Chapter 3
ZANE
Two hours later and we’re up in the air. The detective called and told us Meagan had been arrested, but he had no idea what kind of bail would be set for her.
“Maybe you should let your staff at the office know she might be a problem when she’s released,” Elizabeth tells me as I gaze out the window at the clouds below us.
Pulling out my phone, I nearly drop it as it rings. “I have no idea who this is,” I say as I answer it. “Zane White here.”
“Zane, I’m in jail. I need your help.” It’s Meagan and I cannot believe she’s calling me. They must not have told her who was behind this. Or left me out of it, anyway.
I put her on speaker so Elizabeth can hear her too as I ask, “Jail?”
“Yes, jail. That little tramp has told the police a ton of lies about me. She’s not the good woman you thought she was. She told them I was blackmailing her. Can you believe that?”
I want to laugh as this woman is truly nuts but I don’t. “I can’t believe that. And I can’t help you get out of jail either.”
“I’m sure one of my fellow judges will set a bail that’s not terribly high. But I don’t have much money. I need your help. I don’t want anyone else to know about this embarrassing matter. Can’t you find some time in that busy schedule of yours to help me out?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I say so she thinks I’ll help her and won’t go trying to find someone else to do it. She knows quite a few people with enough money to bail her out. “And what did Elizabeth say you were blackmailing her with?”
“Oh, it’s unimportant. But it’s her word against mine. I have no worries about that,” she says and I can see the detective gave her very little information about what all they have on her. “I hate the police are going through my things but I have nothing to hide. So can I call you when I know what my bail is?”
“Yes,” I say and can’t believe how stupid this woman is. “I’ll be expecting your call.”
“Thank you. Bye.”
Looking at Elizabeth we both break into laughter. “She’s as nutty as they come!” Elizabeth says. “How in the hell can she think they won’t find anything? Her closet at home is full of guns which I have a feeling are all unregistered.”
“Both of her computers have the files with the evidence on them and she sounds more than confident that her bail will be low and she will be free soon. Wow, she’s a looney bird,” I say then laugh.
But then I think about what Elizabeth said about Meagan doing something to retaliate. She’ll be told more soon and then she’ll be furious. Elizabeth seems to be thinking the same thing. “You should shut your office down and make sure Lois is on a vacation herself. I think Meagan might go after whoever she thinks she can, to hurt you.”
I start texting Lane to get the office closed up. “I wonder how long I should keep the office closed.”
“Maybe put them on alert until we find out how much the bail is. She may not be able to get out,” Elizabeth says and I agree.
“I’ll do that and have them prepared to close up shop for maybe a couple of weeks. With her connections in the gun and drug world, I put nothing past the woman. She could take a bomb to my office or home.”
“Wow,” Elizabeth says. “I suppose she might just go that far. You should probably tell that to the detective.”
With a swipe of my finger, I’m calling him to see what other measures I need to take. “Lang here.”
“Detective Lang, it’s Zane White. I wanted to let you know Meagan Saunders called me to ask for help with the bail money. She has no idea of my involvement in this.”
“No, we didn’t tell her much. We just told her she’d been accused of extortion and she was being arrested for that. When we tried to question her she used the fifth amendment and said her lawyer would be talking to us on her behalf. She’s no fool when it comes to legal matters. I’m sure you were aware of that.”
“Acutely,” I say. “I also wanted to tell you I’m afraid of her retaliating against me once she has been told I’m a part of this. My staff may be in danger if she does manage to get bailed out.”
“I can make sure the judge who comes to magistrate her, is told everything and shown plenty of the evidence against her. I’ll be here and I’m waiting to see who comes in. I’m afraid it might be one of her cronies and if that’s the case, I may not be able to sway their opinion much.”
My heart sinks with the knowledge the woman does have many connections in the New York judicial system. “What if she gets off these charges, Detective?”
“There’s always that chance. We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” he says. “Oh, I see Judge Cantrell coming in now. I’ll call you back.”
Looking at Elizabeth as I end the call, I find myself feeling a little shell shocked. “Judge Cantrell is going to magistrate her. They were in law school together.”
“That’s not good, is it?” she asks me with wide eyes.
I shake my head. “I don’t think it’s good at all.”
Elizabeth lets out a sigh and throws her head back on the leather headrest. “Zane, what the fuck are we going to do if she gets out?”
“I think the chances are she will get out on bail anyway. My question is what do we do if she gets out of the charges altogether?”
“Can that even happen?” she asks me with surprise. “We have a lot of shit on her.”
“She does know everyone who is anyone in the legal system.”
“I feel like we have a tiger by the tail here,” Elizabeth says then gets up and goes to the bar. “I need something to ease this tension I suddenly have.”
“Make me one too. I think Meagan Saunders won’t be an easy fix at all. And here we both were feeling guilty about putting her in prison. We may have to put her in the grave to end her meddling in our private lives.”
She hands me a stiff drink and I toss it down my throat. I don’t know if I have it in me to kill anyone but she’s pushing me into a corner. If the law can’t stop her then I’ll have to.
I see Elizabeth’s wheels spinning right along with mine. She pulls the drink away from her lips. “Zane, if anything has to be done, we do it together. I don’t want the weight of something that sinister to fall on only one of our shoulders.”
I nod but have no intention of Elizabeth getting her hands dirty with the deranged woman at all.
Chapter 4
ELIZABETH
A stop-over in Los Angeles has us spending the night at Hotel Sofitel in Beverly Hills. The view out of our room is breathtaking. “My Lord, this is gorgeous.” I turn to find Zane coming back into the room. He’d stepped into the bathroom and I’m not loving his expression.
“Her bail was set very high which is a great thing. Her lawyer called me to ask for some of the money, if it’s needed. He’s unaware of my role in her arrest.”
“Why the odd look then?”
“He told me she’s sure to get out of the charges. He said her fucking rights were never read to her,” he licks his lips which are pale. “Why were her fucking rights never read to her?”
“I knew this was too big for the damn police to handle. I knew it!” I scream as I pound my fist on the table.
His phone rings and he looks at it. “Lang.” He swipes the screen then says through clenched teeth. “Who the fuck was in charge of reading that bitch her rights, Lang?”
“A rookie. I know, Zane. Look, we still have a chance to get her to blackmail you. She was just about to do that, right?”
“What about all the evidence you have now? Can it still be used? I mean, she’s made up those documents. Can we still use what we’ve found?”
“We can. So don’t worry about that. I want you to push her buttons. Come back with Elizabeth on your arm. Meagan has no idea we have that evidence. As soon as her lawyer came to talk to me about the missing Miranda rights, I made sure he didn’t see anything I had. Look, we can still use what we have. We have the guns too. I
don’t want to go to court with missing rights read with the amount of people she rubs elbows with on a regular basis. All we need to do is get her mad enough to blackmail you and get that on video and we’ll have her. I’ll read her the rights, myself.”
“Shit!” Zane hisses. “Fuck! I feel like Elizabeth’s life is in danger. I don’t want to use her to make Meagan mad.”
I reach out and take his arm. “I’ll be fine. We have to do this.”
The way he looks at me is making me feel terrible for him. He’s struggling with an internal conflict and I have to get through to him. “We’ll head back tomorrow then.”
He ends the call and pulls me into his arms. “If anything happens to you, I will kill her with my bare hands. I swear that to you.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me. You and I are getting guns.”
“There’s no way we can get them legally. There’s a waiting period,” he says.
“Not on shotguns, there’s not,” I say and find him smiling.
“Can you see us walking through the lobby of The Plaza Hotel carrying shotguns, Elizabeth. I think that would stir up a pot so quickly our heads would spin.”
“Use your imagination, Zane. I’m not talking about walking in like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. I’m talking about taking them in, inconspicuously. And we can make sure you have your meeting with her in your penthouse where I’ll be hiding. Only she’ll think I’m somewhere else when you talk to her.”
“You seem eerily prepared, baby. I don’t know about this. And what if we do all this and she gets off anyway?” he asks me as he starts moving me backward toward the bed.
“We have to try. If she gets off, at least everyone will know what she was accused of and if she was fool enough to attempt to hurt you again, she’d definitely get caught.” I find the bed behind my legs, stopping us.
“You sound right,” he says. “And this running shit isn’t a thing I’ve ever done before. I think your idea is a good one.”
“A great one. We’ll level the playing field with her. She has guns and threats, we’ll have guns and threats too. No more hiding. We can be bad-asses.”
“You think you can be a bad-ass, baby?” he asks then laughs as he pushes me back onto the bed.
I fall back, laughing all the way. “I know I can. She better get ready to meet her match. She has no idea how much I love you.”
He falls on top of me, making the air shoot out of my lungs in a loud puff. “Or how much I love you. Now I’m going to rip your clothes off and ravage your body like you’ve never been ravaged in Los Angeles before.”
“I’ve never been here so any ravaging will be a first for me. Here anyway,” I say and pull him in for a long kiss as he makes waves with his body and mine moves along with him.
There’s a certain amount of freedom felt when one decides to combat the villain instead of hiding from them. And she’s about to be madder than she’s ever been, I’d guess.
Not only am I going to be right there on the man’s arm she wants but she’s going to know I turned her in. I can’t wait to see her face when she sees us together. I’ll have to remember to take a picture of that.
When his phone rings, he has to fight for me to let him go. “I need to see if it’s her.”
“You damn well know it is,” I say as he rolls off me and grabs his phone off the side table.
He nods and answers. “Meagan?” Acting as if he has no idea she’s free. He’s quite the actor!
“Hi, I’m out. That stupid bitch didn’t get what she wanted. Prepare to see her eat shit, Zane.”
He looks at me as I run my finger across my throat. He smiles then says, “Look, about her. Just leave it alone, okay. As a personal favor to me. You know how I care about her.”
“Has the little slut tried to contact you since she knew I was in jail?” she asks and I hear her drinking something as the ice clinks in the background.
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I’ll be meeting with her to talk in just a little while,” he says.
The fury in her voice is so great it makes me shiver with how much I enjoy pissing her off. “She contacted you?”
“Yes,” he says and bites his lip.
“She will fucking pay. And if you think I’ll calmly sit by and watch her take you away from me, you’re sadly mistaken, Zane.”
“I’m not yours, Meagan. It’d be great if you could recall that. I’ve never been yours. She and I have something. I don’t know why she said you blackmailed her but I’m going to find out.”
“Not if I get to her first. You see, I know where she is,” she says, thinking she’s so damn smart.
I checked out of that room before we left. I hope no one else is in there when she goes pounding on that door, screaming like the lunatic she is!
“Meagan, you better leave her alone,” he warns her but the line goes dead.
“Guess she’s not listening to you,” I say then pull my dress off over my head and he pounces on me.
Chapter 5
ZANE
There’s a certain freedom in fighting an enemy head-on. My blood is heated with passion as I strip off what remains on Elizabeth’s body. It’s hot and shimmering with a light sheen of sweat. Her excitement cannot be denied either.
Her hands are shaking as she runs them over my biceps. I watch her bottom lip get pulled between her teeth. A growling sound is barely audible but it’s there and I can see she’s feeling just about as beastly as I am.
With one tug, the panties are history. Pushing her to lie back with one hand, I lick my lips as the promise of a taste of her already has my mouth tingling. Her golden hair fans out on the bed as I take her knees and push them apart.
She gazes at me with sparkling green eyes. My gaze moves away from her eyes, down the length of her long neck over her breasts that are heaving with deep breaths. Her stomach is tense and tight then my eyes settle on the prize.
Her mound is quivering with anticipation. Ridding myself of my own clothes, I settle on my knees on the carpeted floor and take her ass into my hands, pulling her to me and up so I can take her all in.
The moment my lips touch her sweet pearl, she arches up higher with a loud hiss, “Yes!”
I have no doubts she loves my intimate kisses. Her hands run through my hair, her legs wrap around me, and I take her to a new place.
Taps of my tongue send her into a cursing frenzy as she’s teased and tantalized. Using one finger, I test the heat I’m creating inside of her and find myself very pleased.
A few pumps I make with my finger then wiggle it, sending her into a deep moan. The sounds she makes spur me on to bring more pleasure to her. Inserting one more finger, I lick along her wet folds, making them even wetter.
Her walls are beginning to quiver and her hands are pulling at my hair as she makes a shrieking sound and I feel the wetness cover my fingers. I hurry to move my body up hers and thrust my aching cock into her quivering tunnel.
The pulsing of her insides makes my cock grow more and I begin my thrusts to bring her, even more, pleasure and a bit for myself as well. Her breasts move beneath me, leaving heated trails over my chest. Her breath is warm on my neck as she kisses me there.
Taking a handful of her silky hair, I pull it back and take her mouth. Our tongues go ravenous and spiral around together at a lustful pace. The slapping sound of our wet flesh fills the hotel room and my ears. Harsh breathing and moans accompany the sound, making me hotter as I realize that’s the sound of us.
Us, she and I. We will defeat that bitch together. I have a feeling, as long as I have Elizabeth at my side, anything can be conquered.
Her heels dig into my ass as she pulls her body up to mine, making me go in deeper and pressing my body to hers. I feel her clit rubbing above my cock and it’s pulsing in little beats.
She grinds her body up to mine as our mouths part and I move mine to her neck. Tender bites followed by hard kisses make her shiver. Then her breathing grows ragged as she moans, “Oh, God!”
I feel it happening and pound harder as she comes undone. Her nails cut into the flesh on my back as she screams. If anyone heard us right now, they’d think I was killing her instead of bringing her intense pleasure.
Unable to wait any longer, I spill myself into her and let myself experience the pleasure too. My groan is deep and almost tattered sounding. Gravel fills my voice as I whisper, “You are mine.”
“I am yours,” she agrees. “Forever.”
Joining forces with her has me feeling a partnership I’ve never felt with anyone before. She’s becoming the other half of me. It’s getting harder and harder to see where I end and she begins.
Our bodies are working the others to ring out every ounce of ecstasy we can get. I kiss her neck with soft kisses as our bodies finally stop pulsing and pulling at the others for more.
“I love you, Elizabeth.”
She pulls my face up and holds it between her hands as she looks into my eyes. “I love you and no one will ever get in the way of that again. Not ever.”
I nod in agreement. “Not ever.”
Her sweet lips press to mine then she pushes my face back again. “We will stop her. Together, we will make that happen. No more running and hiding. We are standing and fighting.”
“We are fighting,” I say then roll over and pull her to lie on my chest as I run my hand through her hair. “And one day soon this will all be behind us and we can start our journey together.”
Pulling her head up off my chest, she looks at me. “I think we already have, Zane.”
“I mean really together. The ring, the name, the whole enchilada,” I say then kiss her lips.
A little moan escapes me with the taste. A little of her in both ways accompanied by a little of me. It’s sensational!
“Some men make actual proposals, Zane,” she says with a giggle.
“I’m quite obviously not some men. I think you know that by now.”
The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance Page 23