Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance)

by Caitlin Daire

  “Great. Thanks.”

  I put the number into the replacement cell phone I was currently using, and then I tried calling it once I was off the house phone. There was no answer, but it was two in the afternoon, so I assumed the guy was at work. I shot off a quick text instead.

  Hey, I hear you found my phone and jacket. Can you please give me a call or message back when it’s convenient for you? I’d be happy to buy you dinner or something as a thank-you for returning my stuff.

  I had the day off work today as a few scenes which didn’t require my presence were being filmed, so I simply sat and watched some TV while I waited for a response to my text. Nora was out shopping with Ina and Angie for new luggage and other assorted things, because she’d scored the New York job just as I knew she would. She’d been racing around getting ready for the last couple of days, and she was flying out in just four more days to get settled into the apartment Hartwell was providing her with for the six month stay. Angie was going to fly over with Oscar to drop him off a couple of days later once Nora had everything figured out. I wanted to take Oscar over to her myself, but unfortunately I couldn’t get time off work that soon.

  I was damn well going to miss Nora—and that golden pup as well, of course—but I knew it was for the best that she took this job. It could do great things for her future career, and I knew how much she loved her work. Almost as much as I loved her.

  My spare phone beeped just after five o’clock with a response from the number the restaurant had given me.

  I don’t want dinner.

  That was all it said. I frowned, wondering what the hell this guy wanted. Money? Something else? It seemed a bit ludicrous that he was expecting anything at all. I’d only offered to buy him dinner as a friendly gesture, after all.

  What do you want? I asked, my good mood quickly turning sour.

  I want you to break up with Nora. Tell her it’s over within the next hour, or I’ll release all the shit I found on your phone to the media. I know a lot of stuff about you now, Jacob Archer. You should really delete your texts more often. Looks like you’re secretly married, huh? Not to mention this hot and heavy video I found of you and Nora. Like I said, you have one hour. Don’t contact the police. I’ll know if you do.

  My guts churned as I read the text. Jesus Christ, I’d been right the other day after all—James had somehow managed to steal my phone that night at the restaurant, and he’d managed to go through everything and save it to the phone’s regular gallery before Nora had the bright idea of removing the device from the iCloud.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  What the hell was I supposed to do? Obviously there was no way in hell I was going to break up with Nora, but if that psycho prick James didn’t at least think I did within the next hour, he would release our sex tape and humiliate her in front of the entire world. I knew how quickly videos like that could go viral—it could be out there in a matter of minutes, and just like that, Nora’s life would be ruined.

  I could also go to prison if he released the information about my secret marriage to Ina, because people might figure out that it was all a green card sham. If that happened, she would go away too, facing either prison, or worse, deportation to her hellhole home country.

  I had to play this very fucking carefully.

  The first thing I needed to do was buy some time, so I shot back a bullshit text. Nora is out all afternoon. Won’t be able to contact her. Give me until the end of the day to break things off with her.

  Of course that was a lie, but hopefully it would give me a few more hours to get this shit sorted.

  Fine, came the response. But that’s it. No more time after that.

  Now I just needed to get the phone off him before I called the police. If I called them right away, he’d know as soon as he saw them coming for him, and I was willing to bet he had a drafted message to the tabloids on standby, ready to hit ‘send’ on if he saw he was in any trouble. I couldn’t risk that, so I needed to make sure I had the phone first. Without it, he had no solid proof of his claims to give to any reporters, unless he’d made backups. In that case, I was screwed either way, but I just had to hope he hadn’t.

  Fuming, I got in my car and sped down to the office building where the accounting firm was. The receptionist recognized me from all the times I’d been in to visit Chris, and she smiled up at me. “Hi, Jacob. Chris has already left for the day. You just missed him.”

  “That’s all right. I’m not here to see him. I just left something at his desk the other day. Mind if I go and grab it?”

  “Go right ahead,” she said with a simpering smile, batting her eyelashes. Christ, it was good to have sex appeal. I could’ve showed up here with a spiked club and she still probably would’ve let me in. I gave her a winning smile of my own and headed into the bullpen to find James in his cubicle.

  He was on the phone at his desk when I spotted him, and before I approached, I was careful to make sure his hands weren’t anywhere near his keyboard, where he could easily hit ‘send’ on an email exposing everything he’d found. Luckily he wasn’t anywhere near his computer, so I stalked over with a grim expression on my face.

  His own face turned ashen when he saw me, and in a faltering voice, he said a quick goodbye into his phone before hanging up.

  “Didn’t think I’d actually show up here, did you?” I said. “Don’t fucking move, or I’ll smash your face right into that desk.”

  He stood up, holding his palms in the air. “For god’s sake, why can’t you just leave me alone? I didn’t even press charges last time you came over to abuse me! And you know I could have.”

  “You think this is about that?” I said incredulously. “You’re a blackmailing little son of a bitch, and if you honestly think I’m going to dump Nora just because you found some dirt on us, then you’re deluded as fuck.”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about, you sack of shit. Now sit down before someone notices what’s going on.”

  He did as I said, and I took a seat in his spare chair. I noticed his legs were trembling. Jesus, what a little bitch. He could give out shit when he was hiding behind a screen, but he obviously couldn’t take it.

  “What’s it going to take to make you leave me and Nora alone?” I said. “You want money? Some sort of apology from Nora for dumping your sorry ass? Because let me tell you…that isn’t gonna happen. You fucked up. You forgot to turn off location services on your phone, so I can prove the blackmail texts you just sent me came from this building. The police aren’t gonna like that. They’ve been trying to nail you for weeks, and you thought you’d outsmarted them until now, didn’t you?”

  “What messages? Jacob, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied. His hands were shaking now as well. “And I have no idea why the cops keep showing up at my door questioning me. I haven’t been harassing Nora online or anywhere else! I stopped talking to her when she dumped me, like I told you that day when you showed up and punched me.”

  Did this guy have some sort of fucking multiple personality disorder? He seemed like he was telling the truth, but I knew he wasn’t.

  “Look,” I said through gritted teeth. “We know it’s you. You’ve been making fake Facebook accounts to send nasty messages to Nora for weeks now, and you trashed her house. You’ve terrorized her. And now you’ve stolen my phone from a restaurant I know you were at. I saw you there. So do you expect me to believe you didn’t send those messages today, trying to fucking blackmail me?”

  “Why would I? Man, if I wanted to mess with you, I would’ve gone ahead and pressed assault charges when you punched me outside my house that day. But I didn’t. Know why?”

  “Why?”

  He looked at his feet. “Because I didn’t want to,” he mumbled. “I guess part of me knew I more than deserved it. So I left it alone, and I stopped talking shit about Nora. She didn’t deserve it, and I was ju
st being a bitter asshole by spreading crap about her.”

  “So you admit it. You were spreading rumors about her.”

  He nodded. “Yes. But I stopped that day when you hit me. And I never harassed her online. I never trashed her house. Like I said, the cops have been bugging me about this for weeks now, but it’s not me. It’s not fucking me!”

  James honestly looked like he was about to cry at this point, and I narrowed my eyes. He was a lying, cheating, dog-abusing sack of shit, but a tiny part of me was starting to believe he hadn’t actually been doing the other things I’d accused him of. It was hard to fake the kind of reaction he was currently having unless the person in question was a trained actor, and I was the only actor sitting in this cubicle right now.

  “If it’s not you, then who the hell has been doing it?” I asked. “All the messages from Facebook are coming from accounts under your name, and the text messages I got today came from this building. You’re the only person who’s ever had a problem with Nora, as far as I know. So who else could it be?”

  “Someone is setting me up,” he said, his eyes wide. “I swear to god, Jacob. I’m begging you to believe me. I know I’m a fucking scumbag, okay? I have issues. I’m fucked in the head. But I’m not doing any of this other shit you’re talking about.”

  “Who would set you up? And how do you explain the location of the texts?” I shot back.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. This company isn’t the only one in this building. The texts you got could’ve been sent from any other floor, or even right outside. If someone is setting me up, then it makes sense that they’d come to the building and send the messages, just to make me look even guiltier.”

  I nodded. “That’s true. It did seem unbelievably stupid that you’d leave the location service turned on,” I said slowly. “But if someone is trying to use you as a scapegoat to harass Nora and break us up…well, who? Who the fuck has such a big problem with us being together?”

  “I really don’t know. Please believe me, I honestly have no idea,” James replied.

  I gave him a long, hard look before speaking up again. “Let’s say I believe you for just five minutes. Let’s say there is actually someone setting you up as a scapegoat. That means you’re involved in this shit whether you like it or not. So you need to help me figure out who it is.”

  “Why would I know? I told you, I don’t know anything.”

  “But you dated Nora for a while. Way longer than I’ve known her for. You must know all her friends, anyone else she associates with regularly. You guys had mutual acquaintances.”

  He nodded. “I guess. But I can’t think of anyone who hates her this much.”

  “Think harder.”

  “There was one girl we knew who was a bit jealous of a designer handbag Nora got for free from one of her consulting jobs. But that’s literally it, man. Nothing else comes to mind. Everyone always liked Nora.”

  I sighed. A girl wasn’t going to go these lengths to harass Nora over petty purse jealousy. “What about all the nasty rumors you spread about her when she dumped you? Maybe one of your friends got pissed at her and wanted to mess with her because of that.”

  James had the good grace to look ashamed. “Yeah. Maybe. But I’m pretty sure most of them ended up not believing me anyway. I guess it was pretty obvious I was exaggerating.”

  “Outright lying, more like it.”

  “Yeah, whatever. My point is, I don’t think any of our mutual friends dislike her enough to try and ruin her life and relationships like this.”

  I was silent for a moment. “Wait,” I finally said as something else occurred to me. “Some of the online messages were sent from an IP address that the cops managed to track. They haven’t been able to contact the guy who the internet is registered under yet, because he’s overseas, but they know his name. They think whoever has been sending these messages either knows this guy and has been using his internet, or lives close enough to have sat outside and hacked it without anyone noticing.”

  “What’s the name?” James asked.

  “Robert Quinto. Do you know anyone with that name? Or do you know anyone who has an acquaintance or a neighbor with that name?” I said.

  James’ eyes immediately went wide, and I could tell I’d hit pay-dirt. “You do, don’t you?” I added, jumping to my feet.

  He nodded. “Yes. But so do you, Jacob.”

  I shook my head. “No I don’t.”

  “Yeah, you do. Jesus, man, think about it.”

  I frowned, and then it hit me like a bolt of thunder. Fuck. I knew who it was. I knew exactly who’d been harassing Nora and trying to blackmail me into dumping her. They’d been right under our nose the entire time.

  And it sure as hell wasn’t James.

  Chapter Thirty

  Nora

  “Jacob, we’re home! We finally found the perfect suitcase set. Are you around?”

  I called out as Ina and I stood in the tiled foyer, but there was no response.

  “It’s almost six. He must’ve gone out to grab something for dinner,” Ina said, checking the time on her cell phone. “Anyway, I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be out in the guesthouse if you need me for anything.”

  “Sure. Thanks for your help today,” I said.

  I went to feed Oscar, and when he was happily chowing down on his dinner, I grabbed my cell phone and sent a text to Jacob’s spare phone. Hey, where are you? I just got home.

  As soon as I sent it, I heard a faint vibrating sound, and I frowned and looked around the kitchen and living room. I spotted something small and black on the couch a moment later, and I sighed and picked it up, realizing that Jacob had left the phone behind. While it was still in my hand, it vibrated again, and the screen lit up with a text message from an unsaved number.

  You said you’d dump Nora by the end of the day. Did you do it yet? I really don’t like being kept waiting, Jakey…

  My blood ran cold, and my chest felt so constricted that I could barely breathe for a moment. Legs trembling, I sat on the couch, wondering what on earth that message was about. It looked like Jacob had promised someone that he’d dump me tonight…but why? And who would he make such a promise to?

  As much as I didn’t want to admit it to myself, a niggling little voice in the back of my head told me there was only one option. It had to be another woman. Another woman who Jacob had promised to be with once he’d gotten me out of the picture. Maybe he was using the fact that I was leaving as a way of softening the blow—maybe he was planning on coming home tonight and softly saying, ‘sorry, I’ve thought about it again, and I don’t think I can do the long distance thing after all’. Then he’d have free rein to go running off to whoever this other woman was. Obviously he’d been keeping her on the sidelines in the event that I needed to be ‘replaced’.

  I felt sick to my stomach as I considered it. Was he really cheating on me? Was he only using me for god knows what reason and faking our entire relationship? If so, why? Was he seriously that messed up? I so desperately wanted to believe in him and know for sure that he would never do such a thing, but I saw that text message with my own eyes. He was planning on dumping me. He obviously told someone that he was going to do it.

  And try as I might, I couldn’t think of a reason why, unless he’d been playing me this entire time.

  I got up and walked robotically outside to the guesthouse. Maybe Ina could help. Maybe she’d be able to figure out some reason why Jacob would be telling someone that he was about to dump me; something totally innocent. She knew him better than anyone, after all.

  I knocked on the guesthouse door. It was made of glass and the wooden slatted blinds were open, so I could see Ina sitting on her sofa, still playing around on her cell phone. She looked up when she saw me, and she smiled and beckoned to me. “Come in!”

  Her smile vanished when she saw my expression as I stepped inside. “Nora, what’s wrong?” she asked with a frown.

  I couldn’t speak for a fu
ll three minutes. I was too choked up with tears. Ina sat next to me patting me on the back, and I was finally able to get the story out—what I’d seen on the phone, what it might mean, how I felt.

  Her frown deepened as she listened.

  “Can you think of any reason why this might be happening?” I finally said. “Something that isn’t as bad as him playing me all this time?”

  She sighed and looked at the floor. “Oh, Nora. I’m so sorry. I honestly thought…”

  “Thought what?” I said when she trailed off.

  “I thought he’d stopped this,” she replied, her voice turning bitter. “You know what he used to be like, right? Total playboy. Different woman every week. I love him, I really do, because of everything he’s done for me. So I never judged him. Not once. But this…this is different.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I genuinely thought he changed when he met you, Nora. He’s never been like this with anyone else. He’s never let another woman come to his house, let alone move in. But that text, my god. I can’t think why he’d receive a message saying that unless…”

  She trailed off again, and my shoulders slumped. “Unless he actually told someone he was going to end it with me,” I said flatly. “Another woman.”

  The tears were gone now. I was too numb to feel a single thing. It’d all been a lie—the late-night heart-to-hearts with Jacob, the feeling of safety in his home, the warm comfort of his arms. The love.

  All bullshit.

  How could I be so stupid? How could I fall for yet another liar? Of course I had, though. I was a hopeless romantic. I thought I could fix James once upon a time, and when that failed, I’d apparently moved right on to another fantasy—nabbing a movie star. No wonder it blew up in my face. What were the odds of someone in Jacob’s league truly wanting an average person like myself? It just felt so good to believe he did. I’d stupidly fallen for every line, every gesture. I’d even given up my lease and moved in with him, like a goddamned fool.