The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  She was good, Nicole knew exactly what she needed to say in order to say she had killed Aldo in self-defense. Plus, who knew if it was really her who had killed him or not. Perhaps it had been the federal agents who had delivered the final blow.

  All in all, I suspected that Nicole was going to end up just fine. Aldo had dozens of bank accounts in other countries, and I was positive that Nicole knew how to get access to them. With Aldo out of the way, she was going to be free and clear to spend the rest of his money however she wanted.

  Of course, the government was going to take all his assets and money that was left in the United States. But Aldo was a smart man, and Nicole an extremely smart woman. They had millions in assets located throughout the globe, and as soon as things settled down, I was sure she would disappear and live a life she had dreamed of.

  “We will need to ask you some more questions after you get medically cleared,” the agent said and then went over to Abby.

  “Ma’am, did you see what happened?”

  “Aldo was dragging her down the hallway and saying he couldn’t have any witnesses. I just heard screaming, and then she stabbed him and I pulled her into the room and locked the door to protect us. There was a lot of commotion; I’m sorry that’s all I know.”

  I knew Abby was lying. I didn’t know her well enough to say it for sure, but something in my gut told me that what she was saying was to protect Nicole. I certainly wasn’t going to say a word and instead just stood by and watched as the agent asked his questions and then left the room.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Abby said.

  Her hands were shaking, and she looked really pale; I couldn’t wait any longer and pushed my way past the medics and grabbed a hold of her. She had a large gash in her finger, which I put pressure on. But I suspected her adrenaline was dying off a bit, and her body was reacting to the changes.

  “Did you say you made lemonade?” I asked.

  “Yep,” she said as she looked at me.

  I really thought she was going a little bit crazy from the emotions of everything. We both sort of laughed a strangled and stressed out laugh as we looked into each other’s eyes. All I knew for sure was that Abby was alright, and I was so grateful for that.

  “I don’t know; it seems like an odd time for lemonade,” I laughed back.

  “Can you call my sisters?” Abby asked. “Bring them out here, I need to see them.”

  “I’ll get it done. I do have to go talk to this agent and try to avoid jail first,” I said as I saw Agent Stone standing in the doorway.

  “No big deal, though, right?” Abby said with a smile.

  “I got this,” I said without a single shred of confidence in the words I spoke.

  It was entirely possible that I would go and talk to the federal agents and they were going to throw me in jail for the rest of my life. They had not promised me any kind of immunity, and I had not required it to help them. All I had wanted was for Abby to be safe, and I was so excited to be there with her and know that she was.

  “Good, because my feet are killing me, and I need a massage.” Abby laughed as she kicked off her new Steve Madden hi-heels.

  Everyone around us looked at us like we were crazy, but Abby and I both smiled at the memory of the first time we met and I lost her damn shoes.

  Epilogue

  “Samantha, you are going to have to actually carry some of your own things up these stairs, we aren’t going to do it all for you,” I yelled at my sister as I tried to get her to help with the boxes of things we were bringing to her dorm room.

  “I just did my nails, Abby, you can’t expect me to mess them up over some boxes. Plus, you and Bailey are much stronger than I am,” she said with a childish grin.

  “It’s amazing to me how she can get out of doing absolutely any work,” Bailey said.

  “I don’t actually mind,” I said as we made it to the third floor.

  “I’m pretty sure they invented these horrible pieces of furniture as some sort of torture device,” Theo said as we got to the dorm room. “There aren’t even enough screws to hold this damn thing together.”

  “Do you need this?” Bailey asked as she handed Theo a small pack of screws that was sitting by the doorway.

  “God Damnit!”

  It was so good to have my sisters in New York and near me. I couldn’t believe we had taken so long to make the decision to have them just come out and have us all be together. Of course, our parents’ business and home ended up getting auctioned off by the bank. But Bailey and Samantha had saved the ten thousand dollars I sent them and used it to pack up all their things and bought a car to drive out to New York.

  Theo’s assets were frozen, and he didn’t have access to most of his money while he went through court proceedings for his case. The judge said he was lucky he wasn’t in jail for the rest of his life. But I secretly thought the judge liked Theo. One year of house arrest in Theo’s plush condo wasn’t really something I considered as a punishment. Plus, the judge ruled that Theo could keep his restaurant and his gym.

  I stopped working at the dance club and instead took up classes to get my personal trainers certificate and Sunrise, the manager of Theo’s gym, had turned out to be one of my best friends over the previous few months.

  “Aren’t we supposed to be at dinner with Jack and Isabella soon?” I asked Theo as I looked at the pile of wood that was supposed to be a bunk bed.

  “You’re going to have to go without me, this bed is like a puzzle only an idiot savant could answer.”

  “Let me take a look at it,” Scott said as he sat down. “I’m an idiot savant.”

  “A hot idiot savant,” Bailey whispered in my ear.

  “Shhh, he’s Theo’s employee. Don’t be rude,” I whispered back.

  “I said he’s hot. It’s not like I mentioned that he was missing a leg.”

  “Jesus Bailey, shut up,” I said, embarrassed that Scott might have heard her.

  “Do you want to touch it?” Scott said with a smile as he looked at Bailey.

  “Mmm, yeah, I want to touch it,” Bailey said as she sat down next to Scott and touched his metal prosthetic leg.

  “I think we are witnessing a budding romance,” Theo said as he stood up and came over to me.

  “Do you guys mind if we leave? We are going to be late for dinner,” I said, looking at Samantha and Bailey.

  Samantha was on her cell phone texting someone and barely looked up at me, and Bailey was enthralled with Scott and didn’t seem to notice we were even in the room. The moment was so surreal and yet so happy. I felt like life was finally going well for all of us. We couldn’t have planned a single moment of it and certainly couldn’t have expected we would end up where we had, but life was pretty damn good.

  “It’s alright guys, I’ve got this,” Scott said as he turned toward us. “I’ll make sure Bailey gets back over to your place when we are done.”

  “Thanks,” Theo said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the dorm room.

  “Wait, he’s going to bring her home? What do you know about this guy? I don’t know,” I said, following behind Theo.

  “She’s a big girl, let her flirt a little,” Theo said as he stopped and pulled me up next to him. “Maybe we will actually have the apartment to ourselves for a little bit this afternoon.”

  His lips moved to mine, and I instantly felt the stress of moving Samantha just melt away. Theo did that for me, he had done it from the moment I met him and every second we were together since then.

  “What about lunch with Isabella and Jack?” I said as I saw the look of desire in Theo’s eyes.

  “Isabella’s pregnant, you know they will already have eaten by the time we get all the way to the restaurant. Let’s just call and cancel. We can go to lunch another day.”

  Theo was right; Isabella was three months pregnant and couldn’t stop eating for more than an hour or so. It was so great to see her
happy and still with Jack. I never would have thought they would have lasted as long as they had, but something just clicked for them, and they were happy.

  That’s all any of us wanted really … happiness.

  Well, and shoes, of course.

  THE END

  Thank you so much for reading!

  Don’t stop now, I’ve got more exciting stories for you in this book!

  I hope you enjoyed “Hunting Her”. The fun is not over! To show you my appreciation, I’ve included even more extra stories – I’m sure you will love them all! Especially the last one should be a huge surprise for you: It’s an exclusive and brand new story called “The Billionaire’s Date with Destiny” (check the TOC!) – this billionaire romance has never been released anywhere before and is only available through this book! Enjoy!

  Preview of “The Billionaire’s Fake Marriage”

  Chapter 1

  Lilli

  “There’s a guy looking at your ass from that window.” Anna laughed as she pulled me back into the Uber. “You should give him a little show.”

  Anna was the kind of friend that could convince anyone to do something crazy. She was fun, carefree, and wild beyond her years. I had only recently connected with her, but she had really spiced up my partying life.

  “He’s probably already getting a pretty damn good show. I don’t have on any panties,” I said with a giggle.

  For fun, I wiggled my ass back and forth while I continued to lean into the car window and talk to my girlfriends. My legs were wobbly from our evening of drinking and dancing, and I used the time to gather my focus before I had to walk into my house.

  “Oh, you’re naughty. Let’s give him a real show,” Anna said as she jumped out of the vehicle and wrapped her arms around me to give me a giant hug.

  I had lost my balance as she swung the door open and was barely standing when she wrapped her arms around me. Anna was shorter than me, but she still managed to lift me off the ground. Her arms stayed locked around my waist, and my skirt pressed up toward the crest of my ass. I glanced up at the window as she spun me around and saw my handsome neighbor standing shirtless in his bedroom, watching us. I could only imagine what he was thinking as he looked down at our silly group of girls making so much noise after our night of partying on a weeknight.

  He wasn’t even hiding the fact that he was watching us. The light in his bedroom was on, and the curtains were wide open as he stood there with a mischievous smirk on his face. I’d only been back home for a couple of weeks, but a handsome neighbor was certainly one of the perks of being back under my parents’ roof. He was mysterious and much better looking than any of the men I normally hung out with. I estimated he was a few years older than me; okay, actually he was probably ten years older than me, but that didn’t matter for the flirting we were doing.

  “He’s still there,” I said to Anna as she sat me down. “But I’m too drunk to stay out here any longer. I’ll see you girls later. I need to get to my bed.”

  “Bye Lilli,” Amy yelled from the other side of the vehicle. “Be good, or don’t be good and just go over to that hot guy’s house.”

  “See you when I see you,” Rebecca added.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to make out and really drive that guy crazy?” Anna asked. “I bet he’s already ragging hard just looking at your ass.”

  “No Anna.” I laughed. “I think I’ll pass. I’m not into torturing the poor guy. Plus, I don’t really want to kiss you. No offense.” I giggled as I tried to steady myself against the car.

  “Okay, but don’t say I never offered.”

  “I promise I won’t say that.”

  “Goodnight super-hot neighbor dude,” Anna yelled out as she blew him a kiss.

  I reluctantly turned toward the window and waved apologetically as I shook my head at how loud Anna had been. It was three o’clock in the morning. She wasn’t just going to get the hot neighbors attention; she was going to get the attention of the whole damn neighborhood. My upper-class Chicago neighborhood wasn’t exactly a hot spot for late night party girls. Most of my neighbors worked and had families, and one had even mentioned that I seemed to be ‘having a lot of fun’ when they ran into my mother at the grocery store.

  My neighbor’s slight grin turned into a full blown smile as he closed his curtains and turned the light off in his room after I waved at him. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who got upset about the noise my friends and I made when coming home from our nights in the town. Over the last few weeks he hadn’t come to the window very often, but occasionally I’d seen him glancing out the window to see what the commotion was. He almost never had a shirt on, which was really how he got his nickname “Hot Neighbor”. I appreciated the ripples of his abs every time I saw him.

  He had a scruffy shadow of a beard and a deep olive skin tone. His short brown hair was always messed up like he didn’t have a care at all. I had no idea what he did for work, but from what I heard from my parents, he traveled a lot and had some unusual hours. My hot neighbor was definitely older than I was, but I couldn’t really tell by how many years, and I liked that mystery. I had never actually met the man, only flirted from a distance with quick glances through our windows. He was the perfect fantasy guy.

  From what I could figure, my neighbor was gone for long periods of time, and I assumed he was doing top-secret work, or at least that’s what I thought about when I fantasized about him. I’d asked my mother about him, and she said he never had people over, and she’d seen him loading up a single suitcase on several occasions. I’d seen him go out jogging before but never at the same time of the day, so his schedule wasn’t something I could figure out in the short time I had been home. He did tend to stay up late, though, and I’d seen his lights on at all hours of the night, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to him yet.

  “Okay get going,” I said to the girls as I tapped on the roof of the car.

  The car slowly took off, and I turned to walk inside. I could barely keep myself upright as my heels wobbled in the cobblestone of my parents’ driveway. My mother had insisted on putting the rocky stone into our driveway instead of a regular cement slab. She obviously hadn’t been thinking about how hard it would be for me to walk in at three o’clock in the morning with my 4-inch heels and a plethora of alcohol in my system.

  The five martinis I’d been sipping on all night long were rushing through my blood stream as I tried to unlock my front door. The key flopped around in my hand, slipped through my fingers, and was decidedly uncooperative as I spent at least five minutes trying to get into my house. It was a good thing my parents were heavy sleepers, or I’d surely have heard an earful from them with all the noise I was making.

  As the key finally slipped into the lock, I looked up at the neighbor’s window just to make sure he hadn’t seen that debacle. There were no lights on so I couldn’t tell if he had seen me or not, but I hoped he had not. The last thing I wanted him to see was me fumbling and nearly falling as I’d tried to make it into my house; that wasn’t a very ladylike picture at all.

  I slipped my heels off as I ascended the wooden stairs of our grand foyer and then walked down the hallway toward my room. Our house was much larger than it needed to be. My parents had their master bedroom on the main floor and never even came upstairs now that all of us kids were older. The upstairs consisted of four very large bedrooms, all with their own bathrooms and walk-in closets. Mine was on the east side of the home and faced the hot neighbor’s house.

  I flipped the light on as I walked into my room and then quickly turned it back off so my neighbor couldn’t see into my room as easily. I wasn’t sure if he was still up or if he even cared to look in my room that night, but to give myself the upper hand, I left the light off. My fingers slipped around the smooth blue curtain that covered my window as I pushed it open. In the dark of my bedroom, I had a clear view into the master suite of the hot guy’s house. It was dark also, so I as
sumed he had gone off to bed.

  I didn’t bother to slide my dress off and instead fell right onto my bed as I closed my eyes and gave in to the exhaustion that I felt in every muscle of my body. The morning would be there sooner than I wanted it to be. With my curtains left open, I’d be able to wake up as the sun rose and hopefully get a nice breakfast and run before it warmed up too much.

  ***

  “We are leaving Lillian, grunt if you are still alive up there,” my father yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

  I heard his words and rolled over in bed as I tried to gather my voice to respond. I had clearly slept past the sunrise and well into the early morning hours if my parents were already on their way out for the day.

  “I’m alive,” I said without opening my eyes.

  I didn’t feel all that lively, though, and every inch of my body ached with a hangover. Since moving home, my parents gave me the freedom to come and go as I pleased, although they still worried about me, and they certainly didn’t like it if I came home late and woke them up. My father probably worried just as much now as he had when I was in high school, but at least he wasn’t sitting in the old recliner waiting up for me every night.

  “Dinner at Romeo’s tonight if you’re home at six. Otherwise, we will bring you some leftovers. Love you, sweetheart,” my mother said, and then I heard the front door close behind them as they didn’t wait for me to respond.

  My eyes were practically glued shut, and my lips were so dry that I felt them crack as I opened my mouth. A late night of partying always had a morning of suffering attached to it for me. I couldn’t understand how Anna never seemed to have a hangover. She wasn’t even legally old enough to drink, yet she was much better at it than I was. Drinking and partying weren’t always my thing, but since breaking up with my boyfriend and moving back in with my parents, drinking felt like the right thing to do at this particular moment in my life. I was trying to find myself. Trying to find the next big thing in my life, and there was no hurry as I navigated the fun of the moment.