Close Up: Exposure Book Three (20 page)

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Authors: Annie Jocoby

BOOK: Close Up: Exposure Book Three

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Misguided. I thought that word was probably the understatement of the year.

We got to Asher’s home, and Natalia looked around. “Very nice place, Alexei,” she said. “This is even nicer than our father’s home in St. Petersburg.”

Asher chuckled. “Well, that home in St. Petersburg is one of many that our father owns, of course. This is my only property.”

“Why is that? You have the money for much more homes in other parts of the world. I know that you cannot come back to Russia to live, but you could buy a home in Europe. Why do you only want to live in America?”

“I like it here,” he simply said. “It’s safe here. Safer than in other parts of the world.”

I raised my eyebrows. Natalia announced that she was going to take a nap. “It might be in the afternoon here, but it’s late at night in London. It is going to take me some time to get used to them different time.”

“Sure,” Asher said. “Let me show you to your room.”

In about ten minutes, Asher rejoined me in the den. “I saw your expression when I referenced that it’s safer here than in other parts of the world.”

“Yes. Why do I have the feeling you were taking a big chance when you went to see your father in London?”

“No. London was fine. My father was there, so nobody was going to get to me while I was there. But I will say that my father has understandings with the families here. He doesn’t necessarily have the same understandings with families in other countries.”

“So…”

“If I lived overseas, I would be vulnerable. There are still some very bad men who would love to see me dead. If I lived in Spain or Italy or any other place like that, these men could probably get to me. Or to you. That’s not a chance that I’m willing to take, of course. So, I try not to live in any other countries. I visit these other countries, of course, as I have to for my position. I never leave without my body guards, though, and I try not to stay in these countries for any longer than I have to. And I usually do my overseas business through the people I have appointed in the other countries.”

I sighed. I was reminded just what kind of a man that I married. But that was okay. I loved him and he loved me. I was going to have to take the good with the bad, just like in any marriage. Of course, in this case, the bad was pretty bad. But the good was amazing.

“Are you tired?” he asked me. “You’re probably jet-lagged, just like Natalia. Am I right about that?”

I nodded my head. “Very tired. Let’s go to bed.”

When we got into bed, Asher put his hand on my breast and kissed me. I sighed as he gently rolled over on me and entered me. I felt the familiar feeling of being filled up and I immediately orgasmed. As my breath started coming faster and faster, I said “I think that did it. I don’t know, but I have this feeling that this is it.”

“Really? That would be amazing.”

“Yes. I’m probably crazy, but it’s an intuition thing.”

He kissed me again. “God, I hope that you’re right about that. I really hope that you’re right.”

Me too, I thought. Me too.

Asher

I had made the decision to come clean with my past. I was nervous about it, of course, but I wanted to get in front of it. I didn’t want to be caught unaware of what revelations were going to hit the paper and when. And I knew, once it was known that Natalia was my sister, the revelations were going to come. I could keep trying to hide who I was from the world. I didn’t necessarily have to tell people that Natalia was my sister. Yet, I was truly ready. I was tired of running and hiding. I was tired of living in a way that made me afraid to look over my shoulder at all times. I didn’t like giving Sophie so much power, because, at the moment, the most she could do to me would be to expose me. She was such a loose cannon. It would be nice to take that particular bullet in her arsenal away.

So, in order to control the message, I arranged to have dinner with Max, who was one of my media contacts at the
New York Times.
This story would be just the start, I knew, and I also knew that there was a chance that this particular story would blow up huge. After all, it wasn’t every day that a prominent CEO comes forth to say that he worked for the Russian mob. Granted, it was a long time ago….The best that I could do would be to whitewash it as much as I could, and hope that, because of the ultra secrecy of the syndicate, the media could never find out that I actually killed people. Let them think that I just was a cyber-thief, and that I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time.

I had to be prepared for the fallout when that happened. I knew that there would be a fallout, I just didn’t know how much.

When I got into the office, I called Max, who picked up on the first ring. “Asher Sloane. How the hell are ya?”

“Max, I’m doing great. Listen, I have a story about me. I can almost guarantee it will be on your front page. So, get ready.”

“A story. What does this story concern?”

“Me. My past.”

“I’m listening.”

“Meet me at Wolfgang Puck’s at 7 tonight. I hope that you don’t have plans. If you do, break them. This is going to be a big one.”

“I’ll be there.”

“See you then.”

As I hung up the phone, I took an enormous breath. I hoped I knew what I was doing. If something went wrong, I could very well end up behind bars. Or dead. And if something happened to me, then there could very well be a problem with my company. I had a guy who was ready to take over the company at a moment’s notice. His name was Sam, and I trusted him implicitly. He was the president of the company and I considered him to be my right hand man. So, I knew that the company would be in good hands, no matter what happened to me.

But would CJ? I felt for her.

It didn’t matter. I had to do it. It was time.

I
met
Max right at 7. I drove my Tesla and had it valet parked. I walked in, and he was already there, nursing a whiskey. He stood up, and I sat down.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ve been on pins and needles since you called me. What gives?”

“I better get a drink,” I said. “I think that I’m going to need it.” At that, I summoned the waitress. “A double scotch neat,” I said.

Max was looking at me with an expression that was one part wonder and one part curiosity. “Starting with a double scotch,” he said. “You must have something up your sleeve.”

“You have no idea.” The waitress brought our drinks around, and I immediately took a sip. “Okay, here’s the deal. I’m not who I say that I am. I lived another life in Russia that is literally world’s away from what I am today. Asher Sloane is not even my given name. It’s a name that I invented when I moved here, because I thought it sounded good.”

Max wasn’t saying a word, but he was writing everything down. “Go on,” he said. Like a good news man, he had a poker face. I couldn’t tell what he was really thinking, although I could have just imagined it.

The next part of what I was going to tell him was going to be the hardest. “The reason why I’m here in America is because I was in the Russian mob…..” I then spent the next hour telling him as much as I wanted to tell him. That would mean that I didn’t tell him about my killing people, but I did tell him about my surveillance activities as well as my activities in the cyberhacking realm of the organization.

He listened and asked questions when appropriate. When I was finished, he asked me another question. “Did you kill anybody when you were in this organization?”

“No. I didn’t have to, because my father was the head of this organization and he didn’t want me doing that.” Lying about my past had become as natural to me as breathing, so I was able to put forth that lie without breaking a sweat.

He looked at me suspiciously. “Asher, you do know that if you’re lying about that, I’ll find out about it, don’t you?”

“Of course,” I said. “I expect you to do your independent research on this.”

I had given him enough information, but not everything. I knew that it would be next to impossible to get any other information about me regarding my true activities because of the secrecy of the organization. I didn’t even tell him who my father was. That, too, was going to be next to impossible to find out. My original birth certificate was gone, long destroyed. Natalia’s was as well. My father knew many government officials who were tasked with erasing both Natalia and me from the records.

When I was done telling him everything, it felt like an enormous weight was lifted off of me. I was finally free.

I
got
home and saw CJ sitting on my couch. “Well, hello Mrs. Sloane,” I said to her. It was then that I noticed that she had a pregnancy test in her hand. She wasn’t looking at it, though. I also noticed that her hand was shaking wildly.

“I can’t look at it,” she said. “I know that it says something, but I’m too terrified to look at it. I hate this. I hate putting so much pressure on myself and on you.”

I put my arm around her. “You’re not the one putting pressure on us. I did that by lying to my father. So, don’t even feel bad.”

She then handed me the test. “What does it say?”

I looked at it. It very clearly said the word “pregnant.” I couldn’t believe it. My heart leaped about 1000 times. “Mrs. Sloane, we are about to become a family.”

She screamed. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Then she opened her eyes to look at the test. “We did it! We did it!”

I picked her up and spun her around while she laughed hysterically. “Let’s go out and celebrate!”

She took my tie in her hand and brought me to her. “Let’s stay in and celebrate.”

“Oh, we don’t have to do that anymore. We’re pregnant, remember? We don’t have to have sex anymore.”

She looked disappointed and I started to laugh. “Teasing, silly.” Then I kissed her passionately. “I agree, we definitely need to do some celebrating indoors.”

I carried her to our bedroom, and we made love for the rest of the evening. It seemed that the worst was over. I knew that it wasn’t, of course. I was fully prepared for whatever was going to come at me, though.

At least I thought I was.

About the Author

W
ell
, I'm just a tad nutty in real life. A bit scattered, a bit of a dreamer, never together. I wanted to originally create a character based upon myself, because I felt that people could relate to somebody who is decidedly imperfect. And have her get the dreamboat man, because, let's face it, we all want that, right ladies? That was my inspiration for the story of Iris and Ryan in my Illusions books. Those novels were so well-received, that I just decided to keep on keeping on. Scotty, the current heroine in my Broken novels, is so much more together than myself. So it’s been fun to write her. And Nick has turned into a revelation – he seems to be a bit of a tough guy who is nothing but a womanizer, but I’ve found his soft side. I’m a little bit, ok a lot, in love with Nick and Ryan myself, and who wouldn’t be? I'm having the time of my life writing these books, and I want to keep on writing them until my fans decide that they've had enough!

My books all have things in common: they all combine a touch of mystery and intrigue with drama, love, and lots of hot sex. Some of the books have action and even some criminal elements in them. My current book, in fact, is my first book that would be classified as straight romantic suspense, although it also combines definite elements of the thriller genre! If you're in the market for a book that is fast-paced, where the heroes are beautiful and wealthy, and the heroines are strong, vulnerable and flawed, then try these books out!