Trusting The Boss

by Mallory Crowe

  But Luke didn’t look the slightest bit happy about her confession. “You spent the night with Jace Lance? Are you crazy?”

  Emma felt the blood drain from her face and took a step back from Luke. “How do you know his name?”

  “Did you think I’d let you run around the city with some stranger? Of course I checked in on you.”

  “You mean you had me followed? My God, Luke. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Emma, don’t make this about me. You’re one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. I admit that. But you’re also way too trusting and naive. You just met this guy.”

  She scoffed at his insinuation. “Because you’ve never slept with a woman you just met? Don’t think I haven’t heard the stories about you.”

  “You don’t get it.” Luke shook his head. “Lance is only in it for himself. He would play you in a second if it meant he would make a dollar off it.”

  Emma smiled, remembering how money had hardly swayed him when she first approached him for help. “He’s not like that. He doesn’t care about money.”

  Luke’s jaw tightened and some mix of anger and pity crossed his face. “Damn it, Emma, how could you sleep with him?”

  “I’m sorry you’re upset, but my reasons are none of your business. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to change and spend the rest of my day cleaning up my sister’s mess. With Jace.” Emma brushed past him, determined to make it to her room and put this whole uncomfortable fight behind her.

  “Jace Lance is working for me.”

  Emma stopped in her tracks at Luke’s words. “You’re lying.” She refused to look at Luke. “He wouldn’t.”

  She heard Luke move and after a few strides, he stood in front of her again. “Emma, there’s a reason I didn’t want you digging into Joslyn’s life. You thought you were the one who pushed her away, but I paid her off to stay away from you.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she shook her head. “What?”

  “That woman is poison. She killed your parents and was acid to this family. So I offered to make her comfortable as long as she stayed the hell away. When Michael and I found out you were hiring Lance to help you look into her life, we paid him to make sure you never found out what I did.”

  Emma took a step back. “Then why tell me now?”

  “Because I’m not paying him to screw you!”

  “No, you’re just paying him to screw me over,” she snapped as she shoved both hands hard into Luke’s chest. The plastic bag of her soiled clothes clattered through the silence. Though she knew she wasn’t strong enough to move Luke if he didn’t want to move, he did step aside as she stormed past him. She slammed the door to her room and turned the lock on the handle.

  As she crossed to her charger, Luke knocked on the door. “Please, I never wanted to hurt you. Can we talk?”

  Emma ignored him as she frantically hit the power button. No, she didn’t want to talk to him. He was a maniacal, controlling, ruthless man who was no better than the sister he was trying to protect her from. How dare he go behind her back instead of telling her the truth? Worst of all, if she hadn’t slept with Jace, he probably wouldn’t even feel bad about what he did.

  Emma sat on the edge of her bed and stared at her phone, willing it to turn on faster. Was Luke telling the truth? If he was paying off Joslyn, Emma would see it in the bank statements. She thought back to the few statements she’d glanced at. Granted, she hadn’t looked for long, but there hadn’t been anything too suspicious. Unless someone got to Russell…

  Her phone finally loaded and she found Russell’s number. Luke banged on the door again as the ringing sounded in her ear. “Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she muttered under her breath as she willed her old classmate to answer.

  On the seventh ring and right before Emma was about to give up hope, Russell’s posh accent sounded over the line. “Emma, I can’t help you anymore,” he said in a hushed tone.

  Well, that wasn’t a good sign. “Russell, I need to ask you something.”

  “I gave you what you wanted. I’m sorry about your sister and all, but I can’t do anything else for you.”

  Tough luck if he didn’t want to deal with her. She just had one question. “Did you give me the original bank statements or did you doctor them to hide deposits from me?”

  Silence stretched over the other end and Emma squeezed her eyes shut. This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening…

  “I didn’t change anything,” he finally said. “But I sent them to someone who did something to them. I’m sorry, but somehow they got into my sealed juvenile records and threatened to expose them to my boss if I didn’t help them and—”

  “Don’t worry about it, Russell.” Emma tried to sound calm even as a tear fell down her cheek. “I can take it from here.” She hung up the phone and sat dead still for a few minutes, staring down at her sweatpants-clad legs. Jace’s pants.

  What if Luke was lying? What if he’d found out about Russell? To do that, he’d need to get into her laptop. Michael would be able to crack her password and then access her email account.

  But she’d told Jace about Russell. With his shady connections, it would be easy to get to Russell’s sealed records. And he’d been so adamant about not helping her and then suddenly all gung-ho. If he was doubling his money by working with Luke and Michael, of course he’d be more willing to help.

  None of that explained why he slept with her.

  Emma leaped off the bed and pulled her suitcase out of the closet. She haphazardly tossed her clothes into the case before she zipped it shut. At the last second, she realized she still wore Jace’s clothes. Her skin felt as though it was crawling as she tore the pants and t-shirt off. She re-opened the suitcase and pulled on a skirt and white blouse. She debated leaving Jace’s stuff lying on the floor but picked it up at the last minute.

  If Luke and Jace really were in cahoots, she didn’t want Jace getting any of his stuff back. She stuffed them in her suitcase before she unlocked the door. Luke was mid-knock as she stared him down. “Move.” She pushed forward anyway, running her shoulder into his side when he stayed in her way.

  “Why don’t you put the suitcase back and we can talk about this?”

  She wheeled the luggage through the apartment, only stopping to wait for the elevator. “Your chance for talking is over, Luke. I’m going back home.”

  “You’re flying back to Georgia?” He followed her inside the elevator when the door opened.

  She pressed the button for the lobby. “You’re stupid, not deaf.”

  “Let’s go back upstairs. I know you didn’t have time to pack everything and I can arrange the company jet to take you back.”

  The doors opened to the first floor. “Ship my things to me. Throw them out. I don’t care. And I’d rather hitchhike all the way to Georgia than spend another second here with you.”

  ###

  Jace dialed Emma’s number again, but it went straight to voicemail for the twentieth time. Damn it. He’d stood outside Luke’s building for fifteen minutes now. He knew that sometimes women took awhile to get ready, but he’d already given Emma a half-hour head start.

  He paced to the door before he turned back around to his original spot. If she was stuck with her cousin, he didn’t want to barge in. But he also didn’t want her out of his sight any longer than necessary. With yesterday’s threats still fresh in his mind, he’d done everything possible to get Emma to stay by his side. As long as this Dave guy wanted something from her, he didn’t want Emma to be alone for even a second.

  But Emma would never believe him unless he told her the kind of payments Joslyn was getting as a result of her dirty dealings. Which, in turn, would force him to come clean about doctoring the statements she’d gotten yesterday.

  Hell. He probably should’ve told her yesterday, but it wasn’t as if he planned to sleep with her. He’d been doing his best all day to keep his eyes and hands off her. But she did something to his con
trol that Jace didn’t even want to think about.

  And if he told her now, there was no way she’d agree to spend the day with him.

  After ten more minutes of no answer, Jace wasn’t willing to wait around anymore. He strode in the building as though he belonged and faced the doorman. “I need you to call up to the penthouse. Emma Devereaux and I had an appointment she’s late for.”

  The doorman nodded. “Let me call upstairs for you.”

  Jace crossed his arms over his chest as he waited impatiently for the doorman to come back. Finally, the older man hung up the phone. “He says you can go up. If you get in the elevator, Mr. Devereaux will trigger it to go up to the penthouse.”

  Jace clenched his jaw. So he was going to be confronting one of her cousins. He knew he would be at a disadvantage if he went up, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn back. He took a steadying breath and crossed the lobby to the elevator. As he moved, he adjusted his leather jacket and subtly pressed against his side holster. Not that he expected to use his gun, but it was a nervous habit of his to make sure it was there.

  He got in the elevator and looked up to the camera, knowing that Luke or Michael probably sized him up at that very moment.

  The high-speed elevator took no time getting up to the penthouse and opened to a very pissed-off looking Luke Devereaux. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here after last night.”

  Jace ignored Luke and strode into the apartment. “Where is she?”

  “The deal was that you kept our involvement with Joslyn from her. At what point did you think I was paying you to sleep with her?”

  Jace twisted around and his fist slammed in Luke’s face before he even knew what he was doing.

  Luke fell back and slammed into the counter, covering his now bleeding nose with a hand. His eyes narrowed at Jace and for half a second, Jace thought the man was going to charge him.

  But then he seemed to reel himself in. “You have ten seconds to get the hell out before I call the police and charge you with assault.”

  Jace took a calming breath in and out, trying to formulate his next move. “Where. Is. She?” he repeated.

  Luke sneered, spitting pure venom with his eyes. “She went home. I told her everything about you working for us and she was disgusted with you.”

  Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. “You told her? What the fuck was the point of working for you if you were just going to tell her your secrets?” he shouted. “Motherfucker, you don’t even know—” Jace broke off as he ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm down.

  Think. Where would Emma go? She could be taking a private or commercial jet. There were three major airports she could be leaving from and countless small ones.

  “That’s it. I’m calling the cops.” Luke pulled out his cell phone.

  Jace curled his lip at the man as he walked past, trying to get a read on the man. He invited Jace up so he could gloat in his face about Emma leaving, but didn’t fight back when hit. Judging from the fit of the man’s suit, he was reasonably fit, but who knew if the billionaire had ever been in a fight before.

  But Jace knew fear when he saw it and Luke Devereaux was not afraid of him. Which was a mistake on his part. “If anything happens to Emma because you’re a dick, I will throw you out the fucking window.” Jace strode out of the apartment and hit the button for the lobby.

  Even through his pumping adrenaline and rage, he knew he couldn’t blame Luke for this. Jace never should’ve slept with Emma. He’d known he shouldn’t touch her but he’d been thinking with the wrong damn head and she was probably halfway to Georgia by now.

  As much as he wanted to believe she’d be safer there, people didn’t shell out over a hundred grand a month if they weren’t deathly afraid of some information leaking. His gut told him that if they didn’t give these guys what they wanted, Emma would be in trouble.

  And that trouble would come sooner rather than later if they knew she left the state.

  Jace knew he had to go after her. He might not know how she was getting home, but he knew her final destination. He would just have to meet her at her house, whether she wanted him there or not.

  But before he could leave, he had to tie up some loose ends. He hailed a cab and gave the driver the address to Joslyn’s apartment. Emma had the only key that he knew of and, even though Jace was more than capable of picking a lock, he didn’t have anything on him that would get the job done. So he’d have to work fast.

  The cab came to a halt in front of the building and Jace handed the driver a twenty before he jumped out. He strode inside and rode the elevator to the apartment. After he verified no one was in the hallway and confirmed that the door was locked, Jace pulled out his gun, carefully aiming so the bullet would go through the lock and lodge in the wall.

  The sound of the gunshot reverberated through the halls, but it didn’t faze Jace. He would be long gone before anyone could call the cops. As the door swung open, Jace crossed into the kitchen and rummaged through the pantry until he found an empty plastic bag. Then he moved to the couch and carefully picked up the menu he’d swiped from the café that he’d left on the coffee table.

  As soon as it was in the bag, he took one more glance around the room. Emma’s computer was gone, so she must’ve been here already to pick it up. Jace cursed under his breath and made a quick exit out of the apartment and rode the elevator back down. He didn’t see anyone poking their heads outside their doors, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t gotten a good look at him through peepholes.

  As soon as Jace was back on the street, he pulled out his phone as he walked. Even though it went against every instinct in his body, he found the contact information for the New York FBI offices and dialed.

  After he made his way through the automated system, he finally got a hold of an operator. “I need to be connected to Evelyn Price.”

  “One moment, sir,” said the operator.

  Jace ducked into an alley between two buildings to shield him from the noise and wind of the street.

  After a few rings, Evelyn answered. “Price here,” she said in the no-nonsense tone he was relying on.

  “It’s Lance. I need to call in a few million favors.”

  There was silence on the other end for a few moments. Then she finally responded, “You know I’m not in the field anymore.”

  “That’s what you get for getting shot.”

  “Dick,” she muttered.

  Jace smiled. Getting injured on a mission was never something he imagined would happen to Evelyn, but he had a feeling that whoever brought her down suffered a far worse fate. He never asked the details of what landed her behind a desk for the rest of her career and she’d never offered them up. “I need you to run a set of prints for me.”

  “Sounds easy enough.”

  “Off a restaurant menu.”

  “You’re a moron.”

  He’d expected the reaction. There had to be dozens of prints on the laminated sheet and even if they could isolate Dave’s, he might not be in any local or federal database. “Can you at least see what you can get? I know the general area where he held the thing. You owe me.”

  “Fine. If you want to waste a perfectly good favor on this, I’ll play along. What else did you want? I’m assuming that’s not the only one of the ‘million’ favors you need to call in?”

  Jace tightened his lips and looked out at the street in front of him. This was going to be harder to get than a rush fingerprint job. “Do you know anyone with a plane I can borrow?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Emma turned onto her street and let out a deep sigh of relief. She already started to feel better. Maybe it was breathing in the familiar Southern air, or the feeling of being able to drive herself somewhere for the first time in days, but damn it felt good to be home.

  She could do what she wanted, when she wanted—without having to explain herself to an overbearing cousin. She didn’t have to worry about Jace screwing her over anymore and she was far e
nough away from Joslyn’s poisonous influence that she could breathe easy for the first time in days.

  So what if that guy came back around looking for whatever Joslyn had on him? Emma would just say she didn’t have anything that could be used against him and that would have to be good enough.

  The drive gate finally came into view and Emma couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Home, finally. After an exhausting last-minute flight and flying coach for the first time in her life, Emma was ready to crawl into her own bed and curl up. She’d miss the always available delivery that New York offered, but she’d gladly have some granola bars for dinner until she could get to the grocery store tomorrow.

  She hit the button on her keychain to open the gate that led to her family estate and drove through once it was open wide enough. She hit the button to close it behind her and continued up the long, winding drive to the main house. The yard was in good condition, so it looked like the groundskeeper, Barry, had been hard at work while she was gone.

  She needed more people like Barry in her life. Hardworking. Reliable. Not working for her asshole cousins. Yep. She definitely needed more Barrys.

  Finally her family home came into view. The massive, sprawling mansion was ten thousand square feet of comfort and familiarity. That comforting feeling abruptly fled when Emma realized a person sat on her front porch steps. She squinted and tried to see better. It didn’t look like Barry…. “No,” she breathed as recognition slammed into her. “No, no, no, no.” Emma flung the car into park and hopped out as her mind went into full panic mode.

  Jace, however, appeared completely relaxed as he stood and flashed her a weak smile. He was in his normal outfit of a white t-shirt and jeans topped off with a black leather jacket that was way too warm looking for a Southern fall.

  “Go.” She pointed in the direction of the gate, which should’ve been locked tight enough to keep intruders out. “This is trespassing and I want you gone.”

  “Emma, I need to talk to you.”