Chapter 6 Breaking News
brEAKING NEWS
* * *
I was going to run a hole in the carpet. I’d been chewing on my lip like bubble gum and pacing back and forth for the last half hour trying to decipher what the fuck just happened.
I knew what I’d heard from that hallway. There was no mistaking it. They were on to Jason and Kayla. Darren knew much more than I thought he did, which terrified the shit out of me, and my heart could not calm down.
How much did he know? How much more was going on behind the curtain?
Darren had known for months that Kayla had escaped, and rightfully suspected I had been involved, but he had waited for the right opportunity to reveal it and use it against me.
If he did know about Jason moving against him, was he planning on doing the same thing?
Wait for the right opportunity to completely shatter my soul so there was nothing left of me?
He’d waited for me to finish healing from my gunshot wound to confront me about Kayla. Maybe he was waiting until after I had the baby…
But I already knew he was hunting Jason and what he would do to him if he ever found him, so why would it matter now?
Or maybe…
Maybe he didn’t want me to think that Jason was succeeding. Or at the very least, hope that he was. If anything, he’d want to discredit Jason at every turn, so instead of mentioning his failures of catching him, Darren just didn’t mention him at all.
Based on what little I overheard from the hallway, Darren must have thought they were close by with the cloaking device. It was the best explanation for the signal disruption and the only reason I could think of that would easily explain Jason’s and Kayla’s involvement.
From what I remember Tony telling me before he met his well-deserved demise, I had to be within one square mile of the device in order for it to disrupt the signal.
Had Jason come to test it? To see if it still worked?
No doubt he had to be watching the house somehow, waiting to see if the entire estate would react, and apparently, it didn’t disappoint.
Relief, anguish, and fear ripped across my heart at the thought of Jason being so close by yet still so far out of reach.
Hopefully, he got the fuck out of Dodge when he had his confirmation.
But the closer he was to me, the closer he was to the horrific death I knew Darren would subject him to. And I couldn’t let that happen.
“Jaden, you’re going to ruin the carpet,” Sloane commented from the couch.
“Fuck the carpet,” I snapped, continuing to chew away at myself mindlessly.
Camaro barked a whine at me from her bed, but I ignored her, my anxiety too high to focus on anything else.
“Stress is bad for the baby,” Sloane prompted. “You should relax.”
How the fuck am I supposed to relax knowing Darren is so close to catching Jason and Kayla right now?
My eyes suddenly shot to the balcony of my den, my gaze narrowing on the sparkling ocean in the distance and the dark clouds climbing over the horizon. What if they were out there, hiding among the waves? Or maybe even under them?
Transfixed, I moved for the doors, my fingers stopping on the handle when Sloane’s hand suddenly gripped my shoulder.
“You are to remain inside until further notice,” she said quickly, gently pulling me away from the door.
“Why?” I asked.
“It may not be safe,” she answered firmly. “Come, sit.”
“I don’t want to si—”
Just then, the door to my den opened, and Katherine quickly stepped through, closing the door behind her.
“Katherine,” I stated, shocked to see her. “What are you doing here?”
I’d been asking to see her for days, but no one would let me. Had Daniel finally allowed her to leave their suite?
Her eyes shot to mine, the bruises from the week before on her face fading into a yellowish purple and brown, the colors angering me instantly.
“I came to see you,” she answered, quickly sauntering over to me. “What’s going on? Why is the house in complete disarray?”
We both sat down on the couch, our knees almost touching. I glanced at Sloane, who stood against the wall, watching us intently. How much would she let me speak?
Turning back to Katherine, I caught the worry in her tired eyes.
“Earlier, my tracking signal had been disrupted, so Darren had the entire estate lit up to find me. But I was in one of the parlors the whole time,” I said with an eye roll at the end.
Katherine frowned as she looked down at my diamond-studded collar still secured around my neck. “That’s quite a reaction, especially since you’re clearly still here. Why hasn’t anything calmed down yet? The guards are all acting like an attack is imminent.”
I looked away for a moment, fearful of giving voice to the words. “Because Darren has a…theory…for the signal disruption that he wants to investigate.”
Her frown deepened as she dipped her chin and tilted her head. “A theory?”
I paused as I looked in Sloane’s direction—not directly at her, but enough to see her in my periphery to judge her blank expression.
We both knew what I had heard, and I was sure she understood the context, but I was not willing to divulge more than that.
So I shrugged my shoulders and brushed it off.
“I don’t know much more beyond that. Although it did seem like Darren and Daniel were arguing about it,” I offered, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction.
Katherine sighed as she looked down at her lap to fiddle with her hands. “I’ve noticed they’ve been fighting a lot more lately. Ever since the attack on the server farms, Daniel has been even more unbearable than usual.”
I felt my heart stop mid-beat as my breath caught in my lungs. “Wait. What did you just say?”
Katherine glanced back up at me, confusion knitting her brows. “Didn’t Darren tell you what happened? It was a huge deal,” she exclaimed.
I shook my head, trying not to seem too eager for the information I was practically foaming at the mouth for. “No, I’ve barely seen him. What happened?”
Katherine’s eyes widened as her shoulders tensed. “Some group attacked three of Triguard’s server farms and wiped out all three buildings with explosives. The company is in complete disarray because of it. Almost everything was lost.”
I could feel my body start to shake from the adrenaline rushing through my veins, my stomach dropping straight to the fucking floor.
Breathe, Jaden. Don’t forget to breathe!
When I didn’t respond because I was still too busy trying to covertly catch my breath, Katherine placed her hand gently over mine.
“Jaden, are you okay? You look paler than usual,” she remarked.
Sucking in a large breath to get my brain to work, I shook off the trembles that were gathering up my spine. “I’m fine,” I said, my mouth dryer than dust. “I’m just surprised Darren didn’t tell me. That’s pretty damn big. A data loss of that magnitude could bankrupt them.”
Katherine nodded. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to the family company, but it’s not looking good from what I keep overhearing.”
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.
“Do they know who was responsible for the attack? Was it Matt?” I asked, trying to conceal the desperation in my voice.
Katherine shrugged. “I don’t know. Daniel hasn’t said. The only reason I know any of this is because I overheard him arguing with Darren about it on the phone a few days ago.”
I nodded in acknowledgment, turning away to focus on regulating my heartbeat before it jumped right out of my rib cage.
I couldn’t believe it. Jason had actually done it.
He’d been able to use the information I gave him on the server farms when I saw him in Rome and had actually destroyed them.
And not just one, but three of them. This would absolutely cripple Darren in the legal world.
For the first time in a long time, I actually felt the little flutters of hope tickle along my skin. Suddenly, the possibility of freedom could be felt in the air, like a ray of sunshine had finally broken through the clouds, warming my soul from the frigid depths of despair.
Jason was close. He was much closer than I could ever believe.
Shit, earlier today, he’d only been a mile away from me.
But the closer he got to me, the closer he got to Darren, and if Darren caught him, I wouldn’t be able to live with the horrors of what Darren would do to him.
So I would need to keep Darren distracted with other things—preferably meddlesome things.
Things that would break family ties forever.
“Daniel keeping secrets from you? That doesn’t sound like him at all,” I added sarcastically.
Katherine glanced back up at me, her lips folding in on each other for a moment until her eyes began to fill with rage.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bold to argue with him the way I did that night when you mentioned their childhood at dinner.
It was like a completely different person took over. ”
I couldn’t help but smirk at her. “I was so proud of you for that, you know.”
She huffed a quiet giggle for a second before her eyes grew somber again. “Moments like that don’t last very long for a reason. You’ve seen what happens when I try to argue with him.”
Placing my hand over hers, I asked the question I had been dying to know as carefully as I could. “Yes, I remember. I remember him refusing to believe you over a man who’d been caught trying to strangle you. What the hell happened, Katherine?”
She sighed and shook her head. “That damn guard had been harassing me for months,” she finally answered, her voice bitter and harsh.
“I was afraid to tell Daniel, scared that he would blame me for it, and that asshole knew it. I ignored his advances as best I could and avoid ever being seen by him, but it apparently wasn’t enough. ”