“Well, how do you like being CEO?” Harrison asked. “I know your father was pretty darn keen on having you succeed him.”
“Right now there’s a temporary CEO in charge, Jeremy Lewis. You’ve probably met him on a few occasions,” I said. “With my parents’ murder investigation, there’s just been too many things for me to handle that I’ve left the day to day operations with Jeremy. He checks in with me though weekly.”
Actually, I had decided that Jeremy would be instated as permanent CEO before I eventually…well, before I left. He had worked as Vice President under my father for a number of years and was a trustworthy and competent man. As soon as my “resurrection” had become tabloid fodder, Jeremy had contacted me to let me know he had my father’s office ready for me whenever I decided to come in.
Harrison’s expression changed as if he just realized a truth. “Ah, I see,” he said. He leaned back a little in his seat and said in a low confidential voice, “You know, a once a week check-in might not be good enough during such volatile times as these.”
I eyed the man. Was that some kind of threat? I could feel Liam straightening up in his seat at those words.
“What do you mean?” I asked casually.
The waiter arrived with our food. He carefully set out our exquisitely prepared plates, each one garnished with some kind of exotic flower or leaf. With a sudden pang, I remembered years ago, Liam joking about how he’d be starving going to such fancy restaurants because their portions were so small but then would immediately lose his appetite as soon as one of dad’s business associates began talking.
Swallowing the ache I suddenly felt, I asked again as soon as the waiter left, “What do you mean?”
“Lawson,” Harrison said simply, holding knife and fork in his hands. “I don’t know if your Jeremy Lewis has told you this but Lawson’s trucks have been around your mines in Africa. They’ve been seen there several times this week alone.”
“What was he doing there?”
Harrison took a bite of his steak. “Well, I couldn’t tell you for sure but based on how often his trucks have been out there, I’m going to guess that he’s been sizing up some of your mines.” Harrison nodded. “Probably in preparation to take over.”
“Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, my spine straight as a rod as I tried to keep myself in check. Ron Lawson certainly was trying his very best to stay up there as my number one suspect.
“Well I didn’t know if Lawson had talked to you first,” he said in a voice that hedged at more. “Perhaps a merger? Or a partnership between Madewell and RL outside of the alliance?”
I looked over at Liam. He had been silent for nearly the entire meal. I know he was letting me take charge, letting me set the pace. But this little drop about Lawson seemed so contrived. Was Harrison genuinely worried about simply being shut out of a business deal or was he trying to stir up something more?
I could see the cool judgment within Liam’s eyes. He saw Harrison as worth just as little as Lawson and didn’t see the point in quibbling about who was guiltier.
“I see,” I said softly.
Harrison sliced into his steak again. The juices spilled from the meat across his white plate. Stabbing into the piece, he looked up and said, “I thought it was important to let you know about this development, in case you hadn’t been made aware. This is the time, more than any other time, where it’s important to know who your friends are.”
Chapter Eleven
“Oh you do taste sweet, don’t you, honey?” his voice breathed against my neck, as he licked my cheek once more.
I grunted as I tried to twist away from him. I swung at him, my hand making good hard contact with the side of his face. “Fucking bitch!” he yelled as he fell over.
I tried to crawl over to the other side of the table but felt a hand grabbing the back of my shirt, yanking me back. I heard the two other men behind us grunting as they heaved my mom’s dead body onto the couch.
“Oh you little cunt,” the man bit out. He pulled me hard, making me cry out as I fell back onto the coffee table again. I could feel my mom’s blood coating the top of the table and soaking into my clothes.
He pinned my arms out by my head. “When are you going to fucking quit?” he said, nearly spitting into my face. “Can’t you see it’s over, sweetheart?”
“I am not your fucking sweetheart, you murderer!” I hissed. I breathed in and spit into his face. “Who sent you?” I demanded, echoing the same question my father had asked before being shot.
With a mask on, my spit barely touched him but the man wiped at his face nonetheless. He had lifted his mask just enough so that his mouth was free. I could see his lips curl into a twisted smile. “Whoever it was that sent us, made sure to let us know that your deaths were supposed to be slow and painful. And I think, you little bitch,” he licked my cheek again, “yours is going to be the most painful.”
His grip on my right wrist tightened. “And I’m going to make sure of that,” he said, his eyes fired with a sick lust that made my stomach turn. His grip tightened unbearably until I heard a hideous crack. I threw my head back and screamed as I felt my arm slowly being broken.
Tears poured down my cheeks like lava as pain radiated all across my body. Each fracture, each crack, sent piercing waves of horrendous pain through me.
The man ripped away my bottoms and shoved up my shirt. He mauled my breasts, grabbing and squeezing with a force that made me wince in additional pain.
He wedged himself between my legs and fumbled with his own fly. “I’ll be the last thing you feel before you die,” he breathed as he released is cock. “How’s that grab you? Huh? How’s that grab—”
He let out a loud roar as he shoved his cock into me. I screamed again as it ripped into my dry passage. All I felt was a burning pain as he thrust himself completely into me.
“Motherfucking Christ! That feels so good!” he cried out. He pulled out and thrust back into me hard. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. Only the silence of my misery filled the room.
The man sucked on her lower lip. “Oh god, baby, this feels so good,” he grunted as he plunged in deeper, causing me agonizing pain. “Tighter than your mother, aren’t you?”
I screamed in rage, wanting to beat him off me. Wanting to hurt him. Wanting to kill him.
I screamed louder, wanting nothing more than to savage away this burning pain within me.
The man wrapped his large hand around my throat. His fingers pressed tightly against my carotid arteries. I saw black lights spot around the edges of my vision.
“Oh we’re going to have lots of fun,” I heard the man whisper as he thrust in again. I knew those words sealed my fate. My night was nowhere near over. I tried to lift a hand to him again. But before I could, a blackness stole over me.
“Sophia. Sophia! Sophia!”
I blinked awake. All I could see was darkness. A heavy weight sat next to me. A male arm was gripping my own.
Without thinking, I swung my right arm with everything I had.
Liam caught my arm neatly by the wrist, holding me off easily. I stared at him dumbly as the world began to slowly focus. Soon I could see his studying gaze clearly upon me.
I tried to pull my arm away but he kept his hold on me.
“What…What are you doing here?” I panted, feeling like I had been running a hundred miles per hour.
I looked around. I was in my bedroom, in my bed. It had been a dream. In the vulnerability of sleep, those awful memories had come back to me. It was still dark and no lights were on. But by the slivers of moonlight coming through my window, I could make out Liam’s form and the highlights of his chiseled face. And of course, his eyes.
“You were screaming up a storm in your sleep,” he said simply.
I felt my heart slowly resume its more regular rhythm. “I was?” I could hardly remember. All I could feel was the terror, pain, and impotent rage I had felt in my dream. The finer deta
ils were gone. Now all that was left were the impressionistic wounds of pain and horror.
“You were,” he said simply. He sat on the edge of my bed, holding my wrist captive. I could see his fingers strategically resting over the inside of my wrist, right above my pulse. He was measuring my heart rate. “Bad dream?”
I ran my free hand through my hair and was surprised to find my temples moist with sweat. How long had I been dreaming? “The worst,” I said with a sigh, my hand dropping into my lap.
Now that most of the terror of the dream had dissipated, all I was left with was an enveloping cloud of loneliness. Reliving such horrible memories was awful. Waking up from them to realize you alone lived was gut wrenching. It was so overwhelming, I actually felt exhausted from how achingly lonely I felt.
I looked up through my lashes and caught Liam still looking at me. He seemed to almost be studying me, calculating something. Finally, he nodded as if agreeing to some inner decision. “Scoot over,” he said.
“Why?” I asked as I scooted.
Liam did the absolute last thing I would’ve ever expected him to do—he climbed in next to me. “What are you doing?” I exclaimed. I had a sudden flashback to how many times I had always dreamed of my stepbrother doing this exact same thing. But now that it was happening, I felt too stunned to react.
“We’re going to try to get what little sleep is left in this night,” he said, putting an arm around me and forcing me down onto the bed.
Feeling the relentless strength of his arm, I laid back down stiffly. Pulling the covers up around me, he then curled his arm and tucked me in close to him. I nearly squeaked at the contact of his hard chest against my back. This was literally the stuff of fantasies for me.
I could barely remember how to breathe. It was two breaths in, one breath out? Wait, no. That’s stupid. One breath in, two breaths out. Wait. How would that even work—
A large, warm hand settled on top of my head. “Stop thinking,” a voice murmured from behind me. His breath tickled against my neck. “Just sleep. You won’t have any more nightmares tonight. I promise.”
I didn’t think it’d be possible to ever sleep again. Not with Liam this close to me.
But slowly, my body began to melt against his. My exhaustion started to get the best of me. And having his warm body behind mine, holding me close, guarding me against any of the evils of the night, I felt safe and less alone. I felt soothed and protected.
My eyes began to slowly flutter closed. It was ironic, I realized, to have a demon soothe me back to sleep after a nightmare. It was like a lion making sure a zebra got good rest. What was the point? In the end, both the zebra and I would be eaten. What did it matter if I had a nightmare or two?
But none of those questions really were a match against Liam’s warmth and his strength. I could feel the hardness of his muscles against my body and I felt secure. With a sigh, I left myself be taken into the night, confident that I would only find the peace of slumber under the wing of my dark guardian.
Chapter Twelve
I stretched and yawned before I opened my eyes. My body felt so light and free. I opened my eyes to the bright rays of sun that shone through my window. I hadn’t slept that great in years, if ever. I felt completely restored and renewed.
For a second, I wondered how I had gotten such good sleep when it suddenly all came back to me.
The nightmare. Liam. Bed. Together.
I sat up and looked to my left but only saw the faintest indentation of where his body had been. I looked around my spacious bedroom but found nobody.
I gently touched the pillow next to mine. How had he known that I couldn’t have borne being alone last night? How had he known just the kind of touch I had needed?
But more importantly, why had he given it to me? Why did he care to comfort me?
As if the line between stepbrother and demon weren’t already blurry with Liam’s body having been taken over, last night made that line even muddier. Liam wasn’t my stepbrother anymore. But he wasn’t that same demon from that airless space either. He was becoming something different. Something altogether new.
So far, all of our physical interactions had either been very business-like, such as escorting me to the dinner or guiding me into Lily Fifth, or very intimate, like in my bathroom or when I was getting dressed to meet Harrison.
Last night was neither of those things. He had just been there for me. He had held me close and tucked me safely next to him, promising me with his body that nothing would come to harm or scare me.
I wanted to lay back down and linger in the memory of last night a little longer when I heard the phone ring. My head immediately whipped towards the wall behind me. Beyond the wall and down the hall was the office, where the phone was ringing.
I stood up and headed towards the door when I heard the ringing stop.
“Sophia!” Liam called out from the office.
I rushed toward the office.
Standing by the desk, he held out the phone. “Jeremy,” he said as he handed the phone over.
“Hi Jeremy,” I said, not missing a beat as I immediately took the call.
“Miss Madewell,” Jeremy answered formally. “I hope you are well.”
“I am,” I said quickly. “What can I do you for?”
“I’m calling to give you quite a big update.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. A contract has been pushed through. Senator Folsom just got approval from his committee for our alliance to win the mining contract for the Pentagon tech renovations.”
I paused. That contract had been stalled for months. The government was slowly remaking a lot of their computers into touch screens with special glass that was also shatterproof. This meant a lot of mining for one lucky company. Or in this case, four.
To make those kinds of screen, usually very rare minerals were used to increase the density strengths of the glass. This was a covetous contract and a lot of smaller mining companies had been quite upset when the four Big Boys had formed an alliance, basically guaranteeing them the contract.
But government committees were slow and legalese was always needed in every contract request. It had been stalled out for months. I remembered dad getting frustrated with the whole matter. Now suddenly, it had gone through?
“What changed?” I asked. I saw Liam from the corner of my eye, listening to the call intently.
“Well apparently, Lawson has been on quite the personal campaign, from what I’ve heard. He took to meeting personally with several of the committee members and wooing them with campaign money for their reelection.”
So Lawson, again.
“I see,” I said. I felt my fingers stiffen. “Well, it looks like Madewell will be quite busy soon.”
“Yes, ma’am, we will be.”
“Thank you for calling, Jeremy. You let me know if there’s anything you need.”
“Thank you, Miss Madewell. Have a good rest of your day.”
I hung up the phone.
I watched as Liam strolled over to the bookcase. He picked up a book and flipped through the pages, leaning casually on the case as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
“What was it that you said about how RL Co. and Lawson should take out Madewell?” he asked in a nonchalant voice.
It came back to me.
When I was getting dressed to see Harrison and I had been explaining to Liam a better alternative than murder for the alliance to take over Madewell.
“I would think a better way to go about this whole affair would’ve been to push a contract through with the alliance. All of us are now working together. Now if my dad had died then, then the other three could say they need to have temporary ownership over Madewell so that they could finish the contract. That temporary ownership could then be construed in all sorts of twisted and convoluted ways that would lead to the end of Madewell Ltd.”
And that was exactly what Lawson had done. He had pushed a contract through, plunging the entire alliance into wo
rk.
Except this time….
Except this time, there was still someone alive at Madewell Ltd. I was alive.
At least for now.
I met Liam’s gaze with a look of sudden realization.
“You don’t go anywhere without me now, even running,” he said, his thoughts clearly on the same wave as mine. “And we need to start planning immediately. I think you’ve finally got your man.”
I think I did as well. “He’ll be pretty slippery from now on, I’m assuming,” I said quietly. If he was planning on murdering her (again) so he could wrestle some kind of control over Madewell, then he wouldn’t want to be seen with her any time soon. He’d want to be as far away as possible so he couldn’t possibly ever be linked with her murder.
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