Hotbox (57 page)

“Sit,” he commanded, even though I was already
beginning to sit
. He stared at me for a while, until f
inally he said, “A little birdie tells me you have a girlfriend of prominence.”

It confused me for a second and my heart began to race
, trying to understand why he was bringing up Jayden. “I don’t know what you mean,” I replied honestly.

He laughed cynically. “Nice, Ty. Play dumb. Fine. Let’s just talk
openly
, huh
? You’re seriously dating Jayden Adams?” He said it with such
disdain
that I didn’t know what to s
ay. “You’ve got some
balls
, kid
. I’d think—”

“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “What does she have to do with anything? Why am I even here? I no longer work for you. I’m done; I’ve been dismissed.”

“Yes,” he said
with a snide smile.
“So I’ve heard.”
             
“Then we shouldn’t even be having this conversation. I don’t care about your dirty cop, okay? It’s not my concern. I’m done with all of this.” I stood up to leave but
Dax
was blocking my way. One look into his sinister eyes gave me the chills. I hated that guy; I hoped he didn’t touch me because all I could think of was how many people he’d
killed
with those very hands.

“
Dax
,
chill out
,” Dean told him, and
Dax
stepped away from the table. “Ty, sit back down.”

I clenched my jaw
but
did what he said.

“
Roy
is a little unsettled—”

“
Roy
?”

He smiled. “My cop. Anyways,
Roy
is very uncomfortable about what you know.”

“What I know is under lock and key.
An
ything happens to you guys, I’m screwed
too. Why would I want to risk that?
And my terms are with
Olevsky
, not you.
”

“The boss is out of
the country
, so now you’re dealing with me—”

“No, I’m not. I’m not dealing with anybody. I don’t want anything to do with you. My
connection
is
done
, the conditions were already set, and my silence is guaranteed. You have nothing to worry about, and neither does your cop.”

He was quiet for a while as he sat there with a smirk on his face.
“
My
worry
is who you
’ve been
spend
ing
your time with.
I don’t think you’re grasping how detrimental this little piece of information is. Do you understand what is at risk here? As it is,
Roy
already thinks Jayden knows something.”

“
What
?” I exclaimed. “That’s
bull
. She doesn’t know anything.”

Dean shrugged. “That’s just what
Roy
feels.”

“Well
Roy
is wrong. I’ve never told Jayden any
thing. And i
f she knew I spent time with people like you, do you really think we’d still be together?”

He paused for a moment
, and then slowly nodded his head
. “Yeah, you’re right. Jayden’s a little too…
good
. Okay,” he lightly laughed, “she’s too
virtuous
to be with someone like you.”

I felt really uneasy that he seemed to know her.

“Why the surprise, Ty? You don’t know that I went to high school with her?”

“I didn’t know you even went to high school,” I retorted.

With a laugh he added, “I did for a bit. Wasn’t my cup of tea. I think Jayden’s…two or three
years younger than me? Anyways,
I know who she
is. Every girl wanted to be her
and
every guy wanted
to bang
her.”

“Are we done here?”

“I’d bet she’s the hottest chick in
this city
.” He looked across the room at
Dax
. “You know Jayden Adams,
right? Pretty nice stuff
, huh?”

A disgusting smile spread over his face and I turned to Dean and said, “We’re through here. And Jayden is off limits. Anything happens to her or anyone she cares about, you’ll have
Olevsky
to deal with.”

His face took on a not
iceable change, but he quickly tried to conceal it. His smirk returned when he asked, “And why’s that, Ty?”

“Because he
knows we’re together and he
likes her,” I replied evenly. “
If he doesn’t have a problem with it, then you shouldn’t either.
If I were you I’d let him know what’s going on. And when y
ou do,” I added, standing up, “h
ave him call me.”

I was glad that
Dax
remained where he was, but even from a distance his gaze fully
creeped
me out.

I left quickly
and took a deep breath when I got into my truck. As I drove home I couldn’t believe what I had resorted to. Dean had always rubbed me the wrong way. He worked for
Olevsky
, but I had never felt so…exposed to him before. With
Olevsky
gone I didn’t trust Dean to leave me alone. He never liked me and I was sure he wanted to do something to make me suffer. Now I had used my connection to
Olevsky
to protect myself. I knew it would work, but
just the idea of having to rely on him was unsettling.

He was, in some form, doing me a favor
again
, and now breaking free of his influence
wasn’t an option.

I was in a hotbox again…

PART TWO

Chapter Thirty-Two

I was more than relieved when Friday rolled around and it was time to go camping again. It was Labor Day Weekend, and most of us even had Monday off, so the last camping trip of the year was going to
be for
three nights.

Just being
out of town
with Jayden
helped me relax a little.
Even though
I knew Dean would leav
e her alone
until he spoke with the boss
, I still
constantly
worried
about what might happen in the future. I wondered why in the world
Roy
would think Jayden knew anything? I had no idea if it was a truthful statement, or if Dean was trying to see how I would react. I also wondered how or why I even had to see
Roy
meeting with Dean that one night. Usually everyone was kept separated so no one could be linked to anyone else.
My
only conclusion
was that it happened completely by acc
ident. Mistakes like that were rare, but this particular one was going to complicate things.

There were a lot of benefits to having a dirty cop working for you. Dean was probably given all sorts of information, particularly about surveillance teams that were sometimes posted, and any undercover officers that were often used to get close to Conlon’s business.
Drugs, gambling, weapons,
cars,
and then some…
It was quite obvious why the orga
nization had been so successful
for so long. And
Kristof
always seemed to know when to
just
lie low, or when to move on for a few months. I had no doubt that
Roy
had been helping them out for a while now. And what was even scarier… There were probably more just like him.

I put my thoughts aside and just focused on my time with Jayden. Besides the usual friends that were always present—Chris, Cali, Matt, Stacie, Shawn, Josh, and Silvia—there were also about
eight
or
nine
other people that came up for parts of the weekend
as well
.

I was shocked that
Nick
and his fami
ly ended u
p camping with us
too
. Jayden
invited them to come
,
and apparently
Nick
loaded up their SUV and drove north for a trip with his family. Jayden didn’t even go riding on Saturday. She spent most of the morning playing with little
Sam
, running
around with hi
m,
exploring the woods together, and playing
down at the water. Jayden had even brought some things for him to play with, like bubbles and different balls and outdoor toys. I’d never seen her so glued to a kid before. She spent time with Cali’s nephews here and there,
and we had even baby-sat them a couple of times,
but they were a
bit
older and had their aunt a
nd uncle
, too
.
At
eighteen months
old, Sam was
really attached to Jayden.

Nick
’s wife, Bree, seemed pretty happy that she could have the break. I wasn’t even sure she watched the kid very often, anyway.
Sam
never even seemed to want her. But I didn’t know what kind of arrangement
Nick
and his wife had. Maybe
he
was in charge of their son any time he was around. And Bree was about
six
months pregnant, so maybe that warranted the time off.

Bree
really enjoyed being manicured and pedicured by Cali,
though,
and she was delighted to find out
that
Cali loved doing the girls’ hair whenever they’d let her. I got the feeling that Bree wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of going camping, but she was relieved to know she could sleep in the cabin with Cali in an actual bed.
Nick
didn’t seem to mind and was content with sleeping in a tent with their son.

“Are you sure you’re not for hire as a nanny?”
Nick
asked Jayden that afternoon. She had helped get
Sam
to sleep and laid him on the bed in
Nick
’s tent.

Jayden smiled. “I’ll be busy with my own kids one of these days.”

It might have been my imagination—or perhaps my insecurity—but I swear hearing that made
Nick
a bit disappointed. He only nodded in response, but my paranoia couldn’t help but wonder if he wished Jayden were his wife instead. It was really
awful for me to think that;
I instantly felt bad.
Nick
really was a
decent guy and he treated his wife very well, but I just got an odd vibe from the two of them.
But maybe it was just his
wife
that I got a funny feeling about.

I talked to Jayden about it later on and she thought I was nuts.

“They have a great relationship,” she informed me. “You just wait,” she pointed her finger at me. “When I’m pregnant I might not be so nice to you, either.”

I think my favorite part about camping was hearing Jayden and Shawn play every night.
But the more I heard her play, whether it was with Shawn or just sitting around at home, I couldn’t help but agree that she could easily make it
big. Shawn was pretty talented
as well, and I was surprised he wasn’t able to get any further like he wanted.
He wouldn’t take
Nick
’s help—he’d offered everything from taking Shawn’s music to his own producer, to bringing him to
L.A.
to meet a few people. The only way Shawn wanted to succeed was if he did it completely on his own.
The last thing he wanted was to become successful because he had the right connections.
Jayden was the only person he’d allow to help him with his songs, but
that was
because she wasn’t in “the industry.”
She already
believed
that he was going to make it
,
though.