Seduction: Book 4 (Strong Young Women Series) (7 page)

She parked her car outside and quickly rushed into her house. She dropped her bag onto the dining room table and started undressing as she walked into her bedroom and then bathroom.

Coffee. She couldn’t leave without a dose of caffeine.
She should have started the coffee maker before taking her shower. If she didn’t hurry, she wouldn’t get to do all she wanted to do today.

At least she was ditching Nate. She had thought hard all day Sunday and realized no way could he have been telling her the truth. He just wanted to play with her. That kiss when he dropped her off
on Saturday? What was that all about? If that didn’t tell her he was looking for a plaything, then she needed to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Yes, there they would be able to deal with her mental issues. Make her whole again, then release her back into the population.

Ah! Caffeine. Jes added more milk that usual and took huge gulps. She made a second cup and took the travel mug to her car. Normally she preferred not to take her car, but today she needed it because she hoped to bring some samples home to look at later. If she could make it to the city without traffic she would be home free. She wanted to start with seeing that venue that everyone was swearing was the ‘new it’. It was a little out of her radius, but it always paid to know places. As an event planner, you didn’t want to be caught with your ‘pants downs’ so to say.

Her trustworthy SUV was due for maintenance. Ten miles overdue, actually. After today, it would be well over a hundred
miles overdue. She knew Sandro would be angry with her, but if she took it to him tomorrow morning it would still be okay, she hoped. Hopefully she could catch one of his mechanics and have him do the maintenance without Sandro being aware.

It took a while before Jes realized there was something strange about her car. Two huge men were standing next to it. For a moment she was disturbed thinking they were here to mug her. No it was broad daylight and her neighbors were right there looking
on with interest. And besides, they looked like the guys she had seen with Evelyn and the rest of her family.

“Ms. London. Nate Sullivan sent us to take you into the city.”

“And you are?”

Jes sipped her coffee as Chris Romano introduced himself and then told her his side kick was Ken Barfoot. At least they had normal names.

“Sorry fellas. I have my own car and make my own travel arrangements,” she told them and pressed the remote to open the driver’s door. “Excuse me,” she said to Ken who was in her way.

“I don’t mean to be rude, ma’am. But we have strict instructions from…”

“Then don’t be. Ken, is it?” she didn’t wait for him to respond. “Excuse me please,” she said and went around him to open the door.

Jes sighed in relief as she closed her door and locked it. She inserted the key in the ignition and pulled away. She saw them get into the sedan she had thought had been following her. So yes, she was right after all. Yeah! No mental issues after all.

She was just out of the driveway and her car’s rear was hanging out in the street when it stalled. That had happened twice, no three times in the last two weeks already. Sandro wasn’t going to be happy. She tried re-starting it again, and yes, that was a sigh of relief, which not five seconds later turned back into a grimace. Jes kept turning the key back and forth, but nothing happened. She hit the steering wheel with anger.

The two heads on either side of her windows didn’t help. Could they have done something to her car. Jes quickly put that thought out of her mind. She hadn’t met the family until just about a week ago. She rolled her windows down.

“Yes?”

“The more you keep doing that, the more you damage the car. We can push it back into your driveway and take you into the city,” Ken said.

“And just so you know, we didn’t do anything to your car, Ms. London,” Chris added from the other window.

Jes laughed. “I know that. This is actually the fourth time it has happened,”
she told them as she speed dialed Sandro. “As for the other, I’ll just take the train. Easier and probably faster too, don’t you think?” She quickly rolled her windows up and answered Sandro.

“Sandro, can you come to my house, or send one of your mechanics? I think I might have a slight problem with my car.”

“I’ll be right there Jes, I was just on my way to the shop.”

Jes didn’t have to wait long. Sandro parked along the street and came to meet Jes who was opening her car door. He saw the two men standing next to her car and wondered if they were threatening her in any way.

“You know these two?” Sandro asked her as he came to stand next to her.

“Sort of. Don’t mind them,” she said to him and put her head back into the car, pulled the lever for the front and shot back out. “Just tell me you can fix whatever it is. I need to be in the city as of five minutes ago.”

Sandro nodded to the two men and went to open the hood of Jes’s car. “What happened?”

“It just died on me when I was reversing.”

“Give it one try and let’s see,” Sandro said to her. “Stop!”

Jes grimaced.

“How many times has this happened, Jes?” he asked coming round to the driver’s side. “Never mind, don’t tell me. I’ll have the boys at the shop come pick it up. In the meantime, I’ll drive you into the city.”

“Thanks Sandro, but it’s not necessary. Just drop me at the train. It will be faster anyway,” she told him. She grabbed her tote bag and ran to his passenger seat.

She looked in the side mirror and found the sedan following them. She grinned hoping the guys knew their way around, because she was going to have a cat and mouse game with them. And what fun she would have. Suddenly the thought of being late or missing out on her agenda didn’t seem so gloomy anymore.

The one strength Jes knew she had in her corner, was quick to adapt. She suddenly switched plans and decided to do her other errands when her car was fi
xed. Today she would just concentrate on visiting shops within the city. She might still be able to carry a few samples, but it would need to be small items that could fit in her tote bag.

Jes wasn’t surprised to see one of them get out of the car as she was dropped off at the train station. She smiled and shook her head. Let the games begin. She wove her way through the crowd and waited for the doors to open. She pulled her phone out, checking for messages. It was already ten thirty.

Jes exited the train and went to do some business, and not more than thirty minutes later she was back on the train. Her trusted shadow was with her. Now he wasn’t even making a pretense of following her. It was going to be harder to lose him if he were that close to her.

Jes took the next few stations making believe she was attending to business as usual.
  Some stops were legitimate but others were the diversion she needed to confuse her tail.  She needed to keep up the fake itinerary so his counterpart couldn't really follow.

Finally she reached one of the bakeries she used often. Once she was done, she went to the bathroom, then took a back corridor and left by the back entrance. Jes was grinning from ear to ear as she took the train and made the exit that she really wanted. Now she was free to stroll around. She was hungry. It was almost noon. She thought about the lunch she should be having with Nate. It would most likely be better than the sub she was ordering.

∞∞∞∞

Nate was angry. Anger didn’t begin to describe it. Livid was more like it. How could a small person like Jes get the best of two trained operatives? Why the heck hadn’t they just forced her into their car? In hindsight, he should have probably made that a last resort effort if she
refused. But how had he known she would refuse? She wasn’t here, was she? And why was that? Why had she blown their meeting? And without a word?

Nate snarled and banged his fist on his
desk. The papers and lighter objects on top flew up and came back down to rest on his desk. Other objects shook and moved a few inches here and there. Not satisfied he pushed the papers closest to him off the desk until they were fluttering around before finally resting on the floor.

His only hope was that Jeremy Maynard didn’t know about her and try to resort to some kind of revenge
ideas in his twisted mind. He had declared war on Gabe, and his whole family and all those he held dear. At least the parents had finally surrendered when they realized they were now penniless and with no friends to run to, and the threat of what they had done being publicized, they had made a hasty exit out of New York. According to Mitch, they had left the US altogether.

Unfortunately, their son had refused to see that things had changed and that the money he had always hidden behind, wasn’t there anymore. The fool didn’t even realize that his trust fund had been gambled away by his parents who should have been the ones to protect it.
It was disgusting how some parents gambled away their children’s inheritances all with the intention of correcting some business gone wrong with the misguided guarantee that things would work out and they could return the funds before anyone was any the wiser.

Nate couldn’t stand being in his office anymore. He needed to get out. Maybe he could go and see how Ana was doing. Her home office had finally been finished by Manuel and his crew and
so was ready for move in. She and Tom were moving all her equipment from her old apartment to the new office beside Gabe’s penthouse. It was a little two bedroom apartment that had been redone to reflect a proper office. He had been amazed after the final reveal by Manuel yesterday.

“To what do we owe the pleasure, Nate?” Ana looked up when the door opened and was surprised to see Nate being led inside.

Nate looked around. It was chaos. All he could see were machines with a million power cables. He looked from Ana, to Tom, to her bodyguards and then to the chaos.

“Organized chaos. We’ll be done in no time,” she replied his unasked question.

He smirked. “Whatever you say, honey.” He thought he had problems. Ana was delusional. How would anyone remember which one went where? He suddenly felt better about the whole Jes issue.

She laughed. She had the indecency to laugh. Out loud too. Nate wondered if all women were against him or what? Was this some twisted turn of fate to punish him against his sins against all womenkind?

“You want to wager, Nate?” She smiled at him as she turned to Tom. “Tom, tell me, what would you like? Huh? I have a conference coming up that I’ll need to attend. How about Nate agrees to let you attend and pays for your portion of the trip out of his personal account?”

“Seriously Ana? You’re not shitting me or something?”

“No, I’m not,” she said. “Just watch your language, especially around our good boss here. So what do you say Nate?”

He laughed. “And what do I get? When I win that is?” This was turning out to be a good day after all. He needed this time away from thoughts of Jes. Ana and Tom had just provided him some entertainment.

“Name your price? We wouldn’t want to be accused of being unfair to the elderly, would we Tom?”

Being the kid he still was, Tom couldn’t help but roar with laughter.
His voice was changing from a kid’s to a man’s voice. Nate couldn’t hold that against him. His lips twitched but he refused to laugh. Ana was definitely baiting him. He wondered if Gabe knew how to control this woman. She had certainly led his brother on some merry go round. For a while his brother had been insane, during the break up and when she had lay in hospital almost on her death bed.

“I’m a reasonable man. I won’t ask for much. I know how busy you will be over the next few months,” he said.

“Okay. Big guy. Spit it out.”

He heard the sniffles of laughter coming from the teenager, and his lips twitch
ed again.

“Private lessons,” he said. “A couple hours a week, until I’m good and ready.”

“What private lessons? Cooking, perhaps?”

Tom couldn’t contain his glee. Nate couldn’t wait until he won and taught these two
kids, lessons in humility.

“Hacking.”

The laughter stopped. Instantly. The silence was a welcome relief. Nate took a seat and sat silently. It was like Christmas morning, waiting to open his presents.

“Anytime you want to start speaking. Time’s running out,” he said with a huge smile. Turnaround was fair wasn’t it? “I may be senile by then and it will just take you longer to teach me what I need to know.”

“I thought you were joking,” Ana said to him. She came to sit beside him. “Nate,” she took his hand. “Are you aware of what you’re asking us to do?”

Nate squeezed her hand. “Afraid Ana?”

“Heck, no!” Ana said standing and walking away. “Tom, how long do you think it will take us to put all this together?”

“A couple of hours?”

“Kids, just to show you I’m not an ogre,” he said pointing a finger at his chest. “I’m actually a very nice man indeed.” He sent a smile their way. “So, I’ll add an extra hour to that. Three hours ought to do it. If not, I can send my most trusted technicians to help sort out the mess.” He smirked at them as he once again looked at the ‘organized chaos’.

“Nate you forget I do computers for a living.”