CHAPTER 10

Jack

Every day I came home exhausted. I was working overtime and not sleeping enough. I was plagued with bad dreams, remembering the last time I saw my parents. I was eight and thought hanging out with my parents was lame. They’d wanted one last weekend at the cabin before fall set in and I wanted to go watch the stage show ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in the theater. It didn’t matter that I’d already seen it twice. I loved that musical, I still do. But they’d already seen it and, however much they loved me, couldn’t bring themselves to watch it a third time. Gramps and Grammy offered to take me for the weekend. It was a win - win. I got to watch dancing teapots, and they got a romantic weekend away. My dad promised to be back in time to take me to school on Monday. Then they both kissed me goodbye and drove off. That day went from being the best day to the worst the moment a police cruiser pulled up outside, and Gramps told me that mom and dad weren’t ever coming home.

I was so close to finding the proof I needed, I could taste it. That Cross had come after Ryan meant that I was on the right track. So far, I’d followed the money back to the first initial investors. Ones that were friends and associates of Cross’s father-in-law and other members of the Lucem. But that all faded into the background when Mammon shared his findings with me about my parents. It didn’t take long to search through the bureaus archive, now that I knew what to look for. The investigation that my father had started was pretty damning of Cross’s business activities. That alone was more than enough to send him to jail and throw away the key. Let alone adding murder, intimidation and… assault. Any hint of a warrant being issued and Cross would lawyer up, that was guaranteed. Ryan wanted to leak everything to the press, but with the way Cross had turned negatives into positives. No, that just would not work. The only way would be for Cross to slip up and hang himself. But just how did you make someone like Mervin, who’s had years of practice in manipulation, do that?

“Babe, I can hear you thinking from all the way over here. Kind of sounds like a rattle can, so how about you shift gears and come at this from a different direction?”

“Ugh, and that would be?”

“This Lana person, you think she’s the one who ratted you out to Crosses team? So why not feed her some false info… draw them into a stage-managed setting and get Cross to expose himself, not literally because eek, that would be just nasty. And there isn’t enough eye bleach in the world to remove that.”

“It’s not a horrendous idea.”

“Well, gee thanks.”

“And at least this way we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“Verity’s happy to steer Cross wrong… and she’s spoiling for a cat-fight.”

“How could I say no to that?”

“And if Lana doesn’t back off after all that, then I’ll just zap her ass.” His sweet smile made him look so unassuming. And that is why they say you have to watch out for the quiet ones.

“Again, with the zapping? You get into one fight and suddenly you’re like Dr. Strange wanting to spark up all the time.”

With a giggle, Ryan released sparks from his fingertips. And headed towards our bedroom. “How about I show you what I can do instead?”

Now there was an offer I couldn’t pass up.

So that is how it ended up being ‘take your annoying friend to work’ day. Not that it was that simple, not with the security teams posted around the building. But Eric is a magician. Somehow, he hacked into their personnel records and added Verity to the staff list just for the day. It was pretty odd seeing every guy’s head snap around as Verity strutted by. I was so used to her I no longer saw her as the attractive woman she is. She was just annoying Verity to me. But here she was in her element, or she was right up till Lana breezed past. I say breezed. Only it was more like a corvette screeching to a halt at a stop sign. One tiny part of me felt sympathy for Lana. There she was, a tall blonde bombshell and yet she was being bested by a short fiery redhead.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jack’s BFF, and I’m just saying ‘Hi’ before heading over to work for Mr. Cross today.”

“You are not Jack’s BFF. If anyone’s his best female friend, it would be me, not some kid playing dress-up.”

“Oh, girl, if you think this is me dressing up, then you should see me when I hit the town. Face it babe, even if Jack was straight or available, which he’s not, he still wouldn’t be into you. When he could be with me?” Some very impressive hair flicking followed verity’s declaration, and I’m not afraid to admit that my neck ached on her behalf.

“Really? You think you have what it takes to catch a guy like Jack? Maybe it’s you who should wear glasses the next time you look in the mirror.”

Whoa, things were really heating up. All eyes were on the two women, but I was the only one who spotted Evren standing off to one side, recording everything with his phone. Most likely to share with Mammon and the guys’ later.

“Can you tie a cherry stem into a knot with your tongue because I can?” Lana pushed her ample chest in Verity’s face, driving her comment home.

“Pal-ease… that trick is so old. They were doing it on board the Arc, which is probably where you learned it.”

Oooo if there was one unspoken rule you didn’t break, it was dissing a woman’s age. And Verity had just delivered a full-body slam with that one.

“Why you little… and you’re standing so close to Jack you’re practically humping his leg.”

OMG!I could sense that Lana was pissed and Verity, well, she was loving every minute. As a succubus, she was charging up on all the sexual energy filling the room. Her petite body practically vibrating.

Verity had Lana where she wanted her. It was like a tiger toying with a field mouse. Now it was time to switch track and send her reeling off to Mervin’s advisor.

“Yeah, well, I bet it was you who paid those goons to attack Ryan.”

“Who the fuck is Ryan?”

“Wow, is it an age thing or a blonde thing that you can’t remember the name of the guy you sent a hitman after? Ryan is Jack’s fiancé. Pretty sure he’s mentioned that.”

“Why would I hire a hitman and send him after some guy I’ve never even met?”

“Because you’re jelly that Jack’s not interested in you, and you went all ‘bunny boiler’ on him. I bet the cops and the press will be really interested, seeing as Ryan is Eammon Lewis’s private secretary and all.”

“Listen, I didn’t know… I only mentioned…”

“Oh, so you admit you spoke to someone about Jack and they sent someone after Ryan? I see it’s totally not your fault. Huh? Yeah, I bet a judge is going to buy that defense plea. NOT.”

“No, that’s not it. You’re twisting it. I mentioned Jack was looking into historic files…”

“Seriously, girl, do you hear yourself? It’s Jack’s job to look into files. He’s a financial actuary. Dear god are all bimbos this dumb or is it just you?”

“Fuck you, bitch. I’m not going down for this.”

Lana stormed off, her heels hitting the floor so hard I was amazed they didn’t break. And out of the corner of my eye I saw Ev all but disappear, but not before he nodded his head in Lana’s direction and winked at me.

“Well, that was fun… fancy a coffee. I’m parched.” Verity practically glowed. The last thing she needed was caffeine, but seeing that the entire department was still staring at us, I reasoned I could do with a coffee-tonic about now.