After cleaning myself up and rinsing my mouth out in the sink, I went back to the conference room. The small one that is, I couldn't bear to be in the big one. If I saw Jax, I might kill him. No, that wasn't a joke, I really would. Her father too, because he was obviously the one pulling the strings on this charade.

As soon as I got back there, I packed up my laptop. I wasn't going to stay anywhere near this situation. I couldn't. I wanted to help Brooke, I really did, but I couldn't be near her right now, I'd probably break down as much as she just had, and that would do neither of us any good. If anything, they'd threaten us both. If they had used me as leverage to make this happen, then the best thing I could do would be to remove that leverage. Once I was all set, I just walked right on out. Everyone was just coming out of the big conference room, but I didn't care. I hadn't taken a sick day in over three years, and I think I was due one.

I was out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened on the ground floor, power walking out the door, and over to the hotel as quickly as I could get there. I still had a lot of clothes in Brooke's room, and I packed them all up as quickly as I could. I had no idea if she would be back here, though I hoped so. But I couldn't risk leaving a note in case her father or Jax was with her when she returned.

With that done, I walked back to my normal light rail stop, and took the long ride back to my place. My condo was nice, I liked it. It was a cute little two bedroom, two bath condo on the third floor near the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and I knew it would sell fast. Or at least, that was what I told myself when I called the same real estate agent that sold it to me six years ago.

It was time to leave. I couldn't be a weapon if I didn't live in the city. Was I being rash? Yeah, I most certainly was. But I also didn't want to be the reason that Brooke was stuck in a marriage to a man like Jax. Or any man for that matter. She didn't deserve that. Hopefully with me gone she could end it and we could reconnect.

But with the real estate agent booked, I needed to move out. If I was lucky, whoever wanted the place would take all the furniture too, because I didn't want to move it. Nothing in here had any sentimental value at all. I'd never bought anything with anyone, nor had any heirlooms imported from my parents' house. All I needed to do was pack up my clothes and toiletries, move everything into a hotel and make the condo spotless for showings.

And then hope that Brooke would be okay. Again. I have been doing a lot of that lately.

               The next call was to Carol, and I was just glad it was a Friday night there because she might need time to do what I needed to be a help. She was supposed to be meeting me in the office on Tuesday before the pitch, but things had obviously changed. I didn't think I'd ever be going to the office again. Luckily, she answered after two rings.

               "Hello Kris, I was just thinking about you."

               "Hello to you too. I'm sorry to be brusque, but I need help. I need you here sooner than we planned if you can. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Zach forced Brooke to marry Jax. She knows he can't fire me, so he had to threaten her with something else, though I'm not exactly sure. With the people he had following her around in college, probably nothing good. I'm planning on using all my vacation time, starting immediately, but I need you in the office here to help settle things. It is going to be a mess there with the guys actually having to do their jobs."

               "That sounds like it should be fun to see!" she said bluntly. "You do realize you have over six weeks of vacation time accrued, right? You can do whatever you like for a while."

               "I don't think they liked me taking her out of the country, nor the fact that she is actually wanting to learn her job. And as for the vacation, I think I need all that time to figure out what I want to do next."

               "Would you like to come back to the UK office? You'd be a lot closer to your parents that way."

               "I have to think about it. But it is a possibility. For the short term I just need to be out of the city, but long term I need to talk to Brooke once she's free of them so we can decide on what to do next together."

               "You can take your time. But the offer is open any time you need it. And as for me, you need me there Monday morning?"

               "Yes please. Or as soon as you can get there. I need you to be my contact person with Brooke so she knows what I'm doing. I don't want her to think I'm abandoning her, I just don't want to be near her and give them more ammunition to use. I'll give you everything you need to work there, but I need my laptop until Tuesday. I'm going to try to go up to Nike to do the pitch early. Speaking of which, I need to get the Chicago women out here for a demo of that. You should stay at the same hotel as Brooke, it's only a short walk to the office. It will make things easier," I explained.

               "And I can escort your girlfriend too." I could hear the smile in her voice, but she wasn't wrong.

               "True. You might even ask for a room with two beds. She might need a place to hide." I wished I was joking, but I had no idea what was going on in her life at the moment.

               "I can do that. Better safe than sorry. I'll go make my arrangements now, and then I'll text you the details."

               With a deep breath, I texted James at Nike again. I needed to see if he could see us early before I had Monica change her plans.

Me – James, do you by chance have time to do the pitch on Monday instead? I know this is unorthodox, but it is a very different kind of pitch, and we'd love to show it to you and anyone else that you want to share it with.

James (Nike) – Are you sure you want an audience like that?

Me – Absolutely. The bigger the better. We'll even give you a demo of the league before you see the pitch. You wanted outside the box, and this is it. But I've never felt better about a pitch.

James (Nike) – I can give you an hour at 10am. We've had several other pitches come early, so you're actually one of the last.

Me – That is all I need. We'll see you then!

Fuck yeah! With that taken care of, I needed to call Monica too. If I was going to see Nike on Monday, then I needed her here early too. I liked the fact that they seemed open to seeing our pitch if others had gone early too. They must not have been too impressed with what they'd seen.

She picked up after a few rings too and sounded happy. "Hey Kris! What's going on?"

"Hey, Monica! Do you think you and the girls can be here Sunday night? We were able to squeeze the pitch in a day early. We can fly up early on Monday and then blow them away."

"Hell yeah! All the girls are fighting over who gets to go up against Hilda in the demo, but I think it will be Tammy, she was the US Champion last year. They should be able to put on a good show."

"Perfect!" I breathed out a sigh of relief. This was what I needed after the Brooke shock earlier. "Just send me everyone's names, and I'll get the flights for Monday. Then I'll fly you home afterwards."

With that call wrapped up, I stood up and stretched. I felt good about the pitch for all of thirty seconds before I remembered that Brooke wouldn't be there with me. The pitch I'd wanted to do with her at my side would now be me alone. Yes, I'd done them alone before, but I'd really looked forward to her helping in this case because of the work she'd put in. Hell, she deserved to be there. That, and I missed my girlfriend.

I missed my Brooke.

There had been a few hours there where I'd gotten so caught up in the work that I'd been able to push everything to the back of my mind. Pretend she hadn't been married. Pretend she hadn't been sobbing miserably in front of the rest of the creative department, and that her family didn't care at all. Pretend that I couldn't do anything to help her but leave. I just prayed I was doing the right thing.

With nothing better to do, I went down to the garage and started up my black Range Rover Discovery for the first time since... Holy crap, I have no idea. A few months maybe? But it started, and I drove over to the local U Haul rental and bought some cardboard boxes. I needed to pack up my clothes! At least that would keep me busy through the week.

No, it didn't. I had the boxes assembled and packed before I went to bed.

But I got it done, and then the next day the realtor came by and looked over the property. San Francisco real estate prices had skyrocketed since I bought, and the the property comps were right around $1.1 million for my square footage and location. I was more than fine with that, and I even told her I'd take less for a cash sale and a quick closing. The faster I was out of the city, the quicker I could tell Carol to tell Brooke I wasn't something that could be used against her any more.

               I almost slapped my head at the realization that I was being stupid, I could still help Brooke in another way. I quickly called Sophia and gave her the rundown on what was happening with Brooke. There was no love lost between her and the guys, so she was more than eager to help. She was more of a contract lawyer but having anyone who could provide legal advice there to help Brooke at this point was a good thing.

               I just hoped it was enough.