Unbelievable (Heroes of Calvano Security Book 1)

by Nikki Rome

  The worst part was her ex, some asshole named Devon, was out walking the streets like nothing had happened. They let him off on a technicality, which from what Jason could see was because someone got paid off to screw with evidence. It was a complicated case; they had been in a relationship, living together, and then he was set off by something. Jason had unfortunately seen his fair share of domestic abuse cases. Many times it was some breaking point that caused the spouse to lose it, however the severity of what Christy experienced was far worse than anything he had ever seen. Her tragedy seemed to be something she was still dealing with daily. He hoped she was in therapy, and was happy she had Frances in her life, but she needed more, she needed him.

  Once he found the first case file he started digging even deeper. Into Devon’s past, her past, anything he could get his hands on. In photos of them at fundraisers, her eyes always looked haunted. Doctor’s notes about “accidents” she had around the house or at the office. Jason concluded that he had been hurting her for their entire relationship, and she had done nothing about it. Her ex was an up-and-coming attorney at one of the largest law firms in the city and the son of a local politician. No wonder this guy thought he could get away with anything. He did terrible things to a woman who trusted him, and he had gotten away with it.

  Jason needed to see her. His anxiety was eating at him and it was getting hard to remember this had happened to her over a year ago. Since he was just learning about it, the whole situation seemed like it had just happened yesterday. It was possible she was making progress on her own, but he wanted to help her. Jason already knew she didn’t talk to many friends, and there weren’t any recent calls made to her family either. It seemed, other than Frances, she was completely and utterly alone.

  That was it. Picking up the phone, he called her and got her voice mail. “Christy, we need to talk, sweetie. I know you said you have a big meeting in the morning, but I’ll be by your office in the afternoon. I’ve been trying to give you space, but I know you're hurting, and… I know why. I just want to help.”

  Chapter Seven

  Listening to the voice mail again, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What does he mean, he knows why? He didn’t know about Devon. No one knew about Devon. The social columns picked up his line about a mutual separation while she was hiding away until her body had healed. She secluded herself so that no one other than Frances saw her. After a while people stopped calling, and no one asked questions. Everyone had assumed it was a normal break up and she was just hiding away and caring for a broken heart. He went on with his life and she pulled herself back together and got on with hers. That was the end. Friends and family didn’t even question her. How could Jason know?

  Happy she didn’t bother to listen to the message until after her meeting, she sat in her office more confused than ever. She sent off another text, hoping to bring this whole thing to an end.

  Christy: Please Jason, I just can’t do this again.

  Jason: We aren’t doing anything again; I just want an opportunity to talk to you.

  She wanted to push him away, but her heart hurt at never seeing him again. Instead of giving in, she picked up the phone on her desk and called the only person she knew could steer her in the right direction. Luckily Frances answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I need you to tell me I’m not crazy.”

  “Well, that’s hard to do sometimes, but let’s try it, anyway. It’s Jason, isn’t it?”

  “Ugh! I wish he never showed back up in my life. I keep jumping to conclusions about things, and now I’m having nightmares again. Maybe I should change my number so he can’t reach me.”

  “What does Jason have to do with your nightmares?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just now that he’s back I feel like every night I’m reliving what Devon put me through. I can’t sleep, I’m more paranoid than ever, and now I keep getting phone calls from an unknown number. When I answer there is no one there. Maybe I am going crazy.”

  “Okay, take a breath. You are not going crazy. Well, at least I don’t think you are… however that’s probably a better question for your therapist. If nothing else, she needs to know about the nightmares.”

  “I know, I know I’ll call her.” She paused and then continued, “He wants to know my secrets. He knows I’m hiding something, and then today he left me a message with some cryptic line about knowing what happened. He couldn’t really know, could he?”

  “Honey, I don’t know the answer to that. You’re not going to like what I have to say, but the truth is he’s the one you need to be asking these questions to. Not me.”

  “Some help you are.”

  “Listen, you need to face the fact that he may know. You said he owns a huge security firm, I’m sure he has access to things like police reports. He used to know you better than anyone else in the world, and if he could tell you are hiding things, then I could easily see him poking around.”

  “If he did, I will never forgive him.”

  “Really? Because for someone planning to never forgive their old flame, you seem pretty hot and bothered by everything he does.”

  “I’m not hot and bothered!”

  “Then why do you keep arguing with me? Something has you riled up, and it’s not me.”

  “What am I going to do?”

  “You are going to hang up this phone, finish your workday, and then put your big girl panties on and figure out your life. Yes, of course you have been through something beyond imaginable, but Christy, it’s time you let someone else in. Jason is a good man, you know it in your heart. You two weren’t meant to be together all those years ago. Maybe now is the time.”

  “He makes me feel safe.”

  “I know, I could tell when you two were together in my studio you are still drawn to him. Did you even realize you initiated touch with him? Months after the incident, you wouldn’t even let me touch you. It shocked me when I saw you reach for his arm and pull him to that chair.”

  “That’s different, I was embarrassed at the scene you two were making.”

  “No, it isn’t. I’ve seen how you react to other men. I’ve seen the fear in your eyes. You are not afraid of him.”

  “He startles me sometimes.”

  “You need to tell him what happened. It’s only natural you will get scared from time to time. He needs to know what you have been through so he doesn’t think it’s him you are pushing away.”

  “Can I really do this?”

  “Only you can answer that question. But if you’re asking your best friend if she thinks you should try, then the answer is yes. I think you should try.”

  Christy hung up the phone and decided she needed to do something. Jason wasn’t going to just disappear, and she didn’t really want him to, anyway.

  Christy: We can talk.

  *****

  Jason crossed the street, heading to the coffee shop to grab them both a cup of coffee before heading to her office. His original plan was to wait until the end of the day and see her when she was leaving, but his mind was racing with thoughts of Christy and he couldn’t get any work done. The second he saw her message, he got into his car to make the ride across town.

  Christy was the only woman in his life that consumed his thoughts. She had when they were younger and now in just a few short days, she was again. He put an impressive amount of effort into building a life he could control. From owning his own business to personal decisions he made daily, there was no one to blame if something went wrong but himself. While in the military, following orders came naturally to him. Being in a dangerous place when he enlisted only fueled his desire to follow others. However, when his tour was over, faced with the reality of the actual world, he knew it was time for him to step up. Even in the years they were apart she would grace his thoughts. While traveling he would smell a perfume that reminded him of her, or see something he thought she would like, and it hurt him he couldn’t call her to tell h
er. Now she was so close again he could feel the same desire he had for her years ago as it ripped through him. The only problem was, in about ten minutes he was going to ruin everything he was hoping for, or he was about to take a giant step in a direction that could help them both move forward.

  He pulled open the enormous glass doors that led into the lobby of the building. Jason walked past the building receptionist and walked toward the elevators. He had never been there before, but he did plenty of research on where Christy spent her time over the last few days. Taking the elevator to the eleventh floor, he exited and approached the receptionist there.

  “How can I help you, sir?” she asked.

  “I’m here to see Christy Price.”

  “Ms. Price is on the other line, is she expecting you?”

  “Yes,” he lied.

  “All right then, it will be just a few minutes, if you would like to have a seat.”

  Turning around to see the waiting area, he laughed to himself. He never understood why people chose decor over function. If he sat on that tiny chair, then one of two things would happen. It would break under his weight, or he could never get his 6’4” body back to his feet. He stayed standing, thankful that his line of work rarely required a waiting area. He stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows and looked out into the city. It didn’t matter what he did or how he shifted his thoughts, they kept going back to the photos in that damn file. If not the photos, the face of the asshole that hurt his woman, the same face that he would destroy. Wait… his woman? Since when did she become his? Maybe she always was. He felt all the blood drain from his face with the realization that he this was more than just curiosity and looking out for a friend. He had an ache in his chest that hadn’t left since he saw her again, and it all was making him dizzy.

  “Would you like a coffee?” the receptionist asked, looking nervously over at him.

  “No,” he said, gesturing to the two cups in his hands. What was with this woman? Didn’t she realize he needed to see Christy now? “Is she done yet? I have a tight schedule,” he responded, noticing how easily the lies kept falling from his lips.

  “I will call her again.”

  *****

  The phone on Christy’s desk rang the second her conference call ended.

  “There is a Mr. Calvano here to see you, I apologize, I don’t have him on your calendar, but he said you were expecting him,” the receptionist said as soon as she pushed the button to answer.

  Christy’s mind raced. What was he doing at her office? She said they could talk, but he didn’t respond to her text. She certainly didn’t mean right now.

  “Send him in,” she told the receptionist, knowing there was no way he would leave.

  Before she could even straighten her desk, the door opened, and he was there. Today he wore a dark blue suit, white shirt, no tie, and after all these years the sight of him still made her flush. The problem was his eyes. His dark brown eyes were penetrating her, and it made her question whether seeing him was the right thing to do. At first it seemed like anger, but then his features shifted into something akin to kindness, or compassion. He walked in, pulled her door closed behind him, and headed straight for her and took a seat at her desk. She noticed this was the first time he saw her, and he didn’t attempt to hug or kiss her while greeting her. Maybe she was making progress, and he was learning she didn’t want him too close.

  He was looking at her like something was up, and she was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. Something annoyed him today, she could tell from the way his knee bounced up and down and he kept tapping on the arm of the chair. It was as if he knew she would turn him away and he was getting himself ready for a fight. Christy didn’t really want to fight with him, she didn’t want to fight with anyone. It took too much energy.

  “Jason, I’m not sure what you are doing here. I said we could talk, but that didn’t mean now.”

  “This can’t wait.”

  “Everything can wait. I have a job, you run a company. Coming down here in the middle of the day like this is crazy.”

  “It’s not crazy, Christy. I needed to see you.”

  “What is your game, Jason? What’s this all about?”

  “I told you I want to be friends again.”

  “Friends don’t act like this. My life is complicated, our past is complicated…”

  “Bullshit!” he exclaimed, stopping her mid-sentence.

  Christy’s hand flew to her chest as she started shaking her head. “What did you just say?”

  “I said bullshit, Christy. Yes we have a complicated past, but we both cared about each other. We needed time apart to find each other again. I know that now. We can be friends, maybe not like we were as kids, but we will never know if you don’t try. You need me, and I want to be there for you.” He wanted more than friends, but he had to start somewhere with her. She needed to learn she could trust him, but her defensive nature was driving him insane.

  “I don’t need you, Jason, I don’t need anyone. I have worked really hard to build my life and I won’t let people keep me down.”

  “People like me or people like Devon?”

  She turned away and Jason knew that was the wrong thing to say. He felt like he just shattered her world and all he wanted to do was get up and pull her into his arms. But he couldn’t. He looked over at her as she turned back at him. She was staring at him with those blank eyes. The ones he saw in the photos, and they were filling with tears. Looking at her he tried to think back, he was sure in all the years he knew her he had never seen her cry. Maybe it was his terrible memory, but he couldn’t remember it ever happening.

  Chapter Eight

  Christy’s heart dropped the second Devon’s name passed through Jason’s lips. He knew what happened, or at least he thought he did. Even knowing it was a possibility that he had uncovered what happened to her, the sound of Devon’s name from Jason’s voice sounded like the worst kind of curse. It was like both of her past lives had collided into one monumental mess. She was angry, so angry and scared all the time, and here was the only man she ever loved, sitting in her office and forcing this conversation on her. As tears streaked down her face ruining her makeup, she couldn’t help but think the timing couldn’t have been worse.

  “What do you know?” She said as her hands trembled.

  “I made some inquiries.” He turned away from her as if embarrassed to admit it.

  She looked at him and shook her head slowly in disbelief.

  “I felt like something was going on and you wouldn’t tell me about it on your own.”

  “You didn’t think that maybe there was a reason I didn’t want you to know?”

  “All I could think about was that something had happened to you and I needed to know what it was. I had no idea how serious things were until I found everything about the attack.”

  She reached for a tissue in the drawer of her desk and wiped her eyes. “You had no right.”

  “I know Christy… I’m sorry I did what I did, but now that I know we need to talk about this. I want to help you and I don’t know how. It’s clear I have upset you and I am sorry for that, especially while you are at work. Please, let’s just get out of here. You can leave, can’t you? It’s already getting late,” he said, looking at his watch.

  She just continued to stare at him then out of nowhere she stood up, grabbed her purse, threw on some sunglasses and walked out of her office. He was doing what he could to catch up with her, all while wondering where the heck she was going.

  “Christy, wait!” he yelled while slipping out the door behind her. His security detail jumped into action, and he needed to make a quick turn to call them off. If she knew he had people watching her, this would only get worse. Jason prided himself on the team he had assembled. The guys working for him were loyal to the bone, but this was a personal matter and it needed a certain level of finesse. He gave a quick signal to his men and now he needed to run to catch up with her. Only when he did, he
made the mistake of grabbing her arm to get her attention. That’s when all hell broke loose.

  She turned on him, her face ashen and her lips trembled. Then she swung at him.

  “Christy, stop!” She looked dazed now, and her eyes were wild. He saw a similar look in the past with soldiers who experienced trauma, and he noticed the same signs in her. It was as if she couldn’t even see him. Her eyes were darting from side to side, her fists were clenched and her breathing was erratic. Some combination of a panic attack and what was likely a flash back was consuming her and he stood there helplessly watching.

  He moved into her line of sight. “Look at me. Take a deep breath. It’s me, Jason, I will not hurt you, you know that Christy. I’m sorry I grabbed your arm, I wasn’t thinking.”

  She paused for what was maybe a millisecond, then bent to pick up her sunglasses that fell to the sidewalk.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, then turned and walked away. Again.

  This time he let her; he didn’t want to, but if he pushed her too far, she may disappear on him for good. Instead, he turned to get to his car. When he jumped in, he had his driver follow her home. Upset as she was, he didn’t want her driving, however her getting in the car with him would never happen. He pulled in front of her building when she pulled into the attached garage and then he sent her a text hoping to reach her.