Remember Cinderella (True Loves Fairytale Book 2)

by Tracey Champion

  “Well, that would be from Justin being his typical idiotic self and well Cara who’s still laughing,” Sierra answers Tyler.

  “I can see that. I would have told Justin thank you had he not walked off. Hey, beautiful.” Tyler comes to my side. “I’m glad to see you laughing again.” I look up at him and smile.

  I spend the next few hours getting to know Sierra. She asked me if I would like to go with her on a sort of field trip tomorrow and I agreed. I’m looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

  When we leave I ask Tyler to take me to the office. I want to spend some time with Jordan.

  JORDAN

  After Cara left this morning I took a drive over to my parents’ house. I wanted to just check in with them and give an update. Mom, of course, had a light breakfast for me. We chatted about how Cara was doing. I told them the truth. She’s an emotional mess. Then I mentioned to my mother that I planned to cut my hair.

  She was more than happy. She had been telling me for the last few years to cut my fucking hair. I did what any good son would do and allowed her to massively shorten my hair. I feel much lighter now.

  There’s a knock on my office door and then Matt walks in. “Hey, I have something for you.” He walks in with a large envelope in his hands.

  “What is it, Matt?” I’m puzzled by him being here. I mean what more could there be for me to go over.

  “Well after you were shot we went into the house with Nate. I mean really there was a lot of evidence to go over. I found this though in his truck. I talked with the District Attorney and she told me to give it to you. We don’t have really anything more to do with the case other than stupid paperwork.” Matt hands me the envelope.

  I open it to find a spiral notebook inside. I take the book out and examine it. When I open to the first page I see writing from Travis with dates.” What the fuck is this?

  “You need to read that Jordan. I mean I’ve read the damn thing a bunch of times. He states why you were a focal point. Everything is tied in with you Jordan. When his mother died and told him about his father I came to the conclusion that he wanted to destroy you. It’s all crazy talk too.” Matt takes a seat on the couch in my office.

  “He wanted to destroy me, why? I was his friend.” I run my hand down my face. I’m fucking confused.

  “Read the journal Jordan, sounds to me that he wanted your perfect life. He talks about your parents, the business, your connections, and the women in your life. I mean he even hints at a partner, but never names the person.” I’m now stunned. Who would be dumb enough to help out Travis and why.

  “Thank you, Matt. I will definitely be reading this. Tyler has mentioned that he thought Travis had to have some help.” Just then Matt’s phone pings. He takes a look at the message and stands to his feet.

  “Looks like duty calls.” I stand and shake his hand. When he leaves I sit back down and contemplate going over this new information. I’m not sure if reading this would be a good idea. I don’t know how long I just sat there before there’s another knock at the door.

  Cara walks in and then freezes. Her eyes are wide when she looks at me. Shit, I meant to tell her that I had intentions to cut my hair.

  “Pretty girl, how come you’re here early?” I wasn’t expecting her to come to the office this early. I thought that Tyler would keep her busy most of the day.

  “We finished early and I was excited to tell you about today.” She begins to walk over to me. “You cut your hair, why?” She stops a few feet from me.

  “Well I was hot with it long and I wanted to feel more like me again. I’m going to guess by your reaction you don’t like my hair short.” I let out a breath and press my lips into a line. Cara moves closer to me and takes a seat on my desk. I should care about that, but right now I don’t.

  She then leans forward and runs her hands over my hair. Her fingernails scratch my head and I absorb the sensation. “I like the cut Jordan you look so different, but I think you still look sexy.” Then she stops touching me.

  “Hey, you don’t have to stop. Come here pretty girl.” I pull her onto my lap. “Tell me about how your day went.” She gives me a big smile. I want to take a picture of this. I haven’t seen her smile like this in a while.

  “I had fun Jordan. Sierra is nice, I met some other ladies, Rachel, and Kristina. Oh, I also met Justin and Brandon.” I let out a little growl. Justin and I had words once over Amber. “Oh stop it. Justin was funny. He flirted with me and Sierra yelled at him.” Her eyes begin to water and I fear she is about to cry, but then she brings her hand to her mouth to cover her giggle.

  “Don’t you dare.” I lightly grab her wrist. “you're laughing Cara Mia. I’ve fucking missed that sound.” She then lets out her giggles. I can’t help, but smile. Holy shit.

  “He was calling himself Justice. Sierra wasn’t happy about it and then had to properly inform him about me. I don’t know what happened….but it was funny Jordan. He seems terrified of you.” She smiles as she talks and giggles. “It was so funny.”

  “I bet. Pretty girl, I’m pleased that you’re happy.”

  “I am Jordan, I had a good day and tomorrow Sierra is taking me on a field trip to one of their businesses.” I knew this would come up and I gave the okay before. Sierra’s taking her to the gym.

  “That’s awesome, but I need something from you pretty girl.” She smiles at me and I can see the sparkle in her eyes. “I need a kiss from you.” I watch her cock her head to the side like she is thinking it over. She doesn’t leave me hanging and leans in to run her tongue along my lips. I pull her in to deepen the kiss. I need to feel her like this, just to kiss her.

  She breaks the kiss after a few moments. “Take me home Jordan and love me.” I can do that.

  “I just have to put a few things away and then I’m all yours.” She slowly climbs off my lap and then gives me a soft kiss on my lips.

  “I’m going to go bug, Maria. I love you Jordan and thank you.”

  “I love you too pretty girl, but why are you thanking me.” I get another glimpse of her smile.

  “For being you and for loving me.” I’m now the one to laugh and she giggles with me. Fuck me, that sound is going straight to my cock.

  “Always pretty girl, I love you always.”

  “Promise.” She says as she heads to the door.

  “Promise.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CARA

  I’m excited about my little field trip. I thought for a moment that Tyler was taking me back to the house, but instead, he brought me to a gym. The building is large and I see people, mostly women and children entering the building.

  “You ready for this beautiful?” I look over at Tyler. We haven’t exited his truck yet and I’m not sure if I should be worried.

  “I should be okay,” I tell the truth because I enjoyed my time with Sierra yesterday.

  “Okay then let’s go in.” Tyler again helps me out of the truck. I hate that I’m too short to get out by myself. We walk into the gym and I take a look around. I can see a large workout area. There also seems to be a room with a class going on, I read a sign pointing to a pool. There are also some people working at a desk and in the workout area.

  “Hey, you made it.” I turn to see Sierra. “We just help out with little things around here. Some of our guys hold certain classes, but there’s a larger company in charge of the gym.” That does explain the other people. “Would you like a tour?”

  “Yes, please,” I tell her softly as I continue to check out the place.

  “Cara, I got a few things I need to handle. I’ll be back in a few hours if you need me before that just call me.” I give Tyler a nod and then follow Sierra.

  She showed me the lower workout area and then the pool. I was surprised to see kids playing with some elderly.

  “We encourage some of our elderly friends to come by. It’s good for their health to spend time with the kids and sometimes it does wonders for the children. Everyone here on sta
ff goes through a heavy background check and those that volunteer must be highly recommended.” Sierra looks over at me and smiles. “That includes the elderly volunteers. You almost can’t trust anyone these days.”

  We continue to walk around the lower area. She showed me the locker rooms and a little sitting room with beverages and snacks. Then we took the stairs to the second level. Once the doors opened there was a four-lane track. The sign posted stated it was for walking and jogging only. Inside the track were treadmills and other like equipment.

  Sierra told me that they had another building out back that held the basketball court and a rock climbing wall. She then took me back to the elevator and we went up one more floor after she used a key to take us there. The doors opened to another track. The sign stated for running or walking. Inside the track was weights and other kinds of equipment.

  “This room is used less often and is meant for when groups need time to talk.” She also informed me that there was an outside track for the runners. I was interested in what was going on here.

  “What do you mean to talk?”

  “Did Tyler explain us to you?” I paused to look at Sierra and began to chew on my lower lip before I responded.

  “Not really.”

  “Not really, that man. I told him to tell you.” Her voice was slightly agitated. “I’m going to guess here that if he did tell you, there would be no chance in hell that you would have come. So, let me explain.” We walked over to a little area that was padded and took a seat.

  “If yoga is needed up here this is where you go.” She let out a deep breath and ran a hand through her long blond hair. “Okay, don’t get mad at me. Our job is to help people who have been through trauma, mostly women and children. The women have been raped or abused in some way. With the children, it depends on their story, rape, molestation, abuse, or bullied. It’s our job to boost their confidence, give them someone to lean on. This is where we try to redirect them.”

  Wow. I didn’t know that they did all of that. I looked around at this room and could see it. The walls were painted a sky blue and the room was bright and relaxing, comfortable.

  “Some of us have gone back to school to get counselors licenses. Others like myself finished getting the degree. We’re not doctors and none of us want to be, but our goal is to be helpful. Justin right now is taking a woman to see a professional counselor because she doesn’t have a way to get there. Plus, she is scared to death. Even if it’s just being there as a friend helps. That’s what we do and we love it.”

  I’m in shock that she’s telling me all this. I never knew they did anything like this and I’m just amazed.

  “What does Brandon do?” Sierra lets out a laugh.

  “Brandon helps out a little. He went to school with a kid last week who was being bullied. He told me that he had a blast being there and that the kid stood up for himself. I’ve never seen him so proud. I mean all he did was sit in classes all day and ate lunch with the little boy. He’s mostly working at the shop on a car or bike. He loves to get his hands dirty.” This time, I let out the laugh.

  “During one of your visits I need to get you a card and a couple of keys. I only have the one to your locker.”

  “My locker?” I have no idea what she’s talking about. I didn’t bring any gym clothes with me and have no reason for a locker.

  “We have a special locker for you in the women’s locker room. Bridgette has already put everything you need in there.” I look at Sierra confused. Why would Bridgette put anything in a locker for me let alone be here?”

  I watch Sierra take her palm and smack her forehead and then drag it down her face. “Really, you don’t know. Bridgette owns half of the gym. The place was her idea when we talked to her about doing more. She put up the money for the place and then we just keep doing our job with the help of the Winters Law Firm. Each person we help they pay us.”

  “My sister and my dad did this.” Sierra looks now just as puzzled as me.

  “Tyler didn’t mention that Bridgette was your sister. Shit. No wonder he wanted us to help you so bad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, tell me you see it? Tyler wants Bridgette.” Sierra’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind and I can’t help the giggles that burst from me.

  “I’ve seen it. I think it’s cute.”

  “Oh, fuck me, don’t ever tell him you think It’s cute. That man will have a heart attack.” I continue to giggle till my sides hurt.

  “I know and I think it’s funny.”

  Sierra takes me to my locker on the lower level and then gives me the key. She informs me that she needs to handle a few things and that I can take the rest of my time to enjoy the facilities. I take up the offer and dig into the gym bag. I find all kinds of fitness clothing including a swimsuit. I decided to take the nice, black and pink suit out. I spend the next hour or so swimming laps.

  When I’m done and all clean I sit and relax while watching people. I wait till Tyler comes to get me.

  JORDAN

  I decide to take care of a few emails and then I reached in the bottom drawn on the right side my desk. It’s the only drawer I have that needs a key to open. I pull out the notebook that Matt gave me yesterday. I know I should tell someone about this, but right now I’m not sure how wise that would be. I was smart yesterday to hide it from Cara. This is the last thing I needed her to see especially when she was happy and laughing.

  I open to the first page and see that he wrote in black ink throughout the book. The lines from every letter are hard pressed into the pages. It’s easy to read from just the handwriting the anger that is there.

  September 5,2009

  I can’t believe I finally figured out what my mother told me the night she died. My father was killed because of a crime he didn’t commit. They just put him in jail and I never got to know him.

  Now I’m stuck working with people I served in the Marines with. I have nothing left for me. I watch them every day and nothing. They don’t care about me, not really.

  Some fucking people. How dare they? Who do they think they are with their perfect fucking lives? I can’t believe how things fell right into my lap. I mean here it is. I fucking knew there was something good about Jordan. He’s doing what he thinks is right and with that is giving me what I am looking for. Him and his fucking perfect life is not so perfect.

  I mean how dare he walk around as if the world owes him something. I mean seriously what did he expect to happen. I mean fuck me the man is always at that fucking office. So what if he’s ignoring that fucking sexy piece of ass. I mean I would tap that.

  It’s like she’s either here complaining and bitching to him or crying. What the hell man? Man up to your woman or someone else will. Maybe…just maybe

  I continue to read more and page after page the same thing. He complains over and over about me. Saying how I have a perfect life. I fucking wish. I work damn hard for what I have and then my phone rings. I answer it and spend the next thirty minutes dealing with my favorite DEA woman. Fuck my life.

  She wants to know if we have anything on the drug deal case and I tell her no. Then she asks me to make sure that Tyler and myself are in her office tomorrow to go over the MC issue at hand. I know what she wants and I hate that I have to kiss ass to please her or we lose this contract.

  “Yes Ma’am, I will make sure that we are there no later than 10:00 am.” I tell her and as I say goodbye there is a knock at my door. I watch as it opens expecting to see Cara and cringe when Niki walks in.

  She looks dressed to kill and something about it bothers me. I can’t complain, lately a lot about her gets on my nerves. She walks over to the couch in my office and takes a seat crossing her legs in a way that causes her skirt rides up. Great, just what I need right now.

  “What do you want?’ I say as cold as I can.

  “I need to talk with you. I told you I wanted to talk. Do you have a moment for me, please?” She tries to sound sweet which onl
y causes my body to shiver in disgust.

  “Okay, talk then, but only for a moment.” I close the notebook I was reading, quickly placing it back in the drawer and close it. She does not get to see that.

  “Well, I wanted to see if I can’t get you to help me with a problem. I think someone is stalking me and peeping in my window at night. I was wondering if you could look into it for me.” There’s concern in her voice and I wonder about how much truth there is to this story.

  “How do you know?” I mean for all I know she is telling me a story. She reaches into her purse and pulls out an envelope.

  “I’ve found these photos on my car and door for a few months now.” She hands me the envelope and I dump the contents onto my desk. I see about a dozen or more surveillance type photos of Niki. There are only a few of her and her daughter.

  “I can get someone to look into this. I’m not doing field work so I can get Tyler do it. Hell, I know other guys who work for me from time to time to earn extra cash that can do this.” Niki stands to her feet and walks around my desk.

  “No. I want you to help me, only you. I can’t have some stranger in my home.” I turn my chair towards her. She moves closer to me.

  “Then you don’t get any help, Niki. You can stop right there. I don’t want you any closer to me. Hell, sit your ass back on the couch. You get the help I offer or nothing. Take it or leave it.” I glare at her cause there’s nothing more I can do. The tension in the room is cold and bitter.

  She lets out a deep sigh of frustration and looks at me. “Why not?” She actually whines.

  “It’s not right for me to be alone with you and I can’t do field work.” Now she’s laughing.

  “You’ve been alone with me before and I want you to come check out my place.”

  “I’ll think about it Niki, but I make you no fucking promises. Don’t assume that as a yes.” I know that’s the least I’m going to have to do. I’m the only one right now that can do a perimeter check without it costing me. I spend time writing down everything she tells me and am pleased when she gets up to leave. I just want her out.