A Reclusive Heart
Page 53
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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 her the next morning and that as far as you know she didn’t handle the CD.”
Nick shook his head. “She was supposed to leave that day. I don’t think she was around the next morning.”
Detective Michaels pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped through several pages before he found what he was looking for. “She caught the ten a.m. flight to Los Angeles, California the next morning.”
“Of course she did,” he said, rubbing his hands down his face and feeling like an idiot. “She had to be there the next morning to drop the envelope off at our room.”
“Do you know where Miss. Harris is at the moment? I need to speak to her while my men look for Miss. Johnson.”
“She’s probably looking for a fix,” Nick said.
“She has an addiction problem?” the detective asked, looking less than pleased with the announcement.
“Yeah, she’s a sugar addict and if we don’t find her soon she’ll probably be too wired to answer your questions,” he said, sighing as he gestured for the man to follow him.
******
“The key to what?” Jamie found herself asking as she desperately tried to ignore the sharp pain in the back of her head and the hot liquid seeping over her scalp.
Holly slammed her against the wall, again. This time Jamie gave up her useless struggles to push the woman off since it was clear that the woman was clearly stronger than her and focused all of her attention on kicking the woman. She got in one good kick and was instantly rewarded with another shove into the hard wall behind her before she moved her legs out of kicking distance, leaving Jamie with no way to protect herself. How in the heck did the woman get so freakishly strong?
“To get to the top. What else?” Holly asked with a mocking smile. “It shouldn’t have been too hard. The man seemed to f**k anything and everything.
When I first came here I waited for him to make his move and when he didn’t I had to initiate it, but apparently the male whore has a rule about f**king co-workers.
My initial plan was to let him f**k me and then manipulate him into putting a good word in for me and if that didn’t work I was going to threaten to sue for sexual harassment, but I couldn’t get the bastard to ignore his rules and f**k me.”
“Well, he’s not desperate,” Jamie found herself saying and was of course rewarded with another slam against the wall, but it had been worth it.
“When you signed on I knew you were going to be my big break. All the senior editors were busy and I’d been kissing ass for months. I should have been placed as your editor. Never in a million years would I have suspected that Nick wanted you.
He didn’t need you, not the way I needed you. I tried to talk Rick into placing me with you, but the bastard wouldn’t listen.”
“So, you sent me death threats?” Jamie guessed.
The woman looked insulated. “No! I didn’t send you death threats, but I will admit that when I found out about them I thought they would be enough to send Nick running. He doesn’t like drama or complications and having some psycho after you should have scared him off, but it didn’t.”
“Let me go,” Jamie bit out as she tried to shove the woman’s arms away, but it was like pushing against steel. The woman would not budge so much as an inch.
“I thought to push the whole stalker angle when I first found out about it when Rick told me that I was going to be tagging along as an assistant.” Her expression turned cruel as she spat out, “I’m too good to be anybody’s assistant.
Rick should have handed you over to me, but instead he insisted that I tag along and play gofer to the bastard.
She gave Jamie another shove against the wall that caused black spots to dance around her vision. She sucked in a breath as she fought against the urge to vomit. Her head was killing her and she was pretty sure that a few more well placed slams would knock her out and she was truly afraid of what this crazy woman would do to her then.
“As you can imagine I was not happy at all about the situation, but then I walked in on the two of you kissing in the break room and I was sure that I found my key to getting Nick to step aside and let me take over. When we got to the hotel I planned on blackmailing the bastard, but he gave me the brush off and decided to openly spend the night with you and taking away my hope to blackmail him. If he didn’t care enough to hide it I knew he wouldn’t care if Rick found out so I tried to convince you that he was only using you, but instead that bastard called Rick and had me sent home.”
Her hands tightened around Jamie’s shoulders, moving slightly closer to Jamie’s neck when she gave her another forceful shake. “I knew Rick was going to fire me or worse, demote me to handle nobodies that wouldn’t get me anywhere so when I heard Nick make his little pool plans I took a chance and it worked,” she said smugly. “Granted, I thought he’d quit to save his own ass, but him getting fired worked in my favor.” Her expression turned murderous once again as her eyes zeroed in on her. “That is until I discovered that you fulfilled your contract and weren’t going to sign again. I couldn’t have that. Not after all my hard work.”
Jamie tried to shove the woman away when her hands came around her neck and gave a warning squeeze. “Now listen to me, you bitch. I haven’t worked my ass off all these years for you to wreck me. You’re going to sign the contract if you know what’s good for you and you’re going to beg Rick to assign me to you.”
“And if I don’t?” Jamie asked as she desperately tried to remove the hands tightening around her neck.
“There’s no ifs about this, bitch,” Holly said, tightening her hands around Jamie’s neck until it became a struggle just to breathe. “Do you understand? From now on you will do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Jamie shook her head as she struggled desperately for air and freedom. “No, I won’t!” she said on a choked whisper.
Not only did she not want to be within a hundred miles of this psychotic woman or her nauseating perfume, but her pushover days were long gone. She would never let anyone boss her around again or belittle her in anyway. Thanks to Nick she knew she deserved better than that.
Holly released a screech as her hands tightened impossibly further, cutting off the rest of Jamie’s air. As her vision flickered in and out she slapped, pushed, yanked, and even dug her nails into the woman’s arm to get away, but her efforts only seemed to infuriate the woman. She just resigned herself to this being the end when she realized that Holly had moved closer to her in order to keep her hold on Jamie. It gave her an idea that she wasn’t sure would work, but she needed to try anyway.
Gathering her last reserve of energy as her lungs burned and her world began to fade around her, Jamie brought her knee up hard between the much taller woman’s legs and nearly jumped for joy when the woman let out a surprised gasp and a groan of pain. Her hands loosened somewhat around her neck. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to allow her to suck in a lungful of air.
Jamie didn’t waste any time in shoving the surprised woman away. She stumbled to the side, giving Jamie a chance to run for it. Unfortunately the crazed woman was blocking the only exit in the room so Jamie settled for running to the other side of the small office and putting the desk between them.
“You’ve ruined everything!” Holly screeched as she slammed her fists against the desk. “Everything!” When Jamie saw the woman’s glare drop down to the sharp letter opener lying in its case near the computer she decided that it was past time to make a run for it. She took off running, thankfully taking the woman by surprise and managed to run past her.
Her hand fumbled with the door as adrenaline surged through her body. She couldn’t stop shaking as she tried desperately not to think about the insane woman coming after her. After a few failed attempts she managed to grip the doorknob and open the door with a loud bang. She ran into the hallway, not sure where to go or what to do when she heard him.
Nick shook his head. “She was supposed to leave that day. I don’t think she was around the next morning.”
Detective Michaels pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped through several pages before he found what he was looking for. “She caught the ten a.m. flight to Los Angeles, California the next morning.”
“Of course she did,” he said, rubbing his hands down his face and feeling like an idiot. “She had to be there the next morning to drop the envelope off at our room.”
“Do you know where Miss. Harris is at the moment? I need to speak to her while my men look for Miss. Johnson.”
“She’s probably looking for a fix,” Nick said.
“She has an addiction problem?” the detective asked, looking less than pleased with the announcement.
“Yeah, she’s a sugar addict and if we don’t find her soon she’ll probably be too wired to answer your questions,” he said, sighing as he gestured for the man to follow him.
******
“The key to what?” Jamie found herself asking as she desperately tried to ignore the sharp pain in the back of her head and the hot liquid seeping over her scalp.
Holly slammed her against the wall, again. This time Jamie gave up her useless struggles to push the woman off since it was clear that the woman was clearly stronger than her and focused all of her attention on kicking the woman. She got in one good kick and was instantly rewarded with another shove into the hard wall behind her before she moved her legs out of kicking distance, leaving Jamie with no way to protect herself. How in the heck did the woman get so freakishly strong?
“To get to the top. What else?” Holly asked with a mocking smile. “It shouldn’t have been too hard. The man seemed to f**k anything and everything.
When I first came here I waited for him to make his move and when he didn’t I had to initiate it, but apparently the male whore has a rule about f**king co-workers.
My initial plan was to let him f**k me and then manipulate him into putting a good word in for me and if that didn’t work I was going to threaten to sue for sexual harassment, but I couldn’t get the bastard to ignore his rules and f**k me.”
“Well, he’s not desperate,” Jamie found herself saying and was of course rewarded with another slam against the wall, but it had been worth it.
“When you signed on I knew you were going to be my big break. All the senior editors were busy and I’d been kissing ass for months. I should have been placed as your editor. Never in a million years would I have suspected that Nick wanted you.
He didn’t need you, not the way I needed you. I tried to talk Rick into placing me with you, but the bastard wouldn’t listen.”
“So, you sent me death threats?” Jamie guessed.
The woman looked insulated. “No! I didn’t send you death threats, but I will admit that when I found out about them I thought they would be enough to send Nick running. He doesn’t like drama or complications and having some psycho after you should have scared him off, but it didn’t.”
“Let me go,” Jamie bit out as she tried to shove the woman’s arms away, but it was like pushing against steel. The woman would not budge so much as an inch.
“I thought to push the whole stalker angle when I first found out about it when Rick told me that I was going to be tagging along as an assistant.” Her expression turned cruel as she spat out, “I’m too good to be anybody’s assistant.
Rick should have handed you over to me, but instead he insisted that I tag along and play gofer to the bastard.
She gave Jamie another shove against the wall that caused black spots to dance around her vision. She sucked in a breath as she fought against the urge to vomit. Her head was killing her and she was pretty sure that a few more well placed slams would knock her out and she was truly afraid of what this crazy woman would do to her then.
“As you can imagine I was not happy at all about the situation, but then I walked in on the two of you kissing in the break room and I was sure that I found my key to getting Nick to step aside and let me take over. When we got to the hotel I planned on blackmailing the bastard, but he gave me the brush off and decided to openly spend the night with you and taking away my hope to blackmail him. If he didn’t care enough to hide it I knew he wouldn’t care if Rick found out so I tried to convince you that he was only using you, but instead that bastard called Rick and had me sent home.”
Her hands tightened around Jamie’s shoulders, moving slightly closer to Jamie’s neck when she gave her another forceful shake. “I knew Rick was going to fire me or worse, demote me to handle nobodies that wouldn’t get me anywhere so when I heard Nick make his little pool plans I took a chance and it worked,” she said smugly. “Granted, I thought he’d quit to save his own ass, but him getting fired worked in my favor.” Her expression turned murderous once again as her eyes zeroed in on her. “That is until I discovered that you fulfilled your contract and weren’t going to sign again. I couldn’t have that. Not after all my hard work.”
Jamie tried to shove the woman away when her hands came around her neck and gave a warning squeeze. “Now listen to me, you bitch. I haven’t worked my ass off all these years for you to wreck me. You’re going to sign the contract if you know what’s good for you and you’re going to beg Rick to assign me to you.”
“And if I don’t?” Jamie asked as she desperately tried to remove the hands tightening around her neck.
“There’s no ifs about this, bitch,” Holly said, tightening her hands around Jamie’s neck until it became a struggle just to breathe. “Do you understand? From now on you will do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Jamie shook her head as she struggled desperately for air and freedom. “No, I won’t!” she said on a choked whisper.
Not only did she not want to be within a hundred miles of this psychotic woman or her nauseating perfume, but her pushover days were long gone. She would never let anyone boss her around again or belittle her in anyway. Thanks to Nick she knew she deserved better than that.
Holly released a screech as her hands tightened impossibly further, cutting off the rest of Jamie’s air. As her vision flickered in and out she slapped, pushed, yanked, and even dug her nails into the woman’s arm to get away, but her efforts only seemed to infuriate the woman. She just resigned herself to this being the end when she realized that Holly had moved closer to her in order to keep her hold on Jamie. It gave her an idea that she wasn’t sure would work, but she needed to try anyway.
Gathering her last reserve of energy as her lungs burned and her world began to fade around her, Jamie brought her knee up hard between the much taller woman’s legs and nearly jumped for joy when the woman let out a surprised gasp and a groan of pain. Her hands loosened somewhat around her neck. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to allow her to suck in a lungful of air.
Jamie didn’t waste any time in shoving the surprised woman away. She stumbled to the side, giving Jamie a chance to run for it. Unfortunately the crazed woman was blocking the only exit in the room so Jamie settled for running to the other side of the small office and putting the desk between them.
“You’ve ruined everything!” Holly screeched as she slammed her fists against the desk. “Everything!” When Jamie saw the woman’s glare drop down to the sharp letter opener lying in its case near the computer she decided that it was past time to make a run for it. She took off running, thankfully taking the woman by surprise and managed to run past her.
Her hand fumbled with the door as adrenaline surged through her body. She couldn’t stop shaking as she tried desperately not to think about the insane woman coming after her. After a few failed attempts she managed to grip the doorknob and open the door with a loud bang. She ran into the hallway, not sure where to go or what to do when she heard him.
