All Good Things Exposed (29 page)

Chapter 24

Caleb swung open the door to my office open so hard it cracked against the wall, the glass shattering. Lexie jumped away from my desk, her eyes growing twice their original size.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" Caleb bellowed. His face was filled to the brim with rage. Where the hell was Olivia?

"Caleb, settle down." I growled. "Lexie was just leaving."

Startled blue eyes shot to me. "You're still going to choose her?"

Caleb growled low in his throat. "You came here because you thought he was going to choose you? Over Olivia? Are you fucking mad?"

"Screw you, Caleb." Lexie screamed. She was shaking now. I didn't know if it was from fear or hatred. I didn't care. All I wanted to know was where Olivia was.

"Caleb, where is Olivia?"

"You told her to leave, Jace. Where the fuck do you think she went?"

"Shit," I ran a hand through my hair. If she ran with that crazy fucker out there…and he caught her…what the hell was I going to do? I knew one think for certain, I wouldn't be in my right mind when I ended his existence.

I looked to Lexie and pointed to the door. "Get. Out. Now." My words were spoken with venom. "If you ever come near me or Olivia again, I will be sure you live the rest of your life without a cent from me. You made me feel responsible for the loss of that child, Lexie. You're a manipulative bitch I want nothing to do with so get the hell out of here."

Tears streamed down from her eyes but I didn't care. I hated her. My body shook with anger toward myself for asking Olivia to leave, and her for even being here. I loathed her with every fiber of my being.

Lexie pointed a long, manicured finger at me. "You're a bastard!" She screamed. She flung her bag over her shoulder and sprinted though the shattered glass out the door.

I looked to Caleb who was watching me with angry eyes. "What the hell was she doing here, Jace." He asked. "And you better be straight with me if you want to know where Olivia is."

"You know where she is?" I growled. I could throttle him for withholding this information from me. I needed to know where she was. I needed to know she was safe.

"Damn straight." He rolled his eyes. "You think I'd let her leave again after the last time? I'm not stupid. Tell me what's going on and be straight with me."

"Tell me she's safe." I whispered. I'd tell him anything and everything so long as she was safe.

The anger in Caleb's eyes dulled. "She's safe, Jace."

I sighed, falling back in my chair when Laura popped her head into the office. "Is everything all right Mr. Rush?"

"Yes, Laura." I sounded tired. "Has the woman who was in my office left the floor?"

"Yes," She nodded.

"Good. Please call for a new door."

"Certainly." She turned and walked back out. I knew I would have a door by the end of the day. She was efficient like that.

I looked to Caleb and found expectant green eyes on me. "Spit it out."

"Olivia is in danger."

A frown pulled at his brows, distorting his features. "What?"

"Listen to me Caleb." I snapped. "When I first started seeing her, she started receiving letters from someone who calls himself her savior."

"Are you sure it's a man?" He interrupted.

I nodded. "I had Gabe study the letters. Someone who more than likely knows her writes them. But apparently, this person knows a whole shitload about me too."

"And they are threatening her?"

"Not exactly." I shook my head, feeling frustrated. "The letters threaten to hurt me. He wants her to walk away from me but she refuses to do it. And I can't walk away from her. I have to find this son-of-a-bitch!"

"What was Lexie doing here?" Caleb asked, balancing his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward in the chair.

"A letter was sent to her."

"By the same guy?"

"Yes." I confirmed. "He signed the letter as her Savior." I smirked maliciously. "That's what he calls himself, the twisted fuck."

Caleb whistled. "What did Lexie's letter say?"

"Pretty much the same thing as Olivia's. Only that if I don't rethink this, he'll unearth all my skeletons for the world to see one by one until I have nothing left."

"Do you have skeletons?" Caleb asked seriously.

"Only the ones you know about."

"They aren't that bad." He sounded honest. "The world won't care."

"I don't give a fuck about the world." I barked. "I care about what Olivia will think."

Caleb shook his head, clearly stunned. "So, Lexie wasn't here to get you back?"

"That's where it's confusing. At first, that's exactly what she was trying to do, but when I refused to reciprocate her feelings, she went on about the letter," I paused as the events started clicking into place in my mind. No…it couldn't be.

Caleb, obviously coming to the same conclusion spoke first. "Do you think Lexie has something to do with the writer?" He rubbed his chin. "A deal maybe?"

"It's starting to sound that way."

Caleb nodded. "Shit," he shook his head. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to continue looking into it. But I'm going to look into Lexie too. I'm going to have someone follow her." I looked into Caleb's eyes. "You'll look too? See if you find anything I miss? I can't ignore this and take the chance Olivia might get hurt."

"Of course." He nodded. "Do you have any suspects?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Who?" Caleb asked.

"His name is Bryce Cane."

Caleb's brows pulled together in a scowl. "Cane? Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"Bryce Cane is Jacob Cane's son."

"As in Cane Investments?"

I nodded. "As in Cane Investments."

"Why would his son have anything to do with the letters?"

"He's in New York." I said through tightly clenched teeth.

Caleb rubbed his forehead. "Jace, the Cane's travel here for work all the time. Why would you even think to be suspicious of him?"

"Because he dated Olivia while they were in college."

His eyes widened. "Holy shit." I gave him time to let the information sink in. "You think he's a disgruntled ex?"

"Who has information about Rush Industries and its owners." I watched Caleb process the information. "I pulled a lot of my stocks when I was going through the mess with Lexie. I didn't want to take the chance of it going public and taking the financial hit with stocks dropping. If he's smart he'll have linked the court case with my pulling the stocks. It wouldn't take much convincing to get Lexie to spill facts about our relationship regardless of the court orders."

"This is fucked-up." Caleb shook his head. "You really care about her, huh?"

"I asked her to marry me." I said dryly.

"I suppose you did.' He chuckled. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"I love her." I said simply.

He smiled. "She's become pretty important to me."

I frowned, shocked. How? When? "Why?"

"She's the reason I see my only brother living a life worth waking up in the mornings."

That was the first time I had ever heard Caleb say anything even remotely close to sentimental. He was usually the easygoing player who never took any conversation that didn't revolve around money seriously. Where was this coming from?

He continued. "After everything I've seen you go through, I don't want to see you lose her. Not when you've finally found something that makes you happy. She makes you happy. You've changed for the better since her. Everyone's noticed, Jace. She makes you a better man."

My throat felt tight. "Thank you, Caleb."

"You've always been there for me. It's my turn now."

I nodded. "Where is she?"

"In my office." He replied simply.

"She went to you?"

He nodded. He never lied. Not even to spare my feelings and I liked that about him. "Yeah, she did." He sighed. "I don't think she knew where else to go. Not that she could have made it to the lobby with her eyes so full of tears."

"She was crying?" Fuck. Why did he have to be so honest
all
the time? I didn't want to know I'd been the one to make her cry. That killed!

"She was sobbing, man." He shook his head at me. "Never make her cry like that again."

I didn't like hearing the threat in his tone, but the fact that Olivia had someone like Caleb on her side, watching her back, made me feel that much better about the situation we were facing. I could appreciate his loyalty to her because I loved her. Desperately. "I never intended to hurt her, Caleb. And I will do everything in my power to make it up to her."

"You can start with telling her the truth." He replied bluntly, calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"Start with telling her you're looking into her ex."

"Hell no." I shook my head. "Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because she's going to find out eventually. Secrets kill relationships, Jace. You have enough secrets already without adding another."

"I'll think about it." I said gruffly. There was no way.

"I hope you're honest with her about Lexie at least." Caleb stood and waved to the door. "Go get her. She's asleep on the couch."

I nodded, feeling my gut wrench at the thought of Olivia sleeping on anything of Caleb's. She was mine. I should have been the space she ran to. And she had. But like an ass I'd sent her away.

***

My body rocked as I was propelled up in strong arms. A familiar scent warmed my sensed and I sighed, nuzzling Jace's chest before I remembered I was angry with him. My eyes popped open and I tried to wriggle from his arms. He refused to let me go, falling to his knees to keep me from falling from his arms and hurting myself in an attempt to set myself free.

"Angel, please stop." He begged, his lips pressed to my temple as I thrashed in his arms.

"You wanted me gone, Jace." I cried. "Let me go. Go find Lexie." I knew I was being pathetic. But I was hurting so deeply in my heart…I wanted to burrow into a cold dark hole to lick my wounds.

"I don't want her. You know that." His tone was rough. "You know I want you. You fucking know this."

"Let me go." I demanded.

He held me tighter. "I will never let you go."

"Jace," I cried, my body shaking under the stress of my sobbing. "Please, I want to go home. I don't want to be here."

"Let me take you."

"I don't want you to come." I cried.

"I'm not letting you go, Angel." Jace said adamantly. "So stop telling me to. I can't let you go."

"Why did you choose her then?"

And this was the moment of truth. Would he tell me? "She wasn't acting like herself. I needed to know what she had to say and I knew she wouldn't tell me with you there."

"What did she have to tell you?" He was talking and I wanted answers. I stilled in his arms, eager for truth.

"She said she wanted me back and that I should choose her." I sobbed at his words. The impossibility of the possibility of them speared my heart. He tightened his hold on me. "I'll never let you go. I've told her that."

"What did she say?"

"She said she received a letter." He paused. "From your savior."

I stiffened in his arms as fear clawed through my veins. Why would he have contacted Lexie? My throat felt tight as I mustered the will to speak. "What did it say?"

"He told her to try and convince me to leave you for her. And he threatened to expose my every secret." I felt his arms tighten around me as though he thought I might leave him. I wouldn't.

"Jace," I was whispering. "I don't care about your past. I don't care about what you've done or the secrets you hold. I don't care about any of it. The only thing I care about is what you do from here on out. I want a husband who shares his life and thoughts with me. I never want to be sent away from your office so you can discuss something with another woman in private." I turned to face him and he continued to hold me tight. "Do you know how bad that hurt?"

"Fuck," he set his forehead against mine. "You don't know how it kills me to hear that I've hurt you."

"Then don't hurt me." I said through an eye roll.

"You know I don't mean to." He nudged me from the floor of Caleb's office. "Come on. We have 'us' things we need to get done today."

I wanted to ask what kind of 'us' things he had in mind, but first, I needed to get one more thing straight. "I need you to promise me something."

"What is it?"

"I need you to promise me you'll talk to me. And you'll always be honest - about the letters, Lexie, your past and everything that happens in your day. I don't want to be left in the dark. I don't want to feel the way I did ever again."

Jace lifted his hand, running his knuckle over my cheek. "I love you." He breathed.

"You know I love you, but that's not what I want to hear right now."

He chuckled. "Ever aware." He gave me a shit-grin. I loved that grin. "I promise to be honest with you always."

"Thank you." I smiled. It was a happy smile and I felt it in my heart.

"You're very welcome." He cocked his head to the door. "Let's go."

I followed Jace through the hallway, passing Caleb on our way through the reception area. Poor Laura looked frazzled, but when I sent her a smile she returned it with a real one. Jace led me to his office and I gasped at the mess of glass on the floor.

"What happened here?"

"Caleb." Jace muttered on a shake of his head.

"What?"

Jace lifted a brow. "He came barging in here to defend your honor."

I laughed. "Oh my," I covered my mouth to keep my laughter under restraint. "Remind me to thank him."

"Will do," Jace replied dryly. He released my hand and walked to his desk, opening the drawer on his right. He shoved his wallet in his pants before returning to my side. "Let's go do some 'us' things."

Chapter 25

We bypassed the lobby and went straight to the underground garage where Jace parked his car. I was relieved. I didn't feel like prancing though the lobby where I knew I would be met with hateful eyes. I only wanted to go home and relax, but Jace said we had 'us' things to do. And, I had to admit I was interested.