He heard her gasp. He looked down at his lap, afraid to see the judgment and condemnation in her eyes.
“Who brought the complaint?”
It was not the question he had expected. “The officer I was said to have assaulted.”
“She set you up, didn’t she?”
“What?” His eyes flew to hers and he was astonished to see the rage burning in hers.
“She set you up.”
He grabbed her hands and pressed several kisses to them as he felt the despair that had trailed him finally fall off his back.
“I was given a hundred days in confinement and my allowances were stopped. A year later, it was discovered that I was framed so my conviction was overturned, my rank was reinstated and I was paid all pay and allowances.”
“How did they find out you were innocent?” Hope asked.
“The female officer in question tried the same shit on another officer. Apparently, my story had made the rounds so he had armed himself with a hidden camera. She later confessed that what we had was consensual.”
“She was just mad that you wouldn’t commit or something, right?”
“Right.”
“Damn bitch.”
Her anger startled a laugh out of Rusty. He lifted her and placed her on his lap. That was fast becoming his favorite position.
“It turned out okay in the end,” he said soothing her.
“But why didn’t you remain with the army after your rank was reinstated?”
He had felt betrayed by the army. It had been the only family he’d had and he’d felt like they’d turned their backs on him. He had not been able to remain afterwards.
“I felt betrayed,” he said simply, knowing that she would understand.
She nodded and was silent for several moments. Then she kissed him. “Thank you for telling me, Russ. It means a lot to me.” She kissed him again. “Now I think we should get going. I’m hungry.”
He drew her back, this time pulling her between his legs. He ran his eyes hungrily over her body. She had covered it with one of his tee-shirts, but he remembered the hot curves that were beneath the fabric. He was suddenly feeling the need to be buried inside her again.
“I’m hungry as well,” he murmured.
She laughed, a husky sound. “Insatiable much? Feed me first and then I’m all yours,” she said playfully, pulling him to his feet.
As she turned to leave he pulled her back into his arms. “Thank you, Hope,” he said, suddenly serious.
“What for?”
“For believing in me. I was afraid you would…” he shrugged.
“You thought that because of my background, I would run from you screaming?”
He nodded. That about summed it up.
She shrugged. “Can I tell you something?” she asked, her eyes suddenly vulnerable.
“Anything.”
“I’ve never had a boyfriend before,” she said with a shy smile.
“Ever?” He could not believe it.
“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had hookups and stuff, but I have never been interested in a relationship. Until now.”
Until now… a slow smile lit up his face as the import of what she was saying sank in. It felt damn good to know that this thing between them was not one-sided. She felt it too.
“Alright, girlfriend, go get dressed. Let’s get some food into you.” He turned her around and smacked her ample bottom.
A giggle escaped her mouth and she shook her head at him. “Don’t let it go to your head. You have a big enough ego already.”
He folded his arms and pretended to frown. “If you’re not dressed in five, I’m driving out of here.”
She copied his stance. “You wouldn’t dare!”
She was right, he wouldn’t. But she didn’t have to know that. So he raised an eyebrow that said without words, Try me.
After a few moments, she rolled her eyes and went to get dressed. It was a small victory, but Rusty felt good. He was going to bask in it because if he knew her well, it wouldn’t be long before she put him back in his place. She was every inch as tough as he was and hers was a mental toughness that he could not help admire.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Emily was in her office trying to arrange the search warrant, but she was not making much of a headway, which was unusual.
“What are you saying, Aaron?”
“You know the way it works, Emily. We need to have something to go on.” She heard the weariness in his voice.
“But you know what is going on. We filed a police report as soon as we noticed the first breach of security on their servers.”
“Yes, but there is nothing pointing the breach to Miss Shipman and unless you give me something concrete, there isn’t much I can do,” he said.
“What exactly can you do, Kinsella?” she snapped.
“Don’t be difficult, Emily. You know the drill. Get your people to get me some reasonable evidence and we can move on from there.”
Emily sighed. “Fine. We’ll get you something.” She was also weary. “Talk to you later, Aaron. Thanks for your time.”
“No problem.”
She ended the call and leaned against the desk. She was going to have to call it a day. It was only four pm, but she was tired. She wondered briefly if she was coming down with something. Placing a hand on the head that was beginning to pound, she made one more phone call.
“Russ, we have a problem,” she said.
“What’s up?”
“Kinsella is not willing to process a search warrant unless we have concrete evidence tying Sandy Shipman to the hacking.”
“On it. I’ll have something for you by tomorrow.”
“Great. Later.”
She ended that call and groaned. There were lights shooting at the back of her eyes and she was feeling slightly nauseous. She picked up the internal phone.
“Mom? I’m going home early. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, dear.”
Afterward she made her way to her apartment. There was a door right outside her own that led to a set of stairs, which came out at her living room. She fumbled with the locks then pushed the door open. She leaned on the door post for a few seconds, her breath coming out in puffs. Her head ached so badly, she could barely see her way.
“Are you okay?”
She almost jumped at the voice. She had not been expecting anyone to be in her living quarters. She lifted her head and the headache immediately doubled in intensity when she saw who was sitting on her favorite armchair, reading a newspaper.
“What the hell are you doing here, Wayne?”
“Your mom let me in,” he said with a shrug.
Emily growled. She was going to kill her mother. How could she do this to her?
“You need to leave now.”
“That head must be killing you,” he observed dryly. “Do you really want to murder me or would you rather lie down.”
“Murder you,” she muttered, but she was already heading towards her bedroom. She really could not deal with Wayne at that moment. She needed to lie down more than anything. Hopefully, he would see himself out.
She climbed on her bed and held on to her head. At that moment, she almost wished she could take off her head until the pain stopped. Since it was not possible, she gritted her teeth and bore the pain.
“Here, I got you some aspirin.”
Damn. What was he still doing in her apartment? The last thing she needed right then was to deal with Wayne and she had a horrible feeling that he was not going to leave until he got whatever it was that he came for.
“Don’t need it,” she mumbled, her speech beginning to slur.
“Poor, brave Emily. Defender of the weak and rescuer of the captive. You always have to be brave, don’t you?”
She heard the mocking tone in his voice and closed her eyes tighter. Maybe he was an apparition and if she ignored it, it would go away. One could hope.
“You know I’m not g
oing away till you take the aspirin.”
“If I take it will that make you leave?”
“Maybe. Probably. You’re not in any condition to have a conversation anyway, and I need to be in Hong Kong in the next twenty-four hours. So we’ll have to postpone this reunion till later,” he said.
His voice was grating on her nerves. All she wanted was for the pounding to stop. She held out her hand to him.
“Fine, give me the aspirin,” she mumbled crossly.
He dropped two pills in her hand, which she threw into her mouth. He pressed a bottle of water to her hand and then lifted her so she could take a few gulps. His touch was surprisingly gentle. She hadn’t been this close to him in several years.
Once she was settled back on the bed, he withdrew his touch. Not for the first time since her divorce, Emily felt lonely.
“I’m leaving now,” he said from somewhere above her head. “You can’t avoid me forever, Emily. We are going to talk and soon.”
She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, not saying a word. She could avoid him and she planned on doing just that. He’d caught her unawares today, but it would not happen again. She had nothing to say to her ex-husband and the sooner he understood that, the better for him.
She turned carefully to face the wall, giving her back to him. The pain relievers were already taking effect. She sighed again and then drifted off to sleep. She did not see the determined look in his eyes, nor did she feel the soft caress he dropped on her hair just before he let himself out of her apartment.
**
“So tell me again what you were saying on the phone?” Marinette asked, pacing her daughter’s apartment. She cast a cold glance at Sandy as she waited for a response, but there was none.
The girl had been acting strange since she arrived. She had been listless, hardly speaking and indifferent to whatever her mother had said. It seemed she was losing her hold on the child and she needed some reinforcement.
“I’m talking to you, child,” she snapped. “Where are we on the plan?”
Sandy looked up at her with vacant eyes. For a brief moment, Marinette wondered if her daughter had started doing drugs. Then she dismissed the concern. She would have known if Sandy had become a druggie.
“Mom, did my father rape Hope Conran?”
Marinette froze. She stared at her daughter in shock. Where had that question come from? Very quickly, she gathered herself and frowned at the girl.
“Where the hell do you come off asking a question like that? Your father was a saint. A saint, I tell you!”
Sandy just kept gazing at her. “Yes, but did my saintly father rape a thirteen-year-old girl?”
Another shocker, Sandy was standing up to her! What had gotten into the girl? She took a step forward then stopped.
“Are you okay, Sandy?”
“I’m fine, Mom, I just need some answers.”
“Look, the girl was a whore. She came into our home and destroyed everything!”
Sandy nodded. “I see,” she said quietly. “Did you know that this was going on?”
Marinette abandoned all pretense. “That little bitch! She came into our home and seduced your father away from me and I had to stand by and do nothing. Every night he was with her. Every fucking night! I swore that when I had the chance, I would destroy her and I will!”
Sandy walked to a chair and sat down. Her face was drawn and pale.
“Mom, you stood by and did nothing while a grown-ass man forced himself on a thirteen-year-old child and you did nothing…you let this happen every night!”
“It was her fault!” Marinette shrieked
“How could it be her fault, Mom, she was only thirteen!” Sandy yelled back, shocking her mother.
She closed the distance between them and gave Sandy a resounding slap. “You will not raise your voice to me again!”
Sandy held a hand to the place that was slapped in startled surprise, like she could not believe her mother had hit her.
“You are a sick woman and I no longer want to be part of your vendetta against Hope Conran. She should be the one seeking revenge against us.”
“What are you saying?” Marinette asked.
“I quit, Mom.”
She laughed. “You can never quit, you fool.” She reached into her purse and brought out a handgun.
Sandy’s gaze swung from her mother to the weapon she was holding. “Mom, where did you get that thing? How did you fly with it?”
“It’s none of your business. Now, you will do as I say or I will use it.”
“You can’t force me to take down Hope’s servers,” Sandy said, raising her chin defiantly.
Marinette smiled. “Oh, I can. But that won’t be necessary.” She waved the gun. “Get into your room.”
“Mom, this is wrong. How can you pull a gun on your own daughter…what have I ever done to make you do this to me?”
Aha! Tears, finally. She was beginning to realize who was boss in the room. Marinette felt glee course through her as she waved the gun towards Sandy’s bedroom. “Start walking.”
She followed the young woman till she got into her room. Then without thinking, shot at the computer that was sitting on a table. She said a silent thank-you to Linus, the man who had arranged the gun for her. He had added a silencer.
“Give me your phone.”
“Mom, don’t do this.” Sandy was sobbing now.
Marinette simply held out her hands until the weeping woman placed the phone in it. Then she turned around and walked out, making sure to lock the door before she left.
She sat in the living room, placing the firearm on a coffee table. She needed to think and plan the next step. Destroying the woman’s business had only been the first step in her plan to avenge herself. The woman had taken her husband from her. No one had any idea how humiliating it was to know that the person who had taken away her husband’s attention had only been a girl. It was the ultimate humiliation and that girl was going to pay for that.
She pulled out her phone and dialed a number.
“Hello?”
“I’m ready to roll out phase two,” she said into the phone.
“She chickened out?”
“Yeah, it was just as you said.”
“Hmm. Without her, there is no business. She’s the engine room. So we’ll move on to the next phase.”
“Do you have your people in place?”
“I do. We are watching for the slightest opportunity and we’ll make our move.”
“We should have made our move. Why hasn’t that happened yet?”
“She’s got a bodyguard. No one is supposed to know.”
“Damn. Okay, I’ll be in town for a while. Let me know when it’s done.”
“Sure. Bye.”
After the call, Marinette sat there chewing on her fingers. She was getting impatient, which was not a good sign. She needed to calm down. She had waited this long and she was so close. If she got impatient now, she was going to lose everything.
She was brought out of her reverie by banging on the door.
“Mom, you need to let me out of here!” More banging, “Mom, this is crazy. Let me out now! This has gone on long enough, let me out!”
She ignored her. Instead she picked up the keys to Sandy’s car. After tucking her weapon in her purse, she went out. It was time for some reconnaissance.
**
Rusty and Hope were bent over their computers, retrieving as much information from the remote computer when everything suddenly went blank. Hope looked up at Rusty in confusion.
“What just happened?”
“I think the remote computer just went off the grid,” he said, typing rapidly.
“How is that possible? Even if it’s switched off, we should be able to access it.”
Rusty had a bad feeling. He typed some more and after a while, gave up. They had been permanently disconnected from the remote computer.
“This is not good,” he said at last.
“Do you think she discovered our activities on her network?”
He shook his head. “Not possible. I’m using a sophisticated system that leaves no footprints.”
“Every hack leaves footprints, Russ. You know that.”
“I know, but this one is almost impossible to detect.”
“Hmm.”
“Do we have enough for Emily?” They had left his apartment after Emily’s phone call, stopped for something to eat and returned to Hope’s house where they had been hard at work all afternoon. It was now night.
“I think we do. There’s definitely evidence linking Sandy to all this.”
“Great. Let’s call it a night then,” Rusty shut down his computer and got to his feet.
Hope stretched on her seat then stifled a yawn. She was tired. She’d been sitting for five hours straight and while that was not normally a problem, after the workout she’d received earlier that day, her body was beginning to protest.
“I’m so tired,” she said.
“Yeah? Too tired for some of this?” Rusty drew her closer and nibbled gently on her lips.
Hope felt her nerve ends tingle as her body came awake. “Hmm…Suddenly, I’m not so tired anymore,” she murmured as she returned his kiss.
“Definitely not tired…” Rusty moved his attention to her neck and gently nibbled there.
Hope shivered as desire swept through her. She pressed up against him and his hands moved down to her ass. He pulled her so close she could feel the swell between his legs pressing against her stomach and it did crazy things to her already fired up hormones.
Suddenly, her house phone rang, shattering the mood. She ignored it at first, but after a while she could not ignore it any more.
“I have to take that,” she said breathlessly.
Rusty gazed at her through smoky eyes. She could see the fire blazing in his eyes and it made her want to crawl all over him. She was so turned on that her panties were drenched. She pulled back from him and walked with unsteady legs towards the living room where the phone was. The caller ID showed that it was her neighbor, Mrs. Lawrie. She picked up the receiver.
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 93
