Page 6 of The Shadow

“You didn’t tell me you moved. I had to make a few calls to find out where your new address is.” He turns to look at me with a wide grin on his face… a mercurial one that makes his message loud and clear.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

My panic ratchets up to fear when he doesn’t tell me in front of Karl whatever it is he wants to talk to me about. I close my eyes and take several long breaths through my nose, trying to remain calm as we approach my building.

“Hi, Marcus.” I smile at him as we enter the building, praying he launches into one of his fun conversations or springs a riddle on me, but he’s distracted helping another tenant.

“Good evening, Miss Aspen.” He smiles and waves briefly before turning back to the couple who seem frustrated about something.

“Fifteenth floor?” Connor’s brow lifts with a smirk. “Guess that promotion is paying off?”

“Yes, it’s been nice.” I clutch my purse tightly against my body like a shield, the doors opening slowly before we step out into the hallway. “Mr. Blake.” I pause and turn to face him. “Why are you following me home?”

His expression would seem endearing if I didn’t already know him. Instead, it’s smug as he reaches his hand out to tip my chin upward so I’m looking up at him.

“We need to talk. I need a favor outside of work and I need you to be the one to do it.” I open my mouth to ask him what, but he shakes his head. “We will discuss in your apartment.”

I turn, slowly putting one foot in front of the other as his hand presses against my back. He reaches around me to grab the keys from my hand, his back toward the elevator doors that open with a soft whoosh. I glance up, looking past his shoulder just as he unlocks my door and pushes it open. My eyes meet Harvey’s as he steps out of the elevator, this time alone. He looks at me and stops, just as Connor ushers me inside my apartment and shuts the door behind us.

“What is that you wanted to discuss, Mr. Blake?” I cross my arms over my chest, not bothering to walk very far inside my apartment.

“Aren’t you going to offer me a glass of wine first?” He steps toward me and reaches out to touch my face but I brush his touch away.

“Mr. Blake.” I say his name more firmly. “I expressed to you that not only do I have a boyfriend now, but we agreed that what happened between us previously was a mis—that it wouldn’t happen again.” I correct myself, wanting to scream at him that it wasn’t a mistake because the choice was taken from me but I’m too scared. “Besides, you—you’re a married man.”

“Oh please, Aspen.” He laughs. “You didn’t seem to give a shit that I was married before. Besides”—he pulls out one of my barstools and takes a wide-legged seat—“she’s my soon-to-be ex-wife so it’s not taboo anymore.” He winks at me, as if I’ll drop to my knees for him.

“You never told me—you lied to me,” I finally say as my hands ball into fists at my sides. The truth is, he did lie to me. He never wore a wedding ring and when he did tell me about his wife, he said she had died in a tragic accident years earlier that he didn’t want to discuss. “I never would have —”

“Pity that’s how you see it.” He looks down and smooths a wrinkle from his shirt. “But the bottom line is, I need your help. I know you think that I only promoted you because you fucked me, but that isn’t true.” I flinch at his crassness. “The reality is, you weren’t that good of a fuck to merit a promotion like this. But you’re smart and have a high attention to detail that I need. You’re extremely talented with what you do in cyber security, Aspen. You really must know that.”

Classic Connor Blake. Cutting your legs out from under you so effortlessly with merely a few words, then turning around and building you up like you’re the most important person to him.

“And what it is it you need my help with?”

“My divorce. My personal financial records at least. Like I told you, my bitch of a wife is suing for spousal support which I won’t be able to get out of. That being said, I have a few—offshore accounts and investments that she doesn’t need to know about regarding what financial assets we will be splitting.”

“I’m sorry, I’m confused.” I shouldn’t be shocked at all that Connor Blake would so casually ask me to commit financial fraud for him, but I am. “You want me to hide your financial assets from not only your wife but a court of law so that she doesn’t get half?”

“Exactly.” He smiles, this time genuinely and it only deepens my confusion.

“I-I could face jail time for that—prison time actually. I could face contempt, perjury, defrauding the courts.”

He laughs and it actually gives me a bit of relief. Maybe he’s joking or maybe I’m completely overreacting or misunderstanding something. I laugh too.

“Yeah, pretty much that’s it. I mean, you wouldn’t expect me to do my own dirty work, would you? That’s why I promoted you.”

My smile slowly falls from my face. “Mr. Blake.”

He’s serious. He actually wants me to commit fraud for him.

“No, I’m sorry—no, I’m not sorry actually.” I stiffen my spine. “I won’t do it. I’m not going to commit a crime so that you can hide money from your ex-wife.”

He stands up from the stool and buttons his suit coat. “Well, I’d be doing you a disservice if I continued to let you think that you had a choice in all this. I’m sorry if I caused any confusion, but this isn’t really me asking you a favor. Think of it like me…” He squints and pretends like he’s trying to think of the right word. “…threatening you. Yeah, that’s the right word. Threatening. And if you don’t do it, you won’t just be fired, Miss Wilder.” He has that smile again and closes the distance between us. “No, that will be the least of your worries. But I will make sure that everyone you know and more importantly, everyone that I know, will get a copy of this, along with the entire internet.”

I look down to where he’s placing a thumb drive in my hand. My stomach drops. “What’s this?”

“Oh, this?” He laughs again. “It’s your big breakout performance, your starring role.”

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