My blood ran cold to know that this guy was clearly following her. He was getting close enough to her to get pictures, and that made him very dangerous. He was a bold motherfucker, and I wouldn’t put her at risk for one second longer. The first thing I did was call Greg.
“What have you got for me?” he asked.
“Emails, with pictures. And lots of them,” I told him.
“Forward them to me. I can trace the IP address, and that’s going to give us a hint as to who this guy is,” he said quickly.
“Alright, but you better not come up short on this one,” I warned him. “You have until the end of today to get something for me, or I’m going to fire you and bring on someone who can get this done.”
“I’m doing my best; I told you that,” he said, but I hung up.
With this new information, I knew I had to tell Liz. I didn’t want to tell her before, because I knew she was worried about the first phone call. But, with the actual pictures being taken of her out and about, I knew that I had to tell her the truth. There was no way she could go home and be safe when she was being stalked like this.
I didn’t know who this guy was, and I wasn’t going to risk him doing anything to her. I texted her, asking her to come to the office. When she arrived, I told her I wanted her to sit down so I could tell her something.
She listened in silence, letting me get it all out before she shook her head.
“You mean this guy is close enough to me that he is taking my photo?” she asked. Her face was white, and I nodded.
“I’ve got a PI on the case, and he’s going to find out who this guy is. He can trace the IP address that the pictures came from and get a lead as to how to find him.
She nodded, but her face was still ashen.
“I think you should come to stay with me for a while,” I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I continued. “You aren’t going to be safe at home alone anymore. They know where you live, and if they are watching you, then they also know when you are there alone. Whenever your brother leaves, you are vulnerable. My building has a doorman and a strict policy on visitors. You’ve seen it yourself. No one is getting in there that isn’t supposed to.”
“But my building is secure entry too,” she protested weakly.
“Yes, but anyone can pick a lock, Liz. I’d feel safer with the added security features of the doorman and desk security of my building. I want to know that you’re safe and I know that you will be with me.”
“So now I’m going to be a prisoner in your home shuttled back and forth to work like the goddamn Queen of England?” she said, irritation slowly edging out the fear.
“Listen, I know this sucks, and I am really sorry you are going through this because of me. I know you were only trying to help me, and I feel awful that this is what’s happened. But until I know for sure that this guy has been caught and taken care of, I need to keep you close to keep you safe. Please, Liz, don’t fight me on this.” She sighed. I knew how she felt about moving in with me at this point, but I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I didn’t want her to be alone, and David had already told me he was going to be leaving work early to go hang out with his girlfriend.
He didn’t know about the pictures yet, and I didn’t want him to panic. If he wasn’t going to be home to watch over Liz until the whole thing was behind us, I wanted her with me.
Not to mention, I would feel a lot better if I was the one who was in charge of keeping her safe anyway. She was in trouble because of me, and it was my job to get her out.
“Come on, Liz. You know that I only want the best for you. We can go to your place after work, and you can get a few things, then you can stay with me for a while. We’ll make sure you get everything you need to be comfortable, okay?” I said. “But I really think it would be better for you to come with me than to risk you being on your own.”
She sat in silence for a while, and I wasn’t sure if she had even been listening to me. I didn’t want to press, but I knew that was the only way I could get her to see things from my point of view.
She had grown up in a big city, yes, but Phoenix was a far cry from New York. Things were different here, and she had to understand that. I wanted to protect her, and I was going to make sure I did that very thing. Moving in with me was the only way I could see that happening.
Finally, she nodded.
“Fine,” she said. “But I want to go to my place right after work. There are a few things I definitely will need to bring.”
I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll leave early.”
Chapter 21
Liz
I left the office upset. I didn’t want to stay with Nick. I felt like such a baby, needing to be watched all the time, so nothing happened to me. I was pissed that my offer to help my friend had taken this turn, and I was even more annoyed with myself that even amid the current shits how, I didn’t feel right calling it all off.
There was a part of me that wanted just to walk away and go home. To go back to Phoenix and let Nick handle his own problems. After all, he’d gotten himself into this mess with his childish stunts, why did I have to risk my life to get him out?
On the other hand, Nick and I had history, and not just in the bedroom. We’d grown up together, and I’d seen him through some pretty awful shit. I couldn’t really blame him for some of the poor choices he made seeing as how his own father had blamed him for his mother’s suicide.
I didn’t want to abandon him, but I didn’t want to die either. Was I overly dramatic? Did this guy really want to hurt me, or was he just pissed that I’d bruised his ego and Cassie had bruised his nuts? It didn’t seem like someone would go so far just for being slighted though. One menacing phone call maybe, but stalking and sending creepy photos of me out and about? The guy was clearly unhinged.
I wanted to head back to my office and just be left alone. Jean, Angela, and Will clearly knew something was wrong, but they had been respectful of my privacy, and no one asked me what it was. I was grateful to them for that, though I was still worried about what it really meant for me.
I hated being so stressed out all the time. I had told David very little about what was going on. I didn’t want him to worry about it too much. He knew that I had an interaction with the men at the club, and he knew that Nick had gotten an upsetting phone call.
But he didn’t know nearly the extent of it or that I was afraid of going out alone. Especially now. Things were going on that were out of my control, and I didn’t feel like I would ever get the peaceful feeling back.
David came around the corner and nearly ran into me. At first, he was going to crack a joke about me not watching where I was going, but when he saw the look on my face, he stopped in his tracks.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I, I – I’m being stalked. Nick got so many photos of someone following me around, and he’s getting more phone calls, and I can’t be alone, and now he wants me to come to stay with him because he says that it’s not safe for me to be alone,” the words came rushing out of my mouth.
The more I spoke, the harder it was to keep anything in the dark. I told David everything, and I could see with each new detail he learned, he was that much more pissed off.
“What the hell! Liz! Why is this the first I hear of this? You should have told me that it had escalated. I’m going to kick Nick’s ass for getting you into this,” he snapped.
“I told Nick I would do this for him, and we had no idea something like this would happen. And I don’t feel like I can leave because then he’s going to lose the company and I will feel terrible after all that he did for us. We were just talking about how we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him, and now I can’t just up and walk on him!” I sobbed.
David was livid. He walked back and forth in front of me, clearly wanting to go into the office and punch Nick in the face. I’d seen the two of them fight before, but I’d never seen him this mad
at our friend.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me about all this?” he snapped again. “You know I would have been there for you if you had.”
“I didn’t want this to turn into that big of a deal,” I said. “I thought it would all just go away, or it might be a hoax or something. I didn’t know it was going to turn into all this, and then it was out of my hands, and I really didn’t know what to do!”
“Come on,” David said.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I didn’t want to get into another argument with Nick. But then, I didn’t want to go stay with him, either. I was afraid my brother was going to do something rash, but at the same time, I felt good knowing that he was there for me.
He had always been someone I could count on, and now that he knew the full truth, he was going to step in and stand up for me. He had done it all through our lives. He didn’t give a fuck if Nick got caught in the crossfire.
Someone had wronged his little sister, and now it was time for him to get involved.
We marched right up to Nick’s office, ignoring the looks of several other colleagues along the way. They were clearly curious over what was going on, but with the way David was pushing past them, they all knew better than to say anything.
David didn’t even bother knocking. He pushed the door open, and the two of us walked right in. Nick looked up in surprise when he saw us. He was on the phone, but he wrapped up the conversation and hung up as soon as he saw both of us standing over his desk.
“What the hell have you gotten my sister into?” David snapped before Nick had the chance to say anything.
“David,” Nick started, but my brother was too pissed to give him a chance to say anything.
“How the hell do you live with yourself knowing that you put my sister in this much danger? I had no idea that she was going through this level of stress for you!” he snapped.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” Nick shot back. “Do you really think I would intentionally put her in danger?”
“I don’t care if it was intentional or not!” David said. “The fact of the matter is that she is in danger, and you are the one who hasn’t had the guts to call this off. I’m pretty fucking pissed to know that this has been going on right under my nose, and neither of you told me!”
“I have it taken care of,” Nick said. “She’s going to be coming to stay with me for a while so I can keep an eye on her while we find who is behind this.”
“The fuck she is! You are going to call off this whole thing right now!” David snapped. He slammed his hand down on Nick’s desk as he spoke, and I looked from one to the other of them. I still wanted to cry, but I felt better knowing that David was now aware of all that was going on.
All I wanted was to feel safe again.
“I can’t call it off, or I’m going to lose the company,” Nick said.
“I don’t give a fuck what you lose Nick. My sister is more important to me than your goddamn company.” David shook his head.
“I get that David, I really do. She’s important to me too. You have to know that. But if I lose the company, we all lose. You won’t have jobs; you won’t have the apartment. We’ll all have to go back to Phoenix pissed off and miserable,” Nick said.
“You were the only one that was miserable back home dude,” David shot back. “We had a good life. We weren’t fucked up like you.”
“David!” I scolded, horrified by my brother’s words. “Stop it right now. You don’t mean that.”
The room had gone silent, and all of the air felt like it had been sucked out of it. David and Nick were staring at one another, nostrils flaring like bulls in the ring.
I put my hand on David’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Nick is right. It’s not just him that would be affected if the company went under. It’s not even just us. It’s everyone out there in that office. It’s Jean, and Angela, and Candice. All of those people have lives and bills and mortgages. If the company goes under, so do all of them.
David finally nodded and backed up a few steps. “You’re right; it’s not just about us. But I swear on my parents Nick, if anything happens to my baby sister because of you, I’ll fucking kill you. Best friend or not, you’re done. Do you understand me?”
Nick nodded. “I’m going to fix this. I have a PI on the case, and he’s keeping track of everything that’s going on. We’re going to find out who this guy is, and we’re going to put an end to what he is doing to your sister. I’m not going to let a damn thing happen to Liz; you should know that” Nick replied.
I could tell David was still pissed, but he wasn’t going to push the issue anymore. He couldn’t. I was an adult, and it was up to me to make the final decision. I didn’t have to break up with him, but I didn’t have to stay with him, either. I could put an end to the whole thing if I felt that I had to.
And while there was that part of me that wanted to, there was the even bigger part of me that didn’t feel right about it. I knew that I should stay and work it out. As long as Nick was determined to keep me safe, I would be. I had no doubts about that.
“Are you comfortable with staying with him and keeping this stupid charade up?” David asked me.
It was so strange to me that he seemed to be able to read my thoughts. I sighed. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I merely nodded.
“I’m not happy about this, don’t get me wrong, but I think we’re going to get it figured out, and when we do, we’re going to be able to move past this,” I said at last.
“None of us are happy about this,” Nick chimed in. “But I think you should both know that there is no way in hell I would put Liz in any danger. She means too damn much to me and so do you, David.”
“Well, you better get it fixed soon,” David said. “I’m not going to sit here and watch my sister go through hell just to help you out.”
“I assure you both I am doing everything in my power to make this go away. As soon as I have a concrete lead, I can go to the police. Now that I have the pictures, it’s stalking, and that’s illegal.”
“You better be,” David said. He looked like he wanted to say more, but there was little he could do. He knew that it was up to me to make the decision, and I did. I wasn’t happy, not in the slightest, but I trusted I was going to be a lot safer with Nick than I would be anywhere else.
It was true; we didn’t have any idea if this guy was going to leave me alone if I were to break up with Nick. If he knew that I was close to him in any way, which he likely did consider all he knew about me, then he might continue to follow – and who knew what else he would do.
The safest thing for me to do would be to stay with Nick at his place for a while until it was all sorted out.
David turned and walked out of the office, and with a tired sigh, I followed. I didn’t want to stand and argue with Nick anymore, and I knew he was doing what he could to fix this right now.
It didn’t help to know that we were both pissed off at him, and I didn’t want to make it harder for him to get to the bottom of things. I would go back to my department, and I would do my best to focus until I was finally done with the day.
Then, we’d see what tomorrow would bring.
Chapter 22
Nick
“Oh, fuck me, fuck me, baby! Fuck me!” I had my cock buried in Liz’s pussy, thrusting in and out of her, making her call my name. She was so tight around my cock, and I was pumping hard, pushing in and pulling out, making her my own.
It reminded me of the last time we’d hooked up, and how I had taken her completely. I had been in charge of the entire situation, and I had thrived on that. Never had I thought I would like to be completely in control, but with Liz, things were different.
I wanted to make her scream, I wanted her to feel me sliding in and out of her, but I wanted to be in control of when she was finally allowed to come. It was intense, and right now, I was in control once more.
My hands were on her tits, my cock in her pussy. I press
ed my lips to her neck, kissing her, nibbling at her, leaving little marks, letting the world know she belonged to someone. She belonged to me.
She moaned on the bed, letting me pump myself into her, letting me take her like she couldn’t be taken by anyone else. I was the hunter. And I was hungry.
She cried out as I pressed my cock into her hard. I wanted to hear her. The faster I moved, the more she would writhe on the bed beneath me, her tits bouncing with each thrust I delivered. Her pussy wet around my cock. She was a goddess, and I knew I was going to have a tough time when this whole thing came to an end.
I didn’t even want it to. I could see myself with her long term. I knew I cared about her, and that I probably even loved her, but I was still terrified of the commitment.
But I wasn’t afraid to make her mine in the bedroom. And I was going to do that as many times as I possibly could. I knew it was only temporary, but I wasn’t going to waste a second in the meantime.
If I could possibly make her scream louder, I would. I was getting closer and closer to climax myself. I wanted to come at the same time as her because it felt amazing that way. I thrived when the two of us came together. Nothing felt better than her pussy squeezing my dick as I filled her with my load, giving her all that I had in me until it dripped out onto the bed below us. Nothing was better than the feeling of my own cum dripping around my cock as I stayed in her, holding her close to me as I started to grow soft within her.
That was what I wanted to feel now. That was about to happen.
Then, it was all gone.
My eyes opened, and I realized that it had been nothing more than a dream I was having. A damn good dream it had been, but a dream, nonetheless. As the memories of what happened the day before came back to me, I remembered Liz wasn’t even in the apartment.
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