As she stared at Sonia, she was constantly shocked by the fact that the spunky blonde was as brilliant as she was.
A computer savant, Sonia had once been recruited by the CIA to work on some highly classified files, but of course she wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
“I feel like you’re not even listening to me,” Sonia complained. “You keep zoning out when we’re talking.”
“Sorry,” Ayla replied. “I went to see my mom on Friday and, well, you know…”
Sonia cringed and shook her head.
“Why?” she demanded. “Why do you continue to do that to yourself?”
“She needs me,” Ayla answered defensively, and Sonia snorted.
“Aren’t you looking at it all wrong, luv?” she scoffed. “You go once a month at most and you think you’re doing her some great service? You only go to alleviate your own guilt and somehow you come back feeling even worse. It’s counterproductive, don’t you think?”
Ayla did not reply, knowing that everything Sonia said was the truth. She could always count on Sonia to be brutally blunt.
Still, she did not want to discuss her family situation that night. She had already spent too much time dwelling on it since Friday night.
“I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment,” Ayla replied lightly, signaling the waitress for another round.
“Woah, aren’t you going a little strong considering you have to be at the office bright and early?” Sonia laughed, glancing at her cell phone for the second time. “And it’s almost midnight too. You really should slow down, Ayla. You’re going to be soooorrrry tomorrow.”
Ayla shrugged indifferently.
“I’m sure that Benning is going to be far enough away from me that he won’t smell the morning after vodka on my breath,” she joked but she sighed heavily at the gentle reminder.
“I think you give that man too much credit,” Sonia remarked. “He’s rumored to have slept with all of his assistants, his board partners and his shareholders. He takes what he wants and leaves a trail of broken bodies along the way.”
Ayla shivered at the metaphor.
“The operative word being ‘rumored’. I’m sure he’s just a regular jackass CEO.”
“What was he like when you had your interview?” Sonia pushed. “Did he ogle you?”
Ayla guffawed.
“Ogle me?” she echoed. “Uh, no. Do people even say that anymore, Sonia?”
Her friend shrugged and laughed.
“Anyway, I didn’t meet him for the interview. It was done internally through human resources. I guess I was the most qualified for the position.”
“With your ass and tits? I am not at all surprised,” Sonia sighed, eyeing her appreciatively. “Maybe I should stop thinking about Benning and start thinking about you when Ang and I are having boring sex.”
“God, how does she put up with you?” Ayla accused, laughing at her friend’s crudeness. “You better watch yourself, Sonia or she’s going to run off with a woman who’s not such a pig.”
Sonia’s eyes widened in shock.
“Are you kidding? Have you seen this tongue?”
As if to prove her point, she stuck it out and waggled it around until Ayla groaned.
“All right, put that away!” she ordered as the server appeared.
“Can we have our bill, please?”
“This is on me,” Sonia announced when the waitress returned with the check. “Celebratory drinks for your promotion. And your imminent boss fucking.”
Ayla choked back a laugh, as the waitress winked at them saucily. Sonia placed her credit card in the leather envelope.
“Thanks, Sonia,” she said, leaning across to give her a hug. “Next one’s on me for sure.”
The girl grinned leeringly and winked.
“I will settle for details of your sex life with Benning. Videotapes are good, but audio and journal entries will suffice also. I have a vivid imagination.”
Ayla groaned.
“You have a sick imagination,” she retorted. “Nothing is going to happen between Benning and me. Just stop it. Thinking about it is giving me the creeps.”
Sonia smiled wisely and shook her head.
“Never say never. But do me a favor…?”
Ayla stared at her expectantly.
“Be careful.”
Sonia held her gaze for a moment and Ayla felt her smile fade away slightly.
Why is she looking at me like that? Just because Diren has a reputation doesn’t mean that I am going to get tangled up in it. It takes two to tango and if I say no, what’s he going to do, fire me?
A strange twist seized her stomach and she nodded slowly at her friend’s warning.
“Okay,” she conceded. “I’ll be careful.”
*******
It was almost two o’clock in the morning when Ayla made it up the walkway to her sweet duplex on Lafayette Avenue.
As she tripped up the pathway, toward the porch, she realized she was in big trouble the following day.
I really should not have had so much to drink, she thought, gritting her teeth as she fumbled for her keys inside the Prada clutch she carried.
Christ, I hope I have Gatorade in the fridge, she thought as she opened up the door and allowed herself inside the ground floor apartment.
Ayla was proud of the one-bedroom unit. It was barely bigger than the space she had shared with her family in Tallman, but it was all hers.
For the first time in her life, she had a place that wasn’t fraught with tension and abuse, a spot that made her feel secure and warm.
And cool in the summer. Who would have thought I would be living like this one day?
Some days, she wished she didn’t have to leave the sanctuary she had painstakingly built over the past three years.
It had taken putting up with a few roommates-from-hell, and scrounging her finances mercilessly to get there, but Ayla felt like she was finally making progress in her life.
One day, the black cloud that has followed me around will disappear. It’s just taking some time to see that happen.
“My my, I see you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can never take the trailer park out of the girl.”
Ayla screamed as the voice in the dark caused her heart to stop, but instantly she knew who sat in her darkened living room, his black eyes gleaming through the dim lighting.
He haunted her dreams, after all.
“How the hell did you get in here?” she gasped, her hand flying to her chest in shock. “How did you even know where I live?”
Ryland grinned and Ayla was sure she had never seen a more awful sight in her life.
It was not that Ryland was unattractive. On the contrary, in fact.
He was sexy in that bad boy, drug dealing, biker kind of way with his head shaved to a well-formed skull and bright eyes which shone with malevolence.
He wore an eyebrow ring over his left eye and a lip ring through the bottom part of his mouth.
An assortment of dark, Satanic style tattoos crisscrossed his bare arms and snaked up his chest, encircling his throat as if attempting to possess his body with the evil they depicted.
Good luck, Lucifer. Ryland is heir to the throne in Hell.
His smile itself was not terrifying; it was what the smirk implied which sent shudders through Ayla’s body.
“If you don’t want people to know your private business, sis, I wouldn’t post it all over social media.”
Ayla loathed when he called her “sis” but she did not react to the backhanded endearment because she knew it was meant to incense her.
“I’ve never posted my address on Facebook, or any other social media site!” she cried, racing through her mind to ensure that it was a fact. It certainly did not seem like something she would do, especially when she guarded her privacy so fiercely.
Her mother’s words suddenly echoed in her mind.
“Sure, kitten. Ya been livin’ in that pretty little apartment a
nd payin’ for it all by yerself, right?”
“Ryland, what are you doing here?” she breathed, trying to maintain her composure ,but even as she stood, she was quaking inside with fear.
“I should be asking you where you’ve been until two o’clock in the morning when you’re supposed to be starting a new job, but I have a feeling that you probably were already with your new boss, testing the waters, am I right?” he leered at her.
Indignation overcame her fear and Ayla scowled at her step-brother.
“Ryland, what are you doing here? Don’t make me ask you again.”
He lost his lazy smirk, his face twisting into annoyance.
“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, little girl? I own you, or have you forgotten?” he sneered at her.
Contrition and terror seized her.
Ayla lowered her cobalt eyes downward and shook her head.
“No, of course not,” she mumbled. “I just don’t know what you want, Ryland. Like you said, I have a long day tomorrow. I should be going to bed.”
He snorted contemptuously.
“You should have thought about that before you went out whoring tonight. Are you drunk?”
“No! Just – please, Ryland, what do you want?” she begged, wishing he would just spit out whatever he had come for and leave forever.
I’m going to have to move now, she thought miserably. All because my step-brother is insane enough to hunt me down.
The thought of it was enough to make her weep. All the pride she had in her place, all the sweat and work that had gone into it. This tiny space had been her sanctuary, the first place that felt safe; and it was all hers. Now it would never feel safe again.
More thoughts to keep me up at night and give me night terrors when I sleep, she thought mournfully.
“I have come to collect on that favor you owe me,” he told her, and Ayla’s head whipped up to stare at him.
This again? She thought furiously. It’s getting ridiculously old. I can’t do this for the rest of my life.
Over the years, the ‘paybacks’ had been endless.
She had been his alibi, his pick up from shady situations. She had left work to bail him out of jail and given him money when his latest conquest needed an abortion.
Ayla knew she was becoming a prisoner and the last time he had called on her, she’d had enough.
When she had arrived at the address he had sent her, the street had been blocked off by police tape and fire trucks were screaming to the scene.
He had leapt into her car, reeking of fire and chemicals and ordering her to drive away.
A meth house had exploded and somehow Ryland had been mixed up in the party. Ayla did not ask any questions.
Even if Ryland wanted to disclose the nature of what had happened, Ayla knew that ignorance was the best defence should she ever be held for questioning.
“I am not doing this anymore!” she had exploded while they were still in the impromptu getaway car. “This is the last time, I swear!”
Ryland had stared at her coldly, his black eyes chilling her blood.
“You will do what I want, when I want it, if you know what’s good for you,” he hissed. “Because if you don’t – “
“Yeah yeah,” she spat back. “You’ll rat me out. Well, you know what, Ry? Go ahead. Because if you call on me one more time for any stupid reason, I’ll call them myself - like I wanted to do that day. It was a damned accident. I was a sixteen-year-old kid.”
He eyed her and for once, Ayla realized that she might have gotten the upper hand.
She had no idea if she actually had the gall to see through on her promise, but she knew the guilt of what had happened that day weighed heavily on her and would continue to haunt her for the rest of her life.
“You wouldn’t be that stupid,” he murmured but something in his tone told Ayla that he believed her. She hoped so, because she believed herself – mostly.
It had been over a year since Ryland had called on her for any illegal help, but suddenly he stood in her living room, reeking of bad news.
“I promise, sis,” he told her cajolingly. “If you do this, I will be out of your hair forever.”
“You say that every damned time!” she snapped.
“This time is definitely different,” he assured her.
“Why don’t I believe that,” Ayla retorted. “No, Ryland, I’m out.”
Without warning, he flew across the room, grabbing her arms with both hands and squeezing like a vice.
“You haven’t even heard my terms,” he snarled, and Ayla choked back a sob as she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle free.
“I don’t want to hear them,” she whispered but she could barely hear herself. “You’re never going to let me go!”
His face seemed to soften slightly but he didn’t release his grip on her shoulders.
“Just listen to what I have to say and maybe you’ll believe me this time,” he cajoled. “Please, sis?”
Ayla swallowed the bile in her throat and nodded, lowering her blue eyes.
“Okay, Ryland,” she mumbled. “What do you need from me this time?”
“Your new boss could be my ticket, sweetie,” Ryland said soothingly. “I have some old connections – and they can do unbelievable things with wire transfers,” he explained excitedly. “Like making anonymous transfers from offshore accounts.”
Her head moved up slowly and she tried to comprehend what that had to do with her.
“So?” she finally asked when he did not immediately continue. “What does that have to do with me?”
“You’re going to help me get Diren Benning’s offshore account numbers. That’s all I need to make this work, sis.”
Ayla gaped at him, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
“Are you fucking crazy?” she asked him, wresting herself free. “You want to steal money from Diren Benning?”
Ryland’s eyes narrowed menacingly.
“Of course not!” he snapped as if she was the idiot. “I don’t want to steal anything.”
She exhaled slowly, shaking her head.
“Good. Because that’s pretty stupid, Ryland.”
Even for you, she wanted to add but dared not. She was already pushing her luck by speaking her mind so boldly.
He folded his arms across his chest and nodded.
“I agree,” he replied. “That’s why you’re going to do it.”
She stared at him balefully.
“What the hell do I know about stealing and moving money, Ryland?” she asked, shaking her head in exasperation. She tried not to roll her eyes, fearing they would fall out of her head, she was so annoyed.
God, he’s such an idiot. Does he have any active brain cells connected? Can he even comprehend how difficult, not to mention suicidal, doing something like that to Diren Benning would be?
“Nothing, of course,” he answered, looking like he was growing irritated with her. “Like I said, I have connections for that.”
She waited, her own arms folding over her chest.
“Well, what the hell do you want?” she almost yelled. “Spit it out so I can say no and go to sleep. It’s two o’clock in the morning!”
“All you have to do is find out which accounts he has offshore, and get me their numbers.”
She laughed aloud even though doing so to Ryland’s face had never ended well for her.
“You make it sound like it’s a matter of clicking open a banking app,” she growled. “It’s not that easy and I wouldn’t even know where to look if I could find a way to access his computers. You think he’s just going to throw me on his personal computer and let me have at it? Come on Ryland, this is insane. Go home.”
“He might let you onto his computers,” Ryland replied quietly, and Ayla could see he would not take no for an answer.
“And how do you figure that?” she sighed. She was growing tired very fast and wanted the sinister presence out of her haven once and for all.
“I think you know how,” Ryland replied suggestively, licking his lips in that way which always sent chills through her body.
“Are you kidding me, Ryland? You want me to seduce my boss?”
“I want you to get those numbers for me,” he snarled, grabbing her by the throat. “I don’t give a shit how you do it!” Spittle flew into her face as he spoke.
Just agree to what he wants and get him out of your house! A voice in her head yelled and Ayla found herself nodding with difficulty as his hand held it’s tight grip on her windpipe.
“All right,” she gasped, her mind whirling. “But this is going to take time, Ryland. I can’t just produce this overnight, you know?”
“I don’t expect speed,” he replied. “I expect results.”
“But after this, I don’t want to hear from you again,” she told him. “No showing up at my mom’s when you know I’m going to be there. No more money, no nothing!” She swatted his hand away, trying to hide her fear. Seeing her scared only seemed to make him gleeful and she had learned to act unaffected by his bluster and physical assaults.
“It’s a deal. I’ll be so far out of your hair, we may not even be on the same continent,” he promised and the thought of never seeing her wretched step-brother again gave her a spark of hope.
Ayla inhaled slowly, trying not to wince as her tender throat protested.
In her heart, she knew she was not going to do it, but she could not let Ryland know that.
Still, she wondered what life would be like without the threat of Ryland.
If nothing else, I have bought myself time, she thought. It will keep him off my back for a little while if he thinks I’m working on Benning.
The anti-scheme began to form in her mind and suddenly Ayla was nodding vehemently.
“Yes,” she said earnestly. “Yes, I can do this.”
Ryland’s face broke into a grin.
“Good girl,” he purred, stepping toward her again, but this time to stroke her face gently.
Ayla steeled herself and allowed him to pet her like a tame cat, but she could not stop herself from tensing as his breath touched her ear.
“I’m going to crash here tonight,” he told her. “I want to see you off on your first day.”
Ayla swallowed the bile rising in her throat.
BLACKMAIL_A billionaire blackmail romance Page 3
