by Kimbra Swain
“Stop,” he said. I’d avoided looking at him, but as I told the story, I could feel him tensing up behind me. “Let me stand up.” He eased up from behind me, pacing to the windows. His hand balled into fists. He spun around with fury in his eyes.
“I called Sebastian after I left the room. He wasn’t far away. He hated Ryland because he could see the change in me,” I continued as Jamey watched me. “Bastian picked me up at the hotel. He practically had to carry me out of the elevator. I refused to go to the hospital, so he called Shep. Garrett wanted to go after all of them, but Sebastian said that I needed to sober up before we made any decisions. They both knew what happened without me telling them. Shep is a good man. I always felt like he was too good for me. He took very good care of me when I needed it. He was the only one I’d let get close to me, but when the relationship got to the point where I knew that he wanted to get married. I broke it off. Every time I looked at him, I remembered the night he saw me broken. Instead of it being something that strengthened our relationship, it only made me feel weak. When Father died, I knew that I would have to take over Malone. I wouldn’t have time for him. It was a good excuse. I don’t regret pushing him away. I only regret he hasn’t moved on.”
Jamey watched but didn’t move from the spot at the windows. His eyes were red. I hadn’t seen any tears, but it didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“Is that it?” he asked.
“Mostly,” I said. “I haven’t bothered to try again. It was too painful. I can’t be weak. I don’t have time for it.”
“You made me break your trigger,” he said. “It was much deeper than I knew.”
“I know. It’s not broken either. I’m just stronger because of you,” I said. “That’s how I know this will work if we try. You’ve made me stronger.”
“All I’ve done was brought you into a mob fight with your rapist,” he muttered.
“I took your company from you,” I countered.
“Really? It wasn’t going to make it another week without you,” he said. I knew that, but it wasn’t the same. “I don’t see how I could possibly make you stronger.”
“For one, you are depending on me to make the right decisions to save Bright,” I said.
“I don’t care about Bright anymore. Just you,” he said.
“Secondly, I trust you, and if you haven’t noticed, the people I’ve trusted the most haven’t been very loyal. Despite the things I’ve done to you, you are still here,” I said.
“Sebastian will come around and you know it,” he said.
“I’m willing to take a risk that has nothing to do with money or business. It’s all about the heart. I’ve never done that since Ryland. I love you, Jamey.”
He walked over and sat on the coffee table facing me. “Love makes you weak,” he said.
“What are you saying to me? That after last night, you aren’t feeling the same thing I am. If so, just say it,” I complained.
“No, you are working your own doubts out, and I’m making damn sure you get it out of your system,” he smiled.
“See. You are doing it again,” I said. He traced his finger on my knees. His touch made chills run down my arms and legs. He grinned when he saw it.
The light faded from his eyes. “If I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him, because I love you, too,” he said.
“He deserves to suffer, but I don’t want either of us to see him again,” I said.
“I know. You don’t want to be the protective, overbearing man in your life, but the fact remains that you probably aren’t the only woman he used. He needs to pay for it,” he said.
“He will. Karma is a bitch,” I said.
“Is that your new name?” he asked.
“It’s always been my name,” I laughed.
“People who called you that didn’t know you,” he said.
“I call me that,” I replied.
“Then you don’t know yourself. Maybe you do, but you are just deflecting. What’s the plan?” he asked.
“Get back to Atlanta. Take the company back. Make Sebastian grovel, and hope we don’t get killed by a mob boss,” I said.
“No problem.” He crossed the short distance between us in an instant. His hands went up to his shirt I was wearing, then around my back to brace my fall as he twisted me on the couch. He pulled the shirt so hard the buttons flew across the room.
“That was a nice shirt,” I said surprised by his quick movements.
“You bought it,” he laughed.
“Oh, geez,” I said as his lips found mine. He stopped abruptly, leaving me hanging. “That’s not cool. Why did you stop?”
“When did you decide to save Bright?” he asked suddenly. My body screamed for him to continue with the previous actions.
“Dunno. We started the research a couple of months ago,” I said reluctantly.
“Did you decide that or was it a suggestion?” he asked.
I sat up and pulled the shirt tight around me. “What are you getting at, because you just tore a perfectly good shirt for no reason?” I asked.
“I made the deal with Abrego, who funneled Pale Horse products through Bright. Pale Horse is LeBlanc. If LeBlanc was after you, then they would have had to make sure that you helped Bright. Who suggested that you help Bright?” he asked.
No. It couldn’t be. I wouldn’t believe it until I saw with my own eyes. I jumped up off the couch, shedding the shirt as I went. I grabbed a set of clothes from my bag, changing quickly. Jamey didn’t speak. He just watched me as I sat down at my laptop. I moved all the networking to the company to the side. I started to hack the personal life of my best friend, Charity Rimmel.
“Mind if I hack Kelly?” I asked.
“I wish you would,” he said.
“I need to know if they had contact. I need to know the connection.”
My fingers flew over the keys as I accessed personal records, bank accounts, savings, credit reports, purchases over the last six months, family and other important areas of Charity’s life. Sifting through the financials, I found evidence that she had opened a new bank account three months ago and deposited a check for a million dollars. I couldn’t access the picture of the check no matter how hard I dug into the files. It was like the picture of the check was erased. I also got very close to tying Charity and Kelly together using phone records, but I started seeing gaps in the records.
“Someone is erasing their footprint. Someone who knew I could find it,” I said.
“Who?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet I have more than one mole in the company. Let’s say for conjecture that LeBlanc approaches Charity, why would she flip sides? She’s with Damien. Does that mean Damien is in on it too? Kelly flirted hard with Sebastian, perhaps they knew each other before that day in my condo. Are all four of them in on it? Someone hacked these records before me. Humphrey? He knows I have the dirt on him. I don’t think he’d risk it,” I said, thinking out loud.
“What about Javier? He’s in the IT department. Does he have the skills? Who set you up for lunch with him? He said he had ties to Abrego. Maybe it’s not his brother, maybe he works for Abrego,” Jamey suggested.
I turned back around to the laptop, starting the same searches for Javier Salida. He had a brother named Martinez Salida who had several drug arrests with known ties to Abrego. The information on Javier was limited which led me to believe that he’d hidden his own information.
“There are gaps,” Jamey said catching on quickly.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s damning enough.”
“How do you want to do this?” he asked. “We could get Shep involved.”
“No, not yet. My heart tells me Sebastian isn’t involved, but he thinks something was going on placing the blame on you. I think we need to call in my brother, but we need to do it without anyone else knowing,” I said.
Piece by piece the missing information was replaced with bits of the past. My past. All of it sneaki
ng up on me. Jamey watched as the gaps filled in. I knew he could see the why’s and how’s. He stayed steady. This man was the one that stuck by his sister, not the one that flitted from bar to bar for his next fuck. I knew what I had to do, and I knew who had set me up.
“You sure about this?” he asked.
A tear rolled down my cheek. “No,” I gulped.
He was beside me in an instant with his arms around me. “Come on. We’ve made it this far. You trust me, and that’s all we need.”
“Can I cry when it’s done?” I asked as he brushed the tear from my cheek.
“Alexa, you can cry now. Just because you have emotions tied into this doesn’t make you a weak person. It just makes you human,” he said. “Just for the record. You should hack all of my stuff, too.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I don’t want you to have any doubts,” he said.
He waited for me to respond. “I have no doubts,” I said.
“Sure, you do,” he said. “I won’t be mad.”
“No,” I replied. “I know enough. I had a thumb drive with a…”
“With what?” he asked.
“I destroyed it before I even met you,” I said. I’d said too much. My chest tightened, and the attack rushed in on me. Everyone I knew and loved was tied up in this crazy mess. If Jamey knew everything, he would be gone.
“Alexandra,” he said, cupping my face. “No, no, don’t do this now. Come on, baby.”
“I am so sorry,” I muttered.
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is,” he assured me. “Look at me.”
I locked eyes with him as my chest began to heave. If he knew, he would never forgive me. It was too late to lie. I was about to lose him.
“Who am I?” he asked.
“No,” I said. I wasn’t playing the game.
“Alexa, I said, who am I?” he prompted more forcefully.
“Jamey,” I huffed.
“Nope, try again,” he said.
“I don’t want to play,” I hissed.
“Too bad. Until you calm down, we are playing,” he said. He pressed his forehead to mine. “Now, who am I?”
“The man who is going to leave me,” I said.
“Never. Not going to happen,” he said. “Who am I?” His lips brushed mine. I tingled with the touch despite the attack. My vision blurred as he held me tighter.
“I can’t,” I said.
“You want me to tell you?” he asked, brushing my hair out of my face.
“Yes,” I stammered.
“I’m the man that’s madly in love with you,” he said.
I gasped, digging my nails into his back pulling him closer to me. “Sebastian had pictures,” I said.
“Of me?” he asked.
“Yes, you and women,” I said.
“Did you ask him to do that?” he asked.
“I asked him to follow you,” I said, feeling the anxiety drop to a lower level. My heart still pounded.
“Alexa, I’m not leaving. Deep breaths,” he coaxed. “I was a male whore. I know that.”
“I destroyed it. I promise I did,” I said.
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine. I still owe your brother a bloody nose, but yeah, I’m not leaving,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to see it.”
“I only saw a couple of pictures before I erased it. I didn’t want to know,” I said. Even before I met him, I felt like that was an intrusion that I didn’t need to really know what kind of person he was.
“Do you do that for all your bailouts?” he asked.
“Yes. We ran across one where the man had a particular kink. It would have destroyed the deal had we not kept it under wraps. Sebastian said you didn’t have that. Just a long string of one-night stands,” I said.
“What kind of kink?” he grinned.
“Stop,” I said.
“You are breathing better,” he said. “Alexa, all of that is in our past. I’m not leaving. I swear.”
“He liked to dress up like a baby and have his babysitter change his diapers,” I said.
“Yuck! What the hell?” he said.
“I don’t know. It was a mess, but it never came out. We finished the bailout and retreated,” I said. “So, I told Sebastian that I didn’t want any more surprises like that.”
“Ruthless,” he smiled. “You really think he isn’t involved? You wanna meet with him?”
“Yes, I’ll call him. We can meet him back close to town,” I said.
We packed up the few things that we brought with us. I kept my laptop on controlling the Malone building. I attached it to a burner phone to keep a connection. We loaded back up in Jamey’s beat up Jaguar, then headed back to Atlanta.
Thirty-Five
JAMEY
“No, just you. I’m not playing with you, Bastian,” she said over the phone. Sebastian wasn’t up for any games from what I could tell. She refused to give him any solid information. She rubbed her forehead as she listened to him talk.
“Don’t let him bully you,” I muttered.
She cut her eyes to me, then took a deep breath. “Sebastian Judah Malone, listen to me. Please!”
He continued to rant.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said.
She waved her hand at me to get me to shut up. I chuckled despite the dire situation. She’d recovered quickly from the anxiety attack. I hated that it happened. I wanted to be the one that stabilized her. The one that pulled her out of the haze when it happened. She’d tried to save my company, but she had reminded me of the man I should have been. The best I could do was to save her in return.
“Sebastian, either you meet with me completely alone or I will force all of you out of the company. I’ll liquidate it. Malone will cease to exist. I need you to trust me,” she said. She paused to listen to him. “Jamey is in this as well. Malone saving Bright wasn’t an accident. It’s deeper than you know. I need you to leave them all behind and come to me. I’m begging you, Bastian. You’ve always been the one I counted on. I need you one more time. Please.”
She took a deep breath as he talked. I squeezed her hand.
“Okay. We will meet you there,” she said. “I love you, Bastian.”
“He’s going to meet us?” I asked.
“Yes, but we’ve got to get there and set up before he gets there. He won’t come alone. I need to set up a frequency to jam his communications with his team. Cut him off, so he has to listen to me without interference,” she said.
“Will he bring Damien and the rest?” I asked.
“I hope not. We will lay back. See what we are dealing with before we go in. That’s why I chose this place. It will be easier for us to deal with him,” I said.
“It will be fine. I know the place well. I'll get us out if we have to run,” I replied.
She stared off at the passing trees as we rushed back into Atlanta. She got lost in her thoughts as we drove. I stayed barely above the speed limit. We didn’t need any distractions from law enforcement.
I parked in a paid lot near Piedmont Park. The park in Midtown was always bustling with people. Alexa could meet with Sebastian in public with plenty of witnesses. I'd been to the park many times for an evening run. As we sat in the car, she ran Wi-Fi checks, plus she ran a jamming program to disrupt the normal frequencies her brother used without interfering with the park employees or police in the area. She left that laptop running in the trunk of my car. She hacked the security cameras in the park. We could see Sebastian waiting on us, but none of their men from Malone Security were around.
She took the laptop that controlling that with her in a satchel, and I walked beside her most of the way. We both were on high alert. As we approached the bridge over the lake, I stopped at the end.
She looked back at me with unsure eyes.
“I'm only a few steps away. He's not going to do anything stupid out here,” I said.
As she turned back around, Sebastian approached her wearing workout clothes, checkin
g his watch as if he were using it to log his run.
He paused at the center of the bridge waiting for her to come closer. As I watched, he didn’t seem to have anyone with him. He never reached for an earpiece, and it didn’t look like he wore one. She walked up to him, turning her back on the skyline of Atlanta. I could see her lips moving as he leaned on the bars looking towards downtown. I wished we had time to enjoy the view, but we were here on business. Looking at surroundings I tried to focus on anomalies, but only saw one.
Standing on the other end of the bridge just beyond the tree line, Garrett Shepherd leaned against a light pole. He nodded at me when I made eye contact.
Shifting my gaze back to Alexandra, I lifted one finger to my right ear like I was wearing an earpiece. It was the signal for her to know someone else was here. I hoped the trust she put in the detective was valid.
By her hand motions and facial expressions, she was having a difficult time convincing Sebastian that Charity and Javier had something to do with this. I took several steps toward her then leaned on the railing. From this viewpoint, I could see Shepherd and Alexa at the same time.
Sebastian shook his head stepping toward her. His hands locked down on her forearms. That was all I needed to approach them. Shepherd moved toward them on the other side.