I could only imagine. Poor Jenna. She’d mentioned her promotion to me, but now that I knew she was on Skylark’s radar, I was concerned she was under too much scrutiny to help get the evidence we needed.
“Does Jenna know that you’re in town?” Oliver asked, clearly thinking the same thing.
“I probably shouldn’t have told her, but she does,” I admitted, “I trust her.”
Oliver frowned, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“Jenna’s there right now, isn’t she?” Oliver asked.
“Yes,” I said, “she’s going to try and pull the accounting records for the chemical records program and get proof. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Can you help her? Provide cover?”
“You should have come to me and not Jenna in the first place,” Oliver said firmly, “You’re putting her in danger.”
I hung my head. Oliver was right.
“That being said,” Oliver continued, “she does have a lot more reason to be looking through the budget than I do. Actually, I’m not headed into the office today. I’m going to the airport. I’ve got a meeting in Atlanta.” Oliver looked at his watch. “I actually had better leave right now,” he continued, “but I’ll do what I can to look into all this and provide some cover for Jenna. You two had better be careful. Richard and Ryan aren’t going to make this easy.”
23
Jenna
“I’m so sorry Fiona,” I repeated for about the thousandth time.
“Don’t worry about me, Jenna,” Fiona replied soothingly. I could hear a smile in her voice over the phone. I could hear pounding bass in the background. It sounded like she was drowning her sorrows at a nightclub. “It’s all for the best. I didn’t really belong at Durant Industries in the first place. I’ll find something that’s better for me. Honestly, you don’t need to feel guilty.”
Yes, I did! But I couldn’t even tell her that without putting her at greater risk. All in all, Fiona was taking her firing with much more pragmatism than I was. She wasn’t even angry over the situation.
“But it wasn’t your fault,” I whined miserably, “It’s so unfair. I asked you to go down to the basement with my badge. Everybody does what you did.”
“Which just tells me that I’m better off somewhere else,” Fiona said. I could hardly argue with that. “Seriously Jenna,” she continued, “you should leave, too. Quit! Durant Industries is just not worth it. It’s a cesspool. It’s a toxic waste dump of a company filled with petty assholes. Any place that would fire me for something so stupid doesn’t deserve to have me anyway. I’m done wasting my time there. I felt way better when I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t have to come to the office.”
Fiona definitely had the right attitude. She was right, too. Someone with Fiona’s drive, enthusiasm, and brains could find another job in an instant. I made her promise to list me as a reference, so I could sing her praises to her next prospective employer—to which she readily agreed—and then hung up. I felt bad that Fiona had paid the price for my curiosity, but now more than ever, I was determined to make Durant Industries stand accountable for what they did.
My second day in my new position had been just as grueling as my first. After I finally got Ryan Quin out of my office, I was two hours behind an already busy schedule. Trying to undertake an enormous research project to find a secret chemical weapons program was not a small job. It’s true that I had a staff now to that I could enlist to help me, but with Fiona gone, I didn’t want to bring anyone else into this. I was better off alone. Richard had proven to me that he had no problem punishing disobedience, and I didn’t want anyone else to get drawn into any of this.
The day stretched well into the evening once again. Spending most of my day down in the basement going through accounting disclosures and hard copy audit booklets had been an enormous waste, too. I was no closer to finding ‘Project Winterspring’. Clearly, Richard had done a better job of disguising the project than when Nicholas stumbled onto it five years ago.
There was no project named ‘Winterspring’ anywhere in the records for Research and Development. According to the records, there had never been a project with that name in the entire life of the company. That meant that I was pretty much at square one in my search. But that wasn’t enough to stop me.
By nine pm that day, I’d gone through every individual project within the Research and Development umbrella within the past five years to try and find where missing revenue could be concealed. There were thousands. The building was mostly empty before I stumbled upon something halfway useable. Deep within a sub-project of a contract extension’s research and development budget, there were numbers that did not add up in the books. That extra revenue had begun accumulating almost exactly after Nicholas had gone missing. And the size of that extra revenue? It matched almost exactly what Nicholas had told me about project Winterspring. Bingo. I’d found it. Now all I needed to do was track down the actual files that accompanied contract extension ‘CN.100.203’.
I committed the project number to memory and headed out of the office. There was no way I would create a paper trail that could compromise me. I knew that Richard was watching me. After Fiona’s firing, I was taking no chances. Feeling satisfied that I at least had a solid lead on the chemical weapons program, I left the building with a spring in my step and whistled all the way through my short drive home.
As I was approaching my front door, I saw that it was hanging open a few inches. My breath froze in my chest and all the tension from the day returned in a dizzy rush. I edged toward my door as quietly as I could, taking tiny, hesitant steps and praying that nothing was wrong. Had Nicholas’ dangerous pursuers found him? Nicholas had texted that he was home hours ago. Someone who’d successfully hidden his location from killers for five years would never be sloppy enough to just leave the door open. Right?
All of my senses were on high alert. From somewhere within my apartment, I heard multiple voices conversing. I fished around in my purse for the brass knuckles that I carried for self-defense, slipping them over the fingers of my right hand and taking a deep breath. Although I never would have thought myself capable, in this moment I fully believed I was willing to do violence to protect Nicholas.
I left my hand concealed in my purse as I entered my apartment silently. Slipping out of my high heels so I could move more silently, I carefully padded toward the sound of the voices. Each step toward the sound made my heart beat faster.
“You should know one thing about Jenna: she’s the most stubborn girl in the world,” I heard a familiar voice saying, and my heart convulsed in my chest for an entirely different reason. “Once she decides to do something, she’s all in. Forever. It’s like her whole veganism thing. Jenna couldn’t just be a vegetarian. She had to go all in. She won’t even let me use eggs and butter in my baking anymore.”
Oh no.
I loosened my grip on my brass knuckles and took a deep breath. Rounding the corner to my kitchen, I saw my mom perched on a barstool and petting Harley with two plates filled with chocolate cream cake in front of her. Next to my mom was a man I didn’t instantly recognize.
My hand was about to seek the brass knuckles again, but then I realized what I was seeing. Nicholas got a haircut and shaved his beard off! I gaped, unable to process the change in his appearance. He looked incredible, and incredibly different. He looked much more like the polished businessman that I’d initially been looking for when I landed in Alaska than the rugged survivalist I’d found.
My mother’s joyful voice pulled me back to the present.
“Jenna! There you are! I was wondering if you were ever coming home. You’re working yourself to death,” my mother exclaimed, coming over to hug me while simultaneously chastising me. “You didn’t tell me you had a new boyfriend. We about gave each other a heart attack when I let myself in.”
“S-sorry mom,” I managed, looking at Nicholas in abject confusion over her shoulder. I had completely forgotten that my mother was
bringing over my victory cake today, and I hadn’t warned Nicholas, but…
Boyfriend?
For his part, Nicholas looked totally at ease spending time with my overbearing mother. Usually she sent guys running for the hills. Nicholas wasn’t running. Instead, he took another bite of the piece of cake he was eating and gave me two thumbs up. I rolled my eyes. He was happy? Maybe he just really liked chocolate cake. I’d seen my mother’s baking work miracles before. Was there a chance they might actually like one another?
“Nick was just telling me how you two met,” my mother said. My eyes widened into saucers and I held my breath. “I didn’t even realize people still met each other at work. I figured that you two would have met on the internet. People just do everything online these days, don’t they?”
I laughed in shocked relief and it came out like a little strangled bark. Nicholas shrugged and smiled.
“We’re millennials, mom,” I told her, aiming for a normal tone of voice, “it’s just what we do.”
My mother shook her head in blatant disbelief, sending her Dr. Pepper-red ringlets dancing around her face. She’d been vehemently anti-smart phone until this year. Like a lot of people in her baby boomer generation, she thought my generation was too attached to our phones. But then the moment she got one of her own she developed a ravenous addiction to texting and Candy Crush. I had no doubt that she could adapt to online dating if she wanted to.
“The world is changing far too quickly for an old lady like me,” she said. “I would be much too scared to meet someone that I met on the internet. I’m glad to see it’s working out for you kids though. Well, I’ll let you get back to your evening. I just wanted to bring over the cake.”
“It was very nice to meet you Mrs. Masters,” Nicholas said, accepting the hug that she swooped in to give him with enviable charm. He winked at me over her shoulder.
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s Ms. Master’s,” my mother said. She flirted shamelessly with any young man that stood still for long enough. They grinned at one another and he offered her an arm to escort her back to the front door. This was just officially too much. I stabbed a fork into the chocolate cake without bothering to cut a slice.
The first bite practically melted onto my tongue with rich, chocolatey goodness. I stifled a pleasurable moan. It was beyond delicious. I was going to stress eat the whole thing.
24
Nicholas
When I returned to the kitchen, Jenna was staring at the chocolate cake with a blank, exhausted look in her eyes.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked tentatively, sitting next to her at her little kitchen island. The idea that I’d displeased her made me feel irrationally afraid. Of all the things facing us, causing Jenna strife with her family had suddenly catapulted to the top of my worry list.
“No,” she said, looking up and smiling at me with a bemused look in her eyes. “It was just a very long day. I’m sorry I forgot to tell you my mom was coming over. She definitely likes you.”
I shrugged, unsure of what to say. When Ms. Masters appeared I hadn’t known what else to say or do. She assumed I was Jenna’s new boyfriend and I just went with it.
“You got a new haircut,” Jenna said, and she reached out one hesitant little hand to touch my now-shorter hair. I closed my eyes and absorbed the physical contact with total happiness. I wanted nothing more than for Jenna to touch me and ease the tension I was carrying around. She pulled back too soon.
“I figured it was time,” I told her, swallowing my disappointment. “Plus, I almost scared Ollie to death this morning when I popped out of the shadows in his parking garage. If I’m going to be me again, I eventually have to stop hiding. I liked the mountain man beard but it had too much of a Unibomber feel. I don’t want to look too scary.”
Jenna nodded and smirked.
“I like it,” she said with a smile. “You look different, though. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
I felt oddly self-conscious. After so many years of not giving a shit about my appearance, I’d agonized over whether to change the facial hair situation after Jenna had already indicated she liked it. I hoped she really still thought I looked alright. I’d also been trying to stroke my phantom beard all afternoon.
“Harley barked at me when she first saw,” I admitted. “She was extremely suspicious for about an hour. I think I’ve finally convinced her it’s me, but I don’t think she likes the clean-shaven look very much.”
“Well I like it. You look nice. But how did your discussion with Oliver go?” Jenna asked, “Is he going to help us? I didn’t see him today at work.”
“Ollie said he would help,” I told her, “He was going to Atlanta today, but he said he would look into it. Remember, you can’t mention this to him at work. It’s too dangerous. Did you find the accounting files for Project Winterspring today?”
“No,” Jenna replied, “I guess that would have been too easy or something. Your dad must have gotten rid of them all. There was no record of anything with that name anywhere in the whole organization. It’s like it never existed. I did find something though. I found a huge influx of revenue being concealed within the Research and Development budget for an extension on a small, completely inconsequential government contract. I need to locate the project files, but I have the number. Tomorrow I should be able to find what we need.”
I took a deep breath. Relief, anticipation, and fear swirled simultaneously inside me. We were close.
“Nicholas,” Jenna continued in a small voice, “what do we do when we find the proof?”
She bit her lip as she waited for my reply.
“I’ll confront my father and the rest of the board,” I told her, “and demand that they put a stop to the program immediately, regardless of what Skylark wants. Stop or we threaten to go to the press. My father has been keeping everything from the board. They won’t go along with it.”
“Richard fired my assistant today,” Jenna told me. She looked angry but resigned. “He found out that I was sniffing around your employment records and so he found a stupid reason to fire her to send me a message.”
“I’m sorry,” was all I could think to say. That sounded just like him. “You need to be really careful, Jenna. If he thinks you’re digging into this, he will fire you.”
Unexpectedly, Jenna shook her head.
“I don’t know what his deal is,” she said. “There’s something really strange going on between your dad and Ryan Quin. Ryan showed up in my office today. He was sitting in my chair and he’d been going through my desk. Your dad actually seemed pretty pissed off. They’re working together though, right?”
“Sure, but my dad doesn’t play well with others. He’s protecting you from Ryan,” I told her, “but he’ll stop if you disobey him and become liability to him. Please be careful.”
“I will,” Jenna told me. Her voice was earnest. “Trust me. I don’t want anything to do with Ryan. He really gives me the creeps.”
I thought back to my own interactions with Ryan Quin. He never made me feel uncomfortable, but we’d rarely seen one another. In hindsight, my father had probably engineered ways to keep me away from Ryan. All I really remembered about him was the fact that he walked around like he owned the place. Which, in a way, I suppose he did.
“Tomorrow I’ll get the records on that contract extension,” Jenna said, “then we should be able to go to the board. I just want this to be over. I’ve been nervous and jittery all day.”
“I know what you mean,” I told her, “When I first got to Alaska, I was sure someone would show up any day to kill me. I was completely paranoid.”
“I don’t know how you were able to deal with knowing about this for so long,” Jenna told me, “I’ve only known for a day and I already feel like this secret is eating me up from the inside.”
She took another bite of her cake.
“You get used to it,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t want her to worry about me.
Unexpectedly, Jenna r
ose from her barstool and wrapped her arms around me. I froze and then relaxed like a coiled spring in her arms.
“I’m sorry you had to carry this around all by yourself for so long,” she told me.
I held her back tentatively, feeling her heart beating furiously through multiple layers of clothing. She was clearly afraid. I didn’t know where we stood. Jenna had been kinder and more generous with me than I probably deserved. When I showed up yesterday out of nowhere, she allowed me to stay and agreed to help with my crazy, dangerous plan. What had probably been a random hookup to her in Alaska had meant everything to me. I didn’t want to put pressure on her or make this into something it wasn’t, but I could feel myself falling for her.
And now Jenna was touching me and looking at me with her gorgeous, wide, emerald-green eyes. My self-control dissolved into nothing.
Grabbing at the lapels of her jacket, I gently peeled it back from her shoulders to reveal her blue, lace blouse. She looked up at me and didn’t pull away when I leaned down to kiss her neck. Instead, she shivered against me, threading her hands through my hair and pulling me closer like she wanted me back. That was all the invitation I needed.
Slanting my mouth over hers to kiss her deeply, I pulled her closer. I let my hands explore over every inch of skin I could access and felt her doing the same. When I pulled her pencil skirt up at the hem and stroked up her soft thighs to find wet heat between her legs, I prayed she wouldn’t pull away and ask me to stop, because I wasn’t sure I could.
Somehow, we shuffled our awkward way to Jenna’s bedroom, undressing one another without breaking our embrace. A trail of clothes littered the floor from the kitchen to the bedroom and we were wearing only underwear by the time we arrived. Not one to repeat my mistakes, I shut the door before Harley could follow.
In her quiet, dimly lit bedroom, Jenna sank to the ground in front of me. No one had ever looked so sexy as she did right then, staring up from her knees and licking her full, red lips. Not wanting to rush her, I kept my hands off the back of her head and let her take her time, pulling down my boxers and then licking and sucking me eagerly.
Down and Dirty (Scions of Sin Book 3) Page 12
