“You wish,” she shot back with a soft snort—and an unmistakable spark of sensual curiosity in her green eyes that made his dick twitch.
“You have no idea, Miss Brenna,” he murmured under his breath, loving the way she was looking at him…and already imagining just how sweet it would be. But since this was neither the time nor the place, he sat back in his chair and moved the conversation on to a safer subject. “So, did the nurse say everything was okay with Davey’s vitals?”
Her expression softened, just like it always did when she talked about her son. “She did. He hasn’t had a fever in hours, and all his readings are good.”
“That’s great. You think he’ll be excited about staying at my place?”
“I think he’ll be so excited he’ll be bouncing off the walls,” she said with a quiet laugh, just as someone dropped something out in the hallway, the loud bang making them both jump to their feet. And waking up her little boy, who’d still been sound asleep.
“Mommy?” Davey said from his bed, turning his head to look over at them.
“Hey sweetie,” she said in a gentle voice, rushing over to Davey’s bedside. Brushing the golden curls back from his face, she asked, “How do you feel?”
“Better,” he said around a wide yawn, his eyelids already starting to droop.
“You still sleepy?”
“Yeah.”
“Then close your eyes and rest,” she whispered, leaning over to give him a kiss on his forehead. “I’m right here.”
“And Jonah too?” he asked without opening his eyes.
“Yeah, dude. I’m here.”
“Good,” Davey said with another yawn, followed almost immediately by an adorable snore.
“God, that was fast,” she whispered, joining Jonah at the foot of the bed. “He’s already out like a light.”
“Oh, to be four again,” he murmured past the lump of emotion still stuck in his throat, the fact that Davey wanted him there hitting him right in the heart.
Taking his hand, she slid him a small smile as they walked back over to the window. “I bet you were a handful when you were little.”
“What are you talking about? I was a saint.”
She gave another feminine snort. “Bullshit.”
He laughed, then asked, “Did the nurse give you any idea what time they might discharge him?”
“She said the ENT pediatrician would check in on him around noon, and if he was happy with Davey’s progress, then he could go home then.”
“Okay. So why don’t I go ahead and run over to your apartment now. You can make me a list of what you guys need, and that way we can head straight to my place when they finally say the little dude can spring this joint.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” she asked, looking genuinely surprised that he would make the offer as they turned to face each other.
“Not at all,” he assured her, thinking again that it was going to take time for her to get used to having someone there to help share the load.
Jonah handed her his phone, and she used the notepad function to make her list, explaining where he could find a few of the items after she’d given it back to him. Then she gave him a kiss goodbye that was so fucking sweet, he had to claw on to his self-control before he ended up pulling her out into the hallway, finding an empty room, and taking her against the closed door, hard and fast and deep.
“You’re fucking dangerous,” he groaned with a low laugh, when she finally stepped back. Then he turned and forced himself to get the hell out of there while he still could, loving the way her own soft laughter followed him out into the hallway, the womanly sound telling him she was finally beginning to understand just how powerfully she affected him.
Once Jonah had paid for his parking and was pulling out onto the empty morning road, he immediately made a call, knowing exactly what he wanted. “There’s a huge-ass bonus in it for you if you can make this all happen in the next couple of hours,” he said to Caroline, his longtime personal shopper. If anyone could work the kind of miracle he was looking for that day, it was her, and Caroline promised him she could have everything waiting at the penthouse before he and Jocelyn brought Davey home from the hospital.
The drive to Jocelyn’s building was short, and he was lucky to find parking right in front. After grabbing an elevator up to her floor, Jonah let himself into her apartment with the key she’d given him, and then shut the door. Wanting to get back to her and Davey as quickly as possible, he hurried back to her bedroom as he pulled up the list she’d made on his phone, but then froze, his body stopping in its tracks the second he walked through her bedroom doorway, his gaze glued to the shelf above her pillow-covered bed. Jonah had never paid the items on the shelf much attention the other times he’d been in her room, but then, he’d always been with Jocelyn, so his focus had understandably been on her. But now he saw them, and he couldn’t stop staring.
L. O. V. E.
Those were the four tall, cream-colored letters that sat propped against the wall in the middle of the shelf, nestled between two plants, some ornate books, and a couple of silver candlesticks. He didn’t know how to explain it, but it was as if he could actually feel that particular word all around him. Feel the very warmth and emotion of it vibrating within the walls of the small apartment. Feel it rushing into his lungs with each of his slow, deep breaths.
God, it was sweet.
The sweetest fucking thing he’d ever experienced.
He gave himself a moment to simply enjoy the feeling, and then forced his ass into gear, finding the bag Jocelyn had told him would be in the top of her closet and setting it on her bed. Then he got to work collecting everything on her list, and once it was all packed, he locked the front door and headed back down to his car. After making sure the main door to the building clicked shut behind him, he turned toward the street and nearly stumbled from shock, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Carter Cartwright was standing beside the backdoor of the Bentley his driver had parked just in front of Jonah’s SUV, no more than two yards away from him. Jesus, it was like mentioning the bastard’s name too many times earlier had summoned him forth. “Fucking Beetlejuice,” he muttered under his breath.
“Excuse me?” his old man murmured, sounding unsure if he’d just been insulted.
“Nothing,” he bit out, not about to explain himself. “What are you doing here?”
Carter sniffed as he cast an unsavory look up at the building, then brought his disapproving gaze back to Jonah’s narrowed one. “Your little piece of ass lives in a shithole.”
Before his father could so much as blink, Jonah dropped the bag on the sidewalk and lunged forward, slamming the jackass against his shiny car. “Call her that again,” he warned, “and you won’t be saying anything else for a long fucking time, old man.”
Carter curled his lip with disgust. “You’re still just as stupid as you were back then. You never learn, do you?”
Chest heaving, Jonah took a step back and fisted his hands at his sides. “Just stay the hell away from her. Stay the hell away from both of us.”
“You need to shut up and listen,” Carter muttered, straightening his tie as he pushed away from the Bentley, “because you don’t know what’s coming. I’m telling you, Jonah, you need my help.”
“That’s the last fucking thing that I need,” he ground out, unable to believe the gall of the man. “And there’s not a single thing you could say that I’d believe anyway.”
“Fine,” his father clipped with a brittle glare. “You want to burn, then burn. It’s the least you deserve for your revolting lifestyle.”
With a sharp crack of laughter on his lips, Jonah shook his head and smiled. “You know what I love? I fucking love that this is eating you alive. That you’re gonna lie in your cold bed at night, knowing that you lost. And me? I’m going to be lying beside a beautiful woman who lights up my entire world.”
“She won’t be beside you for long,” Carter snapped. “Not if
you screw this up!”
“That’s not gonna happen,” he said low, getting right in his father’s face. “People fight for what they love, and I love that woman so much, I will fight for her till the day I die. I’m not screwing up a damn thing.”
He turned then and picked the bag back up, done with the asshole, until his father’s next words stopped him cold. “It’s Valerie, Jonah. The one you’re looking for. It’s her.”
Another sharp laugh tore up from his chest, and he slowly turned back around, determined to stay calm, no matter what Carter said. “And just how would you know that?”
“She came back to the city about five months ago and paid me a visit, asking all kinds of questions about you. I don’t know where she is now, but my people still keep close enough tabs on you to know that you’re looking for someone who’s causing you trouble. And I’m telling you that Valerie’s that person.”
He shook his head again, unable to believe what he was hearing.
Carter went on. “She’s unstable and out for revenge.”
“Against who?” he demanded in a furious snarl. “Because she’s the one who fucked me over, not the other way around.”
“You didn’t fight for her.”
Jonah gaped at the old man, wondering if he’d lost his mind. “Why in the hell would I have done that?”
Carter shrugged. “How should I know? I’m just telling you what the bitch kept screaming at me.”
“Holy fuck,” he scraped out, finally starting to believe that Carter was telling him the truth.
“Don’t let Valerie ruin what you’ve got going here, Jonah. The blonde might be beneath this family, but at least she’s keeping your dick out of the public eye.”
He took a step forward and locked his furious gaze so hard on his father’s austere face, he was surprised the prick didn’t flinch. “The next time I hear you say something shitty about Jocelyn, you’ll regret it, because that woman is too good for you to even think about. So if you’re smart, you’ll do as I said and stay the hell away from us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You need me!”
“The fuck I do,” he growled.
“And if I don’t keep my distance?”
Jonah let a satisfied smirk kick up the corner of his mouth. “Then you’ll be looking at spending the rest of your life behind bars.”
His father didn’t say a word. But he could see the unease in the bastard’s eyes.
“You’re not the only one who can pay people for information,” he murmured, not even trying to hide the fact that he was enjoying watching his old man squirm. “I’ve had a team of investigators watching you for years, collecting intel on anything I thought might be useful one day…or of interest to the Feds.”
“You ungrateful idiot!” Carter roared, drawing the attention of a couple on the other side of the street. “What have you done?”
“Nothing yet. But if you don’t want the local FBI office to receive a dossier detailing some of your more questionable deals, then you’ll listen really fucking carefully.” He leaned in close, his clear, sharp words striking like daggers as he said, “From this day forward, you don’t know me. You don’t think about me. You don’t even remember my fucking name.” He paused as he straightened, then gave the son of a bitch a hard smile. “Now nod if you understand.”
Carter nodded so stiffly it looked painful.
“Good. I’m glad that after all this fucking time, we can finally agree on something.”
As he turned to walk away, it occurred to Jonah that any jackass in this sometimes screwed-up world could have a kid, but being a father… Yeah, that wasn’t automatic. It was a gift and a privilege, and he hoped that one day he would be given the chance to be a good father to Davey. Because he would fight and bleed to keep that kid safe and happy. To give him the family he deserved, along with as many brothers and sisters as he wanted.
He just prayed that he actually got that opportunity.
Then he’d spend the rest of his life being grateful for it, working to be worthy of it, and loving the hell out of Jocelyn…and her son…and whoever else joined their little family along with the way.
CHAPTER THREE
As Jonah climbed into the SUV and watched his father’s driver pull the Bentley back into the growing flow of early morning traffic, he put in another call to James, adding Gabriel as well this time, and brought both men up to speed on what he’d learned from Carter. Then he asked them to update the security teams at both Atlas and Vane with the information he’d received about Valerie.
“You really think it’s her?” Gabe asked, sounding as angry as he did skeptical.
“It doesn’t make any sense, but I could tell the bastard wasn’t lying. Val is here, in the city.”
“Shit,” Gabe muttered. “You need to have Phil looking for her. If anyone can track her down, it’ll be him.”
“He’s my next call.”
“Once you get the file that Phil puts together on her, send it over to me,” James said. “I’ll have Graeme run any photos that Phil collects through the security feeds to see if we can get a match.”
“Will do.”
“If it really is Val,” Gabe said, “then she could be teamed up with a male who works at Vane. Didn’t you say that the phone calls to the club’s employees were being made by a woman and a man? And if she was able to get a photo from the Diamond, then she must have someone on the inside working with her.”
“I’m already looking into it,” James replied in a graveled voice. “Whoever the fucker is, I’m going to find him.”
“Just don’t kill him before we can question him.”
James gave a low laugh, and Gabe said, “Seriously, man. We need him alive.”
“And we need to have Val put on the ‘No Entry’ list for Atlas,” Jonah added.
“I’ll take care of it,” Gabe assured him, and then both men told him to give their best to Jocelyn and Davey.
Jonah made the call to Phil next, asking him to put together a dossier on Valerie Johnson. Making it clear that he didn’t give a shit how much it cost, he also told the guy that he wanted Valerie found as soon as possible, and that he wanted additional security to be put on Jocelyn’s building, as well as Davey’s preschool, once the little guy was healthy enough to attend.
If Valerie really were responsible for the weird things that had been going on, then Jonah didn’t want the psycho bitch getting anywhere near Jocelyn and Davey or their things. And given how closely Val had obviously been watching him, there was a good chance she might have clocked the conversation he’d just had with his father. Which meant she might be pushed into making her final move, whatever bit of insanity that might be.
Christ. Fucking Valerie, he thought, grinding his teeth. He could hardly believe it.
And, yeah, he wasn’t looking forward to telling Jocelyn that it’d been his crazy ex-girlfriend all along. Especially after he’d only just told her the whole sordid story about Val and his father. He felt like a moron for not seeing it, but even now, he didn’t understand why Val would go to all this trouble to screw with his life. It wasn’t like he’d broken her heart or anything. True, he hadn’t fought for her, but what guy would’ve wanted a woman after seeing her swallow his dad’s cum? And she hadn’t even shed a tear over him when he’d broken things off, too busy moving into the expensive apartment his old man had set her up in to look back at what she’d lost.
His father had been desperate to prove that he’d been right about her, and Valerie had been only too happy to let him. Jonah was the one left with a seething knot of fury and betrayal in his gut, not her. And now, after all this time, she’d decided to play some kind of weird, psychotic game with his life?
What the ever-loving fuck?
Finding a space near the hospital’s main entrance, he parked the Mercedes and headed back upstairs to Davey’s room. The instant he set eyes on Jocelyn and her sleeping son, the bands of tension around his chest loosened a bit, and he felt the fi
rst smile since he’d run into Carter curl his lips.
“He still doing okay?” he asked, careful to keep his voice low so that he didn’t wake Davey.
He knew from the relief on her beautiful face that it was good news before she even answered his question. “They said we should be able to go in the next half hour. And I talked to Rey. We’ve decided to move the dinner with her and Mitch to a week from Monday, so long as that works for you.”
“Yeah, that’ll work great.”
“Everything go okay at my place?” she asked, moving to her feet as he crossed the room to her.
“Yeah,” he murmured, pulling her into his arms. He took a moment to simply bury his face in her silky curls, breathing in her delicious scent, before saying, “That is, until I found my dad parked on the curb, waiting for me when I came out.”
Her eyes widened with surprise as she took a step back, moving out of his arms. “Your dad was at my building?”
“He sure as hell was,” he replied with a tired sigh, sitting down in the chair he’d spent the night dozing in.
She looked as worried as she did confused. “Why?”
“He was looking for me,” he said, bracing his elbows on his parted knees as he dropped his head forward and ran his hands over his face. “Had something he wanted to tell me.”
“What was it?”
Lowering his hands, he lifted his gaze back to hers. “He claims that it’s Valerie Johnson who’s sending the texts to your phone.”
She gaped at him, then shook off her shock and dropped back into the chair beside his. Twisting to face him, she asked, “How would he even know that?”
“Apparently she rolled back into town last summer and went to see him, asking all kinds of personal questions about me and acting fairly unstable.”
“Ohmygod.”
“Weird timing, huh?”
“The whole thing is bizarre. I mean, she’s the one who screwed you over. So why is she messing with your life now?”
The Next Play: Part Four: the play series | book 1 | part 4 Page 4