I nodded in agreement, surprised I felt such kinship towards this woman I’d only met weeks before.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna face my dad after today. He’s seen his daughter in a way no father would ever want to.”
It hurt my heart to say the words. Thinking of the look of disappointment mingled with disgust on his face when we walked into that boardroom, it tore my insides to pieces.
“Ryley, if your dad is anything like mine, all he’ll care about is that you’re okay. That’s what parents do when they love their kids unconditionally. My mum was another matter entirely, but my dad, he thought the sun shined out of me. I’m guessing your dad is the same.”
I nodded, thinking back over the years when Dad had taken time out of his day just to be with me. Put aside his worries and any pressing engagements he had and just held me if I was upset, or made me laugh when I needed cheering up. He really was the best dad a girl could ask for.
“From the look on your face, I’d guess you’re close to your dad, and as much as he likes to still see you as his little girl, he’s no fool. Dads are quite good at cutting all that bullshit out of their brains and only seeing the perfect little girl they raised, trust me. Nothing you can do will make him love you any less.”
“Thanks, Chloe. You’re a really good friend.”
She was right. My dad would always be there for me no matter what. Okay, so I wouldn’t be reconciling the two most important men in my life any time soon. I doubted Jackson would ever be allowed through my parents’ front door. But I had to move on, hold my head up high and not let it bring me down.
“Tomorrow is another day, Ryley. Keep smiling, stay strong, and you will both get through this.”
“Roll on tomorrow,” I answered, spewing forth all the details about my afternoon meeting with Justin. “I’ll be glad when I’ve jumped that hurdle and can leave his sorry ass in the dust behind me.”
“You’re going to meet him alone?” Chloe’s face went from friendly and jovial to hard as stone in a nanosecond. Clenching her petite little jaw, she shook her curly head obstinately. “No, not happening. Not on my watch. There’s not a chance in hell I’m letting you walk out of this house and go to meet an ex-asshole who could do God knows what to you. No way.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me, Chloe. Yes, he’s an asshole, but he’s never laid a finger on me.”
“Yet,” she bit back. I knew from some of the things Jackson had told me about Chloe that she’d fought her fair share of demons. Maybe she was too jaded by life to make a level-headed judgement on this.
“Honestly, you don’t have to worry, just don’t tell Jackson. I haven’t told him, but I will be okay. I wouldn’t go if I thought he meant me any harm.”
“Ryley, you’re a lovely, beautiful person, but you’re naïve. So naïve, you make me nervous for you. No one can ever truly know another person. You said he cheated on you, took drugs, and basically abandoned you for months. Don’t underestimate a human’s need for revenge. There’s no way of knowing what his intentions are from a phone call. Trust me, you need to be more wary. I’ll come with you.”
“What? No! You don’t need to chaperone me. It’ll just be a boring, grovelling apology and bit of begging to take him back on his part. You don’t need to waste your afternoon on that.”
Chloe hopped off her stool and grinned. She wasn’t listening to me, that was clear. “I’ll grab my coat.”
“Chloe, please. You don’t need to do this.”
She spun round to face me as I followed her out of the kitchen. “Maybe not, but I’ll sleep better tonight knowing you’re okay. Humour me, Ryley.” She folded her arms and sighed. “I’ve dealt with enough crap in life. Let me have this one at least. I want to be a friend to you, so let me come along. If nothing else, I can scowl at your ex and tell him how awesome your new guy is.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I suppose it would piss him off.”
“Just one thing.” Chloe bit her lip and looked me dead in the eyes. “I won’t tell Jackson about the meeting, but you mustn’t tell Luca either. He freaks out even if I just pop out on an unscheduled shopping trip without one of his men in tow.”
I hadn’t ever met Chloe’s husband, so I didn’t know why she’d think I’d tell him, but I agreed and we headed out together to make the journey to Liam’s apartment.
My body was still humming with pure, unbridled anger when Ryley left. How the fuck had I managed to mess up so badly? I should’ve seen something like this coming a mile off. Ed wasn’t the kind of guy to take shit lying down. He was a slimy little fucker, always had been. Ever since our days on the streets, he’d been the guy you had to watch your back around. Luca hated him. He refused to have him anywhere near his business. In hindsight, I wish I’d taken a leaf out of Luca’s book, but I hadn’t. Back then I’d been willing to pay good money to take advantage of his moral-free existence and use it to my own ends. I had no qualms about looking the other way, turning a blind eye to his vicious code of practise. His work ethics didn’t run parallel with my own, but it hadn’t been an issue before. Not until I’d met Ryley, and then I knew I had to keep Ed as far away from her and the business as I could. He was bad news and I couldn’t risk the threat he posed to her.
Problem was, I’d been too laid back, too wrapped up in my own world to realise he wouldn’t just disappear back into the murky shadows. He’d drag us all into the darkness with him. I had to put a stop to his plans, because I knew this video was just the tip of the iceberg. I’d never tell Ryley that. She didn’t need to know the depths of depravity a man like Ed Morris could stoop to, but I knew. I’d lived there with him for most of my early adult life, but she was pure. Innocent and untainted by the cruel world I’d learnt to survive in. I wanted it to stay that way, and I’d do anything in my power to make that happen.
Cill and Dennis strode into my office. “We have a few leads, but there’s a couple more avenues I want to look into before I unleash you onto the staff in question.” Cill took over my chair like he owned the place and proceeded to bring up CCTV footage from outside my office onto the screens.
Dennis had his arms folded across his chest, as if he needed to keep his hands tied up or else he’d start punching things in the immediate vicinity. A steady tic was bulging in his neck which gave him away. Mild-mannered Dennis was as pissed about this as we were.
“What’ve you found so far?” I asked.
I knew Cill meant well, trying to keep his theories private until he had solid proof. It was his way of protecting the staff who were innocent. Or was he protecting me? Either way, it didn’t help to quash the uncontrollable ball of fury and rage burning in the depths of my soul. Right then, feeling the way I did, I’d sack every single staff member and not give two shits.
He tapped his fingers on my desk and took his time answering me.
“There’s three possible suspects. Well, I say suspects, there’s three people apart from us who have accessed your office in the last ten days. I could go further back into the security footage, but this seemed like a good starting point.”
“Cut the crap and just tell me.” I didn’t have time for his inane ramblings. Shit needed to get done. This needed sorting.
“Okay, so here we have Emily,” he said, turning the screen around to give me a clearer view. “New barmaid, only worked here for a few months. We don’t know all that much about her and she appears once on the footage.”
I watched as Cill zoomed into the shot on the video to show Emily lurking outside my office. She looked timid and kept going to knock on the door then stalling and pulling away.
“She looks as guilty as hell.” I was ready to call her in that second and tear her to pieces.
“Or she could just be nervous. She’s holding some kind of paperwork. Maybe she needed you to sign something for her. Dennis, what do you think?”
We both turned to gauge Dennis’s reaction.
“Emily is a sweetheart. Honestly, if she’s th
e one who bugged your office, I’ll do my next shift butt naked singing a medley of Celine Dion’s greatest hits. That’s how much I don’t think she’s your mole.”
“Well, let’s hope she’s not, for all our sakes.” Cill screwed his face up at Dennis’s lewd offer. “I can’t stand Celine Dion.” Then he clicked forward onto the next clip on the camera.
“Suspect number two, Kyle Connors. He comes in every day to clean the club and empty the bins. He’s been part of the cleaning crew for a few months, but for the last few days he’s been the only one from that team that’s accessed your office.”
We all leant forward to watch the footage more closely. The guy always wore a baseball cap, so we couldn’t make out his face all that well from the screen, but from what we could see nothing looked too out of place.
“Dennis… your thoughts?”
Dennis shook his head and scratched his beard. “This one is a bit of a mystery to me. I don’t know that much about Kyle. Sure, his initial checks were fine when he started working here, but he could be up to anything really.”
So far, my money was on Kyle, but there was one more suspect to go.
“Okay, who’s number three?” I asked.
“You won’t like this one.” Cill took a deep breath and moved the CCTV footage to the next clip he wanted to show me. He froze the image and we all groaned. Steve.
My head barman, Steve, had worked for me for years. He wasn’t the most likeable guy in the world, but he was good at his job, so I kept him on. Trouble was, he wasn’t popular with any of the staff. They all hated him. I’d had to give him numerous warnings about his conduct towards other members of staff over the years. He had an uncanny knack of rubbing people up the wrong way. Did that make him the spy though? Could he have done this? And if he did, then why? I honestly didn’t have a clue.
“Jax, if I was a betting man, I’d be putting my money on Kyle or Steve at this point. But give me a little longer. I have a few more things I need to look into first. I have a hacker mate of mine coming over in a bit to help me out.”
“You’ve got two hours. After that, I’m speaking to this Kyle and then Steve myself, and trust me, it won’t be pretty.”
I made a few more calls to some of my associates, just to see if anyone had heard about Kyle Connors or Steve. In my world, secrets didn’t stay secret for very long. Unfortunately, I didn’t uncover anything that would help our investigation.
I was just getting up from my desk to make a start on interrogating the three ‘suspects’, when my door opened, and Cill stormed in without knocking. Another guy followed him in, looking as if my office was the last place he wanted to be.
“Jax, this is Paul. What he doesn’t know about technology isn’t worth knowing.”
I nodded over at Paul as he shuffled nervously on the spot.
“We managed to dig a little deeper,” Cill went on. “And what we found… well, let’s just say Ed’s got his grubby little hands all over this. Sorry, mate.”
Paul laid his laptop on my desk and started clicking onto something to prove Cill’s point.
“We accessed Steve’s bank account and mobile phone records. There’s numerous calls to a number registered to Ed. He never was very good at covering his tracks, was he?”
Ed never cared about covering anything, he didn’t need to. Most people avoided him like the plague, and he just didn’t give a fuck.
“Steve’s a dead man,” I growled through my teeth, barely keeping myself in check.
“As for the banking records, they show a deposit of twenty-five grand into Steve’s account seven days ago, and another twenty-five grand went in yesterday. So… are you gonna rip his head off, or shall I?”
I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to teach that fucker a lesson.
“He’s all mine. Where is he?” I grabbed my keys, expecting to drive to Steve’s apartment for the showdown.
“He’s downstairs doing a stock take.”
“You’re fucking joking? He’s still come into work? After shafting us like that? He’s got some fucking nerve.” I slammed my keys back down on the desk. “Bring him up.”
Minutes later, Cill pushed a stumbling Steve into the room.
“Dennis, close the door and wait outside,” I asked, but I let Cill stay in for this one.
Steve glanced meekly at both of us. He had zero clue why he’d been called up here. I had to hand it to him, the guy had developed a pretty mean poker face.
“Shall I sit down?” He pointed towards the chair opposite mine, his hand trembling as he did, giving away the nerves he was so expert at hiding from his face.
“Don’t bother, you won’t be staying long,” I bit back, and walked around my desk to lean against the front of it. I gripped the edge of the desk hard, to stop from launching myself on the weasel and teaching him a fucking lesson.
There was a deathly silence emanating around the room, and Steve’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed down his fear, and kept his eyes level and trained on me.
“Got something you wanna share with us, Stevie boy?”
Steve turned to face Cill, the mask of innocence dropping slightly as I sensed he was about to bite back. Then he turned back to me, and in his fake-ass, meek and mild way, he answered. “I don’t know what you mean. Have I done something wrong?”
“I don’t know, Steve? Have you? Can you honestly stand here in front of me and lie to my face? Tell me you haven’t royally fucked me over? Come on, mate. You’ve worked here for years. Is this all you’ve got?”
I watched Steve’s expression change from guilt-free complacency, to shocked, to wounded, all in a matter of seconds as I spoke.
“You look offended, mate. Something I said hit home?” I was gripping the edge of the desk so forcefully that my knuckles were white. My whole body was clenched so tightly I felt like a coiled spring. I could barely stay calm and sane.
“Give it up, Stevie boy. We know everything. Do yourself a favour and just own it.”
He turned to face Cill again, and that’s when the true Steve came barrelling to the forefront, in all his vile, despicable glory. He charged towards Cill, as if he was about to go toe-to-toe with him. Cill just laughed and pushed him back, making Steve falter and fall backwards on his ass. He pulled himself up off the floor and ran his fingers through his greasy hair before turning back to me.
“I didn’t fuck you over. I don’t know what you know or what you think you know, but I’d never fuck you over.” He was gasping, clutching at anything to pull himself out of the shit.
But I’d had enough of skirting around the issue, so I pushed off the desk and stood nose to nose with him.
“We know about the cameras you planted in here. We know you’ve been talking to Ed Morris, and we know you’ve suddenly acquired fifty grand in your account this past week. Cut the bullshit, Steve.”
He started to shake and reached for the chair to steady himself. Was it really a surprise to him that we knew? What the hell did he think we were talking about? Over ordering stock?
“I already told you, I never fucked you over.”
Cill was as pissed as I was, and grabbed Steve by the scruff of his neck, dragging him across the room and slamming his puny frame into the door.
“You plant a video in here, send it to God knows who and all for Ed fucking Morris, and you think you haven’t fucked us over? What planet are you on, Steve?” Cill banged his fist into the door, inches away from Steve’s face. “You’d better fucking talk… now!”
I walked over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cill and stare Steve down. How this guy was still justifying himself was unbelievable. He was either certifiably insane or incredibly dumb.
He took one look at me and his eyes dropped to the floor.
“I didn’t want to hurt you, not really. It was her. Everything was fine until she came along. She ruined everything.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Cill and I looked at each other like we’d just foun
d ourselves in an alternate universe. What the hell was this guy on?
“You. You’ve always been so closed off and… well, lonely. I didn’t like it, but I knew eventually, one day, you’d notice me. I worked my ass off for you so you’d notice me. Did extra shifts without getting paid so I could be here. Then she turns up and suddenly you’re never around. You’re always with her, and you… smile now. But she’s not good enough for you. She needs to leave. Ed told me he’d found a way to make her disappear. That’s all this was, Jackson. I swear I never meant for this to hurt you. I wanted her gone. I can’t stand here and watch you be with the wrong person anymore.”
“Oh my God, Steve, are you seriously saying what I think you’re saying?” Cill groaned.
“Yes. I love you, Jackson. I’ve loved you for years. You shouldn’t be with her, you should be with me.”
I sucked in a breath, feeling my throat close and my chest freeze over with an icy fear, heavy and painful. What the hell fire was going on here? This asshole thought we had some kind of connection? What the actual fuck? I despised him. I couldn’t stand the guy.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t like you. I can barely tolerate you. I’m not gay, Steve, and even if I was, you’d be the last man on Earth I’d ever go near. Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell is this bullshit?” I couldn’t speak, I was well and truly gobsmacked. I couldn’t get my head around any of it.
“Please don’t hate me-”
“Don’t hate you? I can’t even look at you. I more than hate you, Steve. I fucking despise you and everything you’ve done. You’re a fucking disgrace.”
Steve started to whimper out a cry, but I didn’t buy it. The guy was fake as shit.
“Cut the crocodile tears, it won’t work with us,” Cill snapped. “You sold your soul to the devil when you went into partnership with Morris. You’re gonna regret ever going behind our backs like that. Trust me.”
“What are you gonna do?” Steve looked between the two of us, his eyes pleading for leniency.
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