Hating the CEO

Chapter 13 - When the past comes knocking

Julia found another distraction, besides work, that would take her mind off that constant feeling of being watched. Jack Deschanel.
All weekend she'd been thinking about their dance, about what they'd said... One thought in particular would not leave her; should she tell Jack what had happened in Seattle? Julia felt he'd wanted to know that. They were sort of becoming friends. Didn't a friend deserve to know such things? But then again why drag another person into her personal mess?

Walking into the office on Monday she was almost resolved to tell Jack her story. But then the whole day just passed in a blur of invoices, e-mails, phone calls, prospects for the customer parties, so Julia did not get the chance to even think of her resolution, not to mention talk to Jack about it.
Every now and then someone would pop their head into her office to say:
"Loved the party, Julia!"
or
"Great party last Friday!"
or
"When's the next party, Julia?"
Which was a nice break from the monotonous paperwork.
Zoey popped not only her head to her office, but her full self. She was grinning from ear to ear.
"Tell me, Jules, that dance with the CEO... was it on the party's agenda?"
"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, Zoey."
"Anyway, my mom loved the picture of you two together on the dancefloor."
"Jeez, Zoey!" The smile disappeared from Julia's face. "You didn't...!" Julia slowly rose from her chair, murder in her eyes.
"Chill, Jules! I'm just kidding." Zoey chuckled. "I mean, I did take a pic, I just didn't send it to my mom..." Seeing that Julia grabbed a book from her desk and was eyeing Zoey furious, the latter backed out of the room. As she was closing the door however, she added, "I haven't sent it yet." She closed the door just in time to avoid the book clashing with her face.
Not sure which one of the Deschanel siblings was annoying her more, Julia sat down at her desk and dived back into the e-mails and invoices.

When she again looked at the clock it was already seven. She'd been so busy she even missed the six o'clock coffee in the office kitchen. That meant she'd missed the opportunity to tell a certain someone about Seattle.
Julia packed her stuff and left the room. The e-mails and invoices had already gotten too much of her undivided attention.
Once in the hallway she noticed that the lights were still on in Jack's office. She could hear voices as the door was slightly ajar.

Well, he is the same workaholic as I am, Julia thought, turning to walk away. But then she heard her name being spoken and she stopped in her trucks.
She considered for a moment whether to ignore it, but decided against it. Someone, most probably Jack, was talking about her and didn't even take the trouble to close the door.
"So how did you manage to get this information?" Jack asked.
"I reached out to a friend in DEA..." That was Tom speaking.
Having a bad feeling about that conversation, Julia walked closer to Jack's door.
"So I was right," Tom continued, "Someone was purposefully blocking me access to information on Nicholas Starr..."
Julia swayed on her feet hearing the name. She leaned against a wall not to fall down. She was naïve to think that Jack would wait for her to tell him about Seattle, while all this time he had had her past investigated.
"What's so secret about a guns dealer?"
"Well, actually, what is kept secret is how he went down..." Tom paused dramatically.
"How?" Jack asked, clearly impatient.
Silence answered him, so Julia imagined Tom raising his brow, waiting for Jack to connect the dots. Which he did a moment later.
"Julia?" Jack whispered, but Julia could hear disbelief in his voice.
"Our one and only Miss Stiles helped the FBI bring down Nicholas Starr." Julia thought she heard amusement in Tom's voice. Asshole!
"Why isn't she under some kind of witness protection?" Jack seemed outraged.
This was when Julia had it. She opened the door with a hard push letting it slam against the wall.
"Because that's how I wanted it," she spoke in a cold tone. She could see shock, then fear and then embarrassment on Jack's face, but all these emotions were gone within a second. He immediately composed himself and took on that look of indifference, that look of an utter asshole. "You know, they told me I'd be safe, that any information about my involvement would be wiped out... but well it seems the safety of others is of no value if you have old friends with the DEA... " She sent Tom a bitter look and could swear the guy sent her a guilty one in return.
"Julia, I..."
"I don't give a fuck about your explanations, Tom! Didn't you think, morons, that looking things up about me, might just put me in the spotlight again?!"
"Why didn't you agree to witness protection?" Jack finally spoke. His composure annoyed her.
"Because I didn't want to run and hide, I didn't want to pretend I'm someone else..."
"But you've been doing just that, Julia!" Jack interrupted her. "You ran away from Seattle and you've literally been hiding in this office. You're hiding behind Brand Today, for heaven's sake! You are constantly pretending to be someone else!"
"I'll wait in the car," Tom whispered and immediately backed out of Jack's office.
Julia and Jack ignored him, staring at each other, both furious.
"How I live my life, is entirely up to me, Jack! You have no right to be checking up on me like that, to be investigating my past?!"
"I do have that right, Julia. The moment the safety and wellbeing of my sister and my employees is at stake, I will start digging through anyone's past..."
"Finally, you got to the point." Julia chuckled, but she put so much resentment into it, that Jack took a step back. "Jack Deschanel finally found a way to dispose of Julia Stiles from his company! Well, congratulations, Jack, you might have actually managed to get rid of me!"
"That's not what this is about, Stiles!"
Julia was fed up with the discussion; it was leading nowhere. She shook her head and turned to leave.
"Stiles, don't be such a drama queen! It's not like that guy is after you. He's in jail, remember? You put him there, afterall!"
"You have no fucking idea what you're talking about, Deschanel."
Julia slammed his door and walked to the elevators as quickly as possible. God forbid that the asshole would step into the same elevator with her.
Her hands were shaking so bad she had to take a couple of deep breaths.