The Straw stayed busy for quite a while, the late afternoon crowd going home merging with the evening crowd just coming to the beach. Jason waited, his attention never staying on Victor for too long, but never quite leaving him either.
Finally, the man got up and approached the stand again, his face already twisted with anger. A moment later, Lexie burst out the side of the drink hut and darted around the back. Every male instinct inside Jason urged him to get across the sand and protect her, but he stayed right where he was.
Sasha came out too, meeting Victor at the door. They spoke, and if it hadn’t been so breezy, Jason might have been able to hear some of what they said.
Sasha went around the back of the stand and stood as a barrier between Lexie and Victor, who proceeded to shout at her.
Jason heard that. “It’s your fault! We lost everything with your stupid investments. Years wasted. You owe me so much money!” He lunged forward as if he’d grab Lexie and tow her down to the bank right now to get what he thought he was owed.
Sasha stepped in front of him and put her hand on Victor’s chest and shoved him back. Lexie fell a few steps in the opposite direction, her face stricken and yet strong. She said something that looked like, “I’m sorry,” and something else Jason couldn’t lip-read.
Sasha punched a few keys on her phone and lifted it to her ear before Victor held up both hands and backed away. Sasha lowered the phone—obviously her threat to call the police had had the desired effect on Victor—and the two women watched him go back around the stand. Jason watched him too, and he slammed his fist on the metal table where he’d been sitting before continuing down the beachwalk.
Okay, so the man had some suppressed rage. Jason had seen that in men before, and it usually didn’t end well for the person on the receiving end of that fury.
And that person was Lexie. He released the fists he’d curled his fingers into and watched as Sasha comforted her. But it really wasn’t necessary. Lexie was like iron. She might get a ding or two, but she was strong and could weather almost any storm.
He knew, because he’d watched her do it before. From a distance, just like now. And as Jason stood, half-concealed behind the trees, he vowed he wouldn’t be staying in the background this time.
Chapter Five
Lexie leaned against the hut and pushed the loose hair off her forehead as a sigh leaked from her mouth. Coming down off a confrontation always left her weak and exhausted, and she still had hours to go on her shift at The Straw.
“You’re okay?” Sasha asked.
“I’m fine.” Lexie was about as far from fine as a person could get, but she didn’t know what else to say. Victor hadn’t touched her, but she felt like the issue with him wasn’t over either.
Sasha patted her arm and said, “Take all the time you need,” before she rounded the corner and went back inside.
Lexie stayed outside, trying to get her pulse to calm down. She actually had a restraining order against Victor and his company, and she could call it in and get him out of her life. As she settled, all she could think was that Sasha’s text could’ve been a bit more informative.
Lexie had interpreted There’s a man here to see you as flirtatious and fun, and she’d assumed it had been Jason. And when he’d texted a couple of hours later to find out if she’d be working the stand, she’d readily told him yes.
But she couldn’t blame her friend. It wasn’t like she’d told Sasha anything about her past. She knew Lexie was rich, but she didn’t necessarily know where she’d come from, or how she’d achieved her wealth, or pretty much anything beyond Lexie’s ability to do mental math and show up on time.
She drew in a breath for so long she thought she’d burst a lung, then pushed all the air out, out, out. So she’d keep an eye on her back, and she’d make sure Victor didn’t cause any more trouble.
She pulled out her phone and called Luke, though it was just after eleven o’clock in New York City. “Hey, Lexie.” He didn’t sound like he was anywhere near bed.
“What do you know about Victor Bunce and Jersey Shores Realty?”
“Jersey Shores….” Luke took a few seconds to think. “Weren’t they one of the companies falsifying the loan documents before the crash?”
That rang a bell in Lexie’s mind. “Seems right. And Victor?”
“Let me find out.” She heard a slight tapping come through the line. “I’m going to put you on speaker. Tell me what’s going on.”
Lexie appreciated that Luke knew this wasn’t just a casual call. She loved her brothers, but they were usually very business-focused. They didn’t have a lot of personal conversations, and she would never call this late at night if it wasn’t something important.
“He showed up here on the island,” she said. “Waited for me where I work, confronted me, and yelled at me that we owed them money.”
“Uh, we don’t owe anyone money. All the cases have been resolved.”
Lexie sighed again and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “I know.”
“Let’s see. Jersey Shores went out of business when the market collapsed. Bankrupt. Four of their employees went to jail, but Victor wasn’t one of them. It doesn’t say much about him.” His voice echoed slightly, and more clicking sounded in her ear.
She felt like someone was watching her, and she did a quick scan of the beach in front of her, to her right where the sand stretched, and then the left where the bay curved and houses and trees started. Definitely someone over there, and the way it felt like it was a presence with a pull as strong as the sun, it had to be Jason.
He stayed stubbornly out of sight, though she continued to search for him. Had he seen the altercation?
Probably. And the thought did more than embarrass Lexie. She felt helpless, and it had been a long time since she’d felt like that.
“Hey, we have a restraining order against Jersey Shore and Victor Bunce,” Luke said.
“Yeah.” Lexie didn’t know what else to say.
“I’ll have our lawyer send it to him again, and remind him it applies to you no matter where you are.”
“That would be great,” Lexie said. They paid people to take care of problems like this, and Lexie was very glad they did. “Thanks, Luke. That’s all. Hey, how did it go with the new investments today?”
“The market is closed until morning. We’re going to drop Bangerter then, and get the new investments started first thing.”
“You better get to bed then.”
Luke chuckled. “Yeah, I better.”
Lexie relaxed further once she hung up with her brother, and she went back inside The Straw to find Sasha six orders behind. “I’m so sorry,” she said, grabbing a ticket in one hand and a clean blender in another.
Sasha actually stopped working, an action that spoke more than any words ever could’ve. “Everything okay?” She looked at Lexie—right at her—and Lexie thought she may have a real friend she could trust with anything.
“Yes.” She smiled and started scooping strawberries and blackberries into her blender. “Though, next time I have a man come looking for me, maybe clarify that it’s not Jason.”
Sasha poured a thick, orange liquid into a cup and slapped a lid on it. “You thought it was Jason?”
Lexie shrugged, set the blender on the base and hit the power button before turning to get another ticket.
A few more drinks went out the window before Sasha said, “You guys obviously have a history.”
“Yes.”
Sasha handed two more cups to customers. “That’s all I get? Yes?”
Lexie kept her focus on the recipe she had memorized. When the last customer of this rush had their refreshment, she leaned against the counter with her back to the beach beyond. “We dated in New York. Well.” She shrugged and folded her arms. “It was a big secret, but yeah. He was a bartender at this trendy place downtown, and he was my brother’s best friend.”
To Sasha’s credit, she didn’t gasp or squeal or
any of the things that would’ve driven Lexie crazy. “Sounds like that should’ve worked out.”
“The market crashed,” Lexie said like that explained everything, but the way Sasha just watched her, waiting for more, said it didn’t. “I own an investment firm, right? Well, a lot of our clients had a lot of money in the housing and real estate market. They lost money. We lost money. We were implicated in shady loan practices, and had eight indictments to deal with.”
A band of stress settled across her shoulders just saying all that. But she couldn’t quit now, even when Sasha said, “Wow.”
“Jason lost everything he’d invested. He blamed me, as I’d encouraged him to put his money in real estate. And then, once the media learned about our relationship, he got dragged through some mud too.” She hated the way her voice hardly sounded like her own, and all the things she’d tried so hard not to think about were suddenly streaming through her mind.
“We broke up when he gave private details about me and Luke, our family and our firm, and I focused on getting things cleaned up at work.” She pushed away from the counter as someone approached. The couple ordered and she took their money while Sasha started making the drink.
Once they’d gone, Sasha wiped the counter and said, “Well, I don’t think it’s over between you two,” she said.
“Oh, it is.” Lexie focused on restocking all the containers at the back of the stand. That way, when the next rush came, she’d be ready. Hours later, after darkness had fallen and the window had been closed and everything cleaned up for the day, she and Sasha stepped out of the stand. Sasha locked it and turned to her as Jasper stood from where he’d been waiting at one of the tables in front of the hut.
“Do you want us to make sure you get home okay?” Sasha leaned into Jasper, who pressed his lips to her temple, his adoration of her so obvious it make Lexie’s jealousy rush to her head.
She’d been looking for a man to come through the line and order a drink—but it wasn’t someone like Victor Bunce. Could it be Jason?
She banished the thought as she shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She owned a nice home with a security system in a safe neighborhood even if it didn’t have a coded gate.
“All right,” Sasha said at the same time Jasper said, “What happened?”
Sasha gave him the cliff-notes version as they went up the beach to their cars.
“You sure, Lex?” Jasper watched her, and she appreciated his concern.
“I’m sure.”
“Call me when you get home.” Sasha gave her a quick hug and ducked into Jasper’s sports car.
“Me too,” Jasper said.
“Like you won’t be with her.” Lexie rolled her eyes, though she was happy for her friends.
“Oh, she goes right to bed when we get home.” Jasper grinned and chuckled a bit. “I’ve got a conference call in forty minutes.”
“Good luck with it.” Lexie gave him a smile and unlocked her car. She drove slowly out of town, only accelerating once she hit the highway. It wasn’t horribly late—not like last night when she and Jason had taken their joyride—but there wasn’t much traffic either. So it was very easy to see that there was a car following her.
She slowed and turned onto the wrong street, praying she was wrong. That the car would continue past.
It didn’t, but turned after her. She immediately yanked the wheel to the left and onto another residential street. There were only four houses down here, and she saw no way to slide into a driveway and quickly shut off her car before the pursuer would see her. And the last thing she needed was to be alone in the middle of the night with Victor Bunce—or anyone for that matter.
So she kept going, the swath of headlights behind her erasing any doubt in her mind that she was being followed. As she turned left again to get back to the highway, another car came into view behind the first.
Great. Two stalkers. Just what she needed. She kept her left blinker on, because she couldn’t lead them to her home. Her phone rang while she waited for the other two cars to catch up to her or pull over and basically announce that they were following her.
Exasperation added to the fear and frustration tumbling through her. “What, Jason?”
“I’m in the second car back,” he said in a no-nonsense voice she imagined he’d perfected during his time as a police officer and a private detective. “My place or yours?”
“Mine,” Lexie said without thinking. Though it was dark, she sat under a street light. When she looked in her rear-view mirror and managed to meet the eyes of Victor Bunce, she held up her finger and wagged it like he’d be in trouble if he continued to follow her.
So she turned right, relieved when he turned left. Practically sagging in her seat, she drove slowly along the highway, Jason now right behind her.
She led him to her house, suddenly self-conscious about letting him into her space. She took great pride in her yard and the interior design of her place, and Jason, with his all-seeing eyes, would dress it down within a moment, make judgments, and then say the place looked like her.
She pulled into the garage and left it open for him to park beside her. Once he was in, she closed it again before getting out of her car at the same time he did. Their eyes met, and Lexie had a flashback to the last time they’d stood in a small space together like this.
He’d said, “I have to talk to them, Lex. They won’t leave me alone, and I have nowhere to hide.”
“Then talk to them,” she’d said. She couldn’t imagine him as anything but the sexy, handsome man she’d fallen in love with. The loyal, hardworking bartender who would never betray her—until he did.
I didn’t leak that story. His words from last night, when he’d approached her in front of Fisher’s private elevator. As she heard them in her mind now, they had a ring of truth to them. She hadn’t told Luke about Jason’s appearance on the island, and she wondered what he could dig up on his once-best friend.
“Are we going to go in?” he asked. “Or stand in the garage.”
Lexie flew into motion, striding around the front of her car and up the few steps to the entrance to the house. She couldn’t remember if she’d left her breakfast dishes in the sink or not, or what the guest bathroom looked like. She frantically scanned the entry way and found it mostly clean, with a pair of shoes by the decorative table there.
She swept them into her hands before Jason could see. She went around the steps leading to the second floor and threw the shoes in the little room concealed behind them, pulling the door closed just as he came in the house.
“Wow, Lex, this place is nice.” Sure enough, he scanned everything from the high ceilings to the paint color to the table where she had all of her fondest photos. He stepped over to that and examined the framed pictures of her and her brothers, her family, and one with her and the Nine-0 Club, which she’d taken when they’d come to the house last summer for one of their meetings.
She turned away from him so she wouldn’t have to watch him look extra-hard at that picture or answer any questions he might have about it. Along with the photos, Lexie had little mementos from Getaway Bay that she’d collected in the five years she’d been living here. They’d all been tastefully chosen and color-coordinated with the photos. Not that Jason needed to know that.
In the kitchen, she started making coffee, her go-to drink whenever she needed to relax. Strange, what with the caffeine, but if she added enough cream and sugar, it was almost like drinking hot milk before bed.
“Coffee?” she asked as Jason joined her.
“You pick out this furniture yourself?”
Why he was asking, she had no idea. “Yes.” She didn’t mean to clip the word out, but he was literally the only person on the planet she’d told about her dreams of being an interior designer. But she was a Keller, of Keller Investments, and one didn’t just walk away from that.
“Black,” he said, the two conversations they were having getting criss-crossed. Lexie could follow it fine though,
and she set out the sugar bowl and got the container of cream from the fridge.
“You’ve always wanted silver tiles in your kitchen.” He spoke with a fondness in his voice that Lexie had heard on previous occasions, usually just before he kissed her. Everything was spiraling out of control, and she moved out of the kitchen where he stood admiring her backsplash.
She had always wanted silver tiles, another fact she’d shared with only him. Maybe Sasha was right when she’d said what she’d had with Jason wasn’t over.
Has to be, she told herself. She’d made a clean break from that life, and she wasn’t going back.
But it didn’t seem like Jason wanted to go back either. And the clear line Lexie had drawn between her old self and her new one had started to blur considerably.
“So,” he said as the coffee started percolating. “What are we going to do about Victor?”
“I have a restraining order against him.” Lexie walked into the living room and collapsed on her soft leather couch with a long sigh. “Luke is having the lawyers send a reminder.”
“You think that will be enough?” Jason came into the living room too, his tall body and broad shoulders filling the whole house with his powerful presence. His charisma had been the first thing that had drawn Lexie to him at the bar. And it still called to her now.
“I don’t know. He didn’t follow me here.”
Jason gave her a calculated look and sat down beside her. “Lex, he sure did.”
“What?” Alarm sang through her.
“He was a ways back,” Jason said. “I’m not sure if he knows which house is yours. But he didn’t go back to the hotel.”
“How do you know it was him?”
“Intuition.”
And Jason had a lot of that, and Lexie had learned not to ignore it. That same sense of helplessness filled her and her face tightened and her emotions rolled through her, choking her, making her eyes hot with tears.
“Hey, come on.” Jason put his arm around her and pulled her against his side. “We don’t cry over scumbags like Victor Bunce.”
The Billionaire's Bodyguard (Clean Billionaire Beach Club Romance Book 5) Page 4
