by A. C. Arthur
And it’s all thanks to Mandi Waters. That pitiful little tramp. I tried to tell her she was barking up the wrong tree, that there was no way a man like Jerald Carrington would ever be interested in her, but she hadn’t listened. In fact, she’d been stupid enough to say the wrong thing to me, the worst thing anyone had said to me in a very long time. So it was her fault. Yes, it definitely was her fault and that little bitch got exactly what she deserved!
“Mr. Carrington was very appreciative yesterday. I think he likes my initiative,” Mandi had said after letting me into her apartment.
“Office protocol states that no files should leave the building without the express permission of an executive,” I told her as I closed the front door to my apartment behind me, switching the lock into place without her even realizing it.
“No harm, no foul,” she said turning around and waving her hand at the dinette table where the files in question were stacked. “I was going to bring them back early this morning but my stomach was acting funny.”
She frowned and it wasn’t a pretty picture. This chick wore so much make-up I could barely tell who she was without it. She had pimples on both her cheeks, a trio of them that, along with those thick framed glasses she was wearing made her look like a dorky teenager. Her robe had the nerve to be the same fuzzy pink material as her slippers—a cotton candy explosion that was making my stomach act funny.
“Jerald and Jackson were looking for them. Apparently the deal is on the rocks and they wanted to figure out a way they could possibly salvage it. But you messed up that plan,” I said.
I’d walked further into the one room apartment, surveying the sparse and tasteless furniture, sniffing the candle-scented air. On second thought, I figured I’d better not sniff too deeply, whatever germs she was carrying were most likely floating around in this room.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” she said. “Well, here they are. If you just give me fifteen minutes I can get dressed and go into the office with you.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I told her. “You’re fired.”
She had the audacity to get teary eyed, as if she thought that bullshit was going to work with me. I walked closer to her, clicking my tongue. “There, there, now. Let’s not make this anymore uncomfortable than it has to be.”
“But I was trying so hard,” she said, sniffing back those ridiculous tears. “He was impressed with me, with my work. He told me so when I was at his house.”
His house, I thought as I continued to move toward her. I knew that place well. The top penthouse suite in The Elite building on Sunset Boulevard. Jerald owned the entire eighteenth floor. The decorations had been a little bland for my taste, but I could see how Jerald would enjoy the seamless blend of warm colors and sleek furniture designs. The two levels were impeccably neat with a place for everything and everything in its place. Just as I would have it. We were kindred spirits that way, Jerald and I.
We were meant to be together.
It was time this trick got that fact through her head once and for all.
“You should have listened to me,” I told her, lifting a hand to touch the disgusting fluffs of her robe.
She licked her lips quickly, took a deep breath and had the bad taste or daft thought—which one I would never be quite certain—to poke her breasts out and tilt her head to the side.
“I don’t want to lose this job,” she told me. “Isn’t there some way we could work this out.”
I laughed. I mean, I tossed my head back and laughed harder than I had at the last Kevin Hart stand-up show. Was she serious? Did she really think I would for one minute consider sleeping with her tired looking, skanky ass? Not in a million years or for a million bucks!
The laughter died as quickly as it had come and before I knew it both my hands were on her face, cupping her cheeks tightly.
“I told you he wasn’t for you,” I said, my teeth clenched because she’d thoroughly pissed me off with this last little stunt. “He’s too good for your wanna-be-Julia Roberts ass!”
“He liked me,” she said tilting her chin up. “And you know what? I don’t give a damn if you don’t!”
She pushed me then, taking me by surprise so I stumbled back a few steps.
“Take the stupid files and get the hell out of my house!” she yelled.
“Sore loser,” I said with a smile and moved to the table about to reach for the files.
I knocked over a bag instead and all sorts of junk spilled out like scissors, rolls of ribbon, and balloons. What was she about to decorate her house with this stupid stuff? I shook my head and looked back at her just as she said, “No. I’m not the sore loser, Noble. You are.”
“What did you just say?” I asked, my entire body going still with her words.
“You’ve been jealous of me since the day I walked through the door of Carrington Enterprises. At first I wondered why. I did everything to try to get you to change towards me, to see that I was really a good worker. But you stayed on my ass, nitpicking about every little thing from my earrings to my toenail polish, to the way I put stamps on a freakin’ envelope!”
My hands fisted at my sides. “You didn’t belong there, I said.
She shook her head. “Oh, I belonged there alright and I was the one whose ass Jerald stared at, not yours.” She chuckled then. “Yeah, I knew. Christina from the copy center told me when I was bitching about you one day. She said she’d heard you and DeMarco talking about how you wanted to fuck Jerald. How you thought you were going to be the one he finally committed to. Even your best friend thought you were crazy for looking Jerald’s way.”
“Shut up,” I said slowly, my body shaking with rage now.
“He told you that Jerald was definitely not gay but you refused to believe him. And when you found out he was going to that sex club you thought you could get a membership there and end up in his bed. Unfortunately, while The Corporation totally supports the LGBT community, they also respect every member’s right to personally select their partners. Jerald never selected you, did he?”
Now she was clicking her tongue. “There, there, Noble, don’t cry. You’ll find someone like yourself one day. It just won’t be Jerald. Even if you fire me,” she said with a tilt of her head and a spread of her wide mouth into a smile. “It. Will. Never. Be. Jerald!”
“Shut up!” I screamed and the next thing I knew I was bending down and picking up those scissors.
I charged that silly bitch bringing the scissors down to her chest where it sunk beneath all that pink foolery into her skin. She screamed and I pulled the scissors out of her.
“You bastard!” she said and tried to take a step backwards.
“I said shut up!” I yelled again, driving the scissors deeper into her chest this time.
I did it over and over again, even as her arms flailed and she grabbed at my jacket and my shirt. I kept stabbing her, over and over and over until that silly bitch shut her big, fat mouth!
Then I fell back, my ass hitting the floor, those scissors still in my hands. My bloody hands.
I looked down at my arm, my blue linen blazer from H&M. There was blood on it too. My chest hurt my heart was beating so hard and fast and when I blinked I could swear I saw fireworks. Like there was a celebration going on inside of me, a freedom I’d been waiting to feel.
Well, hallelujah, it was here!
I was here and I knew exactly what I had to do next.
It only took me fifteen minutes to get to my apartment just a block away from Jerald’s—the one that took the majority of my paychecks to maintain. But I had to be close to him at all times. I just had to be.
I showered and stuffed my clothes in a black garbage bag. Tomorrow was trash day so it would go out tonight. I was going to miss that jacket even though the suede patches at the elbows were imitation. That was alright, Jerald would buy me nicer clothes, like the ones he wore. No way would he let me continue to shop at bargain stores while he wore tailored suits, Ferragamo ties and Gucci shoes
. He would want better for me and I would earn it. I knew all the things to do to keep him happy and satisfied. I just needed the chance to show him.
I deserved the chance to be with him. Especially now.
I left my apartment again intending to head straight back to the office, to tell Jerald and Jackson that I’d knocked on Mandi’s door for twenty minutes and received no answer. As I rode down the elevator I thought of exactly what I would say and how I would say it. When I stepped out of my building it was to see a couple arguing.
Him saying something about needing space and her crying, asking how she was supposed to live without him. My heart went out to her and I longed for those scissors once more. I would stab him right in the neck for being a cruel sonofabitch! She’d probably given him everything and that’s how he’d shown his appreciation, by walking out of her life. And with that sorry ass line too. My fists clenched as I walked in the opposite direction, willing myself not to turn back.
What if Jerald turned out to be a sonofabitch too? No, he couldn’t. He was perfect.
I bet the woman who was now being left by her boyfriend had thought the same thing once upon a time too. She was crying and shaking her head when I chanced a glance back up the street once I’d made it to the corner. I’d parked my car at a meter, away from my building because I didn’t want the garage attendant to be able to give the time I’d come back to the building. There was a back entrance that only tenants had a key to and there were no cameras back there, like there were in the front lobby. I knew because there’d been a few nights I’d come back from the club with a hot guy and we’d fucked right there in that little dimly lit hallway. If there were a camera, someone in the hoity-toity building would have snitched by now and I’d have been out on my ass.
At that moment I decided to make a detour and instead walked another two blocks down to a cell phone store where I purchased a burner phone. My mouth spread into a huge grin as I made the first call, whistling while I stood on the sidewalk on hold for the homicide department.
A Detective O’Hurley answered. I told him I was concerned about my co-worker, that she hadn’t been seen since she’d left the Elite building yesterday afternoon. He asked if I thought there was foul play and I immediately drew the picture of the intern having an affair with her rich boss. Of course that picture had made my stomach turn and my temples throb, but it had to be done. Just in case Jerald wanted to play games with me after all was said and done.
I was doing this all for him, for us. He’d driven me to it, but on the off chance he was too stupid to understand—like I’d experienced with the other rich guy that I’d given my heart to—then I would be ready for him. My mother always told me to have a plan B.
The next call I made with the phone was to a familiar number and the minute I heard her eager and childish voice answer, I smiled again.
“Hey there, sweetness,” I said in my deepest and sexiest voice.
“Oh Noble, I’m so glad you called,” she started immediately. “I’ve been waiting here with the phone in my hand. You said you would pick me up before those FBI men came back. I had to hide in the guest house to avoid them.”
“No worries, my love. I’ll be there soon,” I told her. “Is Hailey there by chance?”
I knew she wasn’t but I needed her to be there. I needed her out of the way once and for all.
“No, she’s not here. She left with that Carrington guy last night,” Rhia told him.
I knew that too.
“Call her and ask her to come over,” I instructed the spirited young girl who had given me access to her house and offered me her body, even though the thought of that repulsed me on a couple of levels.
One, she was too damned young. Jail bait, my cousins back in Chicago would have called her. And two, females did nothing for me. Nothing but give me a fucking hard time, instead of a hard-on.
“She won’t come back here. I think my father tried to hurt her,” Rhia told him. “He was shot you know. Those cops shot him right in Hailey’s room.”
She whimpered and I rolled my eyes.
“If you call her and tell her you need her I bet she’ll come,” I continued. “Go ahead, call her Rhia. Call her for me, sweetness. Please.”
“But I want you, Noble.”
Pity she wasn’t the one I needed to want me.
“And I want you too, my sweet,” I said tired of spewing niceties at this whining child. “But I’ll be just a little longer. So call Hailey and have her come sit with you until I get there.”
“You’ll come while Hailey is here?” Rhia had asked. “I thought you didn’t want to meet her.”
“I do now,” I told her. “I definitely want to meet her now.”
Chapter 12
Hailey had taken a cab to the Mendoza estate. She’d never thought she would return here and definitely not so soon but Rhia had sounded desperate. Hailey had thought about them all night, about where they would end up and how they would turn out. This situation was so sad for them. There was no way she would have been able to turn down Rhia’s request for her to visit.
Agent Young had called asking if he could come and speak with her again and she’d agreed. They were supposed to come at three. Rhia had called her at one. Hailey figured she had time to run out, see Rhia and then get back to the hotel to meet the agents.
But when she walked into the guest house where Rhia had asked her come, she knew instantly that she wasn’t going to make that meeting.
Rhia and Malaya were both sitting on the couch, their hands tied behind their backs, ankles also tied together, duct tape over their mouths. Hailey didn’t move, not sure if she should go to them—because what if someone were waiting behind the door and grabbed her as she completely entered the house? She thought about backing away and running, but where would she go? The cab was already gone and she didn’t have another vehicle. She was stuck.
No, she thought the moment she heard the click of a gun as the nozzle pressed against her temple, she was screwed.
#
“There’s a GPS chip in her phone,” Jerald said to Bonner who had insisted on driving when they left his office building.
“I know,” Bonner replied. “I already sent it back to the office. Bailey’s tracing it now. She’s going to text me as soon as—” he trailed off reaching into his pocket for his phone.
“Why would she go back to the Mendoza house?” he asked.
“What the hell?” Jerald said. “I’m calling Young right now. They need to verify that Mendoza’s still chained to that bed at the hospital and that he hasn’t had a chance to contact anyone.”
Jerald dialed the number but didn’t get an answer. He cursed, pressing the Off button on his phone he feared he’d probably broken it.
“Why would she go back there?” Jerald repeated Bonner’s question. Then, as he thought about it more, he said, “The girls.”
Bonner frowned, which wasn’t a far jump from his normal facial expression. “What girls?”
“Mendoza’s girls. She would have wanted to check on them, to make sure they were okay. They’ve bonded in the time that she’s worked there and she’s worried about their future,” Jerald told him. He knew that what he was saying was correct, but he still wasn’t certain that was the crux of this situation. A deep sense of dread slithering down his spine told him it was more.
“We’ll be there in five minutes,” Bonner said. “Text our location to Young just in case.”
“Just in case, what?” Jerald asked not liking the sound of Bonner’s statement.
“Just in case it is Mendoza’s doing and just in case we need back-up,” he said turning sharply onto the winding road that led up the hill to Mendoza’s place.
“I didn’t think you needed back-up since you came all the way out here by yourself. Where’s Donovan anyway?” Jerald asked as he texted.
“He’s dealing with some family stuff and no, I usually don’t need back-up when I’m the only one going into a mission. But it�
��s a smart move and I’m no fool. Besides, there are civilians involved that I’ve got to protect.”
Made sense Jerald thought. In the wake of all that was going on it was nice to have one thing make sense.
The first thing Jerald noticed when they pulled up to the house was the SUV that Hailey normally drove was pulled up onto the grass, right beside another house on the property. She’d told him last night when they talked about someone being in her room and leaving a message on her phone, that her keys to the truck were gone. She thought Mendoza had taken them, but Jerald wasn’t so certain. The man certainly would not have pulled the truck up onto his lawn just to park it.
“What is it?” Bonner asked him once they’d gotten out and he noticed Jerald staring in that direction.
“I don’t…” he’d just begun to say when they both heard the ear piercing scream.
Breaking out into a run, Jerald took the lead because he’d been standing closest to the open area while Bonner had been standing in between the vehicles. He came to an immediate stop, almost toppling over when he saw Noble walking out the front door carrying Hailey in his arms.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, the dread that had been trickling down his spine making every muscle in his body go stiff.
Noble looked up to him then, the glasses he normally wore gone, his eyes wide and excitable.
“She’s nothing but trouble,” Noble told him with an eerie grin. “I knew it the moment I saw her on that video from the island trip. I could tell by the way you looked at her.”
“What…how did you know about that?” Jerald asked feeling the second Bonner came up behind him.
“Oh, I know everything you do, Jerald. That’s what a good assistant does.” He dropped Hailey to the ground then and she moaned.
Her hands and ankles were tied and there was tape sloppily slapped over her mouth.
“I know about your membership at The Corporation too,” Noble continued pulling the gun from the front ban of his pants, switching off the safety and aiming it down at Hailey’s head.
“At first I was like, ‘What the hell? Why does he need to go to that club when I’m right here?’” Noble spoke not even bothering to look down at Hailey but keeping his gaze set on Jerald.
