Surreptitious (London)

by Breeze, Danielle

  “Sorry to interrupt you miss...” Interrupt what exactly?! “But we’ve made a breakthrough in our investigation and we’d like you to take a look at some photos for us to see if you recognise any of them. Would that be okay with you?” Since I didn’t really have a choice I just nodded and walked them through to the kitchen.

  D.C Clark opened a black folder in front of me and laid out four mug-shots in front of me and for the second time in as many weeks, my lungs stopped working, my throat felt like it had closed up and my mouth went bone dry. I stared at the photos of me trying to figure out what the hell had gone on in my life.

  “Do you know or recognise any of these men?” Two of the men I had never seen before but it was the other two that caught my attention. I glanced up at the offices and back down to the pictures and nodded. I didn’t trust my voice so I just pointed to the two men I recognised. Two men that I knew, or at least I thought I had.

  “Could you tell us how you know these men, please miss?” I cleared my throat and shook my head to try and clear it before explaining.

  “Those men? Yes, um, that one...” I pointed to the photo of the blonde haired, blue eyed skinny guy on the end and carried on...”is Jamie Grier, I don’t know him as such but he’s the uncle of this guy...” I moved my hand to the other one and ran my finger across the glossy image before shaking my head again...”This guy is...um...wow, I can’t believe I’m going to say this but um...that’s my...my b-boyfriend Matthew Grier.”

  The officers glanced at each other and both wore matching troubled looks before it cleared and they turned their attention back to me and the other officer, D.C Hart, cleared his throat and explained to me just why my situation was even worse than I first thought.

  “I really hate to be the bearer of bad news again miss, but you’re right, these men are Jamie and Matthew Grier, the other two whom you said you did not recognise are Giuseppe Milano and César Garcia. Three of whom are international art thieves, wanted across four different countries in Europe. We think, from what the evidence suggests, that Matthew was recruited specifically for this mission and his job was to get close to you as possible as to retrieve specific information about paintings that this group have been seeking for a number of years.” He paused and D.C Clark filled me in on the rest of the fucking sordid tale.

  “We know this must come as a bit of a shock to you, but Mr Grier, Matthew, has cooperated fully with our investigation and we now believe we have enough evidence for a full conviction on multiple counts of theft, breaking and entering, armed robbery, assault, grievous bodily harm and for Jamie Grier...um...first degree murder. I’m sorry that the situation has come to this, but at least now you know that justice will be done for you and for your parents”

  I still couldn’t speak, my first boyfriend, the boyfriend that my dad hated, the one he didn’t trust, the same fucking boyfriend who had just a couple of weeks before, taken my virginity in the flat that he lived in with his fucking uncle. It didn’t make sense, was I that stupid? How could I not have known something like that was going on?

  It took a long time for me to be able to function like a normal human being after that, but with a lot of support from Harper, and ridiculous attempts at shit jokes by Jase, I began to plan for the future. A future that included no men, no relationships at all outside of Harper and Jase, no trusting anyone but those two either and definitely, definitely no displays of weakness. EVER.

  Chapter nine

  Jackson

  I couldn’t get her out of my head; I was fucking things up at work, fucking things up at home and forgetting things I shouldn’t be forgetting, and all in less than twenty-four hours since I’d last seen her. I was trying to think of the right way to approach things seeing as I’d witnessed firsthand how flighty she could be.

  I knew she wanted me. All the signs were there, flushed cheeks, biting her bottom lip, increased breathing. Oh yeah, she wanted me for sure, I just needed to get her to loosen up a bit and for probably the first time ever in my life, I wasn’t sure how to do that. I knew I couldn’t call or text her because she’d just ignore me, I didn’t want to just turn up because she’d likely just slam the door in my face and I couldn’t say I was on board with letting that happen.

  Flowers. All girls like flowers right? Instead of having them delivered, I thought I’d up my game a bit and take them over there myself. I walked to the florist on the corner opposite the club and paid extra to have them choose their best red and white roses and organise them into a vase for me then and there. £75 later and I was convinced I had the perfect way to win her over.

  Outside her building, I pressed the buzzer for every apartment except Taylor’s and waited for someone to buzz me in. I placed the flowers on the floor and searched around outside her door for a spare key. I was pretty certain that lady luck was smiling on me that day seeing as I found one in the second place I looked, on top of the door frame? I was seriously glad she lived in a good part of town because really, who leaves a key to their home on top of the door that it opens?

  I shook my head but opened the door anyway, I held my breath as I walked in just in case she hadn’t gone to university that day but I shouted her and heard no response so I organised the flowers on her coffee table and placed the card at the bottom before turning around and walking straight back out. I put the key back exactly where I found it so she wouldn’t know that’s how I’d gotten in and chuckled to myself as I jogged back to my car. Haha, oh god she’s going to hit the roof when she finds them and realises I’ve been inside her home!

  Taylor

  I walked through my front door, put my keys on the rack, kicked off my shoes where I was standing and turned to walk to the kitchen and stopped dead. On the coffee table stood a huge glass vase that I knew damn well didn’t belong to me that had at least two dozen roses inside, some red, some white and they were really, like really beautiful.

  I’m not exactly a ‘flowers’ kind of girl but I knew they must have cost a fair whack. I honestly had no idea why I was standing there thinking of the price of roses when I should have been thinking where the hell they came from. I glanced around the rest of the lounge, not exactly sure what I was looking for but whatever it was, was not there. The place was silent, almost eerily silent and everything was as I left it.

  This actually made me feel worse being as I knew for a fact that if either Harp or Jase had been there, then evidence of their visit would have been left all over the place. I noticed the flowers had a card resting at the base of the vase so I picked it up and swore under my breath when I read the note.

  Baby Girl,

  I hope you’re feeling better today, try and get as much

  rest as you can. Keep the VIP passes for yourself and your friends,

  when you come to the club next time I’ll have a member of staff

  keep an eye out for your drinks ;)

  Call me

  Jax

  X

  Damn that man! He’d written his phone number on the other side and under normal circumstances I’d just throw it away but I wanted to know how in the hell he’d gotten inside my apartment when he didn’t have a key and I wasn’t bloody there! I immediately grabbed my phone and sent him a text (I might have wanted to know how he got in my place but that didn’t mean I was going to give the satisfaction of actually calling him!)

  Flowers are beautiful, but unnecessary,

  how the hell did you get into my place?

  I waited less than a minute for his reply

  I’m sorry, who is this?

  Argh!

  You know exactly who it is you big jerk.

  Answer my question

  Who is this? What a stupid reply, unless he makes a habit out of breaking into girls apartments and leaving them expensive flowers and notes. My stomach tightened at the thought that he just might be sending lots of different girls’ flowers and I really didn’t like that, at all. Damn him for getting to me. A few seconds later I got another reply.
/>   Ahh, Miss Corsi. They were not

  unnecessary. Beautiful flowers for a

  beautiful girl of course.

  Ok well, that was a really good reply but it still didn’t answer my question. Before I could form a reply the phone vibrated in my palm causing me to jump, I glanced at the screen, frowned but answered regardless. This jerk was going to get a piece of my mind.

  “You can’t just go around breaking into the homes of strangers for crying out loud. Even if it was to leave beautiful flowers...thank you for that by the way...but still, just...who does that?!”

  “Hello to you to beautiful. That was quiet a greeting”

  “Argh, are you for real? Seriously, this is not cool. How did you get into my place?”

  “I bought you the flowers, wanted them on display for you, so I got another resident to open the gates for me and jacked your lock”

  That’s it! Straight up just admitted he broke into my apartment as if that behaviour is rational and expected?!

  “What...You can’t...How...WHAT THE HELL?! You cannot just break into my home!! Are you crazy!?”

  “Now now, don’t go getting all worked up about it, I didn’t break-in as such. There was no breaking involved, as you can see your door and lock are both in one piece. I don’t know why you’re angry, I was leaving you a gift!”

  “A gift I do not want! And if you were so desperate to give me flowers, could you not have just waited until I was home and bought them over then? Or better yet, stay the hell away from me like I told you to in the first place!!”

  “See now, technically I have done what you told me to do. The precise reason I came when I knew you were out was because your words were that you didn’t want to see me. I did as I was told. And again, right now, I’m not seeing you as I’m sat behind my desk in my office and by my guess; you are probably still standing next to your beautiful flowers in your lounge. Am I right?” I could hear the amusement in his voice. Damn man had an answer for everything and that was beyond annoying!

  “Urgh, you...you’re so...so bloody infuriating. I’m hanging up now.” Before I put the phone down I heard him laugh and utter “Later baby girl”. How a man could be so completely breathtaking and so utterly exasperating at the same time was beyond me.

  I crashed onto my couch, clicked on the TV and was waiting for Harper to arrive for girls’ night when it hit me that he’d done it on purpose. That asshole was winding me up on purpose!! I laughed at the audacity of it and shook my head smiling. Crazy man. I grabbed my phone again and dialled his number.

  “Twice in one day! I really am a lucky man today. How can I help you Miss Corsi?” I hated that stupid smug tone.

  “You did it on purpose!”

  “Ah...did...what on purpose?”

  “Broke into my home, but left a gift, so that I’d be pissed that you broke in, but couldn’t be as pissed because you’d done it to leave me something. Am I right?” I could hear the smile in his voice when he answered me with another non-answer.

  “That’s quite an imagination you have there, baby girl! It took you all of...what...ten minutes to figure me out? Seems I’m going to have to up my game.”

  “I don’t want to play games with you! I don’t want to do anything with you!”

  “Okay if that’s true, let me ask you something. When you seen the flowers, read the note and I called you. Did you smile?” I stayed silent because I had smiled and I hated that!

  “Did you laugh?” Again I remained silent. He waited for a response for about five seconds before saying

  “Then my job is done. Hold on baby girl because this ride is about to get a lot more fun. Later.”

  And then he hung up on me!! He hung up on me!! But again, I found myself laughing at his cheek. Crazy man. About twenty minutes later, Harper turned up with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates and we settled in on the sofa for girls’ night.

  At some point in the evening, Harper turned to me and said out of the blue...

  “I like him ya know...I know you’ve got your rules and whatever... and I love you chick, but you can’t really believe you’re going to stay single for the rest of your life can you?” I didn’t have to ask who ‘him’ was because I knew who she was talking about and I just threw her a look over her comments because yes, I really did believe I would stay single forever but I’d known Jax less than two days and he was already started to push through my shield. I really didn’t want this to happen because I was scared, shit scared actually, of what could be found underneath.

  As I was pondering the thought, it occurred to me that his games were working because deep down, deep deep down, I wanted them to. I couldn’t think of a way to make him stop, but I needed him to because it was the only way I’d stay in one piece when he was finished with me. I bit my bottom lip and came up with a plan.

  Chapter ten

  Taylor

  A week later and I was walking home from university with a shit load of work that needed doing over the following two days and no bloody idea how to get it all done in time seeing as I’d seriously slacked off my schedule. This was down to the fact that every day when I’d arrived home this week I’d walked into my apartment to find a different gift on my coffee table. This then lead to what started as five minute conversations with Jax over the phone, but these soon escalated to the point at which last night, I spent over an hour talking to him about acceptable behaviour in regards to people’s homes!

  The day after my flowers he left me a bottle of rosé wine that was not my usual brand, but a hell of a lot nicer. The following day he left me a copy of the instructions on how to use my intruder alarm which made me laugh out loud. I still didn’t use it, more for the fact that I was interested to see what he would come up with next. So when I arrived home the next day to find he hadn’t left me anything during the day I couldn’t help the pang of disappointment I felt in my heart. I went to bed that night feeling slightly lost because I realised he was right before. Without his gifts and our phone call, I didn’t smile. Not once.

  However, when I woke up the next morning and heard my front door click shut, I shot up in bed and raced to the window. Should I have been worried that my front door had been opened when I was asleep? Of course! Was I? Not even a little bit! I watched as Jax exited the building and ran across to his car, however when he peeked up at my window and our eyes connected, he froze for a second before turning his head and placing a hand over his eyes as if that would hide him so I couldn’t see him. I laughed and shook my head at him, stealth clearly not being his strong point!

  I threw on some joggers and a vest top and walked out to the lounge and giggled when I seen that he’d made me a full-English breakfast, placed it on a tray and covered it with a cloche to keep it warm (I didn’t even know that people still used those!). There was a glass of orange juice on the tray next to the plate and I frowned as I tried to picture him driving over her without spilling any.

  The gifts kept arriving after that and every one made me laugh. On the Friday I walked in to find there was nothing but a piece of paper on the table, since there was nothing else to do, and certainly not because I was desperate to see what was on it...obviously. I walked, well, I jogged...no...ok ok...I launched myself across the room to snatch it off the table and giggled at his note. Crazy man.

  Miss Corsi,

  Your car will be arriving at Riverview apartments at 10pm,

  the driver is yours for the evening however,

  your presence is requested at Blaze by 11pm latest

  and I will not be taking no for an answer!

  See you later beautiful

  Jax xx

  I phoned Jase who ‘whooped’ down the line at me and we spent five minutes jabbering about flashy men sending flashy cars before we hung up and I went to get ready. There was no point phoning Harp as I knew Jase would deal with it anyway.

  I styled my hair in loose curls hanging down my back and added diamond hoops to my ears before spritzing myself wi
th perfume and pulling out the first outfit I could find. I wore black shorts, black tights and a red halter neck top. It wasn’t too dressy, but looked like I’d at least made a bit of an effort. I added paintent red, devil-style fuck-me heels and was ready and waiting outside to meet the guys before the car came. I heard them before I seen them, but when they reached me, no one spoke, everyone was watching the road to see what car Jax had sent.

  At ten past ten, we were still waiting and I was tempted to phone Jax when I heard...

  “Corsi?” I looked to the road at the taxi that had been sitting there for fifteen minutes to see the driver was hanging out the window. He raised his chin at me and sort of repeated... “Taylor Corsi? You her?” My mouth dropped open and I howled with laughter while Harp and Jase chuckled beside me. Crazy, crazy man!!