A Kiss of Color: The Complete 3 Book Collection (37 page)

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Brandy cut in succinctly, with an unexpected smile. The blonde woman looked no less than exhausted from the several sleepless nights she’d spent going over legal documents. “We do actually have something on them.”

Everyone looked to Brandy expectantly. Xavier himself tried not to show his shock. He’d heard so much bad news in the last few weeks that the prospect of something positive seemed almost inconceivable.

“What do we have?” Helena drummed up the courage to ask before he did, her gray eyes shining with more hope than he’d seen in a long while.

“We have the fact that they haven’t set a trial date.” At Brandy’s triumphant announcement, her brother was about to point out that that didn’t necessarily mean anything in their favor. It simply meant that they didn’t know how numbered their days were. Then, however, Brandy kept speaking. “If they haven’t set a trial date, that means they’re not absolutely certain they can convict you. We should take that and run with it.”

Xavier arched a brow in incredulity. He didn’t particularly see how they could run with anything. While they now had more information, it seemed that the company board still had the upper hand. Whether they believed they could convict him or not, it was still only a matter of time.

In that instant, the CEO’s stomach dropped. Before, he had never really entertained the idea of what might happen if he went to jail. He held out hope and blocked the possibility from his mind. However, as time had passed and the situation got worse, he was now forced to contemplate his uncertain future.

If he was put away, everything he had could be confiscated. His house, his car, the funds in his bank account. Helena would be left completely alone with Isaiah; and though Xavier knew he could count on his sister to make sure that his lover was in no real danger, Brandy herself was alone. She was about to be a divorcee and single mother, and while, financially, she was alright, he was more worried about her emotionally.

He was
supposed
to be the breadwinner for this family. He had promised Helena that he would always look after her and their child- that he would protect them…from his family and anyone else who might interfere. He promised Brandy that he would help her sever her life from their parents – that he would support her. It was the least he could do for essentially causing all her troubles.

He could do none of those things from a jail cell.

He would leave the people he loved the most without recourse, and with nowhere to turn.

The thought was enough to make him set his mouth into a stern line, shoving all his fear down into the pit of his stomach.

He was
not
going to jail. He refused. He would be there to parent his son and to help his sister get her husband and her life back.

“So,” He finally managed reaching across to take Helena’s hand in his own as he prayed to whatever deity might happen to be listening. “What do we do while we’re waiting?”

His resolve must have been evident, because his sister’s lips curved into a knowing smile. As weary as she was – as weary as they all were – it was time to form some kind of game plan. They couldn’t just let everything weigh down on them.

There was too much at stake.

For the next ten days, everyone had their own roles to play in Brandy’s carefully laid out plan. The first and foremost important detail was finding out what had happened to the money stolen from Helena and Xavier’s accounts. Money always left a trail, and there was no way millions of dollars had just disappeared. Brandy had put Horace up to the task of going to the San Diego branch where the money had been withdrawn. He was to pose as a reporter looking for information and find out as much as he could about how the money had been transferred, to where it had been transferred, and to whom.

Brandy herself would use the information that he found to begin building their case. The blonde’s pregnancy was just beginning to show, but that didn’t hamper her steadfast dedication to her duty. She went to the local library and spent hours taking notes, bribing the management not to let any reporters in to disturb her. It would, no doubt, she’d told them, be the toughest case she’d ever built, but she would rise to the challenge.

And when this was all over, Xavier swore that he would see Hank and his sister back together. Brandy’s baby would be raised by both its mother
and
father, and damn whatever plans his parents had.

Xavier was assigned to the task of drumming up a number of records on the company and their finances. Until this whole debacle, XTech’s files had been perfectly clean – another reason such suspicion had been roused with this little stunt. If he was going to steal from the company, wouldn’t he have been doing it from the very moment they’d started to make money? Why wait until right after a huge merger, during the time of most acute financial visibility? To all outsiders, it appeared, for all intents and purposes, as if he’d wanted to be caught.

Which meant whoever was framing him wanted to make a particularly big spectacle of things.

Along with gathering pertinent files, Xavier was also charged with trying to get in contact with those employees that had been terminated by the company. Both Horace and Brandy believed that those who had been let go had been let go because, perhaps, they’d known Xavier was innocent and sought to support him. Margaret was among their number, and perhaps Daniel as well. Xavier made calls to the both of them every day, hoping he might get an answer.

Helena was, of course, still on bedrest. Susan had forbidden her from coming into the office, and she had taken maternity leave from her classes for three months. Xavier knew how hard the latter must have been for her, as her PhD meant everything to the young woman. Her chief duty was to take care of their newborn son, and in that, Xavier sometimes envied her. He worked all day, either in his office with paperwork or with Brandy at the library, and spent only a few precious hours every evening with Isaiah. But, those hours, he treasured. The warm weight of the baby in his arms, the downy softness of his little thatch of deep brown hair. The way his eyes went wide with curiosity at the sight of his mother and father.

He was doing this for his family…his son. He would
not
just roll over.

Nonetheless, every night he found himself exhausted from the stress. He would fall into bed, hugging Helena close to him and feeling her new curves flush against his own body. Though he knew they couldn’t be intimate until she healed, that didn’t stop him from wanting her so badly it kept him awake all night – until the next day’s work began.

Helena couldn’t do much as she got better, but she did have one task. She was given the responsibility of giving a few select interviews to news outlets chosen carefully by Brandy. There had been so much time spent tainting Xavier’s reputation that they needed some positive publicity to turn the tide of the public in their favor. Of course, no one had heard about the difficulty of Helena’s delivery, or how the reporters on their lawn had been so thick they had delayed the paramedics getting to her – putting her life in danger. No one had stopped to consider that they had brought a child into this mess – why would they have done such a thing? No parent would want their child born into a world of tumult made of their own bad decisions.

It was Helena’s job to tell the world about these matters from her wheelchair to the few reporters allowed to enter the house. She didn’t
need
the wheelchair, of course. She was strong enough to stand on her own. But the image had to be maintained that they were the victims, and so, Brandy coached her on how to answer the interviewers’ questions; how to turn vicious jibes into sighs of sympathy and regret.

It was easy to do with a tiny, vulnerable baby clutched to her bosom.

Slowly – almost insufferably so – things began to turn in their favor. Xavier built a strong file showing all of the personal money that he’d put into the company – further bolstering the ludicrousness of his stealing from it. Horace called them one afternoon to say that he had trailed the stolen funds to a bank account on the Eastern Coast – in New York State. The only people that might have had the authority to do such a thing were not in New York, which confirmed Xavier’s idea that the perpetrator was someone firmly entrenched in the company. He himself had closed all of his accounts in New York, so whoever had the money moved there couldn’t possibly be him, whatever the paperwork attested.

Using these facts, Brandy began to build her case. While the evidence against Xavier might be overwhelming, there was now a very good deal beginning to surface to support his innocence. The fact that the company was still holding off on determining a trial date only further encouraged them, and they all worked feverishly to their own purposes.

All was going well until, one morning, Helena’s cry of anguish echoed from the kitchen to where Xavier was working in his office. He immediately rose to his feet to race down the hall as his son’s wailing added to his panic. He turned the corner to the kitchen, expecting to see his lover lain out on the floor, having hurt herself, or worse, but instead, was merely treated to the sight of her at the kitchen counter, clutching a crumpled letter in one hand. The other arm clutched Isaiah to her so tightly that she had to be making him uncomfortable, and Xavier was instantly at her side, taking her shoulders in a firm grip. “Helena, honey, what is it?”

The young woman stared down at the paper in her hand, her eyes wide, her grip on her son like iron. “I won’t let her.” She whispered softly, tears welling in her eyes. “I won’t let her hurt our son. I won’t let her hurt our family.”

“Hon, calm down.” Xavier took her forearm, gently easing her grip on the squalling baby so he could take him from her. He hefted his son against his shoulder, patting his back firmly as he shushed the child. Helena hadn’t moved, her eyes still fixed on the letter in her hand. After Xavier spent a few moments getting Isaiah to quiet down, he finally managed to pry the document from his lover to get a good look at it himself.

What he saw made his stomach plummet.

It was a note for a past due court summons.

However, it had nothing to do with their case in California, but rather, a trial that they’d missed back in New York State.

The trial of Janette Freeman, who had requested early parole.

To Helena Graves,

This letter is to inform you that due to your absence at the trial of Janette Freeman, you were not informed as to the results of the case. Ms. Freeman requested early parole six months ago. You were sent several letters inquiring as to your availability to testify in court. As the foundation of the prosecution, in your absence, parole has been granted. Ms. Freeman will have a probation period of one year during which she cannot leave the continental United States. She was released from Yates State Penitentiary on September 10
th
, 2015. For any inquiries on the matter, please contact the office listed below.

Signed,

Judge Elena Harcombe

For a moment, Xavier could only stare.

Where were these so-called letters asking Helena to attend a trial? In the past six months they hadn’t gotten a single document in pertinence to Janette Freeman, let alone been asked to appear in court. Xavier should know, as he was usually the one who picked up the mail.

But, somehow, they’d missed the summons.

And now, Helena’s mother was out of jail. The woman who’d attempted to kidnap his lover and force her to sell her body to support her was walking free.

No wonder Helena was so petrified. Her mother had terrorized her for the entirety of her adolescence. He’d come upon the woman abusing her the first time they’d really spoken to one another and he’d been absolutely appalled.

This couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Just when they were beginning to think this case might go in their favor, another problem cropped up. No doubt the media had already caught wind of this. They would run with it, as was their prerogative, and Helena’s name would soon be smeared all over the news.

But that, he considered, was the least of their worries.

What if the woman sought her daughter out, hell-bent on revenge for her being put away for five years? So much had changed now. They had a family – an infant child – and the last thing they needed was a crazed, maniacal drug addict thrown into the mix. They had enough on their plates as things currently stood.

“Helena”, speaking softly, reassuringly, Xavier pulled his lover into his arms, pressing both she and their son against him. “It’s going to be fine. She doesn’t know where you are, and we have been
extremely
careful. She won’t hurt you anymore. I won’t
let
her.”

Even at his low, comforting tone, Helena shuddered, burying her face in his shoulder. “She finds a way.” She whispered, forlornly, and Xavier felt hot moisture seeping through his shirt. “She always finds a way.”

The awful thing was, Xavier didn’t doubt her. Janette was relentless, and she felt as if her daughter owed her for a lifetime of “care”. The fact of the matter was that Helena had taken care of her mother far more than Janette had ever cared for her, and she still bore the emotional scars.

In that moment, he swore to himself that he would keep Helena far from her mother’s influence. If they had to hire bodyguards to watch the house night and day, he wasn’t letting that woman within half a mile of his lover or his son. If Janette wanted to hurt her daughter again, she’d do it over Xavier’s cold, dead corpse.

**

Helena was still reeling two days later. She’d managed to keep herself composed enough to get through two interviews that morning, but now that the cameras had left, it was all she could do not to curl into a ball and tremble.

Her mother would come for her. She knew she would – which meant that Helena was putting her newborn son at risk. How could she have missed something as important as a court summons involving her mother’s parole? When Janette had been put away, Helena had been more relieved than she’d ever been. Not even the moment her father had taken her in compared to the freedom she felt when her mother was taken away.