My body felt numb as I marched to my car and slipped inside. I don’t really remember getting home. But I do remember seeing Melina’s car as I hurried towards the building door and up to my apartment.
When I stepped inside, Katie and Melina were there, but there was also the man we’d hired to figure out who Nichole really was. Everyone turned to look at me.
“You look like shit,” Katie said.
“Gee, thanks.”
I made my way over to the couch where everyone was sitting; for a split second, I was thankful I hardly spent any time here anymore—that way my house was at least sorta clean. Although I did notice a load of dishes done that hadn’t been cleaned when I was home. Katie must have washed them for me; I had a little quirk about hating company seeing dirty dishes. I strode over to the group and sat down with them all. Katie reached out, touched my hand and gave me a wide smile. If she knew the details, they weren’t that bad, or she was just trying to be comforting. I forced a smile over my lips and turned my attention to the man in the room, clearing my throat.
“So, this is everyone, right?” He looked around, kind of nervous.
“Yes.”
“My investigations normally take a little bit longer than this to be honest, but it seems this is all very cut and dry.” The man cleared his throat as he grabbed his file. “I didn’t realize I would be doing a presentation; otherwise, I would have made more than one copy of everything.” He opened the folder and pulled out a paper. “Her name is real according to all the records I could find, which made everything much easier to track. You said you were worried because she was getting close to a male friend of yours, correct?”
“Yes.” I spoke before anyone else could. “My boyfriend.”
“I see.” The man nodded. “And I’m willing to bet he’s … forgive me for being blunt, well off.”
“You could say that. Why?” This time, it was Melina who cut in.
“Because that’s her type.” The man pulled out a couple pieces of paper this time. “Over the past three years, this girl has dated five men; all of them have ended up filing for bankruptcy about two weeks after it seems like she ended their relationship.” I took the paper from him before Melina or Katie could and stared at the names written on it, along with a job title, and what I assumed was their income before they filed for bankruptcy.
“Do you have proof that she dated them?”
“Of course.” The man smiled. “It’s my job to have proof. It’s in the folder, which, of course, you will be able to keep in case you plan on confronting her, or your boyfriend.” He looked at me as he spoke.
“Thank you.”
The man shrugged. “It’s my job.” He cleared his throat. “Anyways, I took the chance to talk to some of these men, as well as people who know them, and basically what seems to happen is Miss Lateian approaches them with the interest in work. At first, it was just working for them as an employee, but after graduating college, with student loans a man is still paying, she suggests a partnership. After a couple of weeks of long hours and lots of work, she shows interest in buying stocks in the company; of course, she sells them while they are at their highest and then doesn’t have to worry about it when the business files for bankruptcy. Anyways, when she buys the stocks, she insists they go to dinner—her treat. That normally leads to sex.” My heart did a backflip before landing in the pit of my stomach. I swallowed dryly as Katie and Melina turned to stare at me.
Everything was dead silent. I couldn’t bring myself to look at anyone so instead just stared at the dingy white carpet on my floor. The private investigator’s words wouldn’t stop replaying in my mind.
I swallowed dryly, feeling like I was about to be sick, and then forced myself to look up at everyone staring at me. I refused to show them how hard this was.
“Then what? She just takes them for all they have?”
“Pretty much, yes. Lavish trips, shopping sprees, new cars.” The man handed me a folder. “There are bank records, of course, taken with permission of the men they belong to.”
“Why hasn’t anyone reported her before?”
“Because they all thought they were the only victim. They didn’t realize she’s been conning other men before them, and because it happens in different places every time, no one ever hears about the other one.” The man shrugged. “And I think all of them were a little embarrassed to admit it had happened to them. They all knew they should have been more careful, but they were more than happy to help me and to provide any information on her that they could.”
I took the folder from him, listening to what he had to say. This was all so unbelievable. It wasn’t something that was supposed to happen in real life. This was supposed to be something that happened in movies.
“Thank you for all your work.”
“There is one more thing you should know about Miss Lateian …” I bit my lip, fearing what he would say next. “She’s never had any record of violence, but she does have a mental record. What this woman is doing takes a lot of skill; she could already be on to you, and if she is moving in on your husband, you’d best move fast to make sure he doesn’t become her next victim. She’ll most likely ask to borrow his credit card to buy them coffee the first time because she will have forgotten her wallet. It’s how she’s opened up the door to each other man buying her things, and normally they just let her keep the card afterwards since they are already in a sexual relationship.”
Again, my heart did a backflip. He wasn’t having sex with her, was he? Oh, God, I felt like I was going to be sick just thinking about it.
“Thank you,” I managed, but it wasn’t a good idea. I swallowed down the urge to puke. Katie jumped for me and touched my arm gently.
“He’s not like all those guys,” she whispered. “Dean would never sleep with her. He’s smarter than that.”
I’d thought he was smarter than to get involved with this kind of girl, and knowing that he wasn’t, left me questioning a lot about him. I bit my lip.
“Thank you for your time.” Melina and the private investigator stood, and I heard them head to the door. “I’ll be sure to wire you the rest of the cash.”
“Thank you, ma’am. It was a pleasure to help you. I truly hope you are able to … clear up this situation.”
“Oh, we will.” I heard the door open and close before I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. Why did this have to be happening to me? Why did it have to be happening to us? I let out a sob seconds before I feeling two sets of arms around me.
“It’s going to be okay,” Melina whispered. “We’re not going to let this bitch take advantage of our boy like this.”
Our boy. I liked the way that sounded, but I wasn’t sure he was mine. If he was so willing to sleep with Nichole … if he had slept with her, I knew I’d never be able to forgive him for that.
I pulled away from them and sighed, wiping away my tears. “Alright, so now what do we do?” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. As much as I would have loved just to sit there and cry, I knew that wasn’t going to fix anything, which meant I had to get my ass in gear. Pushing myself up, I paced through the room, biting my lip. “I guess, we need to tell him the truth about this girl.”
“Do you think we should confront him in front of her?”
My brow furrowed, mulling it over. I would have loved to see him find everything out in front of her. “No.” But I knew it would be best to tell him when they were away from each other, that way he wouldn’t jump right to defending her and have her see it. He could have time to process everything, and then we could confront her together. Or he would take her side and fire both Melina and me.
I swallowed dryly.
“Should I call him?” Melina asked, reaching for her phone.
“No. Actually, you should leave before he comes here.” Melina stared at me with wide eyes. “There’s no point in both of us getting fired.” I gave her a weak smile. “Anyways, it might be better if it is just the two of us doi
ng it … maybe. But if everything goes bad, I want you around keeping an eye on him. And as far as he’ll be concerned, you had nothing to do with it.”
Not that it would actually matter. If things didn’t go well, we’d be over, and I’d be fired—but that didn’t mean I didn’t want Melina keeping an eye on him. I still didn’t want him to get hurt or have Nichole take advantage of him. Chewing my lip, I pulled my phone out from my pocket and dialed his number.
Melina and Katie stared at me without saying a word. My heart raced as it rang once, and by the time it rang again my heart was pounding in my chest so hard I was surprised he couldn’t hear it when he answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey … um, I need to talk to you about something. Is there any way you can come over?”
“Now?” He let out a sigh of frustration. “Nichole and I are working.”
I felt hurt tug at my chest and tried to ignore it, but when I spoke, it was obvious how hurt I was. “Okay.” I felt tears prick my eye again. “I um, I guess … just come see me when you can please. I don’t want to talk about it at work …” I swallowed dryly. “I’ll talk to you later?” It came out as a question because I honestly wasn’t sure if we were going to talk later.
“Wait—”
“No. I’ll let you get back to work. I don’t want you to get distracted or anything … I don’t want to be a burden on you. I’ll just, talk to you later. Bye.”
I hung up without telling him that I loved him because I honestly couldn’t bring myself to tell him knowing that I was probably so damn close to losing him. I swallowed dryly and tucked my phone away as a tear ran down my cheek.
Chapter Eight
Dammit, now I felt like a complete asshole. I blew out a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.” Nichole reached out and touched my hand.” Here you are doing all this late night work when I told you it would free up time, and now your girlfriend is mad at you.”
“No. It’s not your fault; I get that it’s going to take time for us to get everything sorted out so that I will have more time.” Apparently, Becca wasn’t going to realize that. A snide smile spread across my lips. As soon as my phone rang, Nichole wondered if it was going to be Becca checking in on us or trying to pull me away from work—turns out she was right.
My brow furrowed as I felt guilt tug at my stomach. I knew that was the wrong way to think, and that Becca wasn’t used to this kind of lifestyle. She didn’t know what it was like to have to date someone who doesn’t just come see her at the drop of a hat. And I didn’t help with that. I’d taken her off to Italy at the drop of a hat just because she was going through some shit. I stared blankly down at the computer I was supposed to be working at, not having actually gotten any work done since the conversation with Becca.
“Damnit,” I muttered, knowing what I was going to go do.
“What’s wrong?” Nichole stared at me with wide eyes and jumped to her feet as soon as I stood. “You’re not actually going to see her, are you?” I stared at her for a second. Why did she sound so mad? Nichole blew out a deep breath. “Look, I know you really like this girl, so I didn’t want to say anything but … it’s just … she seems kinda manipulative.”
My heart dropped in the pit of my stomach. No. Rebecca couldn’t be manipulating me. She wouldn’t. She didn’t like the fact that I tried to pay for everything.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just … she ... like ... expects you to come to her at the drop of a hat and then makes you feel guilty? That’s just wrong. You don’t deserve that.”
I bit my lip. She made a point … but … I swallowed dryly.
“I’ve still got to go sort things out with her. If she thinks she can just call me whenever she wants and I’ll show up, she needs to know that’s not how it works, and if she called me because something is actually wrong, I need to be there.” I’d been so upset when she hadn’t called me about her father; I couldn’t let that happen again.
So I grabbed my coat and my work bag. Nichole shook her head, but she grabbed her stuff, and we hurried towards the front door.
“I really hope it works out. And if … if you need someone to talk to, or drink with, just give me a call—alright?”
“Thanks.”
*
“You need to leave.” I stared down at the text from Dean.
“What?”
“Like, now.” I tucked my phone away and jumped for the file. “He’s in the parking lot.”
“What?” Katie and Melina snapped, jumping to their feet.” Suddenly so glad it was dark out, I bit my lip.
“Come on,” Katie grabbed Melina’s arm. “You can come to my place.”
“Text me!” Melina called as they rushed for the door. Katie skidded to a stop and opened it carefully. She looked around and then bolted for the hallway and down to her door. I stared at them, my heart racing. How long did it take him to get from the car to my apartment? And how much time had we lost while the text was being sent?
I swallowed dryly as Katie pushed her door open and stepped inside; Melina followed behind her, and the door slammed shut.
Relief washed over me for a fraction of a second before I heard footsteps on the stairs. That’s got to be him.
“Hey,” I said as soon as I saw him.
“Hey.”
“Thanks for coming.” This all felt so stupid. I wasn’t even sure if this had been the right thing to do or not. Maybe it would have just been better to let him realize it all on his own or deliver it to the casino anonymously. No, he’d know I was involved.
“You made it sound like it was important.”
“It is … it’s really important, and you’re not going to like it,” I said as he made his way into the apartment. “I … I have something you need to see, and you need to listen to me while I tell you about it. I need this.”
“Okay, what’s going on?”
I strode to the table where the file sat, and Dean followed me. “So,” I bit my lip taking a deep breath. “I know things have been really tense and … and you know I haven’t been feeling that great about Nichole.”
Dean groaned. “Really? Really Becca? You took me away from work to talk about her?”
I felt my cheeks flush as I looked down. “Look, I’ve had a bad feeling, so I decided to do something about it.”
“What? he snapped.
I lifted my head and stared at him, my eyes locking on his. “I did something about it, and you know what? It’s a damn good thing I did.” My eyes narrowed. I’d done this for him, even though I knew he was going to be mad, even though I knew I was risking him breaking up with me.
“I can’t fucking believe this. Can you just leave her alone? Are you fucking jealous of her or something? You actually went and stalked her? Do you know how wrong that is?”
I stared at him with wide eyes. Anger blazed inside me. I was beyond mad and wanted just to let him go. I wanted to tell him I was quitting, and that he could have fun when he had to file for bankruptcy.
Dean turned on his heel and headed towards the door.
“Did you fuck her when you went out to dinner?” I needed to know. I knew it was stupid.
Dean froze. “You’re joking, right? You don’t actually think I would do that?”
“No, I don’t. But I know that Nichole likes to apply for jobs, get the job and then start spending late hours working with her rich boss before they go out to dinner where she sleeps with them.” Dean rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. I knew in a couple of seconds I’d have lost him, but I wasn’t going to run after him, that would just make everything worse. “And then she’ll ask for their credit card because she forgot her wallet, normally for something small like a coffee.”
Dean froze and then turned to me. “What did you just say?” His face was pale as he stared at me. I smirked. She’d borrowed his card already.
“And then she’s going to date you. You’re going to buy her a new car, or maybe some diamond earr
ings, maybe take her to Paris or Holland, and she’s going to take you for everything you own—just like she did the five other men she’s been with in the past three years.” I took a couple seconds to let that sink in. “But you know what, I’m crazy, right?” I held my hands up in submission. “Don’t worry about what I have to say; you go back to work with her and see how long it takes for her to try and sleep with you, again.”
Okay, so maybe I didn’t know that she’d tried to sleep with him yet, but it was a guess I was willing to take. If TV had taught me anything, it was that people like this didn’t change their routines after so many victims. I closed the distance between us.
“But before you go, you might want to take this. It’s everything the man I hired dug up on her; it might have a couple interesting tidbits in it.” I forced myself to give him a smile as his fingers brushed against mine and felt a tear prick the corner of my eye. I pulled away before I could actually cry and coughed. “So, I’m guessing you want my two weeks’ notice?”
“No.”
He didn’t say anything as he made his way into the living room and sat down on the couch. I stood there staring at him.
What the hell did he mean?
*
“So you hired someone to look into her? Let’s see what he found. I’m sure none of it is that bad.”
I needed to know that none of it was that bad. I needed to find a way to explain away everything she was telling me.
The Billionaire’s Casino 5
Sarah J. Brooks
The Billionaire’s Casino 5
Sarah J. Brooks
Chapter One
I stood there as he crossed to the couch and dropped down, picking up the folder. My jaw dropped as I followed and sat beside him.
“You … you’re not going to fire me?” I was still processing the fact that he didn’t want my two weeks’ notice.
“Of course I’m not going to fire you. If I find out all of this is made up, I’ll fire you and Melina.” I opened my mouth to tell him that she had nothing to do with it, but he cut me off. “Oh, don’t even—I know you weren’t doing this on your own, and a private investigator is just the type of thing Melina would do.”
Naughty and Nice Page 51
