“Amazing,” he whispers.
Gavin
I lay there and watch my sweet girl sleep soundly for an endless amount of time. I slept so well beside her and I know the reason why I couldn’t sleep when we were apart. Having her in my arms as I fall asleep is one of the best things I’ve ever felt. Peace. I feel peace and contentment when I sleep next to Aria and there is never going to be a time that I won’t want her beside me. She is it for me. No one else, just her.
My girl. My present and my future. I’ll never let go. I know that in my heart.
I ever so carefully skim my fingers down her cheek and brush the pad of her bottom lip with my thumb. I whisper in her ear.
“I have to make some calls. Sleep, Aria baby.”
She reaches out for me in her sleep and her hand lands on the center of my chest where my heart is pounding with love for her.
“Love you… ” The words escape her mouth and the softness of them could bring me to my knees if I wasn’t sitting on the bed next to her. I am not sure if she is awake or if she is dreaming of me, but I still whisper the words I’d only said to one other woman before her.
“I love you, Beautiful.” then I slip out of bed and pad my way to my office where I know a conference call is waiting for me. It has been about two weeks since I came home from that accident and I’ve spent every possible second with Aria. But Thomas Corporations is thriving and I take great pride in that—even if the business takes me away from her side.
“Mr. Thomas?” The line to my office phone lights up the moment I am sitting. I press the retrieve call button and the rough voice of an older man, a man I’ve done business with more than a few times comes over the line.
“Ah, Gavin Thomas, it’s good to get in touch with you. You were out of sync for a bit there. Everything OK lately?”
I press the phone to my ear and boot up the computer while I speak with him.
“Good to hear from you, Keith. Yes, an emergency came up, but I am back now and looking to know exactly how the Hellman deal went. I’m surprised no one has filled me in on the status, but since you were with me from the beginning of this deal, you’d surely loop me in, right?”
Since coming into the business only six or so years ago, I’ve learned that people rarely keep their promises or word. But, write them into a contract and clients have no choice but to be upfront and straight with you. So, when I had an opportunity to purchase and turn over a small but thriving mobile technology company called My Touch, I jumped into it. The Hellman brothers were the main shareholders and since coming back to work, I had yet to hear one word from either them or their representative. I figured that was a bad thing. I hear Keith clear his throat and then the rustle of papers.
“I’m sorry, Gavin. I was sure that Daniel would have set you up with the full reports regarding that deal. We gained their shares and the contracts were annotated. All we need to do now is turn them over to legal to finalize everything.”
Daniel Ray is my assistant and technical adviser. He went to ITT and has got to be the most tech-savvy person I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. But it isn’t truly his job to fill me in on this. Being that Keith was my partner in this deal, it’s his responsibility.
“Quite honestly, Mr. Clay, I’m appalled that neither of you thought to give me a report while I’ve been gone. I know my mother has stepped in during my absence, but you’ll do good to remember who guarantees your paychecks.”
“Gavin—”
“It’s Mr. Thomas, now. I am still your boss.” My voice has an edge to it now that I’ve learned how loyalties have fallen through in my brief absence.
“Mr. Thomas, I assure you that—” When the door to my office opens slightly and Aria stands, resting her back against the door frame, her body wrapped in satin sheets that match the true green of her eyes, I stop listening to Keith’s pathetic apologies. Her eyes take me in slowly, and she begins to bite her cheek. She only does that when she is trying to stifle a moan from coming out of her mouth.
“Don’t let it happen again, Mr. Clay.” With that last remark I hang up, spin my chair away from my desk and reach out my hand to Aria.
“Come here, Beautiful,” I say and she walks towards me, that soft smile across her face. Warmth spreads through me at the sight of her.
“Hi.” She crawls into my lap and face plants into my neck, her favorite place to rest her head whenever I’m holding her.
“Good morning.” I lift her chin with a tug to the back of her ponytail and settle my mouth on hers. I breathe in the lilac and vanilla smell she always has to her and the soft moan she gives me allows my tongue to push into her mouth. Pressing my palms against her cheeks, I lap into her, tasting her. Then I suck her bottom lip into my mouth and tug gently.
“Baby,” she moans against my mouth and her fingers tangle into my hair.
“You have to work?” She asks, looking up at me with emerald green eyes filled with desire.
“I do. Why don’t you spend some time with Farah? I’ll clear my schedule for this afternoon.”
She tips her head to the side, thinking.
“But don’t you have meetings? I don’t want you canceling them for me.”
Christ, could she be any more perfect?
“I have two meetings. The last one ends at seven. I’ll come home as soon as I can, baby.”
She smiles wide then, content with my answer. She puts her small hands on my face and her gentle touch makes my heart start pounding faster.
“Just us, tonight?”
I nod, kissing her thumb that is closest to my mouth. Her beautiful eyes heat in response.
“Just us, Aria”
* * *
By the middle of my work day, I’ve felt my phone go off at least a dozen times. I know it isn’t Aria because I always have her calls set to loud. I never want to miss her if she is trying to get in touch with me. But I know it has to be important if someone is calling five, six times in a half an hour. I look over to Riley who is sitting across from me and point my head towards the door.
“Let’s take a break, boys. We’ll come back and revise the contract in fifteen.”
The head of Alcatel Technologies, a few of my business partners in Thomas, and two of my assistants leave the room, leaving just two of us.
“I need to make a call, can you… ?” Daniel is standing and pacing towards the door before I have to ask.
“Take your time, Gavin.” He nods once before closing the wooden door behind him and without wasting any time, I pull out my cell phone and am surprised to find thirteen missed calls and four voice mail messages from Spencer Callaghan, my security head and trusted friend.
What the fuck? Why would he be chasing me down at this time of day? Unless…
A pit forms in the bottom of my stomach and I know this has to be about Williams. We haven’t caught sight of him since well before the accident. I am not stupid though. That man wants Aria, wants her back. There is no way I’ll let him near her ever again. Ever.
“Spencer. Tell me what’s happened.” My tone is rough, but thankfully Spencer has known me long enough to know why.
“I’ve been trying to reach you all day, Mr. Thomas. Are you available to meet?”
Shit. This can’t be good.
“Absolutely. Let’s meet at Thomas in twenty.”
“See you then.” And he hangs up without another word.
Immediately, I pull my assistant into the room and tell him to cancel the rest of my meetings. Aria’s safety is my only priority and I have no intention of attending meetings and conference calls while Bryce Williams could be in the Chicago area. It will drive me crazy with worry to know that man is in the same vicinity as my girl.
“Are you sure. This deal with—”
I cut him off with a hand raised. It doesn’t matter how important this contract is. Aria will always be my priority.
“Cancel them. I have a personal matter I have to attend to. Give my apologies and see when they
can possibly reschedule. Tell Clay to go ahead with the contract after I’m gone. I have no reservations on that.”
He quickly nods and writes something into his tablet.
“All clear?”
“Yes, of course. I hope everything turns out OK for you, Gavin.”
Inwardly I am hoping the same thing. I just have to keep Aria safe.
* * *
Spencer shakes my hand and sits across from my desk the moment he enters. The grim set of his mouth tells me this is just as bad as I initially thought.
“Mr. Williams was spotted just outside of the Garment district this morning. He was seen at a hardware store buying cable ties, duct tape, and rope. He was also seen in the lot of Ms. Morgan’s dance studio. I was tailing him for a good three hours before we lost the tail.”
I force myself to take deep breaths and not panic. I start stating facts in my head: Aria is with Farah at her apartment today, she texted me earlier and said how bad Jaden’s cooking skills are. She’s spending time with her friends. Bryce didn’t get close to her.
But all I can imagine is her laying in a hospital bed, bloodied and broken only four months ago. I’d seen the file Daniel was able to find for me. I’d seen the pictures. I can’t fathom seeing her like that ever again. I won’t allow it.
I rest my face in my hands and clench my eyes shut in an effort to keep calm.
“Where did you last see him, Spencer?”
He leans forward and looks me in the eye, obviously seeing my state of mind.
“Heading out of the city. He got no more than a mile away from where Ms. Morgan and Ms. James were this afternoon.” He hands me a USB drive and I look down at it before giving him a glare. What the hell is this?
“We found where Mr. Williams has been staying. A hidden suite at the Drake. I thought my team went through each and every hotel or motel in search of him, but he booked under an alias. I found this in his computer. I thought you’d want to see it.”
Fuck. Why would he have a hard drive on his computer? The only reason I can think of makes a knot form in my stomach and my mouth go dry to cold, dead fear.
“Show me.”
I pull back from my desk so Spencer has room to pull a chair next to mine and place the drive on the side panel. My nerves are thrumming and my head is pounding as I wait. I’m almost sure what I’m going to see on that drive. Pictures, or possibly videos. And lots of them. One thing I’ve learned about Aria’s ex-fiance is that he’s determined and patient. His temper drives him and he doesn’t care who he hurts or who is in the path of his rage. And he wants Aria. I feel the fire of anger in my veins, boiling my blood at the image of my girl in the clutches of that man again.
“Here it is,” Spencer says and what I see in front of me stops my heart altogether. Aria is sitting across our bed at the penthouse, writing in a journal. I know the video has to be live because I see the blinking light at the corner of the screen reading recording. She’s wearing a tank top and sleep shorts, the ones she was wearing that first night I spent with her months ago.
Rage, red hot rage boils inside me knowing that he has seen this. He’s probably watching it right now. That monster is watching Aria and probably Farah and Kel’s place, too. Every time I’ve made love to her in that bed, he’s been watching. He’s seen her. She’s mine—Finally mine and he’s seen her.
Before I know what I’m doing, I stand and fly into the opposing wall. My fist rams through it, my whole body blind with rage. I can’t see. I can’t think. All I feel is anger and sheer violence as every minute I’ve spent with Aria in that bedroom resurfaces. Us sitting across from each other, reaffirming our love. Her standing beside my bed and trying to convince me that waiting two whole weeks to be together is the right thing. Aria’s black hair curled around the pillows this morning when I kissed her forehead and slipped out of bed. It’s all supposed to be for me only. My eyes only. Not his!
“Gavin. Shit, Gavin! Calm down.” Spencer takes a hold of my wrists and stops me from lashing out at the hard concrete wall or anything else surrounding me, including him. I’ve never been an angry man, even after we lost my father. I hated it. I hated the emptiness of this world without him and the betrayal of finding Jasmine with that college student in her apartment. I hated all of it. But I never lost control. Like now. My entire body is shaking with the force of everything and the only thing I know is that I have to protect Aria.
“I’m fine. I’m good. Sorry, Spencer.” Begrudgingly he lets go of me and I begin to pace with my hands still shaking. What does this mean? Has Bryce been in our home?
Shit.
“He must have had a key or broke the locks somehow to get into your penthouse. Though, he may have sent someone to do his work for him. Have you or Ms. Morgan seen anyone suspicious around the property?
No. I haven’t seen anyone. But I’d also been in the hospital for almost a week. So had Aria. Jaden and Lucas told me how she refused to leave my side, not even to eat. Kel was able to make sure she changed clothes and ate something from the cafeteria, but other than that, she hadn’t gone home.
“There was an entire week we weren’t home. Anyone could have breached security during that time.” I say more to myself than to Spencer. He nods and begins dialing a number in his cellular phone. We are in agreement—security has to be the number one priority. He follows me briskly out of the office and to the underground parking garage. We take his Escalade and I tuck the flash drive Spencer gave me deep into my right pocket. All I can focus on is keeping my eyes on the road as I speed through the midday traffic, each mile bringing me closer to Aria and to our home. I’ve always felt safe there and I know my girl does, too. But how can she now? The man that haunted her past and sometimes her dreams has been watching her for almost two weeks now. Just the thought at what that monster has seen makes my knuckles clench around the steering wheel like a vise grip. I repeat a vow to myself over and over.
I’ll protect her. I won’t let him or anyone else hurt even one hair on her head. Not ever again.
Twenty Five
Aria
BY THE TIME I LOOK UP from my notebook, it’s almost six at night. I sit up in bed and worry my lower lip with my teeth as I look down at what I wrote to Jeremy. When dad brought me and Kel home from the hospital, my mom had already left for some grand photo shoot in Milan and I was still reeling from the sense of emptiness I’d felt when my world bottomed out. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t even sleep because every time I closed my eyes I saw Jeremy’s face. His aqua blue eyes that used to always soften when I needed a hug or smiled when he told me a joke. His face when he mouthed I love you, Squirt just before he was wheeled into surgery. Dad was at his lowest point, seeing both his daughters hurting and having no way of stopping the pain we were feeling. But then, he gave me this journal.
“I know it’s not the same but if you write to him, tell him how you’re feeling and share with him, it might take some of this away. Just try, pumpkin. Please.”
In that moment, sitting next to my dad who was looking at me as if I meant the world to him—I knew Kel and I did mean so much to him. I promised to try.
So, I wrote to Jeremy. Every night, sometimes twice a day I would lie across my twin sized bed and tell my darling brother about everything he was missing. Sometimes, it felt like I could feel him smiling down at me from above. When I finally brought myself to tell him about Bryce and what had truly happened to me, I’d felt the gentle breeze of his memory surround me. As if he was in my room with me giving me one of those warm, toothy smiles that lifted my spirits all through high school and college. Ever since I woke up this morning, I began to ask myself questions. Had I lost sight of Jeremy’s memory? Had I slowly begun forgetting my brother? With everything that’s happened since meeting Gavin, I’d had this journal stuck between my two Julliard Alumni sweatshirts and I dug it out this afternoon while I was cleaning the bedroom, needing something to do now that I didn’t have anywhere to go during my days. God, it felt good to
write him again. It made me feel even more closer to him than I remembered.
My thoughts, or more like my memories, are halted when I hear the ring of my phone. Gavin’s name flashes on the screen and a smile spreads my face when I see that.
“Miss me, already?” I purr into the phone, sitting myself down next to a piping hot cup of tea at the island. I hear a car engine and the rustling of a man’s voice on the other end and I figure he must be on his way to yet another meeting.
“Where are you? I’m on my way home.” Gavin’s tense voice immediately has my heart hammering. Had something happened? It would take a lot to rattle this man, what had happened?
“I’m at home, Gavin. What—what’s wrong?”
“Thank God.” I hear him say under his breath as if a prayer instead of a statement. But before I can urge him to talk to me I hear the lock turn at the back entrance and Spencer lets himself in. Wearing the same white button down shirt and black slacks, I worry something has happened for the head of Thomas security team to be here at six-fifteen on a Saturday night.
“Ms. Morgan, I need you to step out of the penthouse for now. Gavin is waiting for you.”
“I—is everything alright? Is he OK?” I ask, the pit in my stomach growing with worry the more time goes on.
“You need to go, Ms. Morgan. I promise you’ll have your answers once you’re outside.”
The pleading tone in Spencer’s voice makes me hurry to slip my gray flip-flops on my feet and wrap myself in the sweatshirt I’d left hanging near the bathroom door.
“Thank you, Miss.”
I let him lead me out the door and the moment I set foot on the sidewalk, I’m locked out of the penthouse. What the hell? What the hell is going on? Confusion makes my nerves spiral as I stand looking at the door for the longest time, trying to understand why I’ve just been kicked out and then I feel him behind me. He doesn’t touch me, but I can feel every fragment of his presence within me.
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