My Stepbrother's Arrangement (A Stepbrother Romance)

by Jaye, Juliette

  His eyes went back to the screen of the laptop he'd been on.

  I moved my hand forward and closed the lid.

  "Believe me, Mr. Pollock. I have proof that you know exactly what I'm talking about."

  This was when things were about to get interesting.

  "You see, I haven't told my stepfather any of this yet." God, I hoped Kaleb's dad hadn't gone to Pollock the day before. If he had, my whole lie was exposed. "But I could. And I have proof. See, a little blogger who runs a personal finance site just happens to have websites for Appolo Construction, Mercury Paining and Titan Renovation running on the same server. I have proof of this, definitive proof, and also proof linking you to that little blog. But you already know which blog I'm talking about."

  Sure enough, this time his face definitely paled. He was starting to look a bit like a vampire.

  I waited, forcing myself not to say anything else until Pollock finally spoke.

  "You're crazy. I don't know what it is you think I've done, but whatever it is, you're wrong."

  "Fine," I replied. "But I'm just letting you know, the instant I leave this office, my offer's off the table."

  "And what offer would that be? Hypothetically, of course, since I don't know about any of this."

  "Well, hypothetically, I would consider making a deal with the person in question. They get to keep doing what they're doing, no one finds out about it, I do the tech stuff so that no one can connect you to those websites, and I get a 70% cut of what you're embezzling. And remember, I have access to the company files. You can't hide your numbers from me."

  I could practically see Pollock's brain whirring, trying to make this decision.

  "Fine. But 70% is way too much. 30%. After all, I'm the one taking all the risk."

  "Fifty."

  "Forty five. That's my final offer."

  "Fine. When can I expect my first payment?"

  "Before I tell you anything, I want to know why?"

  "Why what?"

  "Why are you doing this? Why not just go to your stepfather with the info? After all, Kaleb is the one I figured would do something like this. You seem more like the tattle tale of the two. Little miss perfect and all."

  I smiled. "Kaleb and I are a lot closer than most people imagine. He may have... rubbed off on me, just a little bit."

  I took a deep breath and continued. I had to really sell this next part.

  "Kaleb's father wants him to sell the company. He thinks women belong in the kitchen. If you know him, you know I'm not lying to you. So basically, he wants to give Kaleb the company and hopes I just marry rich. I want more than that. This company is as much mine as it is Kaleb's. Our parents are married, after all. So I'm just after my due. My rightful due."

  Pollock looked at me for what felt like an eternity. Inside my chest I could feel my heart rocketing at a million beats a minute. I was so close. So, so close.

  Was I going to cross the line, or was I going to collapse and fall, just feet away from the red ribbon?

  "Fine. You can expect your first payment in October. There's an apartment complex we're building in Palo Alto. Real Estate in that area is on fire with the tech industry."

  "How much?"

  "Your share will be around four hundred grand. Give or take. We'll see. As you say, you can check the numbers anyway."

  I smiled as I mentally crashed through the finish line, hordes of people cheering me on. I had done it. I had the confession. I was going to be able to make everything right.

  "Excellent. Thank you for your understanding Mr. Pollock, I believe we have a deal," I told him, getting up from my seat and moving my hand foward to shake his hand.

  What I didn't realize was that when I got up, I knocked my purse over, and my phone fell onto the floor, the recording still going, the big red square in the middle of the recording dot making it obvious what I was doing.

  It was like time stood still for a couple minutes. We both sat there, looking at each other, and at the phone, neither one of us knowing what to do.

  Finally, Pollock's face turned such a deep shade of red he could have been mistaken for a beet.

  "What the fuck is this?" he asked, motioning at the phone, still recording on the floor.

  "I'm, well, I'm," I stammered, my brain desperately trying to come up with something. Anything.

  "I need insurance. You know, in case you don't keep to your part of the bargain."

  "Why would you possibly need insurance? You've got all the proof you need. Unless you didn't need any proof at all, you just wanted to get me on tape admitting to what I'd done."

  Fuck. I was so close, then I tripped and stumbled over the finish line, breaking my leg.

  Pollock came closer to me. I was scared now. Like fully, completely scared.

  Not the kind of scared you get at a Halloween party or anything like that. Scared that I was legitimately going to be hurt by this man.

  My heart was going a million beats per minute.

  I wanted to scream, but my mouth was dry.

  "It won't do you any good to cry for help, this office is soundproof," Pollock told me menacingly as he came closer.

  I looked at the door. Wondered if I could get out in time. I doubted it.

  My hands were wet and clammy from the sweat pouring from me.

  Shit.

  Shit.

  Shit.

  What the fuck was he going to do to me?

  I really didn't want to find out.

  Kaleb

  When I woke up I had the headache from hell.

  Fuck. What the fuck happened?

  I remembered Olivia crying. Those big doe eyes.

  Then I remembered everything else.

  "Shiiiiiit," I muttered to myself as I grabbed the pillow and rolled over. I looked at my phone. Just after nine in the morning.

  How long had I been passed out for?

  Hell, where was I?

  I sat up, slowly, and looked around. The room was spinning, but I gave it a minute and slowly came to.

  I was crashing on Ben's couch. One of my bros. He worked construction, so I figured he was out for the day.

  Getting up, I made my way to the kitchen, downed a couple random pills I found in the bathroom that I hoped were for pain, and thought about whether or not I should try and find some more alcohol to make the other pain go away.

  What the fuck had I told Olivia?

  I had blamed her for everything. I think I told her I ruined her life. Fuck.

  There was no way to really explain that to her, was there? I mean, how do you tell your stepsister you love her?

  I couldn't, so there was no way I could explain what I meant.

  Plus, it was all wrong.

  She didn't ruin my life at all, she made it complete.

  Fuck.

  I considered going home and apologizing. Maybe she wouldn't want an explanation. Maybe I could get away with just saying sorry. After all, she could be pretty understanding.

  God, I could fuck her so hard right now, I thought to myself. And I wanted to. I wanted her tight little body under me, I wanted to ram my cock inside her so hard she thought she was going to explode. I wanted to watch her when she finally did explode, when she milked my cock with the walls of her sex.

  Then I thought about my dad. And his dumb fucking company. And his dumb fucking head that just wouldn't believe what Olivia and I had told him.

  Seriously, what a fucking prick.

  If there was one person I needed to see right now, it was him. I needed to make him understand what we told him. He had to see it. He had to.

  I forced myself to get up. My suit was still lying crumpled on the floor.

  Whatever, good enough.

  I put the suit on and started to make my way downtown, back to the office.

  I was going to tell my dad where he could shove his dumb ass opinions. Something I should have done a long time ago, really.

  As I rode up the elevator at Leeman Investments I thought ab
out what I was going to tell my father. I pictured the words I was going to use. Maybe he'd get pissed off at me again. Whatever. I was used to that. Maybe he'd even fire me.

  Sure, what was the point of working there if he didn't trust his own son over some random dude he went to college with?

  The doors opened and I started down the hall. Suddenly, I stopped.

  You know who else deserves to get hell today? Fucking Andrew Pollock.

  I turned and went towards the other end of the offices, where Andrew Pollock worked. His secretary was at her desk, browsing Facebook while the door to Pollock's office was closed.

  "I need to see Andrew," I told her, and she looked up at me with a bored expression.

  "He's in a meeting."

  "Well this is important."

  "So's that one, he told me no interruptions no matter what."

  "This is more important."

  "You're just going to have to wait."

  "Who's he in a meeting with?"

  "Some chick. Your age."

  Suddenly, it clicked. Holy shit. No way. Absolutely not. Surely she didn't.

  "Brown hair to here, big eyes, like a doe?"

  "That's her."

  Shit.

  Suddenly, things got worse. I heard a muffled cry coming from inside the office.

  "What was that?" I asked the secretary, and she just shrugged, but her bored look had turned to one of slight apprehension.

  "Fuck it, I'm going in there."

  This time, the secretary made no move to stop me. Her face had gone white. I strode over to the big double doors leading to Pollock's office and jammed on the handle. Locked.

  Well, this was why I spent all that time at the gym, wasn't it?

  I slammed my body against the door and the latch broke. I stumbled into Pollock's office to find Olivia huddled in the corner, her face bloodied, and Pollock standing above her.

  "You get the fuck away from her," I ordered, and in a split second I was on top of him.

  I landed punch after punch square in the face.

  "Olivia, get out of here," I ordered her, and without a word she scurried past me, grabbed something off the floor and ran out of the room.

  I was blind with rage. I don't know how many times I hit Pollock. All I could think about was making sure he felt every single blow he dealt my sister a thousand times over.

  Eventually everything went dark.

  I don’t remember much of what happened afterwards.

  I only remembered snatches - Andrew Pollock lying on the floor in a pool of blood. People holding my arms as I tried to kick out at him. A glimpse of Olivia out in the hall, crying, with the secretary’s arm around her. Someone in a uniform, handcuffing me.

  Telling Olivia I loved her as I was led past her.

  Then everything went black.

  Olivia

  You know when you hear something, but you're really not sure that you actually heard what you thought you did, but at the same time, you know you did in fact hear right?

  That had just happened to me.

  They were leading Kaleb away in handcuffs. Everything was chaos.

  Pure and total chaos.

  But for me, everything was standing still.

  Because Kaleb Leeman had just told me he loved me.

  It was barely more than a whisper, so quiet I wasn't totally sure I'd heard.

  But at the same time, I knew. I knew I'd heard right.

  Nothing else mattered.

  Medics were in Pollock's office loading him onto a stretcher. His secretary, who had been comforting me a minute earlier, was now talking to a couple of police officers.

  Suddenly I screamed and lunged at the officers.

  "Let him go! Let him go!" I shouted, trying to get at Kaleb. He looked so out of it. I wondered if he was injured.

  "Ma'am, it's going to be ok. Why don't you come over here and I can take your statement," one of the policemen told me, leading me gently by the arm over to one of the couches.

  Suddenly, Kaleb collapsed.

  I jumped up to help him, but the policeman held me back.

  "There are medics right here. He's going to be fine," he told me, and sure enough, one of the medics who had been accompanying the stretcher with Pollock on it down to the ground floor immediately got on his radio asking for another ambulance and made his way over to Kaleb.

  Oh God, what had I done?

  This was all my fault. Again.

  Every time I tried to make something right, things just got worse.

  "He saved me," I finally whispered. "He saved me."

  "Ok, miss. Can I get your name, please?"

  "Olivia Scott," I whispered, almost on autopilot, my eyes focused on my stepbrother, lying unconscious on the ground, a medic taking his vital signs.

  "And what's your relation to this man?" he asked, motioning at Kaleb.

  "He's my brother. Why is he under arrest?"

  "Both he and Mr. Pollock are under arrest as they've both evidently committed an assault. Don't worry, if your brother is innocent he'll be released. It's just a precautionary measure."

  The man's calm words began to make me feel better, and when he started asking me questions I told him everything that had happened.

  Five minutes later another group of paramedics came in, loaded Kaleb up onto a stretcher as well.

  "Where are they taking him?"

  "Mercy Hospital."

  "I want to go there. Right now."

  The policeman, who had introduced himself as Officer Schiff, paused. I knew he wanted to ask me more questions. After all, it was quite the story.

  "Alright. I'll drive you. Come on," he told me, and I followed him to his patrol car down in the lobby.

  Everywhere I went people did that whole looking-at-someone-but-pretending-not-to thing. Like I had some kind of horrendous disease.

  I supposed everything that had happened passed like wildfire through the building. It's hard for rumours not to fly when the head of accounting and the son of the company's head and founder are taken out by stretcher, one of them in handcuffs.

  We made our way out to the front of the building. Officer Schiff's patrol car was parked on the side of the street, the lights still going. I got into the back of the car and he quickly slipped into the driver's seat and turned on the siren.

  We were going to the hospital express.

  "Thank you for the ride," I told him as he pulled out into traffic.

  "No problem. I figured I'd get you there faster than any cabs could. But believe me, I'm sure your brother's fine. He probably just has a slight concussion from the fight. I've seen it a million times before."

  "I hope so," I replied, my mind still fraught with worry.

  "So what happened to the recording?" Officer Schiff finally asked.

  I gasped, and dove at my purse. In all the pandemoneum I had completely forgotten about the fact that I had grabbed my phone off the floor as I'd run out of the office.

  There it was, sitting in my purse, still recording.

  I pressed stop. It was done. I had the recording, it was there on my phone.

  "I have it here," I replied. "Oh thank God."

  "So explain to me again what you're going to do with it?"

  "I'm showing it to Kaleb's dad, so that he can see that Pollock admitted to embezzling money."

  "I have to say, Miss Scott, that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do."

  I bowed my head as he looked up at me through the rearview mirror.

  "I know," I almost whispered. "I know that now. I shouldn't have done it. I was just trying to make up for the fact that I'd screwed things up completely."

  "Well, we all make mistakes. With your report, I'm going to suggest to the officers when we get to the hospital that your brother be released. He won't be charged with anything."

  "Thank you. Thank you so much. He saved me, I don't know what Pollock would have done if Kaleb hadn't come in."

  "That's what big brothers are for," O
fficer Schiff replied, and I smiled.