“Would you like to join us?” Andie asked though she knew Jack would not want Gabe over at all, let alone for dinner. Jack’s head snapped into Andie’s direction, but Andie plastered a fake smile on her face, pointedly ignoring Jack’s stare.
“No, that’s okay,” Gabe said, waving her offer away. “I’ve actually got plans tonight with my father. But thanks for the offer. It was nice meeting you, Mister Phillip.”
“Please, call me Jack,” he said before quickly scooping up Andie and placing her over his shoulder. Andie squeaked in surprise, playfully smacking Jack’s back, before waving at a very bemused Gabe. “It was nice meeting you as well,” Jack called before heading out the stable door. “Well, well, Andie. Interesting little choice for a stable boy, huh?” He paused as he led her through the woods with relative ease. “Gabriel Burr, really? So… is he an ex-boyfriend I should be worried about?”
“No, we were never like that,” Andie said between giggles. “Now put me down! He really was a friend, and it threw me off when he showed up as an applicant. I think maybe if we reconnect, he might tell me more about his dad’s bill.”
Jack relented and carefully placed her back on the floor. “So you’re doing this all for me, huh?” However, he had yet to let go of her, and instead, wrapped his other hand around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. “Good,” he murmured, slipping his hands down until they cupped her behind. “Because you are mine, Andrea Shepherd. It causes me great relief that I don’t have to harm your friend in any way.”
“Oh, come off it!” Andie said, playfully smacking his arm. “You’re the one with an actual ex-girlfriend following you around like a lost puppy. Just because Gabe used to have a thing for me, doesn’t mean we were actually together.”
“Wait, he used to like you?” Jack asked, cocking his head to the side. “Well, this is just no good.”
“You know,” Andie said, reaching up and taking Jack’s sharp cheek in her palm. “With that haircut, you kind of look like you’re out of the military.” Her eyes sparkled approvingly. “Very sexy.” Before she could say anymore, her cell phone rang. Frowning, Andie grabbed it from her denim pocket and picked it up. “Hello?” Nobody answered, but she could detect breathing on the other end of the line. “Hello?” Andie pressed her brows together and hung up the phone. When she caught Jack’s gaze, she shrugged her shoulders and slipped the phone back in her pocket. “Wrong number,” she explained.
Something inside told Jack it was more than just a wrong number, but he pushed aside those feelings when Andie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her.
“So,” the young woman began, looking up at him questioningly. “Is dinner really almost ready, or did you just want to get me out of there?”
“I’m allowed to be selfish when it comes to you,” Jack replied, placing his hands on her upper arms and tilting his head down so his nose brushed against hers.
“Because I already ate dinner,” she continued as though she hadn’t heard him, “and I gave Gabe some of the extras. He’s not stupid, you know. He thinks you’re the coolest person ever, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel threatened by you.”
“Good,” Jack said, nodding once. “Then my job is done. Now,” he said, a grin tugging up the corners of his lips. “Since you’ve already had dinner, how about some dessert?”
Andie pretended to think about it for a moment. “I guess that would depend on what’s on the menu,” she finally replied. Jack didn’t seem too pleased at this, and immediately scooped her back up in his arm and placed her over his shoulder before heading back to the manor. Andie started laughing uncontrollably, smacking his back with little effect. “Okay, okay!” she exclaimed. “I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding! I would love dessert! I would love it!”
It was the next day. Andie was already running late, so she really didn’t notice anything upon stepping into her office. Her assistant, Lorraine, had already left her milk on her desk, as well as this morning’s copy of the Onyx Register. She took a seat at her desk and for a moment, looked out her window to the skyline view of Onyx City. If she had known a couple of years ago that she would be the CEO of her own nonprofit organization that helped animals, she would have laughed. But here she was, with her own animal shelter, graduating in a couple of weeks, dating Onyx’s most eligible bachelor. Who would have predicted something like that would have happened? Not Andie.
Andie wasn’t exactly a businessperson. She liked reading and shopping and movies with cute boys and big explosions. But Jack was helping her as best as he could, giving her advice on how to run a company, and she had been pretty good at it for the past year.
Andie finally glanced away from the skyline and turned her attention back to the chocolate croissant in her hands. She edged some of it out of the paper bag it was in and took a big bite, reveling in its delicious taste. After swallowing, she took a long gulp of milk and sighed. Most days, her work was incredibly stressful, and the whole Vanessa situation only added to that fact. Whenever she could get moments of peace, she took them and ran with them for as long as possible. As she continued to eat and drink, her thoughts trailed to the reason why she was late. Andie was always good at getting up on time, so it wasn’t that. In fact, she was dressed and ready to go when Jack pulled her back in bed for a few moments. Her lips pushed into a satisfied smile as a content sigh slipped through her nose. Nothing felt better than being desired by her lover of the past six months, especially when she still felt the same as well.
Jack… If anything happened to him while he was out at night, she wouldn’t know what to do. She tried to keep her thoughts positive, but to believe he was immune to threats the city gave him would be naïve. Plus, Reese knew who he really was. How the heck had that happened? She had nearly forgotten, to be honest, what with everything going on. But she hoped soon, Reese would tell her.
Jack didn’t know it, but Andie couldn’t sleep well without him next to her. She would toss and turn until she felt his presence slip between the sheets, and then she would finally relax. However, this whole threat of Vanessa caused her nervousness to run overtime. Logically, she knew Jack would never cheat on her whatsoever, not with supermodels or ex-girlfriends. However, she could also tell when a woman wanted her man. It happened quite a bit; whenever they went to shows, galas, events, or anything, really; women would openly flirt with him, while some just gave him alluring looks. Jack, of course, would refuse their advances, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Andie didn’t know much about Vanessa, but if she were calling him continuously, she wouldn’t put trying to win him back past her.
Andie was nervous because she knew Vanessa and Jack shared some sort of relationship that Andie knew nothing about. Jack had yet to go into details, and Andie hadn’t wanted to ask him. She didn’t want to come off as the crazy girlfriend who didn’t trust her partner. But at the same time, she wasn’t getting any sort of back story on this woman, and it bothered Andie that Jack had yet to tell her anything.
“Excuse me?” Lorraine asked as she knocked softly on Andie’s door.
All her thoughts vanished due to the interruption. Andie glanced up and swallowed her food before saying, “Yeah, come in!”
Lorraine had smooth, dark skin and even darker eyes. Her short, black hair was pulled up into a bun that was clipped to her head, and her full lips were curled into a smile. The attire at Andie’s business was somewhat casual, so Lorraine had on nice, black jeans and a white and black t-shirt that buttoned up down the front. In her arms was an assortment of flowers – Andie’s favorite flowers, similar to the ones Jack had sent her last week. “I just got this in,” Lorraine told her boss and placed them on the surface of Andie’s desk. All three kinds were there; sunflowers, purple heathers, and roses. “No card saying who it’s from, but they’re addressed to you.”
“Thank you, Lorraine,” Andie said, offering her a polite smile before tilting her head forward and inhaling the scent.
Lorraine
nodded before heading back out.
“Oh Jack,” she murmured, her fingertip caressing a velvet petal that belonged to one of the roses. A delighted smile took over her face, and for a moment, she studied the flowers. The whole Vanessa thing might be disagreeable, but it certainly was bringing out the romantic in him. She was about to call him up to thank him when Lorraine buzzed her.
“Andie?” the assistant said. “I have a Lucas Burr on line one. Should I patch him through?”
“Yes,” she replied, and picked up the phone before pressing the appropriate button. “Hello, Andie Shepherd.”
“Miss Shepherd,” a voice replied. “May I call you Andrea?”
“Of course.” She wondered why Gabe’s father was calling her out of the blue. “How may I help you?”
“Well,” he replied, and Andie could detect a slight smirk in his tone, “as it turns out, I am interested in helping you.” He paused here, allowing his words to sink in. “I heard that you recently opened your own animal shelter or whatever it’s called. I wanted to personally congratulate you. Sorry it’s a bit late, but you know, I’m very busy with work and everything.”
“Oh,” Andie said, genuinely surprised. “Well, thank you very much.”
“Of course, of course,” Burr conceded. “So anyways, the reason I called you is this: I heard you are having an annual pet day or something like that at your shelter, and I was interested in attending.”
“Really?” Andie said in sincere curiosity. Now this was a surprising turn of events. “Oh, well it’s this weekend, Saturday, and it goes from nine o’clock in the morning all the way until six at night. There will be food, drinks, entertainment, and of course, pets to look at, interact with, and hopefully adopt.”
“Right, right,” the man said, and though Andie couldn’t see him, she was certain he was waving his hand dismissively. “I don’t like pets… very much, but I do want to help your organization out. What about donations? Do you accept donations?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” Andie replied, nodding her head though she knew the gesture would go unseen. “Anything you can donate would really help us out.”
“Good,” Burr said. “Well, I should get going. I have a business meeting with some colleagues at the Four Seasons, but expect me at your little pet day thing, okay? I’ll be looking for you.”
“Absolutely,” Andie said. “I’ll see you there.”
Once Andie hung up the phone, she pressed her brows together. Well, that was an interesting situation. She frowned when she realized everything he had just told her. He would be coming to her pet day. Jack would be accompanying her there as well. Jack practically hated Lucas Burr, and she wasn’t sure, but she felt as though Burr felt the same way. And, knowing her luck, Vanessa would show up for whatever reason.
Andie forced herself to stop the negative, though highly ironic thinking. Instead, she leaned forward and smelled her flowers again.
Saturday would be interesting, if nothing else.
The first thing that Jack saw when he watched Andie walk through the door was the flowers. His jade green eyes narrowed slightly at them, wondering who the hell had the gall to send his girlfriend a second bouquet of flowers. It wasn’t like no one knew that the two were together. In fact, everyone who read the paper, listened to the radio, collected magazines, went on various blog sites, and even entertainment television shows would show paparazzi-caught clips of them walking out of a restaurant or something. However, as he continued to think on it, he tapped the tip of his chin. Then again, those tabloids had come out, questioning the status of their relationship. Maybe someone thought they had broken up. Well, he would have to remedy that, and he would do so this Saturday, when he accompanied Andie to her first annual Pet Day being held at her shelter.
When Andie saw Jack, her whole face lit up. “Hey, baby,” she said with a warm smile. She set down the flowers on a desk near the front door before walking over to him and pulling him into a tight hug. Jack’s lips curled up on their own accord as he wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the hug. His head tilted down so he could take in her usual scent – strawberries and vanilla, and there was a very small hint of his own cologne on her, a fact he was quite proud of. “I am so sorry I forgot to call you,” she murmured into his chest, resting her head where it seemed to naturally fit, “but I wanted to tell you…” She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Thank you so much for the flowers. They really brightened my day.”
“Really?” Jack asked, pushing his brow together and regarding her with an inquiring gaze. “How was work, then? You usually don’t need an assortment of flowers to cheer you up.”
“I know, I know,” Andie said, nodding her head in agreement as she pulled back slightly. “But I’ve just been stressed about this Saturday. When Melinda and I planned that second Christmas party, we really worked well together. I’m not saying my new assistant isn’t good at her job, but it’s going to take some time to get used to how somebody new works.”
“If you wanted to borrow Melinda,” Jack began, curling a stray lock of hair behind her ear, “you should’ve told me. I could have lent her out to you for a couple of weeks.”
“You’re talking about her like she’s some sort of car,” she drawled, looking up at him with those green orbs of hers. He always seemed to lose himself in those eyes of hers. “And anyways, this is my business. I want to do it independent of you, thank you very much.” She paused, before smiling up at him. “But actually, thank you for the offer.” She finally slid out of his grip and sighed. Jack could tell she was exhausted. “I’m going to change into my pajamas before having dinner, all right? I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Do you need any help?” Jack asked, a playful twinkle embedded into his eyes as he watched her retreat up the stairs. He loved watching her body move, knowing full-well it was something he would never tire of. She was someone he would never tire of.
At that moment, a muffled noise broke through Jack’s thoughts, causing him to turn his body in the direction of the sound. His brow furrowed as he found the noise-making contraption was coming from Andie’s purse, set next to that bouquet of flowers. It must be her phone. Jack toyed with the idea of letting it go to voicemail, but figured that if it was someone affiliated with the whole Saturday event, he should answer it, especially since Andie told him she’d be coming downstairs in a manner of minutes anyways.
“Hello?” Jack greeted after picking up the phone. Nobody answered. In fact, he would have thought nobody was on the other line if it weren’t for the faint breathing. “Hello?” he tried again, thinking maybe it was an inside joke between Andie and one of her office friends, or maybe some sort of joke someone was pulling on her. However, a second afterwards, the caller hung up. Jack pulled the phone away from his ear and stared down at it. It was from an unknown number. This was not…
“What’s wrong?” Andie asked, walking down the stairs in a plain white wife beater and light blue pajama bottoms filled with red and white apples. Her brow was pushed up, and she looked at him curiously.
“Your phone was ringing,” he explained, wondering for a moment if she would be mad at him for answering her phone. “I thought it might be one of your employees, calling about Saturday, but instead of answering, I just heard… breathing.”
“Oh?” Andie asked, but Jack was perceptive enough to see that slight color drained from her face and her body had tensed a bit.
“Have you been receiving calls like these?” he asked her, following his gut instinct about the situation.
“A few times, yeah,” Andie replied honestly, nodding her head a couple of times. “I just thought they were wrong numbers or something like that.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” Jack told her, averting his gaze back to the flowers. Something was nagging him about the flowers, as though maybe the phone calls and the flowers were related somehow. “When did you start receiving the calls?”
Andie thought for a moment, her eyes rolling u
p to the manor’s high ceiling, as though she might find the answer up there. “A couple days after the flowers,” she said after a moment.
“Andie, I need to tell you,” Jack said, cocking his head over at the flowers as he kept contact with her eyes, “I never sent those flowers. I never sent those ones, or the ones from last week.”
“Then who did?” Andie asked, her eyes wary. “I mean, Jack, I got the first ones at the manor and these ones in my office.”
“Well, everybody knows that we’re living together,” Jack murmured, placing his hand on his hip. His eyes looked pensive, and Andie knew he was deep in thought. “And people know you run the Sanctuary. It wouldn’t be hard to get you flowers that way. What I’m worried about is that they have your cell phone number. You’ve changed your number since being with me, right?”
“Of course,” Andie said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Only Reese, Carey and Melinda have my new number. Except, of course, the people I work with, and you.”
“What about Gabe?” Jack suddenly asked, arching a skeptical brow.
“Gabe?” Andie questioned doubtfully. “Look, he had a crush on me, but we haven’t seen each other in a while. I’m sure he’s over it.”
“I’m still going to check him out, And,” Jack told her firmly. “You can never be too sure.”
“What about Bill?” Andie suddenly asked, running her long fingers through her golden hair. “That journalist. Is he still in jail? And if he is, could he send me flowers despite still being in a cell? And if not, where is he staying?”
“You think it’s Bill?” Jack asked.
Andie thought for a moment before a dry look touched her fingers. “Actually, maybe not,” she said flatly. “Like he’d know my three favorite flowers.”
“I’m still going to look into him,” he murmured, before pulling Andie into his arms.
What scared him the most was the fact that this may not be retaliation against him in any way. This person–people–might be going after Andie just to go after Andie. As he rested his cheek on her shoulder, he wondered how anybody could even fathom going after her. He was her boyfriend for chrissakes,’ one of the wealthiest people in the country. Was anyone really going to fuck with her? Because if so, they should know that fucking with her meant fucking with him, and if she ended up hurt in any way… Jack’s grip on her tightened. He didn’t even want to think about that. At least… though the actions were startling, at least nobody had tried to harm her… yet. Nobody was physically stalking her. Then again, these were just early stages. He pulled away from her slightly, keeping his hands firmly on her hips. “Are you all right?”
The Dark Paradise Trilogy Box Set Page 70
