Love in the Dark

by 12 Book Boxed Set (epub)

  “Yes, Oracle. Why don’t you go and meet up with Princess Maria and don’t bother calling me again.”

  I hung up before I changed my mind and told him to come over to dinner or something. As much as I hated how he’d treated me, I was still intrigued by him. And he had been dynamite in bed, so it wasn’t like I didn’t want to sleep with him again. Oh boy, my body would love to sleep with him again. But then there was also the issue of him possibly being involved with Radley Markham’s disappearance. And I didn’t know what the comment was about, but had he also stolen some women as well? Who was the real Zach Houston and exactly what was he capable of?

  I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to find out.

  13

  Zach

  * * *

  “She hung up on me.” I looked at the phone in my hand in shock. “She bloody hung up on me.”

  I lay back on my plush white couch and stared at the painting of a surfer in Hawaii that hung over my fireplace. I loved the painting, and it always calmed me down. I debated phoning Piper back, but I wasn’t sure if she would even answer the phone.

  Well, that hadn’t gone according to plan. I jumped up off of the couch and walked the short distance to the kitchen, looking down at the colorful rug I’d had shipped back from a bazaar while I’d been in Marrakech, Morocco. It was made of bright red and blue wool, and its vibrant colors were a vast change from my other house. That was a house, This was my home.

  I opened the fridge and pulled out the bottle of orange juice and grabbed a glass. “Piper Meadows hung up on me.” I smiled to myself as I took a sip of the freshly squeezed juice. That hadn’t happened to me in years. In fact, I think the last time a woman had hung up on me had been in college. The smile left my face when I remembered who it was that had hung up on me.

  “I hate you, Zach,” she’d said.

  “Can we meet up and talk?” I’d said. “I’d like you to—”

  “I never want to see you again.”

  “Just one more time, just let me explain,” I’d pleaded and then she’d hung up.

  I’d been shocked and worried. I’d known that I’d had to fix that situation, not just for me but for Jackson as well. Of course, nothing had gone according to plan.

  I grabbed my phone and called Jackson. He was the only person I could speak to right now.

  “Yo, Yo, what’s up, Houston?”

  “You’re in a good mood.”

  “I just booked Madison Square Garden, dude. And my world tour has been green lighted. Thirty-two countries in six months. It’s going to be epic.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome.”

  “You should have stayed in the band.” Jackson laughed, but I didn’t join in his mirth.

  “There was no band once Radley left, dude.”

  “He was a muthafucka, wasn’t he?” Jackson seemed to sober up at my words. “So did you talk to Piper? When’s she going down to LA again?” He paused. “And do you think Alexa will visit her?”

  “She’s not coming. She hung up on me. She didn’t even listen to my offer.”

  “What?” He sounded panicked. “What do you mean? You told her about writing the movie, right? That’s an amazing opportunity. Is she stupid?”

  “Well, she’s not that stupid if she’s writing a book about us, is she?”

  “So that’s confirmed?” Jackson’s voice was low now. “You need to figure out exactly what they know. We need to get on top of this, Zach.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Beg her to help?”

  “I don’t beg.”

  “Have your mom contact her. Tell her that Piper’s the best writer in the business and that she needs to convince her to write this script. Tell her that you’ll only make the movie if she can get Piper to sign on.” He chuckled then. “Your mom doesn’t take no for an answer, ever. She’ll get Piper to sign up.”

  “But we don’t actually want my mom involved, remember? What if Piper starts asking her questions?”

  “Your mom doesn’t know what happened, does she?”

  “No, of course, she doesn’t know.” I sighed. “You know that. But she does know about our friendship with Radley, and she knows a lot of other stuff that would be useful to Piper if she’s writing a book. Useful to her and detrimental to—”

  “Us,” he cut me off. “I know, but we need to stay on top of this. We need to figure out what’s going on.”

  “We don’t even know if she’s writing a book, Jackson. Come on, now. I called her. She’s not interested. In fact, it makes me think she’s not writing a book. If she was, wouldn’t she have jumped at an excuse to see me again?”

  “Not after you threw that money on her like some whore.” Jackson grunted. “Obviously, she has some self-respect.”

  “She’s not a whore.” I clenched my fist. “I was just angry and confused. I didn’t want to hurt her.”

  “She’s trying to hurt us.”

  “No, we don’t actually know that.” I shook my head, and I walked over to the window over the kitchen sink and looked out at the ocean in the distance. I could see the waves crashing into each other and I remembered that night on the beach with Piper. She’d been so carefree and relaxed. She hadn’t had an agenda that night. I truly believed that. I didn’t think she’d slept with me to get any information, and the fact that she’d hung up on me led me to believe that she wouldn’t do any and everything for a story.

  “We don’t know that, but we do know that she and her friend have been very cagey.”

  “Her friend? You mean, Alexa? The woman you hooked up with?”

  “I hook up with a lot of women. I don’t always remember their names.”

  “But you just mentioned her name, not less than five minutes ago.”

  “I’m a rock star. I’ve done a lot of drugs.” He tried to laugh, but the sound was weak.

  “What’s going on here, Jackson?” I heard the clock in my living room chime and glanced at my watch. “Shit, I got to get going. I’ve got a meeting in Burbank later today.”

  “Oh, with who?”

  “Tarantino.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me, Tarantino?”

  “Yeah.” I grinned at his tone. “He wants me for a movie.”

  “Who else?”

  “Charlize. Leo. Maybe Samuel, too.”

  “What about Brad?”

  “I think he’s committed for the next two years.”

  “Of course.” Jackson laughed. “Well, if they need anyone for the score, you know who would kill it.”

  “Yeah, let me get the role first. We’re just talking. My agent thought it would be good as QT won’t let anyone see the script until they’ve signed an NDA, and well, you know how it goes.”

  “Yeah, yeah, too cool, man. You don’t sound excited.”

  “You know I want to make my own movie.”

  “I know. Like you made those band videos for us back in high school. They were epic.”

  “They were childish.”

  “Dude, they were epic. I still have them in my parents’ garage. We should watch them next time we’re home.”

  “Yeah, yeah, of course, man.” We both knew that that was never going to happen. Neither one of us went back to Florida much, and even if we were both there, we wouldn’t want to watch videos of us goofing around with Radley. Too many memories. Too many decisions that could have been made differently.

  “So what are we going to do?” Jackson whispered. “If Piper is writing a book and it’s about us, it will ruin everything, Zach. You won’t be making any more movies. I won’t be touring, and who knows what else will happen. Those girls are smart, dude. They found us. I didn’t even know about that club until I got that email from Ringo, and I told you Ringo told me he never sent it to me, right? We only went there because of him. It seems mighty convenient to me that I got some mystery email about some club and they both show up and have their wicked way with us.”

  “Let me think about i
t,” I said quickly, feeling stressed again. “I’ll call you back later.”

  “Okay.”

  I hung up and walked back to my office. It hadn’t been hard getting Piper’s phone number. I’d typed in her name in Google and then put history and Oakland and pressed search. The fifth entry had listed fourteen different phone numbers for her and she’d answered on the third call I’d made. I sat back down in my chair and opened my laptop up. This time I needed to find out some real information on Piper, information that I was getting for myself and not just from Jackson’s imagination.

  First thing I wanted to figure out was what books she’d written already. Maybe that would give me some insight into the way her mind worked. She’d said she was a historian, and now I was kicking myself for not asking her what area of history. For all I knew, she had ten books about cold cases and a podcast with a million listeners.

  And then I started laughing when I saw the covers of the two books that Piper had written popping up on Amazon. The Highlander’s Naughty Bride (A Steamy Scottish Romance Novel) was the title of the first book and the cover featured a shirtless man with long black hair and bulging muscles holding a petite redhead with a shy smile to his chest. The background featured what I assumed was a castle set in the highlands of Scotland. I noticed that the book was available in both paperback and a digital format.

  “Knew I should have gotten that Kindle,” I mumbled to myself as I bought the book and downloaded the Kindle app on my phone. It took about a minute to download and then the book cover popped up on the screen. I clicked on the cover. I was excited to read Piper’s book; even I knew that there wasn’t going to be some big exposé on Scottish clansmen in the pages. Still, I was curious to read words that had flowed from her brain. I decided that I wanted to read the book in a more comfortable space and got up to head to the bedroom to relax.

  “Shit, shit, shit.” I stopped halfway down the corridor. I had almost forgotten that I had my meeting. I couldn’t afford to miss the meeting. Getting this role would put me right at the top of the Hollywood A-list. Once I was there, I could make any movie that I wanted to. Absolutely any movie at all.

  “Oh, my lord, please wake up. It’s morning and your duties await.”

  “Amelia, how many times do I have to tell you to not enter my bedroom in the morning?” Lord Mcintosh scowled at the fair maiden, her cheeks flush and pink.

  “But, my lord, the sun is already high in the sky and the birds are singing.”

  “Birds do not sing, Amelia.”

  Lord Mcintosh arose from the bed with no shirt on and Amelia Abernathy knew that she should look away, but she couldn’t stop herself from peering at his chest under lowered eyes.

  Callum Mcintosh glanced at his ward and hid a dark smile as he strode to her. With her long red hair and big blue eyes, she was a picture to behold, but she was far too untoward and capricious for a lady. Her father, clan leader John Campbell had left Amelia with Callum and his Aunt Suzie while he had gone to Parliament, and it seemed to Callum that John was hoping he would take her as a wife. But Callum Mcintosh didn’t have any plans on making an innocent virgin his wife. He had a proclivity for the late night clubs of London, and Amelia was not the sort of woman he could see enjoy his lifestyle.

  * * *

  I smiled to myself as I finished reading the last paragraph of chapter one and grabbed my phone. This was what I needed after my meeting from earlier in the day. It had been so long and intense and the whole time I’d been there I’d been thinking about Piper. Before I could stop myself, I rang Piper’s number again and waited to see if she would answer. Tapping my fingers against my bedsheet, I only realized I was holding my breath when she answered the phone.

  “Hello?” She sounded angry.

  “It’s Zach.”

  “I know.”

  “What proclivities did Callum have that he didn’t think Amelia could keep up with?”

  “Huh?”

  “Did the Scottish lord have a thing for sex clubs?” I grinned into the phone as I heard her breathing. “Or is that your thing?” I started laughing at her sharp intake of breath. “You can tell me, Piper, I won’t tell anyone. Promise.”

  “Wh-what are you talking about?” She tripped over her words, and I laughed even harder.

  “The Highlander’s Naughty Bride,” I said in a serious voice. “Written by Piper Meadows, sex club partaker.”

  “I don’t go to sex clubs!” she protested.

  “Really? It was only the one time, then?”

  “What was only one time?” She paused. “Oh,” she said finally adding two and two together. “Why are you calling me?”

  So she wasn’t in the mood for playful banter, then? Not that I was surprised. In fact, I would have been shocked if she had flirted back with me in any way. Shocked and on high alert. Because the only way Piper Meadows would sound happy to hear from me would be if she was really writing a book about me and wanted an inside view of my life.

  “I wanted to apologize.”

  “Oh?”

  I knew I had her attention then. I had surprised myself as much as I had surprised her. I never apologized. I didn’t even recognize who I was right now; it was like some part of me had forgotten to be the cold and indifferent person that I normally was.

  “What are you apologizing for?” she prompted me when I didn’t continue talking.

  I grinned into the phone, feeling the first genuine smile on my face in days. I wanted—no, needed to see her.

  “Can I tell you in person?”

  “In person?” I could hear the frown in her voice. “I don’t live in LA, remember? And you also never told me how you got my phone number.”

  “The Internet is a wonderful invention, Piper Meadows. You can learn many interesting facts about people there.” I cleared my throat as I thought quickly. “But I was thinking we could meet up in San Francisco. You’re in Oakland, right? I’m actually heading up there tomorrow for a meeting with some software engineers about a tech startup I’m investing some funds in. Maybe we could meet later in the day if you’re free?”

  “You’re going to be in San Francisco?”

  “Yes.” I was lying through my teeth. I had no plans to be up in the Bay Area, but that was the good thing about being rich and famous. You could make almost anything happen at the drop of a hat. “I’ll text you tomorrow afternoon with a time and place to meet. Maybe we can grab dinner?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The phone went silent for a while and I decided to keep my mouth shut. I knew if I pushed her too hard, she would just say no, and I couldn’t have that. I needed to talk to her, needed to see her. And if I were being honest with myself, I needed to touch her as well. She had been in my head since I’d met her, and it wasn’t just because I wanted to know if she was planning on writing a tell-all on me and Jackson. There was just no way she could know much of anything, I thought to myself, but that was a lie. There were several loose ends that Jackson and I hadn’t been able to take care of, and any of those loose ends could lead back to us in a really bad way.

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea, Zach. I just have no interest in seeing you again, to be honest. We had our fun and well, one night was enough for me. I’m afraid the hype was bigger than the man.”

  Then she hung up on me again.

  This time my jaw dropped so wide open that ten flies and a couple of spiders could have made my mouth their abode and there still would have been space for more visitors. I dropped the phone on my sheets and got up. I needed to go for a swim, but this time it was going to be in the ocean. The ocean was like my safe space. It had been since I was a little kid, though I had to admit I was more at home in the warmer waters of the Atlantic. My favorite beach was in Tampa Bay in a place called Treasure Island, and it had the same turquoise blue waters as the Caribbean.

  When we were in college, Radley, Jackson, and I would take weekend trips just to go to the beach. All three of us had an affinity for the w
ater. Our surfboards were our second home, and in college, we’d all wanted to become pro surfers. Radley had been the best of all of us though. He had a natural talent of riding the waves that had surpassed both Jackson’s and my abilities, which is what made it all so ironic.

  I sighed deeply as memories of the past came back. It had all happened so quickly. He’d known too much. We’d all been too drunk. We hadn’t been thinking. I blocked the memory out and grabbed my phone again. I wasn’t going to sleep well until I knew what was going on. I couldn’t have this hanging over my head.

  “Piper, don’t hang up,” I said before she could speak as she answered the phone. “I know what I did was rude, and I want a chance to explain. Five minutes is all I ask. I’ll even come over to Oakland. How does that sound? You can pick the place.”

  Silence filled the line, but I knew she was listening because I could hear her breathing.

  “Five minutes. Please?”

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll text you a place tomorrow.” And with that, she hung up. I didn’t care though. I fist-pumped the air and then called Boris, a private pilot to see if he had his Cessna available for the next two days. Now I had to make a trip up to San Francisco, and I was hoping that I was going to be able to spend the night.

  14

  Piper

  * * *

  “Was that him again?” Alexa hovered excitedly as I put the phone down next to me. “Wow, he’s really into you.”

  “I don’t want to see him.” I bit down on my lower lip, my heart racing. I couldn’t believe that Zach had called me again and had apologized. I still didn’t understand why he’d been so rude, and I didn’t really want to see him again, even though the sex had been amazing.

  “You can ask him some questions.” Alexa sat next to me on the couch and I could see her thinking how to phrase her next sentence without getting me mad. “We weren’t able to find anything about him and Radley or Jackson. And we have no links as to what Spacecoast69 was trying to say. This way, we can find out if he has information.”