Jessie Slaymaker's Rules of Engagement (The Jessie Slaymaker Series Book 2) (29 page)

‘I could have a word with them,’ Rachel offered. ‘Now this case has been wrapped up, I’ll be leaving anyway to prepare the paperwork for trial. I’m sure if I explained things to them, you could have your job back.’

‘And then wait for you to come after the bank for aiding Sonia Shum in her illicit financial practices? Or at the very least for turning a blind eye towards them and being complicit. I don’t think so, Rachel. Let’s just call it quits here and now and go on our separate ways.’

‘Very well, Jessie Slaymaker. It’s been a pleasure,’ Rachel said, smiling genuinely as she extended her hand for a shake.

‘I hope it was all worth it, and you get a juicy promotion because of this,’ Jessie said coldly, giving a weak smile, but refusing to shake the other woman’s hand. She felt she understood Rachel a damn sight more now, but she would have been lying if she’d said she was glad to have ever clapped eyes on her. Although it may have all been in the name of justice and all that was right, this woman had still twisted Jessie’s life upside down. Rachel had proved herself to be ambitious and ruthless. Qualities Jessie would once have strived for in her own professional life. But not now. Not after having seen the fallout that could be wrought on all those in their path.

That evening Jessie and Jack lay on the sofa in the serviced apartment quietly reflecting on things and recovering from their ordeals.

‘I’m sorry you lost your job. I know it means a lot to you,’ Jack said after a long period of silence.

‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Jessie began, turning to face him. ‘It
used
to mean a lot to me. Or at least, I thought it did. But since I met you, it doesn’t have the same hold over me that it did before. I don’t have a job anymore, but hey, you know what? It’s not the end of the world. Sometimes everything happens for a reason.’

‘Alright, Miss Philosopher over there. If everything happens for a reason, then how can you possibly explain this whole mess as anything more than an unmitigated disaster?’

‘Well, Sonia is going to prison. That’s not such a bad thing if you ask me, although I do feel sorry for the baby. I don’t have a job, but then again, I think it’s time for a change anyway.’

‘I thought that’s why you wanted to come to Hong Kong. For a change,’ Jack pointed out.

‘Maybe I need a bigger change. Something completely different. And then there’s us, of course,’ Jessie went on.

‘What about us?’ Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘Well, we’re closer than ever, wouldn’t you say?’ Jessie said, looking seriously into his eyes. ‘Surely these extreme circumstances will have cemented things and made us even stronger.’

‘Of that, I am sure you’re right,’ Jack smiled and tapped her on the nose gently.

‘But I
am
sorry about Charlie. Recent events have no doubt pushed you two even further apart from each other,’ she said, a wistful tone in her voice.

‘He’s dead to me,’ Jack replied dramatically.

‘Oh, don’t say that! He’s still your brother.’

‘Okay. Well, maybe not dead then,’ Jack conceded with a crooked smile. ‘If he’d hurt you though, I would never have forgiven him. Never. But he does keep letting everyone down, including himself. My only hope for him is that one day he learns to stop doing that, and tries to make amends for some of the hurt and damage that he’s caused.’

‘I’m sure he will,’ Jessie said assuredly as she curled up her tired body into the nook between Jack’s jaw and shoulder. ‘One day he will. He’s not all bad,’ she said sleepily.

‘I’m so proud of you, Jessie. You came to save me when you really should have just done what Rachel had told you. You put yourself in danger. For me. You’re one amazing woman, Jessie Slaymaker,’ Jack said happily, looking down at Jessie’s sleeping head, and cradled her close.

Jessie woke up the next morning with the mother of all sore throats.

‘Oh, no,’ she wailed from the bed. She couldn’t remember going to bed the night before. Jack must have carried her.

‘What is it?’ Jack said urgently, appearing suddenly from the bathroom. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m getting sick,’ Jessie moaned as she grumpily pulled herself out of bed and trudged into the bathroom in search of painkillers. ‘I had plans today as well.’

‘Oh, right. And what plans would they be exactly?’ Jack asked, laughing at her grumpy performance. It was so unlike her usual upbeat demeanour.

‘Oh, I don’t know. Start looking for a new job. Figure out what the hell it is I’m supposed to do for the rest of my life. Not much.’

‘Why’re you sick?’ Jack asked.

‘I have a sore throat, but that’s a sure sign it’s only going to get worse. I never ever
ever
get sick, but when I do, I
really
get sick. It lasts for ages,’ she warned. ‘I’d steer well away if I were you.’

‘Don’t be daft. You’re still talking, so it can’t be that bad. Do you have anywhere you need to be today?’

‘Err, jobless, remember?’ she said sarcastically, pointing at herself.

‘So? Go back to bed and let me look after you. It’s the least I can do,’ Jack said, steering her back to bed.

‘But you don’t have to do that. I’ll be all… all… gross and unattractive.’

‘Trust me, you’ll be no worse than I was when I had the chickenpox. I’m sure you can remember how gross and unattractive I was during that god-awful fortnight. Now get that gorgeous little bottom of yours back into bed,’ Jack ordered. ‘And get some rest. With any luck, it’s just a sore throat and won’t manifest itself into anything worse.’

‘Wouldn’t bet on it,’ Jessie sang, but she did as she was told and collapsed back into bed.

True to her word, Jessie did get sick. Despite trying to fend off her sore throat with copious amounts of vitamin C and plenty of rest, she still came down with the full-blown flu and didn’t end up leaving the flat for over a week. Jack repaid Jessie’s earlier caregiving in full and with interest, waiting on her hand and foot. Nothing was too much trouble, and he did it all with a genuine smile on his face.

‘You must really love me,’ Jessie croaked as she lounged on the sofa one day. She was recovering from a five-minute walk outside, which had left her feeling thoroughly exhausted. ‘I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you.’

‘You would do and
did
exactly the same for me. Plus, it’s good for you to stop and do nothing for once in your life. You’re always helping everyone else. It’s been nice to feel truly needed and be able to help you.’

‘Glad to be of service to you,’ Jessie replied, giving him a half-hearted salute.

‘Hey, when you’re well again, how about a little trip? Maybe we could go to Shanghai. I’d love to show you around up there.’

‘That sounds great and I’d love to go. But don’t you think I should find a job first? I don’t even know what I need to do with my visa,’ Jessie said glumly, exhaling loudly.

‘To be honest, no. I don’t think you should find a job. Not yet. A lot has happened since we moved here and I think you could do with taking a step back and taking some time out. I know it’s in your nature to be independent and self-sufficient, and that’s one of the reasons why I love you. But I’m more than happy for you to use me. Truly. Lean on me for a bit. The bar’s doing well. It’s paying the rent. Seems like a no-brainer to me,’ he finished simply.

‘Jack, I don’t think I could…’

‘Humour me, Jessie. Give me a month before you start worrying about the future. One month to get better and to start enjoying yourself,’ he said, looking at her with pleading eyes.

‘Okay,’ Jessie replied quietly in a small voice. ‘I mean, it’ll be hard to stop worrying. But, I’ll try.’

‘Good,’ Jack replied, grinning widely, clearly happy he’d won the battle against his tired and exhausted girlfriend who he knew really didn’t have enough energy to argue.

Since she’d finally relented and visited the doctor—reluctantly setting aside her steely resolve to get better on her own—and subsequently been prescribed antibiotics for her throat infection, Jessie had been getting better quickly. Sitting back and relaxing, doing the minimal amount of anything, turned out to be easier than Jessie had ever imagined, once she’d gotten stuck into things. Of course, she’d still given herself a daily routine. She was still Jessie Slaymaker, after all. But her routine now consisted of relaxing things: waking up late, popping out for a leisurely brunch with Jack. When Jack would then go off to oversee the running of the bar in the afternoons, Jessie took the time to wander around the city or visit this museum or that gallery at her leisure. When she stopped to think about it and reflect on her current situation, she felt incredibly lazy, solely relying on Jack to pay for everything. It was decadent, she knew, but for now Jessie was allowing herself to thoroughly enjoy the altogether slower pace of life. And letting Jack crack open his wallet time after time didn’t prove to be as bad, nor as difficult, as she’d initially imagined it to be.

It was like the Jessie and Jack show once again, back on honeymoon and blissfully contented with each other. But like even the best honeymoon periods, it couldn’t last forever. The news of Sonia Shum giving birth to a healthy daughter in the newspapers put paid to that. Of course, the newspapers didn’t focus on the fact that the judge had denied her bail and she had given birth under detention, nor had her recent exploits been truthfully elaborated on in the press. Jack was of the opinion that some PR agency must have been paid a small fortune to sweep her misdemeanours under the carpet somehow. What the media
had
been allowed to speculate about was the mystery surrounding the father of the latest addition to the Shum dynasty. And of course Jack’s name had been thrown into the ring, as had a number of other eligible bachelors known to have mixed in the same social circles as the infamous Sonia Shum.

‘Aren’t you at all interested?’ Jessie asked Jack over brunch. She had avoided bringing up the touchy subject for days, but at last her curiosity had won out. She’d been researching paternity tests on the interweb and wondered if it might be something he wanted to explore.

‘About what?’ Jack asked, swallowing down his piece of toast.

‘About Sonia’s baby,’ Jessie replied, throwing him a sideways glance. She didn’t want to stir the hornet’s nest, but they had to talk about this.

‘Not really,’ Jack replied gruffly.

‘It’s a little girl, Jack. She could be your daughter,’ Jessie said quietly.

‘That may very well be the case. But seeing as I want nothing to do with the child on account of its mother, I can’t really afford to start getting sentimental about things. I’m not ready to be a father anyway.’

‘Fair enough,’ Jessie replied. It seemed that was about all Jack was going to say regarding this matter, for the time being at least. He clearly wasn’t yet ready to face the what-ifs, and Jessie didn’t want to force him to, given what Sonia had done to him during the past year.

Jessie’s month off disappeared quickly, and before she’d even so much as glanced at the calendar, even more time had evaporated into thin air in the blink of an eye. She’d reached a stage where she was avoiding the calendar deliberately. If she didn’t check what the actual date was, she thought, and didn’t count up exactly how many days she’d been sat idle, then there was still a slim possibility that perhaps not as much time had passed as she actually suspected. It was self-delusion to the nth degree. As she lay languishing in bed one Monday morning, with Jack semi-dozing beside her, Jessie suddenly felt gripped by an innate sense of bravery. She grabbed her phone and, for the first time in what felt like an epoch, checked the date.

‘Oh my God!’ she exclaimed loudly, sitting bolt upright.

‘Huh?’ Jack groaned beside her.

‘I thought it was Monday. Jack, did you know it’s not even Monday? It’s bloody
Wednesday
. Why didn’t you tell me?’ She felt a lurch of panic in her stomach at the realisation that she’d done precisely diddly squat for the best part of two months.
Double
the amount of time she’d originally set aside for her sojourn. How had the weeks turned into a month? And how on earth had one month turned into two? How was that even possible?

‘I thought you knew,’ Jack grumbled, slowly opening his eyes, clearly not pleased at having his snoozeville disturbed.

‘I’ve completely lost track of absolutely everything,’ she said crossly to herself as she strode purposefully to the bathroom to get ready. As far as she was concerned, her holiday was now most definitely over.

When Jessie emerged from the bathroom, Jack was propped up in bed, laughing at her.

‘Everything alright?’ he asked.

‘Yes, thank you,’ Jessie replied.

‘Don’t be short with me,’ Jack warned. ‘It’s not my fault you’ve been enjoying yourself too much as a lady of leisure to notice the time.’

‘It
is
your fault actually. You’re very distracting, Jack Davenport,’ Jessie said, eyeing his naked ripped torso. ‘A bad influence on me. Very bad,’ Jessie huffed. She began picking up clothes and having a general tidy up.

‘Well, you can punish me later,’ Jack said, continuing to smile at Jessie’s sudden whirlwind of activity. ‘You may as well take another week off. We’re going to Shanghai the day after tomorrow. Or had you forgotten?’

‘What? So soon? That can’t be right,’ Jessie said. She paused and looked at him to see if he was pulling her leg.

‘You can check the flight confirmation if you want. Everything’s booked, so you can’t bail on this trip in favour of sitting on the sofa and searching for jobs. Because that is what you were going to do, isn’t it?’

‘Maybe,’ Jessie admitted. ‘But in the meantime, I need to update my CV, and I can at least start catching up on news and maybe send out a few feelers. That won’t get in the way of our trip,’ she said, giving him a tense smile.

‘Whatever you need to do, you do. Just promise me you’ll switch off again when we go to Shanghai. I want you to feel like you’re on holiday.’

‘That’s precisely the opposite of how I need to feel,’ Jessie muttered under her breath.