Chapter five:A Deal
1082 Words
Valerie's POV;
It was either he wasn't making sense or I couldn't hear well. There was no way a stable human would go from detesting me to offering to let me be by his side for 8-9 hours. He had to have a hidden agenda.
"Why?" I asked suspiciously.
His brow creased. "Why?"
"Why are you offering me a job out of the blue?"
He blew out an exasperated breath as if he was surprised that I wasn't jumping at his offer. "I don't understand. You said you needed the job."
"And a couple hours ago, you weren't even giving me a listening ear."
"I think you're reading too much into this situation."
Was I? Jack Winston had sent a follow-up email after the text that announced my employment with him. The email had included a salary proposition and a message asking me to come to the office to discuss it preferably today since I was supposed to be resuming tomorrow.
The asking offer was mouthwatering yet he still expected me to negotiate it. Yo bid for more and I hadn't even interviewed. Something was amiss. Something weirder than Julian offering me a job.
"I'm sorry," I apologized because I knew it would be easier to work with Jack Winston than Julian. For one, Jack wasn't my ex and I wasn't keeping a huge secret that could change his life forever from him. "Mr. Winston already offered. He's pretty um desperate."
Julian groaned. "So am I."
"You have Miss Emily."
He didn't acknowledge that, instead proposing something else. "Would you talk it over with him and see if you would want to work with him? My offer would be open until tomorrow."
I hesitated. I wasn't certain there would be a fat chance of me changing my mind. "Sure."
He finally removed himself from my path and proceeded along to wherever he was headed to while I entered the elevator, still weirded out by the whole exchange.
I pressed the button for the top floor, grateful I didn't have to take the stairs. It hadn't been easy going from the ground floor to the sixth, as the elevators weren't available then and I was in a hurry.
Jack Winston's office had a similar layout to Julian's, only that his seemed unused. There wasn't any clutter on the table, no books in the bookshelf and the I was certain that the drawers would be empty as well.
"Valerie Clark," he greeted with a grin.
I consciously smoothed out my pants, drying my palms on them before accepting Mr. Winston's handshake. "Mr. Winston."
"Sit," he prompted. "I'll cut straight to the chase. Is that okay?"
"Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity."
He waved my gratitude off. "You deserve it. I asked Emily to send the resumes applicants had sent in for the position of a personal secretary, trying to see if I could get one for myself as well when I came across yours. Quite impressive I must say."
I didn't know what to say that. While there was a long list of jobs I had experience in on my resume, it didn't change the fact that I was a college dropout and that usually turned employers off more than anything.
"The work you're going to be doing for me is a bit eccentric, you see. According to your CV, you went to the same college as Julian?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Mr. Clair," he clarified impatiently. "Wasn't he your Alma Mata?"
"He was," I assented, wondering what that had to do with anything.
"Did you know him then?"
I shifted uncomfortably. "A bit."
"I'm going to put in a good word for you and he's going to employ you."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," I interjected. "I thought I was going to be working for you?"
"You will. Under wraps."
My face contorted in confusion. None of these were in the mail he sent me. Then again, if they had been included, I wouldn't have come.
"I want you to relay everything Julian does to me."
I felt myself get light-headed, the room blur in front of me. "Are you asking me to sign on Mr. Clair? For you?"
"It's not a big deal. Business partners do it all the time. I'm sure he has an insider on my team."
It was am unfathomable thought. I didn't understand how business worked but if this was it, it was pretty f****d up. A spy? Could I do that? I knew my answer e even before I asked myself the question. "I can't do that."
His countenance faltered. "Can't?"
I sat up, inserting confidence into my posture. "I'm willing to work as your secretary, or anything else. But not a spy."
"Are you sure? I assumed you are really good at keeping secrets."
My stomach recoiled at the words. He didn't know. He couldn't. "What?"
He waited for me to reply, refusing to repeat himself.
"I...no. I mean I'm not good at keeping secrets."
"But you've managed to keep Julian's son from him all this while," he divulged in an eerily calm tone.
The confirmation made my heart drop and my stomach turn sour. Of course he knew. It was an information that wouldn't be hard to find out once people knew what they were looking for.
"I told you I wasn't going to beat around the bush."
A thick lump formed in my throat. "You did your research."
"I tend to whenever I carry out sensitive work. Look," he leaned over the table towards me and I was tempted to lean away. To leave the office. "Let's not make this harder than it needs to be. All you're going to do is work for Julian, and confide information that is relevant to me. I'm very much a part of this business but the guy just singles me out. I need to be in the loop too."
"You should speak to him about that," I protested.
"You think I haven't?"
I winced at his tone. "I don't think I'm right for the job."
"I don't think Julian deserves to have his son kept away from him either."
A threat. He was threatening me. This wasn't really my choice. J had thought he was giving me an opportunity but what he was really doing was putting me in an impossible situation. One he very much
knew I wouldn't be able to say no to.
There was no getting out of this. I nodded glumly. "I'll do it."
- Writer
