Darker the Release (14 page)

“Yes,” he hissed, his mouth closing down around her shoulder. “Yes. Kelly, open your eyes.”

She obeyed him instinctively, breathing urgently and erratically through her nose since her lips were pressed tightly together. She stared out the window. Saw all those other people. People nothing like her.

People with lives and loves and meaning in the world.

She felt trapped between his hard body and the cold glass of the window. Trapped between the intense sensations and the intense feelings in her heart. Trapped in a way she’d never escape from.

“Can you come?” he asked, his voice hoarse but still in control.

“Yeah,” she whimpered, so close now that the wait was delicious torture. “Gonna come.” She gasped as he bit her shoulder.

“Kelly, say my name,” he muttered, pumping the vibrator even faster. “Who’s going to make you come? Say it.”

“Caleb. Caleb!” So she was crying out his name when another orgasm erupted.

Only then did he pull the vibrator out and turn it off. Kelly panted and tried to pull herself together again. Caleb was holding her tightly now with both arms, which was good because otherwise she might have slid to the floor.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, and Kelly wanted so much to fall into bed with him. Nestle in his arms. Comfort him and seek comfort from him. Even if he wouldn’t admit it, he needed someone, and she so wanted to be the person he needed.

But even now that wasn’t who they were. Caleb didn’t seem to want anything like that today. She wasn’t sure what was going on with him, but it worried her for several reasons.

“Your turn now,” she said, trying to sound light.

She looked at him closely and saw that he was tense and flushed. He made no move to kiss her, so she stroked her hands down his chest and belly until she reached his groin.

She unfastened his pants and pulled out his cock.

She stared down at it for a minute and then knelt on the floor in front of him.

His eyes were so strange—intense and conflicted and so hungry—as she leaned forward to take his cock in her mouth.

She sucked him off, relieved when she heard him start to make little grunts, the sounds he always made when he was losing control.

Whatever else was going on with him, he still needed this from her.

She took him as deep as she could, since she could tell he was trying not to fuck her mouth, and it wasn’t long before his whole body was tightening like a fist.

Then it all released as he came into her mouth, his cock spasming as he let out a helpless, wordless sound.

She could feel his whole body soften at his release, and she swallowed as best she could and zipped him back up before she stood in front of him.

He was fully dressed now, and she was completely naked, with her clothes in a heap on the floor.

She felt stranger than ever—not connected to him the way she normally did. She had no idea why.

“That was amazing,” she said, trying to get them back to normal interaction.

“Yeah.”

He seemed so distant, despite what had just happened between them, that she reached a hand out to cup his cheek. “Are you okay, Caleb?”

“I’m fine. Just distracted from work, I guess.”

“Okay.” It was probably true, but it didn’t make her feel better. Nothing about this situation made her feel better.

And she felt even worse when she heard her phone beep and went over to check the message.

It was Jack. Saying he had something for her and he needed to see her right away.

Tonight.

Kelly knew that Caleb still had a bodyguard following her around, since he was still worried about the fictitious Albanian gangster coming after her again. If she was going to meet up with Jack tonight, then she would need to slip away from the bodyguard without his noticing.

Caleb’s security was well trained, so this wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish.

She went back to her own apartment first and thought about where they should meet. Then she texted Jack with the time and location.

A few minutes later, she left her apartment and took a cab to Georgetown, which was packed with tourists and students at this time in the evening.

She was pretty sure she’d lost the bodyguard in the traffic, since he would have to drive and then find a place to park. But just to be safe, she wandered into a crowded pub and immediately went to the bathroom, finally slipping out the back hallway into the alley.

From there she found another cab and went to the university library, where she had arranged to meet Jack. She made a quick stop at a computer on the first floor, like she was looking in the catalog for a particular book. Then she went up to the third floor, where she quickly found a private study room in the far corner.

Jack was waiting for her when she stepped inside.

He closed and locked the door behind her.

“I lost the bodyguard,” she said, “so we should be fine.”

Jack’s response was to grab her by the shoulders and swing her back against the wall. “What the hell are you doing?” he snarled, the rough, handsome lines of his face tight with what appeared to be anger.

Kelly gaped at him, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “What?”

“What the hell are you doing?” he repeated, his dark eyes blazing with anything but cool professionalism. “We’d agreed you’d avoid Marshall for the last two days.”

Kelly still had no idea what was going on, but her heart was starting to pound and her blood was starting to pulse in reaction to Jack’s uncharacteristic intensity. “What are you talking about?”

His strong hands, gripping her shoulders, were almost bruising. “We agreed you’d avoid Marshall for the last couple of days, and you didn’t, did you?”

She was so close to him she could see a pulse throbbing in his temple. So close she could see the stubble of dark hair on his jaw. “I tried, but it didn’t work out. What’s the big deal?”

“Because this whole thing isn’t safe for you.” He looked like he was holding himself back from shaking her.

Kelly’s hands had gone up instinctively, and she was holding on to his shirt. She suddenly felt trapped with him, and she was so tired of always being trapped. She pushed him back with her hands on his chest. “It hasn’t been safe from the beginning, but I did it anyway. So back the hell off!”

Jack stepped back, looking surprised by the shift of her tone. “Sorry if I was being pushy, but—”

“But nothing. You don’t get to act that way with me.”

Jack was breathing heavily, and a sheen of sweat had broken out on his broad forehead. “I know. Sorry. I haven’t been having a good week, but…but sorry.”

She took a deep breath and brushed out of her face the stray wisps of long hair that had escaped the clip at the nape of her neck. She leaned against the table in the room. “Yeah. I know. Sorry I snapped at you. I really do appreciate your help, but this has always been my thing, my show.”

With a sigh, Jack propped himself up against the table beside her. He didn’t touch her, though. “I know. Sorry about the macho routine. I was…upset.”

“I noticed that,” Kelly murmured drily.

They didn’t speak for a minute. Just gave each other sheepish sideways glances.

Finally Kelly turned to look at the man beside her. He was big, competent, decent, attractive, and as normal as any man she’d ever met.

And she’d dragged him into her twisted world.

“Jack,” she began, feeling compelled to reach out and put a hand on his arm. “Jack, maybe we should clarify the nature of our working relationship.”

He turned toward her, his mouth twitching up in surprisingly ironic amusement. “You think?”

And, despite herself, Kelly couldn’t help but like the man.

“My mom hired you originally, and now you’re working for me. I’m paying you to do certain jobs that I’m not capable of doing or that I don’t have the resources to accomplish. But that doesn’t give you any responsibility for me or any say about what I do on my own. You’re not my bodyguard.”

“Yeah,” Jack muttered, pushing a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Maybe we should talk about that.”

Her brows drawing together, Kelly said stiffly, “I don’t want a bodyguard, Jack.”

“I know. That’s not what I meant. I meant maybe we should rethink our working arrangement.”

Feeling a sudden stab of fear and the strangest kind of disappointment, Kelly mumbled, “Oh. You don’t want to work for me anymore?”

With a textured sigh, Jack admitted, “Kelly, I don’t know if I can. To say my professional objectivity has been compromised when it comes to you would be the most massive kind of understatement.” Giving her another dry smile, he added, “I’m having a hell of a time not just storming in and beating Marshall to a pulp—just on principle.”

Kelly’s heart lurched. “Jack, that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“I know,” he replied, rolling his eyes a little. “I’m not going to do it. I’m just saying.”

Gripping his arm a little harder, Kelly said faintly, “I see your point. But…but I still need you. I don’t trust anyone else.”

She wondered when she’d started to trust him.

Jack let out his breath in a hoarse gust, almost like a low groan. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

She knew she should let him go. It was selfish and heartless to keep involving him in this crazy mess, and it couldn’t lead to anything good for him. But he was her last hope of finally bringing this whole thing to a close. “Please, Jack. I know it’s gotten complicated, but it will just be a little while longer.”

He shook his head. Then his arm went around her in an incongruously friendly gesture. Pulling her against his side in a casual embrace, he murmured, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Then she remembered why they were here.

“So, did you really discover something?” she asked, straightening up and pulling away from him. “Or did you just call me here to yell at me for circumventing your manly prerogative?”

Picking up the file he must have dropped on the table earlier, he opened it up and continued, “We found something. Things are finally starting to come together. I never would have believed it when your mom originally contacted me.”

Feeling her heartbeat accelerate again—this time for a completely different reason—she tried to peer into the file. “What did you find?”

“Tom Earnest’s personnel file was mostly just useless stuff, except for some personal documents that were probably just moved into it when he died. Maybe whoever was going through them didn’t know what they were. But he kept those documents for a reason. I’m thinking leverage or a safety precaution.”

Feeling almost dizzy, Kelly tried to wrap her mind around this new information. “What documents? About my father’s death?”

“Some of them were about other things. He was protecting his back on several fronts, it looks like. But there was something that’s important to us.”

Kelly stared at Jack, who was looking at her with a strange kind of intensity. “What?” she asked.

Jack pulled a few pieces of paper out of his file and handed them to Kelly.

She stared at it blankly, not able to process what she was looking at.

It was a memo. She’d seen hundreds of them over the years. Several of them had been added up as evidence in her mother’s search for the truth and now hers.

Just a memo. Something people wrote all the time. This one was very short, and it was signed by Sean Moore with what looked like an expensive pen.

It was only two sentences long.

This is a potential problem, but Marshall is taking care of it. He has a plan.

She flipped over the next page to see a report from her father, outlining certain research findings that would have halted the development of a medication that had cost the company billions to develop.

She turned back to the original memo. It was written by Sean Moore, but it was clear that the plan had been Caleb’s.

Both of them had been in on it. All three of them had been in on it.

And Caleb was just as guilty as the other two. It was his idea, so he was even guiltier.

She checked the date of the memo.

A couple of days later, her father had been shot dead in the woods in a professional hit.

Kelly made a strange choking sound and jerked away from the table. Stumbled a few steps toward the corner of the room and stared at the blank wall in front of her, trying to process everything.

Caleb had murdered her father. As coldly and surely as if he’d pulled the trigger. Despite the fact that he had a soft, tender side to his heart. Despite the way he sometimes seemed so naked and needy with her. Despite the way he was deeply human. Despite the fact that he loved her.

He had killed her father, and she had let him make her believe that he didn’t, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t do something so horrible.

It felt like everything was breaking inside her, shattering so completely it could never be put back together. He had done it after all. And she had fallen for him anyway. And even now, if she were to see him again, maybe a little part of her wouldn’t even care, since she was so undeniably drawn to him, despite everything.

And that made her a weak, despicable person. Just as despicable as Caleb himself.

“Kelly?” Jack asked from behind her. She’d completely forgotten he was in the room. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she replied, her voice not cracking or wavering despite the broken agony of her heart. “I’m fine.”

Jack must have taken a step closer to her. She had her back toward him, but it sounded like he had moved nearer. “It doesn’t look like you’re fine.”

Kelly was still staring at the blank wall. Seeing Caleb’s face. His handsome, haunted, intelligent face.

And she hated it all over again.

She might hate herself for how foolish and spineless she’d been in falling for him, but nothing she’d done equaled his guilt. He’d come up with the plan for killing her father. He might as well have pulled the trigger. He was that ruthlessly ambitious, that heartless at the core, no matter how he was playing at relationships right now.

Kelly should have known it all along. She shouldn’t have let herself be deceived. But she wasn’t going to be weak anymore.