SEVENTEEN - ROMAN #2
“At least my plan worked. I had a bunch of blank cameras installed, and nothing’s disappeared from my office since.”
“Wait. You’ve had stuff come up missing from your office? Like what?” That was news to me. Shit, everything was news to me at this point.
“Mainly a few former employee files. Sometimes my chair would be out of place, or my pen would be out on my desk when I know I put it back in the holder. Could’ve just been my own doing and not even realizing it. Maybe I’m going crazy. Who knows.”
“Who else has access to your office besides you?”
“Just Ivan.”
“Hmm.”
“Don’t go there, Roman.”
I held my hands up. “I’m not saying a word.” But it did rocket him to the top of my suspicious person’s list, as if he hadn’t already been there. “Does he ever come here and check in on things?”
She half shrugged. “Who knows. I wouldn’t think so since there’s no need.”
“So you’ve just been letting this place sit around and collect dust?”
“It would seem so.”
“That’s a shame.”
She shifted in her seat toward me. “That coming back to where my dad took his last breath hasn’t been at the top of my priority list? I mean, god forbid I have to subject myself to a constant reminder of someone shooting my dad in our home, ruining my entire childhood.”
“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.
I just meant that—” My train of thought derailed when a tree between Magnolia Estate and the neighbor’s backyard was illuminated by the soft glow of a warm, yellow light.
It wasn’t much, maybe a bathroom light or even a night-light?
I couldn’t tell because I didn’t know the lay of the house on the second floor.
I just knew it wasn’t very bright, and it came from the back.
“You just meant what?”
“Sorry.” I tried to backtrack, but I couldn’t remember what the fuck we were just talking about. “You’re sure no one has been here? Not even a weekly or monthly cleaning crew?”
“When I took over, I gave my security crew direct orders to have the house deep-cleaned one last time and then seal it off. My dad didn’t usually do business at home. There was no reason for any of us to come back here, then or now.”
“I think you put way too much trust in your staff.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a thought.”
“Well, I don’t like the way you think. You’re acting suspicious as hell right now.”
“I’m not, James. Seems like you’re not doing enough thinking when it comes to shit around here. Not asking enough questions.”
“I don’t have time, and unless you know something that I don’t, this conversation is over.”
I felt bad for pressing the issue. Especially since this was her first time back to the only place she’d ever known as home, and I’d just stirred up some really shitty memories for her.
But fuck. She’d either been living in total denial all this time, or she really didn’t have a fucking clue what could be going on right underneath her nose.
I didn’t press the issue, and now, the car was quiet…too quiet. So I turned on the radio with the volume down low for background noise. She needed the distraction, and I didn’t need her trying to read me like a book right now. “This okay?”
“It’s fine.”
“Anything in particular you wanna listen to?”
“Not really. Anything beats the hell out of slot machines ringing all day. You know, I couldn’t even tell you the last time I listened to the radio?”
“Really? You don’t listen to Spotify or anything in your office while you work?”
“Nope. I have no idea what music is new anymore. Don’t really care.”
“You should. The least you can do is have some semblance of a life outside of work.”
“Yeah, right. I don’t have the time or the energy. Getting four hours of sleep in a row feels like Christmas.”
I reclined the seat back with my hands behind my head, trying to appear relaxed. Internally, I was buzzing with adrenaline, knowing there was someone in this fucking house that no one was supposed to be in, and Jameson was none the wiser. “You’re gonna dig yourself an early grave doing this shit.”
“Oh fucking well. It’ll be worth it in the end if I can put a bullet in Kane’s skull. He’s the asshole who landed me in this position to begin with.”
“Don’t be so sure of that.”
“Excuse me? Who else would have done it? Because nobody wanted my dad dead or to see everything he’s worked his entire life for come to an end more than Kane. Do you know who did it? ’Cause I can’t think of one fucking person.”
“I can,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Really? You can? Then who?”
“Nothing. Forget it.” I’d already said entirely too much.
“This is such bullshit. You seem to know a hell of a lot for someone who doesn’t know anything.”
“I—I just—fuck. I don’t trust anyone I know or anything I hear anymore, not that I ever have.”
“And I should? You still won’t even tell me where you’ve been or why you went away, for fuck’s sake. You seem to have forgotten where we started, just how far we go back.”
Every fiber in my being practically boiled with anger at the thought of her thinking she was disposable to me, that I’d just walk out of her life without explanation because I’d wanted to.
She and I both knew the line of work I did, and it didn’t leave much room for a personal life, but for her?
I’d made that sacrifice. I took the risk of seeing and being with her any and every chance I had, even though it put us both at risk of losing everything.
I rose up in my seat. “Really? You think I forgot? Then how’s this for forgetting?
” Her eyebrows scrunched together when I reached over, catching her off guard, and grabbed her by the front of her T-shirt, practically pulling her over the middle console.
Our faces were barely an inch apart. “Don’t you ever think for one more second I forgot how far we go back.
I remember every stolen glance, every touch, every graze of your fingertips across my skin.
I remember every text you’ve ever sent me telling me when and where to meet you so we could sneak off, even for just a few stolen minutes.
I remember the way the flavor of your strawberry lip gloss lingered on my lips hours after you’d been there.
” I held her in place as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers.
She tensed up for a split second, then relaxed and opened her mouth to mine.
Then, she let out a soft moan that caused my dick to harden to its fullest potential as our tongues made contact.
Fuck.
What the hell were we doing? We could not be doing this…not again.
Our kiss deepened. Jameson got up on her knees and hovered over me, pushing me back. If we didn’t stop, I was going to yank her into my lap and fuck her right here.
She held my shirt in a death grip, pulling me into her kiss.
It was as if she’d been reading my mind.
My cock strained against the inside of my pants. Down, boy. This was not the time nor the place, no matter how hard she made me.
Reluctantly, I pulled away from her, both of us completely out of breath, and guided her back into her seat on her side of the car.
I wiped my mouth with my hand. “Fuck. We gotta stop.”
“God, I hate you,” she huffed.
“I’m sorry. We—I shouldn’t have done that. We can’t do this.”
I glanced up at the house. It was now just as dark as it had been when we arrived.
“You know, you used to tell me everything. We told each other everything. There were no secrets between us. Now, you won’t tell me anything. You just shut me up with your mouth. It’s not fair.”
I knew exactly where this was going. She was right. It wasn’t a fair tactic to use against her, even though she’d done it with me.
“Babe. I already told you I didn’t have a choice.”
“Oh, you did.” She checked herself out in the visor mirror, wiping her mouth and fixing a few strands of hair that had fallen loose.
“I guess you’re right. My only other option if I didn’t leave was to get my ass dragged down the river behind a barge from here to Louisiana. That hardly beat the alternative, which was to take the assignment I was given, then disappear.”
I shoved my hands in my hair. There was so much I wanted to tell her that I needed her to know.
But telling her any of it now would only hurt her more than it would help.
“You weren’t supposed to be here when they got rid of me.
You were supposed to be in Colorado.” My voice trailed off at the thought of it all.
“Trust me. I wish I never would have come back.”
I took a deep breath, trying to untie the knot in my stomach.
It was time for me to give her something, even just a shred of information.
I was her only hope of knowing where I’d been because she and I both knew she wouldn’t get that information from anyone else.
“Nashville,” I forced out at a volume just barely louder than the radio.
She slammed the visor closed. “What?”
“Before you even ask me again. Nashville.”
“Nashville?” Her voice was soft and low. Shit. “That’s where you were?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t even want her knowing that much, but she deserved better than what she’d been given.
“This whole time, you’ve been four hours away from me?” Her voice cracked, and I knew she was on the verge of tears. “Who sent you away? Who did this?”
Tread lightly. “You aren’t going to like my answer.”
“Jus—just tell me who.”
“Elliott.”