Mark: BWWM Romance (Members From Money Book 11)

by Katie Dowe

  "Put her on loudspeaker." Jason murmured.

  Carla put her phone on the counter and answered the call, switching to loudspeaker.

  "Joanie? You okay? What's the matter?"

  "You've got to come here now, Carla." Joanie was crying. "Jason's here."

  Carla did a double-take. She stared at Jason, who was giving her a look that said 'now do you believe me'. Carla focused on the call.

  "Jason is?"

  "Yes. He's demanding to be let in. He wants sex and he said he'll kill me if I don't let him in." Joanie sounded like she was hyperventilating. "I don't know what to do! The police are not coming out because they say he's not dangerous but I'm sure I saw him carrying a sword."

  Jason raised an eyebrow. Carla took one look at him and knew for certain who the real liar was.

  "Sit tight, Joanie." She said quietly. "I'm coming over."

  Chapter 8

  The drive up to Miami Shores was silent. Uncomfortably silent. Carla kept glancing over at Jason in the passenger seat but she wasn't able to say anything.

  She had already said sorry when they were back at the apartment but Jason hadn't said anything. He had stayed silent as he waited for her to shower, helping her clean her wounds afterwards and helping her dress - her shoulder felt wrenched after being thrown around. He hadn't tried anything with her, completing his tasks with efficiency.

  Carla had wished he would do something, anything, to show her that he had forgiven her. But Jason remained sullenly silent. So Carla had to sit miserably behind the wheel as she drove them to Joanie's house.

  Luke and Amy were already there, parked across the street from Joanie's condo. Carla pulled up outside and turned off the engine.

  "Now let me do the talking here."

  "Seriously?"

  Carla glared at Jason, who was glowering at her.

  "That's enough, Jason." She snapped. "We can argue later."

  She climbed out before she said or did something she would regret. Luke was coming across the street. His eyes widened and he hurried over to her.

  "Fuck, Carla, what happened to you?"

  "I'm fine, Luke." Carla pushed his hands away. "It's nothing I can't handle."

  The sight after washing away the blood hadn't been any better than before. Her face was swollen on one side, she had a cut above one eye and her nose felt out of joint. Something also cracked when she breathed so she must have cracked a rib somewhere.

  But she wasn't going to the hospital. Not until she had seen to Joanie, at least.

  Amy came to join them as Jason got out and stood on the sidewalk watching them. She gave him a glare.

  "What is he doing here?" She snapped.

  "Getting some answers." Carla glanced at Luke. "You owe me $200, by the way."

  "Why?"

  Carla explained about Joanie's phone call and how she and Jason had listened in on Joanie's lies. When she finished Amy was staring at Jason.

  "Have you got a twin brother?"

  "Younger brother but he doesn't look like me." Jason narrowed his eyes at her. "Why? You single?"

  Amy huffed and looked at Carla.

  "Real charmer, he is."

  "Sorry, love. I'm not in the mood to be charming."

  Carla rolled her eyes and left them to squabble, leading Luke up the path to Joanie's front door and ringing the bell. After a moment of silence she knocked on the door.

  "Joanie? Joanie, it's Carla. Open up."

  A second later there came the sound of the latch coming off and the door being unlocked. Then it opened and Joanie looked out, her eyes wide.

  "Has he gone?"

  "You mean Jason?"

  "Yes. Did you see him?"

  "Hello, Joanie."

  Carla jumped as Jason stepped up to her side and leaned against the door frame, giving Joanie a nasty smile. Joanie screamed and tried to shut the door but Jason kicked it back open, sending it out of Joanie's hand. Still screaming, Joanie ducked inside. Carla gave Jason a hard look.

  "Nice one. Now we'll have the neighbors calling the cops."

  Jason shrugged and went in, Carla following him. Luke entered third and Amy closed the door behind them. Joanie was cowering in a corner, huddled up on herself with her arms over her head.

  "Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me!" She begged. "Please don't kill me."

  Carla sighed and glanced at Amy. Her friend understood. They went to Joanie and hauled her up by her arms.

  "Relax, Joanie. We're not going to kill you." They deposited her unceremoniously on the couch. Then Carla crouched before her, keeping her voice on an even level. "But we do need answers. You've been lying to me and I want to know why."

  "What?" Joanie sat up and brushed her hair away from her face. "I haven't been lying to you."

  "Telling me that Jason was outside threatening you was a lie."

  "But he was!"

  "He was standing right next to me when you called." Carla raised her eyebrows when she saw it hit home. "He may be talented in many things but being in two places at the same time is not one of them."

  She heard a cough behind her but ignored it, focusing on Joanie, who was looking like she was floundering.

  "He did it earlier." Was the response she finally came up with. "I just got my tenses wrong."

  "Sounds like you got a lot of things wrong." Luke grunted. He was leaning against the wall with his big arms folded. Joanie gave him a haughty look.

  "Who's he? Another goon?"

  "This is Special Agent Whitely, FBI." Carla glared at Joanie, who was slowly turning white. "He was close to locking up an innocent man because of you."

  "And her?"

  Joanie glanced nervously at Amy.

  "I'm a friend." Amy advanced on the couch, sitting beside Joanie. She spoke softly, almost as if she was talking to a little child. "And I'm very good at getting people to talk. Do you know what you've done, Joanie? You've committed a crime. Jason would have been going to prison having done nothing wrong because you planted evidence for Carla to find so you could incriminate him. We want to know why."

  Joanie looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. She shook her head.

  "I have nothing to say."

  Carla bit back a groan. She hated it when people who were clearly guilty tried to get away with their crimes by saying nothing. It never worked.

  "You do know this comes with a prison sentence?" Luke said gruffly. "It's a criminal offense. And obstructing an FBI investigation makes it a federal offense. Care to try again, Miss Oldham?"

  But still Joanie kept her head bent, staring at her hands. Normally Carla was prepared to wait but not this time. Her nerves were frayed and she wanted answers now.

  "I'm going to count to three, Joanie. You had better be ready to tell us by the time I get to three or Agent Whitely is going to arrest you." She held up a hand and began to count. "One. Two. Thr..."

  "It was Rick's idea!" Joanie's response came out in a rush. "He just made me go along with it. I swear!"

  "Rick?" Jason had been silent until then, sitting on the nearest armchair. Now he was sitting forward, staring at Joanie. "Rick Stevens?"

  "He's my boyfriend."

  Carla glanced at Jason, who looked stumped.

  "He's also the one who paid for all of this, I take it?" Carla indicated the condo and Joanie's designer velour suit. "I thought everything looked beyond your means with your previous salary."

  "He looks after me." Joanie sat up straight and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "But he was the one who was laundering money and hiding it in the company. We just put everything in Jason's name and pretended it was him. Rick handled the books and finances for the company; it wasn't hard to hide it." She glanced over at Jason, who was staring at her. "Then when Jason got arrested Rick would transfer all the money between us and completely take over the company. We'd have more money than we could hope for. Jesse Taga promised us that."

  "So you made a deal with the devil." Amy said slowly.


  It sounded like it. Carla watched as Joanie's frightened exterior slipped away and was replaced with a cold, hard demeanor that hardened her features. This was the true Joanie Oldham coming out now.

  "What's wrong with wanting more money?" She demanded haughtily. "Rick loved money. He showered me with it. But he wasn't about to let his old friend find out." She fixed a glare on Jason, who was looking stumped at the revelation. "You were getting too close to the truth by asking questions about the figures and Rick was getting nervous. He told me to hire Carla since she was one of the best to finding all the dirt." She swung her nasty scowl back around to Carla. "It was working perfectly until you started falling for him."

  Carla felt her face going red. What a way to tell someone you loved them - through someone else when you weren't ready. She diverted attention by plowing on.

  "You made yourself suspicious when you kept going after Jason and Stevens and getting yourself into trouble." She shot back. "Any sensible person would stay at home and let me get on with it. You seemed determined to make it worse for yourself."

  Joanie snorted.

  "You don't get it, do you? I got paid virtually nothing. My salary was shit. Shit!" She shouted at Jason. "Rick had the money. He had the looks. I wrapped him around my little finger. If you hadn't gotten distracted by Wonderboy then we would've had millions to ourselves."

  "Not anymore." Luke pushed away from the wall and pulled out his handcuffs. "You're going to be separated from that money for a very long time."

  Joanie didn't say anything as she was brought to her feet and Luke put the cuffs on her with her arms behind her back. She smirked at Carla.

  "Rick will get me out." She said smugly. "He'll keep me out of trouble."

  Carla felt heat against her back as she stood and she knew that Jason was there.

  "Considering he'll be trying to save his own skin," he said sharply, "I don't think he's going to worry too much about you, Joanie."

  Joanie's smirk snapped off, her eyes icy cold. They watched as Luke hauled her away and out the house. Carla knew it wouldn't be long before he called in reinforcements to search the house. She was tired and in pain; she just wanted to go home.

  Amy touched her arm.

  "Go home, Carla." She said softly. "You need the rest. Luke can interview you at a later date."

  Carla nodded. She hadn't felt this relieved in a long time to be told to go home.

  *****

  Jason insisted on driving back and Carla readily agreed. She wasn't in a fit state to drive. Now she had dealt with Joanie, the adrenaline was wearing off and she was feeling woozy. Maybe she should get her head checked out at the ER. But she didn't want to leave Jason until they had cleared the air.

  Jason was silent as they drove back. Carla let him have his space until they pulled into Carla's parking lot. Jason parked the car in her usual spot and turned the engine off. Then he sat back staring straight out the windshield. Carla sat up and touched his arm.

  "Jason? You okay?"

  "Yeah." Jason sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "I just can't believe Rick would do something like this. We built our publishing company together. He was so driven." He gulped. "I had no idea he felt like this."

  Carla could understand where he was coming from. The two of them had been friends for years, trusted each other with everything. And now one had turned on the other because greed was bigger than their friendship.

  "Sometimes those we keep the nearest to us are the ones we don't truly know." She said quietly. She took his hand. "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be." Jason turned his hand over and encased her hand in his. He shifted in his seat as he turned to look at her. "I'm sorry I treated you the way I did."

  "How did you treat me?"

  "Badly." Jason closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them he looked pained. "I don't do that to women. I should've treated you better."

  Carla smiled and squeezed his hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm not."

  And she wasn't. She really was falling hard if she wasn't worrying about the way he claimed he had treated her.

  Jason stared at her.

  "How can you be so forgiving?" He asked. "I'm confused."

  "I don't know. I'm not normally."

  "Then why with me?"

  Carla looked down at their joined hands, admiring his bronzed skin against her dark brown one. She brought his hand up to her mouth and kissed his knuckles one by one.

  "Probably because I'm glad my hunch was right." She said. "That you were innocent."

  "You believed me all along?"

  Carla smiled. "I did."

  Jason's eyes darkened. He growled and pulled Carla towards him. Their mouths met in a furious dance, desperate to take the dominant role from the other. Carla rose up onto her knees, Jason's hands coming up to support her waist as she leaned over him. Her hands ran over his chest and stomach before going to his jeans. His cock pressed against the denim and Carla ran her hand over the ridge. Jason moaned and bucked against her hand.

  With one hand she undid the button and then lowered the zipper to reach inside. She brought his cock out and pumped it slowly with her hand. Jason moaned again and thrust his hips up, his cock moving in the confines of her hand.

  Carla pulled away suddenly. Pushing Jason's hands away, she dropped to her knees and leaned over his lap. His cock was thick, very thick, but Carla managed to get her lips around him and sucked him into her mouth. Jason groaned. His hands went to her head, running his fingers through her hair, guiding her as she bobbed her head over him, running her tongue over the soft skin.

  "Fuck, Carla, you feel amazing."

  Carla sucked on him a few more times before pulling away. She could feel Jason trying to pull her back but moved just out of reach. She adjusted her seat's reclining, putting it all the way down. Then she lay down and wriggled out of her sweat pants and panties. Jason gave her pussy a hungry look.

  Carla kicked her pants away and clambered across the car to sit across Jason's lap. She didn't care they were in a public area or that there were security cameras around. At this time of night no one would be using the parking lot and the security cameras had their blind spots, her parking space being one of them.

  Grasping hold of Jason's cock, Carla groaned as she lowered herself onto him. Jason gritted his teeth and gripped her hips until she was sitting on his lap, his cock buried deep inside her. Jason purred.

  "Taking the initiative now?"

  Carla rolled her hips and rose up.

  "Shut up and fuck me." She ordered.

  Jason grabbed her hips and began to fuck her, bringing her down hard on his cock as he pumped into her. All Carla could do was hold onto his shoulders and ride it out. She could feel her orgasm building quickly and desperately reached for it.

  When it came she screamed, followed by Jason's shout as he shot his load into her, holding onto her for dear life as if she would float away and leave him.

  But Carla had no intention of leaving him.

  *****

  Jason stood in the doorway to the bedroom and watched Carla sleep. She lay huddled under the duvet, a pillow bunched up over an arm as she snored softly. She sounded incredibly cute when she snored.

  The sex in the car had been incredible, albeit cramped. Jason began to feel confined as they had slumped together, both sweaty from their exertions. After some gentle persuasion, Carla had reluctantly climbed off his lap and dressed, Jason zipping up over his cock, which was already starting to harden again.

  They had managed to get up to Carla's apartment and inside before they were on each other again, tearing each other's clothes off. Jason had taken Carla against her door first before putting her down and bending her over her couch, fucking her from behind as Carla screamed out his name. Then they had gone into the bathroom to shower and Carla had gone down on him, making Jason come down her throat as she licked him up greedily.

  It was only then that they staggered to Carla's bed and fell asleep, Jason hold
ing Carla close. Now it was nearly dawn and Jason wasn't in the least bit sleepy. But he didn't want to wake Carla, who was clearly more exhausted than he was. He could wait until she woke.

  Jason pulled on his jeans, leaving his boxers on the floor, and padded into the kitchen. He found a can of soda and opened it, sipping it as he sat at the counter.

  Things had progressed between him and Carla. He knew it. There was no way Jason was letting Carla leave after what they had been through.

  He had fallen hard for Carla. He couldn't think of anyone he wanted to spend his life with more than the woman asleep in her bed.

  Jason made a mental note to tell Danielle to start canvasing jewelers for the best engagement rings. It was early, he knew, but his mother was right; his father had seen sense not to let go of something good and he was going to do the same. He wasn't going to let go of Carla.

  Jason heard the sound a moment before the front door exploded. He hurried into the lounge in time to see a man dressed in black go into the bedroom. A moment later there was the sound of a gunshot.

  Jason's blood ran cold.

  "Carla!"

  He ran towards the bedroom. Then something hit him on the back of the head. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

  *****

  "FBI!"

  Carla heard the shout from the bathroom. She didn't come out to show them she was okay. She stayed sitting on the closed toilet seat cleaning her wound.

  The bastard who had shot her wasn't actually a good shot after all. He had pretty much missed, for a start. All Carla had was a graze. But it stung like hell.

  And now the bastards had Jason. They weren't going to hurt a hair on his head if she had anything to do with it. It may have been less than two weeks but she knew a good thing when she saw one. No way was she letting Jason go now.

  She wasn't going to let anyone else take him away, either.

  The door to the bathroom banged open and Luke came in. His eyes widened when he saw Carla's shoulder.

  "Jesus, Carla!"

  Carla knew she looked a sight. At least she had had the foresight to put a tank top and a pair of shorts on before the FBI arrived. It had hurt her shoulder but she wasn't sitting around naked for them.