Chapter 14 Sebastian
FOURTEEN
SEBASTIAN
Rage pours through me as I think about that fucking cunt, trying to convince Tom to hurt my wife. I might have promised to allow Starling to take the lead on this little revenge plot, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a backup plan in place. One that I intend to activate right now.
Tom, like all of our other employees, signed an NDA, and everything he’s done to aid Courtney has been in serious fucking breach of it.
It’s rare that I fight fair, but then my opponents are usually my equals in terms of wealth and privilege—except for Starling, but then she isn’t an opponent.
She was, and always has, simply been mine—but sometimes using the law is the easiest path to ruination.
Which is why after making a few phone calls, I text James and ask him to come to my office.
He arrives a few minutes later, eyeing me and my brothers skeptically as he enters the room. “Is everything okay? Mrs. Lockwood, is she…” he asks, genuine concern on his face.
“Starling is fine; however, a situation has occurred that I want you to be aware of,” I tell him, assessing him closely. If I get any indication that he was aware of, or helped his nephew to betray us, this will become a very different conversation.
“Okay,” he says, relaxing into an at-ease stance that reminds me of his military background before he started protecting Starling.
Tapping at my computer, I spin the screen around so that he can see the video, which shows Tom walking cautiously into the security room and scanning his surroundings before taking a seat at the desk and pushing a USB drive into the server.
Continuing to look around him like he’s waiting for someone to come in and find him, he types something into the keyboard, then spends several minutes watching footage of Starling and me having sex in various places in our house before he smiles triumphantly, removes the USB, and puts it in his pocket.
He spends a handful of moments doing something on his cell, then leaves when another one of the security guards returns.
While James watches the screen, I watch him. His expression barely changes, but I see the minute twitching of his jaw and the hardening of his eyes and lips.
“Did you know?” I ask when the video clip ends.
“No, sir, I did not,” he answers, “but I will of course tender my resignation. He’s my nephew. I’m the one who recommended him for the job. I…” His words trail off as he sniffs and presses his lips together.
“Would you like to know what he did with the footage he took?” I ask him.
“What he did with it?” James asks slowly, then nods. “What exactly did he do?”
“He contacted my wife. He sent her the images and threatened to sell them to the media and upload them to porn sites.”
“That little fucking…” James growls, his expression darkening. “How would you like to handle this?” he asks.
“I’ve contacted my lawyers and the police. Both you and all of your staff signed NDAs when they started their employment with us. Not only are his actions in breach of that, but when he attempted to upload the images and video to explicit websites, he committed a felony.”
“That’s all?” James asks, clearly shocked.
“All?” I question. “Your nephew will more than likely go to jail, and we will be pursuing a legal case against him. The NDA he signed is bulletproof and outlines very clear consequences of breaking it.”
“I remember,” James confirms.
“Then what else would you have me do?” I question, leaning forward a little, eager to hear his answer.
“Nothing, Mr. Lockwood,” he says, but there’s a gleam in his eyes that says that he doesn’t believe that the cops and a lawsuit are severe enough punishments for what Tom has done.
The concern in my stomach starts to settle. I didn’t really believe he was involved, but now I’m confident that James had no idea what his nephew was up to.
“I’ll have my things out of the house by the end of the day. I’d offer to help you find my replacement, but given it’s my nephew who’s done this, I doubt you’d be interested in my opinion,” James says resignedly.
“I’m not interested in your resignation. My wife likes you, she trusts you.”
Smiling softly, James nods. “I’d need to do a full investigation into my staff. I’d hate to think that Tom wasn’t working alone, but…” He trails off again, his shoulders slumping with his confession.
“I’m happy to help with that,” Clay says, speaking for the first time.
“I’d appreciate that, Mr. Jansen,” James says, nodding his head.
“Clay. Mr. Jansen is my father,” Clay offers.
“The police are on their way. Could you please collect Tom and confiscate his cell phone and any other computer equipment that he has with him?” I ask.
“Happily,” James says, a gleam of emotion flashing in his eyes as he turns and leaves the room.
“You don’t think he’s involved?” Hunter asks.
“No, I don’t. Do you?”
“No,” Hunter agrees. “He seemed angry.”
“He did, didn’t he,” I say, sighing.
“Did you really call the cops?” Evan asks, his voice tight. “Why the fuck are we involving the police and not handling this ourselves?” he growls.
“Because I want it publicly known that if you fuck with me and my family, your life will be over,” I say coldly. “Tom Underhill is about to see what happens when you think you’re cleverer than us.”
A low, ominous chuckle slips from Evan’s lips. “Oh fuck.”
The cops arrive, and as requested, Dawn, Evan’s house manager, meets them at the gates and escorts them to the house.
“Chief Turner, thank you for coming,” I say, holding out my hand to the chief of police as he stands on the doorstep with two uniformed officers behind him.
“Sebastian, I would say that it’s great to see you again, but given the circumstances…” He trails off, sighing resignedly.
Nodding in acknowledgment, I step back and gesture for them to follow me. “James, the head of my security, has gone to collect Mr. Underhill. He should be back any moment. Come through to my office.”
Following me through the house, I lead them into my office. Taking a seat behind my desk, I gesture for the chief to sit in one of the chairs across from me, while the guys stand sentry behind me and the two uniformed officers position themselves behind their boss.
A knock at the door has us all turning our attention to it.
“Come in,” I call, watching the door open and a bloody, battered-looking Tom being pushed inside by a furious James.
Tom’s hands are bound behind him with what I think are zip ties, and James is carrying a clear plastic bag with a laptop, cell phone, and tablet in it, along with the body cams all of Starling’s guards wear when they’re on duty.
“What the fuck?” Chief Turner says, pushing out of his seat.
“He tried to resist,” James says, his voice low and rough.
“Do you need any medical assistance, James?” I ask, flashing a glance at the clearly beaten Tom, before dismissing him completely.
“I’m fine, thank you, sir,” James says, glaring at his nephew with disgust, before he shoves him toward the cops.
Placing the bag he’s holding onto my desk, he takes a step back and crosses his arms across his chest, pushing his raw and bloody knuckles out of view.
“He had those on him. I haven’t looked at them yet,” he says, hitching his chin toward the bag of computer equipment.
“Those are mine, you need a warrant,” Tom yells, his face barely recognizable, his one eye starting to swell shut.
“Actually, the NDA and contract of employment you signed state that we can access and review any company-owned or personal electrical devices that are on the grounds at any time,” Clay says, producing all of the paperwork Tom signed when he came to work for us.
“But I’m fairly confident that all of that equipment is actually company property, and we’re more than happy to cooperate with the police to seek justice. ”
“Do you have copies of those contracts, Clay?” Chief Turner asks.
“I’ll email them over to you,” Clay says with a flat smile. “Would you like us to access the cell and computer equipment now, or would you prefer to have your guys do it?”
“We’ll take those with us. You already sent me the security footage of Mr. Underhill downloading the photos and video files onto an external USB drive, so if there’s anything on any of these devices, we’ll find it.”
“Thank you for your help and your discretion with this. Starling is heartbroken that this has happened. Our lawyers have already started working to make sure that none of those videos or photos ever see the light of day again, but as I mentioned, we want to press charges for the theft of intellectual property, extortion, and the revenge porn. We’ll be pursuing a civil case for the breach of the NDA, the emotional damages, and defamation, along with anything else our lawyers recommend,” I say, looking directly at Tom and making sure he hears every way I’m going to ruin his life.
“This is bullshit,” Tom hisses as the officers take hold of one of his arms each and escort him from my office. “I’m being set up. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
James steps to the side, his shrewd gaze taking one last look at his nephew as he’s escorted away.
Following them out, I close the front door behind them, then return to my office, where James and the others are still waiting.
“What else are you planning?” James asks the moment I step back into the room.
“Excuse me?” I question.
“I know that police charges and some lawsuit won’t be enough for you.
I’ve spent enough time around you in the last few years to know that you’d literally do anything to protect your wife.
My fuckwit of a nephew stole pictures of her naked and tried to put them on the internet, and all you’re planning on doing is calling the cops?
Bullshit. So, what do you actually have planned? And how can I help?” James demands.
“What would you suggest?” Evan asks, unable to hide the interest in his tone.
“Given what I’ve seen, heard, and witnessed, Mr. Morris, I’d suggest you ruin his fucking life, because you know how to do that, and I’m pretty confident it won’t be the first time you’ve done it.”
“It’s Evan, and James, I like the way you think,” Evan says, a devious grin spreading across his lips. “Why don’t you take a seat, and we can brainstorm a few ideas?”
James might be fifteen years our senior. He might be a retired soldier without connections, money, or privilege. He might be our employee, but it turns out that Starling isn’t the only one who’s been watching and learning the last few years.
Of course he can’t prove any of it, but as we chat, he subtly hints at some of the things we’ve done to tie our women to us.
He mentions Tom has a mortgage and some large debts.
He mentions how he had aspirations to start his own business one day.
He mentions he has a girl somewhere, although he says he doesn’t know who she is.
By the time he finishes talking, I’m grinning so wide my cheeks hurt. “You want us to destroy your nephew’s life?” I question.
“Birds fly free, but not yours. Yours lives in a beautiful gilded cage protected from anything that could hurt it. Predators need to be taught a lesson so that others out there learn not to fuck with the things that seem weak,” he says vaguely.
“Do you have your own little bird?” I question, wondering if he has a girlfriend or wife out there that I’m unaware of.
“No,” James says. “But if I did, I’d make sure that no one ever hurt her.”
“You should go and take care of your knuckles. If Starling sees them, she’ll insist on cleaning them up for you,” I tell him, grateful that not only has he not betrayed us, but he also won’t resent us when we destroy his fucking asshole of a nephew.
“I’ll go and get started on that investigation. I want to make sure that the rest of my guys are clean before we have to leave the house again,” James states, ignoring my suggestion about his hands.
“I’ll come with you,” Clay offers, and the two of them leave together.
“Fuck, I like him.” Evan laughs. “He’s almost as crazy as us. But you were already planning on completely destroying Tom’s life anyway, weren’t you?”
“By the time I’m done, he won’t be able to get a library card, let alone a job, a credit card, or a place to live.”
“Fuck yes, I love psycho club,” he hoots.
“You weren’t saying that a year ago,” Hunter says dryly.
“Well, that’s before my sister forgave me, my wife tricked me into claiming her, and I tricked her and put my baby in her,” Evan says on a laugh.
“Starling and I are trying to get pregnant,” I announce.
“Does she know?” Evan scoffs.
“She’s the one who emptied her birth control pills down the drain,” I tell them.
“Fuck yes. Our kids will be the same age if you hurry the fuck up and put your baby in her,” Evan says excitedly.
“Fuck you both. Bunny is still refusing to even consider it until after graduation.”
“She’s only a junior, so that’s years away,” Evan says, horrified. “I’m planning to get started on number two the moment this one is born. I want a houseful of wild ones. I don’t understand why our parents only ever had us.”
“What if, apart from this one, they’re all girls?” Hunter asks, his face paling.
“Have you met my wife? I hope most of them are girls,” Evan gushes.
“And if they’re all boys?” I question.
“Then God help your daughters.”