by EM BROWN
Kimani launched herself at Jake, shoving his arm into the air while she delivered a body blow, knocking them both to the ground. The gun went off, but the bullet went into the ceiling.
Moving quickly, Ben stomped on Jake’s wrist. When Jake let go of the gun, Ben picked it up. Grabbing Jake by the shirtfront, he hauled him to his feet and slammed him up against the wall.
“You stupid fuck,” he cursed in Jake’s face before throwing him over the table.
Bataar entered, dragging Vince behind him. “Hey, boss, what do you want me to do with him?”
Ben tossed Bataar Jake’s gun. “Keep an eye on Dumb and Dumber.”
From where he’d landed on the floor, Jake glared at Ben. “The deal with Tyrell Jenkins is off! No way I’m gonna let him go to China after this.”
Ben didn’t bother replying. Instead, he helped Kimani to her feet. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but he looked away before she could utter a word.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“There,” said Marissa as she added the finishing touches of makeup to Kimani’s cheek. “Can’t see the bruise at all. You’re lucky you have dark skin.”
“Thanks.” Kimani looked at herself in the mirror of their bathroom and saw only the faint shadow of a bruise beneath the concealer and powder. Her cheek was still slightly swollen, and it was sore to the touch. Jake had managed to hit her in the same spot twice, once on their first meeting and again on their last meeting.
That last day at the cabin had been a blur, save for the emotions that still haunted her: fear, dismay, panic, relief, helplessness, despair, and misery. She remembered fearing for her life when Jake had pulled out the gun, then panicking that Jake might shoot Ben. The thought of Ben hurt—or worse—had galvanized her out or her paralysis to take a chance on knocking the gun from Jake.
“I wasn’t going to shoot anyone,” Jake had protested when everyone else had returned, shocked and confused to find Claire in tears, Kimani holding an ice pack to her head, and a large Mongolian with a gun standing over Jake and Vince.
“I just wanted to send a message that I’m not going to be bullied around,” Jake had explained, his gaze on Ben.
After looking over Kimani and getting her an ice pack, Ben hadn’t touched or said anything to her. When he’d held her jaw, firm yet gentle, to inspect her injuries, her heart had crumbled. She had wanted his fingers to remain on her forever.
She never got a chance to tell him how awful she felt about the article and to apologize for her part. She wanted to say how sorry she was that she had been so prejudiced at the beginning, so convinced that a guy like him had to be bad. By the time she had realized her error—by the time she had fallen for him—it was too late. Zealous in her mission, she had acted without enough consideration for him or his family.
If she could do it all over again, she would have done things differently.
And now she had created a mess worse than a bull in a china shop.
“So, whatever happened to your rich Asian hottie?” Keisha asked when Kimani went to have her braids undone. They reminded her too much of her time with Ben.
“Back in China,” Kimani replied.
After quitting the cabin, Ben had brought everyone except Jake, Vince and Derek onto the jet. She wished she had pulled Ben aside and found the words and the courage. But she had allowed the opportunity to pass, not realizing that she wasn’t going to get a chance to speak with him again.
After landing in San Francisco, Ben had had Wong drive Claire and Kimani to the hospital to be checked by a doctor.
“Can you have Ben call me?” Kimani had asked Wong after being dropped off at her home after the hospital. She had handed Wong a slip of paper with her phone number and email.
Three days had passed without word from Ben. She had tried his office and was told by the receptionist that Mr. Lee was in Shanghai, with no return date scheduled.
“He’s got to come back to work on his waterfront development,” Kimani had said.
“If you need to talk to someone about the development, the project leader is actually Harold Stone, in our office,” the receptionist had replied.
Remembering that she had texted and called Sam from Ben’s phone, she had gotten his cell number from Sam, but some kind of answering service routed only authorized calls through. Calls originating from unauthorized or blocked phone numbers had to leave a message to be called back.
“You can’t write the story,” Sam told her as they sat in his office at the Tribune offices. “You were in too deep. Especially if you’re going to press charges against Jake, you’re no longer unbiased.”
Expecting that to be Sam’s answer, Kimani didn’t feel as devastated as she thought she would have been. Her efforts wouldn’t be in vain if she could bring someone like Jake to justice and take down the Scarlet Auction. She had told the San Francisco District Attorney all that she knew and had handed over her recording pens so that the D.A.’s office could investigate the Scarlet Auction.
“This is definitely something to look into,” the Assistant District Attorney had told Kimani.
It was the bright spot in an otherwise depressing turn of events. At least something positive had come out of it all. Something worth a broken heart.
“I’m not anxious to go back to Trinity County, but I’ve got to press charges,” Kimani said to Sam. “I don’t think Claire will.”
“That’s the woman this Jake strangled till she passed out?”
Kimani nodded. “She said he did it on accident. Apparently he bought a diamond and emerald ring to prove how sorry he was about it.”
“A bribe, in other words.” Sam shook his head. “I’m sorry about the way things turned out. I should never have let you take this on. It was too dangerous.”
“You couldn’t have known.” Kimani paused. “You never told me you were going to run an article about Oakland Forward.”
“It was a last-minute call. Ownership was having a conference call that I just found out about that day.”
“The article is not going to be good for Gordon Lee.”
“There’s nothing in the article that isn’t true. If the Lee family didn’t do anything wrong, the FPPC investigation will confirm that.”
“But meanwhile, they’re suspected of wrongdoing.”
“And maybe they’re guilty. We don’t know that they aren’t.”
“They’re not guilty.”
Sam raised his brows. “How can you be sure? You spent all of three, four days with Benjamin Lee?”
He had a point, Kimani decided, not wanting to be upset with Sam. He was just doing his job.
As if sensing that she was feeling down, Sam said, “Hey, I’ve got a bit of good news. Even though you can’t write the Scarlet Auction expose, I have to hand it to you, it took guts to do what you did. You risked your life.”
“Not intentionally,” she replied.
“Nonetheless, not all journalists would have put themselves in your place. You stuck your neck out. And I think you would be a great addition to the Tribune.”
She straightened. “Really?”
He smiled. “Really.”
“When?”
“Now.”
She let out a shaky breath. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
“But what about ownership? How could you be hiring when they’re thinking of shutting down the paper?”
“I can’t guarantee that your job will last very long, but I can make it work for the time being.”
She stamped her feet in glee. Sam got out of his chair to give her a hug.
“Welcome aboard, Kimani Taylor.”
Later that night, she celebrated her new job by having margaritas with Keisha and Tara.
“Now all you need is a man,” Tara said.
“I got a job,” Kimani said. “What does that have to do with a man?”
“You can’t get it on with a job,” Keisha said, as if Kimani should know better.
“My
vibrator and I get along just fine.”
“You can’t convince me it’s the same.”
“The vibrator can be hella better.”
“Un-hunh,” Keisha returned in a tone that made Kimani want to throw the tortilla chips at her. “That why you were so mopey the last time we talked about your guy?”
“He wasn’t my guy,” Kimani emphasized loud and clear, not wanting to remember all the crazy, torturous and amazing things she had experienced at Ben’s hands.
“Oh, I know a guy who’s free, now that he’s dumped that skank of a girlfriend. Marcus. This brother’s fine.”
Tara nodded and pretended to fan herself.
“He coaches basketball for a junior high school,” Keisha added. “You’d have a lot in common. Let me set you up.”
“No!”
“Why not? So you can cry over a guy who lives in Hong Kong?”
Kimani blew out a long breath and took a drink of her strawberry margarita. “Fine. But just one date.”
“That’s all it takes.”
Tara raised her glass. “To fine motherfuckin’ brothers.”
Kimani clinked glasses with Keisha and Tara. Deep down, she knew it was too soon to be dating. She would rather focus on her new job, and she needed time to work Ben out of her system. But it might take a while for that to happen, so maybe it was better to begin the next chapter of her life sooner rather than later.
Tomorrow, she would give Ben one last try. She wasn’t expecting to continue anything with him, just the chance to apologize. If he didn’t return her call, she could write him an old-fashioned letter to that effect.
After that, she would be ready to close the chapter on being bought, ravaged and tormented by Benjamin Lee.
HIS FOR A WEEK: DEVASTATED
Coming Fall 2018
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
