by Pinki Parks
The text he had gotten this morning had sent his mind barreling down myriad pathways and a potent mix of emotions cramp his gut. The woman he sorely wanted to prove innocent had just been thrown into the quagmire, even deeper than before.
The desktop seized in the raid was registered in her name; but not only that it was the computer that was used to check on the money laundering account. Christ; if the prosecution got a hold of that golden nugget of information Keisha’s life was done.
There would be no questions, no ifs or buts if she was going to be sentenced to prison. Hunter had been hoping that for the worst if she did get sentenced it was under a ‘willful ignorance’ sentence, but now she was going to be convicted of the full brunt.
He stepped into Cyber Crimes with an unconscious hope that they had been wrong about the ownership of the PC, but the look on Jackson's face made that hope disintegrate.
The tech’s blue eyes shifted from his but he still asked, “Detective, you already know the bad news, but I have some good news, I’d like to think you’d want the good now.”
Hunter’s teeth grinded in irritation, “And what would that be?”
"Even though the comp is owned by Keisha Al-Habar and the origin of the Bitcoin wallet was based on it… aside from that, there is no other connection to her. Her name isn’t on the house’s lease or she has no other connections to the internet bill or other utilities.”
A small level of relief settled into Hunter’s mind but he didn’t make it show. Then an idea came to him, “Jackson, remember when I asked you to dig into Keisha’s past…I have a name… look for anyone named Etienne in connection to her. They were engaged but he had a wife; find him and then find out how old this PC is.”
Jackson frowned slightly, “Why do you want to know who this guy is and what would be the connection with the desktop is?”
Honesty, Hunter didn’t have a solid reason but he had a hunch that someone in her past, maybe this Etienne person had gotten a hand one of her old PC’s and was using it to frame her.
“It’s just a gut feeling,” Hunter replied stiffly; and if there was anything Hunter prized himself on was following his gut. It had saved his life on the battlefield more times than he could count. “Just look into them, and for god’s sake, keep it on the down low.”
*****
Keisha closed another file and placed it on the pile mentally marked finished. She had gotten to work a little late but no one had blinked an eye to her late arrival.
She had immediately jumped into work and thanks to the powers that be, the market was up today and all her employees were feeling an easy roll. She had gone through the day with a genial mood, a gentle and happy attitude which resulted in the small and satisfied smile on her face.
It was a good day overall and was at ease all day and she was actually looking to go home…to Hunter.
Through the day, even when she kept her focus strictly on business, the man was still on the edge of her mind. Following his advice though she did her best to not over-think or obsesses about what had happened between them.
As the time wound down, a part of her mind was actually contemplating going to the supermarket and actually cooking one of her grandmother's signature roast for Hunter and her tonight. But would that be a bit too presumptuous; cooking for him and acting like a girlfriend?
A quick look at the clock she noted it was fifteen to three and the anticipation emotion of going home and meeting with Hunter was slowly filling her when her office door was knocked on.
“Keisha,” Lilia said while sticking her head inside the room, “I’m sorry to bother you and I know it’s unexpected, but you have a visitor.”
Even though she had no appointments that day, Keisha reached for her agenda and scanned it once more, “My calendar is clear.”
“I know,” Lila said pushing her glasses up her nose, “And he didn’t make one, but he says that he knows you and you wouldn’t turn him away.”
A little mystified about who it was, Keisha cocked her head to the side and asked, “Who is that?”
Her question was taken out of her mouth as a form, tall and clothed in a slick Hugo Boss suit stepped inside and slickly drawled, “Well, aren’t you as beautiful as ever… ma cher.”
It seems like a barrel of ice-cold water had been dunked upon her and soaked her to her feet as Keisha sat, fully dumbstruck as Etienne Dubois, cool and collected stood in the entrance of her office, “May I come in?”
Chapter 9
It was only an iron-clad strength that allowed a thoroughly shocked Keisha to turn a genial smile to the innocent Lila as she stood up and went to the door.
With a hand on the knob she smiled, "Thank you, Lila, I'll take it from here."
The PA smiled and ducked out the door and naïvely went back to her desk as Keisha slowly closed the inch-thick partition and decidedly locked it. She then turned to look at the one man on the planet whom she had hoped to never see again.
The amount of pain, anguish and the broken heart he had made her suffer through, even though exorcised, was still a faint memory at the back of her mind.
Etienne stood there with a graceful ease, looking very nonplussed with both of his hands shoved into his pants pockets. His matching jacket was open and the top two buttons of his dark blue shirt were undone. His smooth dark eyes were slightly hooded and his lips, lips she would have died kissing a lifetime ago, were quirked into a small smile.
Keisha felt a stir of anger in her chest. How could he just stand there and look like so calm, like he wasn’t the one who had brought her to the brink of a massive breakdown? To act as if he wasn’t the one who had cruelly crushed the foundation of a life for them that she had been so set on making.
"I've got to say, you have an impressive thing here, Cherie,” Etienne said simply, the complimentary words rolling off his tongue like liquid silver as he looked around the room.
“First of all,” Keisha said emptily as she walked to her chair and stood behind it. “I’m not your Cherie. I’m not your anything anymore, and what are you doing here, Etienne?”
The man didn’t react much to her tight and almost angry tone, “I’m here as a representative for the company I’m working for in an engineering think-tank at the Marriott for all the top engineering companies in the east coast.”
Keisha’s fingers tightened on the headrest on the back of her chair, “That’s fine but what are you doing here?”
Etienne made to step towards her, "I just wanted to see you, Keisha, a lot of time has passed and I hoped you'd forgive me."
“I wasn’t a matter of forgiving you Etienne,” Keisha said tightly, “I was a matter of forgetting you; which I have.”
A fleeting look like a flinch crossed his face but it disappeared in less than a second. “…I do deserve that.”
Keisha clamped her jaw in order to not say, ‘damn right,’ but she just stood silently and waited for the man to say something.
Never in her life would she have expected Etienne would present himself in her presence after all they had gone through. She had thought that the chapter of him in her life was over and done but then, all of a sudden, he was back here.
The stifled silence stretched and the tension hung in the air. Before she knew it, her mouth opened, “Where is your wife Etienne; where’s Renee?”
“She’s about to have a child,” Etienne replied simply. “Almost eight months; actually.”
At that Keisha was surprised, “She’s pregnant?”
“Oui,” Etienne replied, “… with a boy enfant… for her new husband.”
That was even more of a surprise, “You’re divorced?”
“Three years now,” Etienne replied, “I told you that we were married in name only. Mon père and hers made the arrangement when we were barely nineteen to join our families. We shared one night only, just for the sake of completing the arrangement. After that, we agreed to live separate lives. When we met I was fr
ee to do as I wanted and she was the same… so I have no idea why she showed up to accost you.”
Keisha pressed her lips together; Etienne’s argument hadn’t changed and but even with the passage of time the cold concession hadn’t changed anything, she still didn’t have any regrets about leaving him.
“What do you want Etienne?” she asked quietly.
“I’d like for you to have dinner with me,” Etienne said simply, “Let us share one meal Keisha, I know a lot of time has passed but I don’t want any more bad blood between us. I need to show you how sorry I am for deceiving and hurting you.”
“Etienne-”
“Je suis vraiment désolé Keisha,” Etienne murmured in soft formal French, “Je ne mérite pas ton pardon mais, s’il te plait, donnez-moi cette chance.
Oh, damn it; he had rolled off the French, something he knew had been her soft spot. Whenever they had an argument Etienne would shamelessly use French to make her fury melt. He used in the bedroom too and when those smooth seductive words rolled off his tongue as he made sweet, sensual love to her Keisha had been putty in his hands.
She hadn’t studied French but from what she had picked up he had said he was extremely sorry and wanted a chance to prove it.
“That’s shameless cheating…” Her bottom lip was bitten for a moment, “… and I…don’t think I should.”
Etienne stepped forward and his voice dipped to low and cajoling, “Please Keisha, we don’t have to have a meal, we can just have coffee.”
Subconsciously she recognized Etienne’s signature charm coming into play as a deep undertone in his words, “Just coffee Keisha.”
Half of her wanted to refuse but the other half wanted some real closure. Even though she had put it behind her she would be lying to herself if the desire to fully close the wound he had dealt her.
“Okay.” She said quietly, “I’ll go with you, only for coffee.”
Etienne smiled, “I’d never dare to ask for anything more.”
Offering a tight smile, she nodded, “Just let me notify my PA and grab my jacket and purse.”
Etienne then turned away to give her privacy as she took up the landline and rang Lila. In quiet tones, she told her assistant that she would be away for a while and only to contact her if it was absolutely necessary.
Then she slid her jacket on and took up her handbag, “Let’s go, there’s an Italian place with some good coffee place I know off.”
Etienne fell in step with her and flashed a charming smile to her, “Lead the way.”
*****
The small Italian bistro had tables in alcoves that were purposely designed for having intimate moments, a fact that Keisha really regretted not remembering as the server led them to a table.
It was nestled in a corner with a semi-circle of padded seats around a tiny table and as they sat the woman placed two menus on the table, “I’m Camellia, your server. When you’re ready to order I’ll be-”
“That’s not necessary Camellia,” Keisha cut in smoothly, “We just need coffee, Etienne?”
“Café doppio, please.” The man said smoothly.
“And a café macchiato for me, please, thank you.” Keisha added.
“Sure, I’ll be back in a moment,” Camellia replied and turned away with a smile.
Steeling herself Keisha faced Etienne and forced herself to not react to her ex. He still had that shade of mouthwatering mocha skin. His face sported a defined and smoothly shaven jaw with full lips, a patrician nose and deep brown eyes under low and thick eyebrows were barely decipherable.
Etienne placed his arms on the table and leaned forward to trap her eyes with his, “How have you been?”
Keisha’s hands, which were resting on her lap under the table clenched a bit, “I’ve been fine actually like you saw, I'm running my dream company and I like who I am now.”
Etienne reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, “I can see that.”
The small touch of his fingers had made her freeze, even her breath had stilled in her lungs. Then, mercifully, he pulled back and gave her space to breathe.
“I’m glad.”
“And you?” Keisha asked trying desperately to turn the focus from her, “What have you been doing the past few years.”
Etienne shrugged and sat back, “The same old, a lot of work and little play. It was a sad fact that gaining my masters was the only impetus to make my boss promote me.”
“But you’ve been there for over nine years…” Keisha said after she had completed a quick calculation in her head, “Shouldn’t your track record be more than reason to promote you instead of getting another degree?”
A small smile flit over Etienne’s face, “That’s the Keisha I know; you were always so righteously defensive… I’ve missed that.”
The soft tone he had uttered those words in had sunk into her mind and traitorously struck a part of her she swore was dead; her affection for him. The way he was looking at her wasn’t helping her cause either; it was the soft and regretful look he always took on when he was in the wrong.
In a flash, she realized that coming there with him had to be the worst decision of her life. If she stayed there was a high probability his charm would slide under her skin just like before and start to chip away at her strong resolve.
She needed to leave.
“I’m sorry,” Keisha gushed as she grabbed her bag, “I can’t do this.”
The moment she made to get up Etienne’s hand grabbed hers and his grip was strong enough to stay her. Her head swiveled to him with wide eyes and she was less than five inches away from Etienne’s eyes.
"Please, Keisha… Cherie, please stay… I want to… I need to speak to you.” Etienne said quietly, “Please, just hear me out.”
Centered under his hand was a heat that Keisha was slowly sinking into her skin and stirring up an emotion in her belly that she wasn’t prepared for. Etienne’s beguiling eyes were digging into hers and without being aware of it, she sank slowly back to her seat.
“Etienne…" she cried, "I can't do this."
He pulled back his hand, but not without softly stroking her skin with his pull back, “I’m not asking you to jump into bed with me Keisha…”
‘Maybe not in so many words Keisha thought grimly, ‘but everything before that has.’
“…I just want to make it explain that what happened between us wasn’t supposed to have gone that way.”
Keisha was about to open her mouth and ask, how was it supposed to have gone when the server, Camellia, came back with a tray of their coffee.
"Café doppio for the signore, and café macchiato for the signora,” she said with a smile as she placed the cups on the table. “Please, enjoy.”
Keisha had the strength to smile her thanks to the woman while Etienne intoned his. Grateful for the well-needed distraction Keisha took her cup of coffee and sipped it, allowing her eyes to close as the warm and potent coffee slid down her throat.
With her eyes closed, internally she was furiously putting all her faculties together. Was it rational how being in close contact with her ex was affecting her this much?
Hadn’t she gotten over him? Hadn’t she moved on? Last night was a solid testament to how she had moved on; Hunter had surmounted every man she had been with; Etienne included.
She forced her eyes to open, “You want to explain, right, go ahead.”
Etienne shifted his cup to the side and once again braced his arms on the table. “I told you that Renee and I were married, only in name. Our fathers arranged the union between us because they wanted a strong tie with a business venture they were aiming for. We were young but not stupid and only consented to the sham for the sake of peace. We got married and slept together once and then parted ways. We decided to live our own lives as though the marriage hadn’t happened.”
“Then what did happen?” Keisha asked quietly, “Why did she just come back and claim you
as hers?”
“Because she was in a bind,” Etienne replied, “She needed money and the only way she could get some was from me. She was desperate Keisha and she did what all desperate people do, she took some really desperate measures.”
The words he was saying sounded so truthful but Keisha had learned to take everything anyone said with a grain of salt, Etienne included. The memory of that night where she had opened her door to see an angry slender, dark-haired and even darker haired woman on her doorstep had been seared into her mind.
Renee as she later learned had barged into her living room and spat a line of Cajun curses at her, then screamed that Keisha would leave her husband alone if she knew what was good for her.
Keisha had been scared to the soles of her feet when the incensed woman spat, “Etienne is mine, bitch, we’re married get it! He’s my husband and I’m his wife, so leave him the hell alone you trifling whore!”
That didn’t seem like a money issue to her, it seemed more of scorned woman’s territorial claim instead.
“After you demanded the truth and left, I almost emptied my account and gave her enough money for her to leave me alone for the rest of my life.” Etienne continued, “I tried to get you back but you were adamant about leaving and I let you… and it was the worst mistake of my life. You were the best thing I had Keisha, I never meant to lose you.”
Aside from her rational senses, Keisha swallowed hard, the words he had just said paired with his morose expression really tugged at her. His eyes were down to his hands and they were darkened with pain.
A part of her, the soft part of her conscience, was aching to reach out and to say something to comfort him but she held back. It was only justice for him to feel the pain she had felt, even though she wasn’t feeling triumphant about it.
“But you did,” she said, “And I can’t tell you how much I hated you for it.”
"Probably not as much as I hated myself," Etienne sighed, “looking back at it, I should have just told you the truth from the beginning. I was just so elated that I was with you that I thought it didn’t matter, but hindsight had surely proved me wrong.”
