He Wants It, He Gets It (Full Series)

by Kira Ward

  “The black one.”

  “That really narrows it down. You have about a hundred black ones.”

  Sophie ignored her as she bent low to search through a pile of clothes that were a mixture of clean and dirty jumbled together on the floor. As she bent, she pulled her pump off the bed, smacking it against the hardwood floor.

  “Soph—“

  “It’s fine,” she said, rubbing her thumb over the device’s screen before standing and shoving it into her bra. “I drop it all the time.”

  “That’s good to know,” Emma said, trying not to point out that the thing cost more than two thousand dollars, that Sophie would have to go back on shots if she broke it, and they would have to wait for a replacement. Thank goodness for warranties…but this warranty was five months short of expiring. Now would not be a good time to break it.

  “Come over here and eat.”

  Sophie groaned, but she did as asked, gobbling down the toast Emma had brought her so fast that she was a little worried she would choke on it. Emma opened her mouth to remind her to give herself a little extra insulin to cover it, but Sophie tugged the insulin pump out of her bra and did it before she could put voice to words.

  Somehow, they managed to find Sophie’s shirt—it turned out to be a graphic tee with the logo of her favorite band on the front. If she had told Emma that, she would have found it a little quicker. And then they rushed out the door, both of them late for class by the time their feet hit the sidewalk.

  “Have a brilliant day,” Emma said, kissing Sophie’s cheek before sending her off in the direction of the high school. Then she turned on her heel and headed in the opposite direction. It was as she turned that she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A dark vehicle, tall and ornate, too nice for her neighborhood. She glanced back and, sure enough, it was there, cruising slowly along the side of the road. The sight of it caused a little chill to run down the length of Emma’s spine. She quickened her step, deciding it was better to mind her business and get to work as quickly as possible.

  But then he pulled up alongside her.

  “Dirty little building,” he said. “Probably be doing the neighborhood a favor by taking it down. Would be better as a parking lot. Or maybe a strip mall. What do you think?”

  She didn’t miss a step, didn’t bother to look at him. But she could feel his gaze on her and it was like a magnifying glass on an ant. It felt like it was burning a hole in the back of her head.

  “I warned you that you would regret crossing me.”

  He gunned the engine on his car, but didn’t take off right away. It was like a lion warning his prey he was coming.

  When he did go, it was with a squeal of tires, a real masculine show of dominance.

  Like he thought he was getting the last laugh.

  ***

  Emma borrowed Martha’s laptop computer that night, using it to do research on DJC, Inc. She wanted to know everything she could about the company that took her livelihood and was trying to take her home. There was a lot to comb through. DJC was a conglomeration consisting of so many diverse companies that Emma was lost only a few minutes in. They had their thumbs in everything from real estate to financial planning to software development. It was like everything that was current, that was a hot money maker, they were involved in some way or another. There were pictures of their various real estate development projects online, including neighborhoods they renovated from rundown, sad communities to hip, bohemian places young couples found interesting. She could see how they might be interested in the building where she lived, but…

  Why was it so personal? Why was he targeting her?

  As she surfed through the wide array of information available, she came to a short biography of Dante Caito. His parents were Italian immigrants who came to America when they were newlyweds, opened a bakery and turned it into a profitable, little business that allowed their only child to attend the college of his choice. It was while attending Stanford that Dante met his first business partner, Charlie Todd, and started a small software company whose sale would provide Dante with the money to start DJC, Inc.

  It wasn’t much of a bio. It didn’t give any details of his studies, the motivations for his choices in life. And it didn’t give much information on his private life, beyond the brief history of his parents. It didn’t explain why he was such a rude jerk or why he was so determined to ruin a girl who was already about as close to destitute as a person could get. After reading it three or four times, Dante Caito remained as much a mystery to Emma as he was before she found it.

  She sat back, frustration burning in her chest. She had to talk to someone who knew this guy, had to know what she could do to stop this persecution. Surely there was something she could do—a letter of apology or a discussion of restitution—that would make him stop, that would, perhaps, convince him not to evict her and all the other people who made the building their home. She was struggling. And she knew her neighbors were, too. If this was really about her, maybe she could convince him to let them stay. There was an old woman on the first floor, she had no family and survived on her social security checks. Where was she going to go when her lease was up?

  It was insane. She had to find—

  And then she remembered the young woman he was with that day in the diner.

  Chapter 7

  “Excuse me.”

  The blond turned, a mask of indifference on her face until she recognized Emma. And then it melted, turning into concern. Deep concern.

  “You shouldn’t be here. If he sees you—“

  “Why is he doing this?”

  The woman glanced over her shoulder at the stone and steel office building behind her. DJC was carved on the large stone above the revolving doors, leaving no question for those entering its bowels where they were going.

  “Please, just explain to me what’s going on.”

  The woman focused on Emma, a whole array of emotions dancing through her eyes. Emma caught sadness and regret, thought she saw a little guilt, too.

  “He wasn’t always like this,” she said softly. “I’ve worked with him for nearly ten years. He used to be a good man.”

  “What did I do to make him do this? Do you know he’s having me evicted from my apartment? And he tried to keep me from getting a job.”

  The woman’s eyes dropped. “I know. He made me make some of the phone calls.”

  Emma stepped into her, pushing her shoulder a little harder than she had intended. “Then don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”

  The woman looked her in the eye, was at least honest enough to do that much.

  “You stood up to him, told him what you really thought of him. No one has done that in a long time.”

  “I called him a jerk, and that gave him the right to ruin my life?”

  “He’s trying to prove a point. Once it’s proven, he’ll probably back off.”

  “What about my apartment building? What about all the other, innocent people who live there?”

  She shook her head. “It’s scheduled for demolition on February 1. There’s not much anyone can do about it now.”

  Tears filled Emma’s eyes.

  “Just like that, he ruins all those people’s lives.”

  “Be happy he stopped with that one building. It could have been worse. He could have sought out your parents and foreclosed on them. Or your high school sweetheart. I’ve seen him do it.”

  “It’s like he thinks he’s God.”

  “Oh, honey, he doesn’t just think it. He knows it.”

  ***

  Emma walked for a long time, trying to decide what to do next. Reasoning with him clearly wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t go to the police because he wasn’t doing anything illegal—which seemed kind of outrageous all on its own. Ruining someone’s life should be illegal, no matter how a person went about it.

  She wondered how many times he’d done this before. How many people were made homeless by him just because
they said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing in front of him? It must be frightening to be his girlfriend. Imagine if the girlfriend didn’t pay enough attention to him, didn’t stroke his ego as often as he wanted her to. Imagine what he could do to someone he knew well as opposed to how colossally he was ruining Emma’s life when he knew absolutely nothing about her.

  She didn’t envy the people in his life.

  Lunch hour over, she went back to work. It was an easy job- kind of boring, really. But she had enough time on her hands that she could do some studying between customers. And her supervisor didn’t mind, which was a definite plus. For the first time since she started school two semesters ago, she was completely caught up on her reading assignments.

  Today she was working math problems for her calculus class until a customer came up with a load of men’s dress shirts. Emma looked up and found herself staring at the same newscaster who’d reported on DJC, Inc. the night before.

  “Hi. Did you find everything alright?” she asked.

  He was still piling shirts on the counter, so he didn’t answer. Emma glanced over at her supervisor, but she was busy with another customer who just happened to walk up at the same moment. Emma wasn’t too worried, she’d figured out the computer system pretty quickly. In fact, she was kind of glad the woman was out of earshot because she didn’t want her to hear Emma breaking one of the main rules she’d set forth at the beginning of her training: never discuss anything with a client that doesn’t revolve around store merchandise.

  “You’re the anchor from the channel seven nightly news, aren’t you?”

  He looked up, annoyance in the gesture until his gaze fell on Emma’s face. His expression softened as his eyes took in her rounded face, mahogany-colored hair, and the hint of cleavage under the top button of her shirt.

  “I am.”

  “I thought I saw you last night, talking about that businessman, Dante Caito.”

  “That was me. You watch the news every night?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Emma flicked her fingernail against her book. “Too much studying.”

  “Too bad. It can be quite educational.”

  “Yeah. I learned a lot about Caito from your report. I actually live in one of the buildings he bought on the east side.”

  The newscaster’s eyebrows rose. “Do you?”

  “Did you know that his project is displacing sixteen families? And that one of them is a family with two disabled children?”

  His eyes stayed fixed on her eyes. “The company hasn’t arranged any sort of compensation?”

  “We’re all renters. Law doesn’t require it.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Disabled kids, huh? Maybe I’ll suggest one of our reporters check into it.”

  Emma slid his purchases into a bag and handed it to him, a smile on her lips as she allowed their fingers to touch.

  “Thank you.”

  ***

  The story hit the airwaves the following day. Everyone in the building was talking about it. There was hope in their faces when Emma came home from work. It gave her hope, too. Until, of course—

  “What do they mean, everyone’s getting evicted? Does that mean us, too?”

  “Sophie—“

  “Where will we live? What about our stuff? How are we supposed to take all this stuff to a new place? And will I have to change schools? I really don’t want to change schools; all my friends are here. I have plans with Jill over spring break that I refuse to miss out on.”

  “Sophie, it’s not a done deal, yet. And if we have to move, I’ll try to find us a place close to here so you don’t have to change schools, okay?”

  “I don’t want to move. I’ve already moved enough.”

  “I know you have. And I’ll do my best.”

  She just wished she knew what that was.

  Chapter 8

  Emma had been warned that Saturdays were a busy day at the department store, but she wasn’t fully prepared for it. Customer after customer lined up at her register, piles of garments waiting to be rung up and bagged. She lost track of time, only aware it was time for her lunch break when Sophie and Jill showed up. Jill’s mother brought them to the mall to hang out for the afternoon and Sophie had promised to stop by the department store so Emma could help her change her infusion set on her insulin pump.

  “Give me a minute,” she said, gesturing to the still four deep line of customers.

  Sophie wandered off, a look of impatience stamped to her face—not that it was anything new these days. Emma had great respect for parents of teens. She had never imagined that taking on her little sister would be easy, but she hadn’t imagined it would be so difficult, either.

  She finished with her last customer and grabbed her bag out from under the counter, calling to her supervisor that she was going to lunch. The woman just nodded, bogged down with her own line of customers. She wasn’t quite sure where Sophie had gone, but any place that displayed tight, low hung jeans in the window was probably a good bet.

  Emma was thinking about half a dozen things as she walked through the store, so she wasn’t paying much attention to what was around her. She was still thinking about the report they’d shown on the news the night before, still thinking about all the families that didn’t deserve to be evicted because of her. The television station’s website had registered quite a few comments that were strongly in the tenants’ favor, but there were those that were supportive of DJC’s right to do whatever they wanted with a building they now owned. The law was clearly on DJC’s side, and some people saw that. It wasn’t helping their cause.

  She was thinking about Sophie too, about the homecoming dance and the fact that a boy had asked to take her. It would be Sophie’s first official date, and that made Emma nervous. She wasn’t sure she was ready for this sort of thing. She didn’t know what advice to give to Sophie. Her experiences were more…unorthodox. How could she tell Sophie how to respond to a boy’s actions on a proper date when she had no experience to draw on?

  And then there was school. She’d gotten a C on her last biology exam. Granted, she took it the morning after learning that she’d lost her job, but that was no excuse. She had to maintain a 3.8 grade point average to keep her scholarships. Not only that, but she was pre-med. Biology was one of those classes she really had to ace in order to get into the courses she needed for school.

  There was so much going on in her head. Too many things to worry about.

  Just as she stepped out of the department store, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her over against the wall, blocking her view of the busy mall.

  “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?” Dante Caito glared down at her, dressed as always in an impeccable suit that fit like it was made for him—which it probably was.

  “And you like proving how powerful you are by forcing yourself on people.”

  “I know you were behind the news story last night. Focusing it on that family with those poor, little kids was brilliant. We’ve been getting outraged phone calls at the office all day.”

  “Good. Maybe now you can see that you can’t just mess with someone’s life without suffering a few consequences.”

  He grunted as he moved closer to her, balancing himself on one hand that he pressed to the wall just above her head. “People will forget by Monday. Come February, they won’t even remember why that building was there in the first place.”

  “Then you win again. So what do you care what I do?”

  “Because I don’t like the unexpected. And you…you are unpredictable.”

  “You took my job away from me. Now you’re trying to take my home. Did you really think I would just lie down and let you do it?”

  “In my experience? Yes.”

  “Well, then, you’re messing with the wrong woman.”

  She stepped into him. He didn’t move, didn’t even seem aware that she was less than a few inches from his incredibly toned abs, his chiseled jawline. If he turned his head just s
lightly…and the smell of his cologne…

  Emma pressed a hand to his chest, trying to ignore the heat that suddenly seemed to infuse itself through her palm and up her arm.

  “If you didn’t want a battle, you shouldn’t have started the war.”

  “You need to learn that I am so much more powerful than you will ever be. I will crush you, Miss Emma Allred.”

  “You have to do a little more than that to scare me.”

  She pushed against his chest in an attempt to get away from him. She thought for a moment that he wasn’t going to let her go. He studied her, his expression unreadable. For a wild moment, she thought he might kiss her. But then he backed up a step and gestured for her to go.

  “Watch your back, Miss Allred. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  Emma didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing the fear swim across her face. She walked away with her head held high, her shoulders strong, her spine straight. But she was scared. More scared than she’d ever been.

  ***

  “He was cute.”

  “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “Emma doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

  Emma glanced at Sophie even as she pressed the rounded inserter against her abdomen. “You say that like I’m not capable of having a boyfriend.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  Emma popped the trigger, and the long needle that threaded the catheter under Sophie’s skin pushed into her body. Sophie didn’t even wince.

  “If I wasn’t so busy going to school and keeping down a job, I might have time for a boyfriend.”

  “When’s that going to be?”

  It was a good question. Emma carefully pulled the needle out and bent the needle before tossing the trash into her purse for later disposal. Then she handed the insulin pump to Sophie to prime the tubing.

  “What are you going to do for the rest of the afternoon?”

  Sophie looked at Jill and Jill shrugged. “Probably just wander around the mall, check out a couple of the shops.”

  “You should go to a movie.”