Her stomach had dropped as she watched the guy open one of the sacks and pull out a stack of cash. He fanned it over his face and smiled. That’s when her mouth acted before her brain.
“Oh, shit,” the guy said.
He rushed toward her and covered her mouth before she could scream again. She fought against him, kicking and yelling behind his hand, but it was no use.
“Shh,” he whispered in her ear. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
Taylor’s body shook, but she opened her eyes to face them anyway. That’s when she saw Levi come running into the room. She squinted at his form silhouetted by the bright midday sun in the doorway. Her pleas grew quiet.
“Taylor,” he breathed. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her eyes. He walked past the girl, past the box, and approached her carefully. “He’s going to let you go now, don’t scream, okay?”
Kyle’s hand loosened from her mouth and dropped away, but his other arm still held her hands down. Taylor’s mind raced with possible explanations, but none of them made any sense. She looked to Levi, who wouldn’t meet her gaze
“Who is that?” she asked. “And that? And what is this?” Taylor nodded to the sacks of money.
Levi stood there silently. His mouth dropped open a few times but nothing came out. The other two just stood there silently, obviously waiting to take their cue from Levi. Taylor tried to shake out of the guy’s hold, but it was no use. Over the sound of their heavy breathing and chirping birds outside, came a click-clack noise that drew closer. Someone was coming.
Taylor’s eyes darted around the room to each of them before settling on the open doorway.
“Whoa! What’s all this?” Mandy asked.
“The washing machine broke,” Levi almost shouted. “I had to order a new one.”
He waved toward the new machine against the wall, his eyes pleading with Taylor to play along. The guy that held her dropped his hands but still stood too close. She was so confused, but something in her wanted to help. Mandy’s eyes glided over the room before coming back to Levi.
“I was just keeping Levi company while these guys delivered the new machine,” she said. “They were showing me their tools.”
Mandy looked at her, really looked at her. Taylor felt like the lie was a neon sign blinking over her head. She wasn’t sure why she was lying for Levi, but she felt compelled to do so. Mandy looked leery, but she shrugged and turned toward Levi.
“Well, okay. When Vanessa called me this morning, I knew you’d be here,” she said, trailing her fingertips along his shoulder. “While I was out running errands, I just wanted to make sure everything was under control.”
“It is,” Levi said, stepping away from her.
“And I was hoping we could grab lunch or something when you’re done. I’d really like to talk to you about”—her eyes nervously scanned the group before finishing—“something.”
Before Levi could answer, Taylor blurted, “You were running errands dressed like that?” The skin-tight dress and three-inch heels hardly looked like errand clothes. This girl looked like she was headed to a nightclub or out to seduce a man. The latter being abundantly clear.
Mandy looked shocked and frowned at Taylor. “Yes, well, I have a social engagement in a few hours. I won’t get a chance to go home before.”
“Of course,” Taylor answered.
“Well, I really need to get this installation done,” Levi insisted. “I’ve got somewhere to be as well.”
Mandy huffed. “Okay, then. Seems like you’ve got it taken care of. See you on Monday. We’ll talk then.”
Mandy gave a wave and scurried away as fast as her imitation heels could carry her. When they heard the sound of her car starting, Levi stepped toward Taylor. He gave her a weak smile.
“Thanks for that,” he said.
“It still doesn’t explain what’s going on here!” Taylor whispered through gritted teeth.
“What’s going on here, is retribution,” a familiar voice said.
“Boss?” the tall guy said, turning toward the sound. “What are you doing in here?”
Taylor sucked in a breath, though the oxygen did nothing to help her spinning head.
“Nadine?”
20. julia hudson and banished
“Hello, Taylor.”
As hard as she tried, Taylor could not work out the scene unfolding before her. Nadine, Levi, two other people, and box full of cash just didn’t make sense.
“I don’t understand. Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” The silence hung in the air and no one moved. It felt surreal and, at the same time, like the most real nightmare she’d ever had. “Levi?” she asked, looking to him for an answer.
“Taylor, I—” He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair. She could see the muscles in his jaw twitch as he ground his teeth together. “I can’t,” he started and stopped again.
“I got this, Levi,” Nadine said, pushing past him and standing before Taylor.
“Boss, I can—”
“Obviously, you can’t,” Nadine interrupted. Gone was the cheery assistant that Taylor knew. This woman held authority here.
“Why do you keep calling her Boss?” Taylor asked.
“Because that’s who I am, Taylor. I’m his boss. Levi doesn’t just work for your father, he also works for me.”
“What? I don’t—”
“Enough,” Nadine said, stepping toward Taylor. Taylor shrank back into the man behind her, trying to escape the woman’s threatening gaze.
“I’ve been planning this for a year now. Had these guys with me for six months. Your dear Levi is what we like to call ‘the inside man.’ He was here for one reason only, to find your father’s safe.”
Taylor looked at Levi, who looked at the ground. He leaned back against the wall and banged his head against it. When he finally raised his eyes to meet hers, they were flooded with guilt.
“This is Henry’s money?” she asked.
“Not anymore,” Nadine answered. “Now it’s mine.”
“Ours,” the guy behind Taylor corrected.
“Yes, ours,” Nadine said.
“But you said it was retribution. For what? What the hell has my father ever done that you didn’t beg for?”
Nadine threw back her head and laughed, her voice returning to its usual light and sweet tone. “I never slept with your father, Taylor. I couldn’t sleep with him. That would be incest.”
“What?” Levi said, pushing off of the wall.
Taylor watched the guys look at each other and back to Nadine. It seemed they were in the dark as far as this was concerned.
“Boys, go ahead while I handle this situation,” Nadine said. “Kyle, you can go. She’s not going anywhere. Crystal, help Levi get this to the truck.”
Levi stepped next to her and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nah, I think we’d all like to hear this.”
“Actually, we don’t have time,” Nadine pointed out. “There is another person in this house. We’ve got to get moving.”
“She’s right,” Crystal said.
“What do we do with her?” Kyle asked, gesturing to Taylor.
Nadine looked at her watch and sighed. “Take her with us.”
“What? No,” Levi said. “No way.”
Nadine turned to Levi, her expression irritated. “We can’t leave her here to call the police before we’re even gone. Stop thinking with your dick and get her in the damn truck,” she said.
Levi pulled his lips into his mouth and bit down as Taylor watched Nadine stare him down. He finally nodded and grabbed Taylor by the elbow.
“Let go of me,” Taylor growled.
“Just cooperate, Taylor,” he begged. “Please.”
But she didn’t cooperate. He dragged her out the door and toward the truck, where he forced her to crawl inside. Levi hopped up after her and leaned against the broken washing machine. Taylor looked at him, and suddenly all the fear fell away. She became enraged. He was
a lying, manipulative asshole. No better than her parents. He’d once passed judgment on her and only now did she see the irony.
“So you were just using me to get the money, right?” she blurted out. Levi’s eyes met her watery ones, but he didn’t say a word. “Just keep the dumb Hudson girl busy while you find the safe, huh?” His brow furrowed, heavy over his blue-green eyes. She couldn’t stop the tears that left trails down her cheeks. “Were you getting paid extra to screw me too? Or was that just a bonus?”
Taylor twisted her shaking hands together before wiping the tears from her face.
“It wasn’t like that, Taylor.”
“It wasn’t like what? It wasn’t like you were planning to rob my father blind while sleeping with his daughter? Man up and be honest with me. You know what?” she yelled, her arms crossing over her stomach, fingers clawing into her ribs. “I don’t even care about the money. Henry deserves that and worse. But you? You were supposed to be different.”
Taylor broke down, sobbing into her hands, as she realized it had all been a lie. Her heart went from sharp stuttered beats to a dull ache inside her chest. Her knees felt weak and she slid down the truck wall, sitting on the floor. Taylor cursed her body’s reaction to heartbreak. The way his hands held her, the secret kisses and deep connection had all been an illusion. Levi had played her like a fool, and she’d fallen hard and completely.
“I never meant for this to happen. I never meant for things to get so … complicated.”
“Complicated? Levi, I fell in love with you!” she admitted, the words spilling from her lips before she could stop them. Instantly, Taylor wanted to take them back, no matter how true they were. She had made herself vulnerable and now it was out there, declared in front of the one person who didn’t deserve to hear it.
Levi frowned at her and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes shifting from her face to the ground. Taylor sniffled and pulled her knees up to her chest. She felt suffocated, as if the walls of the truck were closing in on her.
Kyle and Crystal loaded the box onto the lift gate and pushed it into the truck.
“We’ve got to go, Levi,” Crystal said. “I’ll ride back here with Taylor. Kyle, you and the Boss are up front.”
Kyle nodded and hopped down out of the truck. Levi turned his back to Taylor and jumped out as well. He closed one door and looked up at her, his eyes not giving anything away. With a heavy arm and a cold shoulder, he slammed the second door shut, severing their gaze and what was left of her heart.
Crystal took a seat across from Taylor in the dark and leaned against the wall.
“Just cooperate and all this will be easy, okay? We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Too late,” she whispered to no one but herself.
* * *
When Levi finished installing the new washer, he cleaned up the space and took a look around. He wandered from room to room in search of Vanessa, meanwhile saying good-bye to the house that had proved to be quite an adversary. In the study, he took his time looking over the books and running his fingers along the leather chair Taylor had occupied while he recited Whitman.
Not finding anyone downstairs, Levi used the panel in the kitchen to page the entire house.
“Vanessa, the new machine is installed. I’m heading out.”
He let go of the button and waited for a reply. When it beeped, loud music played and she shouted over it.
“Thanks, Levi! Have a good weekend. Sorry I messed up your day off. See you around.”
Levi didn’t reply. In a daze, he walked to his truck and climbed inside. The drive to the Boss’s place was a mindless blur. He robotically made each turn, stopped at each light, and merged in and out of traffic, never thinking about his destination until he arrived. The sight of the delivery truck seemed to shock him out of his stupor. Taylor is here. She’d better be safe, or everyone else in that building would be sorry.
Levi grabbed two empty suitcases from his truck and carried them inside. In the main room, he found Nadine, Kyle, and Crystal dividing the money.
“Where’s Taylor?” he asked, searching the room. Kyle nodded toward the bathroom. “What are you going to do with her, Boss?”
“We’ll just keep her here until we’re ready to go,” Nadine answered, tucking stacks of cash into shipping boxes. “I have a feeling after she knows the truth, she won’t be telling anyone anything.”
“What about this retribution talk? Do you have some kind of connection to this family?” Crystal asked.
“I’d like to know that too.” Everyone spun to find Taylor standing in the bathroom doorway. Her arms were wrapped around her body, armor between her and them. Her blue eyes were red, and they watched Levi closely.
Nadine took a seat and gestured for Taylor to sit. She shuffled toward the table, pulled a chair away from Nadine, and sat down. Distracted from their money, Kyle and Crystal took seats as well. Levi remained standing, his nerves making it impossible to sit. Nadine turned toward Taylor and casually crossed her legs, her expression softened.
“Have you ever heard of Julia Hudson?”
Taylor shook her head. Even though she now remembered the name Julia from her grandmother, she wasn’t sure how much she should share.
“That name was on the folder you took from Henry’s office.”
Nadine nodded. “She is Henry’s older sister.”
“My father doesn’t have a sister. He’s an only child,” Taylor argued.
“That’s not true. She was born with Down syndrome. Because of that, your grandfather placed her in a shoddy mental care facility at the age of five. Since then, she’s never spent one day away from that place. She was never cared for or educated, never treated with respect or dignity. She was locked up and hidden away, because she represented a flaw in the pristine Hudson family.”
Taylor shook her head in disbelief. “Why would he do that?”
“You know that this family is all about appearances, Taylor. All about the illusion of the prestigious Hudson name.
“When Julia was nineteen, she became pregnant. The administrators didn’t know who the father was. It could have been another patient or someone on the staff. The facility was afraid of backlash from the wealthy family and never notified anyone. Instead of investigating, they covered it up and pretended it never happened. They didn’t even know she was pregnant until she was six months along.”
Taylor covered her mouth with her hand.
“You’re her daughter,” Levi said.
“I am,” Nadine answered. “I was put into state custody and adopted out. They were so desperate that no one ever be able to trace my existence back to the Hudson family that they listed my last name as Smith.”
“I didn’t know,” Taylor said.
“How could you? When our grandfather died, Julia’s care passed to your father. In true Hudson fashion, he didn’t want anything to do with her either. He moved her to a shit hole worse than the first one to save money.” There was fire in Nadine’s voice now, a fiery sadness. “I’m here to take what’s hers, so I can provide her with a better life for whatever time she’s got left.”
“How did you find all this out?” Levi asked.
“I hired a private investigator to find my birth parents when I discovered I was adopted. He was very thorough. Once he connected me to Julia, the rest was easy. You have no idea how many disgruntled employees will spill information with hardly any coercion.”
“I’m sorry, Nadine. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Taylor. But what you can do now is not be like them. Be different … better. Return some kind of honor to this family.”
“Well, I sure didn’t see that coming,” Kyle said.
He and Crystal resumed packing up their money, leaving the women at the table. Levi unzipped his suitcases and began loading his share.
“You’re my cousin,” Taylor said.
“Yes. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you and that I can’t stick around. I just need this mo
ney to get my mom somewhere safe and then I’ll disappear. Are you going to be a problem?” Nadine asked, one eyebrow raised over blue eyes that matched Taylor’s.
“No,” Taylor answered, her voice barely audible.
“Okay, we’re done here,” Crystal announced.
Nadine stood and held her hand out toward Crystal. “It’s been a pleasure working with you. Good luck,” she offered.
Crystal and Kyle shook her hand. She approached Levi and held out her hand again. He grabbed it and shook twice before pulling away.
“Levi,” she said, “thanks for all your work and putting together this team.”
He nodded and that was it. Nadine taped up her boxes, slapped shipping labels on them, and left them stacked by the front door.
“I’m having a courier service pick these up. As soon as you are ready to go, she’s free to leave.”
With that, Nadine was out the door and gone from their lives forever. Taylor stared at the door, looking so young and frail. Levi wanted to go to her, to hold her and whisper promises in her ear. But he couldn’t. He shouldn’t.
“Well,” Kyle said. “It’s been real, you fuckers. Maybe we’ll run into each other one day.”
“Try not to spend it all on beer and hookers,” Crystal teased. They hugged and patted each other on the back.
“Levi, take care of yourself,” Kyle said. The two embraced, and Kyle disappeared through the door without looking back.
“I’m out too,” Crystal said. “I’ve got a hot boyfriend to pick up before splitting town.”
Levi smiled, surprised at Crystal’s admission. “You’re taking Gregory with you?”
Crystal nodded and grabbed her bags. “I’ll see you around,” she said before the door closed between them.
“No, you won’t,” Levi answered.
He turned to find Taylor watching him. The despair and anger were no longer a mask on her face. She stood and walked toward him. Each footstep seemed harder than the one before. Levi balled his hands into fists and crossed his arms to keep himself from reaching for her.
Perfect Betrayal Page 24
