feeling hollow inside or so alone that sometimes it was a struggle just to breathe. She was done playing the victim.

  “If you don’t tell me what you did right now then I’m going to call the police,”

  Jamie bit out through clenched teeth.

  Holly’s eyes widened in panic as she reached for Jamie. Unfortunately for her the other woman was faster and bigger. Holly had her by her arms and was squeezing painfully before she could stop her or get out of the way.

  “You can’t do that!” Holly snapped, giving Jamie a good shake. “I’ll be ruined if you do, Jamie. Just let me make this up to you!” she pleaded, looking slightly crazed as she gave Jamie another shake.

  “Let go of me!” Jamie ground out as she struggled to get away from the woman, but Holly refused to let her go, desperate to convince Jamie to give her a chance.

  “I can fix this. I’ll get Rick to push back the date on your contract. I already planned to do that. Now that Nick’s gone and everyone else has their hands full I know that Rick would pick me to work with you,” she shot a nervous glance over her shoulder at Jamie’s computer as her hands tightened ever further around Jamie’s arms. The woman’s long manicured fingernails bit into her skin and Jamie barely bit back a wince at the stinging sensation as Holly’s manicured nails pierced her skin.

  “If Nick had just backed off like he was supposed to I would have never had to resort to destroying your books, Jamie. You have to believe me. I just needed him to back off so that I could take over. He didn’t need you, not like I needed you,”

  Holly said with a crazed look in her eye that actually frightened her.

  “What are you talking about?” Jamie asked, trying to pull free again, but the woman refused to let her go.

  “Nick’s already a senior editor. He didn’t need you, but that bastard was too selfish to give anyone else a shot. Don’t you understand?” she shook Jamie roughly to get her point across. “I had the best chance of getting J.L. Lewis. I’d been here the longest and was next up for consideration, but Nick,” the woman bit out with such distaste that Jamie momentarily forgot about the pain in her arms as she watched Holly struggle to stay in control.

  “I thought you wanted Nick,” Jamie said quietly only to have Holly give her a violent shake, slamming her head into the wall that she’d apparently backed her into.

  “Want him?” she asked with a humorless laugh. “Why would I want him?

  He’s a whore just like his mother only he does it for free,” she said acidly. “But before you came along he was the key to everything.”

  Chapter 30

  “Say that again,” Nick said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he fought back the headache that he was pretty sure was coming.

  “They wanted her out of the apartment,” the detective explained again with a weary sigh.

  “So they sent her death threats?” Nick asked in disgust as he dropped his hand to his sides.

  Detective Michaels nodded. “It seemed that they didn’t realize that Miss.

  Harris had been evicted yet and decided that she needed another threat to scare her away. We caught Mrs. Briggs stuffing an envelope in Miss. Harris’ mail slot at three this morning and Mr. Ames stuffing a letter in her mail slot around four this morning and then one beneath her door just in case she missed the first one,” he drawled.

  “And why were they doing this again?” Rick asked as he leaned a hip against the corner of his desk.

  When the police arrived a half hour ago he’d been eager, more like desperate to go hunt down his little recluse, but Detective Michaels explained that he had a few things that he needed cleared up while his men searched the building for Holly, who more than likely already split since the police weren’t here for even a minute before word spread about the reason behind their visit.

  Detective Michaels’ lips twitched as he said, “According to Mrs. Briggs, Miss.

  Harris blasted her television day and night, was loud, and had drunken parties every weekend.”

  Nick couldn’t help but frown as he shared a surprised look with Rick. His little recluse was loud? That was bullshit. She didn’t like the volume when she was watching television or listening to the radio up loud. In fact, most of the time while they were driving he had to raise the volume so that he could hear the damn thing.

  He couldn’t even begin to describe what was wrong with the drunken party accusation.

  “Apparently this last two months has been particularly bad. Mrs. Briggs complained to the manager, but nothing was done so the woman decided to take it into her own hands,” the Detective explained.

  “She hasn’t been in the state in the last two months,” Rick said, sounding just as confused as he felt.

  The Detective cleared his throat. “Well, it appears that Mrs. Briggs hearing aid was not only set too high, but she also has difficulty pinpointing the direction in which sounds come from. As it turned out it was the neighbor on the other side that was causing the problems, five twenty year old college kids.”

  “And Mr. Ames?” Nick found himself asking when all he wanted to do was hunt down his little recluse and pull her into his arms.

  “He was convinced that she’d been stealing his mail.”

  “Why exactly would he think that?” Rick asked, pouring himself another drink, Nick noted. If this conversation wasn’t enough to drive a man to drink he really didn’t know what was, he decided as he snatched Rick’s drink and downed half of it in one swallow before shoving it back into Rick’s hand. With a grumble and a glare Rick finished it off and placed the glass on his desk.

  “According to Mr. Ames, he doesn’t trust quiet people because they’re always up to something. So he felt it was his obligation to see what she was up to. After he broke into her mail slot and discovered letters addressed to J.L. Lewis he determined that she was a criminal and that Jamie Harris was the alias. When he didn’t win the Publishing House Clearance after sending them ten entries every day for the past year he concluded that it was because of Miss. Harris. He believed that Miss. Harris didn’t have a job because she was living off his prize money.”

  “Were they working together?” Rick asked, sounding somewhat amused and pissing him right the hell off.

  This wasn’t funny. These two nut jobs had gone out of their way to scare the hell out of his little recluse and almost cost him any type of a future with her. That thought made everything in him still.

  A future?

  Did he want a future with her? He loved her, absolutely adored her, but he hadn’t given any real thought to anything long term mostly because he was scared out of his mind that he would hurt her. It made him wonder if a future with her was even possible. Did he trust himself not to hurt her?

  Surprisingly, yes.

  He’d rather die than hurt her and he knew that feeling would only intensify over the years. But just to make sure he tried imagining touching another woman.

  The thought left a sour taste in his mouth and he knew he would never want to stray. Jamie turned him on like no other woman and she was fucking fantastic in bed. Of course she was still pretty new to sex and would only get better in time, he thought, fighting back a huge shit eating grin.

  He was a lucky bastard and damn well knew it.

  “No. As far as we can tell neither one of them was aware of what the other was doing,” the detective explained, thankfully pulling him out of his thoughts before his body gave away his thoughts. The last thing he needed was a hard on with two guys in the room, he thought dryly.

  “What does Miss. Johnson have to do with this?” Rick asked and Nick was thankful that the man was focused because he sure as hell wasn’t. All he could think of was grabbi
ng his little recluse, hunting down a jar of hot fudge and letting her go to town licking it off his body.

  With a silent curse he forced himself to focus again.

  “We’re not exactly sure yet, but we do know that she was behind the videos in Texas. We were actually hoping that you could help shed some light on the subject before we spoke with her.”

  He felt every muscle in his body go rigid at that announcement. “She was the one that threatened Jamie?” he demanded in a cold even tone as he contemplated killing someone for the first time in his life.

  “It would appear so. When the boys at the IT department in Texas went through the hotel’s surveillance videos again they spotted her in the corner of the lobby watching you as you spoke with the manager, we’re presuming it was when you asked for the pool keycard. Then they went back two more hours on the employee hall surveillance camera and found her sneaking in the back door of the pool area and slipping into one of the dressing rooms. We weren’t sure until we zoomed in on that spot because the fitting room area was nearly pitch black while you were using the pool, but we spotted slight movement when you entered the pool area and spotted her running into the employee hall minutes after you and Miss.

  Harris left. Unfortunately there are no cameras in the guest elevator or the halls so we can’t prove that she was the one who recorded the audio CD, but we did manage to lift a partial print from the CD. I just need you to confirm that you didn’t speak with