by LK Collins
“Yeah. Who was that girl in here the other day?”
I play dumb, knowing that he’s referring to Nat. “We meet with a lot of clients, would you remind me who you mean?”
“The skinny, dark-haired one that was behind your desk.”
“Oh, Reid sent her with a proposal of costs. He’s out of town and I guess she works for him.”
Vincent nods his head, and I realize how dumb it was of me to lie about being so far developed with the plan with Reid when he might not even be in at all.
“Okay, but for real, man, if you need anything at all, just let me know.”
“You know it,” I tell him, sounding upbeat as he leaves. I wait for my door to close and sink into my chair. Picking up my phone, I text Nat.
Update me, please.
At the same time, an email comes through from Reid.
To: Liam Brown
From: Reid Vanderkamp
August 14, 2015 2:23pm
Liam,
I apologize for the delay, but I was recently acquired by a production company to provide security on and off the set to their actors and actresses for an upcoming movie. It basically took me and my entire team three months, but we’re just wrapping up filming now and I’m interested in your proposal. I’ll be back in Colorado early next week if you want to meet?
Reid
Finally some good news. Reid didn’t shut me down after all. He could be the ticket to the future with my girls if Prestwell doesn’t pan out. Plan B has been slowly forming in the back of my mind, and this brings me one step closer. I check my phone again, but nothing from Nat, and her location shows she’s off of his property. Zooming in, I see she’s not on a road. My chest tightens in fear.
Where is she going, or where is he taking her?
Grabbing my car keys, I bolt. He better not have fucking hurt her. Images of her running through the woods flash in my mind and adrenaline courses through my veins. The thought that something could be wrong is too unbearable.
Knowing that Vincent will stress if I leave so early again. I pop my head into his office. “Reid just called, he’s back in town and wants to run something by me so I’m gonna meet him. I’ll see ya later.”
“Cool, man, good luck.”
In a way, I feel like he is babysitting me, but it’s my own fault after all. I’ve gotten so close to C.J. and Vincent, so now they both worry about me and sometimes I fucking hate it. I guess it’s been a long time since I actually had friends, so it’s just something I have to deal with.
Getting into my car, I check that my gun is holstered before backing out of the parking spot. Hastily, I head west from the city into the mountains. I never should have let her do this.
My knuckles are white against the wheel as I clench down, holding it fiercely. I know my way to his house like the back of my hand.
Barreling my way up the highway, I weave erratically in and out of traffic, so scared of what I’m about to stumble into. Then a text from her settles my body in an instant. Just got back from a horse ride, haven’t been able to get away. Sorry
Whipping my car to the right shoulder of the road, I pull over, laughing out loud like a lunatic.
She’s okay. Fuck, she’s okay.
Taking a second to compose myself, I calm my fingers enough to move them and text her back. We’re going on almost four hours, have you started, baby?
No, working on it now.
Sitting on the side of the highway, I know better than to try and tell her what to do, any more than I already have. I’m so grateful that she is all right though. Letting out all of my pent up aggression, I exhale and think about Nat. If she could get this done, we’re set. Then the possibility of working with Reid, and we might actually walk away from all of this with some money of our own to start our life with.
Turning my car around, I head back towards the city, feeling stupid for ever doubting her. She is a thousand times smarter than I am, and I’m sure she’s got everything handled.
I decide to leave Reid a message in response to his email in order to get this whole thing with the dispensaries rolling, but he answers on the second ring.
“Liam,” he says. “How are things?”
“Pretty good.”
“So when are we meeting to discuss your dispensary problem?”
“The sooner the better. I can come to you.” I offer hoping to keep him out of Smith, Brown, and Mileski.
“Nah, let’s grab lunch. My treat. Say, noon at the Iris on Monday?”
“Sounds good. Hey, if you happen to talk to Vincent, I might have said a certain lady friend of mine was your employee.”
“Getting dirty with the clients?” he asks me.
“Hey, a man’s got needs, brother.”
“Hah, that we do. What’s her name?”
“Aubrey.”
“She’s on my payroll, man, nothing to worry about.”
I hang up trusting Reid for some strange reason. I know if Vincent goes snooping around, Reid’ll at least have my back, and Reid just thinks “Aubrey” is a random hook-up.
“Who sent you?” Prestwell asks with venom in his eyes.
“No one,” I respond shaking my head.
“Then why are you on my fucking computer?” he yells so close to my face that his spit hits me.
“I told you – the bank called me to verify charges that were made through my bank account, so I tried to sign online and check them.”
He looks down at me, tilting his head side to side like a cockatoo wanting to believe me. I’ve got the flash drive clenched in the palm of my hand and I hope he didn’t see it. “But you’re signed onto my computer – why? How?!” His tone gets louder with every word as his head looms menacingly close to mine.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It wasn’t locked.” I become defensive knowing that I need to leave. As I stand from the chair behind his desk, he grabs my arm, pressing his fingers deep into my flesh before I can take a step. I fear that I’ll lose the flash drive, so I freeze.
Looking into my eyes, he asks me like he’s surprised, “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving! Take your fucking hand off me now!”
“No, you’re not,” he says and pushes me backwards, almost slamming me into the bookshelf. I stumble, but catch my footing.
“What the fuck are you thinking, Prestwell?”
“You’re hiding something,” he says.
“I’m not hiding anything, asshole.” I slip the flash drive into my pocket, not knowing where this is going.
“Something’s off about you.”
“I could say the same for you. You’re asking me to tell you something I don’t know. I’m sorry that I felt comfortable here in your home. I thought I could use your computer. I don’t know why it was unlocked. If it wasn’t supposed to be, maybe you should interrogate your staff, instead of me.”
He steps to me and grabs my face, digging his fingers painfully into my cheeks. “If I find out that you’re lying, I’ll fucking kill, you bitch.”
Lifting my leg as hard as I can, I knee him right in the balls. His eyes about bug out of his head and he sounds like a mother giving birth. I watch him drop to his knees and pray that I had enough time to get what we need off his PC.
Jogging to the car, I hop in and dial Micah as I blaze away from Prestwell’s house.
“How did it go?” he asks.
“Not good.”
“Fuck,” he mutters. “What happened?”
“After you called, I thought I’d have five minutes alone when we got back from the horseback ride, but that crazy fucker came looking for me. He caught me and…” I trail off, knowing that Micah is going to flip when he finds out that Prestwell put his hands on me.
“And what, Nat?” he orders me to tell him.
I fill him in on what went down and he’s silent. I expected Micah to at least react in some way, but the utter silence ratchets my nerves to breaking and catches me by surprise. “Micah?” I whisper, scared
of his reaction. “What are you thinking?”
“That I’m going to fucking kill him, Nat.” The eerie calm of his voice sends a chill straight through me.
“Stop, you’re overreacting.”
“Am I?” he asks sarcastically.
“Kinda, yeah. We need to stay level-headed.”
“Did he or didn’t he push you and hold you forcefully against your will while he threatened your life?”
“He did,” I say.
“Exactly, so I’m not overreacting. I’m going to fucking teach him a lesson.” His breathing is harsh and I know that he’s serious, which scares me.
“Baby, don’t. I might have everything that we need to take the money from him. Let’s at least look at this flash drive before you fly off the handle.”
He’s quiet for a bit and I drive as fast as I can. Thankfully I’m finally home. Seeing Micah face to face will calm any of his irrational thinking. Getting out of the car, I walk into the house. He is still silent on the other end of the phone, but he hasn’t hung up.
“Hey,” I say, hitting the end button as I walk into the living room.
He turns to me with deep worry lines etched into his forehead and holds my face in his hands, looking me over to make sure that there are no marks. Puckering my lips, I kiss his and pull out the flash drive. He runs his knuckles down my cheek and I pray that Prestwell didn’t leave any signs of his impulsive aggression. “I’m okay, I promise.”
He kisses my forehead and I place the drive against his chest. “Let’s take a look at it,” I offer, hoping I got what we needed this time.
“You really are resilient.”
“I have to be. I have the future to look forward to.”
“Me too.” He kisses my neck and takes my hand, leading me to his home office. I say a silent prayer as he pops the drive into the PC. He sits in the chair, pulling me atop his lap. Getting comfortable, we wait together for it to load, and Micah says, “You smell like a barn, girl.”
I bust out laughing. “I feel like one.”
He looks at me crooked and asks, “What does a barn feel like?”
I can barely keep a straight face realizing how silly the comment was. “I just mean that I feel dirty.”
“Do you now? Wanna shower?” he asks, nuzzling my ear suggestively.
“What about this?” I ask, pointing to the computer.
“It’ll be here when we’re done.”
Getting up, I love how even in a hectic stressful time, Micah can let everything go and just be in the moment with me. I think it comes from living apart for so many years – it makes you cherish the time that you do have together.
He turns the water on, and I shed my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor. “After you,” he says, standing perfectly naked gesturing me into the shower.
Getting in, the cold water catches me off guard, but his warm arms shroud me, warming me instantly. We stand together and he asks me, “Can we agree that no matter what is on the drive, you are done with this Prestwell asshole?”
I think about his statement and worry what we’ll do if the banking information isn’t on there. “Do you have another plan?” I ask him.
He opens the body wash and squirts some into the loofah. “Don’t I always?”
He does.
“Okay. No matter what’s on the drive, we’re done with Prestwell, but that goes for you too.”
He scrunches his eyes at me. “I didn’t say I was done with Prestwell.”
“But you are.” He cocks a brow at me and turns me around, washing my backside. “Who would you say you were?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“But it does, it’ll just blow our whole cover.”
“Baby, a man doesn’t need to put his hands on a woman like he did to you. I’m going to beat the piss out of him.”
I turn around and grab the loofah from him, adding more soap, then begin washing his body, making sure that I am careful over his bruises.
Making my way down, I pay extra attention to his growing cock. Washing it with my hand, he moans, liking the attention, and I drop the loofah, knowing what we both want.
He rinses his body off and grips his dick. I spread open my pussy for him and he nudges his way inside of me.
“You’re mine,” he whispers into my ear as he starts to gingerly pump his amazing cock in and out of me. I freeze, the slowness alone could be my undoing, but I stay in control, loving the intimacy with Micah.
He braces himself against the shower wall and shields me from the water. I grip his biceps, searching for his lips, and let the water blend us together. Holding on to him, we move in sync, his hips pushing in rhythm with mine.
I can’t help the noises. The closeness. The love. The hope for our future. It’s all wrapped up in one and pushing me out of this world. “Fuck, Nat,” he groans. “I love you.”
“I…I…I…” I shudder beneath him. His rock hard dick rubbing me just right where he hits that spot, the spot that shatters me, making me lose all sensibility.
“Ahhhhhh, fuck!” he yells, letting go himself. My body is filled with bliss to the tips of my fingers and toes. The connection of us becoming one is so strong, and I pray that nothing will ever take this away.
“Anything yet?” Nat asks me.
Filtering through the flash drive for the third time, I shake my head. “I have to have missed something.”
She pulls up a chair next to me and gives me her phone. “He keeps texting me.”
“Fuck him,” I tell her. I’m fed up with this prick. Apparently his housekeeper says she saw Nat on his computer the first time, but didn’t do a damn thing, so now he’s flipping his lid. If he really believes that Natalene is up to something, it won’t take long until the bank puts all of his funds on lockdown, so even if I find something worthwhile, we’ll be locked out.
“Stop it, Micah, for real. What should I say?” she asks me.
“Don’t say anything, baby. You’ll just be fueling the fire. It’s not worth it.”
Clicking through the files again, I come upon one named Resource Drum. I don’t remember seeing it before and click on it. It looks to be shipping invoices for containers from China to the US. “What’s that?” Nat asks me, as I read into it.
“I’m not sure, probably just oil crap.”
The invoices seem to be written in a code. I remember finding a document that looked like a code earlier, like a map or key. Backtracking my way through the files, I find the key and put the two files together.
Reading the invoice, the description clearly states, Thirty-seven female passengers. It has departure and arrival dates. This must be how he really makes his money. “Our friend, Prestwell, is a human trafficker.”
“Shut up,” she yells.
“No joke. This file here must be what he calls the container that he moves the women in. Man, I’d love to find the offshore account for that.”
“Can you?” she asks me.
“Maybe.” Searching through the Resource Drum file, there are so many invoices.
Why would he do this when he has so much money?
“So do you think this is how he makes his money? The oil is just a cover?”
“Possibly, I even came across a shipping port in Seattle that he uses. It’s got to be his home base to get these women into the country. I don’t think it’s for oil.”
“So what can we do with it, without the offshore accounts or any banking info?”
My phone vibrates again and Micah picks it up. “We can blackmail him to keep quiet.”
Before we can get any further, her phone vibrates again and the message pushes me beyond my limit.
“Motherfucker,” I growl, clenching the phone so hard that I’m waiting for it to break.
Getting up, I grab my car keys and Nat runs after me. “Where are you going?”
“Stay here, I’m putting a stop to the shit this little prick is trying to pull.”
“What are you going to do?” she as
ks, following me to the front door.
“Let me handle this.”
“Don’t, Micah, just ignore him,” she begs me with concern written all over her face.
“Stay here, Nat,” I order her and close the door tightly. I hear the lock click, and I’m thankful that she’s listening to me. With her phone in my hand, I get into the Denali and peel down the road. To be honest, I might be doing this more as a “fuck you.” But he needs a good reality check and I want to make a point to Prestwell that Natalene is not to be fucked with. Her phone chimes again, You won’t get away with this.
His persistence and half-assed attempt at threats don’t scare me. They only piss me off. The phone rings and I hope it’s him. Glancing at the screen, it’s Nat. Blazing up the highway, I answer her call.
“Baby, you can’t stop me.”
“I know, but…have you thought this all the way through?” She sounds panicked.
“He’s threatening you and I’m not going to have that.” I honk the horn and fly around a car, yelling at them.
“Control yourself, Micah. We don’t need any police attention.”
“And we won’t.”
“So what, you’re just going to talk to him?”
“I don’t know what I’ll do, baby, but I’m not going to have him threatening you, or thinking what he did was okay. He put his hands on you, and for that, he needs to pay.”
“Please, just don’t do anything stupid.”
“I won’t,” I tell her. “I’ll call you when I leave. I love you, Natalene.”
“I love you.”
We hang up, and for some reason it’s hard to let her go. But that’s just my brain fucking with me. I concentrate on what I have to do, driving as fast and safely as I can. Focusing on the task ahead, I text this fucker from her phone, waiting at the top of his driveway. Let’s talk, will you open your gate?
Peering down the driveway, I make sure to keep my distance. He doesn’t text back, but sure enough, the gate rolls open.
Creeping forward in my car, I observe his house. I can see him in one of the upper windows looking down at my car. Thankfully, the windows are tinted, so he can’t see me.
Aren’t you going to come outside? I text him, knowing that every time that Nat came to visit him, he was waiting on the front steps of his home for her. The place seems eerily quiet and I wonder if he ordered all the staff away, in hopes to lure her in.