by Ashley Jade
“Thank you, Lillian. I'm so sorry about all of this.”
“Dear, you apologize far too much. You have nothing to be sorry for.” She clapped her hands. “Now, I want you to stand up. Go get cleaned up and come back downstairs and have some soup and tea. You need to keep up your strength. Jacob will bring him back to you. I'm sure of it."
She was right. I was going to need my strength. Danny will be found. I had to believe that.
I gave her a quick smile and a hug, before I ran upstairs. I wanted to stop by Jacob's office and apologize for earlier.
When I found him, he was pacing back and forth. He had his cell phone held up to one ear, and a landline receiver held up to his other ear. I'd never seen him look angrier.
“So it was him? Mark, I swear to fuck, your team better fucking fix this before I find you and kill you myself!” he shouted. “I swear to god, I will shred you limb from fucking limb, motherfucker—” He paused. “No. Not you, federal agent. You, I will see tomorrow. Be at my house at 10am—or else," he roared, before noticing that I had stepped in the room.
Did he just threaten a federal agent?
What the hell was going on?
Chapter 18
“What the hell is going on, Jacob?”
Before he could answer, Lillian walked in the room, with a tray. “Can you let the poor girl eat, before you explain everything to her.”
She motioned me over to the desk and set the tray down in front of me.
“Yes, Lillian,” Jacob said. “Thank you.”
“Make sure you eat, dear. I'll be up to check on you in a little while.” She turned her gaze to Jacob. “Try not to upset her too much, Jacob,” she snapped, before she walked out of the room.
If I wasn't so confused, I would have probably started laughing.
He took a seat and put his head in his hands. “Leah, please eat something. Then, I'll tell you everything.”
I shook my head. What little appetite I had, suddenly diminished.
What else could he possibly have to tell me? What else was he keeping from me?
“I told you to eat!” he screamed as he pounded his fist on his desk.
I lifted up the cover to the tray. Luckily, it was only a bowl of soup, a few crackers, and a cup of tea. That I could handle, the other stuff I wasn't so sure about.
I quickly ate a cracker and swallowed half a bowl of soup. I needed to find out what he knew. How much worse could this all get?
“I'm done. I can't eat anymore. If you try and force me. I will march right out of this house.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “First things first. The FBI is coming here tomorrow to talk to you. They've already issued an amber alert, so that's taken care of.”
Okay, that was good, at least we got the ball rolling, especially with the FBI involved now.
“Okay. Thank you. Please continue.”
He looked down. “Your father took him. Or, rather—one of your father’s men took him.”
My stomach dropped. “My father's men? I don't understand. He's been in prison for the last 14 years. The only men he has are cellmates.”
He rubbed his face. “In order to answer that, I'm going to have to tell you a whole bunch of shit that I'm certain you won't be able to handle. I've tried to keep the worst of it from you, to protect you.” He leaned forward. “Can you please just trust me? I will take care of all this. The less you know, the better. Can you please—just let me take care of you?"
I might have gone for it if my brother wasn't kidnapped. However, seeing as he was. That meant I needed to know every single fucking thing, as soon as possible.
I gave him the most intense look I could muster. “Not a chance. My brother is missing. He was taken. If you don't tell me everything, then we are done, Jacob. I mean it.”
He looked nervous. Jacob doesn't do nervous. Ever. This was going to be horrible.
“I figured you would say that. Fine, Leah.” He leaned against his desk and crossed his arms. “However, if you pass out on me, or make Lillian yell at me again. I will stop talking.”
“Just tell me. Please.”
“You already know that your father got paid money for supplying the girls. A lot of money. Way more than you think, trust me. He made a business out of it—” He paused and took a breath. “Money gave him resources, power, and control. Control and power gave him connections on the outside, even while in prison. That's how he has people."
“How much money are we talking, Jacob? I mean, your father was a millionaire. Logically, if there were tons and tons of victims like you said, then wouldn't that have depleted your own father's money pretty rapidly?"
“My father was more than a millionaire, Leah. Try multi-billionaire. Sand Corp's net worth, is valued at a little over two billion alone.”
His expression changed to one of disgust. “Anyway, your father didn't just provide girls for my father. There were a couple of other CEO's from different high profile companies who he provided girls for as well. Hence, how and why he made a business out of it. My father got him the connections."
“I guess it makes even more sense now why my mother kept quiet about it. My father paid her off.”
“No, my father paid her off.”
“Explain.”
“Leah, I really don't want to fucking tell you.”
“Jacob, I really don't fucking care. I need to know.”
“Fine,” he griped. “Before her heroin addiction, your mother actually tried to stop what was going on. Especially, after she found out about the auctions.“
He leaned over his desk. “Christ, I really hate what I'm about to tell you. It makes me sick.”
I walked over to him. “It's okay, I can take it.”
“No, you can't. Not after I tell you everything, but I have no choice but to tell you now.” He threw up his hands. “You've given me no choice.”
Part of me felt guilty, but I needed Danny back, as soon as possible. And I had a right to know the whole truth.
“There were auctions. Your father hosted them. He would make profile's of the girls and sell them to the highest bidder among the CEO's and other businessmen. Your mother found out that your father decided to auction you off. That was where she drew the line. She threatened to go to the authorities, in order to protect you. There was a little bit of good in her before she became a heroin addict. Not much, but a tiny bit.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “However, your father wanted quite a lot of money for you. More than any other girl. Two of the men were willing to pay it. My father and another man. Your father kept increasing the bid and it turned into a pissing contest that my father was going to lose. Hence, why he took out his revenge on Jamie and framed him for it—at least I think. There might be more to the story, but nothing I have any solid proof of. My father didn’t like to lose. But most of all, he didn't like the power your father was starting to have over his own addiction. He didn't like not having the control anymore.”
This is so much worse than I thought.
“How much did I go for?”
He shot me a look of repulsion. “I'm not telling you that, Leah. What the fuck is the matter with you? What difference does it make?”
“I need to know how much I'm worth.”
“No. I’m not telling you,” he protested.
I gestured to the door. “Tell me, or lose me.”
“Just over one million,” he said softly.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked in disbelief.
He slammed his fist on the desk. “Do I fucking look like I'm kidding?”
I sat back down on the chair. “I guess my father thought I was worth something after all.”
“Leah, you're worth much more than a million dollars. You’re priceless.”
“Whatever,” I said dismissively. “Tell me what happened with my mother first. Then, tell me everything else.”
“Well, obviously, you weren't sold. However, since your mother threatened to spill the beans abou
t everything going on between him and all the other CEO's. My father paid her off with the million—it shut her up for the moment.”
He looked at me. “In addition to the million, part of the deal between them was that you were never supposed to be touched, or auctioned off. He actually paid her off every year until her death. Even more unsettling, is the fact that your mother and my father ended up having some type of relationship for years after your father went to prison. You may have seen my father before once or twice, who knows. Your mother may have even helped my father come up with the plan to kill Jamie and frame your father for it in the first place, but I don't know that for a fact. Either way, she fell in love with him and all the money.”
He looked down at the floor. “He just figured it would be less of a hassle to make her his whore for the time being and turn her into a heroin addict. This way, she'd end up destroying herself and never tell a soul.”
As much as it sickened me, it made sense. Addicts are fairly easy for other people to control, you just have to keep giving them what they crave and they’ll do almost anything. If he wanted to destroy someone, purposely turning her into a junkie would be the way to do it.
Chills crept up my spine and I had a sudden bolt of intuition. Fuck, Jacob was right. I probably couldn't handle this.
“Show me a picture of your father,” I whispered.
He reached into his desk and pulled out a family picture. I recognized his father immediately.
“I did meet him. Your father did try to rape me. Only I was 18 then. He punched Danny across the face and I attacked him. He tore my shorts off and was about to until Danny smashed a lamp over him. My mother flew in the room screaming her head off. She called me a slut and kicked me out. I took Danny and left— then she was dead three days later."
Now, he looked like he was the one about to be sick. “I'm so fucking sorry.”
“Don't be. It didn't happen. Danny protected me. Now, I need to know everything so I can protect him, and know exactly what I'm dealing with—"
“I will protect you, Leah, let me worry about that,” he growled.
“I still have a right to know everything. Or I will walk out that door and I won't be coming back.”
“Stop with the threats, Leah. It's really pissing me off. I am telling you everything now. You know how your mother fits into this. So, let's move on to the asshole that your father is. He has money and connections, that's a given.”
His face tensed. “What you don't know— is that he also had a guaranteed exoneration promised to him by my father upon his death. I really have no idea why, and my father never gave me a reason. It never made any sense to me, no matter how much time I’ve spent trying to come up with a reasoning for it. My father ended up telling me everything else, though, because apparently, I was supposed to take care of all of that for him. I was supposed to help your father get exonerated.”
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “I had all the evidence, including my father's confession to the rape and murder of Jamie—the whole works. I wasn't going to let that bastard that is your father get his hands on it, though. I'm not my father. What they both did is despicable.”
He jerked a shoulder up. “Your father knew I had everything he needed to set him free, but I refused to give it to him. That’s when he began threatening me. And I threatened him right back.”
He jabbed a finger into the wood of his desk. “There was another person who knew about all the evidence. A friend, someone who worked for sand corp. Someone, I thought I could trust. Someone I thought was on my side and felt the same way I did about this mess. That someone played both sides of the fence, though. He stole the evidence from me. All the evidence he needed anyway—”
Now it made sense. “That's what you were talking about that day in my office—wasn't it? You lied and said it was about a merger falling through. You were really upset and said something about not being able to get your hands on something. I thought it was me, but it wasn't."
He nodded.
“Okay, so that explains how my father's out of prison. But, I still don't understand why he warned me about you? Especially if he knew he was about to get out. Why would he need me? Or Danny for that matter?"
“That's the part I really don't want to tell you, Leah.”
Chapter 19
“Same thing as before, Jacob. Tell me, or lose me.”
I ignored the daggers his eyes shot at me. “When Luke found out that I was nothing like my father and I wasn't going to help him get released. He began threatening me. I already told you that.” His jaw worked. “However, he threatened me in regards to you. Now, I didn't know you then—but it was obvious how I felt about the whole situation. So, I told him, I was going to protect you, and he could have fun rotting in his jail cell for the rest of his life. I told him that was my revenge. That's why I hired a team of top-notch—or so I thought; security. They were supposed to make sure you were safe. They were also supposed to make sure that the evidence that got stolen from me never made it into your father's hands.”
Despite what he was telling me, I smiled at him. He was right, he was nothing like his father. And Danny was right, he is a good guy.
He closed his eyes. “This is the hard part, Leah. He said that he was going to have someone attack you. He said that he was going to make you pay. He said he wanted revenge against you for turning him in. He even sent someone after you."
“The mugger,” I whispered.
“Yes. But, that's still not the worst part.”
Good grief.
His entire body went rigid and his nostrils flared. “He said he was going to murder you like he had his whore of a wife murdered because you turned him in.”
I reached for the trash can and tossed whatever was in my stomach. I wasn't worried about me, but it didn't take a genius to figure out the obvious.
If he was willing to murder his own wife and daughter—what would he do to Danny?
Lillian stormed into the room. “I told you not to upset her too much, Jacob. What the hell is the matter with you!”
She ran over to me and held my hair as I continued to dry heave.
Jacob threw his hands up in frustration. “She gave me no choice.”
Lillian rubbed my back. “I'll make you some more soup.”
“No, thank you. I appreciate it. I just can't stomach it right now. Thank you. But, you should know it wasn't Jacob’s fault, Lilian. I made him tell me everything."
She turned around to face Jacob. “Very well, I'll let it slide this time,” she said before walking out the door.
I stood up. “I’m going to head home now. I have a lot to think about. I'll be here tomorrow to talk to the FBI.”
He focused his eyes on me. “You aren't going anywhere. I've had clothes and everything else you need, sent here. You're going to stay here, whether you like it or not. At least, until we find Danny and your father is put behind bars again. Got it?”
I put my hands on my hips. “I don't really have a choice do I?”
“Nope. But—if it makes you feel better, you can try to run out of the house while I chase you again.” His voice dropped. “But I will catch you, Leah. You already know why."
And with that, he picked me up and brought me into the bathroom.
I brushed my teeth and washed my face as Jacob watched me like a hawk.
The pain and fear of what could happen to Danny washed over me again and I started sobbing uncontrollably.
Jacob turned on the shower. He stood behind me and undressed me before he carried me into the stall.
He continued to hold me as he gently washed my body and planted soft and tender kisses all over me.
It was sweet, unexpected, and soothing.
After, he carried me to bed, turned off the light, and held me close to him.
I arched my body against him, trying to tempt him, but he didn't move. He just held me tight in his arms. “Let me hold you right now, Leah. That's all I want. Let me care fo
r you.”
That was certainly something I never expected to hear from him.
He was putting my needs above his own. He really did care about me, it wasn’t just about sex. I finally believed him.
Chapter 20
“What do you mean you can't find him! How fucking hard can it be?” Jacob roared as he got in the federal agent’s face.
I stood between them. If Jacob couldn't control his temper, he was going to be the one in a jail cell.
The agent stepped back. “I'm sorry, Mr. Sand, but it's not as easy as it looks. He's fallen off the map. It may not even be Luke who kidnapped Danny in the first place. We don't have proof, it’s only suspicion right now. Not to mention, he's completely exonerated—he can go anywhere and do anything now. He could be anywhere—especially given that the only life he's established for himself has been in a prison cell for the last 14 years. We have no leads, nothing to go on. But we are working as hard as we can. We are trying.”
“Try harder,” Jacob growled.
“There's nothing else we can do. Nothing more than we are already doing. Not until we get an actual lead. And every hour that goes by without one is another hour that—" the federal agent started to say before Jacob made a fist.
My knees start to wobble and I had to take a seat. I already knew the odds of finding him alive were diminishing every minute that went by.
“Don't you fucking finish that sentence in front of her!” Jacob screamed as he got in his face again.
“Control yourself, Mr. Sand. I know it's frustrating. But taking your anger out on me isn't going to help. Being cooperative and remaining calm will."
Jacob finally took a step back. “Fine, you want a lead? We’ll, I’ll offer a reward. One million for the next 24 hours. If we don't have any more information by 48 hours—then increase it to five million. After 72 hours, increase it to ten million.” He snorted. “After that—start looking for a new job because I will destroy you," Jacob roared.
I looked at Jacob in shock, but he ignored me.