Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life (The Jessie Slaymaker Series) (27 page)

Is that what he was? Her latest squeeze? That suggested an air of the temporary, and Jack had gotten the distinct impression that Sonia’s plans for them were far from temporary. He’d already overhead a couple of the guests saying things like they’d ‘never seen Sonia so happy’ and ‘what a perfect couple.’ He’d even heard Sonia herself explaining to a couple of people that he already knew her father and that they ‘got on well.’

Perhaps he was overthinking things. What was he really complaining about? A gorgeous, intelligent woman wanted to be with him. They’d known each other for years, were very good friends, mixed in the same circles, and ultimately came from the same privileged world. Perhaps Sonia was
the one
for him, and he should just bite the bullet and get on with it. When he’d gone back to England, he’d been lost. Maybe what he’d been looking for all along was still in Asia. Yes, Jack told himself. Sonia could be good for him.

But that was easy enough to say. Not so easy to really believe. A nagging voice inside his head was still worried. Worried about her father and what he would do to him for interfering with his daughter. Jack really didn’t know if Mr Shum would call for the hit man, as rumour had it. There was something else niggling him. Although he and Sonia had gotten together after a drunken night, there was something about the whole affair which reminded him of an arranged marriage. Not that he was even contemplating marriage. No way. But subconsciously, the thought had crossed his mind. What if old Mr Shum insisted he marry Sonia? How would he feel about that? Jack shuddered involuntarily and told himself he’d just have to make the best of it.

He was also worried about ending up with the wrong person. Whether it was for a week, a year, or a lifetime, the wrong person was the wrong person. And life was short. He guessed he could be content with Sonia, but could he be truly happy with her? The kind of happiness that radiates from every pore? He just wasn’t sure. There was also the sex. They’d done it again the morning after the night before and it hadn’t been bad. But it hadn’t been great either, Jack thought sadly.

Right on cue as he was thinking about sex, a flash of midnight blue flew past him. Jessie. She looked a little lost, trying several doors before she found the bathroom. Jack knew he should get up and find a different hiding place. But he couldn’t. He was drawn to this woman and he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible—while he still could. So he waited. He waited for ages. He waited so long he thought that she’d found a different way out. But he knew this house fairly well, and he knew there was no other exit for her to have taken. Jack was about to get up and knock on the door to check if she was alright when the door slowly opened. He watched her carefully, noticing how she arranged her face and posture for the public. He could see something clearly was not right with her. He’d been so entrenched in his own mess that he hadn’t thought much about anyone else. Yes, of course he’d thought about Jessie, but he hadn’t stopped to consider how she was doing in Hong Kong. Then he remembered that she’d been about to tell him something earlier out on the terrace before Sonia had whisked him away.

‘Jessie,’ he called out to her, beckoning her over to where he was sitting. She saw him and paused, seemingly undecided as to whether to walk over to him or not. Apparently making up her mind, she walked slowly over to him wearing a serious expression. Gone was her excited and happy demeanour from before when she’d been keen to tell him something. She stopped a few paces in front of him. Jack automatically went to grab her hand to pull her closer to him but she snatched it away quickly, obviously not wanting to be touched.

‘What’s wrong, Jessie?’ he asked softly.

‘Lots,’ she replied, throwing her eyes up to the ceiling before fixing him with an odd look like she didn’t quite trust him. Then she visibly shook herself like she was a professional sportswoman getting ready to race, exhaled loudly, and plonked herself down next to him.

‘Very elegant,’ he teased, unable to not smile at her, as he nudged her shoulder with his.

‘Ha ha. Very funny,’ she replied, rolling her eyes at him whilst grabbing his drink and taking a large swig.

‘Hey, that’s mine!’ he halfheartedly protested.

‘I need it more than you do,’ she said as she took another big mouthful.

He was about to object and say that he wasn’t so sure of that, but stopped himself. From the moment he’d arrived in Hong Kong this trip had been all about him. About how
he’d
been slighted, and how
he
felt about things, and about the mess
he
was now in. He remembered Jessie’s face when she came out of the bathroom, and realised that she probably had her own shit going on and probably no one to talk to about it. He let Jessie sit there quietly, finishing his drink, just feeling content to be in her presence. Jack didn’t want to push her, and he knew that, provided they were left in peace, she’d talk eventually.

Chapter 65

Jessie didn’t know where to begin. Not a flipping clue. There she was, sat with the love of her life—possibly—necking his drink, and she was speechless. In fact she was wordless. She couldn’t even think of one measly word to say to him. Jessie had managed to convince herself of one thing, though. She’d looked into his eyes and knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jack didn’t have an inkling of what his brother and his new girlfriend were up to.

‘How’s the girlfriend?’ Jessie asked, aiming at a lighthearted, jovial tone when she eventually spoke.

‘Ha ha. Very funny,’ he replied, mirroring her earlier response.

‘Jack,’ she began, serious now, turning to face him. ‘Are you sure Sonia doesn’t know about the agreement you made with her father?’ she asked carefully. Jessie knew she had to sow a seed rather than merely make a bold statement which he would be unlikely to believe or want to hear.

‘Positive,’ he said quickly. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘And who else knew about it? About the deal?’ she asked, ignoring rather than answering his question.

‘Just myself and Mr Shum. And like I told you before, nothing was written down. At least not to my knowledge.’

‘So if Mr Shum died, do you think he would have nothing in place to stop you from marrying his daughter?’ Jessie said objectively, although she felt herself go queasy at the thought of Jack marrying anyone. Jack looked blank. It was obvious to Jessie that he hadn’t thought of that, and that he simply had no way of actually knowing.

‘Are you sure no one else could know? Or have guessed?’ Jessie pushed further, needing the conversation to come round to Charlie. ‘Surely questions were asked about your funding in China when you first set up your company?’

‘There was never any secret about who set me up. I think people just presumed that because Mr Shum was an old family friend, he was the obvious person to help me.’

‘But if people knew Mr Shum, would they think he would offer his assistance freely? Or would they assume that he’d expect something in return?’ Jessie asked, conscious that she was sounding a little cryptic.

‘What is it you’re trying to tell me, exactly?’ Jack asked, fixing her with a pointed look. Jessie didn’t say anything. She diverted her gaze away from Jack’s and stared off into the middle distance as her state of wordlessness returned.

‘Spit it out, Jessie. We don’t have all night, and Sonia has probably sent out a search party already,’ Jack said irritably, scanning the vicinity. The mention of Sonia nudged Jessie out of her trance as she felt a sense of urgency flow through her.

‘Look, Jack. There’s no easy way of saying this, but I’m sure Sonia knew about your deal with Mr Shum. I don’t know why, but she’s deliberately entrapped you into being with her. She’s playing games with you and Charlie,’ Jessie said, looking at Jack and trying to gauge his reaction.

Jack didn’t have time to try and digest what she had told him and ask questions, because at that moment they were interrupted again by the lady of the hour. Sonia.

‘Hello again, you two,’ Sonia said as she stood over them. ‘Not interrupting anything, am I?’

‘Not at all,’ Jessie replied jumpily. All Jessie wanted to do was put on a disappearing act. Knowing what she knew, she felt extremely uncomfortable being in the same vicinity as Sonia. The woman couldn’t be trusted.

‘Do you know what? I’m actually really tired and I have to catch a flight tomorrow. I think I’m going to say goodbye to Mr Chan and then make a move,’ Jessie announced, handing Jack his now-empty glass and standing up.

‘Leaving so soon? Well, have a safe trip home, and thanks again for coming,’ Sonia said insincerely, pulling Jack to his feet and linking her arm through his. Yuck, Jessie thought to herself. Sonia was all over Jack like a rash.

‘I hope you enjoyed your time in Hong Kong, but as you know, all good things must come to an end,’ Sonia added coldly, looking Jessie square in the eye. The depth of meaning was not lost on Jessie. Sonia wanted her gone. Gone from Hong Kong and gone from Jack’s life. It was clear as day that Sonia would not be welcoming Jessie to Asia if she did take that job in Hong Kong.

‘See you,’ Jessie said as politely as she could, ‘and thanks again. Bye, Jack,’ she added, feeling sad that she was leaving him to this viper.

Still, he was a big boy, and in theory he should be able to look after himself. The only trouble was, he had the combined plotting of his lovely loyal brother and his good friend Sonia to contend with. As Jessie left Sonia and Jack to more introductions and social butterflydom, it suddenly dawned on her that with the information she had, she needed to save
two
people. Jack
and
Mr Chan. She’d tried her best to save Jack. What he did with the information she’d given him was up to him now. She only hoped he’d actually been listening to her.
Really
listening to her. In the meantime, Jessie knew she should definitely go and tell Mr Chan what she knew, which could hopefully help him mitigate any fallout which might occur as a result of the stolen information that Sonia had gotten her hands on.

Chapter 66

Jessie managed to find Mr Chan, and on their way back to the hotel she told him everything she’d learned regarding the missing documents. Mr Chan listened carefully, and Jessie was surprised that he didn’t leap to Sonia’s defense, seeing as she seemed to be the golden girl in these parts. Literally. When Jessie told him that it was Sonia who seemed to be behind things, he didn’t seem at all surprised, just disappointed.

The next day Mr Chan called Jessie whilst she was packing and filled her in with the full story. It turned out that Mr Shum had a vendetta with some of the senior people at the bank, and Sonia had hatched a plan to get even in her father’s name—hopefully with the use of a little tool called blackmail. She wanted to expose some of the bank’s staff by looking at their benefits and bonuses, citing some accountancy anomalies, whilst also pulling out key personnel and offering them up to their competitors. The only snag was, Mr Shum hadn’t sanctioned the plan, and when Mr Chan had asked for a meeting with him, he’d been horrified to find out what his daughter had been up to. The last thing Mr Shum wanted to do was to draw attention to any of his own accounting anomalies—and so he regarded the whole business as playing with fire.

Mr Shum had apologised to Mr Chan profusely, saying that he would bring his daughter back into line and that the stolen information would be returned to him by the end of the day—along with a solemn promise that they would not use any of it to cause embarrassment to the bank. Jessie had asked if she would need to testify against Sonia to the authorities, but Mr Chan had merely given her one of his chuckles. Jessie simply shrugged silently into the phone, disappointed that a dishonest woman like Sonia would be allowed to fight another day. She guessed that was one of the perks of being part of the super-rich set. On a more positive note, Jessie was pleased for Mr Chan. He sounded thoroughly relieved, and he couldn’t thank her enough. He said he hoped this debacle hadn’t put her off the idea of Hong Kong and told her to take as much time as she needed to consider his offer.

As Jessie waved goodbye to the city on her way to the airport, she felt satisfied that she’d righted a wrong and helped her bank, and she was happy that Mr Chan had recovered the information. Although he hadn’t mentioned anything to her, she had inferred that he had been under severe pressure from the powers that be to get that information back.

What a week!
Jessie exclaimed silently to herself as she trundled through the airport towards her gate. She felt like so much had happened in such a short space of time and that she really needed time to process. Her mind started daydreaming, thinking about how different things could have turned out with Jack if she’d only followed her gut instinct and kicked Charlie out of her room that night. If she hadn’t slept with Charlie, then Jack wouldn’t have got drunk and slept with Sonia, and wouldn’t now be tied to her for God knows how long. Whether she should feel guilty or not, Jessie felt responsible for the unfortunate mess Jack was in, and by the end of her flight she had reached the conclusion that, really, it was
all
her fault. She wondered if Jack blamed her as much as she now blamed herself.

Landing back at Heathrow, Jessie felt that there was some serious unfinished business that she’d left lying wide open back in Hong Kong. She hadn’t heard a bean from Charlie, and as for saving Jack, she was even more absolutely clueless as to where to begin with that than ever before. Looking back, Jessie hoped she had told him enough of what she knew, so that he would do some of his own digging, and eventually start asking some relevant questions of the people around him. Hopefully before it was too late and Sonia had him up the aisle. If Jessie had to sum up her trip, she’d have to say that it had been a great success from a professional perspective, but a complete shambles in every other respect.

You can’t have it all work out for you all the time
, the rational part of her brain told her. Meanwhile her emotional guilty side was shouting,
What a big fat juicy mess you made, Jessie girl.