I’m not a fucking idiot. I’m not asking a woman about her weight, asshole.
Me:
Find out if she’s sick then.
He reads the message, shakes his head, and pockets his phone. Fucking hell, she’s been back for two weeks—well, a month according to Bradley—and I’m already losing my damn mind.
I pick up the controller and turn off the monitors. I can’t keep watching her. I’m going to make myself insane. Then I walk around my desk, sit down, and open the latest finance reports I should be reviewing.
I took over as CEO of Westmead Enterprises. The family has their hands in a lot of different pies, but the main one is acquisitions. We buy out companies, and depending on what they are, we then build them up to something great or sell them off bit by bit until there is nothing left.
It’s the part of the business I love. Taking something that’s struggling for life and bringing it back. It’s also something I had in common with Jazzy. She always wanted to go into business analysis when we were in high school, while I always knew I’d be taking over this place. I never resented it. I wanted this. I wanted to be the CEO.
I might have a trust fund and never have to work, but what the fuck would I do all day? I’d get bored with not working. I haven’t taken a single day off for the last two years. There are a lot of people who rely on me to be able to do this job to the best of their ability.
We employ hundreds of thousands of people across the country. If I fuck up, my life won’t be ruined, but the people we employ? Theirs might be. We always give plenty of notice and financial payouts when we decide to sell off a company we’ve acquired, because I don’t want to be the person to ruin someone else’s life.
I did that once, for completely selfish reasons, and it’s not a good feeling. I won’t be that person again.
After hours of looking at spreadsheets, I stand and stretch. Bradley should be done with his lunch meeting by now. I wonder what Jazzy is doing.
I can’t help but log in and search for her. I find her leaving Aces thirty minutes ago.Where are you going?
Jazzy is a creature of habit. There are only certain spots she frequents. After not finding her entering any of the other casinos or her parents’ house, I log into the cameras outside thecemetery and that’s where I find her. The time stamp says she arrived five minutes ago.
I turn on the app on my phone that connects to the listening device I planted under the angel statue. Seconds later, I hear her.
“I don’t know how to stop seeing him, Mom. Every time I close my eyes, I see it, and the nightmares are coming back.” Her voice is quiet. Sad. She sounds so tired too. Far from the happy woman I saw meeting with Brad a few hours ago. “Dad is hovering. I swear every time I turn around, he’s right there. And if it’s not him, it’s CJ or Aiden acting like big brothers. They think I’m going to break, but I won’t.”
My brows draw down.What the fuck happened to her?Her family has always been overprotective. But the way she says it makes it seem like they’re worse than ever.
“I know they mean well, but I swear I’m going to have to sic Antonia on them soon. I don’t want to hurt their feelings or worry them. I just want five minutes of peace. I want to not see him every time I close my eyes.” She sighs and then there’s some movement. “Thanks for listening. I love you, Mom. I’ll be back soon,” Jazzy says, followed by more shuffling.
A high-pitched screech comes through the receiver.
“What the fuck is that? What the…?” Jazzy hisses. “Fucking no!” Then all sound cuts out.
I smile. Guess she found my little bug. She has no way of knowing I planted that there, though. I’ll just find a better hiding spot for the next one.
Chapter Five
He keeps tabs on you.
Brad’s words repeat over and over in my head as I drive back to the casino. He keeps fucking tabs on me.Fuck that and fuck him. I’m done being the nice girl. How long has he been listening to my private conversations?
Who does that? Plants a listening device at a cemetery? There are only a few people who know that I go there and tell my mother everything. And Jacob Westmead makes the short list. It was one thing to take my virginity and leave me, but listening to my conversations with my dead mother? Yeah, that’s a line you just don’t cross.
I’m not a confrontational person.
Tell that to Freddie, a little voice in the back of my head taunts me.
Although the incident with Freddie was out of self-preservation, not confrontation. I don’t know what happened to him that day, but he thought it was okay to take it out on me. I have never been punched before, and I would prefer never to experience it again either.
But right now, I’m so mad that I don’t care. I am going to confront Jake. He needs to stop whatever it is he’s doing tokeep tabs on me. We are not friends. We are nothing. He made sure of that. He chose this, not me.
I pull up to the front of Aces and stop. “Keep it here for me. I just need to grab something from the office,” I tell the valet.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replies.