Love in the Dark

by 12 Book Boxed Set (epub)

  I stared at the photo and grimaced as I looked in the background. Right behind Radley stood four other guys, all with surfboards, and two women in tiny bikinis. That photo had been taken the day before Radley had disappeared and that group was thought to have been the last people to have seen him alive.

  I stared at the photo and bit down on my lower lip before scanning the article to see what was included, but it was the same information that had been given years and years ago. It just talked about how the elusive, handsome surfer Radley Markham, the sole heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, had disappeared. There was no mention of me or of Jackson, and why should there be? We’d never been mentioned in any of the previous articles.

  The case had died down years ago, but if anyone looked carefully at the article now, any fans, the background of the photo might make them twice about the article. In that group of surfers stood younger versions of me and Jackson, and I knew that the press would go crazy if they ever realized we were part of the last group that had seen him alive. It might have been noted that we were in the same fraternity, but I don’t think anyone had ever made the deep personal connection between us. And if they dug deeper, they’d find out even more about the beginnings of both of our careers.

  I folded the newspaper and carried it to my study. I’d read it after I called my mom. As I settled into my plush leather chair behind my mahogany wood desk, I allowed myself to think of Piper again. Had she played me from the beginning? Had she slept with me just to get more access into my life? What was her next step? She hadn’t even asked me for my number, but I had a feeling I’d be hearing from her soon enough. Women like her, users, always seemed to find a way to get back in touch.

  “Hey, Mom, it’s me. I heard you called.” I sank back into my chair, knowing that the upcoming call was going to last for at least an hour. I pulled out a notepad and pen and started writing some notes. I needed to figure out what to do next because as I’d thought about it, I realized that Piper wasn’t just planning on writing an article about my and Jackson’s history. She was planning on writing a whole book. And I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  10

  Piper

  * * *

  “So what is it you found out?” I pulled the sheets up around me so that I didn’t accidentally flash Alexa. “Actually, can we pause for fifteen minutes? I’d like to take a shower and put on some clothes.”

  “And maybe we can get some food, too.” Alexa looked hopeful, and I smiled as best as I could. “Hey, are you okay?” She lightly touched my shoulder. “I’m sorry that douchebag treated you like that. He thinks he’s all that, but all he is an asshole. Typical Hollyweird asshole.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” I nodded and sighed. “My gut told me in the club he was full of shit and he was. I should have listened to my brain and not my body.”

  “You weren’t to know, girl.” Alexa stood up. “Neither one of us were to know. We haven’t dealt with guys like these before.”

  “What, Hollywood stars?”

  “Hollywood stars with a secret.” She smiled at me mysteriously. “Shower and get dressed. I need to check something out online.”

  “Okay, Nancy Drew,” I said as she walked toward the door. “I just hope that there are mimosas in my foreseeable future.”

  “Of course.” She laughed. “How can we brunch in LA without them? Maybe we can even pay for them on dickwad’s dime.”

  “Of course we will.” I laughed. “He’ll also be paying for the new Louis Vuitton bag I buy today. And this time, it’s not going to be a fake.”

  “So what is it you found out?” I asked Alexa impatiently after we ordered our food. “You’re killing me here. First, no mimosas and still no story.” I gave her a look. “This had better be good.”

  “I’ll tell you in a second,” she said absentmindedly as she sipped on her coffee. “Shit, I think I left my newspaper at Oracle’s place.” Alexa groaned as she put her coffee cup down. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “What newspaper?” I asked her curiously and withheld a sigh. “What does that have to do with what you found out? And wait, you spent the night at Zach’s?”

  “Oops yeah, I forgot since we’re his friends now, we can call him Zach.”

  “We’re not his friends.” I rolled my eyes and snorted. “Was it nice?”

  “Was what nice?”

  “His house?”

  “It was large and looked modern, but I didn’t love it.” She made a face and then gasped. “Oh my God.” She looked annoyed at herself. “I should have gone into the bathroom and looked through the cupboards.

  “Oh, Alexa, no wonder Zach thinks we’re shady.” I laughed and then pressed some more. “Did you see any women’s touches or …” My voice trailed off. I knew I sounded pathetic.

  “Or what?”

  “Bras or stuff?”

  “Oh Piper, are you jealous?” Her eyes widened as she giggled. “You don’t have a thing for him, do you? Not after how he left? I guess he could just be one of those moody sorts of guys. Are you going to see him again?”

  “Hell, no.” I made a face. “He didn’t get my number, and he didn’t give me his, so no, I doubt it. And even if he did call, I wouldn’t answer after how he treated me. Jerkface.”

  “True, he doesn’t deserve you. But to answer your question, no I didn’t see any evidence that a woman has ever been at his place,” Alexa said with a small shrug. “To be honest, his place felt cold. Cold and gray and slightly ugly.”

  “But you still had fun, right? With Jackson?” I asked. “Before you left?”

  “Honestly?” She looked at me with an unsure look on her face. “It was weird. He’s not how I thought he would be.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know how to put it into words.”

  “Was he good in bed?”

  “We didn’t even have sex, girl.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure if he didn’t find me attractive or had had too much to drink or what. This morning, I thought we might, but he basically started shouting at me and kicked me out as soon as he woke up.”

  “Oh shit, what? What were you doing?” I wanted to ask her more about the night before but didn’t want to pry. I could tell that there was something she wasn’t telling me in her story but wasn’t going to push it.

  “Nothing. I was in bed reading the newspapers I got from the library.”

  “Oh, for your research?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “Maybe he thought I was too nerdy.”

  “Oh, sad.” I walked over to give her a hug. “That sucks.”

  “I guess it’s true what they say about famous guys. They look better than they are.” She rolled her eyes. “Weirdo.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, who would have thought out of the two of us, you would be the one who got laid last night.”

  “Not me.” I laughed. “Not me.”

  “It just sucks because there was a great article about the history of the KKK in Florida because they had a rally in downtown Orlando and one of the reporters did an extensive write-up.”

  “Aww man, that sucks. So you decided to make Florida one of the key states for your research?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “I think it’s really interesting. You wouldn’t think that Florida would have such a high concentration of white supremacists, but it does, and the history is really rich.” She started playing with her hair, and I knew she was going into historian mode. “I want to link the ending of segregation to the rise of clan membership.”

  “The rise?” I blinked. “Oh wow, I wouldn’t have thought that.”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “I mean I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but it makes sense, right because even after Brown versus. Board of Education, many cities in the South still didn’t want to desegregate.” She looked at me then. “I told you about that case in North Carolina, right?”

  “Yeah.” I looked down. My life choices were starting to feel insignificant. Alexa and I
had both studied history in undergrad, but there she was working on her PhD and trying to figure out real solutions to societal issues, and here I was trying to write a sexy paranormal romance book. I’d tried my hand at historical romance and while it had been well regarded, I hadn’t enjoyed writing it. And it also hadn’t paid well.

  I’d been lucky enough to get a side gig writing movie reviews for an online entertainment website and had gotten even luckier in having ten articles that had blown up and been syndicated around the world. Fortune had favored me, and the director of last year’s Oscar winner who was working on the next superhero franchise was the father of one of Alexa’s classmates, and she’d gotten me an exclusive. It had helped that she’d been sleeping with her classmate at the time and promised him we’d have a threesome if he’d get me the exclusive. I hadn’t known about that offer until later when she’d dumped him for cheating on her with her latest step-sister. It had been a whole lot of drama at the time, but it had made me fifty thousand dollars richer and was the reason why I was now able to focus on writing my book about two star-crossed lovers who happened to be a vampire and a witch.

  “But that’s not all I wanted to tell you.” She leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin and interrupted my thoughts.

  “Oh?” I looked up at her and this time she had a wicked look on her face. “What is it, Alexa? Oh my God, please tell me.”

  “That newspaper, well, I got it for my research, but I ended up finding something else.”

  “What? What?” I was dying to know now.

  “When Jackson started acting crazy and accusing me of being some sort of paparazzi, I saw his eyes darting to the front of the newspaper a lot.”

  “Okay, and?”

  “There was a cover story on the front about some rich kid who disappeared.”

  “Aww, that’s sad. How old were they?”

  “Some guy, looked to be about eighteen or maybe twenty.”

  “Oh, so not a young kid. I thought you meant …” I stopped talking when Alexa put her hand up in the air. “Sorry. Continue.”

  “So this rich kid was the heir to some fortune and he disappeared.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “He was hanging out with friends the night before he died.”

  “He died?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I assume he died, right? I mean it’s been ages.” She shrugged. “So I was checking out the photo and guess who I see in the background of the photo?”

  “Who?” I asked. “Wait, not yourself?”

  “Piper Meadows, sometimes you really act like you’re are a blonde.” She rolled her eyes at me. “How the hell am I going to see myself in the back of some photo of some guy that disappeared in Orlando when I’ve never even been to Florida?”

  “I don’t know, maybe you have a doppelgänger?” I stopped then as I could see she was getting irritated. “Fine, sorry. Who did you see?”

  “None other than Mr. Jackson Camden and Mr. Oracle Lion—sorry, Mr. Zach Houston.”

  “What?” My jaw dropped. “No way.”

  “Way. Younger versions, but it was them.” She nodded to herself. “It was definitely them. That’s why I took the photo this morning of the two of you. As evidence.”

  “Evidence of what?” I blinked at her, not understanding what she was saying.

  “If you go missing, I can show the police you were with him.”

  “With Zach? Why would they care that I was ever with him and why would I go missing?” And then it hit me. “You think they had something to do with it?”

  “Yes, Einstein.” She grinned at my pout. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist, but it makes sense, right? Why else did Jackson go so funny?” She looked away for a few seconds and I could see that she was thinking about something that she didn’t want to talk about with me. “We need to find out what happened.” She looked back at me suddenly. “Don’t you want to know what happened?”

  “Well, we don’t even know if it was them or if they know what happened.” I stopped talking as the waitress approached us with two plates. She placed my eggs Benedict and home fries in front of me and the cheese and spinach omelet in front of Alexa. “Thank you,” I said as she smiled at us and then as soon as she walked away I turned back to Alexa. “You’re making a lot of assumptions.”

  “I’m a historian, that’s my job.” She grabbed her knife and fork and started eating. “I’m so hungry, it’s not even funny.”

  “So, we should make a list of all the things we think we know and go from there,” I said as I picked up my cutlery. “Pass the salt and pepper, please.” I took a bite and realized the hollandaise sauce was tasteless. “And how are we meant to find out anything more? Neither one of us has contact with either of them, and it’s not like we hobnob with the rich and famous every day.”

  “We’ll think of something,” she said as she passed me the salt and pepper shakers. “Don’t make that face at me, Piper. It’ll be fun.”

  “I don’t know about fun.” I grabbed my orange juice, sans champagne, and took a sip. “What I do know is I want to see that newspaper article and photo for myself before we take any steps.”

  “I knew you’d be in.” She grinned. “How exciting is this weekend turning out to be?”

  “I had plenty of fun this morning, thanks.”

  I put my glass down and thought back to how Zach had pleasured me. He’d taken control, and I’d seen a sexy, dominant side to him that I wouldn’t have guessed existed. When he’d told me to say his name, he’d been so insistent, so teasing. It had made me want him even more. The look in his eyes had been tantalizing, and I knew in my heart of hearts that he had even more secrets hidden inside that I couldn’t even guess at. He could be cocky, self-deprecating, bossy, even humorous at times, but behind it all, there was a cloud of something else. Something impenetrable. Zach Houston definitely had a secret hidden past; something that he was holding inside.

  Normally, I would have let it go. It wasn’t my business after all. Yes, the sex had been great, and I’d never expected to see him again after our one-night stand, but after he’d left that money, no, thrown that money on the bed and given me that arrogant look of disdain, I wasn’t just going to let it go.

  11

  Oracle

  * * *

  “Zach, I’ve been thinking and wondering …” My mother’s voice trailed off, and I could feel myself tensing at what was going to come next. Nothing ever good came from my mom thinking.

  “Yes?” I said finally when she didn’t continue. I hated it when she did this. She wanted me to coax her thoughts out of her as if I were dying to hear her story.

  When I was a young child, it had been exciting, wondering what my mother was going to tell me. The long, painstaking details of her life had made me feel like she was confiding in me, like we were bonding, until I reached my teenage years and realized that my mom was an attention-seeking drama queen who thrived off of being admired and heard. It didn’t help that now most of her friends had disappeared and we had little to no family other than each other. I had become my mom’s everything, and she didn’t know how to let go of the past or me.

  “Why do you have an attitude, Zach? Is that any way to talk to your mother?” Her voice rose, and I knew that if I didn’t soothe her right away, she’d have some sort of emotional breakdown.

  “I don’t have an attitude, Mom, I just don’t have time for a long story right now. I’m working on something new and, well, it’s time-sensitive.” I tried to be as polite as possible without completely lying.

  “You always make time for work and other people,” she said, and I took a deep breath. If she started to complain about how little time I had for her, I was going to shit a brick. “I was thinking about my parents and how their story is so unique.”

  “Okay?” I asked her wondering where this was going. My mom had been raised by her mom and stepfather who had immigrated to the States from England. My grandfather, her birth father, had died in World War II i
n the trenches in France, and my grandmother would sometimes have dreams of him coming to her. He had been the love of her life and everyone knew it; even her new husband, who had, quite rightly, in my opinion, ended up leaving her when my mom was five. Nana had worked as a housekeeper for a rich family in South Carolina who had liked the fact that she had an English accent, and my mom had grown up with the kids in the family, taking on all their airs and graces as if her ancestors had been owners of a vast plantation as well.

  “Have you thought about making a movie about them?” she said, her voice bright. “Didn’t that Steven Spielberg make that one war movie that did really well?”

  “Saving Private Ryan?” I asked cautiously.

  “Hmm no, that doesn’t sound right. The one in the war with the nurse. And she fell in love with the soldier.”

  “The English Patient?”

  “No, no, that’s not it. Was it called The Hangover?” Her voice sounded genuine, and I withheld a laugh.

  “No, Mom, I don’t think you’re thinking about The Hangover, but anyway, what about it?”

  “I think you could win an Oscar if you made a movie about your grandparents and their epic love story. It would be a lot to know you have a personal connection to the story.”

  “Mom, I don’t even know their story, not really.” I took a deep breath. “So it would be hard to make a movie about it.”

  “Well, I can tell you everything and you can write it down and make it. Doug, be quiet.” She shushed her yappy dog who was barking up a storm in the background.