The comment hit harder than Derrick expected. He felt the shot right to his gut. When it came to Ellie, he had crossed a bunch of lines, most Noah didn’t even know about, but Derrick couldn’t pretend he hadn’t backed her into a corner and used her love for her brother against her.
He had to deal with that. Take it apart and assess it because now that he did, it seemed like an Eldrick Jameson move. Something his father would do to ensure he got his way. Derrick didn’t like that comparison one bit.
“There aren’t any cameras or videos in here. You don’t need to pretend we had a confrontation at work. You can drop the bullshit.” Derrick had to accept his part in a lot of sins where the Gold family was concerned, but not that one.
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“Noah, come on.” Derrick didn’t know how the guy could stand there and lie. How he could actually frown, curl his shoulders in and look like the injured party.
Derrick had taken a chance on him. They met when a friend from high school, now a college professor, called Derrick about a kid he found sneaking around the computer labs at George Washington University. The kid—Noah—had created a student ID and had been using university resources to play games and check out the internal supposedly confidential workings of the school.
Noah hadn’t had the experience or the college requirements for the job he’d held at Derrick’s company. But like the professor, Derrick had seen something in Noah. A need to prove himself. The brilliance waiting to be tapped. He’d given him a chance and brought him on. Thought of him as a mentee of sorts…then he’d stolen from the company and tried to turn Derrick’s life upside down.
Noah shook his head. “You don’t get it.”
Something in his words and that tone got to Derrick. The sentence he was about to say died in his head. Now he wanted to know what was happening in Noah’s head. “Explain it to me.”
Noah went to the window and looked out. “I found out about you.”
Other than the agreement with Ellie and his father’s stipulations, Derrick didn’t have much to hide. There were things he wished people didn’t know, but he never had that luxury. “Noah, I hate to break this to you but my life is not exactly a big secret. I’ve had the press on me since I was in elementary school.”
Thanks to his family, starting with his politician grandfather, the family got in the news and stayed there. Derrick started dating and the cameras were there to capture his young bachelor days. When they broke up, the girl’s family sold a story about him to the tabloids.
The only time he ever got behind the wheel after drinking, the dumbest thing he’d ever done, the press had shown up then, too. He’d learned a harsh lesson that time, and many others.
His mistakes played out in public. His father excused them before the cameras and berated him behind the scenes. That’s how it worked in the Jameson household.
“Did you cheat then, too?” Noah asked as he turned around to face Derrick.
Derrick’s mind went blank. “What?”
“Abby.”
There was an Abby who worked for him. She had a history with the Jameson men, but not him. He searched his mind for another woman with that name. Any woman named anything close. “Abby who?”
“My sister is going to find out who you really are.” Noah nodded. All traces of uncertainty had disappeared. “She will. The people at the Insider will.”
“Have you been talking with them, Noah?” If he’d planted that story about Ellie and her former job, his blood relationship to her would not save him. Derrick would move in and set him straight.
Noah shrugged. “What if I have?”
It took every ounce of willpower Derrick possessed to tamp down on his anger. “Do not ruin your sister’s reputation.”
“Me?”
Derrick tried reason one more time. “You stole from me and I caught you. You’re trying to blow this up into something else and hurt Ellie, and I’m not sure why.”
“Did you lead Abby on, too? Make her promises and then dump her?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know what it’s like to be one of your chosen few then get kicked aside.” Noah was yelling now, but there was an underlying thread, an edge that suggested he’d been hurt.
The words crashed through Derrick. “Is that what this is really about? Because that did not happen.”
“I’m leaving.” Noah headed for the door.
Everything was so unsettled, maybe even worse than before they’d talked. Derrick wasn’t sure what to say because nothing Noah mentioned made any sense to him. “You’ve got to stop, Noah. I don’t want to hurt you and I certainly don’t want Ellie hurt.”