Page 107 of The Cinderella Secret
“Then why do you need me, again?” asked Charlie.
“I needed you to make the meeting, and I thought an adult in the room might help,” said Jackson. “You’re persuasive when you want to be, and Miss Zhao is known to be stubborn.” The sky outside the window was bright white with a foggy mess of clouds that illuminated the room with a cold fall light and put Jackson into stark relief against the window, making it difficult for her to see his facial expression. She wished she knew him better. She felt like she was playing doubles tennis with a partner she’d only just met.
“I’m known for steamrolling idiots like you,” said Ella. “Having MacKentier here isn’t going to stop me from doing that.”
“You can both stop lying,” said MacKentier. “I know you already met yesterday.”
Jackson paused, the flame of MacKentier’s lighter flickering before the end of the cigarette. “And who told you that?” he asked, without lighting up. She noticed that he didn’t put the lighter back down though.
Charlie chuckled. “Bai Zhao.”
“What?” Ella demanded, deciding that this was an emotionally plausible time to stand up.
Charlie chuckled. “Apparently, you’ve given his security detail the slip one too many times recently, and he thought you needed additional protection. You were seen coming out of an office building with him yesterday. And security also flagged my number on your phone.”
“Just your number?” asked Ella.
“Are there other numbers they should be worried about?” asked Charlie archly.
“I used a burner phone to call you,” Jackson swiftly replied. “They won’t peg it as Deveraux.”
“Oh,” said Ella, and she realized that he was telling her that information for Aiden’s sake.
“So you admit it,” said Charlie, sounding smug. “What did he do? Tell you that the two of you could get rid of me? A win-win for the Zhao and Deveraux?”
Ella was about to respond when a phone began to sound with the William Tell Overture.
“That’s Aiden,” said Jackson. “If I don’t answer, he’ll just keep calling. He thinks now that he’s unemployed, the rest of us have all the time in the world too.”
Ella tried not to give Jackson an angry glare for his utter mischaracterization of Aiden. She realized he was doing it for MacKentier, but it still annoyed her.
One of the goons took the phone out of his pocket and looked at. “It is Aiden,” he said.
“Answer it,” said Charlie calmly, “put it on speaker.”
Jackson did as instructed. “Hey, Aiden,” he said.
“Jacks! Good, you’re available. Where are you? No, never mind, I don’t care. Can you meet me out at the old DevEntier building?”
Jackson looked up at Charlie. “Yeah, I could probably do that. Why?”
“I had a total brainwave. What if Ella Zhao is right?”
“Right about what?” asked Jackson, still eyeing Charlie. Ella held her breath, wondering what Aiden was up to. None of this was according to the script.
“What if Charlie really did cover up the fact that Bo was an employee? I mean, it is in his own interest for us to win, so that wouldn’t be terribly shocking.”
“Not terribly shocking, no,” agreed Jackson.
“Actually, kind of nice of him, really. Not that I endorse that in any way, of course.”
MacKentier smiled smugly.
“I mean, it’s also totally stupid,” continued Aiden. “He couldn’t possibly get away with it.”
MacKentier snarled in silent anger.
“But, whatever, here’s the thing—I looked up the Zhao Industries’s incorporation date. I want to go plow through some back records at DevEntier because I am willing to bet that Bo was setting up Zhao Industries contracts while he was still at DevEntier. And I know for a fucking fact that Charles Senior was running some damn stiff non-competes. I’ve totally copied off of those before. And if Bo was an employee, and he was working for Zhao at the same time, then we’ve got enough for a countersuit. Which should be enough to get the Zhao to drop their lawsuit.”
