Claire couldn't think straight. She's pounding away on her computer, typing whatever comes to mind. It's a good thing nobody can see her computer screen, with her back directly on the wall, because they'd know she's just faking it.
Gabriel had to leave immediately—there was a phone call, and even though he didn't tell her what it was about (and it's not really her business, anyway), she felt it might have something to do with Jake Magno again. Apparently, it turns out, Jake is a festering problem Gabriel has yet to solve. And she had no idea.
"If I were a bad person," Gabriel told her, "I could have ended his life, right then and there. But I thought of giving that decision to the authorities. And now here we are."
Jake is suing Gabriel. Not only that, he is threatening to make a grand spectacle of his departure from the company. "Which means shit can hit the fan," Gabriel said. "And we could attract the kind of attention that we've been trying to avoid."
