Never and Always

by Khardine Gray

  Nick, of course, backed off because Glenn was his best friend, and he would never do anything to piss him off like that. They’d been through much as friends, and great as the temptation was, it would be wrong to cross him that way.

  Nick watched Mia cry, bringing her hands up to her cheeks. “My business is gone and he stole our inheritance.”

  “What the fuck do you mean?” Glenn roared.

  “He stole it,” she cried, nodding. Strands of her golden hair broke free from her pony tail and she brushed it behind her ear. “Everything is gone.”

  “How did that happen, Mia?” Glenn balked.

  Nick looked at him. He always hated when Glenn spoke to her like that.

  Glenn’s overpowering, big-brother senses made him go over the top sometimes. Completely over, and it was unnerving to watch. Nick knew he was just trying to look out for her, but sometimes it was too much and he would come across as intimidating, obnoxious even, and like he was trying to discipline a child.

  Mia hadn’t been a child in years; she was thirty now and shouldn’t have to be treated like that, regardless of what had happened.

  “Mia, God damn it, answer me! I’m so sick of you and your shit!” Glenn was shouting now and looked like he was going to lose his temper and hit something.

  “Hey man, cool it!” Nick cut in. He couldn’t help it. He had to say something because Mia was crying so much she was shaking.

  The interjection made them both turn to look at him.

  Glenn was seething, annoyed that he was interrupted. Nick could deal with that just fine. He was used to Glenn and his ever-changing moods.

  But Mia…

  Despite her tears, when she looked at him with those sea green eyes it felt like she was staring straight into his soul. He watched realization fill them and her eyes sparkled as she gazed at him. Then, damn him, he felt that twinge of attraction for her he knew he shouldn’t.

  “Nick?” She breathed in a soft voice. “When did you—”

  “This is not the time for reunions,” Glenn interjected abruptly, staring daggers at him.

  Nick watched him take hold of Mia’s arm and pull her away towards the study. She looked back at Nick, her eyes still taking him in and assessing, as if she was trying to work out if he was really there.

  Nick stared after her, too, knowing Glenn wanted her away from him so he could speak to her in private without the interruption.

  Wow, what a start to the day.

  Somehow he knew he wasn’t going to be taking that run outside or going to sort anything out at the office, because the one person that could change his plans had suddenly walked back into his life.

  He just wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

  Chapter 2

  It was stupid.

  Oh so stupid, and on the scale of things that were going on right now, Nick should be the last thing on her mind.

  God, what was wrong with her? It had been years since she last saw him, but she just slipped right back into her old ways where her brain would turn to mush just from the sight of him and she would forget everything that was going on, no matter how important it was. Like now.

  She was going through something incredibly serious, something that didn’t just affect her, but Glenn too, but when she saw Nick all of that faded away, out of her mind and into the back of beyond.

  To her knowledge Nick was still in the Marines. Glenn had made her think that. She never thought she’d see him here. It never even entered her mind.

  They’d lost contact over the years despite her attempts. She understood that sometimes he wouldn’t have gotten her letters and packages until maybe weeks or months after they were sent, depending on where he was stationed, but his responses, when he did eventually reply, were always so brief. And they lacked feeling.

  So she made herself stop, realizing that if she continued with her stupid Nick obsession it would make her crazy.

  As hard as it was, she came to accept long ago that the man didn’t want her. And it was fine. It really was, and she forced herself to get over the foolish childhood crush she’d had on her older brother’s best friend.

  But sometimes, like just now, she was thrown off guard, displaced in time, and she couldn’t help herself.

  Nick was gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that made you want to stare forever. Him with that spiky, dark brown hair that was always neatly cut, and those bright blue eyes that reminded her of the exotic Caribbean Sea. He had the kind of body you’d find on men from a wild sexual fantasy, with muscles that most men would kill for. And his tattoos…

  Mia was in the biggest shit she could be in in her life, but there she was mentally drooling.

  Until Glenn brought her back to reality and dragged her away from Nick, reminding her that she was in trouble.

  Every step she took with Glenn made her feel weaker, and made her regret her decision to come home. She always ran to him when she was in trouble, it didn’t matter what it was, so she’d foolishly believed she could do the same thing in this situation. After the hell she’d been through all she wanted was for him to take her into his arms and offer the comfort she craved since this nightmare took off, but Glenn had practically glossed over the fact that Mia had lost her business.

  Everything she’d worked so hard for over the last four years was gone. Just like that.

  When he led her into the study, she knew it was to really rip into her without Nick to protect her. Nick had always intervened when they were younger, even when she was in the wrong.

  The thing about today was, on the scale of all the things she’d messed up, this was the worst. Glenn was furious. He was so mad that his whole face was bright red and his eyes were blazing. She couldn’t say that she could blame him, because she’d just lost two million dollars from the inheritance their grandparents left them, and she knew more was undoubtedly going to slip away from them.

  She sat down in the chair set before the large mahogany desk and tried to compose herself. This wasn’t something she could run off and cry over, she had to deal with it. They had to deal with it.

  “What happened, Mia?” He rested his behind on the table and stared down at her.

  “Alan robbed me.” That was the short version.

  Alan was her accountant. She’d trusted him to manage her business and deal with her accounts, but he cleaned her out. Everything was gone; not even as much as a dollar was in her account.

  When she realized everything was well and truly gone and there was nothing she could do, she decided to leave Florida and head back home to Chicago.

  She had to use the housekeeping money she kept in a little piggy bank to get home. Fortunately, it was just enough for a bus ticket. The excruciatingly long journey took a day and a half and only served to devastate her more.

  The last few spare dollars she had were used for a taxi, leaving her with five cents in her purse. That’s it. That was all she had to her name.

  That fucking Alan. The lying son of a bitch had tricked her to another level. He made her think he had her best interests at heart and all that time—four years—he’d been stealing. Slowly, but surely.

  At first it was barely noticeable. He said it was necessary expenses and that she was in good hands.

  Mia had set up a day spa in Florida.

  Because she didn’t want to mess things up, she sought out who she thought were the best people. Her marketing team were amazing, the staff at the spa were fantastic, the developers, business managers, everyone was wonderful, and she thought Alan was too.

  He was so great she thought the world of him, and trusted him. She also very stupidly fell prey to his enticements and got involved with him. That was so stupid of her. So very stupid, because not only had he robbed her, but he made her feel used, too. Like it wasn’t enough for him to take her money, he took her body too.

  “Last week all the accounts were cleaned out. Everything from my business and the money from our inheritance.”

  “Mia, th
at money was in a secured account. How did he get into it?” Glenn asked, nostrils flared. He knew the answer even before she gave it.

  “He managed to get the password.” There was no point pussyfooting around it. She had to explain what had happened and it was best she just get it over and done with. Out of her system. “I wrote it down and kept it in the safe in my bedroom.”

  She didn’t think it was possible for Glenn’s face to turn any redder than it was, but it did. His face was so red it made his blond hair look stark against his skin.

  “Mia, how the fuck could you be so stupid? You don’t write down passwords like that! That’s why you’re supposed to think of something memorable. We had two million dollars, Mia.”

  More tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry, fuck. What do you think sorry can do right now? That was our inheritance. Our grandparents left that for us.”

  “I trusted him.”

  “Trusted him enough to let him into your bedroom?” Glenn’s eyes bored into her.

  The look he gave her told her exactly what he was thinking and she couldn’t even attempt to make it look like Alan had happened upon finding out that she had the passwords to the inheritance account in the safe and what the password was to open it.

  She was the one that told him. Her.

  God. It was like a curse. She trusted the guy so much that she told him everything. Two weeks ago he’d been talking about expanding the business and her future plans. That was when she told him that she had a million dollars she could work with to make it all happen. She didn’t think anything of it when he started questioning her about the money, and she told him how good she’d been to save the money and keep it for the exact moment she needed it. Her grandparents had left that money two years ago. It was released to them after her grandfather died.

  She told Alan all of that and mentioned that she’d been so good with taking care not to spend anything that she kept all the details in her bedroom safe. She’d even joked about it being out of her reach so she couldn’t go crazy buying shoes and handbags.

  If she could kick her own self she would.

  Alan charmed his way into her home, into her bed, and into that safe. God, she knew she’d been a complete fool. She had the worst experiences with men, the worst relationship history, but this totally stole the show.

  Glenn was looking at her like he was thinking this was one of those times when she’d gotten involved with some guy who promised to love her and offered her the world only to take her for a fool. Only part of that was true. She knew Alan didn’t love her. He didn’t promise her anything other than to take care of her accounts and business, but he did take her for a fool. Sadly, she played right into his trap.

  And with how angry Glenn looked she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the rest. The safe didn’t just contain the password to the account that held their inheritance, it also had the password to the storage facility that kept the art collection their grandmother had left them.

  Her grandmother collected art from every era. They had a collection of fifty masterpieces from great artists like Van Gogh and Monet.

  Mia came from a family who were all incredibly wealthy but were the kind of people who used their success to help others or the community in some way. All of them were like it, her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Being given those paintings was a gift indeed, but not one to be sold off for the fortune they were worth. That was why she and Glenn decided to place them in a storage facility in Rochester until they had time to really sit down and decide what they were going to do with them. The facility was called Hamptons.

  Alan had taken the passwords that would allow him entrance to the facility and the vault they were being kept in. She’d never spoken about the paintings but the information she’d left in the safe gave a full run down of what they had. It was all the facility documents and everyone knew that you didn’t just keep any old thing in Hamptons. It was for the wealthy and well to do, designed to offer protection and peace of mind for those who wanted to store their priceless artifacts. She’d heard of people storing things like gold, ancient treasure and relics, paintings and art worth more than theirs, and bizarre things you could only dream up, like scrolls.

  In the safe she had an insurance certificate with an itemized list of their paintings and the value of each, the total of which was estimated around two billion dollars.

  She and Glenn had talked about opening a small gallery to showcase them because they were the kind of art you’d share with the public, people who could appreciate the work. They both thought that was what their grandmother would have wanted, and what she intended when she gave the collection to them.

  “I didn’t think he would do this to me.” What else could she say?

  Glenn grabbed the ceramic pen holder from off his desk and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and smashed, scattering shards across the dark blue carpet.

  “I can’t believe you lost our inheritance to some shit you’ve been fucking around with!” he yelled.

  “Glenn, Jesus, calm the hell down.” Nick’s voice pierced through the tension in the room and the anguish she felt.

  She looked at him through the tears that were once again pouring. He quickly glanced at her, offering a gentle smile of sympathy.

  Glenn glowered at him when he saw that, and Mia felt that if it were possible he would have incinerated Nick with his stare.

  “Nick, stay out of this, man. Now’s not the time to play mediator,” Glenn said, his voice filled with distress.

  “Bro, it looks like the perfect time to play mediator. You’re furious and I don’t want you to do something stupid and end up smashing up the place. Remember how much you hate cleaning.” Nick sounded cool and calm. “I know you’re angry but come on, this is Mia. You look like you could kill her.”

  “I could, for her damn stupidity,” Glenn retorted, narrowing his eyes at him with his nostrils flared.

  “Okay, but haven’t we all been a little silly at one point or another?” Nick asked in that lighthearted jovial manner she always liked about him.

  “This is so fucking not the same thing.” Glenn shook his head. “Nick, she screwed around with her accountant and now the bastard’s stolen two million dollars and taken her business.”

  Nick looked at her again, his expression plain and unreadable. “When did this all happen?” he asked her.

  She pulled in a deep breath and dabbed her eyes, wiping away the tears so she could see him properly. “It’s been a week.”

  “A week!” Glenn yelled. “Mia, this happened a week ago and you waited until now to tell me? Why didn’t you call?”

  Things were going from bad to worse. “I was working with the police to try and get the money back.”

  The situation only actually reared its ugly head five days ago. The first sign of the ugliness was going into work to find out that none of the staff had been paid. Neither had the trade accounts, and her suppliers were calling for answers. Like most companies, she’d set up all payments to come out on the last working day of the month. With it being the first week in September, some of her staff who had children wanted to squeeze in another trip, for some it would be their only break, to utilize what was left of the summer. The school term started back the following week. Mia couldn’t have felt worse when at least three of her therapists had to cancel their plans. Then the cherry on top of the nightmare was getting that gut-wrenching feeling to check her safe after she discovered the business accounts had been cleaned out. When she did she discovered it was empty.

  Up until that point she’d been calling Alan to no avail. Everything in her told her it was him, but she didn’t believe until she saw the empty safe.

  It was only then that she knew it could have only been him. He was the last person in her house, the last person besides her in her bedroom. The only other person who could have known that the safe was a safe, because she’d covered the door with a simple painti
ng of a golden retriever. Only someone who’d seen her go inside it would have known it was a safe.

  “You should have called me,” Glenn blurted, cutting into her thoughts. “Why didn’t you call me, message me or something?”

  “I thought it was best to try and fix it.”

  “Mia—”

  “Glenn, come on, shouting isn’t going to solve anything,” Nick cut in, much to Glenn’s fury. “Mia, what did the police say?”

  “Nothing, they just took details from me and said they’d investigate and let me know when they had any updates. When I realized how long this could all take I decided to come here.”

  Glenn laughed a dark, cynical laugh that made her feel sick. “I just can’t believe this. I really can’t. If you had better judgement none of this would have happened. If you didn’t screw every guy who shows you attention this wouldn’t happen. Fuck!” Glenn snarled and stormed out of the room, leaving her with Nick.

  He slammed the door so hard the books fell off the top of the shelf and came down crashing to the floor.

  Mia gazed out the window feeling completely foolish. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Nick; embarrassment was killing her.

  Embarrassment over the situation and from what Glenn said. He made her sound like some kind of whore. She supposed she deserved that, after all she just lost their two million dollars and was surely about to lose the art collection, too.

  Glenn was right, she was stupid. Stupid for everything. Stupid for disclosing what she had. Stupid for being so trusting.

  It was all complete shit. And she didn’t just do herself in by trusting Alan. She hurt Glenn, too. She’d gotten his money stolen.

  A warm hand rested on her shoulder, bringing her mind back out of thought and remorse.

  Nick.

  She wanted to enjoy the warmth he gave and the comfort she felt just from his simple touch, but she couldn’t even bring herself to meet his gaze. He moved closer and kneeled down before her.