by J. S. Cooper
“You think Joseph told him?”
“I think there was no CVS trip.” Jakob nodded.
“Why didn’t we ask Joseph?”
“He’d deny it.” Jakob slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”
“What are we going to do now? We don’t have access to Larry. We don’t know who Maxwell is. David’s gone into hiding. We don’t know who the lady in the photograph is. What do we have?”
“We have Steve.” Jakob sounded thoughtful. “We know he was working for someone who wanted to intimidate both of us. And at this point, I don’t think it was Larry.”
“You don’t think he was working for David?”
“No.” Jakob shook his head. “His loyalties were stronger to me than to David.”
“But he turned on you.”
“Yes, he did. But I refuse to believe it would be for someone like David. He couldn’t stand rich kids who’ve been handed everything on a silver platter. He wouldn’t have done this for David, and I don’t think that David would have hired him anyway. What would David care if we got close? Why would he want us both intimidated?” Jakob shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. At first, I thought it had to be David. That’s why I pretended to be Mattias when you accused me. I wanted you to think you’d caught me out. I wanted you to think you knew everything.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew that if you knew that there was no Mattias, you’d keep digging. And I didn’t want you in any more danger. Not when I knew someone was out there trying to scare us both.”
“You were worried about me?”
“I didn’t even want to let you go, but I knew you wouldn’t trust me. My best bet was to let you think I was Mattias and let you go home.”
“But you couldn’t stay away. You still texted and called me and left that weird note.”
“I texted and called you because I had to be in contact with you. I didn’t leave you any note.”
“Yes, you did, the night you snuck into my apartment.”
“I only snuck into your apartment the night we had sex.” He looked at me with a worried frown.
“You didn’t cross out Jakob and write Mattias on a letter?” I asked, perplexed, my brain working fast. “The person hadn’t broken in. They had to have had a key.”
“Who has a key?”
“Well, you do. How else did you get in?”
“I was given a copy of your keys . . . by David.”
“What? Why would he do that? And how did he have them?”
“I assumed you’d given him a copy?”
“No. He never even came to my place.” I shook my head and then gasped. “Do you think he snuck into my apartment that night?”
“Possibly.” Jakob nodded. “But not because of you, because of me.”
“Because of you?”
“He wanted to bring me out into the open. He knew I’d find out and he knew that I’d have to get involved again.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I let you return, I came back as well, but I didn’t tell him. I knew he’d want to know what had happened, but I no longer trusted him. He must have realized that something had gone wrong when you called him from the hotel. We were meant to be on that island for two to three weeks. That was the original plan. He obviously knew you’d arrived back, and he was calling me, demanding to know what was going on. I didn’t answer him. I needed time to think. I think David realized that and he was trying to get to you. I think that’s why he was trying so hard to turn you against me and convince you I was Mattias and couldn’t be trusted. He knew when I didn’t contact him when I got back that I was onto him. After Steve went rogue, I knew that there was a lot more going on than I’d thought.”
“You keep saying that! Why didn’t you tell me that when we were on the island?”
“Would you have wanted to listen to me then? You didn’t trust me. And obviously it was for a good reason. I needed to regain your trust by letting you go. I needed you to know that I never had any intention of harming you in any way.”
“I wish you’d at least tried to tell me.”
“I’m sorry.” He reached over and squeezed my hand.
“I have a question for you about the company.”
“Sure.”
“So this merger that’s about to go through, do you think that’s the only reason David wanted me gone?” I sighed. “I don’t understand why he didn’t try and kidnap me again when I returned, if he’d wanted me out of the way so badly. The merger hasn’t gone through yet, has it?”
“The merger goes through tomorrow,” Jakob muttered.
“Where do you think David went?”
“No idea.” Jakob sighed. “I think our best right now is to go back to my place and look at the clues again.”
“Why does it feel like we keep going around in circles? Every time we want to talk to someone they disappear.”
“That’s why I’m not letting you out of my sight. I don’t want you to disappear again.”
“Well, you were the one that kidnapped me last time. Maybe it’s you I should be worried about.”
Jakob shot me a look, but he didn’t answer. Instead he turned on the radio. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” blasted out of the speakers. Was the universe having a laugh at my expense? Or just sending me a message?
I answered the phone on the first ring, wondering who was calling me from a blocked number. I looked at the bathroom door and wondered if I should call Jakob out of the shower so he could hear the call as well, but decided against it.
“Hello?”
“Bianca, I need to talk to you.”
“Larry?” I could hear the shock in my voice.
“Are you alone?” he whispered hurriedly.
“Yes, why?”
“You cannot repeat this to anyone. You’re the only one I trust.”
“What’s going on, Uncle Larry?” I’d slipped into calling him uncle again, even though I no longer considered him family.
“Bianca, I’ve been set up.”
“Sure.” I sighed. “Larry, your lies aren’t going to work now. I know you told David about me wanting the shares.”
“Listen to me, Bianca. I admit I’ve made mistakes.” He paused. “Please, Officer, may I have a few more minutes?” He sounded worried. “Listen to me carefully, Bianca. I can’t talk long. I’m in jail. I’ve been set up for tax evasion, fraud, and insider information.”
“Insider information?” I asked, surprised. “What insider information?”
“You cannot let the merger go through,” he said quickly. “You have to stop the merger.”
“What are you talking about? Why?”
“The Bradley Inc. merger,” he shouted. “He fooled us. I don’t know how I missed it, but you have to ensure it’s stopped. You have the shares. I took care of it. They’re in your name. Go to my house. Go and see my wife. She’ll give you the papers. You need to stop it before it’s too late.”
“What’s going on? Who fooled you? Was it Maxwell? Who is Maxwell, Larry? Tell me, who is Maxwell?”
“That’s it, Mr. Renee,” a voice said in the background. “The call is done.”
“Bianca, listen to me! Do not trust Jakob Bradley—and you need to stop that merger. If it goes through, it’s all over. It will all be for nothing.”
“What will have been for nothing?”
The phone went dead. I looked at the phone in my hands and glanced up guiltily as Jakob came out of his bathroom, hair wet and slick.
“You okay?” He looked at the phone in my hand. “Phone call?”
“Larry called me,” I said slowly, staring at Jakob’s perfectly chiseled body.
“What did he say?” Jakob rushed over to me, his eyes wide. I stared at the towel around his waist, distracted by the image he made, half-naked and wet as he sat next to me on the bed. “What did he say, Bianca?” His dark eyelashes were moist and his blue eyes were vivid and alert. “Are you okay?” He massage
d my shoulders and moved closer to me. I could feel the heat radiating off him.
“He said he was set up,” I said finally, not wanting to say anything else. Why had Larry told me I couldn’t trust Jakob? Was Jakob looking out for me now or was he trying to set me up?
“Did he ask for your help?”
“He asked me to try and find out what’s going on.” I nodded. I wasn’t going to tell Jakob everything, just in case. Immediately, I felt remorse and guilt. Was I really going to take Larry’s word and stop trusting Jakob?
“Is he joking?” Jakob snarled. “Why would you help him after what he’s done?”
“I guess he had no one else to call.”
“He should call his wife or David.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, then sat back casually, letting my body fall back into Jakob’s. “Do you think I should try and stop the merger now? Do you think I should show my paperwork and see if I can get my rightful shares of the company?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t.”
“Jakob”—I stared at him intently—“Larry told me not to trust you.”
“I see.” He studied my face. “And you believed him?”
“No.” I paused. “For a split second, yes.” I sighed. “For a split second I was confused, but I trust you, Jakob. I would never take Larry’s word over yours. I trust you.”
“I’m glad.” His hands caressed my face as he gazed into my eyes. “Larry’s still playing his games, isn’t he?”
“He wants me to go see his wife. She might have more information for us.”
“Then we shall go and see his wife.” He pulled me toward him hard. “But not until we take care of some unfinished business.”
“Oh?” I gasped as I felt his hardness against my stomach.
His hands cupped my breasts and he squeezed them together. His lips fell to the side of my neck and he kissed me softly. “I love your smell.” He breathed me in, his fingers squeezing my breasts.
“Jakob?” I moaned as his right hand slipped down and made its way into my panties.
“Yes?” His fingers rubbed me gently and I moaned again, slightly louder this time.
“Why do you think Larry asked me to help him?”
“He’s trying to play you again.” Jakob bit my earlobe. “But we’re not dumb, we already know his game.” His left hand pulled my top up and he pushed me down on the bed. “He can rot in hell for all I care.” He kissed me on the forehead, then the nose, then the lips, and made his way down the valley between my breasts before sucking on my right nipple.
“You just showered.” I groaned as my back arched involuntarily.
“So?” He moved his hips slightly to pull his towel off, throwing it onto the floor before lowering himself back on top of me. His cock was already hard and erect against me. Streaming kisses down my stomach, he grabbed my panties with his teeth and pulled them down my legs before tossing them to join his towel.
“Jakob,” I whimpered as his right hand played in my wetness. “We should be thinking about what to do next. We should be on our way to see Mrs. Renee.”
“I know what I want to do next.” He grinned before spreading my legs open and lowering his face to my private spot. “I want to do you with my tongue and then my cock. Then we can talk.”
“Jakob,” I groaned, but his answer was to put his tongue between my legs and to start sucking. “Oh!” I cried out as his tongue slid inside me and he grabbed my hips and pulled me down onto his face harder. “Oooh . . . ,” I screamed as his tongue moved back and forth in abandon and licked me up. I could feel my orgasm building up quickly, my mind losing focus on everything else. When he pulled his tongue out of me, I cried out at the loss of him inside me, but he soon rectified that by sliding his hard cock inside me.
“Open your eyes, Bianca,” he growled. “I want to see your expression when I make you come.” He thrust into me and groaned. “Shit, you’re so wet.” He moved his hips faster as he slammed into me. “I can’t have enough of you, you know that, right?”
“Shut up and fuck me,” I cried out.
He chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” He pulled out of me, pulled me up, and pushed me forward. “Ass back.”
“What?” I moaned as he slid into me from behind. “I thought you wanted to see my eyes when I came?”
“I’ll watch your face again in a moment. For now, I want you to feel every inch of me inside of you. I want to fuck you so hard and deep that you won’t ever forget me.”
“Faster!” I screamed as he made his pace more deliberate.
“Nope.” He moved even slower, sliding his cock in and out at the pace of a snail before pushing himself in hard right at the end.
“Jakob,” I whimpered as my body tingled all over. “Please.”
“Please?” He laughed and pulled my hair back. “Kiss me,” he commanded, and I turned my face so that he could claim my mouth. Then he pulled all the way out of me and licked his lips before entering me again slowly. “Hold on to the sheets.” He chuckled and then increased his pace, so that his cock was flying in and out of me.
“Ooh!” I screamed as I felt myself taken to the top of the cliff. “I’m coming!” I screamed again as I gripped the sheets tightly, cascades of pleasure rippling through my body. “Oh, Jakob.”
“Bianca.” He grunted as he continued slamming into me, then I felt his body shuddering as he exploded inside me. He pulled out and fell onto the bed next to me and pulled me into his arms. I stared into his face and closed my eyes, my body feeling exhausted as I cuddled up next to him.
“End act one, scene one.” He groaned as he kissed me hard.
“What do you mean?”
“This is where I’d end the scene.” He groaned. “This is where I’d end the entire play.”
“What play?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head and chuckled.
“Who are you, Jakob Bradley?” I asked him quietly. “What’s your story?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been thinking about something and it’s been bothering me for a while.”
“What’s that?” He leaned on his elbow and stared at me.
“You said your mom was a maid for the Bradleys.”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“You said your mom refused to take money from your dad.”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“George the doorman knew your mom, and he recognized me because of my mom.”
“Yes.” Jacob’s eyes narrowed.
“Which means that you grew up here. My mom died when I was young, so your mom lived here for a long time. How did she afford it? Where did she get the money?” I looked at his face carefully, but his expression never changed.
“I guess Bradley must have given her money after all?” He shrugged.
“So he wasn’t that bad to her then, was he?”
“Well, they were in love for a while.” He shrugged. “Maybe he gave it to her as a parting gift, before he married someone else.”
“Yes, maybe.” I nodded, thinking back to Larry’s comment. You can’t trust Jakob Bradley. I hated to doubt him again after everything and especially because of what Larry had said, but things still weren’t adding up.
“Why did you even think of that?” he asked me softly, his fingers running up and down my arm.
“Not sure.” I jumped up, suddenly uncomfortable with my own thoughts and doubts. “I should shower.”
“I’ll join you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” He smiled sweetly. “Isn’t that what couples do? Shower together?”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“We’re in this together, Bianca.” He came up behind me and his arms encircled my waist. “It’s you and me, kid.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. Oh, how I wanted to believe that.
“Let’s go see Larry’s wife now.” I rubbed my body dry and stared at Jakob’s reflection in the mirror. “I want to see if there’s anything
else she didn’t tell me before.”
“Sure, I think that’s a good idea.” He nodded and licked a drop of water off the back of my neck. “But we have to be smart about it. This could be a setup. There has to be a reason Larry wants us to go see her. We need to remember that whatever she says might be for show—but she could know more than she’s been letting on. Maybe she knows the real truth behind everything. If she does, then we’re going to try our damnedest to figure it out.”
“I hope so.” I walked into the bedroom. “And I need to call Rosie—she must be worried about me.”
“When do I get to meet her?”
“Soon.” I thought about Rosie meeting Jakob. She was going to think I was crazy to be dating the man that had kidnapped me, and I couldn’t blame her.
“You don’t want her to meet me, do you?”
“Well, not right away.” I made a face as I pulled my clothes on. “Maybe when all this is sorted out.”
“She’s your best friend.”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Yet she never called the police when you were gone for a week and she’s been flaking on you since you’ve been back, even though she knows you were kidnapped.”
“Yes.” I sighed. “She thought I left the bar with a guy I’d met and she’s dating this guy and, well, I haven’t been available. . . .” My voice trailed off as I realized how weak my explanation sounded.
“She doesn’t sound like a great friend.” He pulled on a shirt. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Let’s go.”
“You know where Larry’s wife lives?”
“She lives out on Long Island. I have the address in my bag.”
“Okay, then. Bring your notes and we’ll go over the clues again and see what we missed.”
I grabbed my handbag and we exited his apartment. As we took the elevator down, all I could think about was my own place. I wanted to go back and check up on it. It felt strange to miss it, but in a way I felt that I had betrayed it by staying with Jakob. I missed my space and my bed. I missed just being there.
“You okay?” Jakob squeezed my hand.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about my apartment.” I gave him a half smile. “Just hoping no one’s gone back there.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “We’ll have to get your stuff and move it into my apartment.”