Having You

by A. C. Arthur

  “It’s not just school, Jerald. And my grandmother doesn’t just have bills.” She inhaled deeply and figured there really was no purpose in holding this back from him. “My grandmother has cancer. She’s going to need to undergo surgery and then treatment. And those asbestos lawyers don’t always deliver what they promise. Mendoza is offering me so much.”

  Jerald shook his head. “No. He’s not offering you enough. Not enough to put your life at risk. You and your grandmother will get health care insurance through my company. You’ll both be taken care of.”

  “For how long?” she asked him. “As long as I continue to sleep with you and you with me? What kind of arrangement is this you’re offering me, Jerald?”

  He grew quiet then. The sound, or lack thereof, hitting her like a punch to the gut.

  “Look, I appreciate your offer. And I want you to know that I’m going to think about it and my arrangement with Mendoza very carefully,” she said.

  It was true, she did plan to think about both offers and to figure out a way to do something else on her own. She could not stay in L.A. and be Jerald’s very well paid mistress any more than she could continue to work for Mendoza and wonder what was going to happen to her next.

  “I want to help you,” he told her again. He kept saying that as if it were enough, for him at least.

  Hailey nodded. “I know you do and that’s very commendable of you. But I think I’m starting to realize that I can do a better job of helping myself, without any strings attached. I’ll figure this out, Jerald. There’s no need for you to worry about it any longer.”

  Hailey walked out of the room then, knowing that he would follow her but hoping this would end the conversation. He had to drive her back to the Mendoza estate and she had to tiptoe inside. This was not the way her summer was supposed to play out. It wasn’t the life her grandparents would want her to lead, even if it was helping to pay their bills.

  They’d just stepped out of the elevator, Jerald holding her hand once more when Hailey felt something strange. It was as if the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a weird feeling that had her shivering in the coolness of the garage.

  “You okay?” Jerald asked as the continued to move to where he’d parked his car.

  “Yes,” she began, looking around behind her. “I’m fi—”

  Her words were cut off by the sound of a car door and footsteps. She stopped then, turning completely around to see where the footsteps were coming from, or more likely where they were leading. That’s when she saw him.

  The man that had been talking to Ronnel earlier today. If his tall, bulky build hadn’t been the giveaway, that nasty scar on his arm was. She gasped and felt Jerald’s arms come up around her.

  “What is it? Do you know that guy?”

  Hailey shook her head. “No. I…um, I mean yes.”

  The man had opened a car door and slipped inside then and before she could say another word to Jerald he’d started the car and pulled out of the spot, tires screeching loudly. If she and Jerald hadn’t moved out of the way, the dark sedan would have run them down.

  As it was, Jerald had acted quickly, once again covering her body with his as he fell to the ground and rolled out of the car’s way.

  “I keep ending up in your arms,” Hailey said, heart beating wildly as she lay on the cement looking up at him.

  He smiled down at her then. “I’m not complaining.”

  No, he wasn’t, Hailey thought. But he wasn’t making any promises to her either. Not that they could be together and then he could help her. That offer wasn’t going to come, not from a man like Jerald Carrington and especially not for her.

  “Can I get up now?” she asked and attempted to move.

  But Jerald stood first and then reached to help her up. “Did you know that guy?” he asked her again.

  “I thought…um, I thought he looked familiar,” she told him.

  “Familiar from where?”

  Hailey shrugged, not sure she should tell Jerald more of what had happened at Ronnel’s house. They were doing business together and even if Ronnel was probably a mean SOB, there were still the girls to consider. What would happen to Rhia & Malaya if their father’s business was taken?

  “I don’t know,” she said shaking her head. “I could have been wrong.”

  But she knew she wasn’t. That guy had been here, at this private sex club at the same time that she was. It was no coincidence she knew, and that gave her even more cause to worry about Ronnel.

  “You’re shaking,” Jerald said. “If you didn’t know him, then why are you shaking?”

  “Because earlier today a brick was thrown at me and now a car just tried to run me down. I think I have a right to shake at this point,” she said vehemently.

  Jerald looked at her as if he could relate to what she was saying. Sure, he could. He’d been with her on both occasions.

  “I’d just like to get back to the house so I can get some rest.”

  “You cannot continue to stay there,” Jerald told her. “We can work out the details of my offer to you, but please, Hailey. Please, just tell me you’ll check into a hotel. I’ll pay for it if that’s a problem. But you need to get out of Mendoza’s house.”

  He sounded adamant, almost to the point that Hailey thought he might not even take her back to Ronnel’s place.

  “You’re right,” she agreed, because he was. Especially after having just seen that man. Was Ronnel having her followed? Did he really believe she was cheating on him with Jerald? Whatever the answer to those questions, they weren’t right. None of this was what she’d wanted to happen when she came here. So, Hailey had decided in those few moments, she would leave. She would go back to Ronnel’s pack her bags and quit the job that was supposed to be her salvation. She had no other choice.

  “I’m not going to stay there,” she told Jerald and watched as he breathed a sigh of relief. “But I’ll take care of my arrangements.”

  He looked like he wanted to frown, but instead said, “That’s fine. For now.”

  #

  Jerald was no fool.

  Lacking experience when it came to committing to women, or even contemplating doing so, but he was no fool.

  Hailey had definitely recognized that man and since she didn’t want to tell him from where, Jerald had no choice but to find out on his own. After he’d dropped her off and stood at the gate watching until he could no longer see her, he’d climbed back in his car and pulled out his phone.

  First, he called the front desk at The Corporation and asked which member had the license plate that matched the one on that sedan he’d memorized just before being almost run down. Cheyenne promised to have someone from the corporate office contact him tomorrow. He’d told her about the almost accident to give her some background on why he was asking for the information. As expected, the woman had been immediately concerned. So would the executives of The Corporation. No way were they going to have one member inflicting violence on another, especially not on a Carrington. They would want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, and that was fine with Jerald.

  His next call had been to D&D Investigations where once again, he’d reiterated tonight’s events and added in today’s earlier adventures.

  The conversation was a long one filled with Jerald giving details and the man on the other end mostly saying, “I see” and “Really now”. Jerald was only mildly concerned when he was about to hang up and the man said, “I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

  So he was coming, not Trent Donovan. Trent had always been their contact at D&D. Jerald had no idea who this Devlin Bonner was, but figured he would find out soon.

  Minutes after ending the call Jerald walked down the hall towards his penthouse. Unlocking the door he let himself in and that’s when he felt it. Something was off.

  Moving to the sofa table, Jerald opened a drawer slowly. He removed the gun—a 9mm that he’d been licensed to carry two years ago when a madman was threa
tening Jason and Celise. Releasing the safety Jerald continued to walk throughout the first floor of his place, looking for the cause of this unsettled feeling.

  He found nothing.

  Taking the steps slowly he continued to look throughout the rooms upstairs, the guest bathrooms and the home office he used. When he entered his bedroom the sense of dread grew and Jerald hastily turned on the lights. After checking the bathroom and deducing that there was no one here, he continued to look around. He paused when he saw the open cabinet. It was tall, dark cherry wood with gold handles on each door and drawer. It sat in the far corner of his bedroom, nearest the windows, and the top front door was opened.

  Jerald moved slowly toward the cabinet, as if he thought an intruder could actually hide in this small space. But that wasn’t what had concerned him. Reaching out he pulled the door all the way open and cursed, long and fluently.

  This was the cabinet where he’d kept his videos. All of them were gone. Every escapade he’d had with a woman in his room at The Corporation were gone. On another curse he opened the lower draw only to feel like the entire room was spinning around him when he realized the video of him and Hailey in Turks and Caicos was also gone.

  With tense strides Jerald moved to the stand beneath his television, where his home entertainment center was housed. He pressed the power button on the DVD player, then the eject and fell to his knees with relief that the video of Hailey in his bedroom was still there. Saved by the fact that he’d once again watched it this morning when he’d awakened.

  The other videos hadn’t been so lucky. And when Jerald found out who had broken into his home to steal what belonged to him, they weren’t going to consider themselves lucky either. Not by a fucking longshot!

  THE ONE

  Betrayal left a sour taste in my mouth.

  Again.

  They were fucking. On the beach. In his house. At the club. He was inside of her and I was about to lose my everlasting mind!

  I wanted to scream until my voice was gone, to lash out…again…but this time with more than a brick and a text message that I didn’t get the chance to send.

  This had to stop!

  I had to stop it, before it was too late.

  CHAPTER 9

  Hailey’s body hummed with satisfaction. She hugged the pillow so tight she could swear strong arms were hugging her right back.

  You want me, you can have me.

  Jerald’s words had played over and over in her mind throughout the night until she’d finally fallen into a comfortable sleep. And then she’d dreamed of him, his touch, his kiss, the way he moved inside of her so deep that once again she felt like they were joined and as if they were meant to be together.

  Yes, she wanted him. Oh, how she wanted that man. In the confines of her bedroom she could admit that to herself. Sure, she’d told him but she wasn’t certain he’d grasped the totality of that admission. In all her life, Hailey had only ever wanted to please and take care of her grandparents the way they had her. School and a career were reachable goals in her mind, they were the tangible part of life she could obtain. While love and happiness through a committed relationship had not been in the forefront, because it could be lost. The way she’d lost her parents and her grandfather.

  Tonight, however, Hailey had felt differently. She’d not only opened her mind to the sex club but she’d felt herself opening her heart to a guy that she had no idea whether or not he wanted to be there in the first place. Her re-entrance into Ronnel’s house had been seamless as she felt like she was practically floating through the courtyard and up the stairs to her room. It was strange, considering all that had happened just before she’d left Jerald. Hell, all that had occurred since she’d met Jerald.

  Her mind, for whatever reason, chose to hang on to the positive, to a dream she’d never dared give the time of day. That dream had blurred from one scene to the next, from their heated sexual stint on the balcony to a beautiful house in Beverly Hills, with a sparkling pool and white roses strewn all over the ground. A path of roses led to a spread of white chairs, a white runner stretching between them to meet an archway covered in more roses and Jerald standing there waiting for her.

  “He’s The One,” Pops said from beside her. Arthur wore a white tuxedo with tails, complete with a top hat that made him look like royalty as he stood with his arm bent, lifted and waiting for her.

  “He is,” she told him before lacing her arm through his and allowing him to walk her down that runner. “He is The One.”

  There were people in those white chairs, faces that were not clear but whose happiness emanated throughout the air with each step she took. She wore white, the silk material brushing softly against her body and the sun was warm across her face. But she wasn’t, she was instead, happier than she’d ever been.

  At the altar, a minister spoke in a muttered voice and Jerald lifted the veil from her face, leaning in to kiss her to the sound of applause from all those faceless guests. It was magical and whimsical and everything her grandparents had always told her falling in love and marrying The One would be.

  And then there was a noise and Hailey gasped, turning away from the white and the perfect, to face the dark and the evil. With a whimper she tossed and turned in the bed, this time landing flat on her back. The serene feeling of wafting through dreamland had dissipated, leaving her with a sudden urge to run. To get up from this bed, pack her bags and run long and far.

  When her heart began to pound at the thought, Hailey pulled herself from sleeping, feeling as if her body were being tugged back into that darkness, that abyss of fear she’d been trying her best to ignore. But when her eyes finally opened, when they’d adjusted to the dimly lit room, she could only gasp at what part of the dream had followed her through to reality.

  “You smile when you sleep,” Ronnel said from where he stood at the foot of her bed. “You dream of fucking him.”

  It was clear from the brisk and stilted tone of his voice that he was angry and Hailey grabbed the sheet to her chest as she came to a sitting position in the center of the bed. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

  “It is my house,” he replied as if that fact should have been a given and acceptable excuse. His hands were fisted at his sides, another one of his famous scarves wrapped around his neck while his shirt was only half buttoned.

  “I gave you what you wanted and still you betray me,” he continued, disappointment obvious and heavy in his voice.

  Her instincts were clear and screaming loudly in her head. This wasn’t a dream. This man—this clearly unstable man—was standing in her room in the middle of the night. He had been standing there for who knew how long, doing what she could only surmise as being weird and on some level demented.

  Hailey should get off this bed. She was a sitting duck here but her nightgown was so short the last thing she wanted was to get up and have him seeing her half nude. Hailey had no idea what was going to happen next or why this lunatic was in her room ranting as if he owned her on some level. But she was definitely through with this roller coaster ride, there was no more denying that fact.

  “How could I betray you? I did my job the way I was supposed to,” she said using every bit of strength she had to remain calm in the midst of this uncertain situation.

  “I tell you not to see him. You fuck him in that nasty club, for all the people to see,” he spoke as if he were stating simple truths. In seconds he followed up with, “Kalapating mababa ang lipad!”

  Hailey jumped in shock. She couldn’t help it. She’d never heard him speak this way before and certainly had never had anyone call her what he had—a slut. That reaction was only temporary, to be replaced quickly by her own bit of outrage. She pushed back the covers and jumped out of the bed. “You bastard! I asked for a job and you gave me one. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. If you thought there was something else going on that was your fault. Not mine!”

  “You are right,” he said coming to stand directly
in front of her, his slim frame still opposing as he towered over her. His voice having too quickly returned to that laced with dread tone.

  “You are a disappointment. Just like Sherizia,” he told her.

  Sherizia? His wife.

  “She was your wife and the mother of your children. I am your employee,” Hailey offered, her body beginning to shake with a mixture of nerves and adrenaline. “I am not like her.”

  “You were next,” Ronnel said through clenched teeth. “You were next for me.”

  Hailey was shaking her head as he spoke, backing up until her legs hit the bed once more. Jackson had been right all along. Ronnel had been trying to groom her to fill his wife’s place. How could she have been so blind?

  “I was never here for you,” she told him defiantly. “I was here for the job.”

  His eyes had darkened then, lowering to mere slits across his face as he smirked at her.

  “You were here because I allowed it,” he told her seconds before he reached out, grabbing her by her throat.

  Hailey’s hands instantly came up to slap at his. His grip was tight as she felt the pinch of air trying to get to her lungs. His hand clenched tighter around her neck until he’d lifted her off her feet. She still fought, kicking out and slapping at his arms, trying to claw at his face.

  “I would have treated you fair. But no, like Sherizia you think you know better. You think you can do better than to be with me. I will show you now,” he said in a low, ominous voice. “I will show you!”

  Again his tone had shifted from that eerie calm to full blown rage as he yelled into her face, shaking her at the same time. She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were watering as she gasped for air. Still, she tried to fight him, tried to break free of his grasp.

  “Let her go,” another voice interrupted.

  Someone had come into the room but Hailey couldn’t see them. Hell, she could barely hear as everything began to shift from clarity to blurriness, sort of like it had in her dream. Only Hailey was positive the white roses weren’t going to appear this time.

  “She is mine,” Ronnel stated through clenched teeth.