by B. B. Hamel
“Connor is going to help me get what I rightfully deserve. But please, honey. For me. Stay away from him.”
I sigh. “There’s nothing happening,” I say, lying. But I know it’s necessary.
“Okay.” She pats my leg and then stands. “He told me about the call. I’ll look into it.” She pauses at the door. “It’ll be okay, sweetie. I promise.”
“Okay,” I say. “Goodnight.
“Night.” She smiles and then shuts the door behind her.
I lie back and stare at the ceiling, my mind running at a million miles per hour.
She knows something is happening between me and Connor, that’s obvious, and she doesn’t approve. I’m not surprised about that. But whatever is happening with me and Connor isn’t something sordid and wrong, it can’t be, not when it makes me feel this good. Maybe it’s dirty and taboo and forbidden, but at the core of everything, it’s good.
She doesn’t mean to take something good away from me. I know she doesn’t mean it. But just like the world she sees as standing against her and what she wants, she’s imposing her own ideas on me and what I should have. She doesn’t see it, but that’s the truth.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with Connor. But I could see that desire still there in his eyes tonight when I went to him, especially in that last moment when he took me by the arms. I don’t know what he would have done if my mother hadn’t come into the room. I think he would have kissed me.
But she broke the spell and I’ll never know. Now I have to go forward and hopefully find out.
19
Connor
We drive down the now familiar road heading toward Julia’s father and his sickbed. The tension in the car is thick and Julia hasn’t said a word since she told me that we’re going to visit her father.
I understand her hesitation and I can’t really blame her for it. From her perspective, I was touching her daughter while wearing nearly nothing, and although it turned out that I had a good reason to be doing it, she still was worried about what it meant.
We didn’t talk about it, though. We talked about the call, and a little bit about the recording, but she’s been dodging my questions for days.
I’ve been fucking good. I’ve stayed away from Sydney, despite wanting nothing more than to burst into her room and take that dripping little pussy. She keeps giving me looks, lying around the pool, practically inviting me to touch her again. But I’ve resisted, mainly because I know it would be bad for her if we got caught.
Last night though, I almost lost control. When I saw how afraid she was, I wanted to kiss her so badly, wanted to make her feel good all over again. I wanted to take the pain away from her. But then her mother appeared and reminded me just why I’ve been holding myself at a distance for the last week.
I lean back in my seat and glance at Julia. As far as I know, she listened to the recording of her brother being a total psycho in his office, but it didn’t seem to change her mind. Or at least not completely. She did let me hire a couple of guys to keep watch around the property, which was a pretty big victory for me, but otherwise she won’t admit that Evan might really be a serious threat.
I’m more than convinced, and this call to Sydney just underlines his danger even more. I look at Julia again, annoyed about this awkward silence, annoyed about her refusal to engage.
“We need to talk about this,” I say to her.
She doesn’t react. “I was wondering how long before you’d bring it up.”
“Julia, your brother is dangerous.”
She gives me a small smile. “You’re probably right.”
“So why aren’t we doing more about it?”
“I let you hire those men.”
“They’re not enough.”
“They’ll have to be.” She sighs, shaking her head. “You don’t get it yet, do you?”
“Enlighten me.”
“This whole thing is a public relations move,” she says. “My company isn’t exactly under close scrutiny, but if a CEO starts hiring private security like crazy, people are bound to notice and ask questions.”
“You want to keep this out of the press,” I say, nodding. “I can respect that. But if Evan does something... “
“He won’t,” she says. “He’s in little image war as much as I am. Right now, he’s all bluster and threats, but he can’t follow through on any of it.”
“Because if he does, he invites scrutiny.”
“Exactly. And he won’t survive it.”
I sigh, shaking my head. “I don’t like it. It just feels like a flimsy excuse to do nothing.”
“Maybe.” She pauses as we pull into her father’s driveway. “But you need to remember something, Connor.” She pulls up into her usual spot and turns to face me. “You’re not part of this family.”
I stare back at her, eyes narrowed. “I’m aware of that.”
“You’re not my husband. You’re not Sydney’s stepfather. You’re just a hired hand.”
“Then let me do my job. Take the threat more seriously.”
“No,” she says, watching me intently. “What were you doing with Sydney last night?”
I sigh, shaking my head. I knew she’d bring this up eventually, even though she’s clearly doing it just to change the subject. “She was afraid. What was I supposed to do?”
“Keep your hands off her,” she answers. “Did anything else happen that I’m not aware of?”
For a second, I consider telling her about Sydney’s phone, but I decide not to. She’ll probably force me to give it back, but right now it’s our best weapon against her brother. I can’t risk her foolish obstruction to get in the way of this.
“Nothing,” I say. “In the future, I’ll get you first.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re starting to understand.” She flashes me a smile. “Ready?”
“Fine,” I grunt, feeling angry, but I push it back down inside of me.
“Let’s go.” She unbuckles her seatbelt and climbs out of the car. I follow her, walking up the paved cobblestones and the front steps before pulling open the large front door.
As soon as we step inside, it feels wrong. I can practically taste it in the air. Julia steps into the entrance hall and as the door shuts behind me, several men step out of a side hallway.
They’re not the normal staff, not at all. I don’t know who they are, but I recognize their type.
Big guys, dark suits, bulges at their hips. They’re all packing weapons, and I suddenly wish I had brought my own. They’re thugs, goons, mafia hired hands, the sort of guys that I avoid at all costs because they’re fucking dangerous. And of course, we’re outnumbered.
“Who are you?” Julia asks, stepping up to the first guy. He’s short, a few inches shorter than me, and a little heavy. But he has that look in his eyes, like he’s ready to do violence, and part of him wants it.
“Your father, he isn’t feeling well today,” the man says.
“Who are you?” she asks again. “Get out of my way.” She goes to step past him, but he blocks the way.
I step up beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Julia.”
“No, this is absurd. Step aside, sir. I want to see my father.”
“I fuckin’ told you, he’s sick. You understand me, yeah?” He leers at me, a sick grin.
“Julia,” I warn, sensing that the situation is about to get out of control.
She shrugs off my hand and goes to step past the guy, but he pushes her back. As soon as he makes contact, I step past her and slam the side of my hand into his throat.
He gags once then drops to the ground, choking. The guys all around me move fast, pulling their weapons, but I’ve already grabbed Julia and thrown her toward the door. I block her body with my own as suddenly there are three guns pointed right at us.
The short guy is still on the ground, choking and gagging. I suspect he’s going to have some longterm damage to his vocal chords, but it serves him right for touching a woman.
“All right, guys,” I say. “Easy. Your friend is fine.”
“You shouldn’t have fucking done that,” one of the guys says, stepping forward. He’s blond with deep blue eyes and a scar along his chin.
“We’re going to turn and leave. Unless you want to murder us right here?”
“Fuckin’ should,” blondie says, eyes raging.
“Enough!”
Another voice cuts in through the crowd. I look over as Julia’s brother steps into the room from the doors that lead to her father’s library. He walks into the group, waving his hands.
“Lower your weapons,” he says, smirking. “Can’t you see that’s my sister?”
“Evan,” Julia says, sounding shaken. “What’s going on here?”
“I was just visiting Dad,” he says, stepping in the middle of the ground. The men lower their guns, but they don’t holster them. Julia steps beside me, arms crossed, but I can tell she’s shaking.
“Why are they blocking my way? Who are these men?”
“Associates,” Evan says. “Dad isn’t feeling well today. I don’t think you’re going to get to see him.”
She stares at her brother for a second, like she doesn’t understand.
“Come on, Julia,” I say softly. “We should go.”
“Listen to your little pet,” Evan says, laughing.
“What happened to you?” she asks, eyes wide.
“You happened.” Evan sneers at her. “Go home, Jules. You’re not wanted here.”
She pauses for a second then shakes her head, turns, and opens the door. She walks outside without stopping. I follow her, shutting the door behind us, and have to hurry to catch up.
She climbs into the passenger seat so I get behind the wheel. I start the engine then look at her. “You okay?”
She’s shaking, clearly upset, but she nods once. “I guess you want to say you told me so.”
“No,” I say. “Not at all.”
I put the car into drive and head out around the curving driveway, angling back toward Julia’s house.
“Have you ever had a gun pointed at you before?” she asks.
I laugh a little. “Yeah. A few times.”
“Does it get easier?”
“Not really,” I say honestly. “Some people can turn off that fear part of their brains with training. But hopefully you never have to do that again.”
She nods and lapses into the silence. I glance at her and for a second, I see something of Sydney there. It’s some kind of vulnerability that she normally doesn’t have, and it humanizes her to me a little bit.
At least now she knows. Her brother is a dangerous man, and we can’t keep pretending like he isn’t. I won’t tell her that I told her so, but I will make sure she starts to take this threat seriously and lets me hire some more guys.
I just wish it hadn’t taken this much before she figured it all out.
20
Sydney
The morning after my phone call, nobody else is home.
I’m creeped out at first, but there’s a note on the kitchen table. Apparently Connor and my mom are out visiting granddad again. I sigh, fix myself some coffee, and head back up into my room.
I don’t know what to think about any of this. Connor goes a week without talking to me, and then last night he takes my phone and looks at me like he’s going to kiss me again. I wanted him to, of course, but my mother got in the way. I don’t know what they’re doing, pretending like everything is normal. Maybe they’re talking to granddad about this right now.
I sit cross-legged on my bed and flip open my laptop. I want to check my email and see if any employers have gotten back to me yet, even though I know I can’t even take a job right now. Once I’m logged in, I’m disappointed to see that there’s nothing but spam.
And one strange email. I cock my head at it. The subject line reads only, “Take this seriously, Sydney.” There’s an attachment as well. I hesitate, wondering if it’s some kind of virus, but with everything that’s happening right now I can’t afford to ignore it.
I click the email and open it up. There’s nothing in the body of the email except for a blurry, grainy picture. I click on it to enlarge it and it takes me a second before I understand what I’m seeing.
It’s the back side of my pool house. I recognize the stones. And there are two people there, one man and one woman. Her legs are spread wide and he’s down between her knees.
My brain doesn’t want to admit that it’s me and Connor in the picture, but I know that’s what it is. It’s a picture of him going down on me outside by the pool. I have no clue how someone got it, but it looks like it was taken from far away. Still, you can clearly make out the expression on my face, though Connor’s face isn’t clear.
My heart starts hammering as the fear comes back to me. I quickly delete the email without thinking about it and am about to close my laptop lid when another email appears with the same subject line.
This time, there’s text in the body, and another picture. I bite my lip and open it, horror flooding through me.
I look at the picture first. This one is of me and Connor, and this time his face is visible. We’re kissing, or at least about to kiss, and it’s obvious who he is though my face is obscured. Between the two pictures though, it’s obvious what’s happening and who’s involved.
I close the picture and read the body of the email.
“We can destroy you. We will destroy you. Get rid of him or this all goes public. Get rid of him or we destroy you all.”
I slam my laptop lid shut and stand up, freaking out.
My room has a desk, a double bed, a dresser, a nice large walk-in closet, and two nightstands, and yet it feels absolutely tiny. I have to walk out through the house, and I want to go out back, but I stop myself.
They’re watching out there. What else did they photograph? They could have thousands of pictures of me in a bikini sitting out there in the sun. They’ve been watching this whole time, taking pictures from somewhere nearby, staring at me.
And I gave them the ammunition they need to destroy us. All because I want Connor so fucking badly, all because he makes me feel good and I can’t say no to him.
This is so fucked. I feel like I’m hyperventilating. I just keep pacing around the house, trying to work this out in my mind.
Why wouldn’t they just go public with these pictures and ruin us? I don’t understand why this person is using it as blackmail. If the end goal is to get rid of Connor and to take my mother’s job, then it would be easiest just to release the photos and ruin her reputation. Granddad would never forgive her, and she’d be through.
I’d be ruined as well, though. I could probably recover, but my reputation would be dragged through the mud. It would be a media sensation, the daughter of a powerful CEO sleeping with her new husband in their own house, all exposed on camera. I’d be painted as a harlot, a home wrecker, a whore. And probably worse, considering he’s technically my stepfather.
Someone is holding back. And if this is really my uncle then maybe, just maybe, he’s not totally insane. Maybe Uncle Evan doesn’t want to destroy me in the process of hurting my mother.
I have to sit down as it all swirls around me. I can barely get myself under control when I suddenly hear a car pull up out front.
I have the irrational fear that it’s my uncle coming to hurt me. I run to the door and peek outside, but it’s just my mother and Connor coming home.
I walk back into the kitchen and think fast. I don’t know what to do, but Connor has made it clear that my mother isn’t letting him take this as seriously as she should. And besides, she can’t see the image of me and him, no matter what.
I’ll have to lie to her and show Connor discreetly. And I’ll have to do it soon. I wasn’t given a deadline, but I suspect that I don’t have long before my uncle decides that I’m fair game and gives up wanting to protect me.
21
Connor
For the
next few hours while I’m home, I hit the little gym and work out some of my frustration. Julia goes to work and I send our two guys with her, just to be sure. I’ll call and hire some more in a few hours.
But first, I have to work out my aggression. I hate that those mafia fucks ambushed us like that and I had no other choice but to back off. I nearly killed that one asshole, but I wanted to do more.
Who does shit like this? It’s totally fucking insane. And I know we can’t go to the cops, because I’m sure Evan is using every single dime he has to pay them off. Besides, if we do, it’ll just look bad for Julia in front of her father.
No, we’re stuck in this fucking chess match with her psycho brother, and I’m even more fucked.
Because that whole time that I should have been worrying about Julia’s safety, or even my own, I wasn’t. I just kept thinking about Sydney back home, if she was okay.
It was strange. There was a violent and potentially deadly scene right in front of me. Multiple guns were drawn by some bad fucking guys, and they meant business, and yet I just kept seeing Sydney in my mind.
It wasn’t even conscious, not exactly. I just kept seeing her face, how afraid she was the night before, and felt deep down how horrible it would be if I potentially lost her.
I finish my set of bench presses and lean back against the wall, sweating and drinking some water. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do about any of this. All I want is to find Sydney and tell her everything that I’m thinking, but I know it’s insane.
I can’t help it. When she’s around, I feel better. This past week has been pale and boring and terrible because I’ve avoided being around her.
Maybe that’s a mistake. I had some fucking guns pointed in my face earlier today, and all I was thinking about was her. Before this is all over, I can’t imagine I won’t have more guns in my face, and those next ones might actually kill me.
I smile ruefully to myself. Is that how I’m going to justify it? I have to seize the day? I sigh, shaking my head, when I hear footsteps in the hall. I look up and Sydney herself steps into the doorway, frowning in at me.