by Amy Sparling
The guy shakes his head. “Shit, you’re in a magazine, too? I have got to get a copy of it.”
Now although he’s being creepy as hell, I’m more concerned about what he’s talking about than the fact that he’s hitting on me. I put my hands on my hips. “What picture are you talking about?”
“The picture you shared on the forums,” he says, inching forward. He rests a muscular arm across my machine, blocking me in even more. “I want to see more and something tells me you have more to show.”
“Excuse you?” I say, bending to get out of this tight space. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
The door slams open behind us and Jace is a welcome sight. His jaw is clenched and he walks with fury. “What the hell are you doing standing so close to my wife?” he growls.
The guy practically leaps backward, holding his hands up in surrender. “Nah, man, I didn’t know she was married. You should keep your girl away from places like this.”
“Places like this?” Jace says, giving me a glance to see if I’m okay. “I own this place.”
“Okay okay I see,” he says, nodding. “I didn’t mean to step on any toes. But seriously man, if your wife was so happy with you then you should ask why she spends so much time on the motocross forums.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I say, finally finding my voice. “I don’t go to any forums.”
His lips twist into a sneer. “Yeah, probably a good idea to deny in front of your husband over here. Dude looks like he’s ready to kill someone.”
“Get the fuck out of my gym,” Jace says.
“I’ll get out,” he says, though he’s looking straight at me. “Of course, you might want to tell your girl here that if she doesn’t want attention from guys like me, then maybe she shouldn’t post naked pictures of herself online.”
Chapter 9
Even the walls of Jace’s office seem to look down on me as we stare at the computer screen, worried about what we’ll see next. After Jace had escorted that jackass out of the building, we’d come into his office to look up these supposed naked photos. I don’t feel too worried, not really. I know I didn’t post a naked photo of myself on the internet.
I tell Jace this much as he powers up his computer and opens the browser. “It doesn’t make any sense,” I say, pacing the small space behind his computer chair. “You know I wouldn’t do something like that.”
“I know, baby,” he says, his voice calmer than I feel. “I’m guessing someone photo shopped your head onto a porn star or something. I mean, if that’s even what he’s talking about. Those magazine photos were a little scandalous, and maybe that’s what he was talking about.”
“I hope so,” I say, sitting on the edge of Jace’s desk. “Do you know where to look?”
Jace shakes his head. “He said it was a motocross forum.” I watch while he types ‘Bayleigh Adams motocross forum’ into the browser and searches. The first link that appears makes my blood go cold.
It’s a post, dated early this morning. The username who created the post is anonymous but the title says it all.
If you want more where this came from, come see me at the Track! Xoxo
“What the hell?” Jace murmurs, clicking on the link.
“Oh my god!” I slide off the desk and bury my face in my hands. “Oh god, no.”
Tears flow immediately and Jace sits there in stunned silence as we stare in horror at the pixels on the screen. It’s the photo. It’s me.
The one I emailed to Jace last night.
“Bayleigh . . .” Jace’s voice is pained. “If you didn’t do this, then who did?”
“I—I . . .” the words catch in my throat and I collapse into sobs as I shake my head. There is no way to explain this. No reason why. “I swear I didn’t do that,” I say. “You have to believe me.”
I reach for Jace’s hand and he pulls away. His gaze meets mine and there’s something beneath his eyes that I’ve never seen before. Accusation. He runs a hand down his face, the muscle in his jaw flexing. “Bayleigh, who did you take that picture for? It’s not some old picture from our past because it’s clearly in our new bathroom.”
Tears flow from my eyes. It’s bad enough to have been so exposed on the freaking internet for the whole world to see. It’s another to have your husband look at you with those accusing, heartbroken eyes. “I sent it to you,” I say, my voice choked. “Just you.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “I’ve never seen that picture in my life.”
“Jace. Yes, you did. I emailed it to you last night.” I wipe the tears from my eyes. So many emotions are running through my veins and anger quickly overtakes them. “Don’t look at me like that! I swear I only sent it to you.”
He shakes his head. “I never got it.”
I point toward the computer. “Check your email. I sent it to your work email and that’s all. I swear it was only for you.”
He turns back to the computer and opens his email. There’s not a single message from me. I draw in a ragged breath, wondering how the hell this could have happened. Did I accidentally send it to someone else instead of Jace? I grab my phone and check, but sure enough, it’s right there.
“Look,” I say, my hand shaking so bad it makes the phone screen blurry. “I sent it to you last night.”
Jace’s hand closes over mine. “I believe you babe,” he says, sounding resigned. “I never got that email. But someone else clearly did and now they’re trying to ruin you.”
*
Becca runs her hand over my back trying to soothe me but it doesn’t really help. As if the events of earlier weren’t enough to ruin my day—no, year, now I have to relive all of it with Becca and Park. After the initial shock of seeing my very private photo online, Jace called the owner of the motocross forums, who happens to be his friend. The guy hadn’t been online today and therefore never saw the photo. He took it down immediately and blocked the anonymous user that had posted it.
According to the forum, the page had only fifty-three views. Becca uses this statistic over and over again, trying to convince me that it’s not that big of a deal. But my rebuttal is always the same: it only takes one person to save the photo and then use it against me for the rest of my life.
Tears fill my eyes again, for the millionth time. Deja’s shift was over hours ago, and now although we’re at my house in Jace’s home office, I really wish she was here. I’m not sure I can handle keeping another human being alive right now when I’m so freaking depressed and humiliated.
Luckily, Jett’s bedtime is coming up soon. Right now he’s sitting in my lap, and I’m so glad he has no idea what’s going on. What if someone keeps this picture and it resurfaces when Jett’s a teenager? How humiliated would he be? Would he think less of me?
“Got it,” Park says, leaning forward in the computer chair. He’s on his own laptop that he brought over. I’d been hesitant to let Park and Becca know about what happened, but Jace insisted. Park’s computer skills are apparently a lot better than I’d thought. He grins. “I’ve traced the IP address and found the home address of the person who made the post.”
My heartbeat quickens. “What are we going to do with this information?”
Jace’s eyes meet mine. “We’ll report them to the cops.”
“We’ll fuck their shit up,” Park says, his lips twisting into an evil grin.
“Okay I like that idea more,” I say with a little laugh. It’s the first time I’ve smiled since that guy cornered me in the gym.
Park nods and types more stuff into his computer. “According to the tax records, the owner of this house is just the landlord so someone else rents it. But, that someone else posted their address on an online party invite last weekend.” He taps the enter key and a page pops up.
“That bitch,” Becca seethes. Jace curses under his breath.
My chest explodes in a fury of pain. How is this even possible? My teeth grind together as I stare at the name on
the top of the page.
Natalie.
Park swivels in the computer chair, and levels a stare at me. “Bay, are you sure you only sent the photo to Jace’s email?”
“Yes,” I say for what feels like the millionth time. “I didn’t send it anywhere else.”
“Is it uploaded to the cloud?”
I shake my head. “No, and I’ve already checked that, too.”
He nods. “Okay then, let me try one more thing . . .”
When he looks up from the computer again, the expression on his face tells me whatever he suspected was true. “Her IP address logged into your work email, Jace. Looks like she’s been logging into it every few days. She’s been stalking you.”
“How the hell is that possible?” Jace says, his knuckles going white. “She doesn’t even work with us.”
“All she needs is your email address, which is posted on our website, and your password and she can access it from anywhere.”
“But how would she get your password?” I ask.
Jace’s expression goes from confused to furious in just a few seconds. “I never changed my email password from back when I worked at Mixon,” he says slowly, thinking it over. “She probably knew it back then because Mr. Fisher also had my password in case he needed to change my schedule when I wasn’t there. She’s been stalking me for months.”
“For what it’s worth, I just trashed her Facebook page,” Park says. “And all of her social media pages have been deleted.”
“That’s a start,” Becca says. “But not nearly enough to count as revenge.”
“Dammit,” Jace says. “Bay? Can you put Jett to bed? I don’t want him seeing me like this.”
I nod and carry Jett to his room. Becca trails along behind me. “I’ll fucking ruin her,” she whispers as I place Jett in his crib.
I smile, patting Jett’s back and making happy faces at him so he doesn’t know anything is wrong. Then, in a soft, pleasing voice so Jett doesn’t suspect anything is wrong, I say, “Trust me, I’m going to help you.”
“Do you think the cops would do anything about it?” Becca says, petting Jace’s blond hair. His eyes get droopy and soon they close.
I shrug. “I don’t know. Part of me wants to take care of this in house, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I feel that. We’ll make her pay.”
“But how will we do that without getting in trouble ourselves? The last thing I need is a freaking criminal record.”
She considers this a moment, her eyes gazing off into the distance. “I don’t know. Park knows some shady people. Maybe we could hire someone.”
“I’m not going to have her killed,” I say with a snort.
Becca’s eyes go wide. “Well no, duh. I mean . . . I don’t know. Key her car or something?”
Something happens when I picture Natalie’s car being keyed. I think about the look on her face when she walks outside one day and sees something horrible scratched into the shiny paint of her stupid car. What would I choose? Slut, whore, liar, jealous wench?
And then it hits me. None of that would make me feel better. Ruining her life wouldn’t fix anything. At best, I’d get five seconds of satisfaction before she realizes we did it and turns on me even more. I’d start a war with Natalie and would spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder out of fear that she’s done something to me again.
I watch Jett’s chest rise and fall as he drifts off to sleep and something inside of my heart melts. All of the anger and rage at what she’s done to me seems to roll up into a ball that I can almost feel inside of me. I close my eyes and toss the ball away.
“No,” I say. “I don’t want to do any of that. Come on, let’s tell the guys.”
We head back into the office and Jace and Park are engrossed in talks about how to ruin her life. I hold up my hands and shake my head. “Guys, just stop. Stop thinking of things to do. We removed the picture and Jace changed his email password. That’s all we’re going to do.”
“What? Why?” Jace and Park talk at the same time.
I glance at Becca and see understanding in her eyes. I draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s just not worth it. She’s the jealous bitch here, not me. I feel bad for her. She’s so jealous and hateful that she’s been stalking you for months just to finally find something to use against me. That’s her problem, not mine.”
Everyone stares at me silently and I focus on Jace. “I won’t let my friends and myself turn into vengeful, spiteful people just because of one stupid thing she did. We are all better than that.”
Becca takes my hand and squeezes it. Jace’s lips form a thin smile. “If that’s what you want to do, babe, then we’ll support it.”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s what I want to do.”
Chapter 10
As the days roll by, I’m feeling more confident about my decision not to backlash at Natalie for what she’d done to me. Luckily, after than incident with the guy at the gym, no one has said anything else about the picture. I’m not sure if it’s because no one I know in person actually saw it, or if they’re just being polite. Regardless, I hold my head high and I work as hard as I can at the Track and I get on with my life.
It feels good to let it go. To just go on with my life and forget about people who are going to hate me no matter what. Natalie would have never been my friend. I can’t let that bother me.
Jace’s friend who owns the forums had assured us that something like that would never happen again. He’d set up some kind of filter so that no one could post a photo without it being approved first. That was really cool of him and it just goes to show how much influence Jace has over people. They really like him and they’re always happy to help him out.
I hope that one day, I’ll have those kinds of friends as well.
“I was thinking we should take a vacation soon,” Jace says one Friday evening when we’re finally home from a long day at work. He’s grilling hotdogs for dinner so Jett and I are hanging out on the patio with him.
“A vacation?” I say, watching Jett play in his sandbox. “You mean being married to me isn’t enough of a vacation for you?” I give him a playful smile.
He closes the lid on the grill and walks over to me, taking a seat in the patio chair next to me. “I think we should go somewhere as a family. It doesn’t have to be some crazy thing, just like hit up Sandals in Jamaica or something.”
“Only you would think flying to another country and staying at a resort isn’t that big of a deal.”
He reaches for a beer from the cooler and cracks the lid, then hands it to me and gets another one for himself.
I take a sip and throw my head back, staring up at the twilight sky. “I could go for a vacation. Do you think Jett would be good in an airplane?”
“We’ll fly at night and I’m sure he’ll be fine. Won’t you, little man?”
Jett just grins and tosses his toy dirt bike into the sand.
“Now that I’m thinking about it, a vacation sounds kind of awesome,” I say, letting thoughts of warm white sand and clear blue water fill my daydreams. “You work so hard babe. You totally deserve the break.”
“I wasn’t suggesting a vacation for me,” he says, reaching out and brushing the hair from my face. “You work harder than anyone around here. You run the business, you take care of Jett and somehow our house is always clean.” He tucks a strand of loose hair behind my ear and then his fingers graze along my cheek. I still get butterflies in my stomach when he looks at me like his. “I was suggesting a vacation for you. You deserve to just chill and be lazy for a while.”
I reach for his hand and hold it to my face. His touch feels so perfect, so right. “Do you think Park can handle the place without us?” I ask.
He shrugs and takes another sip from his beer. “Only one way to find out.”
*
“So, March first,” I say, dropping onto my side of the bed. A giddy feeling rushes through me as I look over the booking pap
ers I just printed out. “We’re totally going to Jamaica. I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” Jace says. “I can’t believe it only takes twenty minutes to book a two-week trip to another country. When my baby knows what she wants, she definitely knows how to get it.”
“Yup,” I say, sticking out my tongue. After we’d eaten and put Jett to bed, Jace and I got online and ordered a reservation to the beautiful island resort. It’s an all-inclusive trip and it’s all booked and waiting for us to show up. I can’t freaking wait. I’m going to look so hot in a bikini this year.
He stands in the closet doorway, wearing nothing but a pair of dark blue boxers. He towels off his short hair and grins at me. I could watch him dry off for hours, if only it took that long. I love the look of his biceps going taunt as he moves the towel around his head. There’s something incredibly sexy about a guy getting out of the shower.
Or maybe that’s just Jace. Everything is sexy about him.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” he says as he walks back to the bathroom to hang up his towel.
“Oh yeah?” I sit up in bed, pulling my knees up to my chest. Something in the way he says it makes my stomach hurt. Things were going so well lately—I don’t really want to talk about anything serious right now.
As if sensing my trepidation, Jace’s features soften. “It’s nothing bad.” He moves closer to the bed and then sits next to me. “I never got a chance to comment on that picture you emailed me.”
“Oh, Jace. We’re past this,” I say with a groan. Things are finally back to normal and the last thing I want to talk about is that stupid naked picture incident.
“No, I meant the picture itself.” He runs a hand through his hair and then turns to me, giving me a sultry gaze. “It was really sexy.”
I give him a sheepish grin, but it’s hard to be happy about it when the topic is still such a fresh wound to my spirit. “I’m glad you liked it,” I say, staring at my hands. “I took a few more but now I’m too scared to send them.”