by Laney Kay
Unfortunately, Mike and Jake’s fondest wish didn’t come true. The four men came into Jake’s office and cordially greeted Jake and Mike, then they all sat around the conference table. When confronted with the evidence, Russell, the blond man who’d been in Lola’s house who was the apparent leader of the group, leaned back in his chair with his fingers interlaced behind his head. He looked at Mike and Jake and simply said, “So what’s your point about all this?”
Jake narrowed his eyes, then took a deep breath to get a grip on his temper. He leaned forward and spoke with a low, menacing voice. “We’re all professionals here, and I understand that you were hired to retrieve what you thought was stolen information. My point is that you didn’t have anyone’s permission to be in her house, and her friend,” he inclined his head toward Mike. “…And I don’t appreciate anyone bothering her.” He leaned closer to Russell. “So unless you want us to file breaking and entering charges against you, which will not be helpful for your PI licenses, we need to come to an understanding.” He locked eyes with Russell. “I will tell you this one time. Lola Prentiss, her family, friends, and acquaintances, are all off limits to you and your colleagues. If Mike or I ever have any reason to think you’ve been investigating her, have her under surveillance, have talked to her, or are anywhere near her, you will deal with both of us.” He stood up and eyed all four of the men. “I own Nighthawk, so I have pretty much unlimited resources at my disposal to ensure that y’all don’t come near her again. If you do, we will have a serious problem. Do we understand each other?”
Russell looked at his associates then back at Jake. He held his hands up as if surrendering. “It’s not a problem. Her case ended as soon as we retrieved the flash drive and returned it to its rightful owner, so we have no problems.” He then looked between Jake and Mike. “I take it you both have a personal interest in this?”
They both nodded. Jake’s cheeks were flushed and he was almost snarling by that point. “Yeah. So keep that in mind.”
The four men all exchanged glances and Russell asked, “Is that it?” When Jake and Mike nodded, they stood up to leave.
Jake held up a finger to get them to wait. He punched a button on his phone. “Marie, will you send B-Ray, Logan, and Matt in here?”
As the door opened and the three huge men filed in, Jake looked at Russell. “These men will show y’all out.” He looked at his three employees. “Please escort them to their cars and make sure they leave right away.”
“No problem, boss.” B-Ray swung his hand toward the door and the four visitors filed out, followed by Jake’s employees.
Jake went into his office, closing the door behind him. Lola was wearing a Nighthawk hat and sweatshirt, and a fleece shirt, jacket, backpack, and visor were thrown over the back of the chair. Lola and Marie were drinking coffee and laughing as they sat around the big monitor on the middle of the table. When Jake glanced at it, he saw that Mike still sitting at the conference table in the other room, typing something on his phone. When they saw Jake, they both saluted him with their coffee and he grinned at them. “Nice swag bag, Marie. You ladies enjoy the show?”
He walked over behind Lola and she tilted her head back against his stomach. He bent over and kissed her smiling, upside down face, and Marie grinned at them, obviously thrilled they were together. Lola winked at him. “We did, but we were disappointed they were so agreeable. We were hoping there’s be a little ass-kicking involved, but that was very civilized. Such a shame.”
He rolled his eyes. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
She shrugged. “You can make it up to me later with some private posing and posturing. It’ll be so hot.”
Marie laughed and stood up. “On that note, I’ve got to get back to work.” She reached up and patted Jake on the cheek and then hugged Lola. “Thanks for a nice break, and Lola, if I find any more goodies, I’ll save them for you!”
Lola hugged her back. “Thanks for all the stuff, Marie, and thanks for hanging out with me. I had a great time.”
Marie grabbed her coffee cup and headed out the door. Jake grabbed Lola and dipped her back and kissed her thoroughly. When he finally pulled her up, her face was red, her hair was a mess, and she was more than a little turned on. She was just about to suggest they lock the door, when Mike knocked on the door as he came in, shaking his head when he got a good look at the two of them. “Sweet Jesus. Would the two of y’all please give it a rest?”
Lola stuck out her tongue, and Jake just ignored the comment. He slung an arm around Lola’s shoulder and pulled her up against his side. He then smiled at Mike. “Thanks for all your help.”
“No problem. It would’ve been more fun if they’d have been more difficult about it, but at least it’s over. Y’all need anything else?”
Lola walked over to Mike and hugged him tightly. “Thanks for everything, Mikey. Maybe we can do dinner with you and your man later this month?”
He hugged her back, as Jake added. “That sounds great. I’d really like to meet him.”
Mike squeezed Lola so tight she squeaked, and then he laughed and let her go. “We’ll set it up.” He winked at her and headed toward the door. “Jake, let me know if you need any backup with DeLeon.”
“You got it.”
Mike left, waving over his shoulder. “Later.”
Jake took Lola’s hand and they walked back into his office. They had just sat down when Lola’s phone rang. She turned the phone so he could see “DeLeon” on the screen. At his questioning look she shrugged and answered the call, placing it on speaker. “Lola Prentiss.”
The same voice from the day before greeted her. “Hello Ms. Prentiss. Marco DeLeon here. I should be finished up with my meetings in a couple of hours, and wondered if you’d like to meet today instead of in the morning. I could meet you at Nighthawk this afternoon around four, if that would work for you and Mr. Morrow?”
Lola looked at Jake who shrugged and then nodded that it was fine with him. Lola winked at him and then answered. “Sure, Mr. DeLeon. Look forward to seeing you then.” She disconnected and tossed her phone on his desk.
“So, it looks like today’s the day.”
He nodded. “I’m hoping that he just wants to tell us that he’s sorry for any misunderstanding about your role with Mitch, and he’s even more sorry about hiring someone to break into your house.”
“Well, let’s just go ahead and get all of this over with at once.” Lola grinned as she slouched down in her chair and propped her crossed feet on the edge of his desk. He smiled back, glad that she was finally going to get her life back. “One way or another, it looks like we’ll be done with this by tonight.” She put her hands together as if praying and dramatically rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Please let me be back in my own place by tonight.”
Jake’s brows drew together and his smile dimmed. “Hey, didn’t we already go through all this? I believe you already agreed that we’re a team now, and you’re already trying to ditch me?”
Lola shook her head as she stood up and walked around to the other side of the desk and plopped onto Jake’s lap. She put her arms around his neck and smooched a big kiss on his cheek. “I didn’t say I didn’t want you to go with me, Jake. I’m just saying I’m ready to get back to my normal life. I want to be able for us to stay at my house sometimes. I want to run errands and go to lunch with my friends. You need to get back to running your business, and I need to finish closing my business out and figure what I want to do from now on. Let’s see how we do when we’re together by choice instead of because someone may, or may not, be trying to kill me.”
He hugged her and then pulled back so he could see her face. “Okay, so after we meet with DeLeon, if everything’s all settled, what do you say we go out to dinner near your house and then we’ll stay at your place tonight? You okay with staying there after those assholes broke in?”
Lola nodded. “Yeah, I had my assistant get a crew to clean the crap out of the place after they left and I eve
n used it as an excuse to repaint the living room and get a new desk I’ve been coveting for the past six months. Mikey has reworked the security so no one can get in without me knowing about it. Fortunately, they only touched my desk and the stuff in my living room. I’m sure I’d feel different if they’d been in my bedroom.” She shuddered at the idea. “Knowing they were rummaging through my personal stuff would’ve been too creepy. Then, I’d probably have to have all new furniture, linens, everything.”
Thinking about the situation was pissing him off all over again, so Jake changed the subject. “Marie’s got some administrative stuff I need to take care of. You got some work to do in the meantime?”
Lola grinned and picked up her phone and waggled it at Jake. “I’ll get ahold of my assistant, Lisa, and make sure all my court stuff is covered and nothing weird has come up while you work, no problem.”
Lola went into the conference room next door to make some phone calls, and he called Marie on the intercom and asked her to bring in whatever needed to be handled. For the next few hours, he and Marie slogged through a pile of work that required his approval, or his signature, or his input, and when she finally finished with him, he started answering his emails.
At three-thirty, Lola stuck her head in his office as she tapped on his door. “Hey big guy. You about done?”
He motioned her in. “Absolutely. I’m pretty much caught up with everything I needed to handle. What about you?”
She came around to stand between his legs as she perched on the edge of his desk. “Everything’s good. I had put in an emergency leave of court, but I had also asked Lisa to see if I could get my appointed cases reassigned. Lisa’s husband, David, is a criminal law attorney and I asked him if he’d like to take over the rest of my cases, and he agreed, so I called my clients, told them I had a personal situation and wouldn’t be able to work for a while and asked them if I could transfer their cases to David. They all agreed, I put the paperwork in today, and as of the end of this week, my law practice will be completely closed.”
She leaned over to kiss him and he smiled up at her. “You’ve been a busy bee, Ms. Lola. No one had a problem with transferring to David?”
“Nah. I haven’t been taking big cases for a while, and truthfully, most of what’s left are little cases that just need to be finished up. David is very well known, so no one had a problem with it, and it’s no biggie for David to handle. I told Lisa to figure out the amount these clients had already paid me and I’ll just write David a check and he’ll have these wrapped up in a week.” She shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this week, and whatever I decide to do, I’m done with law so I’d just as soon get these cases out of my hair.”
He was curious. “What about your employees?”
“All I have are Lisa and Mikey. Lisa is a paralegal, but more importantly, she’s an amazing assistant. I’ll keep paying her and she can work with Mike until I decide what I’m going to do, business-wise. Hell, my family’s trust stuff and personal businesses can keep her and Mike busy enough if I never decided to open another business.”
He was curious. “So in all this thinking you’ve been doing, you make any decisions about whether you’re going to start your own charity?”
Lola scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “Not really. I figure I’ll talk to Bella and some other folks, do a little research and decide what to do. I’m not really in a hurry.”
Jake pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. “Well, that sounds like a plan.”
She ran her hands through his hair and had just started kissing her way down his neck when Marie’s voice came over the intercom. “Hey, Jake, Mr. DeLeon is on his way up, and he knows he’s early. Want me to send him in or let him wait for a few?”
Lola didn’t care either way, so Jake told Marie to send him in to the conference room as soon as he got upstairs. “Let’s get him in here and get this over with.”
That sounded good to Lola, so she hopped up and they went next door to the conference room. Lola seated herself at the head of the table and Jake took the chair to her immediate right. The laptop with the video of Lola’s break-in and all the related documentation was still in the middle of the table. Jake logged in and brought up the video file, and they had just gotten settled when Marie rapped on the door and let Mr. DeLeon in. Lola thanked Marie, and when she closed the door behind her, Lola motioned him to a seat across from Jake and introduced herself. “Hello Mr. DeLeon. I’m Lola Prentiss, this is Jake Morrow, and we’re glad you agreed to meet us.”
Marco DeLeon was in his thirties and was medium height, with coffee colored skin, dark eyes, perfectly styled hair, and a suit that was obviously made for him. He nodded. “Nice to meet you.” He leaned back in his chair and got right down to business. “So you think we have a situation we need to discuss?
Lola nodded. “We do. It turns out that you sent men to break into my office and my house to retrieve a flash drive that Mitch Willard had given me. I’ve got a problem with that.”
His face was expressionless. “And why do you think I had anything to do with this?”
Lola leaned back in her chair and mimicked his relaxed pose. “Well, we have emails from you to the men who broke into my house and office, hiring them to retrieve the same flash drive your men eventually took from my house.”
He neither confirmed nor denied the information. “Hmmm.” He shook his head. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding, Ms. Prentiss. Mitch Willard discovered information about a project my company is working on and tried to use that information to blackmail me. When I told him he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about and told him that trying to blackmail me was a bad decision, he told me that I’d better pay him or he was going to go public with the information. I immediately started doing some research and found that he’d been stealing money from me on a regular basis and this was some blatant attempt to extort even more money. We discovered that Mitch had downloaded the information onto a flash drive, and I hired those men to retrieve the information from Mitch, but I never told anyone to break into your home or office.” He ran one hand over his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. He looked directly at Lola. “Ms. Prentiss, I’m sorry you got involved in this situation. I told them to retrieve stolen information and when Willard gave you the flash drive, they assumed you were involved with the theft and retrieved my property. I apologize for them breaking in, and I apologize for the misunderstanding about your involvement, and as far as I’m concerned, you and I have no further business with each other.”
Lola nodded. “I accept your apology, and so long as you’re done with me, we’re good.”
DeLeon stood up and extended his hand for Lola to shake. “We’re good.” He turned and offered his hand to Jake. “Mr. Morrow, it looks like I’ll be hiring a different corporate security firm in the future. May I contact you in the future if a need arises?”
Jake shook his hand. “Sure. Let us know and we’ll put together a proposal for you.” When Mr. DeLeon nodded, Jake stood up. “Let me walk you out.”
The two of them headed out and Lola rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure Jake was using the time to explain to DeLeon that Lola was not to be bothered in the future. Whatever. No harm in making sure he got the message. She’d spent her entire life surrounded by overly protective men and, so long as they didn’t try to run her life, she really didn’t care what they did. If it made Jake feel better to let DeLeon know she was off limits, that was fine with her.
Jake was back within a few minutes and Lola looked up from her phone when he walked in and sat in the seat next to her. “So, did y’all have a little talk?”
He grinned, unrepentant. “Yep. Just reiterating that any further contact with you was a bad idea.”
She shook her head and laughed. “Did that make you feel better?”
He winked at her. “Yes, it did.”
She turned to him. “Have you heard anything else from your brother about h
is opioid? Is DeLeon going to get his FDA approval?” She winced. “I’ll bet he wouldn’t have been so ready to make nice if he’d known that this whole situation sparked an FBI and FDA investigation into his proposed product.”
Jake agreed. “You’re probably right. But it really sounds like DeLeon hasn’t done anything wrong and Willard misconstrued the information the same way we did.”
Lola was still mortified about the whole situation. “Maybe not as bad as we did. We had Mitch and I as cartel targets, Mitch as a murder victim, DeLeon distributing an opioid specifically designed to be especially addictive, a team of thugs and assassins after me, and none of it was correct. Mitch died because of shitty lifestyle choices, the opioid looks like it’s designed so that it’s more effective with less amounts of narcotics which will hopefully lessen the possibility of addiction, corporate security guys were trying to get back corporate information they thought I’d stolen, and apparently DeLeon’s only relation to the cartel is that his aunt happened to be married to a cartel guy and used her money to help him start a business.” Lola shook her head. “This whole week was a monumental waste of time and worry over a woman who usually can take care of herself and always hates to look like a wimp.”
Jake grinned. “I’ll admit, in hindsight, there were a few assumptions made that ended up being incorrect.”
“Well, all of them, actually,” she interrupted, and shook her head in disgust.
He grinned at her embarrassment. “But, Lola, what if any of those assumptions had been correct? I’d much rather err on the side of your safety than blow it off saying it’s probably nothing.” He grabbed her hands and interlaced their fingers. “Plus, if you weren’t forced to stick so close to me, there’s no way we’d be together now, so I’ll have to put in a vote that I’m glad it happened.” He leaned over and kissed her. “And you never looked like a wimp. You were smart enough not to risk your safety, but you never came across as anything less than a total badass.” He winked at her and raised their linked hands to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand. “Except when you were too much of a wimp to date me. But I can forgive that now that you’ve come to your senses and realized what a catch I am.”
