Bailout (Out of the ATL Book 1)

by Kimbra Swain

  “We can talk about it on the way,” she said.

  Twenty-Two

  ALEXA

  Frustration crossed his face, but there was nothing I could do. Even to specifically say that the meeting was between him and me. The last thing I wanted to do was botch the ceasefire. Someone would die, and it would be on my hands.

  “You are riding with me,” he said.

  “Am I?” I asked.

  “Will you?” he huffed.

  “I would like that very much,” I replied. His scent was intoxicating. My harshness with him was mostly a defense for the fact that I wanted to rip that suit off him. My hormones raged for this man which was unusual for me. Slowly losing my grip, I felt like Jamey Elliot would be the end of me, but I wanted it too much to stop it.

  Darting under his encompassing arms, I stepped into the kitchen with my brother and Kelly. They were making moon eyes at each other. It was ridiculous. Ridiculously funny. I felt Jamey come up behind me.

  “Hello, Kelly,” I said.

  She approached me with her hand out. As I shook it she said, “It's so nice to meet you. And your brother.”

  “Are you ready, Alexa?” Sebastian asked.

  “Yes, but Mr. Elliot will be driving me,” I said. I saw the look in his eye. He wanted to protest, but he didn't.

  “I will follow,” he said.

  He turned his eyes back to the beautiful red-head, grinned, and walked past me to leave.

  “Do you mind?” Kelly asked. Sebastian certainly didn't need my permission to do anything, but I liked her.

  “Have at it,” I said.

  “I think I will,” she said following the direction that Sebastian took.

  We all loaded up. Kelly headed back to Bright. Jamey wanted her there as his eyes and ears. He trusted her more than anyone. Sebastian followed us to the Malone building. Jamey was quiet most of the way. I directed him to the CEO spot, at which he grinned. There were 2 spots since both of my parents had one. Sebastian parked in the other. I pointed him to the door. I knew he would go to the security desk and watch us.

  “You aren't getting out,” Jamey said.

  “Your observation skills are impeccable, Mr. Elliot,” I teased, but my humor tends to be a little dry. He missed it and spun around in his seat only to realize I was joking.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  I ignored his needless apology. “Every morning when I arrive, we have a start-up meeting. I'm going to spend all morning prepping for the Abrego luncheon. I would like you to attend. You said you would tell me everything about the Abrego deal. This car, right now, is your last chance at privacy. This whole building is monitored. There are no private rooms or hidden corners. Our security system sees and hears everything. What do you want to do? Tell me here or tell all of them upstairs?” I asked.

  His jaw twitched under his cheek. This was hard for him. I wouldn't push, but if he didn't tell me everything, I would be flying with a handicap at the luncheon. Handling the luncheon wasn't the problem, it would be the aftermath. I didn't want any surprises.

  He ran his hands over his face and up through his hair. Taking a deep breath, he spilled everything about the deal with Abrego. How they kidnapped him, beat him, and forced him to give them all the money in cash for the businesses. For the price of pushing goods through Bright, they promised not to kill him.

  “I fucked up,” he concluded. My mind was reeling. This was much deeper than I had thought. It almost felt like a setup.

  “I believe it was an innocent fuck up if that makes any difference,” I said.

  He closed his eyes. “What you think of me matters. I don't know why, but it does.”

  “I think we are going to make them pay, but we are still missing information,” I said staring at the CEO sign marking the spot as mine. “What's the name of the company sending you bad parts? Is it part of the deal?”

  “Yes, the tablets came from a company forced upon me by Abrego. Pale Rider Distribution is the company marker. I didn't dig too far into it. I didn't want to provoke Abrego. I didn't respond to your email for a long time because I didn't want anyone to know about my fuck-up. But you are annoyingly persistent. I didn’t think anything would become of it. Then I realized we needed the money, so I hoped you wouldn't find out. But again, you are fucking annoying and kept digging. No one else should be involved with this. You shouldn't be in this,” he huffed.

  Ignoring his insecurities, I focused on the tainted tablets. He was trying to accept his responsibilities. I wouldn't deter that by berating him for his stupidity. I'd made my fair share of bad moves. “The tablets had keystroke software. The tablets came from Pale Rider. Who wants my company’s inside information?”

  “Abrego,” he answered.

  “If so, why now? There's got to be something else,” I said. Reaching for the door to get out, he stopped me by putting his hand on my knee.

  “Alexa, please,” was all he managed to say.

  “Jamey, I've made plenty of bad business decisions. I'm due for a few more,” I said.

  “Yeah, like buying out Bright Technologies!”

  “Best business decision ever,” I said with a smile. Actually, it sucked, but we were in too deep now. He wasn't convinced. “And yes, I'm annoying.”

  He finally smiled and took a deep breath. We walked into the lobby with every eye on us. I was glad he didn't try to make any physical contact. As we passed reception, I greeted Megan whose eyes were locked on him. She blatantly winked at him as he walked by. To my surprise, he smiled and nodded back to her. Whatever. I didn't have time for games. By the end of the day, the Mexican mafia would have a price on my head. I needed to focus on that. We rode the elevator in silence. As we exited, I turned to go to my office, and he turned the opposite way.

  “Are you coming to the meeting?” I asked.

  “Sure. Give me just a minute. I need something from my office,” he said as he hurried off down the opposite hallway.

  I shrugged then paced down the long hallway to my office. When I reached the corner to my door, I looked back down toward him, and Megan stepped off the elevator without looking my way. She followed Jamey.

  It confirmed that I have terrible taste in men. It may be innocent, but I didn't get that vibe. He suddenly felt like a stranger to me. Not the man who slept in a chair by my bedside because I had a stupid panic attack.

  “Charity, get in here,” I spouted.

  “Damn. You would think a night of sex would make you less of a bitch,” she joked.

  “There was no sex,” I growled. Her mouth made an o, and she stalked off to the coffee machine.

  She returned with coffee for both of us. “You wanna talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Didn't think so,” she said sitting on the leather couch. My brothers arrived, and Sebastian shut the door behind him. I stared at it for a moment. It would be simple to pull up the security camera in his office, but I fought that urge. Cursing myself, I gathered my wits to prepare for the day.

  Sebastian saw me staring at the door. “Oh, is he coming?”

  “Dunno,” I said. “Doesn't matter. Let's get started. All focus is on Abrego.”

  Twenty-Three

  JAMEY

  “Mr. Elliot, may I speak to you for a moment?” Megan said, as she shut my office door behind her.

  “Actually, can it wait? I have a meeting with Miss Malone,” I said looking for my tablet on the boxes I had delivered from my office at Bright. I wondered if the tablets we used at Bright were tainted. I wanted to give it to Javier Salida. If it was, we could continue to use it and follow the keystroke tracker back to whom was actually doing the tracking.

  As I moved to the next box, she stood in my way. I raised up, but before I could back away, her hand rubbed against the crotch of my pants. The natural reaction to stimulation caused me to harden immediately. “Shit!” I exclaimed and backed away. Instinctively, I covered my crotch. “What the hell, Megan?”

  “I know Miss
Malone can play hard to get. I thought I'd offer you an easy, willing target,” she purred then locked her lips. I slid around to the back of my desk but she followed.

  “You may have heard a lot of things about me Miss, what is your last name?”

  “Whatever you want it to be,” she giggled. “I'll get on my knees right here, and you can shove that hard cock in my mouth.”

  Holy shit! Sounded great. I tried to think clearly with all the blood running away from my brain to the head in my pants. “You need to leave,” I said pointing to the door. Thankfully, my mouth was still connected to my real brain. She continued to walk toward me. I held my hands up in defense.

  “Please Mr. Elliot, I'll lay over your desk and you can pound me,” she lifted up the edge of her skirt revealing thigh highs and a garter belt. Sexy as hell.

  I turned my back on her and hurried to the door. She sprinted around to me pressing her back into mine. She reached around to my belt buckle, and I'd had enough. “Stop!” I said prying her hand away. I barely touched her, and she yelped. Oh shit.

  “You hurt me,” she backed away. Tears filled her eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit. She rushed past me to the door sprinting down the hallway toward Alexandra’s office. I could hear her sobs.

  “Fuck me!” I said running after her. She would beat me there no matter what I did.

  Still trying to decide where I stood with Alexandra didn't matter anymore, she would never believe me over a long-time employee. I ran back to the boxes, opening one closest to me. In a stroke of luck that I desperately needed, the tablet laid on top. Crap. I grabbed it and ran. Damage control time.

  Twenty-Four

  ALEXA

  “Sebastian, what is your deal?” I asked him. We hadn't started the meeting because he was engrossed in his phone.

  “Just watching something funny. You might like it,” he said handing it to me.

  “I don't want to see this week's funniest YouTube video. Damn, Bastian, our lives are on the line here,” I said.

  “Yes, thanks to this bastard,” he said shoving the phone at me. I took it from him. Mr. Elliot dug through boxes as Megan came into the room and shut the door. It was clear what she was there for, but he didn't pay attention to her as he looked through a box.

  “I saw her go down the hall. I don't care,” I said handing him the phone back. Charity jerked it out of my hand.

  “Well, I care,” she said watching the screen. “Alexa, he isn't giving in to her. He's trying to make her stop.”

  “I don’t care,” I huffed. Even though I cared more than I wanted to admit. Looking back to Bastian, he seemed awfully satisfied. “What did you do?”

  “What I should have done last night when he spouted all those lies about how much he cared for you and begged me to leave you alone with him. Did you have fun at the restaurant? Because it looked like to me, you both spent much of it in silence.”

  “You followed us?!”

  “Of course, I did. I don't trust him,” he said. “I was at the front door coming in the house when he talked you out of the panic attack. I stayed in my car all night watching him watching you!” he yelled.

  “He’s trying to get away from her,” Charity interjected.

  “I covered that too,” Bastian smirked.

  “He’s not an idiot, Sebastian!” I was beyond furious now. “He will see that it’s a test. He will think I did it!”

  “I hope he does,” Bastian said as he stood to leave. He knew I was about to kick him out, anyway. “Then maybe we will be rid of him finally and you can get your head back on straight. A whole fucking year without an attack, and now you’ve had two with this mother fucker. He’s not worth it, Lex. You gotta let him go.” He turned to go out the door, but Megan barreled in with faux tears streaming down her face.

  “He tried to force me to…” she stopped mid-sentence and recognized my incredulous scowl.

  “If my brother ever tells you to do some bullshit nonsense again, and you don’t tell him to fuck off, you will never work in this town again. Do you understand me Megan Little?” I screamed at her as Mr. Elliot barreled in the door.

  “She fucking came after me. I swear I didn’t touch her. What the hell is going on?” he stood for a moment looking at all of us. Sebastian had a shit-eating grin on his face, and I wanted to punch him. Jamey looked down at Charity holding the phone. Anger flashed in his eyes, and they darted to me.

  Sebastian had done the job perfectly. I turned my back on them all and stared out at the city.

  “Megan, please leave,” I said quietly.

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said. I saw her pierce Sebastian with her eyes as I watched them in the reflections in the windows. Jamey stared at my back.

  “It was a set-up? Seriously, Alexa? Is your distrust of me that extreme? A fucking test. You must think I am the biggest moron on this planet. I’m not putting up with this shit. I passed your fucking test, and you are going to turn your back on me like that. No, I’m done.” He turned to walk out but spun around at the last moment. “Here’s my work tablet from Bright. Maybe you can trace something on it to help you. I got it in the same shipment that you did. Take it down to your boyfriend, Salida. I’m sure he’d be happy to do a full workup on it and you.”

  He laid the tablet on the desk and waited a moment. Sebastian started laughing. I hated them all right now. Charity got up with Damien and pulled him out of the room. “Get out, Bastian. Go fuck Megan. Pay her for her services,” I spouted at him.

  “You have nothing to say to me?” Jamey said.

  “Mr. Elliot, I apologize for the inconvenience that you found yourself in. Thank you for the tablet. It will be a very good lead if we can get something off of it,” I said not knowing how to handle it. My emotions battled with my business sense.

  “Business. It’s all about business with you,” he said. “I thought we were making progress, but I can’t believe you’d do this to me. Then let your brother sit there and openly laugh at me like I’m a fool. I’m not your fool, Alexandra Malone!” He balled up his fists in anger and stomped out of the room. The door clicked shut behind him, and I sank into my desk chair. I picked up the tablet that he left. That’s when the tears started to fall.

  Sebastian was right. I’d let Synclair James Elliot get in my head, perhaps even deeper. I had to do this luncheon with the leader of the Cartel. Perhaps if I just told Abrego that I’d expunged Mr. Elliot from both companies, he would leave us alone. But I knew he’d go after Jamey.

  The door slowly opened, and Charity stuck her head in. “Lex, aren’t you going to tell him the truth? That you had nothing to do with it?”

  “Bastian is right. My head is not on straight,” I said.

  “Honey, there is a reason for that,” she smiled.

  “I know you don’t want to deal with it, but you need him here for this deal with Abrego. Go get him.”

  “No, he won’t listen to me,” I said. “I turned away from him when he was here.” I stood and walked to the small side room that had a bed and a small bathroom. I went to the bathroom to dry my face. Avoiding myself in the mirror, I turned to go back into the office. Charity stood there staring at me.

  “He deserves better than you,” she said bitterly.

  “I agree,” I said. It was all the resolve I needed to get back to work. “Please call Javier Salida and have him pick up this tablet.” She turned to walk out. “Take it with you, Charity. I don’t want to see him either.”

  She spun around, grabbed the tablet, and left.

  Twenty-Five

  JAMEY

  Anger coursed through my veins like molten metal. It encased and hardened my heart. Never, ever would I allow that woman to get me so twisted up ever again. It didn’t matter how utterly sexy she was or how every bone in my body was drawn to her. The best words for her were insane bitch. Manipulative, distrusting, conniving cunt!

  I seared with anger riding the elevator to the bottom. I couldn’t wait to get back to my condo and have that expensi
ve car returned to her along with every single suit I’d bought with her money.

  I crossed the lobby quickly as my shoes clattered against the tile floor. Echoing through the mostly empty foyer, I hit the door to the parking deck wide open. I only stopped in my tracks when I realized Megan Little stood next to the door.

  “Oh, hell, no. You get the fuck away from me,” I said.

  “She didn’t do it. Sebastian did,” she whimpered. “He’s done it before with guys that liked her. They all failed the test. I like sex any way that I can get it, so I didn’t mind seducing them. However, I see the way you look at her. I knew you would tell me to go away leaving me to play the victim role as he suggested. Look, you have no reason to trust me, I get that, but I’ve never seen her like this. She’s ready to disown him. Before you came in the room, she was jumping down his throat saying you would never believe that she didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  Rubbing my forehead, I asked her, “What did she say before I got there?”

  “She said you’d see through his test immediately. That you would blame her, and he said that was exactly what he hoped for because you lied about loving her,” she said. “Only it wasn’t a lie, was it?”

  “I don’t love her,” I said.

  “But you might,” she said.

  “No, it's an infatuation. She had the chance to believe me, but she allowed him to play the game. She could have stood with me,” I said.

  She shook her head. “And what? To have you blame her, anyway. You didn’t take a breath up there. You went from realizing what happened, to down her throat in an instant. Perhaps Sebastian is right.”

  “Right?”

  “He said you have been here all along to destroy her,” she said as she walked past me back in the building.