The Intimidation Game (Game Series Book 1)
Page 11
Chapter Sixteen
“Ooh,” I groan as I stretch my body out. My muscles ache and when I remember why I smile. I can hear water running, a shower, and I sit up and take in my surroundings. I didn’t get a good look at this room in the muted light last night and now, in the rising light of dawn, I can see it for the opulent space it is.
This bed is huge and in any other room would look too big, but I think this one bedroom has more square footage than my entire apartment. The wall behind the bed is entirely made of light grey leather padded panels that could rival a modern art installation, but also acts as a kind of headboard. All the furnishings in the room are light grey and the walls stark white although it doesn’t feel cold. The huge windows are draped with a light grey sheer fabric and heavy dark grey velvet curtains on either side. I’m about to get out of the bed and check out that lovely specimen of a man in the shower when the bedroom door flies open and a little girl, I would guess about two or three years old, runs in.
“Daddy, daddy, daddy.” She stops when she sees me sitting in the bed and cocks her head to the side like a little puppy, her light brown curls bouncing around. “Hi.”
I know I look like a deer in headlights right now and I can’t answer her. I also can’t take my eyes off her beautiful face. She’s like a little doll and her eyes… my God her eyes. Those dark brown pools are hard to mistake. I looked into eyes just like that last night.
“Olivia. Olivia King, where are you?” The high-pitched female voice echoing up the corridor is getting closer and the little girl giggles and puts her hands to her mouth. She’s so fucking cute it’s making me want to cry.
“OLIVIA.” That voice is like the high-pitched whine of a teapot on a stove. The owner of the voice appears in the doorway. She’s young, maybe a little younger than me and she has her long brown hair scraped back in an Ariana Grande style ponytail, not a strand out of place. Her tight sweater and skinny jeans look like they’ve been painted on. “Olivia what have I told you about running away from me?”
Olivia stamps her feet. “I want my daddy.”
The young woman eyes me suspiciously. “It appears your daddy’s busy, now come on.” She grabs Olivia’s wrist and drags her from the room slamming the door behind her.
I listen to the little girl’s cries and protestations until they disappear, and I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding on to. It comes out stuttered and brings a wave of tears with it. I’ve done it again. I can’t believe I’ve done it again. He has a fucking kid. I researched him and nowhere, in any bio I read, did it say he had a bloody kid. Now I’m in the middle of nowhere with no way to get home. I don’t even know where this place is. I hear the shower stop and I jump out of the bed and grab my dress. Pulling it up I fumble for the zip. I’m in the process of trying to pull a piece of caught chiffon out of the zip when the bathroom door opens. I look up and see Dan standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped round his waist and one in his hand rubbing at his hair. I have to turn away from him. I want to run away but I have nowhere to go.
“I want to go home.” It’s all I can manage, and I know he can hear the tears in my voice.
“Nikki what’s up?”
I shake my head. “I just want to go home Dan please.” My hot salty tears are free flowing down my face as I stand in the middle of the room half dressed in my bridesmaid dress, which looked so beautiful yesterday, but now reminds me that I am about to do yet another walk of shame.
“Nikki will you look at me please?”
I shake my head.
“Nikki look at me.” It’s not a request this time and I turn to face him, still holding the zip of the dress closed against my front. “What’s wrong?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a kid Dan?” My voice cracks on the last word and I stare at the floor.
“Shit,” he mutters under his breath.
I feel rage boil up inside me. I have a right to be angry. “Shit. Is that all you have to say? You knew what it took for me to trust you Dan, why didn’t you tell me?”
“What the fuck would it have mattered if I had told you Nikki? Would you not have come home with me? Would you not have admitted how you felt about me just because I have a daughter? What sort of person would that have made you?”
“How dare you question the kind of person I am Dan, how fucking dare you.” I don’t know what possesses me, but I pick up my bag and launch it across the room at him and in the process let go of my dress, which falls to the floor leaving me naked again. Dan moves out of the way and the bag hits the wall and falls onto a grey velvet sofa emptying the contents, one of which being the knickers I was wearing last night, over the cushions.
Dan looks from my naked body to the couch and back again and his eyes are like fire. He laughs and shakes his head. “Is this how it’s going to be Nikki? Are you going to get spooked every time something pops up?”
I pull my dress back up and sit down on the bed. I shake my head and look at the door as tears fall from my eyes. I know I’ve made a big mistake here and I don’t know how to take it back. Dan comes and sits beside me.
“Nikki, I don’t know why I didn’t tell you about Olivia. She’s the most important thing in my life and I’m lucky she’s even here at all.” He takes my hand and rubs my knuckles. “I like you Nikki, I really do but I love her. I think I didn’t tell you because I was worried this is what would happen. Women don’t tend to take the fact that a man has baggage very well and if I have to choose my daughter over a woman who can’t accept her, she will win every time.”
“Dan I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. I just thought since you told me about your family that you had told me everything.”
“Nikki, I didn’t tell you anything you couldn’t have found out yourself.”
“I told you I needed a way out, if your company hadn’t offered me that job I’d have gone with the next best thing. It didn’t even occur to me to check you or the company out, I was just happy to be getting away. Please don’t get me wrong Dan I love my job and I’m glad I have it but at the time I was in a terrible place. I dread to think what may have become of me if I hadn’t come here.”
“This isn’t how I imagined this morning going Nikki.” He lets go of my hand and leans forward, his forearms on his thighs. “I swear I would have told you about Olivia, I just… I didn’t want you to run.”
I place my hand on his shoulder. “Dan I wouldn’t have run. I just wish you had trusted me enough to tell me. God I’ve agreed to be your spy I think I could’ve handled this.” I put my hand on his jaw and turn his face to me. “She is absolutely beautiful by the way.”
The pride in his eyes makes me smile. “Yes, she is. I’m sorry Nikki; I should have given you more credit I know. Please tell me I haven’t fucked this up.”
I lean in and kiss him softly. “You haven’t fucked this up,” I whisper against his lips, “just trust me next time okay.”
He crashes his lips down on mine and I can feel the relief in his kiss. He stands us up and I let my dress fall to the floor again. He lifts me off my feet and I wrap my legs round his waist kissing him back, reassuring him that I’m going nowhere.
“Dan, where’s Olivia’s mum?” I run my fingers up and down his arm as we lie on the bed.
He sighs and I lean up on my elbow so that I’m looking at him. “It’s a long story Nikki are you sure you want to hear it?”
“Of course I do.”
He sits up so that he’s mirroring me, and we lie face to face. “She’s in prison.”
“Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting that… wow.”
“Irena is a scumbag drug dealer. I met her five years ago when she was apparently here from Latvia on a student exchange programme. I thought she was the one. I got suckered right in, but it turned out she was using my status and wealth to hide her drug outfit.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“It crushed me when I found out. I loved her, but I loved a lie. She could have won a fucking Oscar f
or the performance she put in. I found out about everything when she was pregnant with Olivia. I was going to propose to her, so I had her checked out. I don’t even know why; I had already made up my mind that she was going to be my wife. I suppose paranoia comes with the territory.” He turns onto his stomach and I keep quiet, letting him continue. “The information that came up about her almost killed me. She had set up businesses, using my surname, to launder her money. She wasn’t just a dealer she was the dealer. She was top of the fucking chain.”
I’m utterly shocked at his story and knowing about the stuff he went through because of drugs and his dad makes it all even more sad. “Did she have Olivia in prison?”
“Fuck no. I was never going to let her bring my child into the world behind bars. No, I waited till Olivia was born then I made sure the police got every bit of information I had on her. Her court case would turn your hair grey. She was eventually found guilty of supplying and distributing Class A drugs, extortion and fraud, here’s the biggest kicker that even I didn’t know, arms dealing. There was also talk of murders but that couldn’t be proved.”
This is starting to sound like some crazy Netflix show. “Weren’t you worried for Olivia’s safety? Surely she would have other people who would do something to hurt the person that took her down.”
“That’s why very few people know about Olivia. When Irena went down it brought down an entire network not only here but in other parts of Europe too. It was a massive operation and I’ll tell you right now, if you had seen her, you would think butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She got the maximum the judge could give her, life with a thirty year minimum. She’s wanted all over Europe, so I doubt she’ll ever get out of prison.”
“Oh, Dan I’m so sorry.”
He holds up his hand. “No don’t be, I’m not. I got my beautiful little girl out of it. She’s my saving grace, my reason for getting up every day. You’re the first woman I’ve brought home since Irena.”
I reach up and touch his face. “Thank you. Not for bringing me here but for telling me that. I know it wasn’t easy. You’re a good guy Dan and I bet you’re an excellent dad.”
He smiles. “On that note, would you like to meet my little cherub?”
Chapter Seventeen
The table in this breakfast nook off the kitchen is big enough to seat about forty people and I feel like Jack at the giant’s table.
“Would you like some breakfast Nikki?” An older woman dressed impeccably asks with a smile as she places a pot of tea and a cafetiere of coffee on the table in front of us.
“Uhm… yes please.” The fact that she knows my name, and I have no idea who she is, throws me. “What do you have?”
She gives a little laugh and looks at Dan, who answers my question. “We have whatever you want.”
“Oh okay. Could I get some French toast and syrup?”
“Of course. My name is Valerie. If you need anything else, please let me know.”
I watch her walk away and turn back to Dan. “I feel like I’m in a restaurant. Your house is stunning by the way.”
“Thanks. I like it. Steven Parker, your friend’s new husband, was the architect on the project. That’s how I met him. He let me have significant input on the design. I wanted it to be luxury but to still feel like a home. This place was finished just before Olivia was born.”
“Well she certainly has a beautiful place to grow up in.” No sooner have those words left my mouth than the little lady in question makes an appearance.
“Daddy,” she shouts as she runs through the kitchen and into Dan’s outstretched arms, her beautiful curls bouncing like springs.
The young woman I saw earlier follows her and her face is just as stern as it was then. I assume she’s the nanny although, by the way she looks at Dan, I think she’d like to be more. I watch as Olivia wraps her little arms round his neck, and he kisses her forehead. She turns in his arms and looks at me.
“That’s my daddy’s jumper,” she says as she points at the ensemble I’m wearing.
Dan gave me the smallest clothes of his he has, and they still drown me. “Yes, it is. Your daddy let me borrow these.”
I’m almost floored by the cuteness when she puts her hands to her mouth and gasps in mock shock. “What’s your name?” She asks.
“I’m Nikki and what’s yours?” I ask
“My name is Olivia King, I’m three.” Her smile is so cute, and her voice is even cuter. She’s very articulate for her age.
“Nessa take the rest of the morning off. I’ll keep Olivia with me until Nikki goes home.”
Nessa looks at me with frosty eyes then nods at Dan. “Okay. I’ll be at home if you need me.” She turns and disappears from our view.
Olivia squirms in Dan’s arms and he relents and lets her down. She giggles at me then runs off into the next room.
“Nessa doesn’t like me,” I whisper to Dan.
He laughs and shakes his head. “Nessa doesn’t really like anyone, but she is an amazing nanny and Olivia adores her. She has a lot of issues. She’s actually very nice once you get to know her.”
“Nessa likes you,” and my words are unintentionally tinged with jealousy.
“It’s something I’ve already dealt with. She’s here to do her job and that’s it. If she steps out of line or crosses that boundary, she’ll lose her job. She’s an employee, nothing more.”
I lower my eyes to the table. “That’s what I was supposed to be.” My words are mumbled but I know he heard me.
“Nikki,” my name is said in a sigh. “Nikki look at me please.”
I do as he asks and the internal conflict he is feeling is visible in those chocolate eyes of his. He is about to say something else to me when Valerie appears beside the table with a huge tray of food.
“Sorry folks, breakfast is ready. I’ve put some bacon on there too because…well, it’s bacon…you can’t have too much of that. You’re not veggie are you Nikki? I’m sorry I should have checked.”
I shake my head and give her a small smile. “No I’m not Valerie, this looks great, thank you.”
“Phew,” she runs her hand over her forehead, “thank God for that. Well enjoy.” She turns to Dan. “I’m going into town today to pick up some books I ordered is there anything I can get you.”
“No thanks love, I’m good. I’m heading into the office later anyway. Enjoy your afternoon, I’ll probably see you tomorrow night.”
“No problem. I’ve left next week’s schedules on your desk for approval and the menus for the month are ready. I’ll need them signed off by Wednesday at the latest.”
Dan salutes her, “Yes sir.”
Valerie slaps him on the back of the head. “Don’t be cheeky to your elders,” she scolds him.
I smile at their interaction. She seems like a bit of a mother figure to him, which is nice considering his past.
“It was really nice to meet you Nikki.” She emphasises the word really and I know it’s because I’m the first woman he’s had here since Irena.
“And you Valerie, thanks again for breakfast.”
She gives my shoulder a little squeeze. There are more words in that small action than she could ever say, and I can’t deny that it worries me a little. I watch her walk away and turn back to Dan who has a slightly pensive look on his face.
I decide to break the silence. “So, Valerie is your cook then? She’s good.” I take a bite of salty, smoky bacon and I feel like my mouth has just exploded. “Oh my, this is nice.”
Dan laughs. “She’s more than that. I like to call her my chief of staff because… well she is. She runs the household and grounds staff and takes care of the day-to-day running of the house. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without her.”
I get the feeling he means in more ways than in just a professional capacity.
“She is lovely.” I sigh as I break off a piece of French toast and push it into my mouth.
“What’s up Nikki?” Dan asks softly.
He narrows his eyes ever so slightly. “But what?”
“I don’t know how a relationship between us is ever going to work. Not right now anyway. Not with everything you’ve asked me to do.”
He’s about to say something when Olivia comes back to the table carrying two Barbie dolls who should be embarrassed at their state of undress. “Nikki, want to play dollies?”
I smile at her and wonder how much interaction she has with other kids. She’s three so she must go to kindergarten or some sort of pre-school. The education system in the UK is very different to what is on offer in state schools in South Africa but, because my sister and I were private schooled, we went from age three. “Sure sweetheart. I’ll come and play with you as soon as I’ve had my breakfast, okay?”
“Okay,” she says in her little voice and goes off again running at breakneck speed, her bare feet slapping on the tiled floor.
“She likes you Nikki. So do I. We can make this work I promise we can.” Dan puts his hand on mine.
“I think we need to take this slowly. If I’m at all honest I don’t think it’s a good idea to take our relationship any further right now. Not until you have all your evidence about what Astrid and Jed are up to.”
He lets go of my hand and sits back in his chair. He sighs and bows his head. “How can I see you every day and not want to touch you? Last night was… I honestly don’t know what to do.”
Standing up in front of him, I run my hand through his hair. He grabs me by the waist and pulls me into his lap, laying his head against my chest.
“Will you wait for me?” I ask.
“You know I will.”
Chapter Eighteen
I thought work was going to be a nightmare today, but it has been okay. Now past the planning stage, we’ve started to generate some decent output on our project, and I have actually had some concrete work that Dan and I have already been able to alter the data on to give to Jed. I had to talk to Jed at length today and it was a little uncomfortable knowing what I know. Don’t get me wrong he was pleasant enough but simply knowing what he has been doing to Dan’s business makes me want to slap some sense into him. I get the feeling that Astrid is using him but he’s a man, he won’t be thinking with his brain. That being said I know this industry well and it does leave itself open to all sorts of intellectual theft. Astrid and Jed are merely exploiting that. I’m sure I saw an ounce of glee in Jed’s eyes when I handed him our work today.