Steal Me (Longshadows Book 1)

by Natalia Banks

  “What are the odds?”

  “Better than you think.” Jackie took another puff, looking out over the alley and shaking her head. “You people don’t miss a trick.” She turned quickly to correct herself. “Not you, Kat—”

  “No—”

  “No! You’re my girl, you know that.”

  She nodded. “I’m one of the good ones.”

  “Exactly.” They both laughed, but it didn’t last. Something about what Jackie said was unsettling and rang true. It sank deep into Kat’s imagination and her consciousness.

  Several hard knocks fell on the door, sending a startled bolt through her body. She and Jackie shared a confused glance, but there was little to do but go to the front door. Jackie grabbed the baseball bat.

  Kat asked, “Who is it?”

  “Tia McBride. Your security buzzer is broken downstairs.”

  She felt a cold stone sink in her stomach and she new Jackie felt the same thing. Still, neither had a choice. Jackie set down the bat while Kat opened the door and stepped back. Gorgeous Tia McBride strode into the shabby little apartment, made all the more so by her refined elegance. She looked around, one brow raised, hands on her hips.

  “Hello, ladies.”

  Jackie was the first to say, “Ms. McBride, w-w-w-what are you doing here?”

  “I happened to be on my yacht yesterday, docked out at North Cove.”

  Uh-oh.

  Jackie said, “Your yacht?”

  “Yes, by coincidence I was sailing not far from another lovely little vessel, Other People’s Money.” She took a step toward Kat with a knowing little grin. “Ever heard of it?”

  Kat swallowed hard. Jackie had already heard the story, so she didn’t need to know the particulars. What was happening was quite obvious to them both. The only real question was what was going to happen next.

  Kat decided this powerful woman would only respond well to a powerful response. “That’s right, I was on a date with Carter Fields. That goes against your business principles, I suppose.”

  “Business principles? Honey, along with charm offensive and dignity of the White House, business principles must be the last great oxymoron.” Tia chuckled, but she was the only one. “Let’s just call it a policy and leave it at that, shall we?”

  “Call it whatever you want,” she was quick to answer. “It’s your policy and it’s your problem.”

  “I see.” Tia looked Kat up and down again. “I really do like you. But you know I’m your boyfriend’s boss. That doesn’t mean anything to you?”

  “He’s my boyfriend,” she said. “You should know that I’d know he doesn’t need your stupid job. He does it to amuse himself, to rebel. I think the two of us will find other ways to amuse each other from now on, Ms. McBride.”

  “Yes, my dear, I imagine you will.” A dangerous silence slipped by. “Have it your way, sweetie.” She turned to Jackie and, with a louder, more swaggering tone, said, “Jackie, you’d hoped to come work for me.”

  “Yes, I…that is, it would be great.”

  “It would be a miracle now, as far as I’m concerned.” She looked at them both with one corner of her pretty mouth upturned, waving her fingers at Kat. “Good luck, you two.” Tia walked out, closing the door behind her, leaving Jackie to cross her arms and glare at Kat.

  “Girl, I quit my job at the phone line!”

  “Well…can’t you get it back?”

  Jackie crossed to her bedroom. “You better hope so.” She slammed the door behind her, leaving Kat in the living room alone.

  “So what?” Carter waved it off with a smile, strolling with Kat across central park, savoring the breeze with an easy sigh. “I’m done with that now anyway…now that I’ve found you.”

  She gasped just a bit, taken aback, but she hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. “I feel badly about Jackie…she took a risk for me. It’s thanks to her that we could have our second…experience, and everything that’s come after.”

  “We’ll find something for her.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like anything.”

  Kat swatted his chest playfully. “Carter, you’re not that rich!” His head slowly turned, brows raising, saying everything he needed to say on the matter. “Oh, I see, well, um, I’ll talk to her about it. Maybe she’d like to get her real estate license or something?”

  He thought about it, eyes scanning the massive park around them. “If she’d like. Or we could set up a company like Longshadows, on our own.”

  “We—what?”

  “Think about it, Kat. You’ve got experience in building a business; I’ve got a certain amount of experience of my own—”

  “Do you ever!”

  Carter ignored the flattery. “If Jackie could do it for Ms McBride, she could do it for us.” She had never even considered such a thing, but she’d long digested the similarities between her former business and Carter’s, and working together on such a project really wouldn’t be morally wrong, or even impractical.

  “I don’t suppose they have anything like that in Tucson,” Kat thought out loud.

  “Tucson?”

  “Well, we can’t do it here, can we?”

  “Why not?”

  “Why? Tia McBride, that’s why! You should have seen her at my apartment; she looked like she was going to rip my heart out of my chest. I don’t trust her.”

  Carter shook his head. “I’m not afraid of her.”

  “I didn’t say I was afraid,” Kat clarified. “I said I didn’t trust her.”

  “And that’ll give us an edge.”

  “Against what? Carter, you might be used to fighting everybody all the time, but I’m just not! Since we started all this, I’ve been lying to people, getting into trouble, doing things I know are wrong—”

  “You think we’re wrong?”

  “Oh no, Carter, no, not you and me, anything but! Still, I-I just feel like on shaky ground right now, y’know? I want a new start, a new life, not a new fight.”

  Carter thought about it, nodding as the sun poked through a canopy of spruce branches. “Okay, I understand that.” He looked around, taking a deep breath. “I have been here a long time, all my life, really.”

  “Ten years for me,” Kat said. “But, y’know, there are other places too. What about Los Angeles? Hollywood?” Carter cocked his head, letting the idea roll around in his magnificent brain. Seeing that she’d piqued his interest, she went on, “I hear Canada’s nice, up in Quebec or Toronto? Or Europe? I mean, if you’re really that…” And then she mimicked the facial expression he’d given her—a cocky grin with brows raised, the telling face of a wealthy man.

  They both broke out laughing, clinging tighter to one another as they walked on, determined to face their futures together, with no idea of what that would cost them, or how soon they’d have to pay.

  Chapter 24

  Tia

  Tia McBride walked away from the aging Brooklyn brownstone which Miss Kathleen Le Fleur called home. Shin Lu approached her from the car to look over the building. “How did it go?”

  Tia turned to look up at the window which she knew was Kat’s apartment. “Not well.”

  They turned to walk together back to Tia’s car. Shin Lu asked, “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Take it easy, just take it easy.”

  Shin Lu frowned, a little twist on her tiny face. “People like that…they are a grave danger to us! The white woman especially, but I can take the man too!”

  “I know you can, Shin Lu, I know. I remember Dartmouth.”

  “Those Canadian commie bastards had it coming!”

  Tia held her hands out to calm her assistant. “Let it go, Shin Lu. Carter Fields makes us a lot of money.”

  “He used to. Now that he’s fallen from grace, he won’t be worth a dime. And he knows too much!”

  Tia kept walking, talking a deep breath. “That’s not the kind of retirement plan we offer.” With a pause and a glance back at the window, s
he added, “At least not yet. I’ve got another way.”

  “Well, well,” a familiar voice said, commanding Tia’s attention from the other direction.

  Tall, distinguished Austin Fields stepped toward her, his ghoulish twins and snotty daughter behind him. Tia had all their profiles on record, and she knew how they all fit into the puzzle: the wayward black sheep Carter, and about her involvement in his life.

  And she knew the power they wielded. To see them suddenly on the street was not a welcome sight, even with the formidable Shin Lu with her.

  “Mister Austin Fields,” Tia said with a fake smile as the great man and his crew approached them. “Odd to see you here. If you wanted an appointment, you need only have called.”

  Austin huffed out an unamused chuckle. “I don’t have any need of the services your company provides.”

  “No?” Tia took one step closer to the siblings gathered around Austin. “I’ll bet Eric and Don Jr. here could use a good whippin’. They can call me Mommy if they like.”

  Meadow sneered, “You’re disgusting!”

  “And you’re an amateur.”

  But it was Austin who held his hands out to calm the tensions. “Let’s all take it easy. Miss McBride—”

  “Mizzzzz—”

  Austin stopped, rolling his eyes before saying, “Ms. McBride, we’re here to see somebody on a private matter—”

  “Kathleen Le Fleur, about how she’s fucking your son?”

  Meadow shook her head. “Such language…nasty bitch.”

  “My point is,” Austin went on, “that maybe we have a common goal, and if we can put our differences aside, perhaps we can join forces, achieve what we both want.”

  Tia and Shin Lu both gave that some thought, casting doubtful glances up at the window now half a block behind them, turning back to Austin and his children with shrewd glances. Tia asked him, “And how much would that be worth to you?”

  Austin and his children shared a knowing nod, Austin shrugging. “I suppose that’s something we can talk about…at another place and time.”

  Tia took three sexy steps up to Austin and took his necktie in her hands, pulling back and letting it slide out of her fingers. “We could talk about a lot of things, Mr. Fields…in complete confidence.”

  Tia strode past Austin, Shin Lu following behind her, not sparing the Fields kids her most venomous look. The twins actually stepped back, intimidated by her presence and power and rightfully so. But they’d given Tia plenty to think about, and her next move, whatever it was, certainly would be to her advantage.

  Or she wouldn’t make it at all.

  Shin sidled up to Tia. “Let’s take them out.”

  “Shin, what is it with you and killing people? It’s too much.”

  “These people deserve it. At least we should bring the old man in, get him in the dungeon on video—”

  “Blackmail?”

  Shin Lu shrugged. “Call it whatever you want.”

  “That’s what my lawyer will call it, Shin Lu—blackmail. I don’t do business that way.”

  Shin Lu stopped and turned, hands on her hips. “Maybe there’s something wrong with the way you’re doing business.”

  Tia leaned forward, a pale and angry finger pointing. “Maybe you should think about who you’re talking to, Shin Lu.” The two women stared each other down, a tense silence twisting in the breeze around them. Finally Tia turned to walk toward the car, Shin Lu following. But both knew that wasn’t likely to last, and that with Tia in front, Shin Lu was well-positioned to drive a knife into her back from out of nowhere.

  Things were changing fast.

  Chapter 25

  Kat

  The knocks fell hard on the door, pulling Kat out of the bedroom, nerves alight, skin tingling. She grabbed the baseball bat. “Who is it?”

  “The Fields family,” Austin said, voice low and muffled by the door. She took a minute to think about it. If they meant me any harm, it wouldn’t be them but some hired thugs. Heart pounding, she set down the bat and opened the door.

  Kat stepped back as Austin, Meadow, Houston, and AJ all stepped into the little apartment living room. It suddenly seemed a lot smaller and even shabbier than when Tia McBride had been in it.

  “Sorry to come by…unannounced,” Austin said, visibly disgusted by the cramped but clean conditions. “But we were so…charmed by meeting you, and we could tell what a strong bond you have with our Carter; we all felt it was important, even vital, that we have another little chat.”

  Meadow added, “We were terribly rude to you on Other People’s Money, and we really do regret it.”

  Kat took in their insincerity, their fake smiles, and overpriced clothing and jewelry. No wonder Carter can’t stand these people, she thought to herself. Still, I don’t like being here alone with them, those twin putzes leering the way they’re doing, as if they’re just waiting to pounce.

  Still, the only thing for Kat to say was, “It’s good of you to say that. I feel that, um, I might have been rude myself, though I didn’t mean to be.”

  “Of course not,” Austin said with a smile. “Glad we’ve cleared that up. And really, we think you’re a fine young woman.”

  Houston said, “A lot better than the others.”

  And the one called AJ added, “All of them…and we mean all of them.”

  “Oh yeah,” Houston responded with a hearty nod, “and there have been, what, hundreds of them?”

  “At least,” Meadow said with a shake of her head. “And almost all of them are still accounted for.”

  But Kat wasn’t fooled by this, not in the least. It seemed like such a clumsy approach, such a lame ruse; she wasn’t sure how to approach it. But she’d faced this clan down before, and she was ready to do it again, even to enjoy it all the more than the last time.

  She responded with a cool demeanor, “I’m sorry, is there anything I can offer you? I’ve got a Brita filter.” But the idea of refrigerated tap water was about as appealing to them as Kat expected it would be.

  Austin said, “The reason we’re here, actually, was to discuss what it was that we might offer you.” In the absence of any response, the obvious nature of his offer echoed in that small, crowded room.

  Kat said, “You’re trying to buy me out of Carter’s life?”

  “One-hundred-thousand dollars cash,” Austin said, “and a one-way ticket out of New York. We’ll pay when you leave the gate.”

  She wasn’t sure how to react, out of shock or anger or a nice, frothy combination of them both. But she’d learned from Carter, about control and about strength and about playing a role for all it was worth, and she wasn’t about to misspend the fruits of that juicy labor.

  “One-hundred-thousand,” was all Kat said, and all she had to say.

  Meadow said, “I told you she’d never settle for that. Just give her the fiver and let’s get the hell out of this dump.”

  Austin turned to Kat. “It’s a good offer, Miss Le Fleur. May I remind you that, as much as you’re getting along now, Carter could just as easily cast you off in some foreign port somewhere with no income, no security at all. Once he’s through with his new little pet, he’ll just flush you down the toilet.”

  AJ added, “But half a rock, that’ll last a long time…as long as you don’t hang around New York, that is.”

  “Of course,” Houston said. “You can’t just stick around here…not on that kinda money.”

  “Especially with your legal worries,” Meadow said with a little grin. “Losing your company to your former partner…if word gets out and you can’t find work? It’s just not sensible.”

  “Right,” Austin said, “it’s impractical. But our offer, a whole new life back in Tucson—”

  Kat repeated, “Tucson? Did you people look me up, check out my background?”

  Austin’s mouth was bent in an exaggerated frown, one born of consideration more than sorrow. “Not really. Kathleen Le Fleur, daughter of Adrienne and the late Maurice Le F
leur…so sad about what happened to him. Well, we all have to go sometime, eh?”

  Meadow leaned forward a bit with a fake smile on her face. “It’s great news about your sister though. A little niece or nephew—how fun!”

  Kat knew the threat beneath the offer, and she knew that it wasn’t to her alone. But something within her boiled beneath the surface, the same pluck and determination that brought her to New York in the first place: her late father’s strength and quiet resolve. She wasn’t about to let him down, and this was the time to make him proud.

  “You could make it five million or fifteen,” she said confidently standing her ground, “my answer would be the same.” She crossed to the door and pulled it open, standing proud if not as tall as the others. “I’ll bid you good day then.”

  They stared at her, a four-headed dragon of great power and wealth. They looked at each other, silent glances telling Kat that they had other options which they’d now be considering.

  Carter pulled her close, strong arms around her. “I’m so sorry, baby. How dare they come and intimidate you like that?”

  “I-I really didn’t know what to say.”

  Carter pulled back from their embrace just a touch to look her deep in the eyes. “Sounds like you knew exactly what to say. I’m so proud of you, hun, so impressed. How many women would turn down that kind of money?”

  “I-I don’t know,” was all she could say, a question she’d never pondered or thought to ponder before. “I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

  Carter put one strong hand on each of her supple cheeks, their eyes locked, lips nearing. “No, no it doesn’t.” They kissed, a silent and gentle promise, a communion of their union, like two hands joining, fingers intertwining, two becoming one.

  “So we’re agreed,” Carter said, “let’s pack up all your stuff, and mine, throw it into storage and blow this burg.” Kat’s smile stretched across her face, glee she couldn’t hide. “We’ll finish the season in Nova Scotia, hang with the Trailer Park Boys, then Christmas in Vancouver.”