Taboo Daddy

by Crowne, K. C.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, sighing heavily. “I don’t know what he wants. I don’t know how seriously he’s taking us. And he has a daughter he needs to think of. I just didn’t want to force his hand, you know? I didn’t want us to fall into a relationship just because I happened to be staying at his house. If it happens, I want it to be based on something more than that.”

  “If it happens. So it still might happen?”

  “You should be a detective, you know that?”

  “Yeah, I know. Now tell me what happened last night.”

  “We kissed,” I said.

  “He kissed you? Or you kissed him?”

  “Neither. Both. We kissed.”

  “That sounds like you both want to see if there’s something in this.”

  “He also called me his friend.”

  “Maybe he’s nervous,” Sara suggested.

  “That doesn’t really sound like him,” I said. “I’ve never seen him nervous.”

  We had arrived at the sandwich shop, and now Sara pushed the door open and led the way in. “You grab a table, okay?” she said. “I’m gonna run to the bathroom.”

  I found a vacant table by a window and sat down to wait for Sara.

  “Excuse me, ma’am?”

  I looked up, expecting to see a server, prepared to let him know that I was waiting for a friend before placing my order. But the man standing beside my table was dressed in a suit and tie, not the bright orange t-shirt with the restaurant logo on it. And he looked familiar.

  “You’re Jenna Robertson, right?” he asked.

  I was spooked. Someone had it out for me, as evidenced by the fact that my apartment had been broken into. Could this be the guy? You’re in a public place, I told myself firmly. He can’t do anything to you here. “Who’s asking?” I said, struggling to inject my voice with the courage I didn’t feel.

  “I’m sorry,” the man said. “We only met once in person. I’m not surprised you don’t recognize me. I’m Mr. Michaels. Joshua’s father?”

  “Oh,” I said, the memory flooding back. Mr. Michaels and I had met at a bookshop, where we’d both been browsing interior design titles. When I’d told him what I did for a living, he’d hired me to help with his son’s new place.

  Of course, now I was wishing I’d never taken that job.

  “I heard about your apartment,” he commented.

  That struck me as suspicious, and I lifted my eyebrow. “How?”

  “The police contacted us,” he said. “They say Joshua’s a suspect in their investigation.”

  Somehow, I’d never thought about the fact that Josh would be contacted by the police. I had envisioned them knocking on his door to arrest him once they were sure of his guilt, but I’d never imagined him knowing I had accused him without being arrested. The thought made me feel shivery inside. “Oh,” I said again, wishing to God Sara would come back. “Okay.”

  “I just wanted to tell you—well, that I’m sure Joshua wouldn’t do something like that,” Mr. Michaels said. “He’s a good boy, really.”

  “He’s a good boy?” I raised my eyebrows, indignation fueling my courage. “He tried to attack me, you know. I told you what happened.”

  “I know you did,” Mr. Michaels sighed.

  “Do you not believe that either?”

  “I do,” he confessed quietly. “I believe you, Jenna. Ms. Robertson. And I’m sorry that that happened, truly. But I still don’t think my son was the one who broke into your apartment. He’s, well, he’s not really that ambitious.”

  I didn’t know what to say. A part of me just wanted to tell him off. But there was the fact that Noah didn’t believe Josh had been behind the break in either. He certainly wasn’t the innocent boy his father thought he was, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was guilty of this particular crime.

  “Are you still designing?” Mr. Michaels questioned, changing the subject. “I plan to hire someone soon to do some work for me.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for us to continue to work together,” I told him.

  “This would just be for me,” he assured me. “Not for Joshua. And it would pay well. Twice what I paid you to do Joshua’s apartment.”

  I hesitated, looking to the side as I thought.

  “We’re very pleased with your work,” he continued quickly, sensing my hesitation. “I’m very pleased with your work. I’d love to have your eye on my next project.”

  I did need to start accumulating more clients. “Let me think about it.”

  He reached into his pocket, pulled out a business card, and handed it to me. “Give me a call,” he said. “I’m heading out of town for a few days, but I’ll be reachable at this number. I look forward to hearing from you.”

  I took the card, wondering as I did so if I would live to regret it.

  Chapter 25

  Noah

  “Can we meet?” Eric asked on the phone the next afternoon. “Can we just sit down and talk about it?”

  In truth, I was glad he’d called. Eric and I had been friends since our grade school days, and I couldn’t quite believe he’d had anything to do with the attack on Jenna’s apartment, no matter what I’d found in his pocket. I wanted to hear that there was some rational explanation for the whole thing.

  Now I sat across the table from him in an upscale downtown restaurant, a place I took clients when I wanted to impress them, to leave them with the feeling that I was refined and well-heeled and would do well with their money. It felt strange to be sitting there with Eric, whose tastes usually ran more toward seedy pizza joints.

  But I didn’t know who I could trust these days, and I wanted to be somewhere well lit and highly visible. I wanted to be surrounded by people who had cell phones and would be appalled by even the slightest amount of aggression.

  I hated that I thought about my best friend like that.

  Eric looked jittery and jumpy, out of place, and not just because of the restaurant we were in. I’d never seen him look so uncomfortable. I was used to Eric being relaxed and at ease in almost every setting—he was that kind of guy. But now he looked as if he might climb the walls.

  “What’s with you?” I asked.

  “What?” He looked confused. “Nothing.”

  “You’re about to jump out of your seat, don’t tell me it’s nothing.”

  “I’m fine.”

  I didn’t buy it. I was already so suspicious of him that it was hard to take anything he told me at face value. “Are you looking for someone?”

  “Who would I be looking for?”

  Well, he certainly wasn’t meeting my eyes. It occurred to me that maybe he hadn’t wanted to come out today so we could resolve our differences. Maybe he’d been trying to lure me into a public place so the family he might be a part of could join us.

  If so, the joke was on him. Nobody was going to try to ambush me in a place like this. I couldn’t even picture LM in this well-lit restaurant with its white linen tablecloths and the low murmur of wealthy people who wouldn’t raise their voices above a certain decibel level for fear of seeming uncouth. The idea was as strange and unlikely as the thought of an alien bursting through the door.

  “I’m just anxious,” Eric said.

  “Why?”

  “Can you not act all suspicious about everything I say? This is hard enough.”

  “What’s hard?” I asked. “We’re just talking.” I was being unfair, and I knew it. He was here to apologize for barging into my office drunk and/or high.

  He exhaled. “I shouldn’t have come into your office like that,” he began.

  Rather than let him continue, the question I’d been dying to ask leapt to my lips. “Eric, who did that business card belong to? Why did you have it?”

  “I don’t know,” Eric said, frowning. “Some guy handed that to me on the street and I just stuck it in my pocket. I assumed he was advertising something and was planning on throwing it out, but I forgot it was there.” He looked at me
, focusing as if remembering. “Why did it make you so mad?”

  “I just...I thought I knew who it came from. Maybe I was wrong.”

  “Who did you think it came from?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “No,” he said, leaning across the table. “Tell me. I can tell something is bothering you.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Eric, let it go.”

  He shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair. “I feel like someone’s following me, Noah.”

  “Someone like who?”

  “I don’t know who. Just someone. I get this feeling like I’m being shadowed. And then this card shows up, and you say you know who it’s from. It’s creepy. Don’t you think it’s creepy?”

  I did. But I also knew he was being followed. By a guy I’d hired myself to do just that. “If you didn’t know about the card, then why did you come to my office?” I asked. “If you were just looking for a place to sleep things off, you could have gone home.”

  Eric looked down at his hands. “I needed money. I know I asked you for it.”

  “That was what you came for?” An ugly thought occurred to me. “Is that what you came here for? Not to apologize, but ask me for money again?”

  “My parents cut me off,” he whined, and almost pleading sound in his voice. “They took away my access to my trust fund. Don’t like what I’m doing with my life.”

  “Can you blame them?” I asked, my tone scathing.

  “That’s cold, Noah.”

  “It’s true, Eric. You’re high right now, aren’t you? That’s why you’re so edgy.”

  “I just need a little money,” he begged.

  “I’m not giving you money,” I said shortly, standing up. “I have to go to work. Get yourself cleaned up. Call me again when you’re sober.”

  * * *

  Meet me at 7. Same Place. -LM

  * * *

  Walking into the bar that night, I was a million miles away, emotionally, from where I’d been when I met with Eric. I’d thought I was anxious and upset about my meeting with my friend, but the truth was that I’d felt some measure of control the entire time. I’d known that whatever Eric said or did, I most likely had the upper hand in that situation. Even at the very end, when he’d shocked me by asking for money instead of apologizing for what he’d done at my office, I’d been able to walk away. I had been in control.

  I hated not being in control.

  But as I spotted LM sitting in the back of the bar and made my way to his table, I felt my control of the situation slipping. I wasn’t approaching the man because I wanted to. In fact, I would have liked nothing better than to turn and walk the other way. I was only doing this because to do anything else would have been neglectful of my safety, not to mention that of Tess and Jenna. They’d been threatened by this man. I had to do what he said.

  And that was infuriating.

  He pushed the seat opposite him out from the table with his foot as I drew close, and I sat down. “Okay,” I said, spreading my arms wide. “I’m here. What do you want?”

  “Can I get you a beer?” he asked solicitously.

  “No, I don’t want a fucking beer. Why am I here?”

  “There’s no need to be rude,” he quipped, sipping casually from his own glass.

  “Get to the point or I’m leaving.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think you will,” he said. “I think we’ve reached the point in our negotiations where you want this to be resolved as much as we do. Am I right?”

  “I think,” I said furiously, “that if you really wanted things to be resolved, you would tell me what you want from me. I have plenty of money. I’m sure you know that. I’ll write you a check right here and now. I just want these games to stop.”

  “This isn’t about money,” LM said smoothly. “As you well know. You were told we wanted your time.”

  “Yes, but nobody explained what that meant. I’m not a mind reader.”

  “We want to put you to work,” LM said. “Our organization needs loyalty more than it needs funds. We want you to show us that you’re on our side.”

  “I’m not on your side,” I said. “You’ve done nothing but threaten my family and me. Why the hell would I be on your side of anything?”

  LM’s congenial affect vanished as if it had never been. He leaned across the table. “You would be on our side,” he said, “because of what’s going to happen to you if you’re not. Because of what’s going to happen to your daughter if you’re not.”

  “Don’t you dare talk about my daughter.”

  He ignored me. “Every dollar in your bank account, all the money you just offered to make me go away, you have all of it because of me. You live the cushy lifestyle you enjoy so much because of me and my organization.”

  “That’s bullshit,” I said. “Even if my father was involved with you, that’s not the way he made all of his money. He had a successful, legitimate business and so do I.”

  LM shrugged. “Your father swore us his allegiance,” he revealed. “As his son, that debt extends to you, and it’s time to pay up. It’s time to show us that you can be counted on, Noah Clark.”

  “All right,” I said. “Let’s say for a minute that I’m buying any of what you’re selling here. Let’s say I’m interested enough in making you leave me alone that I’m willing to work with you.”

  “Yes, that seems like a good place to start.”

  “And you would leave me alone?” I clarified. “After I did whatever you’re asking? You’d leave me and my family in peace?”

  “Let’s just say it would go a long way toward proving where you stand.”

  I wasn’t fool enough to think that was any kind of answer. “What are you asking me to do?”

  “We’ll give you a name,” LM said. “The name of another CEO in your industry.”

  “You’ll give me a name? What am I supposed to do with that? Contact this person?” A thought occurred, and my eyes narrowed. “You’re not asking me to help you threaten someone, are you? Is that how this works? Are you threatening me because they’ve got something over your head?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” LM snapped.

  “Then what? What am I supposed to do with this name?”

  “You’re going to take them out.”

  That didn’t register at first. “Take them out where?”

  “Take them out financially. Eliminate their business.”

  “You’re putting a financial hit on a business?” I asked, surprised. “How am I even supposed to do that?”

  “You’re a smart man, Noah. You’ll figure out a way. Plant information about him, maybe. Destabilize his investments. I know you know how to do that.”

  “And you want this from me why?”

  “It proves trust,” LM said. “It ensures that you can’t double cross us, because we’ll have information on you.” He grinned. “It also accomplishes something we need done.”

  “Ruining somebody’s life.”

  “Do we have a problem?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We have a problem. I don’t know you. I don’t even know your name. I just found out all of this was a thing a few days ago. I don’t know any of the finer details, and I don’t know anything about your organization that you want me to show loyalty to. And even if I did know all that, there’s the little matter of me not being a fucking felon. So no. I won’t do ruin someone’s life.” I got up, feeling almost dizzy with the exertion of defying LM, and walked out of the bar.

  What had I just done? What was going to happen to me now? Would they hurt Tess and Jenna? I’d figure out some way to keep them safe, that was all. I couldn’t do what LM was asking. That was insane.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. There was an alert for a new email.

  Have it your way. -LM

  Chapter 26

  Jenna

  I got in! Tess’s hands practically clapped together as she signed with exuberance. I got in, Je
nna! I got in!

  Awesome! I signed back. Smart. School lucky.

  She grinned and signed something I couldn’t understand. I looked up at her father for help.

  “She says it’s thanks to you and your mother,” Noah said. “She says she knows what you did to help her, and she really appreciates it.”

  “You didn’t need my help,” I said, signing no need. Noah provided a more complete translation of my words. “You have what it takes to get in without my help. But I was happy to lend a hand.”

  “We really do appreciate it,” Noah said. “Thank you for letting me buy you dinner tonight to celebrate.”

  I nodded. In truth, I’d seriously considered not coming over tonight. After the way things had gone the last time I’d eaten dinner with the Clarks, it seemed like it might not be the most responsible choice. Sara had raised an eyebrow at me when she’d seen me getting dressed to leave, but she hadn’t said anything. I’d be getting fully interrogated later.

  Well, there would be nothing to uncover. We were here to celebrate Tess, and nothing more. “So, what’s for dinner?” I asked.

  “It’s Tess’s choice,” Noah said. “She’s the girl of honor tonight.”

  “And what did you choose?” I asked Tess.

  I recognized the sign she made. Sushi!

  I laughed. “Sounds great!” Another thing I knew how to sign. I was getting better at communicating with Tess. Someday we won’t even need Noah to translate.

  I bit down hard on that thought. What was I thinking? Tess and I didn’t have a relationship, not beyond the fact that I’d redesigned her room, and we weren’t going to create one. I wouldn’t be a permanent fixture in her life. I’d been invited to dinner tonight because of my help in getting her into her new school. It was a gesture of thanks, nothing more.

  Noah pulled up the menu for Tess’s favorite Japanese restaurant on his phone. We decided to order a bunch of different things so we could have tastes of a wide variety of dishes. “You order for me,” I told Tess. “This is only my second time eating sushi, and you’re the expert. I’ll try whatever you think is good.”