Jamie ran his hand through his hair, racking his brain. He vaguely remembered something he’d told Mark to handle while he was at the pool, but he’d been distracted by Tony and Jessica. “Remind me.”
Mark blew out another frustrated breath. Jamie pictured him stalking across his fifteenth-floor office, bushy brows drawn together, dark eyes seething. “I’ll remind you, all right. Search engine bug. Young kids searching for toys, video games, and movies with dragons are getting ads for military equipment and ammo. If the media gets wind of this, we’re screwed. Mothers are already complaining like there’s no tomorrow.”
“All right, so our team tracked it down, right? Get PR on it. Do some damage control, and we’re back in business.”
“Are you kidding me? Did you hear what I said? Kids and guns don’t mix. What are you smoking at the Cape, Jamie? Do you hear yourself?” He mocked Jamie. “So, our team tracked it down, right?” He blew out a breath again, a habit he had when he was too mad to form a response.
“If our team had tracked it down, would I have called you? We’ve got our cyber investigation team on it to see if we were hacked,” Mark explained. “You need to be here. You’ve got to come back and take charge of this situation.”
“Mark, you’ve got our teams on it and the cyber investigators. Let them do their jobs.” Before meeting Jessica, Jamie would have packed up and driven back to Boston. But that was then. Now he didn’t want to miss a minute of time with her, and he trusted his team of professionals to handle the issues without him micromanaging.
“Jamie, if this hits the news, you’re going to have a media nightmare to deal with.”
Mark was right. If it got that far, they’d have a bigger issue on their hands, but he’d hired the best programmers in the country. His being there wasn’t going to change a thing. Or at least that’s how, for the first time in his life, he was rationalizing putting his business second to his personal life.
Jessica came out of Amy’s cottage wearing a nightshirt and a pair of cutoffs. She waved to Jamie, and the evening before came rushing back. They’d washed her bedsheets at midnight, after spilling body oil on them, and when they went into the dark laundry room to get them from the dryer, the room was hot, and so were they. They’d ended up making love on top of the warm dryer.
“Are you even listening to me?” Mark snapped.
Oops. He’d zoned out. He waved to Jessica as she walked toward her cottage. She had a heck of a sweet backside.
“Jamie!” Mark yelled.
“Yeah, sorry. Listen, I’m not leaving the Cape. Whatever I need to do, I can do from here. Just set up a videoconference. Give me a time.”
“Bad move, Jamie. You need to be here to light a fire under their butts. I’m telling you, nipping this in the bud is critical.”
Jamie was sure his being there in person wouldn’t do any more good than a videoconference. He trusted his cyber investigators, and he trusted Mark, but he also knew Mark didn’t like his advice to be ignored. He had to level with Mark or Mark would never let up. He also knew how protective Mark was of him. He practically had the FBI check out every woman he dated, and while it pissed Jamie off at times, he was equally as thankful that Mark had his back.
“Mark, I met someone. I’m not leaving.”
Vera raised her eyes and smiled. Jamie knew that Vera understood how serious he was about Jessica, because he rarely shared his personal life with anyone. Especially Mark. But Mark had his ways of finding things out, so one way or another, his attorney and buddy since college would have figured this out without him.
“You’re blowing off business for a chick? Eight years of a stellar rep that you could lose over some idiot hacker…for a chick?”
“She’s not just a chick.” Anger simmered in Jamie’s gut.
Mark laughed. “She better be a fine piece for this risk, my boy.”
“Mark! Cut the crap.” He wanted to tell him not to ever refer to Jessica that way again, but Mark was already hot under the collar and he needed him to focus on the issues, not on his relationship.
“Fine. I’ll come there. I can be there this afternoon. We’ll structure a game plan and I’ll take care of it. You’re at Vera’s?”
Jamie let out a frustrated breath. Mark was a good friend to come all the way there instead of relying on a videoconference, and Jamie appreciated his efforts. He’d gone over and above the call of duty for Jamie many times, and in turn, Jamie paid him well. Not to mention that their friendship ran even deeper than their business relationship. Tonight was Jessica’s performance with Vera’s quartet, and he wanted to be there. His parents’ deaths had taught him how precarious life really was, and he wasn’t about to miss Jessica’s performance, even for Mark.