“Now, I’m going to go inside and think about why I didn’t save more money while I could.”
I leaned in to kiss her, but she pushed my face away.
“Oh, I’m still mad at you. The next time you call me dumb, I’m kicking your balls into your throat.”
Chapter 23
Elizabeth
It shouldn’t have been surprising that I was called into Mr. Caldwell’s office first thing the next morning. I didn’t even get to take my coat off before he was calling to me. What was surprising was walking in to find Helena and two police officers inside. I looked at the three of them standing behind Mr. Caldwell at his desk and couldn’t help laughing.
“Ms. Shore, this is no laughing matter. Have a seat, please.”
I shook my head. “I’m assuming Helena told you that I was harassing her?”
Helena’s face darkened. “That’s Mrs. Stelton to you.”
I met her eyes and found anger bubbling up in me, instead of the normal fear I felt. “The Mrs. would imply that you’re a lady. I think we both know that isn’t true. Is this fun for you? Accusing your underlings of made-up stuff? I wasn’t following you yesterday, like you accused me of. I was trying to get home.”
“Ms. Shore!” Caldwell turned blood-red. “That’s no way to speak to Mrs. Stelton.”
“It’s fine, James. She’s just lashing out now.”
“I get it. You’re firing me for your made-up reasons. That’s fine. I’ll go. I just have to ask you something first.” My heart sped up and I felt like I was going to throw up or pass out. “Is it normal for employees in positions of power to engage in sexual activity with their subordinates?”
Mr. Caldwell coughed and stood up. “Ms. Shore! I have never done anything—”
“Not you, Mr. Caldwell.” I smiled at Helena. “I guess no one could really blame you. With so much pressure from the new job and everything, it’s no wonder you’d slip up. Maybe you just didn’t know.”
Helena’s glare could’ve frozen water, it was so cold. “Officers. Please escort Ms. Shore to her desk and then out of the building. It seems she’s bent on causing some sort of scene.”
I held up my hands. “Not me. I’m not into scenes. But you are, aren’t you? I’m surprised you had the audacity to even stand next to Paul’s mother after what you did.”
“Get her out of here right now!” Helena’s sharp command startled the officers into action.
Furious and ready to take the bitch down, I waved to her. “For the record, you look like shit in leather.”
The officers each took one of my arms and rushed me out of the office. They gave me seconds to grab my stuff from my desk and then they were ushering me out of my office and through the hallway. They didn’t have me in cuffs, but they might as well have. The shock in my ex-coworkers’ faces said it all.
Riding down in the elevator, I remained silent, even through one of the officers lecturing me about staying away from Helena. Out through the main lobby and into the street they escorted me. Only when we were on the sidewalk in front of the building did they step back and let me go.
I was ready to light fires. I wanted to burn Helena Stelton’s world to the ground. I’d been scared, but seeing her smug face had pushed me too far. I was angry and I was going to make her pay for what she’d done.
I heard my name being called and glanced back to see Sammie and Devon chasing after me. I stopped and waited for them to catch up to me.
Sammie grabbed me and shook her head. “What the hell happened?”
I started the first fire. “I saw something a few weeks ago. The secret that I was hiding from y’all? That night I went back to the office to grab my phone? The night before Paul Porter was found dead? I saw Helena Stelton and Paul Porter on Brenda’s desk.”
Devon gagged. “No fucking way.”
“Way.” I shook my head. “I think I heard her kill him. He put her name on that gross list and he was going to tell his buddies about her. How she’s kinky as fuck and likes to do crazy shit.”
Sammie’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “What the fuck.”
“Yeah. I saw her smothering him with her…”
“What are you going to say?” Devon gasped and leaned in.
“With her hoo-hah.”
He let out a shriek and slapped his hand over his mouth.
“I heard him gasp for air. I think I saw blood on the rug. I’m so sure I heard him take his last breath. I freaked out and ran out of there. I thought it was just weird sex. Then he was found murdered. Smothered. Hours after I saw him with her.”
Sammie shivered. “Brenda was telling me last night about how she got a new rug in her office. I complained about that stain under my desk that looks like a judgmental Jesus and she said that she just got a new rug and that she wished they took as good care of the rest of the building as they did of the top floor.”
“I didn’t even look at the rug.” I cursed and reconsidered my new profession. “I was in her office not even a week later, but I was so freaked out that I didn’t even notice the rug.”
“You really think she murdered him?” Devon had wrapped his arms around me and Sammie, his instincts to protect us so natural.
“I just told her I didn’t know how she could stand next to Paul’s mother after what she did and she all but had the police toss me from the top floor. She knows I know now. She knew I was following her, but she didn’t know why. Now she does. I’m going to bring her down. She’s not going to get away with it.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Elizabeth? Her family is intense.”
I nodded. “She’s done.”
Devon hugged me tight. “We literally have to go work for a murderer. We’ll be thinking of what we can do to help. We’ll call you as soon as we’re off and we can meet up.”
I nodded and pushed them away. I was fine. Just furious. I started walking back down the street and was eating up the sidewalk when I noticed a town car pull over up in front of me. A man in a suit got out and met my eyes.
“Ms. Shore. Mr. Stelton would like to speak to you.”
I went to step around him, but he stepped over to match me and lightly pushed back his jacket, revealing a gun.
“Please, get in the car.”
I looked at the gun and swore. So much for lighting Helena on fire. She was going to have me burned out before I really even had a chance to get started on her. Sighing, I climbed into the car and found myself sitting across from Mark Stelton, Helena’s older brother.
He ran one of the other Stelton businesses and was rumored to be ruthless. As he met my gaze with a dark one of his own, I didn’t have a problem imagining him kicking babies out of his way to get to wherever he was going.
Unfortunately, there was still enough anger rushing through me that I didn’t care to be self-preserving. “Is this how you pick up all of your women?”
Mark’s lips moved up in a snarl. “Ms. Shore. Elizabeth. You’re causing quite a stir in my family. I’m not enjoying it.”
I went all in. “I don’t necessarily think it’s me causing the stir. Probably, the blame is more appropriately placed on your sister’s insatiable appetite for men. And murder. That’s kind of one of those chicken-and-egg questions, though, isn’t it?”
He went still. “What do you want, Ms. Shore? You want your job back?”
I just stared at him. He thought I was trying to negotiate for something. He was just as insane as his sister.
“Money? Just name your price.”
“I don’t want your fucking money.” I shook my head. “Your sister killed a man. Doesn’t that bother you?”
He waved his hand at me like he was shooing away a gnat. “Helena’s always had her issues. She’s got an impulse issue. I get that you’re playing hardball, Ms. Shore. You can name a number as high as you’d like. We have plenty of it.”
“I. Don’t. Want. Your. Money.”
“Come off it. You can’t honestly be that upset that that cretin
Paul Porter is dead. I heard about him. He wasn’t very well liked.”
I looked around the town car. The leather seats were smooth and empty of any weapons, unfortunately. There I was, sitting across from a blazing lunatic, and for the first time in my life, I was too scared to say anything else.
“Seriously, Ms. Shore. I have a meeting shortly. My sister is very upset by the way you conducted yourself upon being fired. She would like an answer soon and I hate dealing with her when she’s upset. So, what do you want? Money? Your job? A car? House? An island off the coast of Hawaii?”
An island off the coast of Hawaii? I closed my eyes and shook my head. No. That was wrong. I couldn’t get in bed with the crazy family, even for an island.
The car was cruising down a highway at that point, away from any other people if I needed to scream and call for help. I knew I’d been in trouble when the gun was flashed, but suddenly I felt real fear for my life. I didn’t like it one bit. My anger reared its head again.
“Are you fucking insane? Do you really think that offering me an island would make me consider not turning your sister in? She smothered a man in her vagina. Did you get that part? In. Her. Vagina. In her vagina! Fuck you and fuck her. Stop the car and let me out. I’ll walk back home.”
Mark reached into his jacket and I freaked. I screamed and lunged for the door, assuming he had a gun, too. I didn’t want to be shot in the back of his town car. I wanted out. The door swung open, something I hadn’t counted on. Who the hell kidnapped someone and then didn’t lock them in? My forward motion sent me falling right out of the car.
I hit the ground in a somersault, somehow, and rolled for what felt like forever before coming to a stop in a dried-out bush, down an embankment. I wasn’t feeling very thankful as I lay there, staring up at the cloudy sky, but the mud I’d landed in had softened everything. Even so, I felt like I’d been run over by a train.
I listened as closely as I could, over the pounding of my heart, for the sound of Mark or his driver coming over to shoot me, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to run. No footsteps came, though. The sounds of a random car driving by startled me every so often, but mostly it was just the sound of my breathing and a stray bird in the area that I heard.
When it started raining, I screamed at the sky, frustrated at my luck. I ached all over, but I had to move. I rolled to my side and slowly climbed to my feet. The whole time, I was cursing the day I’d ever taken the job at the Stelton Firm. I was cursing the day Mark and Helena had been born. I was cursing the day I’d decided that I believed in gun control and hadn’t packed a gun in my purse.
My purse! A light bulb went off over my head and I scrambled, as much as an almost thirty-year-old woman could scramble after jumping from a moving vehicle, up the embankment. Sure enough, my purse was sitting right where it’d fallen when I jumped. Rain was soaking it, but my phone was tucked away inside, dry and fully charged.
I dialed Branson, knowing he’d lecture me, but also that he’d take care of me. Not normally a woman who needed to be taken care of, I was feeling like I was going to make an exception.
Chapter 24
Branson
Getting a call from Elizabeth early in the day could’ve only meant a few things. I figured she’d lost her job and was upset. It’d been coming, for sure. I’d taken a break from playing statue at Charlotte’s and answered it, expecting to hear her ranting and raving. She’d surprised me.
Hearing her sobbing was the last thing I’d expected. Her voice was broken and weak, almost covered by a rushing sound in the background.
“Elizabeth? I can’t hear you. What’s wrong?”
She kept talking, but I couldn’t distinguish anything she was saying.
My chest squeezed painfully tight and my stomach roiled. Something was wrong. I ran into the living room where Gerald and Charlotte were sitting. “Call Black Dog and get someone else here. I have an emergency.”
I ran out to my truck and started it. “Elizabeth, tell me where you are. I’m coming.”
“Highway 7… I jumped out…”
What I was hearing terrified me. I sped towards Highway 7, keeping her on the line the whole time, even though I couldn’t understand her most of the time. I had no clue what part of Highway 7 she’d be on, but I wouldn’t quit driving it until I found her.
“Hold on, Elizabeth. I’m coming.”
“Hurry, Branson.”
I lost the connection and no matter how many times I dialed her back, it didn’t connect. It took me twenty minutes of torture to spot her and when I did, it didn’t make me feel much better. She was hurt.
She was also screaming at someone parked a little bit up the road from her. I slid to a stop and ran the rest of the way to her. Elizabeth was so busy screaming that she didn’t even hear me.
There she was, covered in mud and blood, scratched and beat-up from head to toe, looking every bit as wild as she was. “I told you, I don’t want a fucking ride! Get out of here, you creep!”
I narrowed my eyes at the man trying to convince Elizabeth to get into his car. “We’re good here. I suggest you move along.”
Elizabeth turned to me and huge tears welled up in her eyes. Her knees buckled just as I wrapped my arm around her waist. Pressing her face into my chest, she cried and choked out more words that I didn’t understand.
“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.”
She laughed even as she sobbed. “Don’t call me baby.”
I lifted her into my arms, hating the cries of pain it caused. “You’re a pain in the ass, even when you look as helpless as a kitten.”
“I’ve got a story for you.”
“Do I need to kill anyone?”
She groaned when I put her down in my truck and buckled her in. “You’d do that for me? That’s so romantic.”
“If I can’t call you baby when you’re this beat-up, I’m not so sure I should make such romantic gestures for you.”
She waited for me to climb in on my side to turn her head to me. “You saved me.”
I reached over and stroked her muddy cheek. “I’d hardly call this saving you. You scared the shit out of me.”
“You care about me.” She rested her head on the headrest and closed her eyes. “You want to call me baby and whisper sweet nothings to me.”
I headed towards my house and dialed Black Dog. “You’re not wrong, Elizabeth.”
She reached out and gently touched my arm. “Call me Lizzy. It’s what my family called me.”
Lauren answered the phone, but it took me a few seconds to be able to answer her. There was a lump in my throat that I had to swallow first.
“Meet me at my house. Elizabeth needs to be checked out.”
Lauren reacted instantly. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I hung up and glanced over at Elizabeth. Even though her eyes were closed, she was wincing. “Tell me what happened, Lizzy.”
Her lips tilted up. “I’ve been telling people not to call me that for years, but I like it when you do. What is it about you, Branson?”
Fuck if I knew. “Talk to me about what happened.”
“You were right. Helena fired me and I snapped at her. She knows I know. I got escorted out of the building and Mark Stelton had his driver bully me into the car. He offered me money, or whatever else I wanted, for my silence, but I said no. He reached for something in his coat and I thought he was going to shoot me so I jumped out of the car.”
I considered pulling over to really get to express the shock I was feeling. “You… jumped out?”
“Yeah. That hurt.”
“You jumped out… of a moving vehicle.”
She laughed lightly. “Yeah. I hope he wasn’t just reaching for a cigar or something. That’d be embarrassing.”
All I could do was shake my head. I was feeling a whole lot of things and I was afraid of it all coming out as screaming, purely from being overwhelmed.
We were both quiet as I drove to my house. I reached over a
nd put my hand on her arm at some point and she held my hand. Her hand left a mud smear, but I didn’t care.
We got to my house and Lauren was already there. She was standing at the door with a bag, ready for anything. I hurried around the truck and helped Elizabeth out. She’d gotten stiff during the ride and even my moving her into my arms made her grunt in pain.
I got her inside and had Lauren check her over for anything serious before I put her in the shower. She screamed at me when the water hit her tender body, but I had to get her cleaned up so Lauren could patch up any wounds she had.
In the end, we’d found that she was mostly bruised and scratched-up. She wasn’t seriously hurt anywhere, except maybe her pride. Stretched out across my bed, she was wearing one of my T-shirts and a pair of my boxers. The skin that was exposed was already turning black and blue. Her face was mostly clear, except a scrape along the left side of her jaw.
Though she was fucking lucky, she was also fucking pissed. If I expected the tiger in her to be afraid after being threatened, I was wrong. There was no fear showing. “I know for sure now that his crazy-ass sister murdered Paul Porter. I just need to get more evidence.”
“You mean you’re not done yet?” Lauren grinned down at Elizabeth. “I like your guts, but maybe let the guys help you.”
“Whether you want my help or not, you’ve got it. We’re going to be sticking closer together until this is over.” I nodded to Lauren. “You can put someone else on Charlotte?”
“Tucker has it. Mrs. Crier should really love Tucker.” She snickered and then looked behind me. “Mercer’s here.”
A few seconds later, Mercer walked in and shook his head. “You jumped out of a moving car?”
Elizabeth actually smiled. There was something akin to pride in her eyes. “A woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do.”
“I get it. Branson has jumped out of plenty of moving things in his time, so don’t let him give you any shit.”
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 29