Love Me Forever

by Serenity King

  “Can you contain yourself a little longer, Brice, and get to the point?” he asked drily.

  “Picture this. Tempest Mortgage is at the top. Under the top dog are investment companies one, two and three, so to speak. All three are subsidiaries of top dog. If one, two, three investment companies fold, you still can’t touch top dog. Different boards of directors and so forth. If the SEC comes in and shuts down the investment companies, they still can’t get top dog. But this was not always the case. Top dog used to be connected. Gets wind of a corporate takeover. Top dog starts putting his plan in motion.”

  “And just what is that plan?” Jarred asked. Brice had his attention so far.

  “Top dog has put dummy people in place to buy up all of his shares in the investment companies.”

  “First of all, how do you set up dummy people? There are dummy corporations—”

  “You need to get Nev off the brain for a second and think,” Brice interrupted.

  Jarred glared at him so hard that if he were able to shoot laser beams, Brice would be dead.

  But his brother was undaunted. “I’m serious. Listen for a second. You construct phony people the same way you would organize a counterfeit corporation. There are a whole lot of deceased people owning things they’ve never bought. You know this.”

  “I stand corrected. Go ahead.”

  “Josiah set a plan in motion whereas the board was paying him to buy himself out. The company is set up like some brilliant pyramid scheme, as I said. You could get to the top but you couldn’t take the top company down without destroying yourself in the process. Only Josiah’s plan was better.”

  “I don’t follow,” Jarred said. “And I still don’t understand how all of this is going to help us.”

  “Bottom line, Josiah put people in charge whom he thought he could trust. Realizing that he’s getting older and not in good health, these same people try to overthrow him. Not only that, they’re doing underhanded trades, giving loans to unqualified friends and embezzling funds through dummy loans. Josiah is suspicious, has Nev come in to install this software to track activities. No one is the wiser, and if they were...well, there was nothing anyone could do. They couldn’t break into the system without being revealed. Tempest is sold. Computers with proof are inherited by the new company. All moneys are in escrow for proof on Josiah’s part of no wrongdoing. Investment company people go to jail. The end.”

  “I have to admit some of what you say makes sense. However, there are a lot of holes in your breakdown. For one thing, it’s all supposition. How do we know that’s what really happened?” Jarred leaned back in his chair. “Listen, it has already been established that something underhanded was going on,” he continued. “We just don’t know what, and until we get into those computers, we’ve hit a brick wall. But if half of what Brice says is true, we’re going to dump Tempest quick, fast and in a hurry. I don’t want any shady dealings attached to Manning’s,” Jarred stressed.

  “It’s not that we can’t get into the computers,” Emerson answered. “It’s that we can only get so far. The computer is designed with a spyware that will kill the entire system if we try to hack into it. That’s some high-level firmware.”

  “What we need is to get Nev in here to help with this,” Brice said.

  “Just how do you propose we do that, Brice?” Jarred asked, his frustration rising. He pinned him with a stare that could melt stone. “If you can find her and get her back here, then please be my guest.”

  A sudden quiet permeated the room. No one said anything or moved. It was as if they’d just broached a subject that was completely taboo.

  “I have to go out. I’ll see you all later,” Brice said, getting up and leaving the room. He slammed the door in his wake.

  Jarred winced.

  “Yeah, I have to go, too,” Emerson said, and was up and out the door.

  Jarred glanced over at Langston. “I guess you have someplace to be, too?”

  “No. Not really,” he said, knitting his fingers together and giving Jarred a sympathetic stare. “So, do you want to go get some lunch?”

  Jarred couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. “Thanks, man. I’m good.”

  “Anytime. I’ll see you again before the end of the day,” Langston said, pushing up from his chair. “It will all work out. Think of it this way. Nev will always return to Heavens.”

  “I know. The million-dollar question is when?”

  Without saying anything else, Langston left the room.

  Once Jarred was alone, his office phone rang. He snatched it up.

  “Mr. Manning, your father is on line one,” his new temp said hesitantly.

  “Thank you, Laura. I got it,” he said sweetly. It wasn’t right for him to be taking his anger out on his employees. “Well, this is a surprise. How are you, Dad?”

  “I’m fine. It’s you your mother is worried about,” he said in his gruff voice.

  “Me? Why?”

  “Word is all of your employees are about to quit on you.”

  “An exaggeration at best. Who told you that—Brice or Langston?”

  “I will not reveal my sources.” He could hear his father’s amusement through the phone. “So, is it true?”

  “Is what true?”

  “That you’re being a pain in the you-know-what. That’s what.”

  “No,” he said huffily. “Not really.”

  “What’s the problem, son?”

  “You mean the Brothers Two didn’t tell you?” he asked drily.

  “When have you ever known your brothers to betray a confidence? On the other hand, Kat, if you get her mad, will give you away every time,” William Manning joked.

  They both knew that wasn’t true about her. Kat could hold a confidence and a grudge until the next coming.

  “I believe I may have screwed up big time,” Jarred mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “How so?”

  He went on to give his father a little bit of detail on what was going on with him and Nevea.

  “So are you saying you had a thing with Nevealise Tempest?”

  “Yes, Dad.”

  “And you didn’t trust her, but you trusted her enough to sleep with her, even after you knew she was basically, for all intents and purposes, innocent in things of that nature?”

  “Well...well, it wasn’t really like that, Dad.” He hesitated.

  “How was it? It sounds that way to me. You put your former woman’s issues onto your current woman and expected her to come willingly back into your arms.”

  “Well, Dad, she basically did the same thing,” Jarred whined, feeling the need to defend himself.

  “Who put her in the position to say those things to you?”

  “I did,” he said grudgingly.

  “That’s right, son. You did. That young lady trusted you with her secrets and her body. She gave to you willingly what she hadn’t given to anyone else, and you threw it back in her face. Heck, son, I wouldn’t speak to you, either.”

  “Make me feel worse, why don’t you,” Jarred grumbled, rubbing his temples, his eyes and beard.

  “I believe you’re doing enough of that yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself, that is.”

  “There’s something else, and don’t you dare tell Mom,” Jarred whispered into the phone.

  “Let me be the judge of what I tell and don’t tell my wife. What else could there be?”

  “Nevea could be—may be pregnant,” Jarred admitted. “We didn’t use condoms a few times.”

  “You mean you didn’t. Jarred, you’re sounding like a regular knight in shining armor, more so by the minute.” His father’s tone was sarcastic.

  “Not funny, Dad.”

  “No, it’s not. Let me see if I have this right
. You found a good woman, lost said good woman, and your mother and I may or may not be grandparents. Is that correct?”

  “Well, yeah.” He groaned deep in his gut.

  “Fix this mess, son.”

  “How can I when I don’t know where she is?” he barked, frustrated.

  “Mind your tone, young man. You’re an attorney. Be resourceful.”

  “I may be an attorney, but Nevea’s a brilliant walking computer. If she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be. Did I also tell you she has high government clearance?”

  His father’s boisterous laughter annoyed him.

  “I’m glad someone thinks this is funny,” Jarred muttered.

  “It’ll work out, son. Trust me.”

  “I hope so. Remember, nothing to Mom until I figure this out.”

  Obviously, his father took that as his cue.

  “Dee,” he called out, “your firstborn done went and got a young lady pregnant, and now he can’t find her!”

  Jarred heard his mother yelling. “What are you carrying on about, Bill? How do you lose a human being? These young people today. Give me that phone and let me talk to my child.”

  His mother’s voice got louder as she came to the phone.

  “Jarred, what is your father going on about?” she yelled in his ear.

  Jarred put his head down on the desk and banged it a few times. “This can’t be happening to me,” he chanted as his mother read him the riot act. He should have known his father wouldn’t keep a secret from her.

  “Tattletale,” Jarred muttered.

  “What’s that, son?” his mother barked.

  “Nothing, ma’am.”

  Chapter 16

  Nevealise was still at her brother’s home nursing her wounds and what she suspected was the flu. She hadn’t the strength most days to do anything, but work on the computer game she was designing on her laptop. Thank goodness she felt better today.

  She hadn’t gone back to Heavens since that fateful night that she and Jarred had had their blowup, over a month ago. She’d been so depressed, on top of being sick, that she’d put in for a leave of absence from her consulting work. She needed to get herself together, so while at Cedric’s she’d continued to work on her program. Nevealise hadn’t seen or heard from any of the Mannings in over a month. She had replaced her old cell number with a new one, cutting off all contact with anyone.

  Cedric was working most of the day and sometimes nights as an emergency medicine physician at Stony Brook University Hospital. He’d been there for a few years now. He would soon be leaving SBU to open a private practice with their other brother, Elijah, in Connecticut. Why they chose Connecticut she didn’t know. However, she was proud and happy for both her brothers. Elijah and Cedric were the best big brothers a girl could have. Elijah had been gone for a year now, traveling with a missions group to underdeveloped and underprivileged countries, and providing medical care. He would be back in time for the opening of the practice.

  “Hey, Nev. How are you feeling today?” She startled upon hearing Cedric’s voice as he entered the living room.

  “I feel much better today, thanks. I thought you’d already gone to the hospital.” She gave him a hesitant smile. She’d been mooching off Cedric for a month now, afraid to go back to her town house in fear of Jarred turning up there. She wasn’t ready to face anyone yet. Not until she got her energy back.

  “I’m on my way out in a few. Listen, I need to take a sample of urine from you. There’s this bug going around and I think you may have picked it up,” he said, handing her a specimen cup. “You know what to do, Nev.”

  “Cedric, I’m not peeing in this cup. That’s just nasty,” she said, making a face. “Especially for my brother.”

  “Nev, pee in the cup. Come on, chop-chop. I have to be on call in a little bit.”

  “I’m not one of your patients, you know,” she complained.

  “No, because I would instruct my patients to take better care of themselves. You, my dear sister, refuse to listen to reason. Now be a good baby girl and give big brother Cedric your sample.”

  Nevealise grudgingly complied with his wishes.

  “Here,” she said, handing him the sealed cup. “I hope you get fired for carrying around urine.”

  “Ah, don’t be like that.” He picked up his phone and keys, getting ready to leave, but then turned back to her. “Have you spoken to Mom lately?”

  “I sure have. Yesterday.”

  “So you know the old man is really ill?”

  “Yep, I sure do.”

  “She needs some company now and again, you know.”

  “I’m having lunch with her later this week, if I’m feeling up to it. I don’t want her catching whatever it is I may have.”

  “Trust me, Mom can’t catch what I suspect you have.” He chuckled. “It’s safe to have lunch with her sooner.”

  “How do you know? You’re holding my sample in your hand. And what’s so doggone funny?”

  “Oh yeah, the sample. I’d forgotten. I left food for you in the kitchen. Don’t wait up for me,” he said, then kissed her on the cheek and like a whirlwind was out the door.

  Nevealise stared at his retreating form and frowned. Cedric was acting weird. After hovering over her for weeks, he was suddenly walking around with this smirk and being all jolly and what not.

  “Hmm, maybe he has a new lady friend?” she said, looking at her computer screen. If that were true she’d have to go back to her place soon. Cedric would need his privacy.

  She’d cross that bridge when she came to it. With a shrug of her shoulders she was once again engrossed in her program.

  Her cell phone rang and she automatically picked it up. The only people who had her new number were her mother and Cedric, and Cedric had just left the house.

  “Hi, Mommy.”

  “Hi, sweetheart. How are you feeling today?”

  “I’m feeling a lot better. How are you doing?”

  “Enjoying this weather. I love spring. Not too cold or too hot...”

  “And you can play in your flower beds,” Nevealise finished for her.

  “Oh, God, yes. Your father is sitting out in the garden now.”

  Nevealise rolled her eyes heavenward. Her mother seemed so happy, she wouldn’t ruin it by sucking her teeth, or just coming out and saying that she didn’t care. Besides, she didn’t have the energy. Considering how her own relationship had just ended, she was not in a position to call her mother out.

  “That’s nice. I hope he’s enjoying his day,” she said, and could have choked on that lie.

  “Oh yes, dear, he is. In fact, he’s the one who asked me to call you.”

  Surprised, Nevealise halted what she was doing. “Really?” she asked.

  “Oh yes. I told him why you’d canceled our lunch date last week. He wanted to know how you were. Are you really feeling better, dear?”

  Nevealise smiled at the concern in her mother’s voice. Her eyes teared up. “Yes, Mommy. I’m just a little tired,” she whimpered.

  “Then why are you crying?”

  “Uh, I haven’t a clue as to why I’m crying.” She chuckled through a sob. Nevealise’s smile broadened when she heard her mother’s soft laughter.

  “That’s okay, dear. Everyone deserves a good cry once in a while.”

  “I guess so. So are we on for lunch sometime this week?”

  “Sure. You let me know when. We’ll make a day of it.”

  “I’d love that,” she said sincerely.

  “Good. I have to go to a church meeting. I’ll talk to you soon, dear.”

  “Bye, Mommy.”

  Nevealise returned to her laptop, working on a glitch in the program design of her video game.

 
She spent a few hours on it before closing her computer down. She worked out the kinks in her neck, but her arms and legs were stiff, too. Standing, she was surprised to find her legs were shaky. Probably she’d been sitting for too long.

  Nevealise walked into the kitchen to retrieve the food Cedric had left her. She loved her brother, but the chicken salad he’d left her just didn’t appeal to her, so she put it back in the refrigerator, choosing a frozen burrito instead and cooking it in the microwave. Once the microwave dinged, she grabbed her burrito and a cola and sat at the butcher-block counter to eat.

  She ran her gaze around the spacious kitchen and sighed heavily. Cedric’s house was beautiful, but it was too dang quiet. There wasn’t the hustle and bustle of people and traffic in his cul-de-sac. Her thoughts instantly went back to Jarred’s kitchen and the first time she’d gone to his house. He’d been a gracious host. She missed him so much. He actually brought balance to her crazy world. Those hazel eyes and athletic body could make any woman swoon.

  Thinking of him made her recall their last night together. He’d never given her any indication that he could sing. The night at Heavens when he’d sung “Sex Therapy,” his performance had been swoon-worthy. She’d practically melted at his feet. The night had also made her sad, when she’d run from him in tears.

  Her girlhood crush had become a reality. She’d made love to Jarred Manning, just as she’d always dreamed. But now she’d lost him, not once, but twice. No matter how she tried to file away her feelings or categorize them, the results were the same. She was in love with him.

  With that realization, Nevealise burst out crying. She ran to the bedroom and cried herself to sleep.

  * * *

  Nevealise sat looking at her brother. Her mouth hung open from shock. “What do you mean, I’m pregnant? How do you know that?”

  She’d been fast asleep when he’d gotten in. Cedric claimed he’d woken her so she could eat. A lie. He wanted to drop this bombshell on her.

  “I suspected it even if you didn’t have a clue,” he said, his smile gentle. “I didn’t want to alarm you just in case I was wrong. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t. That’s why I asked you for the sample.”