Page 43 of Twice as Forbidden

“Hey. Is Mr. Blake available?”

“I believe so, but let me double-check.” Sarah clicks her buzzer and notifies Jackson I’m here. She nods and tells me to go in. I thank her and step into his office, quietly shutting the door behind me. “Hey. I wanted to talk about—”

“Not now, Georgia.”

The way he says my name is wrong. There’s no purr or lust in it.

“Are you mad at me? I didn’t do—”

“Fuckin’ Christ. Stop acting like a whiny child for one fucking second.” His voice raises, and I jerk at the way he speaks to me. Wiping his hands down his face, he says, “What do you want?”

“Nothing.”Not anymore.

“Stop acting like a child and spit it out,” he snaps.

“Screw you, Jackson.”

“It isn’t lunchtime yet, Peach.”

His words hit their mark. Seeing this side of him creates a whirlwind of regret. His tone cuts deep. Up until this moment, I didn’t realize how far gone I was with this man. But the way he dismisses me so easily as if I were nothing, reveals that he’s only in this for exactly what we agreed on. “Which you can cancel. I sure as hell won’t be eating shit with you.”

I twist away and don’t look back, even as he calls my name. Opening his door, I walk out, his silence following me.

Jackson

“Fuck.” I grab the back of my neck. “Goddammit,” I hiss, walking over to the mini bar in my office. It’s barely nine in the morning, but I pour myself a bourbon and down it. What the hell is wrong with me? I shouldn’t have spoken to her like that. I’m pissed at my son, not her. I debate going after her, but the damage is already done. And I don’t have the time to deal with her right now.

I pour another drink, the ice clinking against the glass as I sink back into my chair, gripping the letter of disbarment in my other hand.

The fallout from the system errors has officially hit. My biggest client—the backbone of our annual revenue—is demanding dissolution. If they pull out, we’rescrewed.Not just financially but in reputation. The moment word gets out, panic will spread, and a domino effect will follow. Other clients will start second-guessing their trust in us, and once that is gone, it will be nearly impossible to rebuild.

We won’t go under, not yet—but this is how it starts.

Every lead has been a dead end. The temp agency? A complete waste of time. No records, no answers, just layers of incompetence so staggering it makes my head spin.

The bigger issue—the one I can’t shake—iswhoplanted that asshole in my warehouse to sabotage us. I have enemies. That comes with the territory. But is someone going to these lengths, risking exposure, financial loss, and legal consequences just to take me down?

Which is why I brought in Craig Stone.

Technically, he’s my lawyer. But more importantly, he’s my longtime private investigator, on retainer for both business and personal matters. Craig’s the guy you call when you want the truth and don’t care how dirty he has to get to find it. He’s sharp, relentless, and has a talent for unearthing secrets most people don’t even know they’re hiding.

I tasked him with digging into my competitors, expecting at least a few breadcrumbs. But he came up empty. Everything’s running like clockwork. No red flags. No clear motive. Nothing that makes sense. Which leaves me with nothing. No explanation. No logical reason for how or why this happened.

All I know is my company is on the line, and if I don’t get ahead of this, everything I’ve built will start to unravel.

I grab the phone and hit Wayne’s speed dial. “Blake Industries—”

“Wayne, it’s Jackson. I know we’ve reviewed the tapes and logs, but I need to know if there was anything unusual before the system went down.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tracing back months prior, even years, does anything stand out as strange, any red flags? Maybe it wouldn’t have raised suspicion at the time, but now it would?”

He takes a moment to think. “That I can recall off the top of my head, I don’t think so. Give me some time to think about it.”

“Thanks.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Blake.”

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