“These accusations are false,” she said as soon as he answered.
“You’re smarter than you look,” Evan stated. “Even so, the info is still out there. If I have a friend who was able to dig it up, so are many others.”
“What’s your point, Evan?” she yelled. “Micah was cleared of all charges so whatever you’re thinking about doing would be pointless.”
“Think again, sweetheart,” he said in a tone that made her want to throw up. “You met Ben Grant’s wife at dinner, right? Denise Grant?”
“Yes, and...?”
“Did you know they have a daughter named Monica Grant?”
“They mentioned that’s their only daughter. What’s your point?”
“My point, Lex, is that dear sweet Monica didn’t have the best experience at Arkansas State University. You see, Monica had an off-campus job and decided to help out a friend and take an overnight shift. She should have returned to campus before it got dark because she was waiting for the bus when she was sexually assaulted by a man who dragged her away from the bus and into an alley where there were more men waiting to sexually assault her. The entire ordeal was so devastating that Monica never fully recovered, and although the men were brought to justice, it wasn’t enough to make Monica feel safe again.”
“That is heart-wrenching” Lex exclaimed as she wiped a tear from her eye and placed her hand over her heart. “My heart aches for them, but I’m still not understanding. I met them and there is no way Ben and Denise Grant would hold it against Micah that he was falsely accused of something he didn’t do.”
“You may be right,” Evan responded. “But they would if they knew Micah used to hang out in the same crowd as Neil Timmons, Monica’s main attacker.”
Oh, goodness, no... She tried to comprehend what Evan was telling her, but one thing still wasn’t adding up. “Why are you involving yourself in this? What do you want?”
“Isn’t it obvious,” he said deceitfully. “The only thing that will stop me from informing Ben and Denise Grant about Micah is you. I want you back Lex. I want you back and I want us to get remarried.”
Blackmail. Lex dropped the phone, refusing to listen to anything else Evan had to say. She went to the couch and lay down before she picked up her personal cell and told Micah she wasn’t feeling well and needed some time to herself.
She knew he didn’t deserve to be ignored and quite frankly, all she wanted to do was tell him everything she’d just found out. But a part of her didn’t understand how Micah could be friends with a man like Neil Timmons. An even larger part was worried that Evan’s accusations were true. Lex wasn’t the type of woman Micah usually dated. Could he have pursued me because he thought I was easily influenced? She rubbed her forehead. How much do I actually know about Micah?
Guaranteed, she’d spent the past few weeks getting to know him and his family, so her heart was telling her to trust her gut and believe that there was nothing Micah would have in common with a man like Neil. Micah loved her...the real her. Unlike Evan, he didn’t have any ulterior motives in dating her.
Lex stood and began pacing the floor. She’d been wrong in the past. Evan was proof of that. Even so, Evan Gilmore had ruined her life years ago, and she’d promised when she divorced him that she would never give him that power again. Micah was finally in a place that he wanted to be in with the type of job he’d always dreamed of having.
As soon as she figured out how to make Evan back off without getting Micah involved, she would talk to Micah about the entire situation and handle her relationship without Evan’s interference. Until then, she would not do anything to jeopardize the rise of M&M Security.
* * *
“Hey, Malik,” Micah said when his brother, who was also a private investigator, walked into the conference room at M&M Security. When his brother had asked to meet with him and Shawn, Micah knew it had to be important if he was driving from Detroit to Chicago.
He wanted to know what was up with his brother, but right now, he wanted to know what was going on with Lex more. He had no idea what was bothering her and she hadn’t returned any of his calls in three days, only text messages. With Christmas approaching in two days he had hoped they would have made plans to spend the holiday together. She probably got cold feet after I told her I loved her. But she said she loved him, too, so he didn’t understand the problem.
“Micah, are you listening,” Malik said, interrupting his thoughts.
“Sorry, bro, what’s up?”
“We have a problem,” Malik said as he placed his black bag on the mahogany conference table before removing his black winter coat and taking a seat near Shawn and Micah.
“You know how I often run a background check on you to make sure there are no red flags?”
“I thought you ran a background check on me to make sure I wasn’t doing something I shouldn’t be doing,” Micah replied with a sarcastic laugh.
“I’m being serious,” Malik said as he took a couple pieces of paper out of his bag and slid them over to Shawn and Micah.
“It looks like somebody on the inside released information on your case from college,” Malik said to Micah. “From what I can tell, the hacking took place in the New York City FBI office. Upon further digging, I uncovered the name Ralph Peters as the FBI agent who was investigating you.”
“I’ve never heard of him,” Micah said, shuffling through the papers.
“Neither have I,” Shawn added.
“I hadn’t either so I investigated some more and looked into the people he was associated with. For the most part, the people he hangs out with are clean. But one name stood out.”
Malik slipped another paper on the table. “Evan Gilmore is his financial advisor, and according to the background check I did, he was married to—”
“Lexus Turner,” Micah interrupted, having permanently etched the name in his mind the minute Lex had told him about Evan. “If he thinks he can get to me to get to Lex, he better think again,” he continued, taking a swig from his water bottle to calm his nerves.
“I don’t think that’s all,” Malik added. “Gilmore is the financial advisor for Grant & Parker Incorporated.”
“Shit,” Micah voiced. “Gilmore handles their finances. So this is more about bringing me down than getting back at Lex.”
“I think it’s about both,” Malik said. “There were quite a few complaints filed against Gilmore from old clients who said he was manipulative, irresponsible and a snake in the grass. Most of the cases were dropped.”
“Did you uncover why?” Shawn asked. “I can’t imagine most of the cases being dropped when money is involved.”
“You’re exactly right,” Malik stated as he pulled out yet another file that contained a list of names. “Gentlemen, if you look at the first page you will notice all the names of the accounts that Gilmore embezzled money from, and if you look at the second page of names you will find all of the people who he is currently working with or paid off for silence.”
“This asshole,” Micah stated, pushing all the paper away from him in frustration.
“I also found out that he’s in Chicago right now,” Malik added. “He’s been here for about three days.”
“That’s right around the time Lex stopped talking to me. I wonder if he contacted her.”
“Did you tell her about Fisk University?” Malik asked.
“She knows the story about my past and the trouble I used to get into. And she knows I was arrested and had to transfer schools, but she doesn’t know the entire story about Ashley Anderson’s accusations.”
“If he contacted her, that explains why she hasn’t spoken to you,” Shawn said. “He could have told her the entire story and she could have been caught off guard because she didn’t know.”
“Maybe,” Micah said, clasping his hands together
on the table. “Okay, so what does Grant & Parker Inc. have to do with all this? They aren’t on either of Gilmore’s list.”
Malik opened his mouth to speak and then hesitated.
“What is it?” Micah asked.
“Well,” Malik said as he flipped through a couple pages of the file in his hand before slipping it to Micah, “if you read that, you’ll see a detailed description of what happened to Ben and Denise Grant’s daughter, Monica Grant.”
Micah began reading the police report and the statement from Monica, growing angrier with every sentence he read about the sexual assault. No woman should ever have to go through what she went through, and no parent should ever have to watch his or her daughter go through that. It was amazing that she survived the ordeal, but the physical and mental damage that was done was just as devastating to read. Micah had done a good job at keeping his anger under control until he got to the last sentence of the report. Sexual Offender—Neil Timmons.
“Damn,” Micah yelled as he threw the paper across the table and firmly hit the desk before he stood up to stand by the window.
“Oh, man,” he heard Shawn say aloud after reading the document.
“I get it,” Micah said, turning from the window to face Malik and Shawn. “Gilmore plans to tell Ben and Denise Grant that I used to hang out in the same circle as Timmons. Am I right? A sure way for M&M Security to lose our biggest investor yet.”
“That’s my guess,” Malik said, walking to Micah and clasping a hand on his shoulder. “But you never know what could happen. I think a better question would be what bug did Evan Gilmore place in Lex’s ear. You couldn’t have known that Neil would turn out to be the type of man he did. We knew he was bad news, but most the guys in the neighborhood were into the same stuff he was, only he turned into a sexual offender. Plus, I’m sure Grant & Parker would be interested to learn this information about their financial advisor. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
“I have to talk to Lex,” Micah said. “You can work out a plan with Shawn while I’m gone. But first, I think I need to talk to Evan Gilmore.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Shawn said. “I think we should both go.”
“I’m going, too,” Malik added, packing up his papers. “I figured you would want to talk to him after we uncovered this information, so I found out what hotel he’s staying at.”
“Great, let’s go.”
Chapter 20
“Let’s sit over there,” Lex said to Mya as they made their way to the corner of the sandwich shop attached to the hotel where Evan had asked her to meet him. After days of avoiding Micah and trying to keep everything that was happening to herself, she had finally decided that she needed to open up and talk to someone. She’d debriefed Mya on the situation and asked her to accompany her to the meeting with Evan. After spending thirty minutes trying to convince her to call Micah and ignore Evan’s warning altogether, Mya had finally caved in and decided to come with her.
“This is a bad idea,” Mya said as they sat at the table.
“Relax,” Lex said as she removed her coat and draped it over the back of the chair. “I refuse to give Evan any power over me and I do plan on talking to Micah about this, but only after I give Evan a piece of my mind.”
“Look, honey,” Mya said, rubbing her hand, “I love this new fierce and fabulous you, but Evan isn’t worth the air you breathe. He’s lower than the scum on the bottom of your pumps. He’s a jerk. He’s a scummy jerk. He’s a scummy, manipulating, evil, malicious jerk who should pay for the crap he put you through. My only hope is that when Micah finds out, Evan will curse the day he ever coerced you into saying I do.”
Lex looked at her partner who was also one of her best friends. “Are you done?”
“Um, yeah, I think so,” Mya said, taking a sip from the glass of water that had been brought to the table.
“Do you feel better now?” Lex asked.
“I do,” Mya said, giving a quick smile. “But he better not say anything stupid because if he does, I may stab him with my fork.”
Lex laughed although nothing about the situation was funny. Mya had always been her ride-or-die friend and she loved that about her. Many people knew that Mya’s words were lethal. If she loved you, then you would always have a fierce and loyal friend in Mya, but if you crossed her, or someone she loved, Mya was a force to be reckoned with.
“Oh, great,” Mya said, glancing into the lobby of the hotel. “There goes that son-of-a-bitch now.”
“Mya,” Lex exclaimed. “Can we try to refrain from all the name-calling when he actually gets here? Anger won’t resolve this. I need to be able to vocalize what I’m feeling once and for all.”
Mya was about to say something else, when Lex cut her off.
“Is that Shawn?” Lex asked when she noticed Evan had stopped walking.
“Uh, I think so,” Mya said, peering out of the restaurant.
“Oh, no,” Lex stated. “That’s definitely Micah and Malik behind him.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, where are they walking to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s go see what’s going on.”
Lex barely had time to react because Mya was already halfway out the door.
* * *
“I could have you guys arrested for threatening me,” Evan yelled. “You don’t have a case here.”
“I think you may want to lower your voice,” Malik said as they walked to a part of the lobby that was somewhat empty.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen,” Micah said, done with trying to play nice. “Either you keep my name and Lex’s name out of your mouth, or we’ll expose you for the embezzling bastard you really are.” Micah was trying to calm his nerves, but he had been anxious ever since Malik had told him the information about Evan and Neil Timmons. He was trying to be the bigger person. Be a man about the situation. But his body wasn’t listening to his mind, so all Micah wanted to do was knock Evan out cold.
“Your case wouldn’t go far,” Evan rebuked. “I know people in high places.”
“I guarantee we know people in higher places,” Shawn said, standing closer to Evan and looking him up and down.
“We’ll see,” Evan said before he looked past the men to something that had caught his eye. Never one to take their eyes off a target, none of the men turned to see what Evan was looking at.
“You know what,” Evan said, shrugging his shoulders, “I can tell you like leftovers so you can have her.” He looked straight in Micah’s eyes before he continued. “The sex was never that good anyway. And once you get tired of playing with her, you’ll throw her away just like I did.”
“Be careful, Gilmore,” Micah warned as he took two steps toward him.
“What are you going to do?” Evan egged on. “Hit me? Do it! I dare you! You can have that sorry excuse for a woman. I only married her because I felt sorry for her. I—”
Lex’s fist connected with Evan’s face, catching Evan off guard as well as everyone else. His hand shot up to his chin to cover where she had hit him.
“I know you didn’t just hit me b—” Lex’s fist connected with Evan’s face again, halting whatever he’d been about to say. Her second punch knocked him out cold. Shawn caught Evan before he fell to the ground and sat him in a nearby chair so that it would appear as if he was asleep.
“Oh, man, that felt good,” Lex said as she shook her hand in pain.
“What happened to vocalizing your words?” Mya asked Lex with a smirk as she gave her a high five.
“The moment called for hand-to-face contact,” Lex said with a laugh.
“What are you doing here?” Micah asked, realizing that she was the trigger that made Evan start talking so much crap.
“I was supposed to b
e meeting with Evan and I brought Mya with me. He came to my house the other day and had an entire file on you. Although, I’m guessing you already know.”
“Malik told me this morning,” he said. “But I don’t understand why you didn’t talk to me.”
“Because I wanted to stand up for myself once and for all. Evan had threatened me enough in my lifetime, and I wasn’t going to let him dictate who I love or worry you.”
Micah had a feeling she’d felt that way, which was why he didn’t step in. Lex needed to finally feel in control. But that didn’t mean he liked the fact she was going to meet him by herself.
“But Evan is too dangerous for you to deal with on your own.”
“I tried to tell her to let you handle it,” Mya chimed in, standing off to the side. Micah turned to tell Mya thanks, taking note of the way his brother was glancing at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. He would have felt sorry for Malik if he hadn’t noticed Mya trying just as hard not to look at him.
“Based off what I heard,” Lex said, breaking his observation of his brother and Mya, “I understand that now. And you said something about embezzlement? What did he do?”
“We can talk about all that later,” Micah said, picking up her hand and kissing her swollen knuckles. “All I want to do now is take care of your hand and make sure that we’re okay.”
She smiled as she raised her hand to his cheek. “We’re okay,” she said, lightly kissing his lips. “I know the type of man you are so I knew there was more to the story than what Evan told me. I just needed some time to myself to figure out how I was going to handle the situation.”
“Thanks for believing in me,” he said, pulling her closer. “But please promise me that you will talk to me if you ever have a question about my past, instead of keeping things to yourself.”
“Deal,” she said as she pulled him closer to her for a kiss. The minute he heard her moan, he deepened their kiss, his tongue frolicking with hers, igniting all his senses in a way only she knew how to do.
Red Velvet Kisses Page 17