“You mean to say you grew up with Alex Fisher?”
I huffed. “Yes, that’s what I said. I didn’t know he was James, though. I hadn’t seen him since we were fifteen!”
The FBI agent squinted at me, as though he was trying to figure out if I was handicapped, or just plain stupid. “You were friends with this guy until you were fifteen, then didn’t see him at all, and now suddenly he’s back under a new name, you’ve been dating him, but you didn’t know it was him?”
“Okay, when you put it like that, then it sounds really stupid. He changed so much though, and it had been so long. I mean, he was in the Marines! I’m just in shock.”
Shock was a mild word for it. My mind had been blown apart by the revelation, and it still hadn’t pieced itself back together again. The questioning by federal agents didn’t help my composure.
The agent gave me a look. “Alex Fisher has never been in the Marines.”
My jaw dropped—I tried to shut it, and I knew it looked ridiculous, but it didn’t respond to my commands to close. “He wasn’t?”
“It’s a favorite fiction of his when he’s establishing his character. It gives him external authority to appeal to in order to win someone’s trust.”
I had nothing to say to that. Reality seemed so fluid.
How do I even know this man is an FBI agent?
“Let’s start at the beginning, then. When did you first meet Alex Fisher as an adult?”
It still sounded weird, calling James by Alex’s name. They were such distinct people in my mind, and I couldn’t connect the dots.
Couldn’t? Or don’t want to?
If James really was Alex, then I’d have to face what that meant. He’d lied this entire time, used me to get access to ARCANE, and probably would have disappeared without a trace after pulling off… whatever it was he was doing.
“My car broke down a few weeks ago, and James—sorry, Alex—helped me start it again. He asked me out on a date after.”
The agent wrote a note on his pad of paper. “That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
I hadn’t had time to think about it, yet. “You don’t think he set that up, do you?”
Even as I spoke, I knew the truth. Reality set in.
“That’s a possible scenario. It would fit his profile.”
That bastard orchestrated everything. Every step along the way, I was the ignorant pawn helping him get what he wanted. Just a tool to use.
The agent made me walk though every interaction James and I had. Every date, every phone call. Even more embarrassingly, every text in my phone between us. James and I had clicked. Really clicked. And we’d sexted so much that by the time we’d finished scrolling through the messages, my face flushed with an intense heat, and the agent had to adjust his seat a few times.
“Have you ever let Mr. Fisher into the office?”
I thought back to the time I worked late, and he’d surprised me. “Yes, but we were together the whole time. It’s not like he could have done anything that night.”
“There wasn’t a moment that you went to the bathroom, or left him alone for a minute? Any way for him to access the company’s network?”
I squirmed in my seat as I recalled the way James had tied me down, blindfolded me, and teased me mercilessly. I’d never left him alone, though.
“No, he couldn’t have. We… well, we were getting busy in my office, actually.”
I could still remember how overwhelming it had been to lie there, tied down and blindfolded, music throbbing in my ears as the bullet vibe had worked its magic between my legs and I waited desperately for James’ touch. The long minutes before he finally ran his hands along my body.
Minutes…
“Wait. That son of a bitch. He couldn’t have…”
The agent cocked his head.
“He may have had a chance. I don’t want to say any more—it’s embarrassing. But yeah, he could have accessed the systems that night.”
I’m such an idiot.
I’d thought James was finally the guy who wouldn’t turn out to be a manipulative asshole. To be used so utterly and thoroughly made me feel like a wrinkled rag, wrung out and filthy. Even the first time we’d had sex was simply a way for him to further his agenda.
“And today, it looks as though Alex entered the office using your key card, is that right?”
I sighed. “That sounds right. I couldn’t find it when I got to the building today. If Nick hadn’t shown up, I would’ve had to turn around and go home.”
It would have been nice to get to miss all this. Listening to the neighbor’s loud music would have been a much better way to spend the day.
The agent probed for another half an hour, but when I repeated stories for the third time, he finally halted the proceedings.
“It looks like you’ve had the misfortune to being on the wrong side of Alex Fisher. He’s extremely good at what he does, and you shouldn’t feel embarrassed about the way he used you. I don’t see a reason to hold you unless something else comes up in our sweep, and I’d like to thank you for your time and cooperation, especially considering the content of our discussions.” His eyes flicked to my phone momentarily, as though an involuntarily reflex.
“That’s a relief.” I’d inadvertently helped James so much that they might have taken me for an accomplice. “Is that everything you need from me?”
I needed to lie down.
“We will likely be in contact as we continue our investigations, so we would appreciate it if you didn’t leave the city until further notice. Other than that, you are free to go.”
Finally, the ordeal was over. There was no more reason to stick around—Nick was still being interviewed in his office, and I didn’t want to face him anyway. Looking down the barrel of his gun was a sight I would never forget—I’d never been so afraid in my life.
Numbness spread across my brain, and my body operated on autopilot to get me to my car and drive home. Even navigating around an accident scene on the way barely registered. I didn’t want to think at all, because thinking meant confronting the lie my life had been over the past few weeks.
It felt like it should be night time, but the midday sun blazed overhead. The vestiges of the morning’s hangover still pulsed at my temples, awakened by the fierce light. Adrenaline from the encounter in the office faded away to leave a worn out and used up feeling behind, like I’d run a marathon that morning.
The first order of business upon getting home was to close all the blinds and curtains in the apartment. Darkness fit my mood, and all I wanted was to fall into bed and sleep. If I drifted into oblivion, then I could delay the inevitable internal confrontation with what had happened.
Before drifting off, I plugged my dead phone into the charger beside my bed.
Sleep overtook me in hazy waves, dark dreams stealing across my mind and plunging me into the very encounters I wanted to avoid.
James appeared—or was it Alex?—an odd mixture of the boy he’d been and the man he’d grown to become. Now I knew the connection, it was easier to see. My best friend for the first half of my life stood before me as the lover I craved.
“Why did you do this to me? What did I do to deserve this cruel game?”
Dream me reached out to James, only to have him crumble away, replaced with a dark shadow holding a gun.
“No! Don’t shoot me!”
I sat bolt upright. My heart pounded as I pulled breath into my lungs in great gasps.
Holy shit. It was just a dream. You’re in bed. That’s it.
I grabbed my phone to check the time—late afternoon. I’d only been asleep for an hour.
There were a few messages on different apps, including a work email from Nick.
Maybe it’s something about the FBI investigation.
I opened it, even though I didn’t want to have to confront what had happened just yet, and especially not with Nick.
What the hell is this?
The email wasn’t about
the events that morning, or the investigation. It was just Nick bragging about ARCANE. My eyes widened at the words.
I had the developers code a backdoor so I could access anything I wanted through the encryption. They didn’t want to do it, so I had to threaten them and promise to pay them a massive bonus. Once they finished, I could tell they weren’t happy about it and might have told someone. I couldn’t trust them to keep the secret about the backdoor, so I took them on a team building trip hiking and “lost” them. It was brilliant. You should have seen the look in their eyes when I did it.
Oh, my God.
Nick was a genuine psychopath. Everyone at ARCANE knew that the original developers of the ARCANE algorithms had disappeared before the company got off the ground, but no one had any idea that Nick was responsible.
Why did he send me this? He couldn’t have possibly wanted me to have this information.
I checked the time stamp on the email—ten in the morning.
That’s odd. I got to the office at nine thirty.
With my mind still fogged from sleep, it took a while before it made all the connections.
James! He must have sent me this email when Nick forced him back to the computer. That’s why it’s sent from Nick’s address. It’s a warning.
I stared at the email. Panic rose within me, and I made and discarded a dozen plans in an instant.
The FBI needs to know this.
As I jumped out of bed, still in the clothes I never bothered removing before my nap, a tremendous crash echoed down the hall from the front door. Before I could stop to think, my body led me to the hallway to see what caused the noise.
The front door stood wide open, sunlight streaming in around the silhouette of a person. The darkness of the apartment from closing all the curtains and blinds meant it was impossible to make out the features, but there was only one person it could be.
“You.” Nick’s cold voice rolled down the hall, the single word accusatory. “Everything’s going to shit, and it’s all your fault.”
I took a step backward, toward the kitchen. “Nick, what are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to take revenge. You fucked up my company and my life. Everything was going well until you brought that thief into the mix.”
He stalked down the hallway, forcing me to retreat faster until I was at the far side of the kitchen—there was nowhere else to run.
“Come on, Nick. I didn't know who he was. He played me like he played you.”
Nick was only ten feet away now, and away from the sunlight at the front door I could make out his face. It was expressionless, the face of someone bored with the world, but his eyes… his eyes were wild, maniacal.
“You were supposed to be an easy office lay. Someone to suck my cock every day and bend over the desk when I needed to take my frustrations out on someone. Because of you, my life is ruined.”
His hands flexed as though they wanted to grab and tear at something or someone. His gun wasn’t visible.
Maybe the FBI confiscated it. I spared no hope he didn’t have another one. Then again, the way he looked at me suggested that he might just throttle me to death with his bare hands.
“Nick, don’t do anything to make this situation worse. So you were stolen from, so what? Isn’t that what insurance is for? You’ll make the money back through ARCANE.”
He edged even closer. “I know you saw the email. What he sent you. I can’t let you live with that knowledge.”
I barely dared take my eyes off Nick, but I glanced around, desperately looking for anything to use as a weapon. The kitchen knives were on a counter on the opposite side of the room—the countertop I leaned against was bare.
Nick’s face finally showed signs of life, but it wasn’t encouraging. A lecherous smirk grew on his mouth and he looked at my body. “There’s no reason why I can’t finally sample the goods you’ve been denying me all this time—before I end things.”
22
~ James ~
My breath burned in my lungs.
Agent Clark had confiscated the contents of my pockets, so I had no money to call a cab, no phone to call an Uber. Instead, I’d run to the Mission District and Kat’s neighborhood.
I had to hope she was home.
There was no other choice. The FBI swarmed ARCANE’s offices, I couldn’t trust that Addison hadn’t told them about the condo, and my keys were in the wrong hands. It was even possible the FBI was watching her apartment, but it was a gamble I had to take. Agent Clark hadn’t known who she was, so there was a glimmer of hope that it wouldn’t be under surveillance just yet, but that window rapidly shrank, especially with my escape.
I spent the entire run working out the details of the upcoming conversation. I’d seen the look in Kat’s eyes when she realized who I was. There was no easy way to explain things to her and salvage the fire that had grown between us.
As I approached Kat’s block, I slowed to observe the neighborhood and look for anything out of place. The FBI thought they were so great at blending in, but they always made fundamental mistakes because they approached concealment with the wrong mentality. It was part of the reason they’d come close but never caught me until Addison betrayed me.
I let my breathing settle and heart slow as I scanned the street. Only one object stood out to my finely honed senses, screaming how much it didn’t belong. The cherry red car wasn’t a vehicle the FBI would ever use on a stakeout, so I immediately disregarded it.
Coast clear.
Despite my confidence in the ability to detect law enforcement, I still approached Kat’s residence as though I was watched. Affecting a stride different to my own, I sauntered along the sidewalk, never looking at the house her apartment was in or telegraphing my interest. Once I drew even with the front door, I sneezed and turned my head to the side to look in that direction.
The door gaped open.
I paused, unable to help myself. For three long heartbeats I waited to see if I had lucked out and caught Kat just as she was entering or leaving.
There was no movement, but a woman yelled inside. It was Kat.
I swiveled to look at the red sports car. The license plate said N1CKS.
Idiot! I berated myself for the oversight. The minutes wasted trying to blend in might make the difference between life and death for the woman I cared about most in the world.
Dropping all pretense, I sprinted up the front steps and into the house. Once inside, Kat’s yells grew even louder until suddenly cut off.
The kitchen.
Although every fiber of my being vibrated with the need to fly to her rescue, I wouldn’t be any use to her if I made so much noise on the way that Nick heard me coming and shot me before I could do anything to take him out.
With the best combination of speed and stealth I could manage, I crept to the back of the house and the large kitchen. Two figures sprawled on the floor, struggling against each other. Nick’s larger body was on top, pressing Kat into the ground, his arm across her face while his other hand grappled with her clothes, clawing at them. Kat’s legs and arms kicked and flailed, but she couldn’t do anything against Nick, overwhelmed by superior mass and positioning.
Rage like I’d never felt before filled me at the sight. I couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Get the fuck off her!” I shouted as I crossed the remaining distance in one large swoop.
I grabbed Nick by the neck and pulled sideways as hard as I could. He rolled off Kat, who scrabbled to the side of the kitchen floor.
Nick’s eyes widened when he saw my face. “You. I will kill you.”
He lashed out with his feet and caught me on the side of my knee. The sudden impact was unexpected, and I collapsed sideways under the excruciating pain that exploded in my leg.
The advantage of surprise disappeared, and I was already in worse shape than the man I’d come to rescue Kat from.
She’d moved even further away, her shirt ripped and exposing the bra underneath. “James, l
ook out!”
Nick had gotten to his knees and aimed a fist at my face. I ducked my head just in time to feel his knuckles scrape the top of my head, but the floor took the brunt of the attack. Nick grunted as his fist cracked on the tile.
I’d regained my senses as adrenaline dulled the pain from my knee. Nick’s miss had put his body close enough to grab, and I locked my arms around his torso and torqued him as hard as I could with all my strength.
He tipped over, and I rolled with him until he was on his back and I was on top. Before he could recover, I pulled myself up until I straddled him and punched down, fist connecting with his face.
That was the only blow I landed as Nick bucked and twisted and levered me off him.
We separated, glaring at each other.
“You never should have come after me,” Nick said. “You don’t know what I’m capable of. I won’t just kill you—I’ll destroy your family, your friends, every shred of life you’ve ever lived, everyone you’ve ever loved.”
He caught me looking at Kat.
“You do love her, don’t you?” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll save something very special for her. Once I kill you, I’ll take her with me and fuck her every day. I’ll chain her up in a dark basement and use her for sex until I break her spirit and she forgets she ever had a life before being my slave. She’ll live to service me, and she’ll forget you even existed.”
Nick’s words were fuel on an already raging inferno. If he had any sense at all, he would have stopped long before he did.
“I will end you,” I said. That was all the warning I gave before I launched myself at him.
My rage strengthened me, but it also made me wilder in my attacks, and care less about defending myself. Nick landed more blows, but I barely felt them. I swung with all the strength in my body and then some, and every time I landed a hit I relished the pain that burst through my knuckles, because Nick would feel so much worse.
I fought him back, earning each step through sheer determination as I directed a flurry of blows at Nick. He landed his own, but it made no difference. Blood trailed down his face, and his eye swelled from the repeated strikes.
Bad Boy Boxed Set Page 13