Page 22 of The Sweet Life

Another text came in, presumably from Jake, cutting off her emotional diatribe. Had she really been going to confess to Brenda how lonely she’d be without Max for company? How pathetic was that? The cat hated her, and she didn’t care, as long as she wasn’t by herself. Something was seriously wrong with her. She loved living on her own with no one to answer to.

She glanced at the screen as she went to press the Down button for the elevator, sucking in a panicked breath just as the doors slid open and Jake walked out.

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t want to tell him, but she had to. There was no way she could keep this from him. She turned her phone, showing him the photo of a tattooed arm holding Alice’s beloved cat against a muscular chest. “Max has been catnapped.”

Chapter Eight

Word had spread quickly throughout the firm that Max had been catnapped. Sage’s anxious colleagues were now packed into her office, sharing what they’d seen with Jake, who’d taken charge of the investigation. No one had questioned his authority to do so, including Forbes, Poole, and Russell’s head of security and their lead investigator.

It was a little weird seeing Jake seated behind her desk, questioning her colleagues, while Brenda and Renata looked on, taking notes. It was also a little annoying how they hung on his every word, acting as if he were some investigative savant. Was he an excellent interviewer who had her colleagues opening up to him with incredible ease, latching on to the smallest of details that might have escaped even her? Yes, he was, and admittedly she’d been a little surprised how good he was at this, but he had been an investigator for a legal firm for years, even if it was on a part-time basis.

They couldn’t fool her, though. Brenda and Renata were like thirty-five percent of their coworkers. While genuinely worried about Max, they were equally entranced with theman behind her desk. She supposed she couldn’t blame them. She wasn’t as indifferent as she pretended. Even in her initial panic—she might have had a mini-meltdown—at seeing the photo of Max in the tattooed arms of the catnapper, she hadn’t missed that Jake had somehow gotten even more muscly and gorgeous. She put it down to his deep-golden tan and not his confidence and authoritative air.

She caught her reflection in the computer screen. She didn’t look that pale and haggard, did she? She leaned closer. She needed to stop pushing her fingers through her hair.

Jake cocked his head. “What are you doing?”

She hadn’t realized how close she’d gotten to the computer, or to him. Why did he have to smell so good?

She took a step back and waved her hand at the screen. “I was reading emails. The font seems smaller than usual.” It actually did. She squinted until the words came into sharper focus. Then wished she hadn’t when she read one of the most recent threatening emails she’d received. Jake had been going through them over the last two hours while questioning her colleagues.

Every so often, he’d send her a raised-eyebrow glance. She hadn’t been sure what it meant, but just then, he decided to enlighten her. “The entire team of lawyers I worked with didn’t receive this many death threats the entire time I was there.”

“It must have been a small firm,” she said while surreptitiously glancing at her hair on the screen, finger-combing it into place.

“It wasn’t. You need your own security team.”

“She does,” Brenda agreed. “She also needs to have her eyes checked.”

“No. What she needs to do is stop working until all hours of the night and go home at a decent hour,” Renata said. An opinion she shared with Sage on a daily basis, and one she’d no doubt shared with Jake.

Several of their colleagues snorted their amusement. “I know, right?” Sage said.

“We were agreeing with Renata. You make all of us look like slackers, Sage. Don’t you want to have a life apart from work?” asked Roland, the personal injury lawyer, and he was serious.

Sage looked at her colleagues, the majority of whom were nodding in agreement with Roland. She was genuinely shocked. She’d thought Renata was the anomaly, but apparently it had been her all along. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Whatever defense she went with wouldn’t endear her to her colleagues. And when had that become an issue for her?

Jake, who’d been texting with someone, pocketed his phone and then leaned back in her chair and cracked his knuckles, ensuring he had everyone’s attention. Although, let’s be honest, he’d had it all along. “Thanks for your help. Now, if you don’t mind.” He lifted his bearded chin at the door.

A few of her colleagues dragged their feet, clearly hoping to be in on the action, while others wished them good luck, asking Jake to let them know when Max had been found. Not her, Jake.

Once Brenda had ushered the last of their coworkers out the door, Jake turned to Sage. “How do you want to do this?”

“Do what?” She glanced at the screen, noting that the threatening emails had been replaced with a street map. “Wait. I recognize that address.”

“I thought you might.”

Renata and Brenda leaned in to look at the map. Sage refrained from giving them a dig about their eyesight. She was trying to find a way not to embarrass Jake in front of his fan club, but she didn’t have a choice. There was no way, given Robert’s connection to the Winthrops, that she could accuse Chad of being the catnapper without hard evidence. As far as she could tell, Jake didn’t have any.

“I understand why you think Chad is involved, but trust me, he’s not.” She lowered the map and brought up the threatening emails from three years ago. They were from the ex on one of her pro bono cases. “I’m pretty sure it’s this guy. Look at his build and tattoos. They’re very similar. In his email, he also says no one close to me, including my dog, would be safe when he gets out of prison. He was scheduled for release two weeks ago.” Despite what everyone seemed to think, she did pay attention to the threats, especially when they were directed at her family.

“You don’t have a dog,” Jake pointed out.

“No, but…” She scrolled down to the pictures he’d taken of her playing on the beach with a black Newfoundlander. “Admiral is my cousin’s dog. He must have thought he was mine.”

Jake blinked and then gave his head a slight shake. “I, uh, already ruled him out. They added another year to his sent—”

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