Young Truths (Young Series) (4 page)

“Sam, I’m sorry. That was inappropriate of me. Especially considering what we were just discussing,” he says sincerely.

I shake my head. “No, it’s fine,” I say quickly, once again wondering how long a friendship like this can last. “Really, Mark, don’t worry about it.”

He reaches across the table, resting his hand between us, and opens his mouth to speak, but someone clears their throat beside us, cutting him off. We
look up, expecting our server, and find Matthew standing there watching us with raised eyebrows and a terse smile on his face. I close my eyes briefly, knowing what’s going through his mind. “Afternoon,” he says cheerfully. “Mind if I sit?”

“Of course not,” Mark says genially. “Pull up a chair.”

Matthew does, placing his chair right beside mine and resting his arm behind my back. “Sorry if I’m interrupting,” he says, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “Had to run home and grab a file I forgot this morning, and I thought I’d pop into town to see how your day’s going.” His eyes dart briefly at the open ring box sitting between Mark and me, then to Mark himself.

Inwardly, I roll my eyes at my husband. The man’s jealousy knows no bounds and while he would never accuse me of anything out loud, I know he’s wondering what’s going on. “Mark was just showing me the engagement ring he bought for Jessica,” I tell him pointedly.

Matthew’s eyes widen and I think I see relief in his expression for a flash of a second. “Oh,” he says in surprise as he turns to Mark. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Mark says quietly. The hand that he still has stretched across the table towards me reaches for the ring box instead. “I know it’s nothing like the rock you gave Samantha, but...”

“Jessica will love it,” I tell him firmly. “Won’t she, Matt?”

Matthew looks between the two of us with a slightly furrowed brow and shakes himself at the sound of his name. “Absolutely,” he agrees. “I’ve worked with her for years and I like to think we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. I think that’s perfect for her.”

The anxiety in Mark’s eyes dims considerably. “I think so, too,” he says. “Thanks, Matt.”

We sit back and talk for a few minutes, and Matthew declines placing his own order for lunch, insisting he needs to get back to work. Though I don’t miss his attempts to steal my meal. A pointed glare and silent threat about stabbing his hand with my fork puts an end to that and seems to amuse Mark to no end. The only problem comes when the bill arrives at the table and Matthew grabs it, completely ignoring Mark’s insistences on paying for his and my lunch. As the three of us stand to leave, I shoot Mark an apologetic look and he just smirks. Outside the restaurant, Matthew and I part ways with Mark, and to my surprise, Matthew actually invites Mark over this weekend for a barbeque to celebrate the nearing end of winter.
I swear Matthew will find any excuse to use a grill. It’s the only time he can cook and the rest of us don’t have to worry about him burning down the house.

“Spying on me?” I ask as Matthew puts an arm around my shoulders and escorts me back to the bookstore. “I’m pretty sure that’s Dave’s job.”

“I’m not spying,” he says patiently. “I really did have to run home for a few things and I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to see you. Honestly, I wasn’t coming to babysit your lunch with Reilly.”

I’m still skeptical, but I’ll let it drop for now. “Something tells me you’ve got an ulterior motive, though.” I only know this because I see the slightly furrowed brow on his face that I swear is going to cause him early wrinkles.

He looks down at me and grumbles something to the effect of how I know him too well and he doesn’t particularly like it at times. We stop near the bookstore and I stand directly in front of him as he leans against the wall, giving him a full view of everything around us. “I wanted to see if I could spot whoever it is following you,” he admits, his voice only loud enough for me to hear. Instinctively, I step closer to him and his hands come to rest on my hips. To anyone watching, I imagine we look like a couple in love being affectionate with one another and I know that is Matthew’s intention. If someone is watching us, the last thing we want to do is give any sign that we’re fully aware of what they’re up to.

“And?” I ask just as quietly, sliding my hands up his chest to wrap my arms around his neck. “Are you seeing anything?”

“No,” he replies, sounding frustrated. “Not that it means much. If they’re hiding from my security team, there’s little hope that I’ll notice anything new.” He sighs heavily. “And I know that probably doesn’t do much to set you at ease, but unfortunately, that’s the reality of this situation.”

“I hate this situation,” I mutter, though I didn’t intend to speak out loud. “Always having to look over my shoulder. Never knowing what’s going on or who I can trust.”

He flinches as though he’s been hit and pulls me closer, placing his lips against my forehead. “I know,” he whispers. “And I’m sorry. I never wanted you to feel like this again. You put up with enough of it before you left.”

I silently agree, but don’t respond. He feels guilty enough without me adding anything more to it. The number of times he came home during our first marriage to tell me he would be upping security again because of some threat is endless. He tried to play things down whenever possible, but he didn’t realize I could see the undisguised fear in his eyes. Even when the threats lessened, I caught myself looking over my shoulder wherever I went. After Tyler and I left, that habit stuck with me, and I know my vigilance was part of the reason Matthew showed up at Tom’s house in Omaha when he did. I often wonder if I’d been clueless about the goings on around me, whether he would have even come to me at all. I think he would have eventually, since the threat that brought us together again directly affected Tyler and me. It’s because of that threat that we’re even standing here right now, together, and despite how much fear and grief it’s caused, a very small part of me is grateful it came to light.

“I should get back to the office,” Matthew breathes against my skin. “I’ve got a busy afternoon ahead of me.” He belies his words by pulling me closer and more tightly against him.

Eventually, we reluctantly part from our embrace and I head into the bookstore while he starts towards his car. Before I go inside, I turn around and find him watching me, a smile on his face. I give him a little wave that he returns and we go on about our days.

One of the best things about my job is the connections I’ve made over the years. It doesn’t matter what I need, when I need it, or why I need it; if there’s a way to get it, I’ll get it. Legalities don't necessarily come into play at all times, but the world doesn’t always operate strictly under the eyes of the law. My enemies are breaking several laws themselves and I’d be a fool to believe otherwise. We need to be on even ground or I’m going to lose. And I don’t like losing. There have only been a handful of times throughout my career that I’ve actually lost anything and those times still leave a very bad taste in my mouth. This situation has the potential for me to lose more than some contract, though; this could harm my family. They’ve been hurt enough over the last few months, all because of the people that are causing the trouble right now, and I’ll do whatever it takes to end it.

Currently, I’m tapping into CCTV feeds from different parts of the country. Since he disappeared during Tyler’s kidnapping, I’ve been keeping tabs on Frank Marone. Not that I’ve actually gotten any real leads on him; the bastard seems to have gone underground and my biggest fear is that he’s lying in wait to strike again. I still don’t know what it is he’s after, whether he’s just targeting me because he didn’t like how I handled our business relationship or if I really have something he wants. Hell, at this point, he could be blaming me for Leo’s death. Someone else may have fired the bullet, but it was aimed at me and at the very last second, Leo jumped in front of it to defend me.

Honestly, though, I don’t care what his reasoning is anymore. I’ve wanted Marone’s blood for months and every day that goes on without finding him, the stronger that desire grows.

Another issue on my radar is Natalie Walsh. My ex-girlfriend is currently in a New York State prison awaiting trial for several counts of kidnapping, attempted murder, and a long list of other charges. I still feel like a first-class moron for not seeing things that were right under my nose for years. If I’d been even the slightest bit more vigilant, I could have stopped this before it ever began. No matter what anybody says, I’ll always blame myself for ignoring the signs that Natalie and Leo were up to something behind my back. I didn’t even really take notice until Samantha was back in my life. Maybe that was because I was extra vigilant in my need to keep her and our son safe. Before then, I turned a blind eye to so much and when Samantha tried to get me seeing clearly again, by telling me she believed Natalie was the woman who had kidnapped her and Tyler, I dismissed her, thinking her jealousy was showing. After all, she knew nothing about Natalie aside from the fact she and I dated for several months and that I briefly considered asking her to marry me. I should have realized immediately that Samantha has never been the type to exaggerate a situation. I’ve seen her jealous a few times—mostly when we’ve gone to some benefit or party and the women flocked to me, completely disregarding my wife’s presence—but I always made sure she knew those women meant less than nothing to me and that the only one I wanted was her.

It occurs to me, though, that following our engagement party/baby shower, to which I idiotically invited my ex-girlfriend to attend, I didn’t actually do much in regards of reassuring Samantha. I defended Natalie and her actions, because I honestly hadn’t seen anything wrong with it at the time. If the roles had been reversed, i would have landed myself in jail after beating the shit out of any man with enough gall to hang off Samantha right in front of me. It was bad enough I had to see her with Tom Saunders for those few weeks and later walking into Samantha’s hospital room to find her fast asleep with Mark Reilly at her side holding her hand.

And speaking of Reilly... I don’t know what the hell was going on in that café when I popped in to say hello, but I’ve never seen Samantha looking so awkward. And I sure as hell didn’t miss the hand Reilly had stretched out across the table as though he was about to grab hers. I think I would have broken all his fingers if he had. I also saw the look of anxiety on Samantha’s face when I inquired about what had been going on. No matter how far forward we move in our relationship, I don’t think I’ll ever get over my suspicions of Dr. Dipshit and I think she knows it.

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I realize I’ve done little more than sit behind my desk since I got back from town, and there really is a lot that needs my complete focus. I should have shifted all my business ventures from the more dangerous aspects to more benign ventures years ago when my building was attacked, but I was more focused on getting my company back in order and figuring out who was behind the bombing than I was anything else. Considering everything that’s happened since last summer, this change is a necessity—with Samantha, Tyler, and Olivia to worry about, I can’t keep dealing with the people I have in the past. Particularly the people like Frank Marone who
seems on the level at the beginning, but turn out to be borderline psychotic by the end.

We’ve just acquired a contract with a small toy company in Virginia that is looking to expand. They’ve taken a particular liking to a toy robot I’d been developing for years now. It’s easily programmable by a child Tyler’s age to do almost anything the child might want it to do. I’ve even done extensive market research by taking the robot prototype home for a weekend to watch my son play with it. The only bug I found with it was that the robot took an unexpected liking to Bandit and whenever it was turned on, followed the puppy around the house. Bandit was not amused, but the rest of us were.

I want my company to be something I can share with my children someday. I want to be able to go home every night and tell my wife about the projects I’m working on rather than having to keep things from her due to top-secret military clearance. Samantha always brings a fresh set of eyes into a situation and I enjoy sharing new ideas with her to find out how she might do things differently. More than once, I’ve considered bringing her here to work with me. Not that she would ever go for that, but it’s an interesting thought. She and I would probably spend more time in my office not working than we would doing what we’re actually supposed to be doing.

Besides, she loves working at the bookstore and it will only be a matter of months before she’s running it full time. With Bonnie’s illness, she’s looking to pass the store on to Samantha. Samantha isn’t yet aware of this, since telling her that the store is essentially hers right now would mean telling her about Bonnie and her inoperable brain tumor. Bonnie asked me to not mention it until Samantha is at a place in her pregnancy that we don’t have to worry about being over-stressed. At this point, I think that will be after Olivia is born. The reasoning for not bringing Samantha into the loop is that her mother died from the same sort of brain tumor that Bonnie is suffering from. Given Samantha’s history of high blood pressure, I don’t want to take the chance of something happening to her or the baby.

But I digress; within the next year, my company should be completely family-friendly. It’s the one thing I can control right now and therefore, all that matters.

I’ve got Jessica Mills, Dr. Dipshit’s soon-to-be fiancée, in charge of the toy contract, and so far, I’ve been very impressed with her work. She’s always been one of my most devoted department heads, working almost as many hours as I do, and she jumped right up when I announced my plans for the company with new ideas. Before she leaves on her vacation next week, she’s set up a brainstorming meeting with her department and I’m actually looking forward to it.