Chapter 56

CHAPTER56

“Bailey?” came the soft whisper as the hand on her shoulder gently shook her. “You need to wake up.”

When she didn’t open her eyes, there was another shake, an annoyed sigh, and then the sounds of the bedroom door opening and clicking shut a few seconds later. Bailey kept her eyes closed as she lay there, counting to fifty in her head before she slowly opened them and-

“What gave me away?” Jess asked from the comfort of the oversized leather chair in the corner, looking completely relaxed while Bailey struggled to remember how to breathe as she took in the gun aimed in her direction.

“The virus,” Bailey said, swallowing hard as she glanced up to find Jess frowning until she added, “You hate spaces and you always use your initials to name your functions.”

Sighing heavily, Jess said, “I had a feeling that was going to be my downfall one day.”

“You know that this isn’t going to end the way that you think it will, right?” Bailey pointed out as she slowly pushed the covers off and sat up, deciding that her best option at the moment was to keep Jess talking until she figured a way out of this mess.

“You have no idea how I expect this to end,” Jess said as she gave the gun in her hand a small shake, gesturing towards the black laptop on the small table to her left.

“You could always tell me,” Bailey said as she moved to climb off the bed, her gaze remaining locked on the gun that was aimed at her chest.

“I could…” Jess murmured absently as her gaze shifted to the bedroom door.

“He’s never going to let you get away with this,” Bailey said, having absolutely no idea how Jess got in here, but she prayed that Quinn was safe.

“I think he’ll have other things to worry about than me,” Jess said as her gaze shifted back to her.

“Meaning?” Bailey asked, swallowing hard as she kept her gaze on the gun while she slowly moved across the room towards the table.

“That it would be in your best interest to stop trying to stall,” Jess said with a pointed look at the laptop.

“Is that what I’m doing?” Bailey asked, slowly exhaling as she placed her hands on the table and sat down.

“Open the laptop,” Jess said firmly while Bailey sat there wondering how she’d missed the signs.

Jess had always been…Jess.

From the first day that she’d met Jess, she’d always had a warm smile on her face, was always there for her, and kept her sane by sneaking her coffee from across the street when Nathan wasn’t looking. She was one of her best friends and part of her family and this just didn’t make any sense, Bailey thought as she pushed the can of Coke in front of her aside and reached for the sleek laptop that would have normally had her fingers twitching with the need to explore but only filled her with dread at the moment.

“You want to tell me why you’re doing this?” Bailey asked as she opened the laptop and felt her stomach drop when she saw the login page for the personal server that she’d set up years ago with her login already typed in the box.

“You really have no idea what you took from me, do you?” Jess asked, sounding amused as Bailey’s gaze flickered to the woman who was breaking her heart.

“And you have no idea how much I loved you, Jess. You were one of my best friends,” Bailey said as she searched Jess’s green eyes, looking for any sign that the Jess that she knew was still in there somewhere. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Start typing,” Jess said, shifting the gun to the right so that the gun was aimed directly at her chest.

“No,” Bailey bit out as she thought about everything that happened over the past year, the attacks on their server, on her and just how easily someone that she loved could have been caught in the crossfire. “You pushed me in front of the bus, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Jess said with absolutely no hesitation. “And jammed the lock on your office door and arranged for the inspector to remove several vital bolts on the fire escape.”

“And the break-in?” Bailey asked, wondering just how far Jess was willing to go.

“Was bad timing,” Jess said with a heavy sigh. “You were supposed to be in a meeting, but instead, Quinn showed up and my guy had to improvise. I’ll admit that I wasn’t happy when I found out that Nathan hired Quinn to take over security, but then, I thought about all the possibilities. With that security system alone, I was able to move more freely throughout the building, allowing my men to come and go as they pleased and keep an eye on you.”

“You hacked into the security system and used an old feed to trick Quinn’s men,” Bailey guessed, watching as Jess’s lips twitched.

“It made my life easier,” Jess murmured as her gaze flickered back to the bedroom door.

“The condoms?” Bailey asked as she thought about everything.

“A distraction,” Jess said, shrugging it off as she shifted her focus back to her.

“The attack on Haven Technologies when I came back from Georgia?” Bailey asked, struggling to wrap her mind around everything.

“A little misdirection to force Quinn’s hand,” Jess said, making her frown.

“You wanted me to leave again,” Bailey mumbled with a frown and-

“My laptop. You needed me to log into my server so that you could gain access,” Bailey said as she thought about the virus on Quinn’s iPad.

Nodding, Jess said, “And you left it behind.”

“And you were hoping that by framing Kelly and Quinn that I would come running back, thinking that it was all over,” Bailey guessed.

“But you never believed that they would betray you, did you?” Jess murmured, looking thoughtful.

“Not even for a minute,” Bailey bit out.

“So loyal…” Jess said with a pitying look.

“Which is why I never saw any of this coming,” Bailey said, realizing just how incredibly foolish she’d been.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?” Jess asked, watching her curiously for a moment.

“Meaning?” Bailey asked as she sat there debating the odds of being able to send a message to Nathan before Jess could pull that trigger only to decide that they probably weren’t very good.

“When I showed up for the interview, I was sure that you would recognize me, but you had no idea who I was,” Jess said, shaking her head in wonder.

“And that worked for you,” Bailey guessed.

“Yes, it did,” Jess murmured in agreement.

“And how did we really meet?” Bailey asked, swallowing hard as her gaze flickered to the gun aimed at her.

“You destroyed my life,” Jess simply said with a careless shrug.

“And how did I do that?” Bailey asked as her gaze shifted back to the login page that confirmed that she’d been watching her for a while now.

It also let her know that Jess hadn’t installed any spyware on her laptop until recently, otherwise, she’d already have her password. The fact that she’d waited this long to do it told her everything that she needed to know.

“This is about the game,” Bailey said as her gaze flickered back to Jess in time to see her nod approvingly.

“You owed me a game,” Jess said with another pointed look at the laptop, making Bailey frown until she said the magic word.

“Jonathan.”

“You’re in this together,” Bailey said, shaking her head in disgust only to once again find herself frowning in confusion when Jess said, “Not exactly.”

“The thumb drive?” Bailey asked, needing to know why someone that she cared about could hate her this much.

“Would have solved a lot of problems if you’d used it,” Jess admitted with a soft sigh before shaking her head and continued. “Other than doing what I told him, he had nothing to do with this. He owed me a favor for not taking him down with me when you completely fucked me over by deleting that game.”

“That had nothing to do with you,” Bailey bit out.

“It had everything to do with me. I put everything that I had on the line for that game, my reputation, my career, and everything that I had to make that work and you destroyed it because you didn’t like how the real world worked,” Jess said with a pitying look that only pissed her off.

“It was my game,” Bailey reminded her.

“And it was my life,” Jess returned with a look that told her just how much she hated her. “When you deleted that game, I lost everything that I’d worked so goddamn hard for and was forced to start over, biding my time and when I found out what you were planning with this game…” Jess said, shaking her head in wonder as she let her words trail off.

“Why are you telling me any of this?” Bailey demanded.

“I thought you had a right to know,” Jess said with a careless shrug as dread slowly crawled up Bailey’s spine and-

“You’re not planning on letting me leave this room alive, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”