Page 28 of Coming Home

After a large lunch and lots of coffee, Scarlett, clearly exhausted from the day, is sleeping. Curled up in the middle of my large bed, she looks so small, but so peaceful. Her hair is like a halo around her head, and her lips are smooth, so kissable, and if we didn’t have a crazy person wanting to kill her, I would crawl into bed with her and take her again and again all afternoon.

After sitting and watching her for a few moments, I walk to my study and call Romeo. I need more answers and I haven’t heard anything from him for the past few hours. He picks up on the first ring, and I put him on speaker phone so I can make notes if I need to.

“Boss, everything okay?”

“Romeo, we are fine, we are at the penthouse laying low. What is the latest?”

Romeo sighs. “We are still working on it all, but the more we dig, the more we uncover, and it isn’t looking pretty. Ray Sullivan seems to have been money laundering for a while now, and it appears that just over a year ago, he was nearly caught. I spoke with former employees who talked about his niece, Scarlett, who he would get to review his financials. Apparently, he did this so his own finance team wouldn’t uncover the fake figures in his financial reports; however, he didn’t think Scarlett would have the brains or experience to pick up on it and expected her to just sign off and push them through.”

“But she was too smart and picked up on it, didn’t she?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, sir, according to her father’s former assistant, Scarlett notified her father of the issues she saw, and he confronted his brother Ray, leading to a heated discussion over the phone. It was after that phone call when everything started to happen. According to the assistant, the two brothers argued because Scarlett’s father didn’t want to be involved in any shady business dealings and certainly didn’t want his or Scarlett’s name associated with any of it. But here is when it gets interesting.”

“I’m listening,” I urge Romeo to continue.

“I had a team access Ray’s financial reports thanks to the help of Stephen. There was a large sum of money missing from the financials in Ray’s reports. The money was well into the millions. One million dollars was deposited into an account based in Mexico. Another million dollars was deposited into the same account about one week later. The date of these correspond to the date Scarlett’s family was murdered.“

“Fuck.” I rub my temples. “This is bad. Did Ray pay to have his own brother and family killed?” I ask as I try and put together the information Romeo gives me. Before he can respond, I hear a small gasp and look up to see Scarlett in the doorway of my office, looking pale as a ghost, eyes as wide as saucers.

“I’ll call you back, Romeo.” I end the call quickly and rush to Scarlett, who I grab just in time before her eyes roll back into her head, and she falls into my arms. It seems it is all finally getting to be too much for her.

I lift her up into my arms and carry her bridal style to the couch. I gently shake her shoulders and call her name until she comes around a few moments later. “Stay here, let me get you some water,” I say before grabbing a bottle of Perrier from the kitchen. I stride back to her, propping her up and helping her drink a few sips before placing her down again.

“Do you think…” “Is Uncle Ray…” “What about…” she starts to stammer, obviously trying to get her head around the situation and what she just overheard.

“Shhhh. Take it easy, I will tell you all that I know.” I try to rein in my anger at her Uncle and be gentle with her. I go through the little information I do have, and it appears that some of what I am saying is starting to remind her of some things from a year ago. She remembers talking to her father about Ray’s financials and then not hearing from Ray again after that—which she did think was odd at the time but would never have thought that it may be useful for the police as a motive or evidence. Her grief at their deaths was all-consuming to her, and her memories of around that time and what happened in the business both came secondary.

“We need to call the Federal Police in Australia. We need to get Stephen out of the house. Who knows what he is capable of?” Scarlett scrambles to sit up. I admire her and cannot believe after everything this woman has been through, here she is wanting to take action to prevent harm to others when she should just focus on herself. I place my hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her back to relax.

“I will call Stephen and update him on the news and invite him to stay here with us as well. Your Aunt Emily didn’t come back with Ray and is still visiting her sister in Florida, so she is safely away from the situation,” I remind her, trying to calm her before she goes into hysteria. “Let me run you a bath, so you can relax a little while I call Romeo back for all the details and then call Stephen to inform him of what is going on. I will ask him to come here, but he is stubborn, Scarlett, he may not want to. Plus, we don’t want to alert Ray that we know anything, as that may escalate things.”

She nods and is quiet, so I take that as my cue to sweep her off her feet and carry her into the large bathroom, where I have an infinity tub with wide views of the Boston CBD. It is now toward the end of the day, and the sun is starting to set, giving her a wonderful view of the city skyline and soon to be all the lights. I run the bath and pop in some lavender oil that my mom bought me a few months ago, saying I worked too hard and needed a stress reliever. I proceed to undress Scarlett, gently kissing her and touching her before I pick her up and place her naked body in the bath. I light some candles and kiss her on the forehead and tell her I will be back in 20 minutes to dry her off. I battle with not wanting to leave her and trying to keep her safe. I tell her to relax, then I walk back to my study and call Romeo again to get the remaining details. I then call Stephen. “Can you talk?” I ask before he even has a chance to say hello.

“Yes, I am at the office, getting paperwork for your man, Romeo, and I am here alone.”

“I just told Scarlett of what Romeo and his team have found. She is understandably quite upset and shocked. She wants you to come to the penthouse and stay here.”

“No. If I don’t go home, dad will think something is up. I need to continue as if life is somewhat normal, so he doesn’t suspect anything. We need more proof before we can go to the Feds with this, and I do not want to jeopardize Scarlett’s safety anymore. I just can’t believe that my dad would do this. I mean, fuck, I’m struggling to get my head around this.”

“I know, I know. Let me know what you need, and I will help in any way that I can. But please know that Scarlett is staying with me now, permanently. I will not let her back in that house or back in the office until this is all taken care of. You are free to come here to see her anytime you wish, but she won’t be leaving whilst there is a target on her head.”

“Scarlett means the world to me, Shaun. I can tell that you really care about her. I mean, Scarlett told me that you guys had clicked, and it was obvious that there was chemistry when I saw you together at the gala. Even with all this shit going on, you are still here and protecting her. I appreciate it. I would even go so far to say that I think you are in love with her?”

I take a deep breath and reply. “I think I am, Stephen, I think I am.”

36

Scarlett

I lie in the bath, not able to enjoy the stunning views through the wall of windows overlooking the city skyline. My head is a jumbled mess of emotions; fear, anticipation, fear, love, fear, terror and then broken heartedness of what my family has become. Family is everything to me. Being with family is what prompted me to move to Boston, so I could be closer to the only remaining family I had left.

I look at the bubbles from the bath surrounding my body, small bubbles popping and cracking—much like my life has since the night my family died.

Taking deep breaths, I try to remain calm as I inhale the smell of lavender, briefly wondering how a man like Shaun has lavender bath products in his penthouse. I am safe now. Right now, I feel the safest I think I have ever felt. Locked up tight and secure in a penthouse in the sky, in the middle of the city of Boston, with a man who is as good looking as Chris Hemsworth, as strong as Thor, and as protective as the whole team of Avengers.

I have no idea what the next hour of my life will entail, so I certainly am not planning my life around Shaun, but the way he is stepping up and taking care of me in this awful situation astounds me. For so long I have had to look after myself, and I am tired. So tired. I am weary, exhausted, and my body and mind need a break. Being able to lean on someone to help me through this is not what I want to do, but I am relieved to have the help and support. Having someone to take care of me is new, but I need it. We have only known each other for a short amount of time, but it is clear to me that our connection is something real, strong, and passionate. Aside from wanting to protect me, I am not sure how he is feeling, given the events of the past few days. Establishing what our relationship is has not been a priority.

I do have a niggle in my mind which tells me to put up my walls; what if he doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about him? What if all I am to him is a way to protect his business interests? It is no secret that he has a strong dislike for Uncle Ray and taking down his company would not only make Shaun extremely happy but also extremely wealthy. Not that he needs more money if this penthouse is anything to go by. Plus, he also has his main house further out of town where we spent our first night together after our amazing dinner.

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