Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
“ I s it time to get up?” Jamie mumbled as she snuggled underneath the covers.
“No, not yet, baby. Go back to sleep,” Nick said, brushing his lips against her.
For a moment, he sat there watching her sleep and-
She was so goddamn beautiful, Nick thought as he reached over and swept her hair away from her face. She sighed softly in her sleep, tempting him to crawl back in bed so that he could pull her back into his arms, but he had work to do.
God, he was exhausted, Nick thought, unable to help but smile as he made his way to the bathroom. They’d made love twice in the pool and then once more when they made it back to their room. It was funny that with Jamie, he thought of it as making love and not just sex.
Jamie was...
Special.
She wasn’t like any of the women he’d been with before. She was sweet, kind, and she made him so unbelievably fucking happy. He wanted to take care of her, to fall asleep with her in his arms every night, and he never wanted to let her go.
Only…
He would never be good enough for her, Nick realized, and he’d never hated himself more than he did at that moment. He was the son of a whore and the asshole that never looked twice at a woman after he’d fucked her.
He had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to do this. Growing up, he saw “happily married” men spending time with their wives and kids one day and the next, zipping up after they finished fucking his mother or one of his “aunts” on the living room floor.
Then, there was Dana and Edward…
Even after five years, it was more than obvious that they were more in love now than when they first got married. He knew from the few times that he went out with Edward to catch a game or grab a drink that the man wasn’t playing around. He never so much as looked at another woman and whenever someone mentioned Dana, his expression said it all. There would never be another woman for him and Dana would never have to worry about Edward breaking her heart.
Jamie deserved to have someone like Edward by her side and as much as it pained him to admit this, he would never be that man. The last thing that he wanted to do was hurt her, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he fucked this up.
Shoving away those rather depressing thoughts, Nick took a quick shower. Twenty minutes later, he was stepping out of the bathroom and wrapping a towel around his waist when he spotted something on the floor. He didn’t give the large white envelope much thought when he picked it up, thinking that it was just promotional paperwork that one of the vendors had the front desk slip under his door. When he turned the envelope over, he felt his heart drop to his stomach.
YOU CAN’T HIDE
Cursing under his breath, Nick quickly pulled on a pair of pants, grabbed his key card, and left the room, more than fucking ready to kill someone. When he didn’t find anyone lingering in the hallway, Nick checked the stairwell, hoping to find someone lurking in the shadows, but there was no one there. The son of a bitch hell-bent on tormenting his little recluse had been close, too fucking close.
After one last look around, Nick made his way back to their room and nearly fucking sighed with relief when he found Jamie curled up in bed, fast asleep. He pulled the covers over her shoulders as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. He watched her for another minute before he grabbed his cell phone, double-checked that the door was locked and made his way to the bathroom. Praying that it was just a sick fucking joke, he carefully opened the envelope only to swallow hard a moment later when what he found had him reaching for his phone.
“I don’t care who you are, you’re not watching them without me!” Jamie snapped, taking everyone by surprise.
For the past two hours, she’d waited patiently in an interrogation room while Nick paced the small room like a caged animal. The only thing they were told was that the detective needed to call the police department back home to verify their story while Jamie was left struggling to hold it together.
She still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her. When she saw the death threats the other day, she’d told herself that this was an unfortunate part of her job. She’d hoped that if she ignored it that it would go away, but she was wrong.
“Miss Harris, perhaps it would be best if you allowed us to view the video first,” Detective Mathers, a middle-aged man with a warm smile, said gently.
“I’m staying. I want to know what’s on those discs,” Jamie said firmly as Nick’s hand tightened around hers. “I’m staying as well.”
With a resigned sigh, the detective picked up the disc marked “Jamie Harris the whore” and placed it in the disc drive. He typed something and seconds later, an image of the pool from the hotel popped up on the flatscreen mounted on the wall in front of them. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Nick storm onto the screen, carrying her over his shoulder.
“Oh, God, no,” Jamie mumbled weakly.
“Stop the movie,” Nick demanded, getting to his feet, but thankfully, he didn’t let go of her trembling hand.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Quinn?” Detective Mathers asked as he paused the movie.
Nick gestured to the other officers in the room. “I think it would be for best if we cleared the room for this.”
“That’s fine, Mr. Quinn, but please realize that this video may have to be viewed by other officers at a later time,” the detective explained as he gestured for the officers to leave the room.
“That’s fine, but I don’t think they need to be here this time,” Nick said with a nod of thanks as he sat back down and put his arm around her.
Once the door was shut, the detective re-started the movie.
“ Why are we down here ?” the recorded version of herself asked as Nick double-checked the lock.
“ Are you going to tell me what’s wrong ?” Nick asked as he made his way to the pool and-
Forgot how to breathe when the camera moved with the action.
Whoever recorded them had been in the room with them last night.
“ Nothing’s wrong !”
“ Do you by chance have your cell phone on you at the moment ?” Nick asked as he walked towards the deep end of the pool.
“ No, why ?” she asked, sounding confused.
“ No special reason ,” Nick said before he tossed her into the pool.
Knowing exactly what was coming, Jamie dropped her face into her hands and listened as the rest of what happened last night played out. When it was done, she sighed with relief. That is, until Nick started flipping out. Wondering what was going on, Jamie looked up and felt her stomach drop when she read the words written across the screen.
You’ll be dead within the month, but before that happens, I thought the world should know that the famous J.L. Lewis was nothing but a whore.
By 10:00 AM, this video and the audio I recorded of your bedroom activities will have already hit the internet.
Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, Bitch.
“Play the audio file,” Nick said tightly as he reached over and pulled her into his arms.
Without a word, the detective carefully switched out the DVD, and within seconds, an audio recording of what happened once they’d reached their room last night began to play.
“ You’re not tired ?” Nick’s voice asked teasingly.
“ Not for you, ” Jamie heard herself answer in a husky voice that surprised her.
“ What if I told you that I wanted to finish what we started this morning? Would you get back on your hands and knees for me, Jamie ?”
When Nick’s deep chuckle echoed throughout the office, she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face against Nick’s chest, dreading what came next.
“ That easy, huh? Tell me, baby, are you wet for me ?”
“ Why don’t you come find out ?”
“Can we skip to the end to see if there’s another message?” Nick suddenly asked, thankfully cutting off what came next.
A moment of silence followed before the sound of moaning and cries of pleasure echoed throughout the room. She felt her cheeks burn as it played out. Once it was done, she released a shaky breath. It didn’t take long before she realized that there was no message.
“Why don’t we check to see if they’ve been released online yet?” Nick asked as he kissed the top of her head.
“Of course,” the detective that she would never be able to look in the eye after he’d just watched her have sex, said.
“Son of a bitch!” Nick snapped a moment later.
“It’s already online, isn’t it?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. There was a slight hesitation before Nick said, “Yes.”
The video and audio file of her having sex with Nick was now all over the internet. People all over the world could watch her having sex and there was nothing that she could do to stop it. The police could have the files removed, but they’d just pop up somewhere else. Whoever was behind this had followed through with their threat, which meant that they probably had every intention of following through with the second threat.
Within a month, someone was going to try to kill her.
The thought absolutely terrified her, but surprisingly, she wasn’t worried about herself. She was terrified that something was going to happen to Nick. It would destroy her if anything happened to him because of her. She wanted him safe, which meant…
“Nick?” Jamie said, pulling back just far enough so that she could look up at him.
“Yes?” he said, looking down at her with so much tenderness that it nearly broke her heart.
“I’m done with the tour,” Jamie announced, knowing that it meant that they were over.
“That goes without saying, sweetheart,” Nick said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead with a resigned sigh.
That was it?
After everything they went through, he was going to let her walk away that easily? Then again, there did appear to be a psycho on her tail so maybe it was for the best. As long as Nick was safe, she could handle anything, even having her heart broken by the big jerk that she loved more than anything.