“Yes.” Jacob balled his fists against his thighs, attempting to marshal his rage. “You hurt the person I love, and you did it while I paid you money. You betrayed us in the place we felt the safest. At my business. In our home.”
It galled him to see how Jodie’s defenses only rose at this, tears absent as she grasped for excuses to justify herself. “People do this sort of thing online all the time. Everybody knows it’s no big deal, and Rasul is a big enough celebrity he should expect it. Besides, he’s always been a playboy. What does it matter? He practically asked for this.”
The urge to slap her, shake her, do anything physical to try to push his rage onto her was so strong it almost choked him. She got to do all this to Rasul, but he couldn’t do anything at all to her? Obviously violence wasn’t the answer, but… they didn’t know. None of them would ever understand the hell Rasul went through to make his stories, how much he cared about what his readers wanted, how much he just wanted to give people the story they needed that he could tell. Certainly neither Jodie nor her grandfather could comprehend how difficult it was to write about your own orientation, your own cultural landscape, when even your own publishing house wasn’t in your corner to take the risk. No one would understand how far away Rasul was from their image of him, and nobody would give a damn to hear how much his cavalier ways had been a silent plea for help. He hadn’t hurt anyone. All he did was accidentally present himself as a useful tool while clawing his way through misery.
It wasn’t right for Jodie to even think she had the moral high ground here. But it was clear stories of Rasul’s struggles wouldn’t change her heart. She wasn’t interested in Rasul.
The man Jacob loved so much.
With such a long, uncomfortable silence, Jodie began crack, and in her panic, she turned the waterworks back on. “I just want to forget this ever happened.”
“That, I assure you, will be difficult.” Rebecca leaned back in her chair, crossing her ankles as she gazed up at Jodie with a quiet smile that was polite and unmoved by her tears. “I think it best at this point for you to go home and wait for someone to contact you. Ask your parents for a lawyer. Though, I should say—” She winked as she waved her smartphone at Jodie. “Save yourself the stress of deleting your social media. I texted the team before we even sat down, and they let me know a few minutes ago they have all the archives they need.”
Jodie looked like she was going to say something, then bolted out the door instead.
For several minutes neither of them said a word. Jacob struggled to breathe. After a few tight gasps as he tried for a deep inhale, Rebecca put her hand on his knee.
Jacob shut his eyes and hissed his remaining air through his nose. He inhaled, then shot the air out again.
His chest hurt. A small, hollow ache in the center that made him feel as if it was a black hole sucking his soul into it. So many emotions clanged inside him. He should probably do something about the rest of his staff, right? Make sure they weren’t accomplices? How many other people who wandered his stacks, handled his money, smiled at his lover, were in truth only looking for a moment to take advantage? This really was his fault in the end. What a shameful job he’d done protecting Rasul. Shouldn’t he have known better? Shouldn’t he have seen?
In his shop. In his shop all this had happened.
Rebecca patted his knee and took his hand. “I’m going to help you. I will fix this for you. So stop beating yourself up.”
God, that hole in Jacob’s chest was going to kill him. “I can’t wrap my head around why she did it.”
“It doesn’t matter. If she’s broken the law, she’s going to pay. Same with Clark. And trust me, I can always find a way to get my clients what they want.”
Jacob looked up at her, desperate to find something to plug that hole inside him. But he didn’t even know what to say anymore.
Rebecca winked at him. “It’s going to be fine. Trust me. You’re a good person, you believe in the existence of other good people, and it’s one of the reasons I want you to be the president of the chamber of commerce. The reason I want you around in my life in general. You’re one of the good ones. Me?” The glint returned to her eyes, and her smile grew knives. “I’m one of the bad ones. But I’m on your side, and I’ll always be there.” She rose, nodding at the back of the store. “Let’s go find Rasul and make some plans.”
It disturbed Jacob how calmly Rasul listened to the story—told by Rebecca because Jacob was still a little unsteady. This meant Jacob had nothing to do but watch Rasul’s face as he took everything in. He looked mostly wooden, and tired, and only mildly surprised to hear it was Jodie who betrayed them.
When she finished, Rasul sat back. “My agent and my lawyer are going to go ham on this. Good thinking on those screen shots.”
“Give them my contact information, and I’ll set them up with whatever they want. Jacob, I’ll be in touch with whatever I find, but I’m assuming there’s already been a few calls from the Clark family lawyers.” She looked pleased. “It’s going to be fun, because everyone at that firm hates me.” Rising, she smiled at them both. “I’ll leave you two alone, then, and I’ll be in touch. I’ll see myself out.”
Rasul shut his eyes and leaned his head back. Once Rebecca was gone, he wiped his hands over his face with a groan. “God, I really don’t want to call Elizabeth and my lawyer right now, but I guess that’s what I’ve got to do.”
Jacob couldn’t take it any longer. “You’re a lot less angry than I thought.”
Wearily, Rasul shrugged. “I mean, I am angry. A little rattled too, because I hadn’t seen her coming. I really am rusty.”
“Are you trying to tell me you’re used to things like this?”
Rasul’s laugh was dark, and exhausted. “I mean, I guess that’s one way of looking at it. Everybody comes at me with a smile, effusing about how much they love me, but I usually assume they’ve got a knife behind their back, ready to carve out a slice of me for their own purposes.”
“You shouldn’t have to put up with that!”
“Hon, I don’t know how to explain this to you—it’s all I’ve ever known.” Rasul’s hollow gaze softened as he looked up at Jacob. “Until you.” He laughed wryly. “If you ever pull out a knife, I’m just going to open my arms and accept it. You and Elizabeth are the two people I know in that category.”
Jacob swallowed the bile in his throat and took Rasul’s hand. “I will never betray you. If I don’t like what you’re doing, I’ll get angry with you to your face. But I’ll never betray you. Not a single time.”
Rasul glanced away, but his rueful smile died quickly, and his shoulders sagged.
Wordlessly, Jacob pulled him into his arms and held him.
RASUL’S AGENT and attorney moved fast, and Rebecca kept their pace. Once they showered the Clark family lawyers and the relevant prosecutors with the documentation of Jodie and Les’s crimes, Rebecca, Elizabeth, and the lawyer teamed up with Rasul’s publicist and began a PR blitz. It started with an article on a midlevel news site, followed by remixes everywhere else, offering proof of the harassment of Rasul by Adina and Les in a coordinated attempt to defame and embarrass Rasul for their own ends.