by A. C. Arthur
Instead she looked to Ronnel, saw his eyes, darker now than she’d ever seen them before, and the thin line of his lips as he continued to glare at her.
Makikita niya saktan ka kung gumawa siya ng galit mo.
He’ll hurt you if you make him angry.
That’s what Malaya had said to her before going upstairs. Hailey stared at Ronnel another second. He definitely looked angry. With a quick nod she made her way up the steps. Not running as she really wanted to, but taking each step with a quick stride until she was safely behind the door of her bedroom. She locked the door quickly then went to the bed, dropping down on it and wondering what the hell she’d gotten herself into.
CHAPTER 7
“Who is she?” Jackson asked as he sat on the couch in Jerald’s living room. “Who is this Hailey Jefferson and why are you so attached to her?”
Jerald wished he could answer those questions.
He hadn’t been at all surprised when he’d stepped out of the shower and heard the knock at the door, to see Jackson standing on the other side. His brother had been beyond pissed off when he’d arrived at the hospital this afternoon. Although he hadn’t thought Jackson would be so upset that he’d bring Noble with him. As a rule the Carrington brothers were discreet, especially when it came to each other. But Jerald figured if there had to be someone else there, it was better that it was Noble and not his parents, especially since Noble had thought enough to bring him a change of clothes.
“She was at the meeting I had with Mendoza. She’s his translator,” Jerald replied, walking through his living room and heading back up the steps to his bedroom to get dressed.
Jackson would either fix himself a drink and wait, or…Jerald heard his brother following him up the steps.
“So she works for him?” Jackson continued. “How long? And what else does she do for him? I went through that file three times before I left and again last night. There’s no mention of her in Mendoza’s business or personal file.”
Jerald went straight to his bureau, pulling open a drawer and taking out an undershirt first, then a pair of boxers. He turned to Jackson then and replied, “I know. She started working for him about six weeks ago. It’s a summer job.”
He moved into the bathroom after that, dropping the towel and putting his underwear on while hearing his brother swearing from the other room.
“She’s not a danger to the deal,” Jerald told him upon returning to the room. Then he cursed.
He’d left the towel on the bathroom floor. Something he never did. Running a hand down his face he took a deep breath and went back into the bathroom to retrieve the towel. Dropping it inside the hamper across from his bed he looked up to see his brother staring strangely at him.
“What? I said she’s not a threat,” Jerald reiterated.
He pushed past Jackson and went to his bed where he’d already laid out his clothes. Another suit, this time a coffee color with a pale blue shirt and royal tie. His shoes were at the end of the bed, right beneath where the suit lay neatly, brown Gucci lace ups.
“You know that for a fact?” Jackson inquired.
His brother stood with his arms folded over his chest, one hand lifted as he ran it over his bearded chin. He didn’t believe Jerald. He knew something was going on. Jerald didn’t bother to frown. Of the three Carrington brothers he was the most reserved, the quiet and solemn one. He could also be the most transparent one when something was wrong.
“Can you at least let me get dressed before we do this?” he asked, unable to hide the irritation in his tone.
“Before we do what, little brother? Before you finally open up and tell me what the hell has been going on with you these past few months?”
Jerald did not like when Jackson called him little brother. And he especially did not like the tone his brother was taking with him, that big-brother-to-the-rescue tone.
“I’ll be downstairs in a few minutes,” Jerald said not budging from where he stood and in that stance, with his own tone, making it quite clear that he wasn’t going to talk anymore until he was dressed. And properly shielded, he thought.
Jackson walked towards the door. “You get ten minutes or I’m coming back and I’m not leaving until I get some answers.”
Jerald walked across the room not bothering to look back at his brother. “Don’t drink all my vodka,” he warned. “It’s too early in the day to get drunk.”
Jackson never drank too much, at least not since he was in high school and had to be driven home by the bartender at the country club that recognized him. His brother hated losing control, even more so than Jerald did. But Jackson’s favorite drink was vodka and cranberry. Jerald preferred his vodka straight and strong.
Fifteen minutes later, because he’d also stopped to check his emails, Jerald walked into his living room to see his brother sitting on his couch, the suit jacket he’d been wearing tossed over the backside of the chair.
“How long have you been sleeping with her?” Jackson asked him before Jerald could lay his suit jacket on the chair across from his brother’s.
He went to the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the bright sunny afternoon before replying, “Twice in six weeks.” Many more times in his mind, but Jerald wisely kept that to himself.
“She’s just trying to make some extra money so she can finish school,” he continued, turning to face his brother then. “She has no idea what Mendoza’s capable of.”
“You’re positive about that?” Jackson asked. “You’re 100% sure that Mendoza isn’t playing you through her?”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m dead serious,” his brother yelled, coming to a stand. “Six weeks ago I scheduled a face-to-face meeting with him. He had to know what was up at that moment. His company was already in trouble and if Carrington were calling, Carrington wanted to buy. Mendoza’s not a stupid man. He would have known that and he would have planned accordingly.”
“He would have had no way of knowing I was going to be the one to meet with him instead,” Jerald stated evenly.
Jackson shook his head. “No. But you’re the money man at the company. You okay all the deals incoming and outgoing.”
“You’re the CEO,” Jerald countered.
“It still falls on you. Good deal. Bad deal. You write that report. If your mind’s been twisted by some—”
“Don’t.” Jerald interrupted him, stating the one word clearly, adamantly. “Don’t call her out of her name. She’s not involved with him like that. Not sexually and not on some kind of unsavory business arrangement. That’s not what’s going on here.”
Jackson frowned but he did not speak right away. For endless moments the brothers simply stood there staring at each other.
“You in love with her?” Jackson asked him finally.
Jerald didn’t hesitate with his reply. “I don’t want her hurt. If I can get her to come and work for Carrington Enterprises she’ll have the money she needs and tuition reimbursement. She won’t need to work for Mendoza any longer.”
Jackson lifted a brow. “That’s not what I asked you.”
“That’s what I’m telling you,” Jerald replied instantly. “That’s what I plan to do for her. You close the deal with Carrington before the Feds snatch him up and we can’t get him to sign that company away. That’s what you can do, Jack. I’ll take care of Hailey.”
Jackson looked as if he were going to say something else but the knock at the door stopped him. Jerald went to open the door and was surprised this time to see who was standing on the other side.
“Mandi?” he asked when the intern smiled up at him.
“Hi, Mr. Carrington. We were all worried at the office when we heard about the incident. Noble said he would keep us posted when he left for the hospital but I wanted to see for myself that you were okay,” she said, speaking in that very fast and excited tone she always had.
“Yes,” Jerald spoke quickly before she could start again. “I’m fine. You didn’t h
ave to come all the way over here to see that for yourself.”
“Oh, but I did,” she said then stopped, biting her bottom lip, before smiling up at him nervously. “I mean, I figured you wouldn’t want to come back to the office so I bought the work to you. I have all the Mendoza files and reports and today’s stock rankings. I also have your white tea and your mug. I know how you prefer to use the same mug every day.”
She’d attempted to hold up the small gift bag which most likely held his mug and tea and the two bags she’d slipped the files into, while holding a few other stacks of paper in her arms. Jerald reached out then, taking those stacks from her hands.
“Thank you, Mandi. Come on in,” he told her.
Had she smiled a little brighter as she walked past him?
Jerald sighed inwardly as he caught a whiff of Mandi’s very floral and extremely strong perfume. Closing the door behind him he watched as she made her way into the living room where Jackson was. She wore a short skirt—Mandi always wore short skirts—with a floral pattern on it, a wide black belt and a fitted white top. Her heels were a couple inches higher with a ton of sparkles that made them unprofessional and just a hint short of being gaudy.
“I guess we’re working from home for the rest of the day,” he heard Jack say when he returned to the living room.
“I guess so,” was Jerald’s bland reply.
#
Hailey stayed in her room for the rest of the afternoon and well into the night. After her run-in with Ronnel and his friend she’d locked the door and lay flat on her bed. When her thoughts and the events of the day had only made her head hurt more and her stomach roil in pain, she finally gave in to sleep as the only form of solitude she could find.
It was dark and quiet in her room when she awoke. Eerily quiet she figured after a few moments of lying there. Turning her head slowly she looked towards the window, memories from this morning flooding back into her mind. Someone had thrown a brick through the glass, a brick marked CHEATER. She’d seen the car, a black sedan, just like she’d told the police. No, she hadn’t seen the license tag, nor had any faces been visible because the windows were tinted. But…
Hailey sat up in the center of her bed with a start. She had seen a hand and an arm, all clad in black. A black long sleeved shirt and gloved hand had appeared from the driver’s side after the window had been wound down. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she closed her eyes tightly, trying desperately to see a face. That arm belonged to someone and if the window had been rolled down, why hadn’t she been able to see that someone’s face? Why only had she seen the arm, the hand, and the brick.
After a few more seconds of trying and not succeeding Hailey opened her eyes, looking towards the window once more. Sheer curtains hung from a couple inches away from the ceiling, down to the floor. They never kept the light out, which was Hailey’s preference. Her bedroom back at Gram’s house had room darkening curtains, ones her grandmother had lovingly hung when she was just a young girl and not a fan of bright lights.
Night had fallen while she’d slept but the sheer curtains still allowed a waning glow from the outside house lights to trickle inside. Hailey stood from the bed then, stretching her back, just as her stomach made an annoying twist. This probably wasn’t anxiety or the buddings of fear that had come from seeing Ronnel staring at her the way he had…wait a minute, she thought, letting her arms fall back to her side.
Ronnel had sent her numerous text messages after the incident at the salon, but he hadn’t come to see about them. He had not gotten into his personal SUV with his two bodyguards and his driver as he usually traveled, to come and make sure that his daughters were safe. Rhia had pointed that out the moment they arrived home.
And he’d called her his mujer. Friday night after he’d seen her coming out of the elevator with Jerald. He’d called her his woman. But she wasn’t his woman.
Did that make her a CHEATER in his eyes?
No, she thought coming to a stand and shaking her head. No, this was all ridiculous. Ronnel Mendoza was not trying to train her to be his woman. That had been Jackson Carrington’s assumption. She was only Ronnel’s translator, only working for him for the summer.
Her stomach twisted again and this time Hailey realized she was hungry. And possibly delusional, given her most recent thoughts. With a sigh she headed to the bathroom where she planned to take a shower and then go downstairs to get something to eat, and possibly another pain pill because that damned headache was back.
For almost half an hour she’d stood in that stall with the water going from stinging hot to lukewarm as it cascaded down over her. Hailey had refused to think of Ronnel or all the bad things she’d heard about him anymore. Instead she’d lathered soap all over her body, then stood beneath the water as it washed free, loving the tingle of clean against her skin and the whisper of something else.
Arousal. She’d felt it the moment Jerald had walked into that salon this morning, as she had each time they were together. Today it had been more intense, an aching that centered in the pit of her stomach. That was what had angered her most about seeing him this morning, not the fact that he was still trying to get her to quit her job, but the notion that she would actually consider doing just that for this man.
She thrust her face beneath the water one last time, praying it would wash those foolish thoughts from her mind. No, she would not quit her job for Jerald Carrington, a man that wanted nothing from her but sex, that promised her nothing but…had he offered a job at his company? She was just shaking her head clear of that silly thought and switching off the music when she heard the sound.
It was a thump, as if something had fallen onto the floor in the other room. Stepping out of the shower quickly, Hailey grabbed the towel from the rack and wrapped it around her body. Her hair dripped, wet feet splashed water onto the floor as she headed towards the door. The moment she reached for the handle she heard another sound, something else hitting the floor, a lighter sound than before, but still…
Hailey yanked the door open and stepped onto the carpeted floor of her bedroom. And then she felt the breeze.
The window was open, those sheer curtains lifting and dancing as the cool evening breeze blew into the room. The lights were still off, at least until Hailey had moved to the table to turn on the lamp that sat there. But the lamp was gone.
Hurrying toward the main door of the room Hailey flipped the light switch there and watched as the bright golden glow illuminated the room. The lamp was on the floor. That’s what she’d heard fall. Hailey gasped then as she saw her purse lying in the middle of the bed, emptied of all its contents. Her cell phone thrown on the floor.
Crossing the room quickly she picked up her belongings, setting them all on the bed beside her purse, surveying each item to make sure nothing was missing. It wasn’t. But someone had definitely come in here and emptied everything out. Why? Still holding her cell phone in her hand Hailey thought she should call someone. The police maybe?
That window had been closed when she’d gone into the shower and her purse had been sitting on the nightstand where she’d put it when she came in earlier today. She’d gotten up to check the door and noted that it was still locked from when she’d come in here in a hurry to get away from Ronnel.
“No,” she sighed. It couldn’t have been him. He would have simply unlocked the door and come inside. This was his house after all.
Then it had to be someone else. Maybe the person that had thrown the brick. She switched on her phone, still not sure who she intended to call when a saved text message screen appeared. It had a message already drafted to be sent to her grandmother.
I’m so sorry Gram for messing everything up and for putting your life in danger.
She read that message over and over again before finally exiting the screen. Who would sneak in here to send a text message to her grandmother? And what type of danger was she in?
Very close to hyperventilating Hailey clenched her phone in her h
ands, closing her eyes in an attempt to calm her throbbing heart. When the phone vibrated in her hands she almost jumped off the bed. She answered it immediately, not bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hey there,” he said the moment she answered.
With her heart still pounding and her hands shaking, Hailey replied in as calm a voice as she could muster, “Hey yourself. Um, how are you feeling?”
“I should be asking you that question,” he said.
Hailey looked around the room again, knowing there was no way that Jerald could know what had just happened, unless…
“What do you mean?” she asked him as she ran her shaking fingers through wet hair.
“You sound a little groggy, like maybe you just woke up,” was his even reply. “I can’t say that I blame you. I wanted to take a nap myself after those pain meds, but I ended up working from home.”
He didn’t know what had just happened. Hailey took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he’d continued to talk. Jerald’s voice had the effect of a comforting hug, circling around her as she sat on the edge of that bed, the lamp still on the floor, curtains still billowing in the breeze of the open window. She never thought she’d be happy to hear him calling her, but in this moment, she absolutely was.
“Well, a girl needs her beauty rest,” she’d joked and got up to close that window.
“You’re beautiful enough without any help,” was his immediate reply.
Hailey did not respond to that. She did not know what to say.
“Let’s go to dinner tonight,” he said into the silence. “Do you like steak?”
She’d promised him dinner earlier today. Then, she’d figured she could come up with some reason not to at a later date. She had no idea he would call her on that agreement so soon. But to be perfectly honest, the last thing she wanted to do right now was turn him down. She wanted to get out of this house, away from the feeling that something here wasn’t quite right. And who better to do that with than the man that had already warned her about staying here in the first place.