by KB Winters
See, I was failing my American Lit class and was in danger of not graduating. I knew my father would kick my ass if I got held back and couldn’t join up on schedule. Hell, I woulda kicked my own ass. So I asked Kimber to help me. She was the smartest girl in my class and she’d always been nice to me. By some miracle, she agreed, and we spent every afternoon together for an hour in the library. I don’t know who fell for who first, but over the course of a couple of months, we did. After that, we couldn’t get enough of each other. We snuck out to movies, made out in the janitor’s closet, went for long drives, stayed out way too late, drank too much, and fell in love. It was unlike anything I’d ever had before.”
Holly made a cooing sound like I was reading some lovey-dovey princess book for her bedtime story.
“Yeah, it was great, until her dad found out who she was sneaking around with. He told her to stay away from me, that I wasn’t good enough for her, and that I’d only drag her down.”
“That’s crazy!” Holly said. Her indignant tone made me smile.
“I don’t know. If it was my daughter, I can’t say I wouldn’t have said the same things. I loved her, but I was definitely influencing her away from the things she’d been doing. She’d never had a drink before she met me, and she’d never fucked a guy either. When we got together, her grades slipped, she stopped volunteering. I don’t know…maybe I wasn’t good for her. All I knew was we were having fun and living life. The other stuff didn’t matter much at the time.”
“So how did it end then? Her dad told her she couldn’t see you and that was it?”
“No,” I shook my head, wishing that had been all it took. “We kept seeing each other. We just got better at keeping it under wraps. One night, I was taking her home. It was super late, her parents thought she had been at an out of town cheer event, and I dropped her off out front. When I was walking back to my car, some guy jumped out of the bushes and attacked me right there in her driveway.”
Holly gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth.
“He beat me up, right there in front of Kimber. She screamed, but by the time her parents got down there, the guy was gone. Later on, she told me that she couldn’t see me anymore and we broke up. I never got her to tell me, but I’d be willing to bet my life, that the guy in the bushes had been hired by her dad to scare me off.”
“Damn. That’s messed up,” Jack said.
I nodded and dropped my gaze to the melted foam in the top of my beer. “A few months later, I went off to Annapolis, she went off to college, and we never saw each other again. I’m sure by now she’s married with a pack of kids, living a normal life. I hope she is.”
“Wow. Aaron, I’m so sorry. That’s awful.” Holly was still shaking her head as she processed everything I’d said. “And after that you just never wanted to date anyone?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem worth it. I moved around a lot. Deployed a lot. My way is easier. No one gets hurt. It’s a lot of fun. No strings.”
Jack was still staring at me like he couldn’t believe it.
“What?” I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just crazy that I’ve known you for all these years and you never told me that story.”
I laughed softly. “Well you were never as stubborn about it as your girl here,” I jerked my chin toward Holly, still grinning.
She laughed and shrugged. “What can I say? I knew there had to be more under the surface than a…” she faltered.
“A pig?” I offered.
“No!” She laughed. “Okay…well maybe a little…”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “At least we can be honest with each other, huh, Holly?”
“I’ll drink to that,” she said, raising her glass. “To brutal honesty!”
We toasted glasses and after we downed the drinks, Boomer went to the bar to get a refill. Holly tore her eyes away from him and brought them back to me. “He misses you like crazy; you know.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I answered, a sting in my heart warned me to not get too deep into the topic.
Holly reached across the table and placed her hand over the fingers sticking out of my cast. “I’m sorry I stole him away.”
I gave a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not holding it against you. I’m happy for you guys. Hell, with things spiraling out of control like they are, I might just jump ship and come join you in Germany. I’m sure there are plenty of single woman I can ravage over there.”
I wiggled my eyebrows at her and she slapped my fingers lightly.
“Now, now. You two need to be nice,” Jack teased, sitting back down at the table again.
“Yes, Dad,” I joked.
Holly giggled. “Well, I know two little furballs who would be very happy to see their Uncle Aaron again.”
“You coming back with us?” Jack asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I thought that was fairly obvious by now.”
He rolled his eyes but before he could object to my statement, our server came over and set a fresh pitcher on the table and informed us she’d be back quickly with our meals. After she left, we all turned our attention to pouring our glasses and polishing off the tray of Irish nachos we’d ordered as an appetizer and then got too busy eating to talk.
When we were all stuffed, Jack and Holly played a game of pool while I watched the end of a basketball game on the big screen. All the reminiscing over the first round had me in a weird mood and stirred up some emotional shit I’d been trying to push down to my subconscious.
Back when Talia and I had first met, there was a spark to her that had left me wondering—if only for a brief moment—whether or not we could end up being more than a hot fuck. She was the type of woman I potentially could have seen myself wanting to be with for more than a few hot hookups.
But she was gone now, and all I was left with was an even bigger hole in my heart.
Or the place where I supposed my heart should go.
It felt as though it had been missing for some time.
Jack and Holly interrupted my soul searching, whooping and hollering at each other over their game. Holly had won, and Jack was arguing that it was only because he had let her. She wasn’t having it. They tried to draw me into their easy banter, but between the conversation, the beers, and the painkillers wearing thin, I wasn’t able to gather my thoughts.
“Hey, come on, man. Let’s get you home,” Jack said, sensing my low mood.
Jack and Holly drove me back up to the house, and before I got out of the car, we finalized our plans for the morning. I got out of the shotgun seat and waved goodbye as Jack pulled the car around to leave.
I watched the brake lights fade from sight and turned to go up the three steps to the front porch. I set my foot on the first step when a voice from the shadows rumbled, “Alone at last.”
21
I would have recognized that slimy voice anywhere.
“What the fuck are you doing here, O’Keefe?” I demanded, whirling around.
At my question, he stepped from the shadows and squared up with me in the middle of the walkway as I turned to face him. I barely kept my teeth from snapping at him. The guy rattled me more than anyone had in a long time.
He flashed his—likely fake—teeth back at me in a wide grin. “I’m a businessman, Rosen. I’m here to make you a deal.”
“I’m not interested. Now, get off my property before I call the police.” I turned back and started up the steps.
“I assure you, you’re very interested,” his silken tone echoed through my ear, turning my blood to molten lava in my veins.
I clenched my hand into a tight fist and briefly wondered what would happen if I bashed him upside the head with my casted arm. Would the impact hurt him or me more? I was very tempted to find out…
“You have five minutes,” I said, turning to face him. “Actually, no, let’s make it three. If I look out that window,” I g
estured behind me, “and see you still standing here, I’m calling the cops.”
“Tsk, tsk, such a temper. Then again, you did have quite a bit to drink tonight,” he tossed the fact out like a fishing line, waiting to see if I’d take the bait.
“So Talia was right? You were having her followed?” I growled. “And now that she’s gone, you’re following me?”
O’Keefe spread his hands wide and innocent. He clearly wasn’t going to admit to anything until I listened to his deal.
Every cell fought against me, but in the end, I caved. “What do you want?”
“You already know what I want, Rosen. I want the museum, I want this land, I want to build my condo building and make a shit ton of money. At heart, I’m really a very simple man.”
I snorted. “Well you’re going to have to get a little more creative than threatening me, following me, and popping out of my bushes. I’m not going to sell you the museum and there’s no way you can convince me otherwise.” I set my jaw and hunched my shoulders forward, daring him to argue with me. To cross the line I’d drawn between us.
“I know business isn’t your world, Rosen. That much is obvious.”
“Is it now?”
“Well how else should I account for your recent failure to see what’s going on around you? Your business is failing. There’s no way you’ll be able to come back from this scandal. A woman died in one of your planes. Don’t you see that as career suicide?”
The fingers inside my cast started to twitch. It had been a helluva lot of fun kicking his ass in the parking lot outside the charity auction. It would be even sweeter to do it now. Now that I knew what a piece of shit he really was.
“I saw it on the news tonight. They showed the story half a dozen times in three hours,” O’Keefe continued, his voice nonchalant, as though we were discussing our last round of golf. “The protesters, the media coverage, the canceled tours. What a headache.”
How did he know about the canceled tours? There was no way he would know what my bookings calendar looked like. Unless…a shiver squirmed up my spine. Did he have someone on the inside? God, I’ve gone paranoid.
“It’ll pass.”
O’Keefe shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows…tomorrow, you might wake up and find even more of a shit storm on your front walk? There were what? Thirteen protesters today? What if that were to double tomorrow? What would it take to get you to see that this isn’t going away?”
My eyes went round. “You put them there?”
O’Keefe’s wolfish smile answered my question while his lips stayed clamped shut.
“Son of a bitch!” I raised my casted fist.
His throaty laugh stopped me from swinging. “Rosen, you are a delightfully simple man. So primal.”
“Get. Off. My. Property.” I grit my teeth, desperately tugging on the last piece of self-control.
“Listen, I’ll make this quick. I’ll double my original sum. That is a staggering amount of money for someone like yourself.”
I bristled at his assessment. “It’s not about money. You can’t buy me.”
“You’re really willing to walk away with nothing?” O’Keefe folded his arms and arched a perplexed brow at me.
“I have everything I need. Everything I want.” I looked around the property, the hulking shadows in the moonlight. “This place was my father’s legacy. I don’t expect someone like you to understand. There is no dollar amount you can put on this, and any attempt to do so will only insult me further.”
O’Keefe stared for a long moment, and for a brief flicker, I thought that I’d actually gotten through to him.
Then, he began to slowly shake his head.
“I really didn’t want to do this, Rosen, but you’ve left me no choice.” He reached into his dark blazer and pulled out a tri-folded stack of pages. He took a step closer to me and I stiffened.
“What is this?” I demanded, reaching for the papers.
“It’s a contract.”
“For what? Do you have some kind of mental defect? I just got done telling you I’m not interested in your offer.”
Motherfucker sure liked going in circles.
He smiled, predatory and cold. “It states that you’ve signed over all rights to the museum, the property, and planes to me.”
I laughed and made to tear the pages in half.
“I wouldn’t do that…” I paused. “If you don’t have these signed in three days, I will be going to the authorities with a very juicy little tidbit.”
“Really? Are we back to that again? Fuck, O’Keefe, one little bruise on the side of your head doesn’t prove a damn thing. We’ve already had this discussion, remember? Maybe I hit you harder than I thought…” I sneered.
He only flashed his maddening smirk again. Completely unfazed. “No, no. This would be in regards to Rick Tutor, your smuggler buddy.”
My heart dropped to my toes. How the fuck did he know about Rick?
He laughed. He knew he had me.
Damn him.
“You don’t think that a tail is all I had on our dearly departed Talia. No, no, that wasn’t enough for that slippery little minx. I had a bug sewn into every bag that bitch owned.” He fished a hand back into his pocket. “Now, don’t get excited. This isn’t an original. Just a copy. I thought you might like to hear it first. That it might help you make your decision about whether or not you want to sign your name on the dotted line.” He handed me the small memory card.
“I never mentioned anyone by name,” I said, taking the card. The question slipped past my lips before I could stop it.
“You didn’t have to. I had the location and let’s just say it was pretty easy to connect the dots. Remember, Rosen, you were an airman, not a spy. And thank goodness for that. You’re not very good at covering your tracks.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He pressed the fob and headlights flashed twice from across the lot. He’d parked his expensive luxury car in the farthest corner from my house. In the dark, there’d been no way to see it, and even when Jack had pulled up the long drive, the headlights hadn’t reached that part of the lot.
“Goodnight Rosen. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again soon.” He turned and started across the lot, his cadence casual and unburdened. Meanwhile, on the first step to the porch, I felt as though a cement truck had unloaded its contents on top of me. I was frozen in place and crushed by the weight.
I clutched the memory card in my hand. What the hell was I going to do?
I had three days to figure it out.
22
“Son of a fuckin’ bitch.” O’Keefe had followed through on his subtle threat. When I opened my blinds the following day, the protesters had doubled. If he couldn’t get my land out of my hands by bribery and blackmail, he was going to get it by tanking my business.
I’d been up all night, unable to sleep in bursts of more than half an hour, each time waking up in a sweat coated panic. I’d examined every angle, listened to the recorded conversation with Talia a dozen times, and came up empty handed every single time. Either I could sell him the business outright and pocket a lump sum. Or I could wait, and risk him getting me tangled up in some charges against my old buddy Rick.
And if that failed, I’d likely be left with no resources to keep my business—assuming I still had one—going and rebuild after the second scandal ripped through in less than a month.
My friendship with Rick wasn’t incriminating on the surface. I’d never participated in his scams, but I’d known a little about his illegal activity, smuggling goods—and occasionally people—in and out of Mexico. And even though I wasn’t sure what charges the police could get to stick against me, that didn’t really matter. O’Keefe had already shown he had enough power to dig something up and I knew that Rick would go away for a long, long time. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for him getting caught.
I heaved a heavy sigh and let the blinds slap closed again. I hummed a
dull tune as I massaged the back of my neck with my good hand, working out the kinks that had balled up from several nights of uncomfortable and fitful sleep. My side was healing but the process was slow and tedious. The injury made everything more difficult and being drugged up only made it harder to think.
Boomer and Holly arrived in time to save me from pure insanity as I stalked through the house, wracking my brain for ideas on how to get out of the trap I’d unintentionally stumbled into. Jack drove us all down to Holiday Cove and we went to Carly’s coffee shop.
“Hey, handsome!” She shouted, ignoring the customer at the counter for a brief moment to greet me as I walked in behind Holly. “Hey, guys!”
We all waved and got in the back of the line. The morning rush was in full effect and it took a good ten minutes for her and her part-time employee to get us through the line and to the register.
“Whew. What a morning! Is there a convention in town that I don’t know about?” She asked, sagging against the counter for a moment.
Jack smiled. “Well after today you’ll have two less people to worry about. Holly and I have to get on a flight home.”
“Aww.” Carly looked at me, a flash of concern in her eyes. “That doesn’t make me feel better. I’d happily wait on you two all day. At least this one’s back up and about.”
Jack clapped me on the shoulder and we all put in our order. We stayed at the counter as Carly worked, shuffling to the side when a new customer came in and the part-timer took over the register.
With our breakfast in hand, we made our way to one of the few cleared tables. “I bet you guys are happy to be going home,” I said, setting down my oversized muffin and cup of coffee.
Holly lit up. “I miss the babies.”
I laughed. “I bet they’re going crazy without you.”
“Yeah,” Holly chewed her lower lip. “Knowing Hunter, we’ll have quite the bill for damaged toys and furniture…”
Jack laughed and wrapped an arm around her chair. “Princess will be there, keeping him in line.”