Beneath Deception: An Unbreakable Series (Romantic Suspense)

by A. L Long

  I knew something had to be up. Jonathan wouldn’t have disappeared like that without a word. Not letting me know where he was going was one thing, but it wasn’t like him to disappear without letting Tessa know. Tessa had every reason to be worried. Only one thought ran through my head when she couldn’t find him, and that was Colin got to him. It might have been a little premature, but if Jonathan didn’t show up within the next couple of hours, I would be on my way to the cabin to make sure that Tessa remained safe.

  Two hours had passed without a word from Jonathan. Something was definitely wrong. If he wasn’t at Criss Cross, I had no other option than to go to his home in the hills and get Tessa away from there and take her somewhere safe.

  As I pulled up to the building, I was glad to see that Jonathan’s silver Audi was parked near the entrance. There was only one other car, which was parked next to his. I assumed it was Darcy’s car. I found it odd that these were the only two cars in the parking lot aside from mine. The two times that I had been here before, the lot was at least three-quarters full.

  One other thing that I found strange was that Darcy wasn’t behind the reception desk. Actually, as I began looking around, it didn’t appear that anyone was in the building. Heading up the stairs to where Jonathan’s office was, I could hear two voices. One I immediately recognized as Jonathan’s and the other was no doubt Darcy’s. A load had been taken off me knowing nothing bad had happened to him.

  When I reached his office, the two of them were leaning over Jonathan’s desk looking over what seemed to have been some sort of invoice.

  Clearing my voice, I asked bluntly, “Why didn’t you let Tessa know where you were?”

  Two sets of eyes were on me in an instant, giving me a displeased look. “You know, you could have knocked,” Jonathan said sharply.

  “Yeah, I could have, and you couldn’t have let Tessa know where you were going,” I countered.

  “Darcy, do you mind leaving us for a minute?” Jonathan inquired.

  “Sure, I will research these charges and let you know what I come up with,” she replied.

  Darcy gathered up the invoices and headed to the door. Pulling it closed behind her, Jonathan and I were finally alone. I could have laid into him, but decided that the last thing I needed was to have him angry with me, especially since I was going to need his help in pulling off the new plan I had in mind. Moving over to where he was standing, I took a seat in front of his desk and crossed my leg at the knee while keeping my eyes on him. His brow lifted slightly, giving me a look of confusion.

  Appeasing his curiosity, which was written all over his face, I began telling him of my new plan. “The more I thought about our initial plan, the more it became clear that it was going to be impossible to pull off. So instead, I have come up with another plan. One that will work out perfectly.”

  After explaining to him every aspect of the plan, he was more than on board with it. The only thing that bothered him was parting with his car. After a lot of convincing, he realized it could be replaced and that his life was more valuable to him now that Tessa was back in his life.

  We only had a few hours to make this plan work, and that included making sure that Colin was around to see it. While I dialed Colin to arrange a meeting place, Jonathan was on the phone with his friend to arrange for the cadaver to be delivered.

  ~*~*~*~

  When I left Criss Cross, at least part of the plan was being initiated. I wasn’t able to get in touch with Colin on my cell, so the only other option was to drive to his place and talk to him there, in person. Hopefully he would be around and it wouldn’t be a waste of time. In the meantime, I needed to get in touch with Tessa to let her know that her father was safe.

  Searching for her number in my contacts, I pressed the phone icon and waited for her to answer. She answered after the first ring. “Xavier, did you find him?”

  “It’s okay, baby. You don’t need to worry. Your dad was at the warehouse working. He has to finish up a few things, but should be back at the cabin later tonight,” I informed her. “How are you doing?” I needed to have reassurance that she was okay.

  “I am better now that I know my father is okay,” she confessed.

  “Good,” I replied. “Please don’t worry. I will try and see you later tonight as well.”

  I knew that driving out to the cabin was taking a chance, but after only a day away from her, I already missed her dearly. The first thing that I was going to do when I saw her was to show her exactly how much. There wasn’t going to be an inch of her gorgeous body that I wasn’t going to be worshipping.

  Backing out of the parking spot, I glanced down at my phone to see an unfamiliar number come across the screen. Thinking that it had to have been a wrong number, I declined the call and threw my phone on the passenger seat. It hadn’t been but a few seconds and my phone rang again. The same number appeared, and I knew that whoever was calling, solicitor or not, they weren’t going to give up until I answered. Swiping the screen, I slowly drove out of the parking lot as I said, “Hello.”

  It took a few minutes for the person to answer, but when he finally did, I knew I shouldn’t have answered the call. “Josh, it’s Ryan.”

  ~Thirteen~

  My heart skipped a beat when I heard my brother’s voice come over my cell. I was completely speechless. Given that it had been a year since I had put Josh Hyatt to rest, I thought for sure that life was behind me. What bothered me the most was, how he was able to find my number?

  When I became Xavier London, I changed who I was. Everything about me was different: my hair color, my eye color, the way I dressed. Josh Hyatt was gone forever, non-existent. If I had been thinking, I would have just hung up on Ryan instead of telling him that he had the wrong number. I knew the minute I opened my mouth, he knew it was me. There was at least one thing on my side. I wasn’t on the phone long enough that it could be traced, and since I still had a New York area code, it would be even harder for him to find me in California.

  By the time I reached Colin’s house, I managed to focus my thoughts back on the plan. Entering through the gate and up the drive, I could see in the distance that Colin’s car was out front. Checking the time on my dash, I only had a few hours to convince Colin that Jonathan Evans was going to die, and if he wanted to witness his death then he would need to come with me. I knew how badly he wanted Jonathan dead, and watching him die would be icing on the cake.

  Ringing the doorbell, I waited for a few moments until the sweet older lady opened the door. “Mr. London. What a pleasant surprise.”

  As she smiled up at me. I couldn’t believe that such a sweet old lady as herself would ever work for a bastard like Colin. Smiling at her in return, I asked, “Is Mr. Gates home?”

  “I’m sorry, dear, but he was called away this morning on business. He won’t be returning for a couple of days. Would you like to come for coffee? I just baked a triple-layer German chocolate cake,” she offered.

  “As tempting as that is, I really must go.”

  Getting into my car. I began to wonder what could be so important that Colin had to leave town. This could have been a good thing. On the other hand, it could have been a bad thing. With Colin out of town, my plan would need to be postponed, which would allow me more time to perfect it. All I wanted was for Colin to witness Jonathan’s death and with him away, that would be impossible. I knew that I was probably taking a chance, but there was no way that Jonathan would be dying today, technically speaking.

  Other than the non-meeting with Colin, this day ended up being a complete waste of time. Feeling like I needed to do something counterproductive, I thought that a trip to Direction 96 was in order. Placing more pressure on the gas, I accelerated onto the highway and merged quickly into traffic. Even though I hated this time of the day, my sports car had no problem as I weaved in and out of traffic.

  Feeling a vibration in my back pocket, I lifted my ass from the seat in order to pull my cell out. Staring at the same ten d
igits, my focus shifted from the highway to the screen on my phone. Hearing the loud sound of horns honking, I looked up only to find that I had drifted into the other lane, nearly causing what would have been a near-fatal accident. Correcting the position of the car and pulling it back into the correct lane, I threw my phone on the seat and ignored the call; something that I should have done in the beginning. I knew that Ryan wouldn’t give up, and the only way to fix the problem was to purchase a new phone with a new number.

  ~*~*~*~

  With a new phone in hand, I headed inside Direction 96 and went straight up the stairs without stopping at the bar to grab a drink like I had done on so many occasions. My head needed to be clear and the only way to do that was to abstain from any form of alcohol. I thought the day couldn’t have gotten any worse until I opened the door and saw Ginger sitting behind my desk. “This woman really needs to get a grip,” I thought to myself. Leaving the door wide open, hoping that she would get the hint, I walked over to where she was sitting like she owned the place, and said as gently as I could, “Ginger, you really need to get a life. You are really beginning to tip towards the edge of stalking.”

  Standing to her feet, she tore open her light jacket and said with contempt, “Doesn’t this look like a stalker to you?”

  Taking the remote that operated the blinds, I pressed the button and waited a minute to make sure they were in motion before heading to the door. The last thing I needed was for a patron to walk by and see her semi-naked body displayed before me.

  I knew that brushing her off wasn’t going to work this time. I needed to lay it down in terms she would be able to understand. “Look, Ginger. I think I may have sent you the wrong message. You can’t keep showing up at my apartment and you certainly can’t show up here whenever you want. What we had was good, but what you want from this thing we have is not want I want,” I stated as her hands crossed over her chest trying to cover what little clothes she had on.

  Before I finished what I had to say, I bent over and took her coat from the floor and handed it to her. As she began putting it back on, I clearly stated the facts so she would understand. “There is someone else and this thing between us needs to stop.”

  Without so much as a “fuck you,” she began heading to the door. Placing her hand on the door knob, she hesitated in opening the door and turned toward me instead. “I know you better than you know yourself, lover. You’ll come back to me and when you do, I’ll be here just like I have always been.”

  I was completely baffled at this woman’s thought process. I suddenly came to the conclusion that she had her own way of thinking and that she really needed to get some help in dealing with her made-up fantasy world. I had this sick feeling that she was going to be a problem.

  Taking a seat behind my desk, I looked down at the bar floor and watched as the club began to fill with patrons. I would never forget the day I purchased this club and the money that it cost to make it into something better. In its day, I was sure it was a hopping place, but as the years rolled on with the lack of maintenance, the place lost its glory, which was good for me. Paying next to nothing for it, I was able to spend the money needed to fix it up and make it the hottest spot in LA.

  Knowing that Colin’s request to have the so called ‘job’ finished wouldn’t take place today, I reached over, picked up the receiver, and dialed his number. While I was thinking of nothing more than wishing he would answer, his voice cackled in an arrogant tone, “You better be calling to let me know the job is done.”

  As much as I wanted to lie and tell him “yes” I knew that he would find out soon enough that it wasn’t. “That is why I am calling. I had every intention of doing the job, expecting that you would want to be there. When I went to your house and found that you were out of town, I held off.”

  There was a moment of silence before he finally responded, “Since you were so kind to invite me to the show, I’ve decided to give you a little latitude. I should be back in LA in about a week. Be ready to execute my demand.”

  It was the last request he gave before the sound of dead air could be heard on the other end. How kind it was of Colin to extend my deadline. At least it would give Jonathan and me more time to fine-tune our plan. Using my new phone, I dialed Jonathan to let him know of the change in plans. I only hoped he picked up even though it would show up as unknown.

  ~*~*~*~

  Hanging up with Jonathan, he couldn’t have been happier that his life was going to be spared, so to speak, for another week. He offered to use his contacts to come up with a car that would fit our initial plan, but I told him that the alternate plan would work out better. His only concern was replacing his $75,000 Audi. Seeing as how it was my plan, I felt it was more than fair to flip the bill for a replacement. “God, I need to toughen up,” I thought to myself.

  The best part of this whole thing was that with Colin gone for a week, I could spend more time with Tessa and only have his minions to deal with. The first thing that I needed to do was find alternate transportation myself.

  After checking in with Russ to see if there were any immediate issues that I needed to take care of, of which there were none, I exited the club to find the nearest Land Rover dealership. My efforts were stopped when I spotted Kyle leaning up against my 100K Jag. “What the fuck, Lincoln?” I yelled between gritted teeth.

  “Chill out, dude,” he said, pulling down the sleeve of his shirt and rubbing it against the red finish as if to polish it.

  “What do you want, anyway? I am kind of in a hurry,” I indicated, still perturbed that he had no regard for one’s personal property.

  “We need to talk.” His body language changed as he seemed to get very nervous in a short period of time.

  Curious to find out what was on his mind and what had him so jumpy, I crossed my arms at my chest and said, “Shoot.”

  “I don’t know where the hell to begin,” he stuttered, wiping his hands up and down his thighs.

  “The beginning is usually a good place,” I suggested sarcastically.

  “Okay, here it goes,” he began, “I think that Colin is going to kill Tessa if he ever finds her. I also know that you are keeping her safe and I would like it to stay that way.”

  “And how do you know this?” I questioned.

  “Because I overheard him talking to one of his men. I also know that he wants you to kill Jonathan Evans,” Kyle admitted.

  “You're his go-to-guy. Why are you coming to me with this information?”

  “Because I care about what happen to Tessa and Jonathan Evans,” he stated, looking even more nervous, if that was possible.

  “Why would you care about either one of them?” I was beginning to think there was more to this than he was willing to share as I questioned him.

  “Because… Tessa is my sister.”

  ~Fourteen~

  I didn’t know if this story could have gotten any crazier. There was no way that I could ever believe that Kyle and Tessa were brother and sister, but when I questioned him about it, he had the evidence to prove it. In his hand was the birth certificate, written in Russian, with the name of the father being Viktor Sokolov and the mother being Natalia Sokolov. It could have been a fake, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Kyle would have had to go through a lot of work to dummy documents to prove his relationship with Jonathan and Tessa.

  Knowing him as well as I did, I realized sooner or later I needed to put my guard down and start trusting him. I wasn’t ready to trust him completely, at least not until I did my own investigation. There was one thing I knew for sure, I wasn’t going to let him know that I knew where Tessa was, even though he knew I was behind keeping her safe.

  Even though it had been a couple of hours since Kyle’s confession, I couldn’t get what he told me out of my head. I knew there would be one person who would know the truth about Kyle, aka Nikolai Sokolov.

  ~*~*~*~

  Packing what I needed for the trip, I got in my new Range Rov
er Velar and head towards Big Bear Lake. I tried to get in touch with Jonathan to let him know that I was on my way up, but the call went to voice mail. Leaving several messages, I decided to contact Tessa. Once again, the call went to voicemail. There was no need for concern only because I knew that Tessa was safe for the time being. Knowing that I would soon be out of cell signal until I got to the cabin, I placed my cell on the leather seat and concentrated on the road. It was a good two-hour drive up the mountain, so I tried to hurry every chance I had while trying not to get a speeding ticket.

  By the time I got to the cabin, there were still a few hours of daylight before the sun would set. When I pulled up to the drive, there was no sign of Jonathan’s car, unless he had driven it inside the four-car garage. Parking my Rover near the entrance, I grabbed my duffel bag from the back seat and proceeded to the front door. I knew that Agnes would be here cooking up something mouthwatering, so when Tessa answered the door instead, I was a bit surprised.