eyond Desire Collection

by JS Scott, M Malone, Marie Hall, et al

  “Is that so?” Kelly didn’t sound very pleased by my decision. When he turned toward me, I glanced at the plate in his hand. He’d smeared a bagel with chocolate hazelnut spread and topped it with sliced bananas. Remembering my favorite breakfast combination somehow seemed more special than it really was.

  “Thanks.” I accepted the plate with a smile.

  He gave a little shrug before sitting down with his bagel and eggs liberally covered with green salsa. “How many hours of college do you have left?”

  “I don’t know.” He shot me a look, and I rolled my eyes. “Like thirty.”

  “You’re too close to quit.”

  I took a bite of my bagel rather than engage in an argument with him. It was way too early and neither of us had gotten enough sleep for a discussion that intense. “Are we going to my apartment soon?”

  Finn smiled behind his coffee cup at the way I had deftly avoided a morning tiff with his younger brother. Kelly stabbed at his eggs and nodded. “Lev and Dimitri will be meeting us at your place. I also called the police department to see if they could send out an officer to take a report so everything is documented.”

  “For?”

  “A restraining order or arrest,” he said. “We’ll figure out who this creep is eventually. When we do, I want him arrested and thrown in jail. Dimitri is bringing one of LSG’s techs to sweep your place”

  “Techs?”

  “LSG has added more support staff to help the agents in the field,” he explained. “Dimitri wants to be able to provide full-service protection for all of his clients. It’s easy enough to work side-by-side with the police here, but in some of the areas where we protect clients, it’s not that simple.”

  As Kelly and Finn launched into a debate about the most corrupt countries, I polished off my yummy bagel and orange juice. Finn took my plate and cup and tucked them into the dishwasher along with his and Kelly’s. He bid us a quick farewell before grabbing his backpack and darting out the door.

  Alone with Kelly, I waited for him to finish wiping up the counter. “So—your dad?”

  He spared me a glance. “He was gone when I came downstairs.”

  “Gone where?”

  He shrugged. “Hell if know. I don’t really care.”

  “Kelly,” I admonished. “He’s your father.”

  His green eyes narrowed. “Bee, there’s a lot of things I’m willing to let you chastise me for, but this isn’t one of them. You don’t know the score with our old man. He’s a sad, pathetic drunk now, but he used to be a mean old bastard who liked to knock all of us around. This shit with the loan sharks is the last straw.”

  I had always suspected Nick Connolly was an abusive parent. Jeb used to make remarks that made me question what sort of upbringing Kelly and his brothers endured. In some ways, the Connolly brothers’ aloof natures made sense when viewed within that context.

  As far as I knew, none of them had ever been involved in a serious long-term relationship. At thirty-three, thirty-one and almost twenty-nine that was quite an accomplishment, all things considered. Most men would have had at least one long-term girlfriend by those ages.

  “I’m sorry, Kelly. I didn’t mean to step on your toes.”

  He came around the island and slid his hand along the nape of my neck. Lowering his head, he kissed my forehead. The touch of his lips against my skin branded me as his. I wasn’t sure what had brought on this change in his demeanor toward me, but I prayed the gentle sweetness he had been showing me since last night wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

  “You didn’t, Bee. You’re probably right. I should care where he is, but right now you’re my top priority. After you, it’s saving the gym and everything Jack and Finn have worked to build.”

  Frowning, I pulled back enough to look at him. “What’s wrong with the gym?”

  He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “Dad took a loan against the building from Hagen.”

  “The loan shark?”

  “How do you know about him?”

  “When LookIt exploded overnight, I needed funding fast to expand JBJ TechWorks or else the whole damn thing was going to collapse. A friend on campus who did a lot of poker playing told me that Hagen could advance big sums of cash for competitive interest rates, but I decided to aim big.”

  “So you marched into Yuri’s office and asked for a million bucks, right?”

  “Well…it was quite a bit more than that, but basically, yes.” I chewed my lip as I considered this new bit of information about their father’s second outstanding debt. “Kelly, please reconsider my offer. If it’s the charity angle that bothers you, we can set up a payment plan or something.”

  He tugged away from me and ended the connection between us. “It’s not up for discussion, Bee. We’ve decided to handle this our way.”

  Frustration boiled in my gut. “Your way requires you getting the crap knocked out of you in a warehouse.”

  “It’s the best way.” He tentatively reached out to caress my face. My eyelids drifted together as his fingers glided along my cheek. “I’m not dragging you into this. Your reputation has to remain spotless, Bee.”

  I decided not to push the issue with him, but I swore then and there that I would find a way to save his family’s gym and his father’s life that didn’t require Kelly to risk permanent injury or death. He was going to be furious with me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to stand on the sidelines while the man I’d loved for so long killed himself to restore his family’s honor.

  “We should go.”

  On the drive to my building, we didn’t talk much beyond agreeing on a radio station. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence by any means. The easiness between us this morning reminded me of the time before that kiss. I wasn’t sure what had happened last night to make Kelly lower his fences. When he’d climbed into bed with me, I had been nearly delirious with excitement. The way he held me and stroked my back until I fell asleep had been absolute perfection.

  The ball remained firmly in his court, and I had no intention of asking him what the hell was going on between us. I wanted so much more with him, but I’d waited this long for even the chance to try. I could wait a little longer for him to make up his mind.

  When we reached my building, Lev and Dimitri were waiting at the side entrance. The tall, blond Russian was a friend of Yuri’s and a man I recognized on sight. I stopped by his wife’s bakery once or twice a month and often saw him there. He was a familiar face at Faze too.

  The other man I didn’t know at all. Kelly had told me that Lev was a former Israeli commando who specialized in counter-terrorism. I wasn’t quite sure what a man with that sort of expertise could do to help me, but I trusted that they had their own system for sizing up their potential clients.

  After a round of introductions, I unzipped my backpack and retrieved my keycard. Before I had even gotten close to the door, Dimitri asked, “Who else has a keycard?”

  “No one else has one. There’s an extra in my safe that I planned to give to Kelly the next time I saw him.”

  Lev jotted something down in a notebook he produced from the pocket of his cargo pants. “We’ll have someone follow up with the security firm you’re using. We need to know where every key is. Spike, our tech guy, is running a few minutes late, but when he gets here, we’ll have him run diagnostics on everything.”

  I didn’t tell Lev I could access those records myself. He would likely want their own man to pull them anyway. Once inside the building, we headed for the elevator. I noticed the way the men kept their hands close to their sides and didn’t touch anything. Probably because they wanted to get good prints later when the police officer Kelly had requested arrived on the scene.

  “How many floors?” Dimitri asked.

  “Eight,” I answered.

  “There is no one else in the building but you?”

  “Just me,” I confirmed. “I had planned to look over the construction bids to get the renovations started, but I think
I should postpone for a while.”

  Kelly’s hand landed on my shoulder. “You can’t let this stalker prevent you from living, Bee. That’s what he wants. You’ll have to modify your life so we can keep you safe, but don’t stop your long-term plans.”

  I caught Lev’s interested gaze at Kelly’s hand touching my shoulder. Something about the twitch in his cheek told me that he didn’t approve of the idea of Kelly mixing business and friendship.

  When we reached my floor, I led them to the still ajar front door. Kelly carefully stepped in front of me, putting his body between mine and the door. Dimitri shielded me from the side closest to the fire exit I had used to rush out of the building. Lev entered my apartment first and spent a few moments inside.

  “All clear.”

  Kelly reached back and found my hand, dragging me along with him. We stopped in the middle of the living area. Lev picked up my bike—apparently it had fallen over when I’d run out of the building—and leaned it against the wall. “You left in a hurry,” he rightly deduced.

  “You could say that,” I murmured, unable to look away from the menacing pink box.

  A buzz startled me. Kelly’s soothing hand rubbed my back and I managed to get my racing heart under control. Pivoting back toward the door, I glanced at the screen mounted on the wall and then at Dimitri who confirmed the man was friendly. I pressed the intercom button. “Yes?”

  “It’s Spike Carson with Lone Star Group.”

  “Come on up.” I hit the button to let him inside and punched in the code to unlock the elevator for him.

  “We’ll need to pull your security camera feeds,” Dimitri said. “Hopefully they caught something.”

  “Hopefully,” I agreed and stepped away from the door. Not long after, the technician appeared on my doorstep. He immediately came to the box that had been left for me and started talking with Lev about the safety of it. After digging in one of the bags he’d brought up with him, he carefully swabbed the box. Glancing at Kelly, I asked, “Is he swabbing for explosives?”

  “Yes. We can’t be too careful.”

  Thankfully the box tested negative for explosives and chemical residues. Kelly stepped forward when Carson was done and snatched a latex glove from the opened kit. He pulled it on and jerked on the big, white bow. He lifted the lid on the box and peered inside. Instantly, his jaw locked as the harshest expression I had ever seen crossed his face.

  As if fighting to control his temper, he asked, “Bee, do you do your own laundry?”

  His question confused me. “Yes. Why?”

  “You do it here?”

  “Yes.”

  Kelly lobbed a look Dimitri’s way. The ruggedly handsome Russian crossed the distance between them and peered into the box. His reaction mirrored Kelly’s. In fact, he looked pissed. “Miss Langston, have you noticed any missing laundry?”

  “Missing laundry? I…” My voice trailed off as a better picture started to form. “Last week I thought I was missing some clothes, but I just decided they must have gotten lost in the move or left behind at my old place.” Suddenly, a terrible thought struck me. “Wait. Are my panties in that box?”

  Kelly jammed the lid back on the box. “Yes.”

  My stomach churned. “Just my panties?”

  Kelly looked like he wanted to lie but he didn’t. “Not exactly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  His jaw worked back and forth. “It means we’re going to need to have the contents DNA tested.”

  Sickened by the realization that some creep had used my stolen undies to masturbate, I dropped into the nearest chair. I felt so incredibly violated. Then another, even more terrifying thought hit me. “My underwear didn’t go missing until after I had moved in here. That means this freak was here, what, ten days ago?” I tried to remember exactly when I’d noticed them gone. “Oh my God! How many times has he been here?”

  Kelly glanced around the apartment with a critical eye. “You can’t stay here anymore.”

  “No, she absolutely cannot,” Lev agreed. “We’ll need to find a safer, more secure place for her.”

  “I have an idea. Let me make a call.” Dimitri dug his phone out of his pocket and moved to the far side of the room. A few moments later, he started speaking in Russian.

  Lev sat down across from me. “We need to begin your threat assessment.”

  “My what?”

  “It’s a way of cataloguing the threats that may exist against you,” Lev explained. “So, obviously, something like that,” he gestured to the box, “suggests a boyfriend or lover. Let’s talk about your dating history?”

  “Um…okay.”

  “Have you recently had a breakup?”

  “No.”

  “Were any of your past breakups violent or messy or awkward?”

  “No.”

  “Were any of your boyfriends possessive or jealous? Did anyone try to abuse you? Verbally or physically,” he added.

  “No.” I could feel Kelly’s intent gaze on me. Could this be any weirder?

  “And, if you’ll excuse me,” Lev offered an apologetic smile, “have you ever had a lover who behaved inappropriately in bed?”

  “Inappropriately?” Did he mean, like, rough sex? Spanking? Bondage? Deciding it didn’t really matter what he meant, I hurriedly answered, “No.”

  Lev smiled kindly. “It’s all right, Miss Langston. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

  Face on fire, I avoided Kelly’s curious stare. “Nothing inappropriate has ever occurred in my bed. I sleep alone. Always.”

  “Oh. I see.” Lev seemed a little surprised. Perhaps he didn’t come across many members of the V-Club my age. “Well. Then we’ll skip those questions. What about admirers?”

  Still refusing to look at Kelly, I said, “Well…I mean…I get the occasional weird messages on my blog or via email but never anything that was strange enough for me to seek police protection. This whole mess came out of left field, you know?”

  “Let’s talk business.” Lev directed the interview in a different direction. “What do you do?”

  “The press calls me an internet entrepreneur, but I’m a web developer and programmer at heart. I’ve designed software and various applications in social media. Some have done extremely well, and some flopped right out of the gate.”

  “You designed a secure chat software for the military?”

  “I did.”

  “Some people can be touchy about military applications, even the ones with the most innocent uses. Have you ever received any hate mail or threats about working for the US government?”

  “First, I don’t work for the government. I designed HomeFront independently and licensed the rights to it to the DOD. Secondly, yes, of course, I’ve received some nasty-grams from unhinged jerks, but that was years ago. They were all cranks. I haven’t heard a peep out of them since then.”

  “Do you make a lot of money doing this?”

  “I’m starting to, yes.”

  “How much?”

  “That’s a complicated question.”

  “Ten million? Fifty million?”’

  “More than the first but currently much less than the latter,” I answered a bit cryptically. “If you’re talking liquid assets I could get my hands on in a week or less, I mean. If you’re talking the current valuation of LookIt and the amount I personally stand to bank if I sell the platform to Insight, then you could easily quadruple that top figure.”

  The expression on Kelly’s face changed to one I couldn’t read. Before I could contemplate what he might be thinking now that the numbers were on the table, Lev continued with his barrage of questions.

  “Insight is that internet search engine, right?”

  “They started as a search engine but they now own pieces of various social media platforms, news organizations and digital media companies.”

  “And what is LookIt?”

  “It’s a blogging platform.”

  He shot me a bemused smi
le. “And why is it called LookIt? Is this an American expression I’m unfamiliar with?”

  “It’s something my brother used to say,” I explained. “Whenever he got annoyed with me or thought I needed a lecture, he’d say, ‘Look it, Bee…’”

  “I see.” Lev scribbled on his pad. “And your company is called?”

  “JBJ TechWorks.”

  “Your company currently has how many employees?”

  “We have twenty-one, including me, in the Houston office here, but we also outsource on a contract basis with various providers for tech support for the users of the blogging platform.”

  Lev made more notes. “And of the twenty people in your office, how many of them are against the possibility of selling to Insight?”

  “None.”

  Lev’s eyebrows arched. “None?”

  “They stand to make a lot of money if the sale goes through,” I explained. “They’ve all been incredibly encouraging. Most of them have been with me since I put out a call for help during a hackathon I held over Spring Break a few years back. They want this as badly as I do.”

  Lev frowned. “A what-athon?”

  “Hackathon,” I supplied. “It’s when a group of coders get together to tackle a project.”

  “I see.” His pen scribbled some more. “You compensate your employees well?”

  “Sure. We don’t have the outrageous perks some of the startups in Silicon Valley offer, but it’s still very nice.”

  “What about ex-employees?”

  Two names came to mind. “I’m currently being sued by Richard Hawkins. He was hired to be the COO of JBJ TechWorks, but he didn’t work out so well. The guy had all the right qualifications to push a startup into the stratosphere—but he was extremely difficult. It wasn’t a good fit, so I let him go after seven or eight months.”

  “Why is he suing you?”

  “He started a new company and poached some of my employees. One of them is a guy named Trevor Cohen who stole a project from me and used it as the basis for one of their products. When we rolled out the original product in beta, Richard sued us so I countersued. Now he’s brought a second suit against me for more compensation based on the employment contract between us.” I waved my hand. “It’s a whole complicated thing.”