Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Micah
The rich aroma of roasted coffee weaves through the air, warm and inviting as I make my way into the kitchen.
I find Brahm standing by the De'Longhi machine pouring himself a cup of coffee.
He acknowledges me with a curt nod and gestures to the cup. “Want some?”
“Thanks, I need it.”
He pours me a cup, then we both walk over to the breakfast table and sit.
I take a sip of my coffee and allow the caffeine to wake me up. It works its way through my mind slowly, giving me the jolt of energy and alertness I need to get through the day.
It’s seven in the morning. We have five hours until we head back to New York, but I’m more focused on the girl.
The girl who will be my wife if she chooses to accept my offer.
God help me, I didn’t mean to fuck her in the back of an alley yesterday. I’d like to think I have more control than that, but I lose it when I’m around her.
I already had trouble focusing, but now that I’ve had her again, I’m fucked.
I haven’t told Brahm about my offer to Scarlett yet. I felt it was best to wait, but I’ll tell him now to prep him in case she agrees.
It’s crazy to think that she would turn me down in her desperate situation.
Most women would jump at the chance and wouldn’t give it another thought. But Scarlett James isn’t like that. If she were, she would have accepted the offer the moment I uttered it.
Instead, her bright green eyes held the sheen of surprise I expected but also that spark of innocence and humanity that makes her different to any other woman I’ve ever met.
Regardless of her acceptance, I paid Anton last night. I hacked her phone and got the account details, then spoke with one of his lackeys to confirm payment had been received. Scarlett would have found out when she got home. I paid it as a gesture of goodwill so it would exist outside the contract.
“So, what are we doing when we hit New York?” Brahm asks, drinking a gulp of his coffee then setting the cup by the laptop. “Please tell me we’re not meeting with your father. I have some stuff I want to check out with the Nexxus group. Among other things.”
“I’m not seeing him until tomorrow. And you don’t have to be there.”
He raises his brows. “Is that for the wife meeting?”
“Yeah.”
“So, who’s the lucky woman?” He leans onto his elbows. “Did you pick someone from the list I sent you?”
I take in the amusement on his face. “No.”
“Okay, so who? Don’t keep me in suspense.”
I lean back on my chair and relax my shoulders. “Scarlett James, if she agrees.”
The smile falls off his face so quickly I expect to hear it shatter on the floor. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
I shake my head, and his eyes snap wide.
“Micah, what the fuck?”
“I know. Don’t ask me why.”
“I don’t need to ask you why. It’s clear you like her. You liked her well before you knew she was working with the Nexxus.”
“Brahm, don’t make it sound like she double-crossed me.”
“People can paint things however they want.”
“But she didn’t do that. You know what happened. Even you could see she was a pawn.”
He sighs and bites the inside of his lip, then he nods with reluctance, agreeing. “Okay, but what the hell are you planning?”
“One year of marriage. I paid her debt and I sweetened the deal with some more money.” Offers like that aren’t unheard of in our world.
“That’s like taking pussy as payment. I hope you know what you’re doing. Especially with her psycho ex. And I’m sure your father won’t be happy about that.”
“Brahm, I don’t give a fuck who’s happy about it. This is what I want. Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same.”
He opens his mouth to continue arguing but stops himself because he knows I’m right. He did the same thing several moons ago when he still had a taste of humanity left in him. His girlfriend at the time wanted to break up with him because she had a terminal illness and only had a year to live. He bound her and her family to him in a contract that made sure she was his until she took her last breath.
That’s a side of Brahm not many people get to see. I doubt anyone will ever see it again. That trace of humanity died with his family.
He clenches his jaw and gives me a steely stare. “Fine, I get it. I trust you know what you’re doing.”
“Right now, I do.”
“You seriously think she may turn you down? You made her one hell of an offer.”
“I don’t think she’ll turn me down, but I never assume anything. In any event, I’d rather she owes me than Anton Chekhov. I want to keep an eye on him.”
“I think that’s wise. From what I dug up, he only left the US because he had to, and the odds are looking good for him to return any day. We don’t need shit like that to worry about.”
“I’ll deal with him if he tries anything. The debt paid frees Scarlett from him.”
He gives me a long stare, looking at me as if he’s trying to see into my mind. “Never seen you like this before. You must really want this girl.”
“She fascinates me.”
“Well, whatever makes you happy, but I’m sure your father will still push Eloise on you.”
“He will. That’s why I’m going to get married soon.”
“How soon are we talking?”
“Two weeks.”
His brows fly up again. “Fuck, you work fast, cousin.”
“Like you said, we have enough shit to deal with. I want to get the wedding out of the way so I can focus on resolving this thing with the Nexxus. It’s already taken up too much time.”
“I couldn’t agree more. I may have a lead on that, though. Two, to be precise.”
My pulse quickens, and I straighten. “What did you find out?”
He pushes back from the desk, cracking his knuckles. "Lead number one.”
He reaches for the laptop and pulls it closer so I can see the screen when he turns it on.
A few taps on the keyboard and the blurred image of a man appears fleeing from the factory where Scarlett met the guys from the Nexxus.
Brahm clicks a few more keys and pulls up an FBI mugshot of the same guy. “I found that Estes guy. His full name is Estes Pokapieva. He’s ex special forces.” He points to the out-of-focus image. “The surveillance at the factory was shitty, but I managed to get that footage, then my facial rec bots did the rest.”
“Damn, Brahm. This is a big lead. We can do a lot with a name.”
“Yeah, but this is unfortunately where my luck runs out on details for him. He served a prison sentence then supposedly went to work on an oil rig. There’s nothing more on him. No address, no family details, nothing.”
“All signs of a person working in secret.”
“Exactly. I think we’ll have quicker results by focusing on lead number two.” He sounds proud of himself. He should be.
“What’s lead number two?”
“Remember that tracker I put in when we first got hacked?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve kept using it. Weeks ago, the hackers threw me off by routing their attack through seventeen different ghost proxies so I couldn’t track them, but they fucked up.”
“What happened?”
A cold smile spreads across his face. “Last night, I discovered they used a new proxy for an email sent from a phone. And the encryption signature matched the one at your father’s house.”
“Someone contacted them from my father’s house?”
“Yes. After his business meeting. The bad news is the phone they used must have been a burner because it’s coming up dead. I can’t link it to anyone.”
“Something must have happened last night to make them slip up and use that phone.”
“I think so. But it looks like our search is going to take us right back to New York.”
“At least we know for certain that it’s someone we know. It would only be someone we know if they were at my father’s house for that meeting.”
“Exactly.”
I release a sigh of frustration. “I have to figure this out. I can’t have shit like this happening before I take over, or after. Those blueprints need to be secure when the software goes into development.”
“I’ll keep working on the tech side and see what I can find. You may want to talk to Jaxon. Maybe he can come up with some idea to amplify the security on the blueprints.”
We’re all technical-minded, but where we lack, Jaxon makes up for it, and vice versa. Brahm and I are great with anything to do with computer systems and their infrastructures, while Jaxon is an engineer. Together, we create next-level technology. That’s great on the surface, but unfortunately, it attracts people like the Nexxus.
“I’m seeing Jaxon when I get back to New York. We’ll discuss it then.”
“Good. If you want, we can run through some reports and data until it’s time to head out. Who knows, we may come up with something more.”
“Sure.” I glance at the notebook he has near the laptop. It’s open, so I can read his notes. He’s written details about Boston. “Is that the other work you mentioned?”
He dips his head.
“How’s that going?”
“As expected when you’re trying to figure out who wants you dead. I don’t have much more than I did the other week.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Nothing yet. One step at a time, boss. You have hackers to find and a wedding to plan.”
I give him a faint smile, thinking of Scarlett again. Asking her to be my wife is singlehandedly the most insane idea I’ve ever had, but it feels more and more right every time I think about it.
There are just some things in life that feel like they belong to you. She is one of them, so while I may not have found the hackers here, I won’t be leaving Denver empty-handed.
The sound of the jet engines hums low in the background, but it doesn’t quite drown out the steady rhythm of my heartbeat as Brahm and I step out of the car.
The guards fall in line behind us, their movements precise and silent.
Brahm starts talking to me about the plans for our flight, but all my focus zeroes in on the figure standing near the private jet.
Scarlett.
She’s here. She came, and she’s waiting for me.
She’s wearing a simple black dress that clings to her in a way that hints at all my favorite parts of her body.
Dark hair whips around her face in the wind, wild and untamed. Like her.
She tucks the unruly whisps behind her ear with dainty fingers, looking smaller around my guards with their stoic faces and sharp suits. They surround her, their presence a silent reminder of the life she’s about to step into. Dangerous. Controlled. Mine.
She shouldn’t fit into my world, yet somehow, she does. She fits me.
Brahm realizes where my focus is and hangs back so I can continue forward.
It’s only when I’m close that she sees me.
The moment her eyes meet mine, it’s as if something inside me settles. It feels like relief, but it also feels like triumph.
“Bellezza.” I close the distance between us, drinking in the sight of her perfection. “You came.”
She brings her hands together nervously. “You kind of made it hard for me to refuse by paying the debt.”
I grin back at her. “Maybe I wanted you to have an easier night, so you’d have a clear mind to think about my offer.”
Her eyes glisten as she holds my gaze, the wall she usually keeps between us cracking just enough to let me see the gratitude she can't hide. “Thank you. Last night was the first we weren’t afraid.”
I’m not usually caught up in sentiment, but I can see how much my payment of the debt means to her. “You’re welcome.”
“So, um… I guess I’m going back to New York sooner than I thought.”
“Yes, you are.” A smirk tugs at the corner of my mouth.
“Is there anything you need me to do?” Her voice is tentative, soft, and searching.
“Later. We’ll go through the fine print once we’re home.”
“Home?” She says the word like she’s testing it for the first time.
“ Home .”
She holds my gaze and for a moment, it feels like we’re the only two people here.
“Let’s go, bellezza.” I hold out my hand to take hers and she gives it to me.
As we walk toward the jet, deep satisfaction settles in my chest.
This is just the beginning and yet I want more.
She’s mine now.