Stuart’s eyes widen and he opens his mouth, flapping it like a fish.
“So that’s lie number one today.” I seethe, the back of my neck burning as I glare at him. “Now, don’t make the next words out of your mouth be lie number two.” I jab my finger at the screen, straight into the embracing couple that’s plastered all over the front page of the news site with the caption,Did Mrs. Walker walk into the arms of another?
“You want to tell me why the fuck you have your arms around her?”
“It’s not what you think.” Stuart takes a breath and regains his composure, his calm mask slipping firmly back into place.
“You don’t know what the fuck I’m thinking.” I leave the screen turned toward him. I don’t want to look at Harley in another man’s arms for a second longer than necessary.
“I did take Paige for lunch,” Stuart says calmly. “And I invited Harley to join us.”
I bang my fists on the table and stand, but Stuart doesn’t flinch. He just watches me coolly from his seat.
“Tell me why you have your fucking hands on her? And I swear to God, if you lie, or I don’t like your answer, then I will remove your head from your body with a blunt instrument and make it look like an accident.”
He smiles.
“What the fuck was funny about what I just said?” I snap, my chest heaving like I’m about to explode. There’s an overwhelming throbbing in my hands that even flexing them in and out of a fist doesn’t ease.
Perhaps slamming them into Stu’s face will help.
“It’s not funny,” he declares as his lips drop back to a firm line. “You two are made for each other. That’s why I smiled. Although Harley’s approach is less… caveman.” He side-eyes me and then drops his pen down on to the table with a sigh.
“She was upset. I was being a friend.”
“I’ve heard that before,” I snap.
“A friend to both of you.” He turns in his chair and fixes his eyes on mine. “Look. There’s no easy way to tell you this. I’m just going to come out with it.”
“Go on.” I tilt my head side to side, my neck cracking as I try to ease the tension.
Stuart rolls his lips and nods to himself.
“Someone has been trying to blackmail her. They wanted her to persuade you to re-select George Yates for NYPD commissioner. She looked like she was about to cry, and I got the impression she didn’t want to upset Paige. So I held her while she had a moment to herself. She’s trying to help you. Everything she’s doing, the reason she’s so upset, is that she wants to help you. But she doesn’t know what to do. She’s scared.”
I close my mouth, sealing in the threat I was about to issue before it leaves my lips. Then I sink back into my chair.
She’s scared.
“Angel,” I murmur, rubbing my eyes with one hand, wishing more than anything that she was here, that she’d answered my call earlier, and I could have spoken to her. I thought about going up to Griffin’s office after lunch to see her. But Griffin said she wouldn’t be there as he had sent her to take minutes for some meeting that started straight after her lunch break.
“Who told you?” I drop my hand, my stinging eyes wearier than ever.
Stuart’s brow shoots up. “You already know?”
“She went to Griffin for help.” I pause. “And I guess that means you already know what they’re using against her?”
Stuart nods gravely. “I do.”
“Have you seen it?” I hold his gaze, my stomach knotting as unwanted memories try to claw their way to the front of my mind. I force them away as I swallow the bile in my throat.
“The beginning. Not all of it. But enough.”
“I see.”
The two of us look at one another, not speaking. What words are there? I don’t want him to tell me he’s sorry. Not for something that happened years ago. And what can I say? It’s not like I’m going to break down and bring up a load of shit from the past that I really want to forget about. I wasn’t lying when I told Harley that I don’t think of it anymore. And any lingering trace of it that affected the way I acted, the way I behaved, left me the night that I opened up and shared it with her at her mom’s house.
She healed that final part of me.