by Sienna Mynx
“Are you kidding?” she laughed.
He looked up surprised. “It’s good this way.”
She smiled. “No wonder you never cooked for me.”
“I always wanted too,” he remarked.
She reached for the wine and took a sip. It had a strong berry flavor, and the alcohol cleared her head instantly. She drank more than a swallow, before she put the glass back down. “Why don’t you ask me more about... your father and his plans?”
Tarek waved the question off. “Because it’s a lie and I don’t entertain lies.”
“It’s not a lie. Did you call Mr. Havarti? Did you call your brother and ask?”
“It’s a lie!” he snapped.
She’d found his weakness. And it made him blindingly stupid or just unwavering loyal to his family.
She kept eating. The eggs were getting cold, so she decided to eat more of them to wash out the hot spice from the steak.
“You know, in all the time we spent together, with all the conversations we had, we never talked personally.”
“Because you were hiding who you were from me. Lying.”
“You weren’t always sure of that. And I’m not hiding anymore.”
“Your point.”
“I’m curious about you, who you were before you became the big man at MGS.”
“Nothing to tell.”
“Can I ask questions?”
He forked steak in his mouth and chewed.
“Are you the oldest?”
“No. Dale is the oldest. I’m the next behind him,” Tarek said and put more hot sauce on his steak.
“Interesting that Alek Marshall would adopt a child with already having a son,” she said.
Tarek shrugged. “My father is a curious man.” He kept eating and sipping his wine. She stared at his handsome rugged features. She hated his arrogance. However, she never could ignore his masculine features. Like the way his jaw muscles locked and released when he chewed to reveal a dimple in his right cheek. Or the dark sheen to his hair and the few strands that drifted to his brow. She couldn’t ignore his eyes that probed her mind when focused on her. He wasn’t your typical kind of handsome. His tough exterior matched his personality and silent brooding. She found that complication tempting. And she knew she shouldn’t.
“Is Daniel your boyfriend?” he queried.
She spits out some of her wine and started choking.
He stared at her.
She dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “I told you no.”
“Then why were you kissing?”
“Kissing? I didn’t...”
She looked up at him. He stared at her. “So you had me and him followed.”
“Why were you kissing?” he asked again. There an edge to his tone that she didn’t like. But she decided to ignore it.
“He kissed me. I happened once. Your little investigator just happened to see it.”
“Right?”
“I don’t care what you believe. It’s the truth. And you ended things with me. Remember? Why do you care?”
“The way he acted when I drove up. He wanted to protect you,” Tarek noted.
“From a maniac in some supped up monster truck out to attack us. That was being a gentleman, not a boyfriend,” she said.
“Looked different to me,” he said.
“Well looks are deceiving. You thought I worked for your brother and wanted to screw her way to the top.”
He chuckled. “You got a point.”
They continued eat. Then she caught him peeking up at her.
“What?” she asked in response to his staring.
“Why were you calling for your mother and father when I found you?”
“I wasn't.”
“You were, more than once. Are your parents... alive?”
“No. And we will not talk about them. Trust me. You won’t like where the conversation goes.”
“Understood,” he said.
“Has MGS always been so corrupt?” she asked.
He shook his head and smiled. The lights flickered on and off. She glanced up at the fixture over the kitchen table. The lights held.
“Will we lose electricity?” she asked.
“No. I’m sure the storm will pass shortly. This will all be over soon.”
She glanced over to the small television mounted beneath the kitchen cabinets. The news reporter was again pointing to a radar map. To her it didn’t look like it would end. Resolutely she continued to eat.
He cut his steak and ate more.
“So fucking me was part of the save the environment job?” he asked.
“Must you be so crass?”
“Yes or no? Making love with me was part of the job?”
“No. We didn’t make love. Having sex with you was a choice. And it’s not a job. It’s a cause. I didn’t plan it the first night. I had something to drink and...”
“Bullshit, it was planned,” he said.
“You have no idea who we are too each other...”
Tarek looked up again. She bit down on her bottom lip and wished the wine hadn’t loosened them.
“Why don’t you tell me Kassandra?”
“Ah, I already have,” she said.
“You're my fake employee and I'm your boss. The story ends there?” He chewed and stared at her. Gone was the light of sexy in his eyes. He stared at her with predatory precision now. She felt like he’d pounce from across the table.
“Your father and brother are plotting against you. I swear it. I don’t know how they are doing it. I just know it’s going to be bad.”
“I’m not mad you would give me sex in exchange for your empty cause. And I wasn’t fooled either Kassandra. After our little make believe time together I found out what my brother and father were really up too. And I needed no complications.”
“I was a complication?” she asked.
“You were a distraction,” he corrected her. “I’m focused now.”
“On what?”
He kept eating.
“Well don’t keep me in suspense. This ends with me in jail anyway. You might as well tell me.”
“My contacts said the operation is called Easter EGG. It’s a code name used by the government Securities and Exchange Commission for an investigation that goes back twenty years with my father.” The smug smile on Tarek’s face dimmed, but he kept chewing and staring at her with keen interest. “Easter represents April. According to my contacts, April is when they plan to make the bust. And EGG stands for Environmental Global Grab. Apparently MGS, and three other corporations like you, are suspected of EPA violations. Of course the government could care less about the pollution my family dumps into the oceans and drinking water, or the dead endangered animals washing up on costal shores. But they have to put up a sacrificial lamb since next year is an election year. And we would have escaped their sweep if it hadn’t been my dealing with Kovalevsky and LuxeOil.”
Tarek sat back. All the humor drained from his face. She felt a pang of sympathy for him.
“So you’re in trouble? That is why you came back home.”
Tarek continued to chew and not answer. He cut his steak with fierce determination and snatched up a cube of meat to toss into his mouth. He chewed as he spoke. “This is personal for you, why?”
Kassidy held her tongue.
“Answer me!” he slammed his hand on the table. She didn't want to tell him about Clarissa, she didn't want to tell him about their connection. That wound was hers, not his. If she reopened it then everything would explode.
“It's not personal...”
“We’re done talking. Done!” he shouted at her.
He pushed up from the table, and walked out. Kassidy was left speechless by his abrupt departure. He was always so smug and confident. What he was now, looked to her to be shaken from his core out. She picked up the bottle of wine and poured her glass to the rim. The lights flickered again, but came back on. She drank the bitter merlot and stared at the lights. She too w
as shaken.
34.
Kassidy tried to stand. Without realizing it, she had drunk the entire bottle of wine. And she had done so alone. She didn’t know where Tarek had gone off to. She didn’t care.
It took longer than a minute for the room to stop spinning. Kassidy closed her eyes and paced herself. The heavy feel to her consciousness was new. Is this what alcohol did? Make you numb all over. No wonder she never found any appeal in drinking. Once again, she tried to move. She wanted to turn up the television and get a glass of water. When she stepped away from the table her head cleared, but the lights blinked out.
Kassidy screamed.
Total and complete darkness engulfed her. Her hand shot up to her mouth and her eyes stretched. It took a moment but many shadows began to take shape. She could see the main obstacles in the kitchen, but not them all. And the only response to her screaming was the howling wind. The storm had taken on a renewed frenzy. She could hear it force the tree branches to crash and claw at the windows. Why she barely heard it before the lights went out, she didn’t know. But now she had, and she was terrified.
“Tarek?” she said. She glanced back to the open kitchen walkway. It seemed darker outside than inside. Where had he gone off to? “Shit!”
Kassidy extended her hands out in front of her like a blind woman, and began to walk out of the kitchen.
“Tarek? Tarek where are you?” she repeated in a terrified voice.
35.
Alek Marshall was a born again liar, manipulator, womanizer, and corporate snake. But to Tarek Marshall, as a boy, he was his hero. The father he’d always tried to please. In a frenzied state, Tarek emptied the office his father once kept at the ranch. He went through files and folders, checked documents on and about old deals he had made. He groaned when he found nothing but company ledgers that dated back to before he was adopted. Something in his memory sparked. And he needed confirmation of all that he knew. When he found nothing he sulked.
It was then he decided to drink. He plucked a bottle of tequila from the office cabinet and put the small bottle of hot sauce and salt into his pocket. And then there was darkness. The lights blinked off. It was so sudden that he was blinded.
He heard her scream. Maybe he hadn’t heard a scream. He felt numb all over from the drinking. And then she screamed again.
“Tarek! Tarek?” Kassidy said.
Her voice was faint but he heard her. Maybe she’d hurt herself and needed help? He tossed back several big swallows of his tequila and left his father’s office with bottle in hand. He heard her say his name once more. It came from the direction of the kitchen where he left her. He didn’t need light. Not here. Many nights he’d roamed the empty halls of the ranch in the dark. But for a stranger, he could understand how one could be overwhelmed. The hall was long and L-shaped. When he turned the corner she ran directly into him. He swept his arm around her waist and held her up as she let go a startled cry.
“Tarek?”
“Why are you screaming?” he answered.
“I... ok, uhm, the electricity is out,” she panted and tried to push her way out of his embrace. “I was... in the dark.”
He took her hand and walked her back through the kitchen. He set the bottle down on the kitchen island. And then his focus was on her. “You’re afraid of the dark?” he asked in her ear. She was close to him. Close enough for him to once again smell the soap on her skin. He brushed his jaw against hers.
“No,” she said and clung to him instead of pushing away. What happened to the resistance he met at first?
“I’m afraid of the dark,” he said, and buried his face against the side of her neck.
“What are you doing?” she asked and pushed at his arms. He felt arousal stir in his groin. She was so soft. Her body against his was an undeniable treat. And he hadn't forgotten what being between her thighs felt like. He brushed his nose up the column of her neck to the tiny diamond stud piercing her ear. She pushed at his shoulders to be released. She leaned back and her face was now beneath his.
“What are you doing?” she asked again. He smiled and his mouth grazed hers. It wasn’t something he could help. And it wasn’t something he would stop.
Kassidy panicked. She didn't want to go there again with him. The wine made her desires surface and like an addict she wanted another hit. She sucked in a deep breath strength.
“Just a kiss,” he said before his tongue swept in and flicked up and over the roof of her mouth.
“No,” she tried to turn her face away. He forced her face back.
“I want a kiss.” He pulled her up against him and kissed her again, ravished her mouth. He lifted her and sat her on the counter. She found the inner strength to break the spell. She bit his lip and when he winced and drew away she shoved him hard. He blinked. Tarek eyes registered a kind of darkness that made her feel less like a captive and more like his woman. He did however, step back. Kassidy dropped down off the counter.
“Don’t ever do that again without my permission.”
“I’m remember the last time I tried it without your permission,” he said. She glanced back and he had a knife in his hand. “You sure you don’t want to play the game anymore?” Tarek chuckled. As if he would challenge her refusal. She stepped back even further.
“It’s not funny. Go to hell.”
“Eventually, possibly,” he smirked and put the knife down. He reached for the bottle to drink down some more of his toxin. And he kept staring at her. She heard the howl of the wind against the windows in the kitchen. She glanced over to the branches smacking against the pane. The weather was getting worse and he wanted to play games?
“What are we going to do? It’s freezing outside. What if...?”
The lights flickered on again. She looked up to the fixtures before they blinked off once more.
“Will they come back on?”
“What if they don’t?” he replied.
“Are you drunk?” she sneered.
“Are you?” he chuckled.
She crossed her arms in front of her. That ended the peep show of her breasts that she unknowingly gave him. “Where is your man? Where are he and Daniel? You said he would be here.”
“He’ll be here,” Tarek said with a smile and set the bottle down again. “You can trust me.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“What about that kiss? It tasted like trust.”
“I told you not to kiss me, again.”
“Right, but what about it? Nice wasn’t it?” he smiled. “Like before.”
“Before was a mistake,” she said.
“No. It was your move. Now this one is mine.”
She frowned. “You are drunk.”
“And you’re beautiful. That’s your weapon right? Tease me, get into my head.”
“If you can’t trust me, if you never trusted me, why take me to Alaska? Why let me meet that Russian terrorist? Why any of this?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t put a name to it.”
He stood only a foot away from her. If he reached out to touch her, she was his. She pressed her backside against the counter and couldn’t disappear. She knew the look from him was pure lust. The longer she stared into his eyes the more her own desires surfaced.
“It’s not going to happen.”
He chuckled. “It’ll happen.”
Chapter 16
The detective looked over to his partner. Kassidy sipped the water, but the hand she used to hold the cup shook. The story, all of it, was hard to tell without tears and mumbles of regret and excuses. Yes, she despised Tarek Marshall at first. But her time with him had changed them both. How could she explain this to the detectives? There was no plausible reason for what transpired between them after the lights went out. It wasn’t the booze, or the storm, it was them. She knew that now. And that made her guilty.
Detective Grason cleared his throat. “Daniel Messina’s body was found inside of the house not the barn. He was shot and his throat was s
lit. It doesn’t sound to me like he was coming over for a simple chat.”
“That wasn’t Tarek. It wasn’t me. The last time I saw Daniel was when we were in the parking lot,” she said softly.
“But you yourself said that you were knocked unconscious and put into Tarek Marshall’s truck. How would you know if he was still alive?” Detective Carter asked.
“I-I-I-would. Tarek didn’t murder him. I’m telling you the truth.”
“No. You’re wasting our time with a bunch of conspiracy bullshit about insider trading and global warming. You have yet to explain the dead men we have, and the millionaire we got in a holding cell refusing medical attention.” Detective Grason leaned forward. “Murder, young lady, we’re talking about a double homicide, and you are at the center of it. Either you tell us the truth, or we’ll put you in a cell next to your boss.”
Kassidy looked into the detective’s eyes and then over to other one standing behind him. She wiped her tears and dropped her gaze back down to her water.
“Okay. I’ll tell you what happened. What I know. And it’s not what you think. Tarek Marshall isn’t a murderer or a victim. He’s something in between.”
36.
The Storm –
Kassidy was only able to follow Tarek by holding on to his hand. The further they went into his house, the deeper the darkness. Many of the rooms had closed doors. Those that were left open had heavy drapes covering the windows, keeping out any moonlight. The house was never a threat, he was, but suddenly the house felt more intimidating. She literally held tight to his hand and tried to fight back her anxiety.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Why are you whispering?” he chuckled.
Kassidy hadn’t realized she was. She shook her head at her silliness. He stopped before a door and let go of her hand. She immediately reached for his shirt. No matter how hard she tried, her vision would not adjust to the darkness. He opened the door and left her in the hall.
