Dessert

POV: Leah

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. I reached behind me, but didn’t feel Jared anywhere, so I got up to see if he went back to his room.

His bed was still made, so he slept with me all night. I went to see if he were with Amelia, but she was gone too. Panic started to set in, and my fears started to surface.

Looking out of the window, I noticed his car wasn’t in the driveway. I left my phone on the counter last night, so I went to go find it.

It was plugged in with a note under,

*Good morning. Amelia and I headed out for work, but we made you a fresh pot of coffee and breakfast is in the fridge. Hope to see you again tonight.*

I needed to go over my rules with him again or find another place to stay. The last thing I needed was Jared catching feelings because we are playing house.

Checking my phone, I noticed missed calls from Adrian and a voicemail.

*Leah, where are you? I need to know you are safe. Stay here at the hotel with me, you’ll be safe. Don’t worry about Monica, she is all bark and no bite. That baby isn’t mine.*

He needs to make up his mind about her baby. Yesterday he seemed confused and talked to her as if he accepted it were his. I don’t get the relationship dynamic of those too, but clearly, they have history.

Jenny also left me a message.

*Hello love! Got your note. Catch up soon? Adrian confined me to the apartment and work, so you know where to find me. Love you!*

If these men were after me, then staying away from Jenny was the best decision I could make for her. Three men could hurt or even worse, capture her to get to me.

The only person I hadn’t heard from was Cam, so I text him.

“Hey, just wanted to check on you.”, I sent with a hug emoji.

It didn’t take long for a response.

“Headed back to the states today. Can I see you?”, he missed me.

“I am keeping a low profile until the men who came after me are caught.”, we hadn’t talked about that night and what happened to me.

“Men? Tell me everything. I told my mom, and she sent out an investigator to the house.”, I was surprised his mom was handling his father’s house.

We had a rule not to involve family, so I didn’t press the issue. I told him exactly what had happened, and he said he would handle it. Between Cameron’s money and Adrian’s connections, one of them were bound to find some information.

Today was Friday, so I didn’t have anywhere to be until Monday. I decided to go against what Adrian said, I needed to continue to live my life. If I died today only Jenny would miss me.

**********

POV: Adrian

Leah left, but I had nothing more to say to Monica. I set up to have the door fix and I made sure to have them change the lock. I wanted to make sure Monica didn't have access if Leah came back.

The next morning I still hadn't heard from Leah. I ended up leaving the hotel and going back to my apartment to link up with Hendrix. He had been trying to pull information for me.

I needed to know what Cameron was up to, who his mother worked for, and what the hell they want with Leah.

On top of what I needed to do to keep my day job. I hadn’t heard from Cooper which was starting to seem suspicious. I also needed to finalize a date to absorb that resort, it was the key to taking down Cooper.

I walked in the door to see Hendrix mulling over the investigation board he had set up. Each column was titled with a name and photo of a suspect or target we were looking into and then below is where we put information.

“Hey boss, I have some updates for you.”, he looked over as I walked in.

“Give me just a few, I have a few loose ends to square up.”, he nodded and went back to filling in the board.

I decided to sit down and set a date to finally take over this company. I sent an email to the resort’s business team looking to schedule within the next two weeks. Urgency was important because I was ready to end this chapter of my life.

Once I was caught up on emails, I called over to the office here in town and left a message with Cooper’s assistant. I let him know that I wanted to set an acquisition meeting to go over the process of transitioning this resort into a reflection of the Daybreak Hospitality Empire.

It would need to be shut down for a few weeks to complete renovations, this was the perfect opportunity to show Cooper I was the man for the job. And hopefully he would finally trust me enough to hand over his black book containing the secrets to running a successful criminal empire.

My whole job here has been centered around that black book. It is a ledger containing information on every connection, employee, and payment that has been made under the table. Every name I needed to take down this organization would be in that book.

It was all the evidence I needed to finally bring the justice my father had set out to get.

Once I was done with my VP duties, I turned my attention to my side investigation. It started with Cameron, but after digging deeper it seems that his family is connected to the criminal underground.

I just needed once piece of evidence to connect the two and I could add him to my list when I take down Cooper.

“Okay, hit me with what you found.”, I pulled up a stool to observe the details on the board.

“Once we got Leah back to the city, CCTV caught one of the guys faces on camera. I ran a still against facial recognition and it came back clean.”, he informed me.

“Shit, that leaves us nothing. No connection. Fuck!”, I was angry.

“That’s not all boss. I was able to edit the photo enough to notice a tattoo that I traced back to an old Marine unit. Small special ops unit, but all perinate information about their tasks have been redacted.”, he paused to pull a photo off the board.

“What’s this?”, he handed me the photo.

“I used to do some work with the guy in the back on the far left. He is a contractor now, so I reached out. Waiting to hear back since he is currently rucked up in another country.”, at least we had a lead.

“Alright, keep me up. Do we have any information on this Cameron kid?”, I looked at his column and didn’t see any new developments.

“No. This kid keeps his hands clean. I haven’t even seen him pop up on CCTV near Leah’s apartment since you’ve been back.”, he let me know.

“Anything happening on those cameras?”, I didn’t expect those guys to hit her apartment again.

“Yes. Leah went back to her apartment about 30 minutes ago.”, he pulled up the footage of her apartment.

“Shit. Keep an eye on her. Where is Martin?”, I told him to stay posted in a room we thought was Cameron’s hide out.

“He is posted up in that room he found. Not much was found in there except a bag of cash in the wall and some old, smashed burner phones.”, I was surprised he hadn’t been back.

“I doubt Cameron will be back, he seems a lot smarter than we give him credit for. We need to assume he knows that room was compromised. Follow him and let me know when he touches down in the city.”, I still didn’t trust this kid.

“Hey, did anything else come back on the mom?”, I almost forgot about her.

“No boss. Since she came back from vacation, she has followed the same routine. She hasn’t made any new contacts. I have Hannah out there placed as a medic for the hospital. She is working to get close to her.”, I knew Hendrix was the best man to run this operation.

“See if we can’t get Hannah to bug her house, car, and phone.”, I wanted to take her down too.

“Roger boss.”, and he went straight to work making it all happen.

I decided to text Leah, Hendrix followed her moves yesterday and she ended up at Jared’s.

“My place for dinner?”, I needed to get her back to my hotel to keep her safe.

“I would, but I have plans.”, such an innocent message… but it pissed me off.

“With whom?”, I demanded to know.

“Jared.”, that asshole.

“I don’t trust him either, you are better off with me.”, he couldn’t protect her like I could.

“Adrian, I am fine, and I trust him. He has changed a lot.”, she really doesn’t see the worst in anyone.

“I will be at your place in 10.”, I was going to get her.

“How do you know where I am?”, should I tell her?

I wasn’t ready to let her know about me, and it was in the best interest of her safety to keep her out of it.

“Are you following me?”, I didn’t respond.

“Adrian?”, she continued to message me.

“I am here.”, I messaged her just before knocking on her door.

She opened it, “You can’t do that! What if I had a guy over?”.

That sent rage through my veins and my vision turned red.

She backed up as I walked toward her.

“Adrian, you need to breathe. No one is here, so no faces to punch.”, she chuckled as if it would ice my temper.

I closed the door and continued to walk toward her. She couldn’t back away any father once she hit the wall.

My jaw tense and my fists clenched, rage filling my eyes at the thought of another man touching her. I wanted to be the only man allowed to please her, if they tried, I would only work harder until no man could satisfy her.

Leaning forward, my fist rested on the wall as I bent to be nose-to-nose with her.

Her breathing heavy, “What are you going to do?”.

“Since you have dinner plans, I will take my dessert and leave.”, her mouth gapped open.

I was going to give her a reason to show up at my room when dinner was over, but right now the only thing on my mind was dessert.

-To be continued-