by Orla Bailey
I remain stationary but highly intrigued.
“First and foremost, it has come to my attention that certain members of your staff are less than trustworthy.”
“What do you mean?” Anderson doesn’t look entirely surprised by this statement.
“I will not work with any company that employs Amanda Devereaux, Brent Tapper or Ben Gunn. Assure me they will be summarily dismissed and we have a deal. I can provide you with sufficient evidence of their unacceptable practices, for you to be legally and morally satisfied.”
“I see. Well if that really is the case…”
Advance is clearly not a company where loyalty is valued. If Jack had asked me to dismiss Libby in that manner, I would have told him to go stuff himself.
“Anything less is a deal breaker.”
I begin to realise what this means for the three of them. Brent has thrown his lot in with Advance and now he’s about to be abandoned. Gunn is out even before his career has got off the ground. It seems anything Amanda touches is poison – to others. I feel a little sorry for them for their lack of judgement in trusting her. She managed to trick me too, as well I know.
I take most delight in learning of Amanda’s demise. At last she’s being punished for her sins. I doubt any legitimate company will touch her after being formally dismissed. Her career may be over but so is her ability to do harm to others.
Jack finalises the details. “Just so we’re clear, and you are satisfied, I have amassed a body of evidence which ranges from sharp practice to criminal activity. You’d be well advised to consult your lawyers. It has already been passed to the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard and all three of your former employees can expect contact in due course.” He hands a dossier to Anderson.
“I had no idea things were as bad as that. I’m shocked, let me tell you.”
“Me too. If I thought for one moment you had any knowledge of what had taken place, you wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“I understand.” Anderson’s skin pales.
Even I feel stunned and I know more than most about what has occurred. I had no idea Jack had contacted the Police. Or gathered evidence. What evidence can he possibly have besides mine?
“I suggest you keep a much firmer eye on the activities of your employees in the future. Bearing that in mind, the contract I’m awarding Advance is solely for two years, retaining an option to drop at any time, if I’m not entirely satisfied. After that time, both Advance and CaidCo will have the opportunity to pitch for a significantly lengthier contract.”
“I see.”
“If we are to work together, I trust you do.”
Anderson stands to leave, visibly shaken by what he’s heard. Obviously Jack doesn’t believe he was directly involved any more than I do.
“I’m not done yet.”
Anderson sinks again slowly. He’s suddenly aged ten years and so have I. There’s more?
Jack addresses me directly. “Miss Caid.” And quite professionally.
His manner is so starkly formal I struggle not to giggle and I suspect, so does he.
I arch my eyebrow coyly. “Mr Keogh?” I fiddle with my diamond not daring to catch his eye until I bring myself under control again.
“I was extremely impressed by your presentation, Miss Caid. Particularly under… trying circumstances. You’ve demonstrated most clearly you have an astute grasp of emerging markets and global demographics; needs I require met.”
“Needs?” I can’t help myself.
He tosses me the Look and I lower my eyes briefly.
“Needs I require met as Zee-Com develops over the next ten years and beyond. I would like to discuss the idea of CaidCo working alongside us to develop our wider global marketing and advertising strategy, leaving Advance to concentrate on domestic markets. Would that position be of any interest to you?”
“I’m definitely in favour of interesting positions.” I think Jack must be itching to spank me but I don’t care.
I could jump up and down and kiss him for the fantastic offer he’s just made me but I control myself. Jack’s slow burning smile grows wider however. He reads me like a book. Anderson is blowing like a fish denied water.
“I welcome a stimulating relationship between us, Miss Caid.”
“I hope we can negotiate a mutually acceptable deal.” Who am I kidding? I’d do it for love.
Jack turns his back and I see his shoulders shaking. I pinch my lips together and wait until he turns back to face Anderson.
“That’s all for the moment. I’ll have my secretary call and arrange a meeting over the next couple of days.” He finally offers his hand to Anderson. I think the man is still trying to process everything.
Anderson stands and responds. He knows both when he’s been dismissed and when it’s prudent to withdraw. “Thank you, Mr Keogh. I appreciate the situation, as you know.”
“I’ll leave you to decide how and when to inform Ms Devereaux and the rest, of their current employment status. Just don’t do it on my premises.”
Anderson retains a look of barely controlled, mild shock. Jack has played this just right. He’s so clever. He’s punished the guilty, sweetened the pill for Advance yet kept me in the game. Advance will be looking over their shoulder for some time to come.
Once the door shuts Jack turns to me. “You, however, Miss Caid, have not been dismissed.”
I don’t waste a second before launching myself into his arms. I kiss him feverishly. He has to peel me off him, laughing.
“I take it you’re not mad at my decision,” he says.
“It couldn’t be more perfect. I know a good deal when I see one.”
“Look at it this way. Giving Advance the next two years enabled me to call the shots regarding Amanda and company. Anderson wouldn’t dare deny me.”
“Who would?” I flirt like crazy, loosening his tie.
“Behave. You’re a lady.”
“Amanda’s going to go nuclear when she finds out.”
“You leave Amanda to me, but I insist on being extra careful with your security for a while. She’s not to be trusted. Agreed?”
“Agreed. We all know she’ll blame me.”
“She’s delusional. It was you who flushed her out. I can’t believe I thought so benignly of her.”
“That’s because you want to think well of everyone, Jack, like any decent man. She took advantage of that. Besides, she always showed you her best side.”
“I don’t want to talk about Amanda any more. Let’s put the past behind us. She has no place in our future whatsoever. However, you’ve demonstrated, yet again how amazing you are at your business. Not many people could have pulled off a presentation off the top of their head like that.” He pauses and a twinkle enters his eye. “I did see it done once before though.”
“Harry?”
Jack smiles. “Yes. His business acumen certainly rubbed off on you.”
“So interning at CaidCo wasn’t a total waste of my youth?”
“God no. Imagine if I’d never met you.” He crushes me against him as if he really can’t bear the thought.
“You might be living happily-ever-after with Amanda,” I laugh. “Imagine that.”
He swats me on the backside and I duck behind his desk as he gives chase. We both stop in our tracks as the door flies open violently and Amanda barges in, hotly pursued by Dorothy.
“I’m sorry, sir. I tried to stop her,” Dorothy says, scowling crossly at the woman.
“You should learn to muzzle your bitches, Jack.” Amanda and Dorothy glare at one another.
“My gravest apologies, Dorothy. I’ll handle it from here.” Jack is coldly angry.
I’m reminded of that first time I ducked past Dorothy straight into Jack’s boardroom. Amanda was on the inside back then whilst I was firmly shut outside. Our roles have reversed so drastically in only a few short months. I feel some slight degree of pity for her despite everything she’s done. I remember what it felt like to have lov
ed and lost.
Amanda’s eyes sweep across to quickly rest on me. “You’ve ruined my life you deceitful little bitch. I’m going to rip your head off.” She starts towards me and I freeze at all that contagion in her voice, her eyes.
Jack moves fast putting himself between us. “Touch Tabitha, Amanda, and you’ll regret it.” This voice isn’t just the Boss. It’s one pissed off, protective, pushed-to-the-limit-with-his-back-against-the-wall, angry man. It stops Amanda in her tracks.
She collects herself to cast a seductive smile in his direction. “You can’t believe her lies, Jack. Let’s talk things through alone. She’s making a fool of you and I won’t stand for it.”
“We have nothing to say to each other, Amanda.”
“You’re not going to let that little slag, ruin our friendship, are you?”
“Do not speak about my fiancée in that manner. Show some respect.”
“Respect?” She laughs sadistically. “You showed precious little respect for the tart when we made love together in Singapore.”
Jack glances at me to see how I will react to her spurious claims. I reassure him that I trust him implicitly with a shake of my head and a gently supportive smile. I notice his shoulders relax immediately. His eyes reveal gratitude for my trust. They darken as he turns back to her.
Amanda’s glazed glare drills into me with venom. If she could simply wish me dead I’d be colder than a slab of beef on a butcher’s block.
Jack puts her in her place. “Every word that comes out of your mouth confirms your history of lies. We are through, Amanda, in every possible sense. I don’t wish you any harm but if you try to make trouble for Tabitha, I will personally crush you.”
I’ve never seen Jack this white hot angry. Not even when he went for Luc or Phil or that guy in the hotel. Those times were all physical rage. This is something else entirely. I think he might blame himself for inciting Amanda’s vengeance and wrath down upon me, although it isn’t his fault. She’s one deranged woman. The sense of raw animal power and destruction that lies beneath the surface of this ethical, cultured man gives me pause. He’d kill for me.
“Go home and prepare to defend yourself. What you’ve done to Tabitha is immoral and illegal and frankly you completely disgust me. I have nothing more to say to you. Everything that happens from now on, you’ve brought upon yourself. I hope I never have to see you again.”
“Dismiss me all you like, Jack. This isn’t over. I’m not done with that scheming little trollop.”
“Oh you’re done. Trust me on that one. Leave under your own steam now or I’ll have you removed straight into Police custody. Choose. My tolerance is at an end.”
Her eyes swivel in stunned defiance from his to mine. She stretches out an elegant finger, tipped with its perfect purple claw and stabs it in my direction. “Don’t think this is over. I’ll have you, you pathetic little whore.”
“That’s it!” Jack steps forwards and grabs hold of her jacket, wheeling her round towards the door. “Dorothy,” he shouts.
His secretary leaps back into the office led by the same two security guards she’d called to remove me, last time she saw trouble heading her boss’s way. “Sir?”
The uniformed men immediately size up the situation and grasp hold of an indignant Amanda, relieving Jack of his unpleasant burden.
Too stunned to struggle, Amanda coldly throws them an order. “Take your grubby hands off me you filthy little men.”
They seem to delight in ignoring her insult and her instruction as they show her who’s in control. “Play nice, miss. I think the party’s finally over.”
I admire them for maintaining their proficient dignity despite being provoked so rudely. I get the impression Amanda is universally disliked here. Dorothy looks like she wants to hit her over the head with a heavy ledger. God knows, she’d be justified.
Amanda’s cold cod’s eyes never leave mine. She blames me all right. Her perfect mouth creases in a bitter carmine slash across her pale face.
“You were given a chance to exit with dignity, Amanda,” Jack informs her. “You should have taken it. Phone the Police, Dorothy. I want that woman in custody.”
“Nothing would give me greater pleasure, sir.” We can all detect the truth on Dorothy’s face.
“Wait!” I step out from my position of safety behind Jack and look Amanda straight in the eye. I suspect I might be the only person here that can understand some of what lies beneath all the spite and violence of her words and deeds.
She’s in love with Jack.
It might be a rancorous, twisted, warped kind of love; a love that would never be able to enter the warmth of Jack’s heart without freezing it stone dead, but it’s love, nonetheless. She loves him.
I look at Jack in silent plea. He frowns at me.
“Let her go, Jack. She’ll be punished enough.” And I’m not talking about the imminent Police investigation into her affairs. I recall my days of abject desolation living in an arid desert of despair, believing myself deprived of Jack’s love. It’s a soul-destroying shadow world. For Amanda it will be a lifetime of painful reality to know Jack and I are so happy together. I’ve felt the torment she feels now.
We’ve each handled our feelings for Jack differently, yet we both understand each other in a way no-one else can. This is the source of her animosity. She and I alone have experienced the devastation of feeling abandoned by Jack. My purgatory is finally over but she’ll remain in hers forever.
Jack is unrepentant. “I’m not letting this malicious woman free to cause God only knows how much more damage. It’s you I care about. I won’t let her hurt you anymore.”
I rest my hand lightly on Jack’s chest. I recognise the pain that knifes through Amanda as he gentles, unbends and turns towards my touch.
“Her career is already ruined, Jack. She’s lost any hopes of the great friendship she could have had with you and she’ll never be able to have you the way that I have you.” I silently beg him to understand.
He tries. He struggles to see it from my perspective. “How can you defend her after everything she’s done to you?”
“I feel sorry for her.”
His hand reaches up to cup my cheek. “You have a tender heart, my love. My cailín álainn.”
Amanda explodes. She struggles to free herself, practically screaming at me. “You’ll never keep him. What can there possibly be to interest a man like Jack Keogh in a stupid naïve child like you?” Amanda spits out her words. “A few quick fucks and he’ll be done with you too.”
I’ve tried to be generous but I’m not going to accept that without comment. I turn to her roundly. “I’m no child, Amanda. I’m a lot less naïve than I used to be, thanks to you and frankly, our sex life together is none of your business. But just so you know, it’s exciting. Satisfying. Exhilarating. The most incredible experience of my life. And I don’t think we’ve discovered a fraction of it yet.”
I mentally kick myself for descending to her level until I detect the self-satisfied expression that flits across Jack’s face at my remarks. I roll my eyes at him.
“What will interest Jack for the rest of our married lives together is the absolute purest love I have for him and the complete trust we have in each other that no-one else can destroy, least of all you. Oh, and he loves me right back. You will never have that with Jack, Amanda. You will never have him and I’m sorry for what that knowledge will do to you. I am.” It will eat her alive if she lets it.
I note the hard glitter of an impotent tear form in Amanda’s eye. I see the struggle she has to keep it from falling in front of me. Her perfect brow is marred by an ugly crease as she knows I speak the truth. She will never have the one thing she wants so badly. Jack Keogh.
She offers instead a false laugh of disdain. “I don’t need your pathetic pity. Look at you. Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Jack refuses to keep out of our woman-to-woman face-off a second longer. “Tabitha’s beautiful, intelligent,
talented and the woman I love without reservation and intend to share my life with. She’s the woman who’ll become the mother of all my beautiful children. She’s always been the only woman I love and want. I tolerated you and for far too long at that. I allowed guilt to compromise the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And that is Tabitha Caid.”
He addresses his security team. “Get her out of my building, Mateusz, and make sure she doesn’t return. Ever. Zee-Com is off limits permanently to Ms Devereaux.”
We hear her unsophisticated protests and futile struggle to be released as she’s dragged all the way down the corridor and shown the door.
“Not one shred of dignity,” Jack remarks as he closes his door on the spectacle. He comes to me and takes me in his arms. “I’m sorry you had to experience that, kitten. I told Anderson to remove her before he told her, to avoid all this. I’ll be having words with him later.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. Amanda has a way of finding things out. She’s smart enough to have known her days were numbered. She probably cornered him and she’s not so easy to ignore.”
“You’re far too generous.”
“Isn’t that one of the things you like about me?” I smirk up at him. I won’t let Amanda spoil another moment between Jack and me, if I can help it.
“One of them.” He breathes away his irritation at Amanda and returns my smile with a beautiful one of his own. “I’m feeling an urge to indulge in one of the others.”
“An urge?”
He presses me against him. “What the hell are you doing to me, Tabby? I’m in my office in the middle of the working day thinking about bedding you.”
“There is no bed.”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t suppose that boardroom is clear yet?” I run my tongue along my bottom lip suggestively.
“I’m the Boss round here. I can clear it in an instant.”
“We ought to celebrate our new deal. Why not do it where this all began?”
“Miss Caid, I despair of you.” His expression tells me that’s an utter lie. His gravelled voice, in fact, proclaims the opposite.
