* * *
Jamie heard the door open and knew her father had entered Cynthia’s room. She sat up so he knew she was awake, and she didn’t want to wake up Emily.
“Hey sweetie, how are you doing?”
She smiled ever though it was hard for him to see. “I’m okay, not in pain anymore.” Slowly she got out of the bed hoping she wouldn’t wake Emily. She walked to the door and she heard her father follow her.
“Are you sure you still want to have a party tonight?” he asked as he walked to the dark brown couch, sat down and crossed his legs.
Jamie sat across from him in the matching recliner. She’d had a feeling he would want to cancel the party tonight. A part of her couldn’t blame him, but she wouldn’t let it happen. She had been planning the masquerade ball for the last few years. She had always wanted one and now it was happening for her eighteenth birthday. “Dad I don’t want to cancel just because someone wants to kill me. If I did that, then I would be giving that crazy person what he or she wanted. You’ve always taught me to stand up when I’m scared and never run from danger. I won’t start now.” Her father had told her since she could remember, to stand up when she was afraid of something, and never walk away. That was one of the major reason he’d put her into self-defense classes. He’d wanted her to be able to protect herself.
Jamie really looked at her father and saw the dark circles under his eyes. She knew he hadn’t slept much last night and it was her fault. He was worried about her, and was most likely trying to figure out who had tried to blow her up. His normal salt and pepper hair was slicked back away from his handsome face, but today it was messy and in his eyes.
“You know when I found out that your mother and I were having a girl, I was terrified. I didn’t know how to be with a little girl/ I knew how to be with boys, since I am one. Your mother told me that I would know as soon as I held you in my arms, and she was right. From the moment I held you, I knew you were tough and a fighter.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he reopened them, tears were streaming down his cheeks. “Jamie when I heard the bomb go off, my first thought was you, and when I saw you, I nearly lost it. I didn’t know what to do, and I couldn’t believe what had happened. I cd hht w have been checking everything to see how it got past the gate, and I haven’t found anything.”
Jamie wanted to reach out and hold her father, as he buried his face in his hands and wept with his sorrow. The one thought that kept nagging her was inside job. Someone she knew had most likely sent her that package, hoping that it would kill her. “So do you think it was an inside job?” she whispered and her heart raced thinking about it.
Slowly her father lifted his head, and his glossy eyes met hers. “That is my only conclusion and my number one suspect, Henry Roarke, checks out. So I don’t think it’s him, but I know it has to be someone that works for me. Our bomb detectors should have picked up on that package, and it should never have gotten into this house.” Jamie felt her face heat up when he mentioned Henry’s name. She’d thought the same thing when it happened, but she knew he would never hurt her.
She sighed and got up to sit next to her father on the couch. She placed her hand on top of his. “Have you figured out anything?” she wanted to know what he knew and maybe she could tell Henry.
“No nothing yet, but I won’t give up until I find out who did this. I actually have a new guard for you, his name is Matthew Rich, and he comes highly recommended. He will be with you at all times, starting today. I know you don’t want Ryan around you and I agree. He won’t be in the house anymore. He will be outside for now. I should have talked to you before I hired him.”
Jamie looked over at her dad and smiled. She thought back to what she remembered of Matthew. She’d only seen him for a second, but he was hard to forget. He was handsome like his little brother, his blonde hair was shaved which made his green eyes stand out more. Her dad had never really asked her what she wanted. Typically he would just do what he wanted and expected her to go along with it. “Dad it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t completely honest with you about our break up. I should have told you the whole story, but I was embarrassed that he cheated on me. I felt worthless, and I didn’t want you to see me hurt like that.”
Her father took her face in his hands, and fresh tears ran down his cheeks. “I never want to hear you say you are worthless, you could never be worthless. You are the best thing that has happened to me, and you will find someone that will treat you like the queen you are. Your perfect match is out there Jamie and you will be happy. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy.”
Jamie felt her heart breaking for her father, he would want her to be happy, but with a Black. If he knew about her relationship with Henry he wouldn’t be so happy. “One day I will be as happy as you want me to be. And know that when I do I will do anything to keep that happiness,” she said and stood up. She knew he would never accept what she wanted.
“Will you tell me when it happens?” her father’s voice stopped her, and she slowly turned around.
Jamie grinned at him. “Dad if I told you about every g caboed arounuy that was interested in me you would scare them all away. Then I would become an old maid, and I would live with you until I died.”
Her father chuckled, and shook his head. “Fine, but if you are getting serious with someone, I want you to promise you’ll tell me.” He stood up, but didn’t move toward her.
She bit her lip because she wasn’t good at lying in general, and she especially wasn’t good at lying to her father. He could always tell that she was, and she knew one of her indications was her biting her lip, so she stopped. Jamie moved her hands to her back and crossed her pointer and middle finger. “I promise, when I get serious with someone you will be the first to know.” Her chest ached as she told the lie, and he stared at her as if he knew she wasn’t telling him everything.
“That is all I ask, now get some more rest. I will have Matthew wait for you out here, and I will see you later my sweet daughter.”
As her father walked away, her heart broke with every step he took. She knew why she couldn’t tell him, he would lock Henry up without thinking twice. And she would do everything in her power to make sure he never saw the tower.
Three hours later Jamie and Emily walked out of Cynthia’s bedroom. The first thing she saw was Matthew, he was sitting in the same spot her father had been sitting. His bright green eyes were pinned on her, and he had a huge white smile plastered on his handsome face.
“Even as sleeping beauty awakes, she takes my breath away,” he said, his voice deep.
Jamie rolled her eyes. “That is the lamest thing I have ever heard,” she said which made him laugh.
“Yeah it probably is, but I got you to smile. So that has to count for something,” he said and she shook her head, she wasn’t in the mood to flirt, not with him at least. The only one she could think about was Henry and how she would be calling him her husband soon.
Jamie went up the stairs and saw Henry, but he wasn’t alone. Her ex-boyfriend was there, and he slammed Henry against the wall and pinned him there with his arm against Henry’s chest.
Her instinct was to rip Ryan off of the man she loved, but she couldn’t do that. “What the hell is going on here?” Her hands fisted against her sides, and Henry turned his blue eyes to her.
“Jamie leave,” Ryan said, and she stepped closer, but Matthew stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder.
“Ryan you need to let go of him now,” she said as Matthew stepped closer to Ryan and Henry.
“Seriously he is the king of drama. What did you ever see in him?” Emily whispered in her ear ced e ma and Jamie giggled.
Henry looked at her again, that was when Matthew grabbed Ryan’s shoulder, spun the drama king around and broke his hold on Henry. Matthew had a good four inches on him.
“You know I am your boss,” Ryan said, his face turning beat red.
She knew that meant he was about to say or do things that wou
ld get him in trouble. Jamie stepped closer and saw Henry’s warning glance. “Actually, I am your boss, and I want to know what’s going on.”
Ryan looked past Matthew at her. “Babe, no one ever tried to hurt you until this Blue was hired. I’m just doing what I think I should to protect you, and I need to get a confession out of him, since your father doesn’t believe me.” Babe was what he used to call her, at the time she didn’t mind now it made her shudder.
Everyone jumped as someone cleared their throat loudly. She looked over her shoulder and saw her father. He didn’t look too happy and must have heard what was said. She hoped she hadn’t given her feelings about Henry away. Matthew let go of Ryan and walked back to Jamie’s side.
“You will address my daughter as Ms. Moore, unless she tells you otherwise. You will not go over me and question my employees, do you understand me?”
Moments ago Ryan’s face was red, now he’d lost almost all of his color. “Yes…sir.”
“Good, now I believe I put you on guard outside.”
Ryan nodded and walked toward her and to the door. He stared into her eyes for just a second and looked away. She knew he wasn’t done and feared he knew about her and Henry.
“Now what was going on?” her father asked and walked past her to Henry. He looked back at her, though expecting her to answer.
Jamie shrugged. “We came up here and I saw Ryan slamming Henry against the wall.” She looked at Henry, and her chest ached. “He slammed you pretty hard, are you okay?” she knew she shouldn’t be asking him that, but she needed to know. He nodded, and she looked back at her father. He was staring at her as if he was trying to figure something out.
“Crap is that the time?” Emily said, and she glanced at the clock. It was just after one in the afternoon. “Girly if you want me to mess with your fiery hair, we need to start like an hour ago.” She grabbed Jamie’s arm and shook her.
She narrowed her eyes. “Ouch…yeah let’s go. Unless you need me for something.” She looked back at her c ba narrowefather, and he shook his head.
“No I need to speak with Henry, go get ready for your party.”
Jamie forced her eyes to stay away from Henry and turned around to walk away. She had Matthew behind her and Emily to her left. They all walked in silence, and she questioned if she’d said or done anything that would have her father thinking she and Henry might be more than what they wanted him to think. She opened her door, and stared at Matthew. She’d never allowed a guard in her bedroom and she wasn’t starting now. Jamie grabbed her black desk chair and dragged it out of her bedroom. She sat it against the wall and smiled at her new personal guard. “You can sit here, I am pretty sure I don’t be to be guarded in my bedroom,” she said and crossed her arms against her chest.
“You never know you might need to be saved from a curling iron or a blow dryer,” he said and winked at her.
“I was just starting to like you and then you say something like that.” Jamie shook her head and walked into her bedroom. Emily was sitting on her bed glaring at her. “What?”
Emily threw her hands up. “What you ask? Well let’s see, you almost gave yourself away. I think Ryan knows something. Your father seems to be putting things together, do you two always look at each other with stars in your eyes?”
Panic rushed through her as she stared at her best friend. “What are you talking about?” she said over the pounding in her ears.
Emily got up and went into Jamie’s bathroom. When she came back she had a curling iron in her hand. “Jamie every time you look at him, you look like you might pass out. Plus the huge smile on your face is a huge giveaway. He kept it a little subtle, but when he sees you looking at him like you do, he softens a little.” She plugged the curling iron in, and turned to face Jamie.
She frowned, biting her bottom lip. “I wanted to rip Ryan apart for having his hands on Henry,” she said and meant it, she wanted to tear off Ryan’s hands. She knew that her feelings for him were blatantly obvious, but she couldn’t help it. She always felt like she needed to protect what she loved, and that was Henry.
Emily nodded, and sighed. “I know you did and I think everyone in that room knew too. You just need to cool it down around your dad, and especially Ryan. He knows something, and I don’t want to see you put in the tower because he is a jealous ass.”
Jamie nodded, she didn’t care about herself; she knew her father wouldn’t sentence her to death, but he wouldn’t think twice about Henry. She got up and walked over to her best friend, and sat on the chair to have her hair done.
Chapter Twelv f ba nt="2%">
The Kiss
Jamie glanced at herself in the mirror and grinned. She looked beautiful. Her long tresses were curled, pulled to the side, held in place by pins. The curls fell over her shoulder by her face. Her eyes were outline in thin black liner and a pale green eye shadow made her eyes pop. The inside corner of her eyes had light green glitter and she really liked that. Emily reminded her that with her face being covered up by the mask, not too many people would see her until she took it off, but she didn’t care. She loved it. It was close to the time her party would start, so she left her room to find her dad. Matthew did a double take when he saw her, and she grinned.
Slowly his eyes took in her face. “Holy crap! My assignment just got a whole hell of a lot harder,” he said, a huge grin on his face.
If she had met him before she knew Henry, he would have been her type. He was the type of guy her father dreamt she would marry, not a Blue. Jamie rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said and he slowly stood up. “Where is my dad?” she arched one eyebrow at him, and he smiled.
“I believe he’s down the hall in his study.”
She turned sauntered down the hallway. Her father’s bedroom was six doors from hers, and twice the size of hers. In a normal house family pictures lined the walls, but in her house old, framed, oil paintings in all sizes could be found decorating any of the numerous hallways. She thought about how different things were at Emily’s house. There she was included in some of Emily’s family pictures. She’d taken some of her vacations with Emily’s family and she loved them as if they were her own.
She counted two doors past her father’s bedroom and looked at Matthew. “Wait here, I’ll be right out.” Matthew nodded and she grabbed the door knob. She didn’t knock on the door. She just walked in like she always did. Not paying any attention as she walked in, she started to say, “Da-”, but what she saw made her gasp. Her father had his arms around Cynthia, and they were kissing passionately. She must have been loud because they jumped apart as if they were electrocuted.
Jamie had never seen her father kissing anyone before, and for him to be kissing a Blue, well that just seemed a little too hypocritical! She wasn’t mad because Cynthia was a Blue, she loved Cynthia, she was mad because they had been keeping it from her, and she had to wonder for how long?
“Jamie! What’s going on? Are you okay?” Matthew said coming up behind her.
She quickly turned around to stop him from coming inside. “I’m fine,” she said pushing him back. “Just stay out here,” she muttered as she shut the door. She turned around and slid down the back of the door to the ground. She looked at the two people who had raised her, and loved her, even if one of them couldn’t admit it fo kt aynthiar fear of going to the tower. “How long?” she asked as her father moved toward her.
His face grew hard, and she knew he was going to lie to her. “Jamie it’s not what you think.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Please don’t lie to me! I’m not stupid. I saw you!” she said and felt her face heat up with her annoyance.
He closed his eyes. “It been just over sixteen years,” he said, and she glanced at the woman who had raised her since she was born. She was close to her father’s age, but to Jamie she had always seemed older. Maybe it was the white hair.
Jamie looked back at her father, who was staring at her. “What would you do if you caught me making
out with a Blue?”
His eyes narrowed, and his face darkened with fury.
“You don’t need to answer that, I know what you would do! You would sentence him to death without even thinking twice about it!” She stood up and stared at him, she hoped she was keeping her face blank.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked arching one dark eyebrow at her, and she shook her head.
“No, but I think it’s a double standard and it’s not right.” She felt a lump growing in the back of her throat. Jamie placed her hands on the door behind her to help her stand up. She needed to get out of the room and away from her father before she started to cry. “I need to finish getting ready.”
Her father nodded. “Fine, but we will talk later.”
She turned around and reached for the door knob, Henry and Matthew were talking. Jamie knew she looked like she was about to cry, and she just wanted to get to her bedroom.
Black and Blue (Black and Blue Series) Page 13
