Chapter 25 Onyx
I read the information that Cooper had sent through one more time. Ryan Carmichael Sr.’s hit-and-run was still in the wind. Maybe he was never hit? But then Coop sent through the scene photos, and yeah, he hadn’t done that to his car himself.
Cooper had checked the dates, and we couldn’t find where Angel was on the night of the accident.
Was it her? Even if it was, the Carmichaels, Sr. or Jr., were not her stalker. But still, their car accident bothered me.
I could ask her. I should ask her.
Looking up the stairs, I checked my watch. She’d be sleeping. I could wait until tomorrow.
I really sucked at waiting.
Thinking back on today, I smiled. Playing with her in her office had been fun.
Again, I hadn’t expected her to be so willing to take it further, and then I hadn’t been able to stop from taking it all the way.
Her sass when she told me to use a condom made me grin as I sat here and remembered her embarrassment as she walked about pantyless all day.
The knowledge that she was in her office, with nothing on, was enough to keep me glued to my seat all day.
I was in danger of going back in there and hitting her up for round two.
This evening had been enjoyable. She was good company, and she clearly loved her job.
I scratched my cheek as I looked upstairs again.
Fuck it.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I reached her door. It was closed but not locked, and gently, I pushed it open.
Angel lay on her side, her body still in the dark of the room.
“Balan?”
The bedcovers moved as she sat up slightly. “Onyx? What’s wrong?” She flicked the sidelight on as she peered at me.
“Why did you take the Carmichael boy?”
Angel blinked several times before she shook her head as if to clear it. “What? I was almost sleeping.”
Crossing the room, I stood over her. “He’s eighteen, he isn’t that special, so what was it?”
“He’s good, he could be great, I saw potential.” Her hands swept her hair back as she looked up at me. “Is this what you wanted to ask me?”
“It makes no sense to me.”
Pulling her hair over her shoulder, she squinted up at me. “Is this why you’re in my room? Really?”
“Yes.” I thought about it. “I’m not here to fuck you again.”
“Well, thank God for that,” she snarked back at me as she lay back down. “Go away, I’m sleeping.”
“Tell me about the Carmichael boy,” I asked her again, and she let out a loud sigh as she pushed herself up to sit again.
“My friend’s little sister goes to his college. She’s a cheerleader, so he went to a few of her games, and he saw his potential. He called me, told me to look into him. I did. I saw the same potential as he did. I reached out.” She frowned. “Yup, that’s it.”
“Who’s the friend?”
“What?”
“Your friend, who is he?”
“Will Hershman, lawyer, met him in grad school.” She was pissed off now. “Is that all?”
“Ryan Carmichael, the dad, was in a hit-and-run car accident, injured him enough to lose his job. Wife left them both. We don’t know who hit the car. Do you?”
“Oh my God, is he okay?” Angel sat up straighter.
“This was a while ago.”
“What?” Angel rubbed her face with her hands. “What are you saying? Ryan wasn’t in a car accident?”
She was clueless. “He was. Last year. The car that hit him drove off. He was hurt, wife left, sob story, sob story, sob story.”
“You are truly a callous bastard,” she said as she looked up at me.
“I don’t understand why you wanted Ryan.”
“I swear, if you say grooming to me, I will kick you in the balls.” Angrily, she pushed the covers off her and got out of bed. “Tell me what you are asking. I don’t understand.”
“You have clients, you have college kids, college kids ready to go pro; I don’t know why you went for a freshman. Unless you felt—”
“Guilty?” Angel demanded incredulously. “Oh my God, Onyx, I’m not you!”
“Me?” I scoffed. “I’ve never felt guilt.”
“That is so something not to be proud of!” Angel yelled at me. “Jesus, what is wrong with you?” Her eyes searched mine as she floundered. “Do you think it’s Ryan who is targeting me?”
“I checked, he’s clean.”
“Then why are you asking me about him?” Pulling at her T-shirt, she looked at me. “I’m struggling to understand.”
“It doesn’t sit right,” I told her. “Something about that whole thing is off.”
Angel sighed heavily as she sat back down on the bed. “Okay, ask me all the questions,” she said as she lay back after fixing her covers. “But if I fall asleep, take the blame, it’s yours.”
She was humoring me. With narrowed eyes, I considered her, and then I got onto the bed, lying beside her.
“I really thought you would let me sleep,” she said quietly.
“No, you didn’t.”
Angel laughed quietly as she lay back and closed her eyes. “No, I didn’t. Alright, psycho, ask me.”
“Tell me about Will.”
She turned her head to look at me in question, but when I merely looked back at her, she turned away again and closed her eyes. “Will? Um . . . nice guy. Good lawyer, has a little sister. Does pro bono work, likes basketball.”
“Fuck him?”
“No, Onyx. I did not fuck him.”
“Did he want you to?”
“I’m quietly confident he did not.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Onyx, he’s gay, this isn’t Will,” she said with a sigh. “Is that it? Can I sleep?”
“No.” Turning on my side, I looked at her. “He friends with any of your ex-boyfriends?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought so,” she said with a groan. “And don’t tell me you and your friends haven’t already checked out my past.”
“Friends? You mean my band of merry fucking psychos?”
“That’s them.” I watched the smile play about her mouth as she kept her eyes closed.
“Who do you think it is?” I asked her softly. “Tell me who made it onto your list.”
“I had a list?” she asked as she opened one eye to look at me.
“I know you, Balan. There was definitely a list.”
“You. Cooper. Clark. Sasha.” Angel scrunched her nose up. “She may still be on the list,” she admitted. “I went through clients I never signed, but I came up empty.”
“I had Sasha too, Charlie’s looking into her.”
“I bet he is,” Angel muttered.
“You fire anyone? Gardener, maintenance guy, pool boy?”
Angel opened her eyes fully and turned onto her side to face me. “You’ve been to my house. Tell me, where was the pool in the — and I quote — shithole that I live in?”
“Hmm, good point. Gardener?”
“I mow my own lawn, Onyx. I do my own repairs.” She grinned. “I cook my own food.”
“Women the world over thank you for being a domestic goddess.”
Her laugh made me smile. “You’re a dick,” she whispered as she stared at me.
“Probably,” I admitted just as quietly. We lay there looking at each other, and I saw her eyes drop to my mouth several times.
It was so tempting to lean forward and give her what she wanted.
But I couldn’t; we’d crossed the boundaries too many times already.
“No casual hookups that maybe wanted more?” I asked and cursed myself for being a fool for being so transparent.
Angel’s eyes widened in surprise before she looked away.
“No. Only ever had one one-night stand, and you already checked him out.” She glanced at me with mischievousness.
“I’m so boring,” she suddenly wailed. “I had a random guy talk to me in a hotel in Dallas, but it was purely innocent. He shared my table because the bar was busy. I don’t do anything risky or rash!
I’m not that person, that’s not the vibe I give off.
Even with a stranger in a bar, it’s completely innocent. ” Angel laughed in self-deprecation.
“What guy?” I asked her sharply. “Tell me everything.” When she was finished, I thought he was unlikely, but I would tell Cooper to look into him. “Who did you not sign that took it badly?”
Angel stared at me for a long moment before she rolled over onto her back. “None of them really. They were all kind of professional to be honest. Well, I had one guy, but he was troubled.”
“Troubled?” I propped up on my elbow as I looked down at her. “Describe troubled.”
“Fought a lot, on and off the field. Grades were passable but not by much, discipline was lacking. Faked two drug test results. The lab said each time they messed up, but you know, the doubt creeps in.”
“Doesn’t make him troubled.”
“No, I know, but he had a real attitude problem. Called me doll.” She rolled her eyes. “I just knew we wouldn’t work, and I doubted he’d make it to the first team.”
“What was his name?”
“Judd Christie,” she said as she stared at the ceiling.
“Who signed him?” I asked her.
“No one. He died,” she said quietly. “Overdosed.”
“Not so good.”
“No.” She smiled sadly.
“When did he die?”
“Um.” Angel thought about it. “I don’t remember the exact date last year in July.”
“Well, your guy’s not him,” I said, and she elbowed me in the side.
“Don’t be a dick.” Angel yawned and turned to look at me. “Can I go to sleep now?”
“I wasn’t stopping you.” Her huff of laughter made me smile. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Or you could stay,” she whispered. “You’re already here.”
“I am,” I agreed. But I got out of bed and took a few steps away from her. “But I need to clean up and stuff. Go to sleep.”
“Okay, goodnight.”
I left her to sleep as I went downstairs and cleaned up, setting the alarms before heading to my own bedroom, and got ready for bed.
The name of the footballer who OD’d bothered me. Googling him, I finally found an article. Skimming it, I saw nothing of interest until I checked the date. Slowly, I read the article again.
Judd Christie didn’t overdose — he committed suicide. He committed suicide the day after Ryan Carmichael had a car accident.
Ryan lived in Dallas; Christie was from a suburb, Murphy, Texas.
I called Cooper. “Sending you information,” I told him.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” he asked me.
“Same reason you’re awake.” I sent more stuff. “You got it? Check the guy out.”
“This says he’s dead,” Cooper told me. “You want me to check out a dead kid?”
“Dead kids leave people behind. There’s a connection. I know there is.”
“Ugh, you and your fucking hunches,” Cooper complained. “I’ll start on it in the morning.”
“You’re already awake,” I reminded him.
“And I plan to remedy that very shortly,” he said tersely.
“Crashing?” I asked him.
“Been up for three days. It’s coming,” he admitted.
Like I did when I was younger, Cooper suffered from insomnia. Three days wasn’t that bad; he’d gone a lot worse.
“Sleep,” I told him. “I’ll wake you in the morning.”
Taking my own advice, I lay down and turned the light off. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something. With a grunt of dissatisfaction, I got up and went down the hall to Angel’s room. I crossed the room and got into bed with her.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked me as she turned to me in the dark.
“No.”
“Head too busy?”
“Yeah,” I told her as I pulled her closer.
“You okay?” she whispered against my chest, her lips light against my skin. “Want to do breathing exercises to relax you?”
“No,” I said with amusement.
“It helps,” she protested as she tilted her head back. “Just concentrate on your breathing,” she said as she took a deep breath.
“Angel, you talk to me about breath control, and I’m going to think about my hand wrapped around your throat as I sink my cock into you.”
Angel stopped breathing and then coughed lightly, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Ugh, fine. Go to sleep.”
As she turned in the bed, I felt her move away from me. My arm caught her and pulled her into me, and she didn’t protest as I spooned her. I didn’t expect to fall asleep as quickly as I did, and I slept soundly.
In the morning, I woke before she did, and I watched her sleep for a moment before I got out of bed.
Walking to my room, I glanced down the stairs out of habit and stopped when I saw the sensor light blinking.
Descending the stairs, I looked at the panel and then around the downstairs.
Going down to the basement, I checked the pool and the gym area.
Back in front of the control panel, I picked up my tablet from where I’d left it last night and checked my system.
Moving through the house, I ended up standing in the utility room, staring at the slightly open window.
Not happening. Not in my house. Closing it forcibly, I saw the feed on my tablet never changed.
Motherfucker.
Back at the main entrance, I opened the door, and the system went off. Satisfied, I went to close it when something caught my eye, and instead, I opened the door wider. Red paint was thrown over the front of my house and drive.
I heard Angel come running down the stairs, and she stopped at the door. “Onyx?”
Staring at the paint, I slowly lifted my head and looked around at the gardens and driveway. He was still here; I was sure that he was. You didn’t do this and not stick around for the reaction.
“Onyx?” Angel spoke again. “It’s him?”
“Yes,” I said as I turned to her, and she stepped back from me, back from whatever she saw on my face.
“Are you okay?”
“Go back upstairs and get ready for work,” I told her as I came back inside and closed the door. The alarms stopped screeching, and I used my tablet to alert my security company that emergency services didn’t need to attend.
Checking over my entire system, I stood in front of the control panel, and when I was sure that I’d missed nothing, I pressed the sensor on the panel that had warned of a breach.
The system on my tablet rebooted.
“Ha.” I smiled as I watched the virus spread, and then I watched as my second layer of security shut it down.
Jogging up the stairs to my bedroom, I grabbed my phone.
“Charlie, go to Cooper’s, wake him up with coffee and plenty of sugar. House had a breach,” I told him. “I know what time it is, but the fucker made a move on my house and covered my drive and side of my house with red paint.” I put the phone on speaker.
“Like he threw at the vampire’s car?”
“Yes.”
“Seems like a waste of paint,” Charlie yawned, but I could hear him moving about.
“Get Coop, then come here.”
Angel appeared in my doorway, still in her PJs, her eyes wide.
“So I take it, it’s now personal?” Charlie asked me.
Looking at her, I saw her fear of what was happening, but she looked angry as well, and I liked that about her. Angel was a fighter, and she was as pissed as I was.
“It was always personal,” I told him as I hung up.