Page 51 of The Shadow

“In that case, I guess you should make sure you don’t screw it up, then,” I tease him, his eyes doing that thing where they grow dark and sexy as he lowers his head to look across the island at me.

“Dinner was good.” He drags his hand slowly over his beard and jaw as his eyes do a lazy perusal of my body. “But now I need dessert.”

Chapter 18

Harvey

My heartbeat thuds in my ear. I roll over, sitting up slowly so I don’t wake Aspen. It’s been four straight hours of this. I walk slowly around the bed and out to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

I sink down on the couch, my mind racing about Aspen, her plan, what will happen after. I know it will create a media frenzy, but I also know that she’s smart enough to keep her name out of it. There will be no trace of where this information came from and since he never mentions her name on the video, they won’t know who he was harassing.

Did he call her phone? Did he text her? What about video surveillance of him at her apartment?

I think through the questions I still have for her, even though I have no doubt he was smart enough to cover his tracks with a burner phone when communicating with her. As far as coming to her apartment, there would be no reason to ever look into if he did or not.

I stand and pace, my mind going dark places I never thought it would go again. I run through different scenarios, ways I could make his death look like an accident. Ways I could make him suffer in the most heinous ways.

She deserves closure. He deserves punishment.

“Come back to bed.” I spin around to see Aspen leaning against the doorway, my t-shirt from earlier hanging loosely around her petite frame.

“Hey, baby.” I reach for her, smelling the soft vanilla of her hair as I bury my nose in it. We stand there for several minutes, neither of us saying what we both know is going through our minds.

“It’s going to be okay,” she says finally. I squeeze her tighter. “This isn’t your fight.”

“Not my fight?” I pull her back. “It involves you; therefore, it is my fight.”

“Baby.” She says it so gently, so calmly as she slides her hands up my chest, looking into my eyes. “I know. I know you want to destroy him and burn his entire world to the ground, but you can’t. This isn’t your dad; this isn’t some operation that you can come out okay on the other side if you go through with this.”

She doesn’t spell out what she means by go through with this. We both know damn well that the only thing running through my mind right now is how I can kill this motherfucker in the most painful, deranged way possible and not get caught.

“Promise me,” she says, tugging on my neck. “Please.”

I stare down at her, knowing I need to let her handle this. But I can’t make that promise. “I can’t,” I say to her, her shoulders dropping in disappointment. “I can’t promise I won’t kill him if it comes to that, Aspen. But I can promise you,” I say, placing my hand over her heart, “that I will trust you to handle this, but if it comes down to it and there’s even one split second where I have to make a decision, he’s going to end up with a bullet in his head.”

When I wake the next morning, the tension in the air is already thick. Aspen ducks across the hall to get ready for her day early, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.

“I promise, it’s going to be okay,” she says, squeezing my hand as we climb into the elevator together. I hit the button for her floor, the doors closing and the car ascending. We ride in silence, a few others joining on and off along the way to the fourteenth floor. When we finally reach it, I don’t get off; instead, I grab her and kiss her softly, making my way to the top floor for the handoff with Alex.

“All yours,” Alex says with a yawn, patting my shoulder. “Dude’s a fucking dick by the way,” he mutters, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he’s out of earshot.

“Yeah, I picked up on that.”

“Last night he had his assistant come over to his house. Not even twenty minutes later she comes running out half-dressed and crying so I got out of my car to stop her and see if she needed help, but she just said no, that it would only make things worse for her.” My stomach drops; Aspen was right. He’s doing this to others. “I wanted to report it but she freaked out on me, told me it would ruin her life and not to do it so I didn’t but this is—” He shakes his head, struggling to put into words the way Connor Blake makes everyone feel.

“I know, man, but it’s almost over, I think. His divorce settlement thing is coming up so we’ll be out of here in no time and on to the next rich schmuck who needs protection from the people he’s fucked over.”

“Great,” Alex says with a sarcastic smile. “Such a ray of positive fucking sunshine.” He smiles at me, but it’s interrupted by another yawn. “Shit, I gotta head out but if you get the chance, kidney punch that motherfucker for me, would ya?”

“Gladly,” I reply just as the doors close behind Alex and Connor pokes his head out of his office.

“Great, it’s you,” he mutters. “Get in here, I need you.” My spine stiffens and I remind myself to play it cool. I walk toward his office, stepping inside and closing the door behind me. “I fired my secretary last night, Natalie the fake blonde with the big tits,” he says seriously as if that’s a normal way to refer to someone. “If that bitch comes in here today, I want you to throw her out. She’s not allowed back on these premises, you understand me?”

“Afraid that’s not my job but I’m sure your on-site security will be able to handle the low-level threat.”

His face falls. “Not your job? Not your job?” He repeats in that same manner all entitled assholes do when they think they’re being mistreated. “Then what the fuck is your job, you walking steroid?”

“To keep you safe. You hired my company to keep you safe and alive so unless Natalie comes walking through that front door with a weapon and somehow manages to make it up eighty-nine floors without being restrained, then yeah, I’ll make sure she’s handled. Otherwise, I won’t be following her around the building if she attempts to come retrieve her stuff.” He stares at me with an anger in his eyes so intense he’d have smoke coming out his ears if he were a cartoon character. “Is there a reason she’d want to kill you, Mr. Blake?” I let a smirk play at my lips. “Anything you might want to fill me in on?” I wait until he’s about to reply, then add, “Did you just get tired of your current sexual harassment case and decide you wanted some fresher meat? Or did she finally tell you no?”

---