Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  “No, sweetie. Had I been in control, I wouldn’t have mapped out my life like this,” Samantha said sadly, more tears streaming down her raw face. Her body was starting to ache from lying on the hard cold floor. It was just like the reality – harsh for the body and soul.

  “Damien doesn’t know, does he?”

  The sound of his name from her best friend’s lips send a sharp pang of hurt through her. Her stomach tightened painfully and her heart lay heavy against her ribs. Furiously wiping the back of her hands across her eyes, she pursed her lips and steeled herself for what she was about to reveal to Gina.

  “He’s not going to know about it because he’s going to be in prison,” Samantha said briskly.

  “What?” Gina asked shocked.

  “I got conned. I don’t even know if that’s his real name but whoever he is, there’s one thing he’s not going to be – my baby’s father,” she intoned harshly. Just saying those words, she realized something. If she was really pregnant, she was going to keep it. A surge of relief hit her. Somehow in the short time, she had already accepted the role. Yes. Determination rose inside her. She would not abandon this tiny life. She would bring it into the world and do right by it. Her hand shook slightly as she placed it on her flat belly and a strong emotion welled inside her. This life growing inside her would be her anchor.

  “Love, you’re not making any sense. How did you get conned? What did he do?” Gina asked worriedly.

  Samantha pushed herself up and pointed down the hallway. “Finn came by. Remember the case that has been giving us trouble? The gang related one? Yeah…want to guess who was involved in it?”

  “Are you saying that...,” Gina asked in a hushed voice unable to complete the question in her disbelief.

  “Finn left behind a box of evidence,” Samantha said tonelessly. Finn had not wanted to leave after he had broken the news. He kept insisting that she read the contents of the files while he was there. Maybe he was worried of what she would do if he left her alone. But she was not off the hinge. The years working with the agency had toughened her up considerably. But falling for a criminal was a far cry from what she normally had experience with.

  “My God,” Gina exhaled slowly, her face pale. “What are you going to do?”

  That was the issue. Samantha did not know how to go forward from this moment. All she felt right then was an immense sense of loss. “I don’t know,” she said frankly. She gathered up all the tissues and dumped them in the wastebasket and then set about to pop all the pregnancy tests back in their boxes. She was not ready to toss them yet. “I don’t know, Gina. What should I do? What would anyone in my place do?”

  Her best friend gazed at her and the whole picture unfurled to her. Her eyes dimmed in sorrow. “You fell for him,” she stated softly. “Oh sweetie.”

  She would have denied it had she had the strength. Not that Gina would have believed her but she would have tried. Denying it would not help her now. She had fallen for the man. She had fallen so hard that she was feeling the aftereffects of it. She had hardly come to terms with that when hell had broken loose. Her life had taken a sharp turn into the drama department, leaving her confounded.

  Gathering her damp hair in a bunch, she tied it into a rough bun and put her hands on her hips, glancing around the room. She needed to clear her head. She strode to the bed and yanked the bedcovers off, tugging furiously when it got caught on the corner.

  “Honey…what’re you doing?”

  Gritting her teeth, Samantha managed to pull the covers to the ground and then stood glaring at the offending item which smelled like Damien. Her mind was a mess just like her room. When she was stressed, she cleaned. So that is what she was going to do. She was going to clean till everything was spotless. Maybe then the next step would be clear to her.

  “I’m cleaning,” she told Gina. “At least there is something in my life I still have control over.”

  Gina looked at her sadly. “Don’t give up so fast, Sam. Maybe things aren’t as bad as you think they’re. Maybe this is just a mistake. Nothing’s concrete yet, is it? That’s what I thought. So don’t go jumping to conclusions. You know that better than anyone. No judgment until solid evidence turns up, right?”

  Samantha wished she could agree with her. Right then she was not in the mood to believe in anything but the worst. She was afraid to hope for anything lest it get snatched away from her. She should have known it was too good to last. Things like that happened to her from the start. Stupid, stupid. She should have listened to her mind right in the beginning. At least then she would not have been so hurt like she was now.

  Gina could read her best friend like an open book. All her emotions surrounded her like a halo. She knew Sam was not as terrified at the prospect of being pregnant as she was of having her love tossed out so casually. The fear was written clearly all across her face. Her heart clenched for her. She wanted to hurt the bastard for hurting her like this. She was seeing red. Love was not something to be taken lightly. She knew that better than anyone.

  She was mad at Finn too for being so callous. Information of such great weight was meant to be handled with care, not just dropped on someone so suddenly. She would be having words with him about it. Just for her friend’s sake. Not because she missed him suddenly. No, she did not miss him. What they had did not mean anything to her.

  Shaking her head to clear her head of thoughts about Finn, she focused her attention on Sam. She had to rescue her before she did physical damage to herself, which was possible from the aggressive way she was going about the apartment cleaning. Oh Sam sweetie, it’s so not fair.

  Chapter 2

  Damien’s jaw ticked as he glared down at his phone. His fingers curled into fists, itching to hit something. Samantha was ignoring his calls. Something was wrong. He could sense it. Her asshole of a partner had probably whispered in her ear. That had to be it. Otherwise she would not have cancelled their date night or ignored all his calls. There was another possibility, a tiny voice in his head tried to reason. She was stuck at work like him. Maybe she was out in the field.

  No, that was not it. His gut was sending him warning signals. Big, bad signals. The voice in the background droned on and on about the possibility of a new business venture for the company. He tuned it out completely and returned his attention to his phone.

  Where are you?

  I’m getting worried. Are you alright?

  Please, Samantha. Call me back.

  He huffed in frustration and turned off the screen, turning his attention back to the slideshow playing. But all he saw were blurry lines. His mind could not stop itself from conjuring up the worst possible scenarios. His chest started to tighten painfully. An old fear began to awaken in him. The fear of losing someone close to him. Life on the street had snuffed out the fear in him at the tender age of sixteen. But even the thought of losing Samantha now shook him.

  The second the conference came to an end, he leapt up from his chair and headed for the doors, ignoring all the voices hailing him. He had to find out what was going on. He was walking so fast he almost missed Zack running towards him.

  “Hey, what’s the hurry, man?” Zack asked raising an eyebrow.

  “I need to check on something,” was the only thing Damien provided, jamming furiously at the elevator buttons.

  “Something…or someone?”

  “It’s none of your business, Zack,” Damien snapped.

  “Jeez. What crawled up your ass today?” Zack frowned at him and then held up his hands in surrender when a mean glare was directed his way. “Fine. Go do your checking. I just wanted to remind you about tonight. It’s important you be there if we are to close the deal.”

  Crap. He had forgotten about the dinner meeting tonight. Rubbing a hand over his weary eyes, he said tiredly, “I’ll try,” and then punched the button to close the doors.

  “You’ll do more than try!” Zack yelled, before the elevator doors shut an
d it pulled down to the parking level.

  Damien peeled out of the parking lot and headed straight for Samantha’s apartment. His heart hammered in his chest as he waited impatiently for the red light to turn green. He was breaking all speed limits to get there and he did not care.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, he reached her floor and rang the doorbell. Than rang it again. His body grew agitated, and he kept clenching and unclenching his fingers. He raised his hand to knock on the door when the door opposite to hers opened and a middle aged woman poked her head out.

  “She’s not home, love,” she informed him.

  “Do you know when she left?”

  She scrunched up her eyebrows as she tried to remember and then smiled at him, “Oh, I think she left around three. Woman works too much, bless her.”

  He gave her a strained smile and thanked her, before slowly backing away. Why was she not receiving her calls? Had she lost her phone? He could have Zack track her phone. No, that was not right. But he was desperate. The heavy feeling in his stomach would not quit. Tracking an FBI agent’s phone was criminal but Zack was really good. He could get in undetected. Digging his phone out his jacket, he made the call.

  “Zack. I need something.”

  “What do you mean I’m off the case?” Samantha almost barked in disbelief.

  The woman sitting across the desk raised an eyebrow at the tone and said with authority, “You’re involved with the prime suspect. There is no way you’re going to be allowed to continue to work on the case, Agent Gideon. Don’t try to fight it, or I’ll suspend you. You should be grateful I’m not already doing it. You had prior knowledge about the suspect and didn’t come forward. But your partner requested, rather strongly, to go easy on you. So it’s either this or suspension. What do you want to do?” Her boss gave her the ultimate choice.

  Samantha glowered at her and then tightened her lips shut from spilling any more unwanted words that could lead to her being blocked from the system. Nodding sharply, she said, “Thank you, ma’am. I understand.” And then turned to walk out of the office.

  “You should do well to remember what rides on this investigation going through the proper channels. I don’t want to see you anywhere near this one, Gideon.”

  In the back of her head, Samantha knew the woman was right. It was a protocol that made sense. But no one knew the case like she did. Nor did anyone know the suspect as well as she did. Maybe not all that well, seeing how she had missed on picking up the criminal tendencies in him. However, if this case was to be solved, it was going to be with her help.

  Marching to the tech room, she found Haley and Finn staring at a screen which they abruptly turned off when they noticed her.

  “Seriously? You’re going to hide stuff from me now?” she glared at them, crossing her arms across her chest.

  “Sam…” Finn started to say with a guilty expression on his face.

  “No, Finn. It’s not right and you know it. I’m on the inside. I can help. I can get information now that I’ve information myself. I can shut this case. We can shut this case for good.” She looked at him silently pleading with him not to shut her out.

  Finn looked at her with wary eyes and then glanced at Haley who was staring at him with a contemplative look on her face. After a few seconds of silence, he finally nodded making Samantha release the breath she had not realized she was holding in.

  “What’ve you got?”

  “His company details. The Sutherland Company is just a front for whatever they’re really doing. In our case, probably murdering people who crossed them. We didn’t look too closely at the connection between the dead guys and the company until now. They both had past dealings with the company in some business direction and ended up losing some money to them. Haley’s still pulling up details of that.”

  “Your man is super-hot. I wish he wasn’t involved in whatever the heck is going on, otherwise you two made the hottest couple ever since Brad and Ange,” Haley said casually, pushing her glasses up her nose and peering at her screen. Before Samantha could spit out that he was not her man, not anymore, Haley continued, “I’m hacking their servers now. They have a good security system but I’m better.”

  But the girl had a valid point. He had been her man at a point before chaos had flooded her life.

  “How fast can you get in?” Finn asked, throwing a worried glance towards his partner.

  “I’m going at my top speed. We should be in soon.”

  The room was silent except for the humming of the entire tech system and the tapping of the keys as Haley worked her sly way into the company server.

  “Sam,” Finn said in a low voice. “I’m sorry. I was not the one who…”

  Before he could complete his apology, Samantha jumped in. “I know. I know you didn’t tell her about Damien. She’s the boss. It was stupid of me to think I could hide that fact. Thank you. For covering for me and keeping me from getting suspended.”

  “It was the least I could,” Finn said, almost embarrassed.

  Samantha inclined her head in acknowledgment and they went back to silence. Awkward silence. Finn could not damp the feeling of guilt and was too conflicted to look at his partner in the face. He wanted some assurance she was not mad at him but he could not tell with the impassive mask she had on. They had to talk soon. Over some alcohol, preferably. He almost sighed with relief when Haley broke the silence ten minutes later.

  “Yes! I’m in,” she crowed and her fingers flew faster over the keyboard. “Let’s see what we have here. I’m downloading their data on to our servers now.”

  “Excellent,” Samantha said leaning over her shoulder, her eyes taking in the file names as they got downloaded.

  “We have a problem, Damien.” Zack frowned at the screen and moved the wireless keyboard closer. They were holed up in the tech room trying to ping Samantha’s location off her phone.

  “What is it?”

  “Someone’s hacking us.”

  Damien was up in a flash and behind Zack, peering at the screen. “Our servers?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you tell who it is?”

  “Their code is very clever. Hang on. I need to block them out. They’re downloading employee profiles.”

  “Why would anyone need employee profiles?”

  “Shit. You won’t believe who is hacking us,” Zack said in disbelief. The hacker was good, considering the agency, but he was better. He was hacking them back and filling their servers with baby videos. “Why is the FBI hacking us? Is this something to do with your lady friend?”

  Damien gritted his teeth. It had nothing to do with his lady friend, rather her annoying partner who had not taken the hint of staying away. “Did you get into Samantha’s phone?”

  “Yes, but shouldn’t our first priority be finding what’s going on here?”

  “Where is she?”

  Zack pulled up a map and pointed, “In the FBI building. What’s going on, Damien?” he asked seriously.

  Everything cleared up for Damien now. The cat was out of the bag and had found a way to allure Samantha away from the truth. It was going to be a bloodbath if he did not get her to hear him out.

  “Keep them out of the servers, Zack. I’ll be back.”

  Chapter 3

  Her clit throbbed as she tossed restlessly between the sheets. The cool sheets had an almost soothing effect across her heated skin. Every inch of skin was being teased except for where she wanted the pressure. If he did not touch her there soon, she was going to combust. Completely ignoring the pulsating nub, his lips played with the sensitive skin of her toned thighs.

  “Please Damien…” she begged him. She was burning up. If she did not get some relief soon, she would cry. Her fingers curled around the silk tie tied around her wrists and tugged but it did not give way. Her hands were imprisoned as much as her relief was.

  Something light tickled her, making her hips jerk up. A feather.
He was now teasing her with a feather. The soft glide of the feather made its way upwards and traced the aroused erect nipple before tickling her sides.

  “You’re the devil,” she said in half-grumble, half-moan. His scent enveloped her, making her further aroused. The spicy mix of his scent with the hint of chocolate had her lifting her hips off the sheets again, trying to direct his focus on the heat below. “Untie me,” she growled.

  “Shhh.” He shushed her with a dark chuckle. His lips started to tug lightly at her nipple. When she lifted her hips impatiently, he bit down hard making her cry out. Almost immediately, he soothed the pain with loving lashes of his tongue. The warning in the pain should have been enough to keep her still but she was too far gone for obedience.

  More heat gushed at her center as he played with her breasts like they were the most amazing things in the world. He gave her just the right pinch of pain, making all the nerves in her body flare with awareness and then took the sting away with gentle touches. He drove her to the edge every time and then backed off.

  She cried and mewled and tugged at the silk cuffs around her wrists. Her body was locked in pleasure and yet could not reach the peak. She growled at him when he grazed her inner thigh with the pads of his fingers making him huff in quiet laughter.

  “You’re very impatient, Peaches,” he said in a tight voice like he was controlling himself.

  She crowed in her mind at affecting him just the way he was affecting her. He rose up over her, supporting his weight on his arms and let his hips brush against hers. She hissed at the contact and wiggled beneath him. His fingers cupped her chin, instantly stilling her movements. Approval lit up in her light eyes and he bent his head to capture her lips in a rough kiss. His tongue thrust into her mouth – in and out, in and out – thoroughly exploring her wet heat.