The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 89

"We need to talk," he said, crossing back towards her. "Are you hungry?"

Kat nodded, genuinely ravenous, but also hoping to distract from the talk. He placed the tray's top on the marble next to it then handed her the bowl of oatmeal that sat tucked into the corner.

"You want sugar?" he asked, and she shook her head, eager to take the first bite.

"Is there water?" she asked, and Jove gestured to the full glass on the nightstand next to her, having refilled it after she drained it the previous night. She took several swallows then accepted the bowl gratefully, shoveling down the first few bites.

Jove speared a piece of smoked salmon with a long, thin handled forked and chewed it thoughtfully, staring at her.

"What?" Kat asked, knowing exactly what.

"What are you doing?" wondered Jove with a shake of his head. "I mean, what is all this, were you actually involved in that? In yesterday? You were working with the man with the grenade?"

Kat immediately set the bowl down, her nausea renewed.

"It wasn't a grenade," she said. "Well, I'm not sure if it was, I don't know what you call them, but it wasn't a dud. It was a flashbang, it just,"

She swallowed.

"It was just supposed to make a lot of noise and a bunch of smoke."

Jove looked at her incredulously.

"Why?" He demanded. "Why would you do that, what would that even do?"

"We wanted to," Kat looked down. "We wanted to help the planet."

"Help the planet?" Jove repeated. "By bursting one of my guy's eardrums?"

His voice took on a more serious lilt.

"Kat, I'm lost here, start explaining."

"Ok, ok," said Kat, unsure of where to start. "When I was in college I joined this group called FES, they're environmental activists, they're an offshoot of another group," she rushed out. "And I joined them, and then I graduated, and then I thought like, you know, we're working with small potatoes at this point, we could be doing more, and I thought it would make sense to try and-"

She stopped.

"Try and what?" Jove prompted.

"Try and,"

Her mind looped, circling for another word she could use that didn't have 'infiltrates' negative connotation.

"Join," she finally decided. "Join a big company and figure out how to make them more environmentally friendly. And so that's what we did."

"That's what you did," Jove corrected. "You were the one that actually did it."

Kat shrunk into herself, feeling his not quite anger boiling below the surface.

"So what was with the processor?" asked Jove. "Keep going."

"Well,' said Kat, shifting. "It's really bad for the environment, you know? To have all those single processors. Even though it's cheaper, it has a really negative impact, so we were trying to get you to replace them with solar microgrids."

Jove shook his head, processing.

"Wait," he said. "What does that have to do with a smoke grenade in the core processor?"

"Well, we wanted. We wanted to short it out," Kat confessed.

Jove pinched the bridge of his nose as if fighting off his own headache.

"Short it out with what, Kat," he asked, his eyes wrenched shut.

"The- the water," she stammered hesitantly. "When the fire alarms went off."

"Kat, Jesus," Jove exploded. "You could've been fucking killed, you could've been killed over-"

He stopped, collecting himself.

"Kat," he began again more calmly. "Did you see any water?"

She thought back, her stomach dropping as she realized she hadn't, that nothing and no one had been dampened.

"Kat, the whole building uses a foam suppression system, specially designed to protect the core processor. Why would we risk destroying millions in equipment every time somebody left some documents near a hotplate? No Kat, it wouldn't have shorted out anything, you didn't need to-"

He sighed again, shaking his head.

"You could've just asked me. You could've just talked to me. I mean, Kat, why would you do this?"

"I don't know," she whimpered pitifully. "I don't know, I just thought that. I don't know!" she wailed, dissolving into tears.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," said Jove, crossing to the bed and sitting next to her to wrap her in his arms.

"You knew him?" Jove asked as Kat cried into his shirt. "The guy that died?"

Kat nodded miserably.

"I'm really sorry," said Jove gently, rubbing her back slowly. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you doing this?" Kat choked out between sobs. "Why are you being nice to me? Why are you helping me right now?"

She felt Jove shrug.

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure about anything with you, I'm not sure why I do what I do. I'm not sure why I came back and asked you to write that speech. I had employees turn in drafts of that speech months ago, but I just knew yours would be better. I'm not sure what you do to me, why I can't keep my eyes off you, can't stop thinking about you. I'm not sure why I followed you even though I knew you were involved in the attack, I knew it for sure and yet I still needed to keep you safe, needed it more than I needed anything. I don't know why. I think maybe I'm falling in love with you."

Kat looked up at him, shocked.

"And I know it's not the best time to say that, but I think it's true, I think it's why everything has happened the way it has. I've never felt this way about anybody and it makes no sense, it's the opposite of the kind of easy going relationship I thought I always wanted, but I think i'm falling in love with you. And,"

She watched him swallow hard.

"And I'd do anything for you. And I can't explain it."

She stared at him, enraptured and too surprised to respond.

"So if you want me to replace them, then I will," he finished simply.

Kat felt as if her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

"You'll replace them?" she asked again, wanting to confirm what she'd just heard.

"I'll replace them," he repeated.

"But," Kat started, images of the packed stakeholder meeting filtering into her mind.

"I don't care," said Jove. "If you want it, it's done."

She threw herself into his lap, her tears renewed.

"Hey," said Jove, pulling her up. "Hey, what's wrong? This is good, right?"

"I messed up," Kat confessed tearfully. "I really messed up. I tried to keep everything separate, tried to keep you a secret from them and them a secret from you, but if I hadn't lied, if I'd just told the truth,"

She began to cry harder. "Then Conner would still be alive."

"It's not your fault," Jove soothed, patting her back and letting her settle into his lap. "It's not your fault Kat."

She felt guilty accepting the warmth of his comfort but did so anyway, allowing herself to be fully and truly supported.