Chapter 30
Jamison
“Jonathan has her at our place,” I state as I stand against Xavier’s kitchen island, staring at both him and Sebastian.
Xavier looks flustered. “Why didn’t you tell us what was going on?”
I look at him with a straight face. “I didn’t think it was necessary. Andre was aware there was a situation. That’s as far as I thought it needed to go.”
“Not good enough,” Sebastian growls out. “Dammit, Jamison. This could have blown up in our faces. You could have fucking killed her!”
Both Riley and Corrine choose to walk into the kitchen at that exact moment. The laughter dies out and smiles drop from both their faces.
“What’s going on?” Riley asks Sebastian.
Corrine turns to Xavier. “Could have killed who?”
Both men turn to me expectantly. I groan internally, trying to decide how to backtrack out of this conversation.
“Shouldn’t you two be watching some chick flick right now in the bedroom? This was supposed to be a private conversation.”
“We were hungry,” Corrine says with her hands on her hips. “Don’t change the subject.”
Suddenly, Riley’s head whips towards me again, and her eyes narrow. “Did you find Kaz, Jamison?”
“That’s what we were discussing, Little Mouse,” Sebastian says, pulling Riley’s hair over her shoulder and kissing her neck. I roll my eyes at how pathetic he has become these days, and then I remember how badly I’ve wanted to do that exact thing to Kaz many times before.
“Is this about Kaz?” Riley yells out, attempting to walk around the island to me. Thankfully, Sebastian grabs her, hauling her back to him and yanking her onto his lap.”
“Kaz is fine. Calm down," he says in her ear.
Xavier isn’t quick enough though because Corrine is in my face when I turn towards her. “What did you do to her, Jamison?” She shrieks and pushes me backwards. I grab both of her wrists, causing Xavier to jump up with wide eyes and grab her before I can react further. I let go of her quickly and hold my hands up when I see the look of fear on his face. He knows me too well. He knows I don’t like to be pushed around and he knows how I would normally react in this situation. For once, though, I’m not even angry. I deserved that. I deserve much more than that after the information I’ve scraped together. Part of me thinks I was trying so hard to find something wrong with Kaz that I ignored some of the things I would usually find so easily. For instance, I could have looked up Kaz's text history between her and Lockhart. Hell, I’ve invaded her privacy like that many times before. One look would have told me everything I needed to know. That Kaz, indeed, did not know who was messaging her. That she was certainly being blackmailed and that she definitely did not want to do what he was asking of her. Am I angry she stole my fucking toothbrush? Fuck yes I am, but I also believe she thought she had no choice in the matter. It’s not like I gave her much of a choice either over the years. I’ve kept her secret and held it over her head. I’ve used her and her secrets to my advantage. I won’t say I regret that because it would be a lie. I loved every moment it gave me with her but do I know I’ll have to pay for that at some point. Yes, yes I do.
“I wasn’t going to do anything, Xavier,” I say, with my hands still up. He looks at me and nods as he pulls Corrine closer to him. She looks at him perplexed, probably wondering why he was so worried. She should be thanking him. If she was any other stranger outside of our circle, I would have snapped both of her wrists without a second thought.
“Kaz isn’t who you think she is,” I say. It’s time to rip off the bandaid. “She’s been lying from the very beginning. She lied about what school she went to. She lied about graduating. She lied about where she came from. The biggest lie was her pretending she was weak and fragile when really she could probably hold her own, one on one, against most men larger than her.”
“Wait what?” Xavier asks.
“She learned how to hack and fight from a friend when she was younger. Her hacking skills were adequate at most, enough to get past all of you, I guess. The fighting though. She can hold her own,” I say, smirking to myself as I remember her kick to my ribs. She left a beautiful bruise, she will never see because of the ink that covers my body.
“Are you saying you knew about her resume?” Sebastian grits out, clearly annoyed. “Why the fuck would you have let this go on?”
I sigh before continuing with what I know will irritate him further. “One, I didn’t see her as a liability and two, both my brother and I have been fucking around with her this entire time.”
“Unbelievable,” Sebastian growls just as both Riley and Corrine look at each other and exclaim “I knew it!”
Xavier doesn’t say a word.
“I knew something was going on, but I didn’t know how far back this really went. You understand the position this puts all of us in, right? What am I supposed to do now, Jamison. What happens when you both decide you’re done fucking around with her and she gets angry? What happens if you both want something serious with her and she has to choose? You have to fucking see the problem we have here.” Sebastian stares at me expectantly, waiting for a response.
“Right now, I’m sure the last person she wants is me, Sebastian. It won’t cause an issue at work, that I can promise.”
“We can’t get rid of her,” Xavier states out of nowhere. “She’s literally the best we have ever had in Human Resources. Besides, who gives a fuck if her credentials are fake. No one outside of our circle needs to know that.”
Sebastian nods his head in agreement, bringing a smile to Riley’s face. “He’s right. She is the best we have had. Firing her would do the company more harm than good. We can all agree on that. This Lockhart thing, though. How the fuck did Kaz get involved with him?”
I hold my finger up to stop him as I dial Andre’s phone and he answers the facetime call. I’ve already discussed a little bit with him, but not everything. I quickly catch him up before continuing.
“That’s just it. I did quite a bit of digging. I don’t think Kaz even realized how close she was to that circle. Like I said before, she fought in the underground when she was younger. It’s how she survived, seeing as how her mom is a junkie and her dad was never in the picture. It didn’t click for me until I read through some of her shit. Little Devil. That was her nickname and guess who gave it to her?”
“Fucking Diablo Degerson,” Andre says putting two and two together.
Xavier whistles, “Holy shit. As in Frederick Degerson’s uncle?”
“The one and only,” Sebastian replies before turning to me. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking right now?”
“If it’s that Kaz is possibly the daughter to one of the men in charge of the underground, then yes brother, I am. And if that’s the case, this is much bigger than The Triad or The Cellar.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on?” Riley voices with concern.
“Ever heard of the four horsemen, Riley?” Andre cuts in. “Imagine four very prestigious families. Now imagine those families controlling the entire underground. Each family is in charge of one part.”
She looks at Sebastian. “Why didn't you tell me all of this when we were meeting with Frederick?”
Sebastian laughs, “Frederick was the least of my concerns. As far as any of us were concerned, he’s just a lapdog for his uncle. A playboy and the running joke to his family name. But it does make sense now why he is going after Lockhart. If he can dismember the Triad, he essentially will be taking out a part of one of the Four’s businesses.”
“Bolt Corporation cannot be involved in any of this,” Xavier huffs. “We are a fucking law firm and half these guys are clients.”
“That brings me to our final problem,” I sigh out when everyone looks at me. “The reason Lockhart was meeting with Kaz. He wanted her to bring him something of mine…She brought him my toothbrush.”
The room goes silent. No one says a word as I look at all of them. Background noise from Andre’s facetime video causes us all to look at his screen. We catch a quick glimpse of bleach blonde hair before his phone topples over and I hear him cursing in Italian. The call ends and the room is left silent again.
“I’m texting Sasha right now to make sure everything is okay,” Xavier says as he types out on his phone.
“Jamison, do you know for sure?” Sebastian asks.
I shake my head no at him. “I need proof and that requires bait,” I say, eyeing him for his response.
“Might be our only option," he replies, eyeing me back.
Riley looks at both of us confused. “I don’t know what you both have planned but Corrine and I want to see Kaz. Take us there now, please.” She stands up, immediately grabbing her purse and Corrine does the same.