A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts 2)

“Fine. Then we’ll just let Rick handle this,” she said, starting to press the extension for Rick’s office only to find the phone suddenly pulled away.

“You can’t do that!” Holly snapped, looking nervous.

“Watch me,” Jamie said, reaching out to take the phone back only to find the woman jumping back and out of reach. “Holly, give me-What the heck did you do to my computer?” she practically screeched as she watched the icons on the desktop begin to flicker before disappearing all together.

She ignored the woman in front of her as she tried to figure out how to stop whatever was happening to her computer. Every time she tried to click on an icon that icon would disappear instantly. She watched in horror as everything on her desktop disappeared until the screen turned a stomach clenching black and she knew that all of her work was gone.

Two books that she’d slaved over whenever she had a moment of free time no matter what time of day it was were now gone. Not only were they the two books she owed to Rerum Publishing and were due next month, but they were probably her favorite books so far. There was no way that she was going to be able to write two new books in time. Even if she worked day and night there was no way that she could do it.

“Why?” she demanded, fighting back tears as she looked up at the woman who looked on the verge of panicking.

“I-I…..,” the woman stammered as she put the phone down and moved to flee from the room, but Jamie cut off the taller woman by stepping in her path.

“Why did you destroy my work?” Jamie demanded.

Holly noticeably swallowed as she shifted to the side to dart past Jamie, but she wasn’t having that. She was done with letting people push her around. All her life people took advantage of her, walked all over her and openly dismissed her not caring that it left her feeling hollow inside or so alone that sometimes it was a struggle just to breathe. She was done playing the victim.

“If you don’t tell me what you did right now then I’m going to call the police,”

Jamie bit out through clenched teeth.

Holly’s eyes widened in panic as she reached for Jamie. Unfortunately for her the other woman was faster and bigger. Holly had her by her arms and was squeezing painfully before she could stop her or get out of the way.

“You can’t do that!” Holly snapped, giving Jamie a good shake. “I’ll be ruined if you do, Jamie. Just let me make this up to you!” she pleaded, looking slightly crazed as she gave Jamie another shake.

“Let go of me!” Jamie ground out as she struggled to get away from the woman, but Holly refused to let her go, desperate to convince Jamie to give her a chance.

“I can fix this. I’ll get Rick to push back the date on your contract. I already planned to do that. Now that Nick’s gone and everyone else has their hands full I know that Rick would pick me to work with you,” she shot a nervous glance over her shoulder at Jamie’s computer as her hands tightened ever further around Jamie’s arms. The woman’s long manicured fingernails bit into her skin and Jamie barely bit back a wince at the stinging sensation as Holly’s manicured nails pierced her skin.

“If Nick had just backed off like he was supposed to I would have never had to resort to destroying your books, Jamie. You have to believe me. I just needed him to back off so that I could take over. He didn’t need you, not like I needed you,”

Holly said with a crazed look in her eye that actually frightened her.

“What are you talking about?” Jamie asked, trying to pull free again, but the woman refused to let her go.

“Nick’s already a senior editor. He didn’t need you, but that bastard was too selfish to give anyone else a shot. Don’t you understand?” she shook Jamie roughly to get her point across. “I had the best chance of getting J.L. Lewis. I’d been here the longest and was next up for consideration, but Nick,” the woman bit out with such distaste that Jamie momentarily forgot about the pain in her arms as she watched Holly struggle to stay in control.

“I thought you wanted Nick,” Jamie said quietly only to have Holly give her a violent shake, slamming her head into the wall that she’d apparently backed her into.

“Want him?” she asked with a humorless laugh. “Why would I want him?

He’s a whore just like his mother only he does it for free,” she said acidly. “But before you came along he was the key to everything.”

Chapter 30

“Say that again,” Nick said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he fought back the headache that he was pretty sure was coming.

“They wanted her out of the apartment,” the detective explained again with a weary sigh.

“So they sent her death threats?” Nick asked in disgust as he dropped his hand to his sides.

Detective Michaels nodded. “It seemed that they didn’t realize that Miss.

Harris had been evicted yet and decided that she needed another threat to scare her away. We caught Mrs. Briggs stuffing an envelope in Miss. Harris’ mail slot at three this morning and Mr. Ames stuffing a letter in her mail slot around four this morning and then one beneath her door just in case she missed the first one,” he drawled.

“And why were they doing this again?” Rick asked as he leaned a hip against the corner of his desk.

When the police arrived a half hour ago he’d been eager, more like desperate to go hunt down his little recluse, but Detective Michaels explained that he had a few things that he needed cleared up while his men searched the building for Holly, who more than likely already split since the police weren’t here for even a minute before word spread about the reason behind their visit.

Detective Michaels’ lips twitched as he said, “According to Mrs. Briggs, Miss.

Harris blasted her television day and night, was loud, and had drunken parties every weekend.”

Nick couldn’t help but frown as he shared a surprised look with Rick. His little recluse was loud? That was bullshit. She didn’t like the volume when she was watching television or listening to the radio up loud. In fact, most of the time while they were driving he had to raise the volume so that he could hear the damn thing.

He couldn’t even begin to describe what was wrong with the drunken party accusation.

“Apparently this last two months has been particularly bad. Mrs. Briggs complained to the manager, but nothing was done so the woman decided to take it into her own hands,” the Detective explained.