The Next Play: Part Three Page 4

  Her eyes went wide as pink flared again in her cheeks. “Oh, God. I didn’t even think about that.”

  Taking a step closer to her, he said, “So are you gonna let ‘em?”

  She looked confused. “Am I going to let them what?”

  “Scare you away from me?”

  “No. Of course not. But it doesn’t change the fact that what they wrote in that first text was true.”

  “What I did, I did it for them,” he ground out. “For Gabe and Denny, because I knew they were crazy about each other. But he was never going to do anything about it unless I gave him a fucking push.”

  “So you didn’t enjoy it?” she asked with a hollow laugh, giving him an As if look.

  “Damn it, don’t do that,” he growled.

  “I’m not the one doing anything, Jonah. I’m not the one who fucked your friend.”

  “Jesus, Jace, this was before I even met you,” he muttered, scraping his fingers back through his hair so hard that it stung. “And I was fucking lonely. So, yeah, at the time, it was a nice change of pace for me, because I cared about Denny. As a friend. We might have enjoyed it, but the entire goddamn time we were there it was to bring her and Gabe together.”

  She stared at some distant point on the floor, breathing hard, and he could literally see the need to flee trembling through her body. “I…I need to go,” she said in another breathless rush, already opening her purse to pull out her car keys. “I can’t do this right now. Not here.”

  His entire body stiffened with anger. “Don’t do that. Don’t fucking run when you know we need to talk this out.”

  “I just need some time to think,” she told him, her soft voice tight and hurt, the strained sound fucking killing him. “I want to be okay with it, but now that you know I know… I don’t know. Nothing feels right.”

  He snorted with frustration. “Well that makes a lot of fucking sense.”

  Her head shot up so quickly it made her curls bounce, a sharp burst of anger flashing brightly in her eyes. She might be a tiny little thing, but when she got pissed, she wasn’t shy about showing it. “Don’t you dare be an ass about this!” she yelled. “You don’t have that right!”

  “Fine,” he muttered, when she stormed past him and started to open the door. “Stick your head in the sand like a fucking child. When you’re ready to talk, you know where to find me.”

  She shot him one last blistering look over her shoulder, then walked out, slamming his office door behind her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Standing in the middle of his office, Jonah clenched and flexed his hands at his sides as he struggled to gain control of his anger. But it was raging like a fire being fed by fuel, and he knew it’d been years since he’d felt this kind of fury.

  The weekend had felt like a dream, and now this. This stinking, rotten pile of shit was pouring down on him, and he didn’t know how to claw his way out. Didn’t know how to keep all the good that he’d found from slipping through his fingers like water through a fucking sieve.

  Christ, he couldn’t believe Gabe hadn’t told him about the texts! And who in the hell was sending them? This was a personal attack against him, and against what he and Jocelyn were building, but he didn’t have a goddamn clue who could be behind it. It wasn’t like he’d left a bitter trail of angry ex-girlfriends in his wake. After Valerie, the women he’d dated over the years, outside of the ones he screwed at Vane, had all been mature, level-headed professionals. The brief relationships had ended amicably—and hell, he’d shared each and every one of those women with Lucas, so it wasn’t like they’d had any illusions about his intentions.

  And Valerie was the one who’d decided her bank account was more important than him, so it’s not like she would give a shit about who he fucked or dated. He hadn’t even seen her in over a decade. Didn’t even think she still lived in San Francisco.

  That left the women, and men, who he’d performed with at Vane. James vetted the club’s members like the FBI investigated new agents, but there were always cracks in a system. It could even be some whack job who’d just been a face in the crowd at some point, enjoying the show. Someone he’d never even met and wouldn’t recognize if he passed them on the street.

  Whoever the hell it was, it made his skin crawl to think of how long they’d been watching him. The night with Denny and Gabe had been months ago, and who was to say his so-called stalker wasn’t still at it. Jesus, the fucker might have even tailed him over the weekend, when he’d been with Jocelyn and Davey, and even though he was itching with the need to have it out with Gabe, he grabbed his phone again and first put in a call to Phil McCleary. He knew Phil from their university days, and the guy had gone on to create one of the most successful private security firms in the city. He talked with Phil directly, explaining the situation and what he needed, which meant there would be two undercover guards watching Jocelyn’s building within the hour.

  With that done, Jonah stalked out of his office and headed straight for Gabe’s, which was just down the hallway. Shoving the door open, he didn’t even bother to knock before he barged inside. Gabe sat behind his massive desk, talking to someone on the phone, while Denny worked on her laptop over on the leather sofa that was pressed against the center of the right wall.

  Gabe took one look at his face and quickly ended the call. “I’m going to have to get back to you, Mike. Something’s come up and I gotta go.”

  “I just had an interesting conversation with Jocelyn,” Jonah forced through his clenched teeth the second Gabe set his phone down. With his hands fisted at his sides, he shot a blistering glare at the guy he considered his best friend, fighting the primal urge pumping through his veins to launch himself over Gabe’s desk so he could take a swing at him. “Care to take a guess at what it was about?”

  “Oh, shit,” Denny whispered, setting her computer aside as she slipped to the edge of the sofa, while Gabe let out a hard breath and moved to his feet.

  “You have every right to be angry,” Gabe said, shoving his hands in his front pockets. “I only just found out about that first text last week, and I’m no more happier about it than you are.”

  “Yeah? And when, exactly, were you going to tell me?”

  Gabe’s mouth got tight, and Jonah’s anger doubled.

  “I don’t fucking believe you,” he snarled, taking an aggressive step forward. “Denny asked you not to, didn’t she? What the fuck, man?”

  “Jonah,” Denny said softly, her hands twisted together in her lap, “we were going to tell you.”

  “Yeah?” he snorted, shaking his head as he lifted his brows at her. “When, Denny? Because you’ve known about it for over a week now. So exactly when was this big revelation gonna take place?”

  Denny moved to her feet, her big brown eyes imploring him to understand. “If Jocelyn didn’t tell you this week, we planned to do it after the dinner on Thursday. Well, on Friday morning, actually. But when she called up last night, we told her that she needed to tell you as soon as possible. She was just…”

  Her voice trailed off, and he gave a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I know what she was ‘just’. And I can get why she didn’t want to bring it up. It can’t be all that easy to tell your new boyfriend that you know he fucked a good friend of yours,” he sneered, making Denny flinch. “Which is all the more reason why you and Gabe should have told me!”

  “Enough!” Gabriel barked. “You can be pissed, Jonah. You have every right to be. But you don’t get to act like a dick,” the guy warned, which Jonah thought was pretty fucking rich. “Denny doesn’t deserve that.”

  Jerking his chin at the asshole, he said, “Fuck you, Gabe. You’re the one who’s been the dick here. Not me.”

  He could tell by the tense look on Gabe’s face, and the way the scar at the side of his mouth was turning white, that his friend knew he’d screwed up. Gabe’s chest lifted with a deep breath, and his low voice was rough with regret when he said, “I fucked up, I know. I should have told you, and
I’m sorry, Jonah.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest as he worked his jaw, too angry to forgive the guy just then. “I don’t have time to waste on apologies or excuses. Just tell me what the hell you’ve done about it.”

  Coming out from behind his desk, Gabe kept his hands in his pockets as he leaned back against the front of it. “The texts were sent to Jocelyn’s company cell phone, so I have a discreet, specially-selected security team here monitoring all of her incoming messages.”

  “She already told me that,” he clipped, hoping to God that Gabe had something more to offer him.

  “I’ve also spoken with James, and he’s putting together a list of names for us of anyone you’ve ever had…contact with at the club,” Gabe said with a pointed look, and Jonah could tell that James had warned Gabe the list was going to be a long one. But this wasn’t the time for them to get into an argument about how many hours of his life he’d wasted screwing on the stages at Vane over the years, and Gabe knew it. “I’ve also got the security team here at Atlas tightening up access to our floors,” he added, “and Diana in HR is having extensive background checks re-run on any employees who have been hired within the past year.”

  “You didn’t think to put security on Jocelyn?”

  Gabriel’s dark brows lifted. “Do you think that’s necessary?”

  “I don’t know what the fuck is necessary,” he bit out, “because I don’t know what the hell is going on. But I’ve just put in a call to Phil and told him to get a team on her apartment building. I’m not taking any chances with her or Davey’s safety.”

  “Have you told her?” Denny asked, moving to Gabriel’s side. “About the security?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.”

  “Jonah,” Gabe said, wrapping his arm around Denny’s waist and pulling her against him, “Jocelyn might not be comfort—”

  He cut Gabe off before he could finish. “I don’t care if she’s comfortable with it or not. It’s happening.”

  “Then what about security for yourself?” Denny asked, looking concerned.

  “I’m not the one I’m worried about,” he muttered, turning to go. He’d already said everything he had to say, and he needed some time now to try and wrap his head around what he’d learned.

  As he reached down to grip the door handle, he felt Denny’s light touch against his arm, and he turned his head to look at her.

  “Jonah, I really am sorry,” she told him, her normally smiling face pale with worry. “I never should have put Gabe in such a shitty position by asking him not to say anything. So I’m sorry for that, and for not telling you myself.”

  “You should be, Denny. Because this is fucked.”

  She winced at the roughness of his tone, but didn’t back down. “I know, and I’m hoping that you’ll soon be able to forgive me, because Gabe and I, we care about you, and we owe you so much. But there’s something I want to say before you go, and it’s this.” A gentle smile curled her lips. “You once told me that in the end, we have no choice but to follow our hearts. And I just want to say how good it is to see that you’re finally following yours.”

  He was still pissed, but her words meant a lot to him, so he pulled her in for a quick, tight hug and kissed the top of her head. “Thanks, Den.”

  Then he let her go and headed out, his mood only becoming darker when he got back to his empty office. In some far corner of his brain, he must have been hoping that Jocelyn would come back and try to work this out with him. That she wouldn’t just do a runner, since that wasn’t going to get them anywhere.

  But she was gone, and his gut told him that she wasn’t returning. At least not today.

  Knowing that he wouldn’t get anything done even if he stayed, Jonah grabbed his things, headed down to his Audi, and navigated his way home through the city traffic. Phil called his cell just as he was pulling into his building’s underground parking garage, telling him that the surveillance was already in place on Jocelyn’s building, but her parking spot was currently empty. He told Phil not to worry about notifying him of her comings and goings, since that felt too much like an invasion of her privacy. He just wanted to make sure that no one could get near her apartment who wasn’t a friend or family, and he didn’t care how much it cost. He wanted the undercover security team in place twenty-four-seven.

  By the time he’d taken the parking elevator up to the lobby, he’d managed to get enough control of his temper that he could be cordial to the guy who was working the front desk. “Hey, David.”

  “Mr. Cartwright, I have a message for you,” the doorman said, moving to his feet with a slip of paper in his hand. “And there was a woman here about twenty minutes ago who tried to gain access to your floor, sir. But I’m afraid I had to deny her as her name isn’t on your pre-approved list.”

  “Who was she?”

  David glanced down at his desk, where he’d obviously jotted down the woman’s name. “A Miss Jocelyn Brenna.”

  Hope started to rise in Jonah’s chest, almost making him light-headed. “Was she a beautiful blonde?”

  “No, sir,” David replied with a frown. “This woman was a brunette.”

  What the fuck? “Do you think you could pull up security footage of the lobby from when she was here? I’d like to see if I recognize her, because whoever she was, she was lying about her name.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem.” Handing over the small, folded notecard he’d been holding, David said, “And the message is from your father, Mr. Cartwright. He stopped by this morning, just after you’d left for the day.”

  While David started working on his computer, Jonah flipped open the notecard and read his father’s handwritten note.

  Jonah,

  I suppose your refusal to speak with me over the phone shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point—but I do have important information for you. However, it will now have to wait, as I am flying out today and will be unreachable until next week.

  C.C.

  “Son of a bitch,” he muttered under his breath. It’d occurred to him, during his drive home, that there could be a connection between the texts Jocelyn had received and the fact that his old man was suddenly trying to get in touch with him. Not that he would trust whatever Carter had to say. The man had tried to screw with him too many times in the past for Jonah to ever trust him now. But he still wanted to know what the bastard was up to.

  Christ, for all he knew, this whole thing was just some new way for his father to fuck with his life.

  “Asshole,” he ground out, shoving the note into his pocket.

  “Sir?” David murmured, casting him a worried look.

  “Not you,” he said, giving the doorman a tight smile. “It was just some bad news.”

  David gave him a sympathetic nod, and Jonah almost laughed. He could only imagine how much of a condescending dickhead Carter had acted like when dealing with the doorman that morning.

  Turning back to his computer, David tapped out a few more commands, then frowned as he said, “I have the clip for you, sir. But I’m afraid it isn’t very helpful.”

  “Let’s see it.”

  He understood what David meant as soon as the doorman turned the computer screen toward him. A thin brunette dressed in a sharp black pants suit, with big sunglasses covering the upper half of her face, stood at the front desk, but she managed to keep her head turned away from the camera the entire time she was speaking with David. Jonah narrowed his gaze as he studied her, trying to pick up on any mannerisms that might tip him off or jog his memory. But he had nothing. Nothing about the reed-thin woman seemed familiar, and a fresh wave of frustration coiled through his insides, scraping him raw.

  “Can you print me a copy of that frame right there, when she first turns away from the desk?” he asked. It was the clearest shot they had of her, though her head was tilted down. But at least it would be something he could pass on to Phil, James, and the security team at Atlas.

  “Of course, sir,” David s
aid, clicking a few buttons on the keyboard.

  “I have no idea who that woman is, but I don’t want her anywhere near my apartment.”

  Wheeling his chair over to the softly buzzing printer, David said, “I’ll put in a notice for the other doormen to keep an eye out for her. And if you like, I can email you this photograph as well.”

  “Thanks, that’d be great,” Jonah replied, taking the printout from David as the doorman moved back to his feet. “And please add Jocelyn Brenna to the approved list. I’ll get a photo down to you that you can add to the system for reference.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  Once he was in his apartment, he called Phil, and then Gabe, telling them both about the brunette. Gabe said he would notify security at Atlas, and then Jonah called James at the club and told him to put together a secondary list of tall, thin, dark-haired females. After that, he emailed the photograph to all three men, before changing into gym shorts and workout shoes, and then headed down to the building’s state-of-the-art athletic center.

  He spent thirty minutes running on a treadmill to warm up, then hit the weights hard, focusing on his chest and back, the grind of the physical activity helping him to work through the rest of his anger and sharpen his focus.

  Just as he racked the bench-press bar and sat up, reaching for his towel so he could wipe away the sweat that was dripping into his eyes, he looked up and saw her.

  Jocelyn.

  She stood in the doorway to the gym, her green eyes wide as she took him in, that fucking lower lip caught in her white teeth, and he got hard. Thankfully, he had the place to himself, so he didn’t have to worry about flashing his junk at any of his neighbors.

  She looked fucking beautiful, her curvy little body still wrapped up in that sexy dress, golden curls spilling over her shoulders, cheeks warm with a flush of pink. His heart started beating so hard he could feel his blood pumping through every cell of his body, and there was only one thing looping through his head, over and over and over.