Temptations - The Complete Series

by Annie Jocoby

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I nodded my head. “Yes. There’s this man who is tormenting me and he almost did something to me in my office. It’s the same man who actually did something to me when I was only 18. And I guess I just had some kind of a flashback.”

  I suddenly knew just how Margot had felt when Hugh was standing in her living room. PTSD was like that – an experience can trigger you and, suddenly, you’re right back where you were when you first had the trauma. I knew that was what was happening to me.

  She poured me another cup of tea. “I wish I had words to help you.” She glanced at the clock. “Hopefully your boyfriend will be here soon.”

  And, as if on cue, there was a ringing of the doorbell.

  Rebekah opened the door, and Slade walked in. He saw me and immediately went over to me. “Serena, what’s going on?” he asked me as he kneeled right in front of me. He put his hand on my leg. “What’s going on?”

  I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

  “She’s had some sort of encounter with a man that has her scared,” Rebekah said.

  All at once, Slade’s face changed. He looked like a man possessed.

  “Mom’s tests came back,” he said quietly. “They found traces of poison in her system.” He shook his head. “This has to end.”

  “Slade, what are you going to do?” I asked him desperately.

  “I’m going to do what I have to. I have to make sure that you’re safe from now on. You don’t have to tell me what happened – it’s written all over your face. She got to my mother, and she’s getting to you by using that bastard Derek. I’ll deal with him later, too, but I have to get to the root of the problem. I need to cut the head off of the problem the best way that I can.”

  He put his arms around me and held me close. “You’re going to be safe, Serena. You will be. I’ll make sure of that.”

  I couldn’t help myself – I just let loose a torrent of tears. “I can handle this, Slade. I’ve already decided that I’m going to quit my job and I’m going to move away from that house. I thought that I could face this head-on, but I don’t think that I can. But I’ll handle it in my own way.”

  “No. That’s not good enough.”

  Slade stood up, and he picked me up in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he held out a hand to shake Rebekah’s hand. “I can’t thank you enough. I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

  Rebekah shook his hand. “Rebekah, and don’t mention it. I was on the beach, and I saw her sitting in the surf, fully clothed. My little daughter went over to her, and I knew that she needed help. Anybody would have done the same.”

  “Well, thank you,” he said. “I have to get Serena home, but I want you to know that meeting you gives me some kind of faith that there are good people out in the world.”

  Rebekah nodded her head. “Lots of good people in the world. But thank you for saying that.”

  At that, Slade carried me to his car, which was parked on the street next to Rebekah’s house. He gently strapped me in. “This is neither here nor there, but I’m going to send her a nice thank-you gift,” he said. “Now, tell me what happened.”

  “Derek attacked me,” I said.

  Slade gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. His jaw was clenched, and his hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly I thought that his knuckles were going to turn white. “Attacked you,” he said slowly. “Meaning?”

  “Not raped me, but he came close.” I was able to tell him the story because just being around him calmed me down considerably. “He came into my office, even though the door was locked, and I told him to leave. He didn’t, but came around behind me and put a gag on my mouth. And then he controlled my legs and…”

  Slade was breathing in and out slowly. “And?”

  “Well, he took off my underwear and he took down his pants. Before he could do anything else, I poked him in his eye and then kicked him right in the nuts.” It was then that I started to laugh hysterically. “Oh boy, you should have seen the look on his face when I did that. I kicked him right in his bare nuts with my high heels. I’d be surprised if he’s not in the hospital.” I shook my head. “Bastard.” And then I continued to laugh hysterically until tears were streaming down my cheeks.

  Slade wasn’t laughing with me, of course. He was staring straight ahead at the road. “I’m going to kill him,” he said quietly. “I will kill him.”

  “Slade, don’t be dumb. If you kill him, then you’ll definitely be in prison and there really won’t be any way out this time.” I was thinking clearly for the first time in hours, and I attributed that 100% to Slade. “Trust me, I’ve had plenty of clients who’ve killed to protect their woman’s honor, and they’re the ones who end up raped in prison for the rest of their lives.”

  “I don’t give a shit. He can’t do that and get away with it.” Then he shook his head. “No. I’ll kick his ass again, but the person I really want to kill is the one who put him up to all of this. Her ass is the one that I really want to kick. Derek is just a sick pawn. He’s nobody and he’s nothing to her, and she’s probably going to destroy him once he’s of no use to her.”

  “Again, Slade, you can’t do anything to her. If you do, her family will have you killed so fast…”

  “And what? What? If I don’t deal with her, she’ll get you. She’s getting bold, and I need to know exactly why and exactly what her next moves are. She’s sending these messages to us – these messages are telling me that she’s about to escalate. You won’t be safe if she does that.”

  “We’ll run. You have a home in Italy, and we can live there.”

  “Italy? Italy?” He snorted. “Good thinking there, Serena, going to the old country. If you think that the Garancinos are powerful here, then you haven’t seen how powerful they are in Italy. That’s probably one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.”

  All at once, I was angry at Slade. “So, what’s your plan? What is it? I’m throwing stuff out there, but I don’t hear any good ideas coming out of your mouth.”

  I didn’t notice it, but we had arrived at my home. “I’m going to buy some time,” he said.

  I didn’t like the sound of that.

  I knew what “buying time” was going to entail, and I didn’t like that idea one bit.

  Chapter 23

  We got into my front door, and I immediately realized that the dogs weren’t in the house. In my panic, I completely forgot to pick them up from the day care center.

  “Don’t worry,” Slade said. “I called the place and they’re fine.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Serena, I don’t want you to worry. Believe it or not, I do have a plan. I didn’t want to tell you about it, because it’s something that you won’t like at all. But I’ve been thinking about this since I spoke with Charlotte’s agent and realized that she’s about to go outer limits. She’s stepped everything up, assuming that she’s behind my mother’s…” He shook his head. “I still can’t accept that she’s gone.”

  “Slade, if the plan involves what I think that it involves, then I’m not on board with it.”

  “Of course you’re not. But, at this point, there’s only one way that I can think of to buy some time.”

  I wanted to slap him. Maybe a slap would knock some sense into his gorgeous head. “Slade, I…”

  “Stop,” he said, putting his hand on my mouth. “Tonight, it’s you and me. Tomorrow is going to be a different story, but tonight, we have to enjoy each other’s company.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that, yet, when Slade put his hand in my hair, I somehow forgot all about the stress that had happened that day. He had a way of making me forget my own name sometimes.

  Then he kissed me.

  More later

  Chapter 24

  I left Serena, and I headed to see Charlotte. I hated that I had been put in that situation, but I couldn’t figure anything else out. Blackmailing her didn’t wo
rk. Threatening her wasn’t working. I could literally kill her, but Serena was right – that would cause more problems and it would be way too risky.

  The only thing that I could possibly think of doing, right at that moment, was to play her game the way that she wanted me to play it. It turned my stomach and made me absolutely sick, but I was going to have to agree to marry her. That would buy me some time, and then I could possibly work a plan that would get her gone, once and for all.

  Marrying her would afford me access to the inner-workings of her family, and it would give me some kind of road-map for how to deal with her. I’d be able to get to know her family, and I would be able to really find out who had what role in the Garancino organization, and it would give me an opportunity to try to work my way around all of them.

  That was my plan. I had no clue if it was going to work, but it was all that I had right at that moment. Serena was against it, of course, but she hadn’t offered me any other alternative. If she did, then maybe I would be able to avoid it.

  Whatever happened, though, Serena would be safe. That was literally the only thing that mattered to me. I knew Charlotte, and I knew that she was days away from making her move. My mother was the opening shot. Derek’s move showed that she was emboldened. It was only a matter of time before I found Serena dead, and then I, too, would be dead. Maybe not literally dead, but dead inside. Serena was the love of my life, and I needed to protect her at all costs.

  As I drove up to Los Angeles, it felt like the drive was the longest of my life. I was determined to follow through, but that determination, combined with the thought that I was doing the only thing possible to ensure Serena’s safety, didn’t make any of it any easier.

  I got to her place, and the gate opened up. I drove up the long drive and rang the doorbell. She answered the door in a tight sweater that plunged and showed her cleavage. “Come on in,” she said. I had called her before-hand, so she was expecting me. “Let’s talk out on the balcony.”

  I wanted to strangle her, and it took every ounce of will-power to prevent me from doing so. I followed her out to the balcony, where she had set the table outside with candles and a bottle of wine. It made me sick to think that she was already declaring victory, and this was her way of rubbing it in my face.

  We sat down, and I refused a glass of wine. “Listen, Charlotte, I’m not going to beat around the fucking bush here. I have no idea what you’re up to, but I’m literally hours away from blasting you to the media. You’re going to be ruined, absolutely ruined, when I get through with you.”

  To my chagrin, she smiled. “No, actually, you won’t be. It took me months, but I managed it.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Managed what?”

  “I’ve managed to destroy every single record that showed what I did in my past. That includes the record that you have on your computer. And the record on Serena’s computer, and that douche-bag Lars’ computer as well (Sven’s name is now Lars).”

  Crap. I had a feeling that what she did was something like this, but I couldn’t be sure. “Bullshit. There’s no way you could breach my security protocols to do something like that. I’ve had no evidence of a security breach. You’re fucking bluffing.”

  Charlotte started to laugh. “You think that you’re the only one with an Ace computer hacker? I have my own Lars, and he’s good. He’s so good that he was able to breach the security of your system without you even knowing it. Don’t worry, he didn’t commit espionage, although he could do that, too. He was only concerned with destroying those records. And the original doctor, the one who treated me? I took care of him, too, and his records.” She smiled. “As I said, it wasn’t easy at all, but I managed it. I mean, my computer guy managed it. You no longer have proof of anything at all.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. I had copies of her records in about 20 different places on my computer, and I knew that this hacker guy, whoever he was, couldn’t possibly get all of them without my knowledge.

  “Check mate,” she said gleefully. “Now, since you have nothing on me, I’m going to continue my reign of terror until I get what I want from you.”

  “I said bullshit.”

  “Bullshit what?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe you still have some copies of those records, somewhere deep in the recesses of your system, but I no longer care about that. Because I have a backup plan. I’m not stupid.”

  “What’s your backup plan?”

  “It involves discrediting you, which will be so easy to do, considering how much trouble you’ve been in lately. First you murdered Jordan. I mean, you didn’t really do that, but you’d be surprised about how many people think that you’re still under suspicion and that you really did murder him.” She raised her eyebrows. “Again, it took me months, but I’ve done focus group after focus group, and at least half the idiots in this country think that you did it, even though there’s definitive evidence that you didn’t. So, there’s that.”

  I knew where this was going, and I had to admit, this psychotic bitch was brilliant. She was going to play the PR game, and she evidently got her ducks in a row.

  She went on. “Oh, and you did dispose of a body. Everyone knows that, and you’re good for that one. So, in society at large, you’re still seen as a criminal, a violent one at that, and I’m…well, I’m America’s new sweetheart. Once my publicity machine gets going, you’re not going to be able to win.”

  “I’ve got a PR team that would beat the ass out of yours.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re starting at a disadvantage, Slade. I know that your PR team is the best in the business, but so is mine. All things being equal, though, I have the leg-up on you, because half the country still thinks that you bludgeoned a man to death in cold blood.”

  I drew a breath, trying to calm down and not lunge at this woman and strangle her. I didn’t kill Jordan, but I will kill you, bitch.

  She just smiled. “So, I get the PR machine going, and the story is going to be that you forged those records. And who’s going to contradict you? I took care of the Doctor who treated me, and trust me, after my family got through with him, nobody else is ever going to talk to media to corroborate your story.”

  “I don’t believe you.” I hadn’t heard that her treating doctor was killed, so I figured this was another one of her bluffs.

  She calmly showed me her computer, and I almost vomited when I saw the news story that she was showing me. The doctor who diagnosed her, Dr. Valenti, was found burned to death in the trunk of a car. “This was just a warning to anybody who wants to talk to the media and tell them what happened with me and that unfortunate incident in my past and my unfortunate diagnosis. Trust me, everyone has gotten that message. Nobody will ever talk to the media.”

  I leaned back. It was just as I had suspected – Charlotte had a plan to release her from my blackmailing her.

  I thought that there was a glimmer of hope that I could somehow outfox her, but, right at that moment, I couldn’t. I was going to have to put my own plan into action, and it was not only dangerous, but it was also heartbreaking.

  Serena was going to be safe, though. That was all that mattered.

  “You got me.” I crossed my arms. “Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”

  She smiled. “I knew you would come around.”

  Be sure to keep your eyes out for the conclusion of the Temptations series - due on Spring 2016.

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  Also by Annie Jocoby

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