His Absolute Authority: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #3) (15 page)

Elise rushed towards him and grabbed his hand, taking it in hers.  She twined their fingers together, squeezing tight.  "Lucent, please don't say that," she said.  "Maybe what you're saying is actually the best thing for all of us, but it's not what I want."

I smiled.  Sometimes it really was that easy, wasn't it? 
It's not want I want
.  Just a few simple words could change an entire situation.  A part of me wondered what exactly Elise wanted, but another part of me felt like I already knew.  She probably wanted a lot of the same things I wanted, but in a different way.

Was it that easy?  Could I do that, too?  Could I make an effort to remove the things in my life that I didn't want and replace them with ones that I did?

Yes, I thought.  I could.  I would try to do exactly that.

Somehow.

"You two be safe," I said.  I didn't know how to say goodbye, and I didn't want to.  I managed, though.  "I'm sure I'll see you both soon."

Lucent nodded.  Elise smiled and gave me a quick wave.

"Goodbye, Mrs. Landseer," Lucent said.

"Bye Jessika," Elise said.  "This isn't a big deal.  Don't worry."

I smiled back.  "Bye to you both."

With that, with our farewells said and done, Lucent and Elise left.  They started through the park, heading on some unknown journey they shouldn't have had to take.  I watched them for a little while before turning around and heading towards my apartment again.

It was a short walk back to the door leading inside, but for whatever reason I decided to take it slow.  And slower.  Something felt wrong.  Perhaps a little off?  Yes, that was definitely it.  I reached the door and my hand touched on the handle, but I couldn't bring myself to open it.  I didn't know why.  It was irrational, really.  Just a feeling, but...

The door had a small window in the top half, giving anyone access to look inside or out.  The early morning sun caused a slight glare, so I couldn't see inside.  Or, not yet.

I stepped closer to the door and held my hand above my eyes, blocking out the sun and letting me peek in, at least a little bit.

People were roaming the halls of the apartment, though they were farther down from where I now stood.  They were too far away for me to recognize anything more than the fact that there was three men and a woman, but I didn't need much else.  One of them held a small media microphone, while the man behind him had a camera with him.  The final man and woman didn't have microphones or cameras, but each of them had tiny voice recorders in their hands.  The four of them walked down the halls, knocking on every door they saw, hoping someone inside would answer.  It looked like they were asking everyone as many questions as they could before the people inside shut the doors in their faces.

I didn't want to be egotistical, because I wasn't the sort of person that thought the world revolved around me, but right now I was fairly positive that's exactly why they were here: for me.  News reporters who had either found out about my old apartment building on a whim and wanted to question my old neighbors (if any of them still lived here), or else they knew for a fact that I'd stayed here last night and they were asking about that, instead.

I couldn't go inside.  There was no possible way for me to sneak through the halls and back to my apartment door.  And where was Asher, too?  Did it even matter?  Regardless of whether we could make it safely inside again, there was still the matter of leaving afterwards.  These people wouldn't very well just go on their merry way.  They'd stay.  They'd...

I couldn't.  I needed to leave.  I didn't have any other option.  I would try to come back later, but I didn't know if I could do that, either.  I wished I could have found Asher first, but I didn't know where he was or what he was doing.  For all I knew, he was already back in my apartment, oblivious to what was going on in the halls right outside.

I wore the sweatpants and t-shirt I'd worn to bed, along with an old pair of sneakers.  I hadn't bothered putting on much makeup after getting out of the shower with Asher last night, either.  I barely had anything leftover from when I lived in this building, and I didn't really have a chance to bring any with me yesterday, either.

This worked out well, though.  Mostly, I didn't look anything like my usual business-dressed self.  Or, I was sure I did, but I wasn't exactly the most extraordinary person?  I didn't think I was, anyways.  Plenty of women probably looked and dressed similarly.  As I was now, I could pass myself off as someone else unless anyone bothered to take extreme notice of me.

I turned away from the building and skipped off down the walkway, heading towards the front and the sidewalk by the street.  My feet pounded into the pavement, up, down, step, step, jogging forward.  I went at a slow, leisurely pace, enjoying the light speed and the feeling of the muscles in my legs flexing and stretching.

I liked to exercise in the mornings, anyways, so this was just that, right?  A nice jog, that was all.  I would stay nearby, perhaps jog around the block a few times, work up a sweat, sleep-tousled hair becoming even more disheveled, and then I'd go back.

Or maybe I'd run forever?  I could jog to Landseer Tower from here, though it'd take a bit of time.  If I wanted, I could jog back to the mansion, too.  That would take longer, but what would it matter?

But, no.  I didn't want to do that.  It sounded nice in a way, but what about Asher?  I couldn't leave like that, disappear for an hour or two, without telling him where I was going or what I had planned.

I headed towards the street, planning on going towards the apartment building office.  They might let me borrow the phone long enough to call Asher.  I'd certainly paid my fair share of rent over the past year, and I was probably the easiest tenant to work with, too.  No complaints, because I was never here, so...

Or they could just as easily give me away to the press and cause a lot more issues.

Belatedly, I remembered the police stationed outside the apartment building, as well.  One car remained parked near the entrance to the parking lot, but another was coming down the street in front of me.  My light jog turned into a slower one, then to a walk, and a standstill.

Would they want to talk with me again?  Supposedly Dean said he was going to call into the station and try to explain my side of what happened; or at least the false excuse I made up, but...

No, that didn't seem good.  I looked to the right and saw the apartment building, but I couldn't go back there, either.  The only way to go was to turn around and head the opposite way down the street, but there wasn't much over there.

A car pulled up alongside me.  The driver honked his horn.  I jumped, startled.  I almost yelled at him for scaring me, but then I noticed who was in the driver's seat.

Jeremy?  Um...

He rolled down the passenger side window.  "Hey," he said.

"Hey, yourself," I said.

"Looking hot, Jessika.  You've got a sexy case of bedhead going on.  Matches those worn sneakers and tattered sweatpants and t-shirt perfectly.  I can tell you're at the height of fashion."

"Shut up!"  I rolled my eyes at him, then stuck out my tongue.  "The sneakers are a little old, but the rest of my clothes are fine.  I
do
have a sexy case of bedhead, though."

Maybe.  I didn't actually know.  I hadn't had a chance to look in a mirror much after waking up.

"You going somewhere?" he asked.  "Want a ride?  Where's Asher?"

He leaned over to the passenger side door and opened it, pushing it outwards a little.  I opened it the rest of the way and hopped in.

"Can we drive?  I don't know where.  Can you just drive somewhere?" I asked.  "Just around.  Can I borrow your phone, too?  I need to call Asher."

"You need to call him?" Jeremy asked, lifting one brow.  "Did you lose him or something?  You were both in the exact same spot.  Seems like a hard thing to do."

"No, um... I'll explain in a second.  I just really have to call him right now.  It's important."

He shrugged.  "Yeah, sure.  What do I care if you lost your billionaire husband?  He's only worth billions of dollars.  That's not actually a lot.  Not anymore.  Trillionaires are where it's at these days.  Someone might have kidnapped him, but it's all good."

I laughed and slapped at his hand and took his phone away from him when he offered it to me.  "Shush, you."

"And now I've got some lady shushing me after she lost my boss.  Wow.  This day's going great."

***

A
sher glowered.  The man outside who had caused a ruckus after attempting to peer through Jessika's apartment window ran off as soon as Asher appeared.  This was probably for the best.  He could handle some situations with tact and finesse, but this wasn't exactly one of those.  People needed to understand privacy, and respect it.  Trying to sneak a peek into someone's window was basically the exact opposite of any of that.

He thought Jessika's apartment would have been safe from this sort of situation, but apparently not.  At the mansion, they had surveillance and huge gates to give them some modicum of privacy.  Here they had... not much.  The element of surprise?  That was about it, except they didn't even have that anymore.

They needed to leave here soon.  That thought stuck more firmly in his mind as soon as he stepped back into the apartment building, too.

A small group of on-the-scene informal news crew members stood scattered throughout the hallway.  They were halfway down it at the moment, with one pair interviewing some poor old women who looked more confused than anything, and two others attempting to batter down the doors of some of the other apartment inhabitants.  All in all, it didn't look that comfortable for anyone involved.  Considering they weren't bothering his wife, he thought she must have gotten back inside safely before they noticed.

He hoped that was it, at least.  If she was still outside...

He strode through the halls, ignoring everything.  One of the men interviewing the old woman noticed him, stopped, stared for a second, and then turned his partner's attention to Asher.

"Mr. Landseer," one of them said.  "A question, please?  It'll only take a second.  Do you—"

Asher held his hand up, halting him before he started.  He reached Jessika's door, opened it, and stepped inside.  "No.  I'm extremely busy.  Call my secretary and set something up for later this week."

Not that anything like that would happen.  If the man bothered to call Landseer Tower to try and schedule anything, Asher would postpone and delay any meeting until the man finally gave up.  He had no patience for situations like this.

He closed the door firmly behind him as he entered the apartment.  Hesitating, uncertain, he deliberated over locking it, too.  If she was still outside, though...

"Jessika?" he called out.  Was she here?

No answer.

He checked the kitchen quickly, then the living room.  Nothing.  She wasn't in the bathroom, either, nor in the bedroom.  This left him with a couple of closets as options, but he seriously doubted his wife would hide in one and refuse to answer him.

Which meant she wasn't here.  And if he locked the door, she might end up stuck in the hallway with the newspeople, harangued and assaulted, all for some ridiculous mockery of a news article.  What did these people want from her?  It annoyed him to no end.

Well, he decided to just wait for her.  There wasn't much else he could do.

Except then his phone started ringing.  Sighing, reluctant to bother, feeling very annoyed, he trudged to the bedroom to find it and answer it.  Maybe.  He wanted to see who it was at first.  There was a high likelihood he would ignore it, unless...

Unless it was Jeremy.  Which it was.  Good timing?  He needed to talk to him anyways.

Asher picked up the phone and accepted the call.  "Jeremy, great.  I needed to talk with you."

"No, Asher, it's me."  His wife's voice greeted him instead of the driver's.

"Jessika?  What are you doing?  Where's Jeremy?  Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she said; he let out a short sigh of relief.  "Elise and Lucent are gone.  I was going to go back inside, but I saw some people wandering the halls.  I didn't think it was a good idea."

"Probably a good choice," he said.  "I had to deal with them when I came back.  Not that anything happened, but they're here now and they know about your apartment.  I guess they knew before.  The man who was outside ran off.  Everything's fine for now, but who knows how long it'll stay that way."

"I know.  That's what I thought, too.  Jeremy was on his way to meet us, but we're driving somewhere else now.  I'm not sure where.  We haven't decided yet."

"That's fine," Asher said.  It wasn't exactly fine, but he understood it and it seemed like the best option at the moment.

Except what about the rest of the day?  They needed to go to the police department, speak with a lawyer, and who knew what else?  He had a business to run, too.  He didn't want to let his career consume his life, though it already did in some ways.  He made more than enough time for Jessika, too, but everything that had happened these past few days split his time even more.

He spent hours with her after work.  And during the day sometimes, too.  Asher barely went a few hours without seeing her most of the time, or at least not without talking to her somehow.  Yesterday, though?  He spent the entire day without her.  He thought they made up for it somewhat in the evening, but he didn't know if it was enough, either.  Maybe that was a hint of greed and lust for his wife sneaking in, but he didn't think anything was wrong with that.

Today was shaping up to be the same, though.  Even if he did get to spend time with her, it'd be bogged down by frustrating legal nuisances.  It severely frustrated him.  This entire situation was ridiculous, and not in an entertaining or amusing way.  He would never find something like this funny, not even ten years down the road looking back on it.

"I think I have a good idea," Jessika said.

Asher nodded into the phone for all the good it did him.  "Alright," he said.  "What's that?"