Deep Blue Hold (Deep Blue Series)

by Nichols, Amie

  Chapter 10

  Aubrey

  For the second time in a week, I wake up with a hangover and a splitting headache. I need to lay off of the drinking because this sucks. I roll over and Ian isn't in bed. It is almost 9:00 in the morning. I can't believe I slept in this late.

  I smell food cooking and crawl out of bed. I find Ian's shirt from last night. Like always, I put it on, inhaling his scent as I do. I only button a couple of the buttons in the middle and put on some sexy lace panties. Unfortunately, I remember last night and my breakdown. I want to give Ian something to look at, and hope he is not running for the hills. I know my period is due probably today or tomorrow. That mixed with all the alcohol, I was a mess. I will have to do some recon today, and make it up to my poor man. He was a champ though. He said and did all the right things. God I love him and don't know what I did to deserve him. Going into the bathroom to clean up, I discover that my period had started. Damn!

  When I walk into the open floor plan family room that is connected to the kitchen, I see Ian in black shorts and no shirt. He is flipping pancakes at the stove. His house is decorated in a nautical theme, and it is very obvious that only a man has lived here. His back to me, his muscles ripple as he moves. As always, I'm in awe of this man.

  I come around the counter before he sees me, his deep blues lighting up. "Good morning my beauty," he coos, turning his attention back to the breakfast he is cooking.

  I hop up on the kitchen counter watching him, drooling at the sight of this gorgeous man cooking me breakfast half naked.

  He turns around and places a plate of pancakes down by a plate of bacon and eggs.

  "I like this," he says coming over to me and moving his way between my thighs.

  "Sorry," I say as Ian takes a bite of a piece of bacon then holds it up for me to take a bite. "Mmmm, that's good." I tell him chewing the salty bacon. Greasy breakfast food always works great for a hangover.

  "Sorry about what?" Ian asks as his hand starts to travel up my thighs. He studies me with is deep blues.

  "About my emotional outburst last night."

  "You have your PMS, and I have my caveman moments. It's all good, just part of being a couple," he says all sweet and understanding. “Kind of like the circle of life.” He shrugs.

  “Circle of life, huh?”

  “Yeah you know, like when the female praying mantis eats the male after they mate.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me and gives me a sideways smile.

  “Oh stop, I wasn’t that bad.” I slap his arm laughing.

  “Okay, maybe not.” He starts laughing too.

  "How'd you know it was PMS?" I ask as he takes a forkful of buttery, syrupy pancakes and puts it up to my mouth. I take the bite, licking my lips to catch a drop of syrup.

  "Because I can do math, baby. We've been together for a month, so it wasn't hard to figure out." He smiles at me while feeding me another bite of pancake and giving me his dimple smile as I take the bite. He still has one hand on my upper thigh and looks like he has no interest in moving.

  "You really are too good to be true." I tell him taking another piece of bacon. Now I hold it up to him to take a bite and he does. I put the rest of the piece in my mouth and chew slowly. He moves in and bites my lower lip gently.

  “What would you like to do today, my girl? I was going to fuck you senseless, but I guess that’s out of the question,” he says leaving me to hand me a cup of coffee.

  “Lay around the pool and veg.”

  “In a bikini?”

  “But of course.” I smile, leaning in for another kiss.

  Sam and Miry join us that afternoon around Ian’s pool. His is nicer than theirs. He has a grotto with a waterfall and more shady areas. In this hot sun, the shade it nice.

  Miry of course brought drinks, and in the kitchen she blends up some slushy fuzzy navels. “This is amazing,” I tell her taking a sip.

  “The secret is fresh peach puree,” she says handing Ian and Sam theirs. They’ve been in the pool playing some sort of hoop game. Ian has a basketball hoop on the side of the pool. However, what they were playing was no basketball. It was way too aggressive for that. Miry and I enjoyed the scenery of the two very gorgeous men in the pool, their skin slick and shiny from the water.

  “Will you get my back?” I hand the tube of SPF to Miry, sitting on the edge of her lounger so she can get the areas I can’t reach.

  “I could have done that for you, baby,” Ian says coming over to us, the cold pool water dripping off of him. He makes us squeal as he shakes the water off and it hits us.

  “Yeah, but Miry doesn’t get an erection when she does it.” I laugh at him as I put up my hands to shield my face from the cold water.

  “Are you sure?” Sam says walking up doing the same thing Ian had just done and getting us all wet.

  “They're like two teenage boys I swear, and baby I don’t get hard ons.” Miry hands the tube back to me when she is finished.

  “Oh ok, so what would you call it then?” Sam’s laughing, and I move to sit between Ian’s legs as he leans back on one of the loungers. He wraps his arms around me and rests his chin on the top of my head.

  “Call what?” Miry asks Sam

  “What you did to me last night after bumping and grinding with Aubrey all night,” Sam says raising one eyebrow at her.

  “That baby was called fucking, and we have done it before,” Miry says throwing a towel at him.

  “Not like that we haven’t. I’m not complaining though.”

  Miry looks at me and rolls her eyes. “He was so drunk it took him awhile. He thought he was superman or something.” She laughs and Ian lets out a deep throaty laugh. "He thinks I have the hots for you or something," she says looking at me for a second before she throws a beach ball at Sam who is cannon balling into the pool.

  "Don't they all think that all women have the deep dark fantasy of being with another woman?" I laugh.

  "You mean you don't?" Ian pipes up behind me sounding like I crushed everything he ever believed in.

  "That's for us to know, and for you to well, maybe find out." I turn my head to the side to see his handsome face. Miry starts laughing beside us.

  "I do love you, Aubrey, and I am so glad to have a friend here that I can be myself with. Everyone on this damn island is so stuffy and prude," Miry says, waving her hand in the air for affect.

  Chapter 10

  Ian

  After Sam and Miry left, Aubrey made dinner. It amazed me how fast and effortless it was for her to whip up some chicken marsala.

  "I need you to come into the office with me tomorrow." I tell her when we are relaxing on the couch watching TV. She's lying between my legs with her head on my chest and laughing at a rerun of King of Queens. She looks up at me with questioning eyes.

  "They found the package. It's supposed to be there tomorrow morning." I tell her leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

  "Oh," is all she says.

  "Aubrey, it's going to be okay. You know we will always be okay." I tell her as she snuggles into me closer and I hug her tighter. I can't wait to get my hands on Jim Olsen. He will suffer first before he dies, that I swear to.

  "I guess I was enjoying playing house this past week. I almost forgot about it," she whispers.

  "Do you like it here?"

  "Yeah, I love it. But you know I'm going to have to go back to New York soon. I do have a business to run. I just can't imagine being away from you for too long," she says and I am taken aback.

  "Baby, we are it. Where I go, you go. Where you go, I go." I sternly tell her.

  "But how is that going to work? I mean yeah, we can do our jobs somewhat mobile, but not entirely. I have a full inbox right now proving that."

  "I don't know and I don't care, but it's going to work," I say letting her know that there is no argument on the matter. "Besides, you're a freaking billionaire. Hire more people to do your grunt work."

  "Speaking of that, Ethan says the remodel is almost
done, and the only room left is the den. So we need to figure out what we are going to do with the vault," she says. She had talked to a realtor about selling her penthouse, and there was a waiting list of people wanting it. She took the highest offer and sold it. Maggie had returned from London just in time to help the movers get everything to the Scarsdale castle, which I was glad for because that meant Aubrey didn't need to go back.

  "Well then, next week we hop the jet back to New York and take care of business there. We can live in two houses. I mean it's only a couple hour flight, and you can set up side office here. The first floor of my building is empty. It would be perfect for you." She really can't argue with me on this because I'm not going to give her a choice. “Aren’t you just a little excited to see what’s in that vault? Something very precious is in there for the time and money he spent hiding it.”

  “Yeah, I am and I’m not. I mean, what in the world could be so important to him that he would have something like that?” She sounds apprehensive about it, and I guess I could see that. He had safety deposit boxes that had jewels and bonds in them, and the paintings and everything else valuable have all been accounted for. Not even William Jackson’s lawyer knew what was in there. All he knew was that he had the vault built twenty years ago, and back then, it was state of the art new technology. The cost was more than two of his luxury hotels.

  “Well, whatever is in there we will find out together.” I comfort her. She relaxes into me and I kiss her temple.

  The next morning we drive into the office. It's about an hour drive to Plymouth, NC where our head office is located. Aubrey is sitting next to me anxious and fidgety. She had a very restless night, she tossed and turned. At some point she even whimpered in her sleep. It broke my heart, and the only time she would relax was when I would hold her tight.

  It made me happy that I could make her relax, that she felt safe with me, but I hated that I couldn’t take away the nightmare that was facing her.

  She’s staring out the window as we drive, and looked a million miles away. She barely spoke all morning and it was killing me. When we arrive at my building, I run around to open her door. Before we walk into the building, I take her hands and intertwine them with mine. Pinning our hands behind her back I press my chest to hers.

  “Eyes, please,” I whisper looking down at her far away face. She obeys and focuses on me. “I love you.” I lean down kissing her nose, and then gently brush her lips with mine.

  “I love you too,” she says and I can see the wetness in her eyes that she is trying to fight.

  I introduce her to my receptionist and personal assistant, Tae, who greets her politely. I wanted the forensic team in place to see if we could get anything off of the package that might lead us to Jim Olsen. “Is everyone here?” I ask Tae.

  “Yes, Mr. Brady, Sam and the team are waiting for you in the conference room.” Tae answers, she is a short mousey brown haired girl who is a whiz with the computer. She’s around my age and has been with me since the beginning. I trust her completely. Besides Sam, she knows how to run my company in my absence, and I have no idea how I could do it without her. She had been headhunted a few times, and I would raise her salary to beat the offers without a blink of an eye. She now has stock options and a great retirement planned set up, so she has no interest in leaving. Not that she ever really did, but sometimes money talks.

  “The team?” Aubrey stares up at me as I take her to my office before we go to the conference room.

  “Yes, I have a team who I trust completely and nothing will ever leave that room.” I tell her, but she still seems unsure.

  “If you don’t want anyone else to see it, then I will respect your decision, but I want you to know that if I think I can get anything from the package that will help me track him down then my team is the one that can do it.”

  “I trust you, Ian, whatever you think is best,” she says and gives me those gorgeous green eyes. She does trust me, and I can see it. It makes getting this bastard all that more important because the one thing in the world I can’t do is let my girl down.

  “You sure?” I ask and she nods yes. I lead her into the conference room where Sam, Kyle, Dean, and Michelle are waiting. On the table is the package.

  Chapter 11

  Aubrey

  Ian’s team is sitting around the large conference room table all looking at me, and I instantly look down. How much do they know already, and are they judging me? Ian puts his arm around my waist and introduces me to Kyle first. He is tall and skinny with dirty blonde hair. I would describe him as a lab geek, and I am right. He is the head of the lab that does DNA and other analyses. I didn’t know that Ian’s firm did this kind of stuff also, but find out that they do a lot of consulting on special cases for the FBI.

  Dean is next and his build is closer to Ian and Sam’s, but with a full beard and older. He has reddish blonde hair and his skin tone is similar to mine. A fellow ginger. He is a private detective and handles a lot of the recon and surveillance. He manages the team of eight people that specialize in this very thing.

  Then is Michelle, she looks my age and is also tall. At least a foot taller than me with black hair and legs that go on forever. She is in a black pencil skirt with a white silk top and Black blazer. She is dressed the most professionally out of the three. Ian introduces her as also ex Special Forces and is now the head of his forensic team.

  Ian and Sam are in their expensive suits and I am dressed down in a jean skirt and tight tee. I feel very inadequate when I see Michelle come over and greet Ian. They look like they should be together on a cover of a magazine. Not knowing what to do with myself as Michelle briefs Ian, I sit on one of the large leather office chairs. I don’t know why I feel this way. I’ve had a few board meetings now where I've commanded the room, and felt very comfortable doing so.

  But something about how Michelle is with Ian, like they have their own language, it just makes me cringe. I suppose with both of them having very extensive military training it is only natural, but it is a side of Ian I can’t relate to. There’s no flirting or laughing and joking. It's all business right now, and as Michelle leans over the table to point out something to Ian on a map Ian leans in and listens carefully. He's watching her mouth as she speaks. All of his attention on every word she is saying, and as I watch them interact I grow more and more uneasy. I can't hear what they're saying they are talking so low, but they are in tune with one another, and hardly seem like they need to speak to know what the other is thinking.

  Was there something between them at one time, I would say so by the way they are together. I don’t see a wedding ring on Michelle’s finger, and that doesn’t make the situation any better.

  “Okay, so let’s just get this over with,” Ian says and turns to his side where I was standing and then looks down the table to where I had moved away from them. He hadn’t even noticed I had left his side. Okay, so he has a lot on his mind. It’s not like at home when I am the only thing he focuses on, but I have come accustomed to this, and right now I feel like I am the second most important woman in the room. And man, I don't like it.

  I don’t meet his eyes when he looks at me, and after a second he comes to my side. “Are you ready?” He leans down to whisper to me, and he places his hand on my back. I pull out the contents of the envelope. As soon as I do this Michelle calls him over to look at something, and he leaves me to talk to her.

  I'm annoyed and hurt at the way Ian just left my side. We'll do this together. I remember him saying only twenty minutes ago. I look up at Sam, and I can see on his face that he knows what I'm feeling. He sits in the chair next to me and motions for me to look at the envelopes contents. Chancing a look up at Ian, he is still in deep conversation with Michelle. It's like I don't even exist.

  Now becoming mad, I ignore them and look at the papers I pulled from the envelope.

  There are two pages, the first being a picture. Tears immediately fall when I see what the picture is of. It is two grav
estones, one being my mothers and the one right next to it reads:

  Nathan Rex Olsen

  We Never Knew You, But Will Always Love You

  Forever In Our Hearts, Mommy and Daddy

  It is my son’s gravestone. I buried him the only place I could think of to keep him safe and that was by my mother’s grave in Portland.

  The next page is a letter. The tears falling freely now, I look up at Ian still standing next to Michelle. They are watching me now. He is standing professional and unaffected. This is not the man I have spent the last month with. He doesn't give me his deep blues or a reassuring nod. In fact, he turns to Michelle and tells her something. I read the letter wanting to get the hell out of this room and fast. The letter read:

  Found my grandson bitch, good thing my beating took care of him. Rex should be thanking me. Because if you had that bastard kid he wouldn’t be the star he is today. I made a video of us, mainly for my pleasure. I jack off to it all the time, me watching myself fuck your sweet cunt. Now I think it is time for me to get what is mine. I’m selling it and to the highest bidder. So tell my ungrateful son to fork over 5 million to me and I will destroy it. That is if he even gives a shit about you anymore. If not, well you have money now so then I guess you know what to do.

  I’ll be in touch soon!!!!!!!!

  I just sit there and stare at the horrible words of an evil monster. Tears streaming down my face, but I’m not crying I don’t think. I look up at the faces staring at me and the first face I see is Michelle, who doesn’t seem to really care about what the letter says because she’s too busy watching Ian.

  I drop the picture and the letter on the table. I back up in the office chair and stand. Ian starts walking toward me and motions for the team to get to work. He doesn’t look at me. He looks at Michelle and starts telling her what he wants her to do first. It's all just a job right now. I'm just a damn job right now.

  Sam comes to me giving me a hug and asks if I’m alright. No I’m not all right! I need to be in Ian’s arms right now not yours, and he is in a deep conversation with Michelle. I assure Sam that I am fine and he joins the conversation about what needs done.