Page 71 of Don't Lie to Me

Jack inhaled through his nose, rolled his shoulders back and ground his teeth together. He didn’t look at me, just continued to stare at Marcus as if he could set him on fire just by staring at him. I knew I felt the air heat by that deadly gaze.

I looked at Marcus, who looked equally angry. “It’ll be over soon, and then she can decide.”

Was I even there? Was I standing there, between these two men, letting them decide that I got to make a decision? My head spun.

“What’s going on?” I repeated and then understanding dawned on me. Senator Whitmore’s claims at the charity ball and Jack needing Marcus. Somehow, they were connected to the reason Jack fired me and treated me like shit.

“This has to do with your dad, doesn’t it?” I asked. My eyes grew larger as everything started to make sense. The Senator had promised me that if he wasn’t allowed to see Logan, he’d go public with a scandal to ruin Jack. Something must have happened.

I felt like I was living in a pinball arcade game as my eyes bounced back and forth between Marcus and Jack. Marcus’s skin color paled in front of my eyes and Jack looked down at the ground.

“Fine,” I said reluctantly and began walking towards the front door. “When either of you can be honest with me, I’ll be willing to listen. But I’m pissed at both of you for lying to me and thinking so little of me that you can’t tell me what’s really going on.”

“I can’t.”

“Whatever, Jack. You can do anything you want. You made your choice, and, it was a shitty one. One that I probably won’t be willing to forgive you for. When you can tell me what it is you think you’re trying to protect me from, I’ll listen. But only because it apparently concerns me and I have a right to know.” I looked to Marcus, “I expected honesty from you, too. After all the shit that lying has done to us, I had higher expectations for you.”

They had the decency to look chagrined at my outburst. Whatever.

“You both can fuck off,” I spit out and re-entered SkyJump.

Dean was talking with Tate and Macy, all three of them clearly concerned about me. “Is it time to open presents and do cake?” I asked, dawning a plastic smile so I could avoid explaining.

Tate went to gather the kids. It gave me a vision of what it would be like to herd cats hopped on steroids. He bounced around the trampolines trying to usher the little kids to the edge of the mats, while they all bounced around and laughed at him pretending to be a monster. Finally, he shouted, “Cake!” And I watched the herd of cats suddenly get in a straight line and run, full speed towards our little party room.

“You okay?” Dean asked, still looking at Marcus and Jack through the windows. They were clearly arguing, Jack looked full on alpha-male pissed off, but Marcus wasn’t backing down either as he argued right back and shook his head.

“Whatever. They’re both assholes.” I turned into Dean’s protective arm once again and let him lead me to the party room. We waited a few minutes, trying to get the kids’ shoes back on, and have them calm down while we waited for Marcus to come back in. He eventually did, breathing heavily, his face red in anger. We sang happy birthday, ate cake, and watched Logan smile, laugh and rip open birthday presents, squealing with happiness with each new favorite toy he received.

“So what do you think is really going on?”

I scrunched up my nose and shook my head. “I don’t know, Macy. I know it has something to do with the Senator threatening me at the charity ball. My guess is he found something he could use to threaten Jack with to get close to Logan.”

“Will it change anything if Jack did all of this to protect you and Logan? I know how much you love him.”

“I don’t know,” I replied and went back to cleaning up my kitchen. My entire apartment was a disaster since we had dinner and let Logan rip open all of his new toys, mostly Legos, as soon as we got back from the trampoline park. “I just wish he could have been honest with me. If he’s trying to protect me, I have a right to know. You know?”

“Do you really think Marcus is using all of this to get you back?” I didn’t know. What Jack said made sense, and Macy did not even know about Marcus asking for us to be a family again. I refused to tell her since she still didn’t fully trust him. I wasn’t sure I did either, anymore. Not with him keeping secrets from me too.

“I feel like I owe it to Logan to try sometimes, you know? But then I realize that I just don’t think of Marcus like that anymore, and I’d hate to try and just disappoint Logan again.”

“You don’t date someone out of obligation, Emma.”

I nodded. I knew that. I just hated the idea of disappointing Logan. He had already lost so much, and had so much thrown at him recently.

“Besides,” she said with a cheeky smirk. “You still love Jack.”

I wrinkled my nose. I did, damn it. And I sort of hated that I did. I was reeling from the realization that maybe he had actually done all this to protect me.

“Yeah. I do.”

TWENTY-TWO

Curiosity was beginning to kill me. I had to know what was going on, and I knew the one way I could get Jack to talk to me.

Plans made, I dropped Logan off at school early and made my way to Jack’s penthouse, the one place I didn't think I would ever go again.

“Miss Emma! It’s….you’re here.” I turned and walked towards Perry, the doorman at Jack’s building. He and I had talked a lot over the last five years. He was old. Like so old he should have retired a decade ago, but he always said as long as he was able to read the numbers on the phone dials, and open doors, he’d still be working. He looked nervous as he fidgeted with his grey top and the edges of his long grey suit coat.

---