“Because you fucking lied to me! You hid shit from me and now you’re going to pay!”
Fuck fuck fuck fuck
I slip back into the smaller apartment, closing the door behind me as quietly as possible before rushing back to my bedroom. I download the app on my phone for the security system, praying that Meyer didn’t change the passwords for that either. A few minutes later, I’m looking at the cameras throughout the apartment. Unfortunately, I don’t have a clear view of Meyer’s office, but through the slightly open door I can see just the back of a fairly large man. I can’t see enough to know who he is, but what I can see has me immediately dialing Luke’s number.
“We’ve got a problem,” I announce as soon as he answers.
“What’s up?” I don’t know if he can tell by my voice, but he’s all business.
“I’m at Meyer’s—”
“Why? Your assignment was terminated. Did he call you—”
“No, I forgot something when we moved out yesterday and wasn’t expecting him to be here. Listen, he’s in the main apartment with someone having an argument. I logged into the security cameras and I’m fairly certain, the man Meyer is arguing with has a gun.”
“Fuck. Are you sure?” he asks.
“Yes,” even though I only saw a quick glimpse of the black gun, I know that’s what I saw.
“I’m sending Cole over, he’s only a few blocks away. Emily is contacting the police now.”
“Make sure he uses the service entrance.” I pace the small area between the bed and my desk, shaking my head in disbelief at how quickly this changed from a trip to grab a textbook to something much more.
“My contact at the PD report that they’re tied up with some situation in the city, but will try to get over there as soon as possible. Cole is on his way up,” Luke explains.
“Got it.”
“What’s your thought on this?” he asks.
“It doesn’t feel right,” I answer honestly. “I don’t know who’s in there with him, but I’m certain I know what I saw. I can’t just walk out of here and not—”
“Not suggesting you do, Foxx,” Luke snaps. “Just needing to know where your head is and if I need to send someone other than Cole to assist.”
“Sorry, sir.” I stop pacing long enough to sit on the bed. I desperately want to put the phone on speaker so I can see what’s going on in the office, but if I do that I risk Meyer or his guest overhearing my conversation.
“Emily has accessed the system and although she has a limited view, she’s cleaned up an image enough to confirm that the person in Meyer’s office is indeed holding a gun.”
“Hey, man. Was hoping not to have to see you here again, especially.” At some point, Cole slipped into the small apartment without me noticing and is now standing in front of my door.
“You and me both,” I chuckle and quickly brief him on what’s been going on.
“So we’re going in blind,” Cole mumbles after taking everything in.
“Not fully blind, but yeah,” I relay what Emily can see on the cameras which isn’t much. Cole quickly logs into the system on his phone, giving us both a view of hallway.
“How long ago did you get here?” he asks.
“Fifteen minutes ago, give or take,” I glance at the time on his phone.
“We need to get inside,” Cole and Luke both say at the same time.
“Prepare for the worst,” Luke orders. “We don’t have clear eyes on Meyer or his visitor. If this is all a mistake and we end up making a fool of ourselves, then so be it. But it doesn’t feel that way to me.”
“Agreed.”
“Keep your mics and coms on.” Luke ends the call.
Once everything is in place, Cole and I throw together a plan for what we might expect when we barge into Meyer’s office. Of course it’s a half-ass plan because we have no idea exactly what is going on in there. But I know we don’t have much time.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve had some surprise fun,” Cole smirks and starts bouncing on his feet.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Cole,” Luke orders through the com. “Go in, assess the situation and get the fuck out.”
“Yes, sir.” Cole rolls his eyes which of course Luke can’t see.
“How do you want to handle this?” Cole has been with Dark Water Security much longer than I have, so while protecting Meyer was originally my contract, I defer to him on how this should be handled.
“I’ll go in high, you go in low,” he decides without wasting anytime. “We expect and prepare for the worst.”
“Got it.”
Chapter 36
Garrett
“Security!” Cole yells as he throws open Meyer’s office door.
The scene before us is probably every security officer’s worst nightmare. Mr. Meyer is standing behind his desk, the color on his face completely drained as a large man stands in front of his desk holding a gun at him. Cole and I cautiously enter the room, the man’s eyes on us but his gun remains pointed at Mr. Meyer. The guy looks surprised and confused. I can almost see him trying to figure out how he’s going to get out of this alive. Our guns are trained on him, as we stand no more than a hundred feet from him.
“Get out,” he orders.
“No can do,” Cole replies immediately. “You let Meyer go and we’ll be on our way, but as long as you have that gun pointed at him, my boss says we have to be here.”
“Get the FUCK out!” he screams.
I take a moment to look at him, trying to determine if he looks familiar at all, but he doesn’t. In the few short months I worked with Meyer, I knew every employee, even the ones who were recently hired. As part of the onboarding process, I received picture identification and a background check on all new employees. The man in front of me doesn’t match any of those pictures.
“Look we’re not going anywhere, man,” Cole says calmly. “Want to tell us why you’re pointing a gun at Meyer?”
“Because he fucking owes me!” the man screams. “He owes me, so fucking give me what is MINE!”
“What does he owe you?” I look between him and Mr. Meyer trying to get a feel on the situation.
“All of this! This should all fucking be MINE!” he slams his fist down on the mahogany desk.
“It isn’t yours!” Mr. Meyer yells back. “You got out five years ago! I’ve done everything on my own since then! You haven’t done anything since you turned your back on me. You’re the one who didn’t want to put the time in.”
“You should have convinced me! You should have fucking stopped me from walking out! You were all too quick to get rid of me. You knew what was coming and wanted it all for yourself!”
“It was five fucking years ago!” Mr. Meyer snaps. “You made the decision to sell me your part of the business. The lawyer made it clear to you that you wouldn’t be entitled to any future earnings made by the company. You wanted a bigger paycheck and decided to get out before we hit it big.”
“How was I to know?”
It dawns on me then who the man waiving the gun at Mr. Meyer is. When the company first started Mr. Meyer had a partner, but from what I read, Mr. Meyer bought him out a few years ago. My guess is the man in front of us is the former partner.
“Look, this isn’t going to end well,” Cole explains. “The cops are on their way and once they get here, any chance of this ending peacefully goes away. Give us the gun now and talk with Meyer instead of threatening him.”
“You don’t think I fucking tried that?” He waves the gun around this time pointing it at Cole. My hand tightens on the grip of my gun, my finger ready to pull the trigger if he makes one wrong move. My gun is trained on his leg, the shot won’t kill him but it’ll take him down momentarily.
“Put down the gun,” Cole warns. “If you don’t—”
“You’ll what? Shoot me?” He laughs. “Go ahead. I’ve already fucking lost everything!”
“What do mean you lost everything? What about Lucy?” Mr. Meyer asks. “Wh
at about your son…what’s his name?”
“They’re gone…they fucking left me!”
“Tom…”
“Don’t fucking pity me! You’re the reason they fucking left!”
The guy, Tom, I assume, swings the gun back around so it’s pointed back at Mr. Meyer. I’m secretly thankful that Cole is here. Even though I’ve been through countless hours of training with Dark Water Security, I’d rather not be the only one making the decision as to what happens next. Cole glances at me before taking a step closer to Tom while his attention is otherwise on Mr. Meyer. His hand signals tell me what’s coming as we both move into place.
With Cole moving behind Tom, I inch my way closer to the desk. I’m only a few feet away, when Tom suddenly turns to face Cole who is now only a few feet behind him. I don’t know if Mr. Meyer looked at Cole and that’s how Tom knew he was behind him or if Tom just sensed his presence. Either way, I’m now in an even worse situation as Tom holds the gun less than ten feet from Cole’s chest. Cole doesn’t waiver though, he stands steady with his own gun pointed back at Tom.
“Don’t fucking move!” Tom growls.
“Tom, put down the gun,” I order with my gun pointed steadily at him.
“Get fucking back!”
“No can do. You have a choice to make, put the gun down on the desk and step back or—” Cole begins.
“Or what?” When his other hand grasps the gun my next move is already determined.
“Put it down,” I growl one final warning.
I lower my gun from his chest to his leg, and as I see him take aim I pull the trigger. As I knew would happen, he howls in pain and drops the gun, without pulling his trigger. Cole kicks the gun toward me, which I rush to pick up and put the safety back on.
“Police!”
“Dark Water Security,” I announce with my hands up. “I’m going to put my gun on the desk and get my ID out of my pocket.”
“I’m putting my gun down as well,” Cole copies.
It takes only a few minutes to explain what happened before an EMT crew arrives to take care of Tom who continues to scream out in pain. Mr. Meyer has collapsed in his chair, looking utterly devastated as he probably tries to figure out what just happened.
Chapter 37
Hope
“You’re home!” I jump up and rush toward Garrett as soon as the door opens. Even though he called me a couple of hours ago and told me he was fine, I’ve been a nervous wreck. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know he had to shoot the intruder at Mr. Meyer’s office and then go meet with Luke at Dark Water Security. I hadn’t heard from him since.
“I told you I was fine.” He chuckles against my neck but his grip doesn’t loosen around me for several long minutes.
“Are you hungry? We ordered food and put some aside for you-”
“No, Emily had dinner waiting at the office when Cole and I got there.”
“What happened?” I grab him a beer as he plops down on the couch.
“Emily did some digging, but this Tom guy and Mr. Meyer started the business together. They had a rough few years at first where they were barely breaking even. I guess Tom had enough and wanted out five years ago, so Meyer bought him out and continued with the company on his own.”
He spends the next few minutes telling me what happened when he and Cole walked into Mr. Meyer’s office. I swear my heart stops beating when he tells me the gun was pointed at Cole and he had to shoot Tom in order to save Cole. Of course, I know the risks associated with his job, but that doesn’t make hearing it is any easier.
“I don’t understand,” I shake my head. “If they separated five years ago, why was he going after Mr. Meyer now?”
“We’re not entirely sure,” he shrugs. “His wife left him a year ago, took their son and moved to New York to be closer to her family.”
“You said he knew how to avoid the cameras around the building? How did he know that when Mr. Meyer only bought the place a couple of years ago?”
“Well, that’s where things became a little interesting.” He takes a long drink of beer before continuing. “Emily was stumped on that as well, so she dug deeper once we figured out the connection between Tom and Meyer. By the time Cole and I got back to Dark Water Security she learned some very interesting information.”
“Meaning what?” I’m on the edge of my seat and Garrett is dragging his feet!
“Apparently Tom and Meyer met at a club as they were both into the lifestyle. That’s where Tom met the woman he eventually married, but I guess Tom and Meyer became friends and eventual business partners.”
“Interesting…”
“That’s not the best part.” He chuckles. “When Tom’s wife left him, he went back to the club. Guess who he met there?”
“Who? Wait…no!” I gasp putting the pieces together.
“Yup. According to what Emily found, and I really don’t want to know how she figured this out, Tom and Toni, who was one of Meyer’s weekend guests, spent a significant amount of time together over the last year. They stopped spending time together at the club a few weeks before Toni made her first appearance at Mr. Meyer’s apartment.”
“It was a set up?” I ask.
“Luke asked the detective to talk to Toni about the break-in. The DA agreed to offer a plea bargain in exchange for against testimony against one another. According to Tom, Toni was the one who provided him with the details of the condo and the office building. But according to Toni, Tom was the one who hired the driver to that caused the car accident.”
“So he was behind both incidents.” A shiver goes through me, though I’m not sure if it’s from the memory of walking into the destroyed foyer or from when Garrett came home with blood on his face after the accident.
“Toni was with him at condo during the break-in, but he was alone today.”
“Did you ever find out what was in the boxes that they took out of the apartment?” I ask, still finding it odd that Mr. Meyer wouldn’t tell anyone what was missing from the apartment even after seeing evidence of boxes being carried out.
“Oh! That was the other interesting thing,” Garrett takes another drink of beer before continuing. “It seems both Toni and Tom each had their own agendas for the break-in. Tom was looking very specifically for a plan for some app that they came up with before they split that Meyer never did anything with. He insisted that since he was the brains behind the app, he was entitled to it. But Meyer argued that he paid Tom for that when they ended their partnership.”
“And Toni? What did she want?” I ask.
“It seems Mr. Meyer kept files on each of his weekend guests, unbeknown to me. He had pictures, basic personal information and signed non-disclosure agreements for all of his guests. Toni told the police Meyer would take photos of the women in compromising positions that he would blackmail them with if they didn’t cooperate.”
“Wow.”
“No kidding.” He laughs suddenly.
“What?”
“Get this. Meyer contacted Luke as soon as he was finished at the police department and wants to resign a contract with Dark Water Security.”
“No!” I gasp in surprise.
“Yup, I guess he finally realizes that he needs security after today.”
“You’re not—”
“No!” He takes my hand in his. “Luke informed him that Dark Water Security wasn’t interested in signing another contract with him. Besides, even if Meyer managed to persuade Luke to accept him as a client again, there’s no way in hell I’m taking that job. I told you, I’m not taking a job that means I’m not in bed with you every night.”
“I just thought maybe—”
“No more live-in positions, baby. I enjoy falling asleep with you in my arms every night too much to even consider any position that takes me away from you. I’d miss you far too much.”
“I’d miss you too. I love you, Garrett.”
“I love you too, Hope.”
The End
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Luke
Contains adult themes that may not be suitable for all readers. While Luke’s story starts off pretty dark, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Find out what made Luke the man he is today and how he learned to trust again after being broken as a child. This is not a dark romance.
Preview Chapter for Luke
“What the fuck, boy?!?! Again?” he screams as he shoves me down the dingy hall toward the basement door. “You fucking lost me a lot of money tonight. It’s like you didn’t even try!”
Because I didn’t try—I’m fucking done. The bruises, the cuts, the broken bones, they all eventually heal, but nothing else changes. When he first brought me to the fights, I stupidly believed his promise: if I brought in enough money, he would let me go. Since then, though, I’ve come to the realization that he’s never going to let me go. Why bother trying? I don’t give a shit how much money I make him or he loses because of me.
“You’re going to be fucking sorry for what you did tonight,” he hisses as his heavy foot lands on the back of my knee sending me to the floor and my head into the heavy basement door. The room goes black for a moment before I blink it away, knowing that if I lose consciousness again it’ll be much worse. “Just remember, whatever happens tonight is your fucking fault. If you just did what you needed to do, it wouldn’t have happened.”
I should probably be scared, but I’m so fucking tired of being scared. Part of me is giving up—I know that. I’ve tried escaping but he always finds me before I can get out of this shitty house. I’ve tried playing by his rules: winning the fights like he said, but nothing happened. I’ve lived through all of his punishments so far: each time he’s whipped me with the belt to the point where I’m bleeding, when he’s brought his friends over and let them use me, when he injected me with something that kept me awake for more than two straight days–and so much more, but I survived. What if I’m tired of surviving?
Garrett (Dark Water Security Book 2) Page 21