Welcome to Lake Ventures (New Haven Book 2)

by Dawn Doyle

  “I don’t know how, but he knew I had money sitting in my savings account. He started by saying how much he needed and that if someone were to invest, they’d make a tonne in returns because of his successes. I was young and stupid and before I knew it, I was handing him a cheque for almost my whole back account. He picked me up and twirled me round, saying that I was a life saver, I wouldn’t regret it and that I would be a very rich woman. All I could think of was making my money back, plus interest, and setting up my own business to invest instead of buying out.

  He got on the phone and told whoever was on the other end that his ‘girlfriend’ had come through and helped him out. I didn’t know what to say. I guess I was happy that I had done some good with my money but also that I was important. That I mattered. I felt he really meant what he said and I got caught up in it, not realising that I hadn’t actually wanted a relationship with him.

  But I never did anything to stop it either. I just went with it. I was too focused on work and studies. I guess it was his tactic to keep me working there.”

  Nick got up off the sofa and began pacing the room. He ran his hands through his hair and over his face. His breathing was heavy and he sounded mad. Very mad.

  “What happened then?” The Doctor asked, getting her attention.

  “Well, I um… starting ‘dating’ him which wasn’t ‘good’ in the slightest. I can actually count the number of times on my fingers. Well, between work and my studies, I hardly had time for anything else. I started from a few hours a day to fourteen hour days five days a week. I got home from work, studied for four hours, went to bed, got up and started again. At the weekends, I would visit my family and friends, and Jeff would be off looking for businesses or visiting his parents in Ipswich. He would encourage me to keep doing was I was doing as it was bringing in the money and I would soon see my returns. The profits that were made were going on paying staff and the rates.

  Or so I thought.

  I wondered what was going on when he bought himself a brand new Aston Martin DB9. He even moved into a new place where some of the famous footballers had moved to. I never even stepped foot inside it.

  I asked him how he could afford them. He said that the car was a rental, as it looked good for business, and his new place was a joint ownership where the bank owned half and you paid a lower mortgage rate each month.

  He paid out of his own pocket, so I couldn’t prove anything because I didn’t have any receipts.

  Time went on and I was left to do everything myself. I was constantly exhausted and I needed a holiday. So, thinking I was doing something nice, I booked a trip, which I paid for myself, for Jeff and I. I was taking Holly, my little sister, too. I was twenty one and she was almost sixteen at the time.

  Jeff had missed my birthday and christmas, because he’d been with his family, so I thought this would make up for it.

  He wasn’t happy I had booked, because he wouldn’t be able to work, but he came round when I said Holly would be coming too. I would go and do things with Holly so he could get work done. I wondered exactly what that was because I did everything.

  We went on holiday and he instantly complained of the hot weather, saying it gave him a headache. He spent the rest of the week in the room.

  Holly slept in the bed with me and he stayed on the pull out bed in the living room.

  One afternoon, some kids thought it was funny to push my sister into the pool. She has hydrophobia and she had a huge panic attack. The first aider couldn’t speak English, and neither of us spoke Spanish. But I had to leave her there to go and call our parents. Jeff didn’t bother to ask how she was or anything.

  I was really mad at him but I was more concerned with my sister.

  It was three years since I started working for him, and over a year and a half that we’d been ‘dating’ when the day came I would find out just what kind of person he was.

  I left work and started driving when I realised I’d forgotten my pen drive. It had the evidence I needed for my course work for that night so I had to go and get it. Walking to my desk, I heard a noise coming from Jeff’s office. It sounded like somebody was hyperventilating. I walked over and opened the door.

  I saw a woman, sitting on his desk, naked from the waist down and there was a guy kneeling in front of her. She had her legs draped over his shoulders. The woman screamed and he turned around.

  The cheeky bastard called me sweetheart! Not once had he paid me a compliment, no attention, no nights out or anything. I never even got a single gift from him. Yet, I catch him with his face in some slag’s crotch and then he calls me sweetheart.”

  Nick was muttering something under his breath as he continued pacing. Emily was beginning to worry about him.

  “Nick…” She began to say and he paused. “I’m ok. Carry on, Emmy.” He ran his hands through his hair as he continued to pace.

  “Ok.” She replied unsure of what he would say when she did.

  “Well, um… I slapped him, hard across the face and told him never to fuckin’ speak to me ever again.

  The fuck ‘ed actually said, ‘Don’t go. Think of the company!”

  That’s when it finally dawned on me what was going on right under my nose. I’d been too busy and too tired to notice, which was his plan all along.

  He was sleeping around behind my back and using me to make him money.

  I found out, from somebody that left shortly after me, that Jeff had been bragging that he’d had a different girl every night on the holiday. He was even banging the barmaid, on holiday, when I was calling my Mum.

  The person hadn’t said anything because they didn’t want Jeff to fire them, but it had been going on from the very beginning.

  Apparently Jeff said I was ‘hot’ but he would rather have me run his business and make him rich. He also liked his ‘strange’ too much.

  As for the other women, he had my schedule saved so that he knew exactly when to bring them to the office. He even scheduled his visits to his parents purposely to avoid my birthday or christmas.

  He didn’t have to avoid the last one. I was almost twenty-two the last time I set foot in that building. I booked an appointment the very next day to get checked out for any diseases. I’d always insisted on protection but I wanted to be sure.”

  Emily felt eerily calm after all of that. She thought she may have cried or gotten angry, but she wasn’t. She just felt disappointed… In herself.

  “What happened after that?” the Doctor asked.

  “I hadn’t given him all of my money, but to make some back I got a part time job at a call centre, taking orders from TV adverts. The wage I received, with commission, was the same as what Jeff was paying me. He should have been giving me quadruple for what I was doing and I didn’t even know. I was there for a week when I ran into one of the workers from one of the businesses I set up. When Jeff sold the company, he fired all of the staff, and this girl ended up working with me. They’d found out that Jeff didn’t buy the business when it was closing down. He’d manipulated the owner, saying that he would make them go bankrupt if they didn’t sell. Also, which I find interesting and makes sense, was that he’d told me he’d bought the business for ninety grand. He’d actually paid only fifty for it; Pocketing forty. He said he’d sold it for one hundred and twenty, when he’d sold it for one hundred and fifty; Pocketing thirty. So he’d stolen seventy grand. If he’d done that with all of the businesses, over the two years I was there, he’d have pocketed almost two million pounds. That’s not including his own wage and the company profits that were made. I wondered how I missed it but he’d forged the documents. I wouldn’t have been able to prove it because all of the balance sheets added up with what had been spent and received with what was on the receipts. I didn’t have access to the bank accounts so I didn’t know how much was in there. I found out the car and apartment had been bought outright, in cash, too.”

  “In such a short space a time, for someone so young, you dealt with a lot. Do y
ou think that you have trust issues because of what you went through?” the Doc asked.

  “No, not at all.” She snorted. “I have bullshit issues, arsehole issues and fuck ‘ed issues.”

  “Nick? Nick!” The Doctor raised his voice getting Nick’s attention as he was wearing down the carpet up and down the room.

  “What?”

  “Do you want to discuss anything? The reason why you come to see me?”

  Nick shook his head.

  “I’m way too pissed to talk about it. I want to hurt that fuck head so bad. I want… I just…” Nick breathed hard in and out of his nose.

  Nick looked so angry he couldn’t talk.

  Emily wanted to try and calm him down, to tell him it was ok and that she was past it now. Instead she stood, thanked the doctor and left.

  Nick followed her out to the car, ignoring Tyler on the way out. Still opening her door for her, they got into the car.

  *****

  Nick was so mad he could feel the blood boiling in his veins.

  Jeff had preyed on and used his Emmy. His beautiful, smart and trusting Emmy.

  Hearing that she hadn’t wanted a relationship in the first place had angered him further. The guy had manipulated her in every way possible.

  Hearing that the relationship wasn’t ‘good’ he understood what that meant.

  Sex.

  She hadn’t enjoyed it and could also count the times on her fingers.

  Nick’s stomach turned and he felt sick.

  If he had the chance, he would show her every single day just how beautiful and sexy she was. He would make her scream out his name over and over again, pleasuring her until she could barely walk.

  “How much did he take from you?” He finally asked after almost fifteen minutes of silence.

  “It’s not important, Nick. I’m not bothered about it.”

  “Emmy. You said he needed a lot. How much did you give?”

  “Half a million pounds.” She said quietly, like she was ashamed to say it.

  Nick tightened his grip on the steering wheel and he heard it creak under the pressure.

  Seven-hundred seventy-six thousand dollars.

  “It’s my own fault. I was stupid.”

  “No it’s not your fault and you’re not stupid! You were manipulated. You were young, inexperienced and you’d set out to help people. That’s what you thought you were doing. He used your good nature against you.”

  “Well, I’m never going to make that mistake again.”

  Nick cringed as he remembered his own business offer.

  “That’s why you reacted that way when I talked to you about helping me.”

  Emily shifted in her seat.

  “I’m sorry, Emmy. I would never do that to you.”

  “I know.” She said, her head down. “You wouldn’t hurt me like that.”

  “There’s um… something else.” Emily said after another minute of silence. “I didn’t want to tell the therapist and I haven’t told anybody this either.”

  Nick glanced to her and saw that she was nervous about telling him. That could mean it was worse than what she’d already said… if that was possible.

  He waited for her to start talking again.

  “I’d been working for him for nearly two years when my best friend Lucy asked me to go on a night out. I was working and I still had an assignment to turn in so I said no. Anyway, she went to a club and had sex with some guy in the fire exit, outside, at the back of the building. I was horrified that she would do something like that.

  She didn’t even tell me about it, somebody had seen her go out with him and heard everything. I asked her about it and she just kept saying that she was embarrassed because she was really drunk and didn’t know his name.

  The real reason she was embarrassed was because she wasn’t actually that drunk and she knew exactly who he was.”

  Nick could feel the pain in his jaw as he clenched. Hearing the further agony that Emily had been put through.

  But she wasn’t done.

  “I only found out because her ex-boyfriend, who she was still with when she did it, questioned the paternity of their daughter, Kristy, two weeks before I moved here. He’d heard what happened and that’s when I found out she’d cheated on him with Jeff. I was only bothered that she betrayed me. My best friend since school and college.

  I couldn’t give a shit about Jeff, but I’d been there for Lucy throughout her pregnancy, her breakup and her giving birth, and there was a chance the baby could be his.

  The last thing I heard was that Lucy’s ex had asked for DNA testing.”

  Nick couldn’t believe what Emily was saying. Her best friend had not only had sex with Emily’s boyfriend behind her back, but had cheated on her own boyfriend with him and there was a chance he’d fathered her child.

  He was so mad, he wanted to kill him.

  It would be worth it too. He would take great pleasure causing that guy so much pain until his life slowly slipped from him.

  But he wouldn’t do that.

  He would hurt Jeff a lot worse.

  He would take his business away.

  *****

  The wait in the airport lounge was torture.

  Nick was silent the whole time. Emily usually wanted silence because his smooth, seductive voice did crazy things to her.

  This time she didn’t.

  She wanted him to talk to her because she had no idea what was going on in his head and knew he was quiet because of what she told him.

  Emily felt better for it, getting it all off her chest. She was embarrassed about admitting the barely there details of their relationship though. Especially in front of the man she was in love with.

  Now she was silently hoping that telling him everything wouldn’t bite her on the arse if they got into another fight.

  She hoped not. If he did turn anything back on her, she would die.

  Getting out of her seat, Emily went to the complimentary food counter and brought back some food and coffee for them both.

  Nick glanced at the cups and plates.

  “You said you wouldn’t get me coffee.” He murmured.

  “I’ll make an exception this once. Don’t get used to it.”

  One side of Nick’s mouth turned up into an almost smile.

  “I’m over it now, you know. They’re out of my life for good.”

  “They are. You don’t have to worry about them again, Emmy. I promise.”

  If Emily could have actually melted at his words, she would have been a puddle of goop at his feet.

  She stared at him as he sat back in his seat, his muscular arms crossed defensively over his chest. Her eyes travelled over his biceps and settled on the outline of the tattoo she could see pressed against his sleeve, as he wasn’t wearing his jacket.

  “What’s your tattoo?” She asked, trying to sound unaffected when inside she was a wreck. She’d just about managed to put their things down on the table without them falling over.

  “It’s personal.” He replied. His voice flat, void of emotion.

  “Oh. Did it hurt?”

  “Like a son of a bitch.” Nick covered his tattoo with his hand, lightly stroking over it.

  Emily watched as he reached his cup and took a sip of his coffee, then licking his lips. They stayed slightly parted, and Emily was tempted to run her fingertips across his lower lip.

  “Um…” She swallowed. “Was it worth it?” She could hear her pulse in her ears as her heart raced.

  His eyes turned to hers and they softened when he answered.

  “Yes. Always.”

  Chapter 16

  Boarding was called for their flight and they moved out to the terminal. Getting on the plane, Nick guided Emily as before.

  Sitting in their white seats, Nick tapped his phone, answering whatever messages he had gotten.

  Emily could still feel tension and anger coming from him, and she was still feeling awkward from sharing the fuck up that was the pa
st five years of her life. The only thing good to come out of it was her degree.

  She had to let it go and now that she’d told Nick, she would try. She just had to get over the way her body reacted whenever she was near him or could smell him.

  Once in the air, she got the earbuds from her iPhone out of her bag, and plugged them into her TV. She turned on the newest X-Men movie. She hadn’t gotten to watch it the last time, because she had fallen asleep and waking up with Nick’s jacket over her.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Nick shift towards her. Only a little, but definitely closer. He was watching the Tv with her.

  He could have used his own but he was sharing hers.

  Emily wanted to crawl on his lap, rest her head against him and snuggle into his shoulder as they watched the movie together.

  He’d probably wonder what the fuck I was doing.

  Instead, she settled for letting his sexy, soapy smell waft across her face and the heat from his body warming down her side.

  Removing the bud from her right ear, she passed it to Nick to put in his left, so he could hear it too.

  His arm brushed hers when he placed it on the rest between them and Emily could feel herself shaking.

  “Are you cold?” he asked suddenly, making her jump a little.

  It was cooler on the plane but she was wearing her jacket so she was ok.