Possessive Boss

I bite my lips and close my eyes. “Yes. But I didn’t think that’s why you had me come over here.”

He steps back and drinks his wine. “It’s not.” But his eyes are blazing.

“Well then.” I turn back to him, leaning against the glass. I stare, daring him to touch me again… begging for him.

He walks away instead. He sits on a couch, legs spread, leaning forward. “I want to talk about Darin.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath. “Don’t rile me up next time.”

“Sorry.” He gives me a little smile. “Can’t help myself with you.”

“What do you want to know?”

I perch on a chair near him.

“What does the SEC have?” he asks.

“I’m not totally sure,” I admit. “I know you won’t really believe that.”

“They had to have prepped you before throwing you into the lion’s den.”

I nod a little. “They did. I know his basic bio. I know what to look for in the data.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Things that looks too good to be true.” I hesitate. “Things that maybe aren’t getting reported properly. It won’t be a lot. Just little issues here or there. Things that could easily be explained away as nothing, but if they were all added up, come out to be a big number.”

He frowns into his wine. “Darin was the first person that was nice to me at boarding school.”

I blink a little. “Really?”

“Really.” He clears his throat. “In the circles I ran in, my family name carries weight. A lot of weight. And that makes it hard to live up to sometimes. Even if it gives me certain advantages, it also means that most people around me are either only interested in me for my family, or looking to cut me down because of them.”

I cock my head. “That sounds hard.”

“Darin was the first one that had no clue what my name meant and didn’t care. He just wanted to hang out and play Xbox.”

I laugh at that. I can’t picture Jacob playing video games. Not this Jacob, the filthy rich financier, living in a penthouse hotel room, wearing incredible suits. But he was young once, I guess.

“Did you ever ask about his family?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “I’ve met them actually. They seem normal.”

“But very rich.”

“You have to understand.” He stands up and paces away, sipping his wine. “Everyone I know is rich. Having money is just… normal to me.”

“So you never questioned it.”

“I never did.” He winces slightly. “Until we got older, at least. After we had already started the partnership.”

“You’ve seen something.”

He looks at me and I can see the pain in his eyes. “Little things.”

“And they add up.”

“I don’t know.” He clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what it means.”

“Listen, Jacob. I know this is hard. But I think… I’m sure that Darin is involved with something bad. You told me yourself, you had a meeting with—”

“I don’t know who those men were,” he says quickly, then stops himself. “But they did want to do business off the books. And they said Darin had promised we’d be able to accommodate them.”

I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Jacob. That has to be a mafia thing. Is that normal otherwise?”

“No,” he says. “I walked out of the meeting, actually. I had no clue what was happening. Darin seemed a little upset when I told him about it.”

“Have you heard anything about them since?”

“No,” he says.

“Okay. Okay, that’s good.”

“But when I do, I’m going to take them on.”

My eyes go wide. “Wait, what?”

“I’m going to take them on and take their money. And figure out who they are.” He steps toward me. I can see the tension in his body. “I’m not going to let Darin use me like this. If he actually is what you think he is…”

I stand up and go to him. I put a hand on his chest and kiss him gently. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” He steps away and refills his glass. “If there’s more, I need to know it. Any evidence the SEC has on Darin, I need to know it.” He pauses. “But I can’t have you reporting back.”

I stare at him. “What?”

“You can’t report back to them.”

“But… why? If you want to investigate him, they can help.”

“They’re going to get in the way. The feds are compromised, as hard as that might be to hear.”

“No. I mean, there’s corruption, but that’s not an issue here.”

“Valerie.” His voice moves lower, harder. “I need you to help me. We need to work together, but we have to hide it from both Darin and your bosses. If they know something’s happening, it could leak out and tip the wrong people off. Or if Darin finds out, he could blow it all up and ruin things before we can nail him down.”

“And if he’s not guilty?” she asks.

He looks away. I can see it all over him.