Deep Blue Forever (Deep Blue Series)

by Nichols, Amie

  "Of course, you know for never having met your father, you are just like him." Dan saying that doesn't do him any favors, because right now my hormonal girl is not a fan of her father.

  "Did they find the tape?" She asks through pursed lips.

  "Yes, it was playing on a loop when the body was found," he says gently.

  "Where is it now?" She asks, and I can see her panic for a moment.

  "It's in evidence in case this goes to trial." Shit, there is that look I hate. The look of panic at the thought of how many people are going to be watching this tape before it is all over. I'm sure I have the same panicked look on my face.

  "Let's get this over with," she says, following Dan into the station with a firm grip on my hand. She is squeezing it like I am going to drift away. I wrap my arm around her tiny waist and pull her tight to me so she knows I am here. I'm not going anywhere, baby.

  The first question is that they want to know where she was the night of the murder. They had a time of death around midnight, the night she arrived from Denver. After the Michelle incident, we arrived at the castle at around 11:00 pm. Her alibi was me. Even though we had security footage to prove that she had never left the house, they weren't quite convinced that I was an airtight alibi. Since I was in security, they said that security tapes could be altered.

  They said they had enough evidence to keep Aubrey as a person of interest, but with some fast work on Dan's part they made a deal with the DA. Aubrey would surrender her passport and pay the million dollar bond, but she could not leave New York. Thank God for Dan, because there was no way in hell my girl was going to be spending the night in jail.

  Arriving back at the house, Aubrey is handling things very well. I went ahead and sent the jet to pick up Miry. I think some girl time will be good for her.

  "Miry!" Aubrey says when she sees her, going to her to give her a big hug. "I'm so glad you are here." She beams at her and they take off into the kitchen clucking like hens, Miry admiring the new rock on her finger.

  "And to think, he was in New York this whole time. He rented the apartment two months ago under a different name." I can't believe he was so close the whole time, and that Michelle was the one that drew him out.

  "What was the evidence?" Sam asks as we go into the office off the den. I need a drink. Pouring Sam and me a shot of whiskey, I explain about the gun.

  "It's scary. I have no doubt in my mind that Michelle killed Jim Olsen using Aubrey's dad's gun. How much further will she go with this?" I down the shot, and pour another. "Now we can't even leave New York. I feel helpless."

  "First thing tomorrow I will pay a visit to Ms. Tandi Jackson. I'll make sure that she knows it's in her best interest to tell the truth about the gun," Sam says sitting in one of the high back leather chairs.

  "We have around the clock security here. This place is locked up like a fortress. There is no way she is getting in here, mate." Sam is trying to get me to calm down, but it's not working. If it were anyone else besides Michelle I'd say we were fine, but I've seen her in action, and she is mission mode right now. Nothing will stop her from completing her mission.

  "We need to keep her as calm as possible no matter what." Because now I'm not just protecting my girl, I'm protecting our child.

  Chapter 11

  Aubrey

  Rex showed up the next day. He had received a call from NYPD about two minutes after Ian had called him. Being Jim Olsen's only next of kin, he had to come I.D. the body as a formality. He went straight from the airport to the station before he came to the castle.

  "I hope you are not getting yourself worked up, baby girl," Rex says as he gives me one of his bear hugs.

  "I'm taking good care of her," Ian says, all but pulling me away from Rex's embrace.

  "I'm sorry, Rex," I tell him. Even though I know he hated his father, it still has to be hard for him.

  "Looked like the bastard got just what he deserved," he says deadpan, not even flinching. "I'm more worried about you. Do they really think you killed him?"

  "I think they know I didn't, but until they have proof that I have never had possession of the gun, they have to follow procedure. At least, that is what Dan is saying."

  "Whatever you need me to do, just let me know." He tells me as we go into the kitchen.

  "So, Heidi? Were you guys in L.A.? Was she mad you had to leave her again for me?"

  "No she wasn't. I don't know, baby girl, this one's different," Rex says looking down at the counter flicking his finger over the shinny marble.

  "Well, Rex Olsen, I do believe you are smitten," I tease, and Ian laughs standing beside me.

  "Has someone been hit with cupid's arrow?" Ian says, and I can't help but notice the happy look on Ian's face.

  "She's pretty cool, not to mention gorgeous as hell," he says grabbing a beer from the fridge, handing one to Ian also. Flipping off the cap, he takes a long drink.

  "No denying, that's something." I know now that Rex might have found his one. I've never seen him like this.

  "Well, when it's right, it's right. You know what I am talking about." He gives me a wink and nods at Ian.

  Rex left that night seeing that everything is under control as much as it can be. Truthfully, I think he was anxious to get back to Heidi.

  I went to bed early that night, being exhausted. Part of the pregnancy thing. Once there, though, I was wide awake. I laid in bed staring at the ceiling, my mind on everything from the baby, to Michelle.

  "You still awake, baby?" Ian enters the bedroom grabbing the back of his t-shirt, pulling it off as he stands by the bed. "I thought you'd be sound asleep by now," he says while shrugging out of his jeans, leaving him looking magnificent in his black boxer briefs.

  "I couldn't sleep, too much running through my mind," I tell him, twirling a strand of hair as I admire the view coming from the bathroom, where he is now brushing his teeth.

  "Do you want to talk about it?" He asks turning around, his voice muffled by the toothbrush in his mouth. He sees the look in my eyes as I move them over his glorious body, and he gives me one of his panty dropping winks and his dimple smile.

  "Not really, I can think of something else I would like to do to get my mind off things." I now have the tip of my index finger in my mouth and I throw the blankets off his side of the bed inviting him to join me.

  "That's my girl," he says rinsing out his mouth. With a running jump, he is on the bed. I am tousled about by the impact.

  "So what did you have in mind, beautiful?" Ian asks lying on his side with his head propped up on one elbow. He takes his index finger and lifts up the hem of my silk nightie.

  "Oh, I don't know, maybe some of this." I go to him and start to kiss his chest, moving to his neck before I take his lips with mine. He moves in claiming my mouth, slipping his tongue between my lips with his passionate expert kiss. His kisses do things to my body that have me wet and ready in no time. He doesn't take long to find out just how ready I am for him.

  "I love how wet you get for me, baby." He growls, moving his hand under my panties he finds my center, making every worry and thought in my mind disappear.

  "You do things to me, baby," I moan into his mouth.

  "Ditto, baby." He groans pushing his very hard erection into my thigh.

  About an hour later, we are lying in each other's arms panting and exhausted. I fall asleep fast after that, warm and safe tucked into Ian's strong, hard body.

  I awake in the middle of the night. It feels like there is someone watching me. I get the same feeling as I did on the plane and the little hairs on my neck stand up. I look over at Ian who is sound asleep lying on his stomach, one hand draped over my belly. The room is dark, just a dim light from the night light in the bathroom. I prop myself up on my eyebrows and try to focus. I don't hear anything, just get the weird feeling that someone else is in the room.

  Maybe it was a dream. Maybe you're going crazy, Aubrey. After about a minute of scanning the room, my eyes adjust and see n
othing. I lie my head back down and drift off again.

  The next morning we are sitting around the table eating breakfast. "I think we should start making wedding plans, so you can get married without a baby bump," Miry says to distract me from the boy's conversation. Ethan is eating with us so he can take notes of what I need him to do. My memory seems shot this past week with everything going on. I have a hard time remembering just what needs done in the multimillion dollar company I run. Ethan has been a miracle, though. He hired an assistant, Charlie Thorpe, who happened to have a masters in business. Charlie is doing most of the business stuff, and Ethan is more like his assistant, but they both make good money so neither is complaining yet.

  "I'm game for a fast, small wedding, but I want to get married in North Carolina on the beach. So not till I'm cleared to leave," I tell Miry, which gets Ian's attention.

  "You want to get married on the beach in North Carolina?" He beams at me looking a little shocked.

  "Yes, baby." I tell him giving him a look of where did you think I wanted to get married. "Not like your Uncle Troy's wedding, of course. I want small, like just Mags, Sam and Miry, Rex, and my aunt and uncle. And whoever you want, also," I add at the end, realizing he might want a big wedding. God I hope not.

  "Sounds perfect, and the sooner the better," Ian says flashing me his dimples.

  "I agree, this house is starting to give me the creeps. I would love to be back on the beach."

  All eyes are on me as if I just told them I saw a ghost or something.

  "What do you mean you're getting the creeps?" Ian questions immediately.

  "I don't know, just like last night I woke up and I felt like someone was watching me. Then this morning in the shower, I could have sworn someone else was in the bathroom with me. I looked out expecting so see you," I motion toward Ian, "but no one was there. I think I'm paranoid with Michelle and all." Ian and Sam turn to one another with a look that says maybe I wasn't imagining the whole thing.

  "Why didn't you wake me last night?" Ian asks. I can't tell if he is pissed or just worried.

  "Because no one was there, I looked. No one was there." I defend myself from his peering deep blues. "It was just my imagination running wild, right? How could she be in the house? It's locked up like a fortress."

  Sam and Ian get up. I hear Ian on the phone calling for people to come in to do a sweep of the house. I look at Miry and Ethan, who both have the same confused look on their faces.

  "You guys stay in here!" Ian barks out his order.

  "Do you really think she is in here?" I ask before he is out of the room.

  "Probably not, sweetie, just want to make sure," he says kissing the top of my head before he is out of the room.

  Chapter 12

  Ian

  When I saw Sam's face after Aubrey told us her feeling of being watched, I knew that he thought the same thing as me.

  "Just a precaution, mate. We will search the place from top to bottom, and if she was here..." Sam stops looking at me knowing full well that if Michelle was in this house, and she didn't want to be found, we would find no trace of her.

  "Yeah, I know," is all I say to Sam's worried face. Michelle is in attack mode. She is on the run. She has one enemy right now, and that is my girl. Nothing is scarier than a woman on a mission, especially a woman with the skills Michelle has.

  "I wish I could get her the hell out of here." I am so out of my element in this huge house, in a city I am not very familiar with. And I'm scared to death for Aubrey and our unborn child.

  "Dan said it could be a few more days before he can get the DA to let her leave the state." We found out this morning that Tandi confessed to selling the gun. She said she didn't know who it was and that the lady was wearing a blonde wig. That at least took the heat off Aubrey, but she still hadn't been cleared to leave New York. And if Tandi wasn't such a brain dead bimbo, she might have actually given us something more to go on then a blonde wig and sun glasses.

  "Right now you need to focus on Aubrey and keeping her calm. Hopefully we will find Michelle soon," Sam says to me as we are searching every corner of the upstairs. There is empty room after room the place is so huge.

  "I think we should board up the empty rooms in case she is getting in one of the windows somehow," Sam suggests. I don't know how the hell she could do that since none of the security seals have been broken. Not even Michelle is that good getting in and out. I have no doubt she could get in, but out and still have the security system in place? No one is that good unless they have help. Knowing Michelle as well as I do, I know that there is no one that she knows and trusts that could do this. At least I hope to God there isn't.

  We search the entire house from the attic to the basement and find nothing. No evidence of anyone hiding out or of breaking in. Although it is not like my girl to be paranoid, a lot of things with the pregnancy have changed her, and maybe that is one of them.

  Later that night Sam, Miry, Aubrey and I are sitting around the table playing a game of cards to pass the time. Aubrey is starting to get cabin fever after being stuck inside for the last few days, and I can tell she is getting anxious. Dan had told us to keep Aubrey inside. That he was trying like hell to keep the story out of the press. We could see the headline, "Millionaire Questioned About Murder of Former Boyfriend's Rex Olsen Father After Finding There Was a Sex Tape". None of us wanted that, not just for Aubrey, but for the company, and of course for Rex.

  She has been doing a good job of staying out of the press since she had inherited her father's business.

  Not only did she not want to be known as Rex Olsen's ex girlfriend, she didn't want Jim Olsen to see anything about her. Even though she kept all her secrets buried, she still knew that he could pose trouble for her one day, which he did, but only because of Michelle.

  The press knew very little about Aubrey Jackson, and it was going to stay that way. That's why their first board meeting was held in Las Vegas, to keep the press away. I never knew this until Aubrey told me later, but she moved it at the last minute to throw them off. It was starting to be rumored that there was no one to take William Jackson place. That he left everything within the company.

  Even though Tandi tried to sell her story, Aubrey's PR team was on it and had paid off the right people to keep the story out of the papers. Now more than anything, Aubrey was more than ready to go back to North Carolina. She was even ready to sell the castle and be done with it all.

  "This place really is too big, it's not homey enough." Aubrey told us all as she started looking around the huge dining room. "I mean, I can't even imagine raising children in this place."

  "Children, do you have more than one in there?" Miry says almost choking on her wine. She was not shy about the fact that she did not want children. Sam did, but it wasn't a deal breaker. Obviously, because he knew it before they got married.

  "Well child, but you never know. We might have another one someday," she says looking at me apprehensively.

  "I'll take as many little Aubrey's as you want to pop out, baby." I just smile at her and it makes her laugh. I've said it before, and I will say it again, I do love the sound of my girls' laugh.

  "Or little Ian's, shit! Please don't have a bunch of those, pleeeease for all our sakes!" Sam says making us all laugh.

  Chapter 13

  Aubrey

  I excused myself early telling everyone I was going to bed. Ian walked up with me doing a quick check of the upstairs after I was tucked into bed and had been thoroughly kissed goodnight. He was satisfied that everything was safe and told me he would come to bed in a bit, that he just wanted to take care of a few things first. It didn't take long for me to fall to sleep.

  I was awaken again by that same eerie feeling, the feeling that I wasn't alone. Ian hadn't come to bed yet, and the light in the hall was still on. I sit up in bed and look around the room.

  That's when I see the black shadow in the corner. It moves. It comes toward me, and before I can make a sound the
re's a cold hand over my mouth.

  I'm looking into the cold, hate filled eyes of Michelle. She has her hand over my mouth, and before I can even blink she is tying a gag over my mouth. I whimper in pain as she works to tie my hands behind my back.

  "You know, you should be in jail right now for murder," she spews at me cinching the ties around my wrist tight as I try to fight against her, "but little rich bitch has all the money in the world to keep her out of jail." She grates pulling me off the bed, letting me fall to the floor. I am now laying on my side in pain from the very awkward position my body is in.

  I curl my legs up in instinct to protect my belly. The night Jim Olsen attacked me comes rushing back. The tears are flowing, and I am trying like hell to scream for Ian, but all that comes out is a meek whimper.

  "Now because of those stupid idiots, Tandi and Matt, they know you didn't have the gun. She had to go and tell the cops that she sold the gun. Did she think I wouldn't find out?" She is down on her knees in front of me asking me like I can answer her.

  "I have to say, though, if it wasn't for those numb skulls I never would have been able to get it in here. They told me about the secret entrance in the basement." She's inches from my face telling me her secret. "Not even Ian found it, it was that hidden." She seems proud of herself as she sits back up.

  "He was mine, he was all mine. In Egypt we were happy. Even though it was an act, I know he was happy. We've had some pretty intense moments the two of us." She is looking straight ahead as she reveals her memories to me, and she is smiling like it is all still true.

  "I was waiting patiently for him. I knew we would be together one day. You don't share what we shared and not mean something to someone." She stands now and reaches behind her pulling a gun from her waist band. I try again to scream with no effect.