Don’t Love, Don’t Lose

Chapter 12

“What!”

“I don’t know what happened, Jasmine. He just let me go. He gave me a good severance package and everything, but he just fired me. The money is good, but it’s not nice to be fired, Jas. He didn’t even tell me what I did wrong.”

“Oh, that pig!”

“Now, baby, I’m sure I must have made some mistake. He offered a good reference and everything, but he fired me.”

“Oh, that smug, two-faced fool!”

“Jasmine! Language!”

Jasmine breathed deep and tried to loosen the grip on her phone. Her fingers were beginning to cramp.

“Sorry, Aunt Della. Look, where are you?”

“He called a cab to send me home. I’m almost home. I was just a little upset and wanted to talk to my girls, that’s all. I couldn’t reach Rita.”

“I’ll find her for you. I’m so sorry, Aunt Della. I’m so sorry. I’ll see if I can sort this out.”

“Oh no, don’t do that, dear. I don’t think it would be right. It’s the nature of jobs, you know. Sometimes you get fired.”

“I’m sure people do, but you don’t, Aunt Della. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I feel better after talking to you, Jas. I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m sorry to make you worry. I just needed to talk.”

“Don’t be silly, Aunt Della. I’m glad you called. You take care. I’ll find Rita and send her over right now.”

“Oh no, don’t…”

“No arguments. One of us is coming over right now.”

She hung up, seething.

“I have to go out,” she tossed over her shoulder to her team as she pulled her coat on and found her bag.

They nodded.

Well, they barely nodded. They were all too busy. She should be, too.

But some things couldn’t be put off, and this was one of them. She was already running to her car when, on her sixth try, Rita finally answered.

“Go home now. Go to your mama. Aunt Della is upset.”

“What? What happened?”

“That weasel fired her!”

“What! Who?”

“Anthony Malone. Anthony Weasel Rat Malone fired Aunt Della!”

There was stunned silence.

“Why?”

“He wouldn’t say. I’m going to go and find out, and you go home to her.”

“On my way.”

The connection was cut, and Jasmine knew that she could count on Rita. She could probably also count on Rita to call Roger and give him a good talking to. It would do Rita good to be the dumper instead of the dumpee. She had had too many turns as the dumpee.

“Oh, I’m going to rip into you, I’m really going to…”

She honked and didn’t care about speeding. She parked without caring that she was taking two spots, and glared at the poor parking attendant who thought better than to ask her to park properly.

Standing still in the elevator took more patience than she had. She was so angry, she wanted to punch something. Anthony Malone’s face would do just fine.

Whoever was at the reception tried to get to her feet and stop her, but she ignored her and walked right into the corner office that was Anthony Malone’s. She didn’t knock. She steamed right in and planted her palms on the table.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you think I won’t have her sue you for wrongful dismissal?”

“Jasmine, calm down.”

“That’s Ms. Turner to you, Mr. Rat Weasel. You fired my aunt. Whatever your problem was with me, fine, it’s personal. I get it. I don’t get it, but whatever. It’s your call. You don’t have to explain yourself to me, though I’d like an explanation from myself as to just why I care for you. I fell in love with you, and you took me for a ride. But that’s fine. That’s fine because it’s personal. You fired Aunt Della. She is incredible at her job. You said so. Your precious Jennifer said so. And you just fired her as if she was nothing. As if she didn’t matter. Well, your days of walking all over people, they’re over. You don’t get to do that here. I’m going to take both you and Richard Sanders down on my own. I don’t need you to do it. You are going to be in so much trouble, you’re going to come crawling back to me.”

She stopped, but mostly because she had to take a breath. She still had plenty left to say.

“You fell in love with me.”

The words were whispered.

“Well of course, you lumphead. Do you think I share my home and my food and my cats with anybody and everybody? I don’t let anybody in, for anything. I let you in. You made me let you in. And you left. That’s your right. But this isn’t about me. This is about how you’re taking out whatever personal disagreement we might have on my Aunt Della. That woman loves you. She really loves you. She has so much love to give, and this is how you repaid here. You are despicable!”

Jasmine didn’t know when the tears started running down her face, but she didn’t stop them. He got up and walked around the desk, pulled her into his arms. She fought him, beating at his arms and his shoulders, but he soothed her and pulled her in.

Jasmine took a deep breath, twisted, and had him in a headlock.

“I took Judo. And Taekwondo. And every form of self defense I could. I learned that I had to. Now tell me what is going on, because something is going on.”

“Let go! Can’t breathe!”

She loosened her grip slightly.

“Tell me!”

“I’ll tell you! Breathe!”

Jasmine let go and stepped back, crossing her arms. Anthony straightened and looked at her in frank admiration.

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“How could you? We only started being together, and you decided to leave.”

“I… Jasmine, it’s not like that.”

Jasmine didn’t know when it clicked. Maybe it was the look on his face when she told him that she loved him.

But she saw the truth.

“Sanders. He did it.”

Rubbing his shoulders and his neck, Anthony nodded.

“And you crumbled under his threats!”

“I didn’t know that you loved me. I thought that this was the only way to keep you safe, to be sure. I could try to protect you, but there was always a chance I might fail. I couldn’t take that chance with you.”

“And you didn’t consider that maybe we could protect ourselves? Or that we had a choice in this?”

Anthony looked suitably sheepish.

“You owe Aunt Della an apology.”

“I do.”

“Well, you can text her, because now, I have something to show you.”

“What?”

“I have your spy. Your mole.”

Anthony frowned.

“But the temp agency…”

“Was one of them. There’s another, a deeper one. Joshua Harris.”

Anthony’s eyes widened.

“How?”

“Well, look at these call patterns. He gets these calls, but he doesn’t answer them. Right after that, he goes out. You have this dictatorial habit of making people punch out whenever they leave the building, and that security guard really keeps an eye on you. These buzzes are a signal. He leaves after that, and then he comes back within about five minutes – time enough to make a phone call. It’s always within two days of that that you find a doctored document.”

Anthony looked at everything she’d taken from her bag and spread out on the table.