The Set Up

by Kim Karr

  She giggles.

  This is all new. I’m still trying to digest it. It’s scary as hell, but it’s real, and I’m ready to try to do this. “Are you resting like the doctor said?”

  She sighs. “Do you think with the army surrounding me I have a choice?”

  I laugh. I did leave her in good hands.

  “Toss your card,” I hear Jake demand.

  “Ahhh . . . Jake’s got you playing poker.”

  “Yep, and your mother is cooking chicken and dumplings.”

  My mother is trying really hard to be supportive. I think I may have been harder on her all these years than I should have been. I’m working on easing up on that, especially with all the Hank bullshit that is being thrown at her right now. Taking the downtown exit, I veer left and try to stay focused on the matter at hand. “Was Whitney able to get anything off the computer or phone?”

  “No. She’s says too much moisture has gotten into both devices. We’ll never know what was on them. What about you?”

  “I’m on my way to City Hall.”

  “Please be careful.”

  “For you, and our baby, I won’t take any unnecessary chances.”

  “Promise?”

  “I’ll do one better and pull out the good old pinky swear.”

  She laughs. “I love you.”

  “I love you too; I’ll call you on my way home.”

  Concentrating on what I’m doing, I push on the gas and cruise down the road. Soon enough, I’m pulling into the underground garage, which I never park in.

  At this time of day it is empty. As is the staircase, the reception desk, and the hallways. Breezing through security, I head toward the mayor’s office.

  My nerves start to pop and my legs seem to be shaking.

  What the hell am I nervous about?

  Stepping into the elevator, all I can think is—keep your poker face on, mean what you say, and own it. The door closes and I shut my eyes. The doors open and I’m not even paying attention until the bell dings. I snap my eyes open and hustle out of there—game on.

  My fingertips tap the dark wood of the reception desk and a cute red-headed woman smiles at me. “Mr. Storm, the mayor is expecting you. Let me show you in.”

  If I know Alex, she works late for his benefit.

  Eagerly, she twists the knob to his door and holds it open for me to enter. I walk into his over-the-top office—a huge mahogany desk, floor-to-ceiling glass windows with a view, a large-screen TV on a red wall, an oriental rug with a large leather sofa on top of it. Very over the top for a city-held office.

  So his style.

  I bet the couch gets a lot of action.

  Alex is standing near the window and pouring himself a scotch. When he finishes, he raises his glass. “Care for one?”

  The big windows provide a bird’s eye view of Detroit. It’s like he’s in a tower. Ironic. “No thanks. I’d hate to waste your one-hundred-year-old Balvenie when I won’t be here long enough to drink it.”

  The ice in his glass clinks and he takes a sip. “Your choice.”

  Striding across the room in two seconds flat, I decide I’ve had enough of him. I grab his shirt and push him roughly, slamming his back up against the wall. The liquid in his glass sloshes all over both of us. “You disgust me.” I stare hard into his cold dark eyes and repeat myself. “Did you hear me? You disgust me . . .”

  Alex struggles to free himself of my hold. “What the hell?” he hisses.

  I flinch at my actions and let go of him. “I know about everything.”

  With shaking hands, he sets his glass down. “What exactly are you talking about?”

  That confused look he’s giving me makes me want to twist it off his face. I’m choking, shuddering at his audacity to feign ignorance. But then I catch a glimpse of myself in the window and rein my temper in. For Charlotte, I keep reminding myself. Keep your cool for your girl. With a deep breath, I slowly exhale and then say, “No games, Alex. I know about Hank and what he did twenty years ago. I also know either him, or you, or the two of you, have been trying to sabotage my success for years. First by trying to kill me three years ago, then by trying to pin a murder on me, and when none of that worked you went after my friends, but today was the last straw.”

  I know Alex well enough to know the emotion flashing in his eyes is true surprise. “What happened today?”

  Getting to it quickly, I enlighten him. “Someone who knew what they were doing disabled the front radar censor in my car and cut the brake lines, again,” I add, “but it wasn’t me driving the car this time, it was the woman I love.”

  Dumbfounded, he shakes his head. Pinches the bridge of his nose. Looks at me. “You need to walk out of here right now and never repeat any part of what you just told me to anyone. If that was Hank, he’s out of control and I can’t protect you any longer.”

  I give Alex a small huff of laughter. “First of all, that’s not happening, and secondly, protect me? Are you for real?”

  There’s a pleading look in his eyes. “Listen to me, I know Hank is my father, but he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants.”

  “Like I don’t know that!” I snap.

  “I’ve been trying to protect you for weeks now, Jasper. If someone messed with your vehicle, it had to be him, he’s desperate. He’s worried you know too much.”

  I point my finger. “Yeah, Alex, he’s right—I do fucking know. And it’s time for all this to come to an end. Right now!”

  Alex takes a deep breath and paces the length of the window. “You need to listen to me. Let me explain before you do something stupid.”

  My patience short, I stare at him. “I’m waiting. You’ve got thirty seconds.”

  For a moment, he looks scared, but it passes quickly. “Let me start with the past. What happened twenty years ago was an accident. He never wanted to kill anyone.”

  His words sting. “You knew about it?”

  “No. Yes, I mean. I found out recently.”

  “And you said nothing?” I spit.

  “What the fuck choice did I have? He’s my father.”

  My laugh is bitter. “Oh, everyone always has a choice.”

  “You’re wrong. Not me. Not with him. I had to play along, for you. To protect you.”

  “Are you fucking for real?”

  He sighs. “I am. I’ve been stalling him. Giving you time to get your ducks in a row so we can get your factory up and running under his nose.”

  I run a hand through my hair. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “I’ve been stringing him along. Telling him what he wants to hear.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “He is determined to shut your project down. At any cost.”

  “And what? You’re helping him?”

  “No! I already told you, I played along . . . for you, and this city.”

  “Right,” I say through gritted teeth. “More than likely for you and your reputation.”

  “I’m not lying, man. I wanted to stop him when I found out, but he already had the wheels in motion.”

  His thirty seconds is up, but I give him more time. “Go on.”

  Stopping his pacing, he looks down on his kingdom before turning back to me. “Before I found any of this out, Tory Worth had gone to him, threatening him. She said she knew about him. He assumed Tom had told her about his part in the explosion. Personally, I don’t think she knew shit. Anyway, she wanted money to stay quiet. Instead of giving it to her straight, Hank offered her a deal. Get pictures of you with some whores doing drugs, which would ruin your chances of getting access to the land, and he’d pay her what she was asking for. Then his plan was to leak the pictures. You know the tight-asses on the council would have frowned upon something like that, and the factory, at that location anyway, would have been history.”

  I don’t move. I’m caught in the web of the story he’s weaving.

  “Tory did what he wanted.”

  I remember
what she did. How she seduced me. I also remember how fucking easy I fell for it too. Makes me sick.

  He takes a step toward me. “But when Tory met with him the night of the vote to give him the pictures, that nosey reporter followed her, heard their conversation, and threatened to spill the entire story. Hank lost control and killed her. Tory fled the scene without giving him the pictures. With Tory gone, he had no pictures to leak, so he buried the body on the old plant site to slow the sale down. And that wasn’t all. He also broke into Eve’s hotel room to get her computer incase she and Tory had been working together. When he did, he discovered documents from twenty years ago that belonged to Charlotte. I think he later broke into her apartment to find what else she had.”

  I’m doing all I can to keep it together. Hank is behind all of the shit that has happened. Eve’s murder, breaking into Charlotte’s apartment, stealing her things.

  Hank.

  The man I wanted to be my father.

  I feel sick.

  Alex’s eyes draw together tightly, his forehead pinches, and he continues. “It wasn’t until after I put that tail on Tory for you that I knew any of this. You have to believe me.”

  I clench my teeth and start to count to ten to stop myself from punching him in the nose right now.

  He senses my anger and takes a step back. “My guy had found her and was following her. She was laying low. Until the day she went to see my father at your mother’s house. Hank met her outside. It was really early in the morning, still dark. They began to argue, my guy told me. She was blackmailing him again. And then Hank started to strangle her. My guy tried to stop him, but by the time he got to them it was too late. My guy left. After that though, Hank knew I was involved. I told him I didn’t want to know shit. He told me anyway. Told me that he moved Tory’s body to where he’d hidden Eve’s car. I told him that was fucking stupid. So close to where his mistress lived. He knew it was a bad idea too and he was planning on moving the car, but it was found first. And then all hell broke loose.”

  All the air leaves my lungs. “Yeah, I got arrested for the fucking murders.”

  “I got you off those!” he shouts.

  Astonished, I gape. “What are you talking about?”

  “Tom didn’t confess. I set it up that way after—”

  “Stop right there,” I hiss.

  He does.

  I know the after—Alex forged the confession after Tom was killed. I don’t want to hear it. I can’t know this.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  “I was looking out for you, Jasper. I’ve always been looking out for you; you just always had a big chip on your shoulder and you never could see it.”

  I stare at him. Stunned. What he is telling me is so corrupt that I freeze. Falter. Words can’t explain how sick I feel right now. Finally, I find my voice. “What else did you do?”

  A sad smile spreads across his face. He touches his fingertips to his desk and leans on it. “All I wanted to do was slow Hank down before he hurt anyone else. I had my guy dig up that dirt on your friends to make him happy.”

  “So you were working with him to sabotage me.”

  He shakes his head no. “He never wanted to hurt you. All he ever wanted you to do was find a location outside of the city. I tried to get that through your head.”

  “Right, the offer to give me land elsewhere,” I hiss.

  “Yes, but you wouldn’t fucking listen. You never fucking listen. I knew Hank was out of his mind, not thinking clearly. He couldn’t have been. He thinks of you as a son, but it seems his need to protect the monopoly he’s built is beyond reason.”

  Trembling in anger, I clutch my fists at my sides. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

  “Then what do you want?” he asks with a grimace.

  “To tell you what’s going to happen. How things are going to run from now on.” I weigh the options. This city loves Alex. He’s brought them hope. I don’t want to destroy that and risk ruining all the progress that has been made here. Alex needs to remain in place, but he has to be controlled by someone who cares about Detroit. By me. So I decide to do what is best for right now—leave him in place.

  Alex seems resigned to listen.

  Ready to do this, I hold the arson report in the air. “It’s Hank for this.”

  With slow strides he comes closer to me, takes it. Scans it. Sets it on his desk. “Where’d you get this?”

  “Does it really matter? What matters is that it never be made public.”

  His eyes darken as realization dawns on him. “You want me to turn my father over to the police in order to save the city from learning about the corruption of the past?”

  I reply with a cool look. “That’s right.”

  His lips pinch with concern. “I can’t do that.”

  This isn’t easy for me, either. Hank was once my mentor. A man who taught me everything I know. Took me under his wing when he didn’t have too. But the man I knew isn’t who Hank Harper really is, because the treachery he committed twenty years ago was done so long before I met him. He is a greedy bastard who just so happens to have a soft side. But make no mistake about it—he’s a murderer. Maybe a sociopath. And he has to be put away. “If you don’t, then you’ll go down with him, because mark my words, either way, he’s going down. He’s going to pay for his sins.”

  “Think about how exposing him as a killer will affect me. He’s my father. No one will trust me.”

  “I have been thinking about it. Believe me, or else you’d be going down with him. Lucky for you, this city needs you right now, and no matter how much I want to blow all of this up and expose the vile evil you allowed yourself to be a part of, I’m not going to because it won’t help the good people of Detroit get that future you promised them. Knowing that, and exposing Hank for his crimes, is the only way I can rationalize not turning you in.”

  “But—”

  I cut him off. “Alex, you’ll think of a way to spin this to come out the hero; you always do.”

  He sucks in a breath. “I can’t do that.”

  Stepping forward, I stand directly in front of him. Eye to eye, I’m buried in hatred, anger, and frustration—wanting so much to wrap my hands around his neck and strangle him. But I have what he wants and I’m pretty sure he’s a lot like his old man, and wants it more than anything else too. I casually walk around his desk and take a seat in one of the two chairs in front of it. “I think, Mr. Mayor, you can.”

  His sigh is deep. “Tell me what you want.”

  I tell him that I have the computer and phone, but I want them found on Hank’s property, not my mother’s. I want her left out of this. I want justice. I want Hank put away for the murders of both Eve and Tory. And then I want my factory—and for him to help Jake recruit the remaining investors we need with the ties he has in the community.

  Alex sits in his desk chair, tenting his fingers. “And if I do this, you promise to never mention a word that I knew anything?”

  “That’s right.”

  Moments pass. He ponders this. “Okay. I’ll put a task force in place to find the evidence that will tie the murders to Hank.”

  I laugh. “See, you’re already spinning it your way. And don’t worry, if you want the glory of bringing your old man in, it’s all yours, Alex.”

  “I can’t change what he did, but I can make it right.”

  Vibrating in disgust as the words roll off his tongue, I take a deep breath knowing he’s selling out his father to save himself.

  He squeezes the arms of his expensive leather chair and with concern asks, “Is Charlotte okay?”

  I cock my head. “Yeah, but only because after my last accident my car has more than one safety feature when it comes to faulty brakes.”

  His bottom lip trembles. “You really think Hank did that back then?”

  “I know he did. I’d bet my life on it.”

  Reality seems to slap the rich boy in the face.

  “
Oh, a few more things,” I say and tell him what I see in the future for him and I. How I will be watching him. Making certain he does right by this town.

  “Jasper,” he says opening up a drawer and tossing something at me.

  I catch it. It’s my matchbox car, the one my father gave me just before he died, the one I lost the night this whole nightmare began. “Where’d you get this?” I ask. “You know what, I don’t want to know.”

  He nods. “Believe it or not, I’ve always been on your side.”

  Everything that needs to be said has been. I have nothing to say to that, so I get up and walk to the door squeezing my good luck charm. “I’ll get you those items,” I tell him. “You have a week to do whatever needs to be done to bring justice for those two women.”

  He gives me an acquiescent nod.

  Me—the poor boy.

  The one who came from nothing.

  The one he looked down upon.

  Made fun of.

  It feels so fucking good to have the upper hand.

  CONSTRUCTION ZONE

  Charlotte

  DETROIT IS IN the car business again—or it will be soon.

  I bite my lip to contain my excitement.

  Jasper Jackson Storm stands long and lean on the iron beam in his leather jacket, pressed white shirt unbuttoned at the top, and dark dress slacks. He’s even wearing new dress shoes. The impressive muscle tone of his arms and chest flexes through the tight leather as he looks out over the acres of land being cleared that will soon be home to Lightning Motors, a six hundred thousand square foot, fifty million dollar building.

  Scanning the area, his gaze, heavy and thick-lashed, lands on mine. I can’t believe butterflies still seize my stomach every time I catch his eye. In the bright sunlight of the cool late November day, his eyes gleam like something liquid. Molten lava. Hot. Warm. Inviting.

  I rub my hand over my belly. It, along with my breasts, are just barely starting to grow larger. He flashes me that mischievous smile and I blush a thousand times over.

  Jake, Will and Drew are standing beside him. They’re shooting a cover for Car and Driver Magazine today. I plan to feature some of the photos, along with an exclusive inside look at what to expect within the four walls of the new, state-of-the-art factory, on my next Lightning Motors.com blog post.