Chapter 13
He’d expected Ambra to confront him the next day, but it took her a couple of days, and he assumed it was thanks to his brother, the fact that she’d made several attempts to hack into his computer, and was trying to get hold of her parents. Diamond said that they were still unreachable because she’d tried herself to reach them and let them know about her marriage before they found out from someone else or the media.
Ben had just opened a secured file that he had on his laptop and was staring intently at a picture that he’d looked at so many times before over the years, getting lost in the person that he’d taken the picture of. His gaze running over their expression, the way they sat, smiled, down to what they were wearing. Everything else in the picture blended into the background for him.
He closed the folder when Ambra opened the door and marched in without waiting for him to say anything. Wearing a two-piece dark pink suit that complimented her dark complexion, black high-heel pumps, and gold jewelry in her ears, wrists, and around her neck, her makeup light, and sporting her new short hairstyle that she’d done before the auction. Ambra must have decided to wear her new style naturally curly, and he wondered briefly if Diamond’s hair was like that when it wasn’t straightened. Ambra glowed even if she looked pissing mad. Finally, being with Michael, even though he was sure she was giving him hell—the same fate he was about to face—she was very happy, and he loved that for her and his brother.
Her lashes swept down as she rested her briefcase on his chair and stood facing him with her face set.
“How do you like how the entire office looks? Is your office to your liking?”
Her eyes flashed annoyance at him. “Everything looks fine, and I haven’t been to my office yet; I came directly to see you, dear brother-in-law .” She said the last part with a bit of bite to her voice.
He nodded and indicated for her to sit.
She lifted her bag and then rested it on the floor as she sat.
“Fire away; say whatever is on your chest.”
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Ambra questioned her voice slightly raised in agitation.
He knew she wanted to probably fly across the office at him and do some bodily damage. But they were in an office setting, and they were due to meet a client for lunch soon, so it wouldn’t look good for them to show up a mess; they needed to get this all out of the way so that they were on the same page and united to work with this company. If this client or any client saw any discord with their new startup company, they would lose business and close before they started.
“Your sister got into trouble, and I am helping her.” He said simply.
Ambra suddenly looked like she’d sucked on a lemon, and he sighed. He wished his brother was here; he wasn’t very good at expressing himself properly, and even though he and Ambra were best friends, he knew that she would not accept his abbreviated conversations today.
“Tell me what is going on, and what did you think you were doing forcing my sister to marry you? I knew you were infatuated with her, but this Ben. You took this too far.”
“The reasons that Diamond and I are married are none of your business, and as to what happened, I am sure your sister explained everything.”
“All she told me was that money went missing and ended up in her account.”
“Yes, and a virus was attached to the money transfer so that if she tried to remove the money, it would start online shopping for her, making her look guilty. The first couple of transfers were a warning, and then I was able to block any more attempts until I could figure it out and get rid of it.” He sat back in his chair now, hoping she was satisfied with his answers.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Did you have anything to do with all this?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He shrugged.
“The fact that this happened and then you used it to get her to marry you...”
“Yes, well, we Brooks know how to seize on an opportunity, and you know we can be ruthless in what we want. So, how is Michael taking the cold shoulder?”
She glared at him, and he almost smiled. His brother could be very persuasive and charming when he wanted something, and he knew that he was making it difficult for Ambra to stay mad.
A knock sounded at his door, and their secretary popped her head in around the corner. When she spotted Ambra, she smiled.
“Welcome back Ambra. I want to hear how your trip was in Switzerland and Barbados.”
Ambra’s glance turned to his with a questioning look.
“Michael got her to book his flights for him.”
She rolled her eyes, and then they widened when Inis walked in with a bouquet of flowers in her hand.
“This just arrived for you.” And then she sported a guilty, flushed look on her face.
“Sorry, I read the card.” And then she hurried out of the room after handing Ambra the flowers of pink orchids.
Ambra read the card, and then her mouth made an ‘O’ shape, her eyes flashed to his, and then she cleared her throat.
He was now curious as to what his brother had written on the note to make Inis flush red and bolt, not to mention the reaction Ambra had after reading it.
But he didn’t; he glanced down at his watch instead and noted the time. He closed his laptop and grabbed his iPad, taking it to show the new client their promotional marketing and some samples of the software that Ambra and he had created.
“Ready to go?”
She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it and nodded, gathering her things.
He paused, giving her a hard look. “Are we good?”
She stiffened. “Business we are good; personally, no. You crossed a line, Ben, that affected my sister and our family; there will be consequences, and I won’t stop trying to get answers and find out who is behind all this.” She warned.
He dipped his head; he would not expect anything less from Ambra and knew Diamond’s parents were going to give him hell, especially their father.
He was prepared to face them over his marrying their daughter. He just wanted to have more time with her before everyone descended on them and the year was up.
That night before he’d come home, Ben had made the decision to offer her a year together after what happened after they’d gotten married. He’d done some reflection and hoped that if he did that, then maybe she’d be open to giving it a try until then, and in that time, he would show her that he wasn’t a total monster. That would give her some power back in the fact that she was free to leave him with no repercussions after the year was up, but after hearing her say that to Ambra, especially after he’d been thinking it, hurt him more than he thought possible, and he began to close down again.
He knew he was distant with her after overhearing what she said, even though they made passionate love again later that night and the following nights after that. He could not stay away from his wife and knew when she left after her year, he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
He pushed past his gloomy thoughts and headed to the door with Ambra matching him stride for stride. She was very tall as opposed to her sister, but even Diamond, short, she carried herself like she was the tallest person on the planet, and he smiled.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” He said before opening the door for them and waiting for her to exit before following behind her.
The meeting was a long one and wasn’t what he expected, but he didn’t know if Ambra and he would take it on. Even though the potential client offered a lot of money to help him secure his business here in New York.
He’d been so distracted with what was going on between him and Diamond that he didn’t do his due diligence properly. The man that contacted him was not the person that he and Ambra sat across from at the table. They were contacted by a Luke Shelby, a lawyer that needed their expertise and software to safeguard his client’s information and his cases.
But the man sitting across from them, who called himself Silas, said that his lawyer Luke had set up this meeting for him. Ben knew he was not a businessman but someone in the criminal world, a mob boss more than likely. The man wore an expensive business suit, his dark hair slightly marred by a white patch of hair running along in a solid block at the front of his short haircut. His eyes a dark amber color, his face gaunt and clean-shaven. He looked like he had just gone through hell and was now returning for revenge. His voice had sounded gravelly, and Ben had wondered if it was always like that or if it was because he carried a scar across his throat that he’d tried to hide with an ascot, but when he’d leaned forward to eat the piece of steak, it had shifted to show it.
When they’d sat down, Silas had greeted them, and Ambra rose from her chair, ready to leave when she found out he was Luke, but he didn’t move, curious as to what the man wanted.
The man had stared coldly at Ambra while attempting to smile. The smile didn’t come off as being friendly as he intended. It just seemed as if it was a mechanical movement to Ben.
“Please sit and just hear me out as to why I need your services, and if you decide not to help me with my business, then I will look elsewhere. I just thought that given your business is new, you would want the opportunity to bring in more clients. We can discuss things after we eat.” He gave them another smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I am parched and hungry and feel a discussion would be better after a meal.”
He reached out and touched Ambra on her side, and she sat back down, both now curious as to what he wanted. They ate and talked, the conversation light and informal; his phone buzzed a specific way, letting him know that his wife had left the house. He didn’t check because, if you took your eyes off a poisonous snake for a second, it could strike, and he needed to keep his attention on him for both his and Ambra’s sake.
As they ordered and their meals showed up, the man chatted like they were close friends, learning he’d been away for a while and was now back in the business, whatever that was. Ben didn’t know if that was family business or something else entirely. Silas was very cryptic.
Once coffee had been served to them, Silas sat back in his chair. “I’m from the west coast but looking to establish my business here in New York. What I want from you is to create and maintain IT security on my company and the transactions on my accounts.”
Ambra spoke up, her voice curious. “If you have an established business already, then why don’t you use the IT security team you have for your business currently for the East Coast?”
His gaze focused on her, and for a second Ben saw rage darken his eyes before he nodded and responded. “Well, the person that took care of my company’s software security sold me out and left me for dead.”
They both stiffened and glanced at each other. What the hell did they just get into? “Which leads me to my other need for your services. I need you to find the person that sold me out.”
Ambra and Ben glanced at each other, and then his eyebrows rose in surprise.
Silas took a sip of his wine and then calmly said, “My wife.”
Ben couldn’t believe the rest of the conversation that transpired afterward. Ambra and he stood in front of the door to the restaurant.
“We are not working for that man.” Ambra hissed low to him.
“No, we will not. We have enough problems already.” He pointed out.
She scowled at him.
Both their phones went off at the same time. She glanced down at her phone and smiled, stepping away from him.
He glanced back into the restaurant to see Silas standing, paying the bill. He was surprised because Silas didn’t look tall sitting down, but the man, from what Ben could see now, was taller than him, and he had a cane that he was using to stand up. Going on his gut intuition that whatever Silas was into, it was bad business, and then he was distracted when he heard. “Thank you for the flowers, but you can forget about that happening tonight; it will take more than just flowers and you telling me what you would like to do to my body.” She cleared her throat, giving away that whatever Michael wrote had affected her. “To get back into my good books.”
He could picture his brother not looking very happy over the news and chuckled before his humor was snatched away when he took his phone out of his pocket, swiping to see the notification that his wife had gone somewhere.
She’d left and was at the airport.