Authors: Brenda Jackson
“I had nothing to do with those copies, Jolene.”
“Lies! I don’t believe you. It wasn’t my fault what happened between Lorenzo and me. It just happened and I didn’t know he was taping us. I lost so much over the years and you were supposed to be my friend.”
Brandy’s skin began to crawl at how calm Jolene appeared and fear began growing inside of Brandy. “And you were supposed to be my friend, Jolene,” she said softly, trying to be just as calm. “How do you think I felt when I watched that video and saw the woman in bed with my fiané was you? A person I trusted as my best friend, my maid of honor, the woman who was to be the godmother to my children?”
Brandy watched Jolene’s face twist in pain at the reminder of what she and Lorenzo had done. “Get real, Brandy. Do you think I was the only woman he was screwing? You trusted Lorenzo too much. I know it was bad judgment on my part but still that was no reason for you to do what you did. And I want you to know how it feels to be ostracized, to stand out and have people whisper about you behind your back. I thought about setting up a tape in here and film you and your boyfriend making out but decided that was too easy. I wanted to get you where it hurt—your face. I used to get so damn sick and tired of you mama bragging about how beautiful you are. And I intend to fix that. If no decent man wants me then no man, decent or otherwise, will want you either.”
Brandy watched as Jolene pulled something out of her coat pocket and Brandy took a step back. “Think about what you’re doing, Jolene,” she said in an attempt to reason with her, although she had a feeling she was wasting her time. “Is it worth all of this? I promise not to press charges if you walk out of here and don’t come back. Why mess your future up over—”
Jolene waved an sharp hand in the air, demanding Brandy’s silence. “I don’t have a future because of that damn videotape. Once anyone sees it I’m nothing more than a laughingstock around campus and my male students immediately consider me as nothing but a slut and try hitting on me. Even Lorenzo treats me like dirt. He came out smelling like a rose because his family has money, but for me it’s different. Scandal follows me everywhere and I’m tired of living that way.” She moved toward Brandy. Her steps slow, determined. “So it doesn’t matter if I’m arrested. I’ll go to jail knowing that I’ve given you a dose of your own medicine.”
Brandy moved backward. Her first thought was to try to make it to the bedroom but Jolene stood between her and the bedroom door. “My boyfriend is on his way back, Jolene. You won’t get away with this.”
The woman laughed. “Oh, yes, I will. Have you forgotten that I’m a biology professor with a minor in chemistry? I’ve mixed some of the strongest chemicals together that will disfigure your features for life,” she said holding the vial up for Brandy to see. “What’s in here is some pretty potent stuff. When I’m through with you even your boyfriend won’t want you.”
Knowing she was trapped, Brandy refused to just stand there and be at Jolene’s mercy. Swallowing the panic that rose in her throat, she took off toward the kitchen intending to find something she could use to defend herself. Her heart began beating wildly when she heard Jolene’s angry footsteps behind her, close on her heel.
Then the next thing Brandy knew the door crashed open and Grey and a few men rushed in, tackling Jolene to the floor, and knocking the open vial from her hand. It spilled on the floor, immediately eating away at the carpet. Some of it spilled on Jolene’s hand and she was screaming as if in tremendous pain. Brandy also noticed that some of it had gotten on one of the men’s jacket, which he quickly removed. She stood aside as the men rushed Jolene to the kitchen sink to try and wash off the contact the acid had made to her skin. Brandy closed her eyes when she saw Jolene’s hand and the damage that had already been done. Jolene had been right; the chemicals had been potent. Brandy shuddered when she thought that it had been Jolene’s plan to throw those chemicals in her face . . .
“Grey!”
Grey immediately came to her and pulled Brandy into his arms. “It’s okay, baby. It’s over. It’s all over.” He pressed her head against his chest and inhaled a long deep breath, angry at how close Jolene had come to hurting his woman. He picked her up into his arms and carried her out of the kitchen and into the office, closing the door behind him. He sat down in the wingback chair.
And in his arms Brandy broke down, allowing all her emotions and tears to pour forth. She had just come through one hell of an experience and he understood her need to release her fear, anxiety, and pain. Jolene Bradford had hurt her before and today she had tried hurting her again. Today Brandy had once again seen how someone you considered a friend could turn on you, betray you.
There was a knock on the door.”
“Come in.”
Apollo stuck his head in. “We’ve called 911 to take Ms. Bradford to the emergency room. The squad should be arriving any moment,” he said.
Grey nodded. “That’s fine, but get her out of this suite,” Grey said to Apollo as he drew Brandy closer to him. “And tell Hall to get someone from housekeeping up here immediately, and make sure it’s someone who can be trusted. I want things to appear like an accident. We don’t want to spook any of the hotel guests.”
Apollo nodded. “Right.” He then closed the door behind him.
“Thanks, Grey,” Brandy whispered.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” He then proceeded to gather her closer into his arms and kiss her tears away.
“Are you sure you still want to go out tonight, Brandy?” Grey asked, although he knew what her answer would be. He sat on the edge of the bed and watched her get dressed. He had yet to put on his own clothes hoping she would change her mind about going anywhere tonight. His opinion was that she had gone through a lot today and the best thing was for her to rest her mind as well as her body. But it was apparent that she was determined to stay busy and not let what had happened earlier in her suite deter her plans.
The trip to the police station had gone rather quickly thanks to the statement Sam Perrin had already given. Sadly, Jolene had been admitted to the hospital with third-degree burns on her hands. Brandy had been incredibly brave and he’d been proud of her and had told her so. She had smiled at him and had lifted her chin stubbornly, her internal strength pouring through and said,
“I’m a Bennett and Bennetts are brave.”
He’d heard the pride in her voice and couldn’t help but admire her strength, her tenaciousness, and her determination to put what she had endured behind her.
Brandy turned away from the mirror and met his gaze. She shivered slightly and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m sure, Grey. I have to do this. If I don’t then Jolene would have won. I can’t let her. She has tormented my life for the past month and I can’t let her continue to do so. I have to get back to living a normal life. Like you said earlier, it’s over and I have to believe that.”
Grey stood and crossed the room to her. “Believe it. The courts will decide what they will do with Jolene. If she’s had a mental breakdown like you believe then she will get the help she needs since she didn’t actually hurt anyone other than herself.”
Brandy nodded. “Are you still coming with me tonight, Grey?”
For a long, suspended moment his gaze held hers, then he asked, “Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
“Then, yes, I’ll come. It will take just a second for me to get dressed.” He turned to leave then turned back around to meet her gaze. “My flight will leave tomorrow around noon,” he added, his voice low and rough.
Brandy inhaled a deep breath. She had always known that he would leave after finding out who’d been sending her those notes but she hadn’t counted on it being so soon. “You’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Yes. There’s a case pending that I have to get back to.”
Her shoulder lifted in an attempt at a casual shrug. “I understand.” Although she said the words, she really did not. Especially when she thought of the times they had spent together, specifically those intimate times. She would not, she could not believe that he slept with every woman he was paid to protect. A part of her believed things were different between them although he’d never said it.
Grey released a long breath. If Brandy understood then she definitely had one up on him because he sure as hell didn’t. He couldn’t understand why he felt the need to separate himself from her, to put distance between them, the need to walk away. His jaw clenched in irritation. He knew the reason although now he couldn’t admit it. He needed time to think, to be sure. He had made a mistake once with Gloria and finding out the truth about her had damn near destroyed him.
Unable to help himself he crossed the room back to her. His smile was sad as he tucked a finger beneath her chin and lifted his gaze to her and asked, “Can we talk?”
Brandy bit her bottom lip as her gaze reflected emotions Grey couldn’t define. “Yes.”
She was surprised when Grey sat down on the edge of the bed and tugged her into his lap. He then wrapped both arms around her and pulled her tightly to him. Automatically, naturally, her head went to his shoulder as he cuddled her securely in his arms.
“When I first arrived here, Brandy, my primary concern was to do a job, to protect you and find out who was sending you those notes like your cousins had asked me to do. It was never my intent to become intimately involved with you.”
“Yes, but you did,” she pointed out.
Grey smiled. She wasn’t going to let him off easy. “Yes, and I don’t consider what we shared as some sort of erotic rump between the sheets or illicit tryst. Everything we shared, and everything we did to me was special.”
“I thought it was special, too,” she said quietly, lifting her head slightly from his shoulder to look up at him.
Grey stared down into her beautiful features, features that he knew he would carry in his heart for some time. “You were like a snowball effect and you caught me off guard, Brandy.” He shook his head as a light chuckle escaped his throat. “Now I know how Quinn felt the first time he met Alexia. You Bennett women are something else.”
Brandy smiled proudly. “Yes, we are.”
“Anyway,” Grey said, trying to get the discussion back on track, “I tried to do my job but discovered keeping you safe was no longer a job but an obsession. And it got worse every day. Words cannot describe how I felt the moment I realized that you were alone in this suite with Jolene Bradford. I had no idea what she planned to do although Perrin had mentioned to the authorities something about some chemicals she had thrown together. Since she delivered the food, I thought she planned to poison you or something and I literally lost it. I burst in here like a madman, without even thinking of the other possibilities that could be taking place inside of here. What if she had a gun or a knife or something? My bursting into here like that could have given her a reason to shoot you dead.”
“Grey,” she said softly, interrupting his words. “She didn’t have a gun and I’m glad you and everyone showed up when you did.” She then took a deep, calming breath. “And you don’t have to explain things to me about us, I understand. That first time I laid eyes on you was at Alexia and Quinn’s twins’ birthday party. I knew you were a loner and then after talking to your sister Quinece and she explained the tragedy that had happened to your wife, and how you lost her, I—”
“I didn’t lose my wife, Brandy.”
Brandy blinked. “But—but I thought Quinece said she was killed in a car accident.”
Grey nodded. “She was. But what none of the family ever knew, because I never told them, was that at the time of the car accident, Gloria had left me and was on her way to start another life with her lover. I found the note she left on the kitchen table when I flew home after getting word of the accident. The way she had planned it, was that I would come home during the end of my job assignment, which would have been about two weeks after she and her lover took off for parts unknown. According to her note, she would have contacted me eventually for a divorce.”
Brandy’s jaw clenched in anger. “That’s pretty damn tacky.”
Grey gave her a slight smile. “No, in fact it was rather sad, especially since she never reached her destination. And later I couldn’t help but wonder how her lover handled it when he’d discovered she never would.”
“Did you ever find out who he was?”
“Yes. He was at the funeral. When we made eye contact, I knew who he was. We didn’t say anything to each other but from the devastated look on his face I knew that he had loved her . . . although she hadn’t been his to love.”
Grey sighed deeply, thinking that he would never forget that day for as long as he lived. “But then,” he went on pragmatically, “she was never mine either. Gloria hated what I did for a living, the frequent trips away from home, the secrecy, and the long hours. When we first got married she swore she could handle the life of being a FBI agent’s wife, but in the end she couldn’t and sought love and passion with another man.”
Brandy didn’t say anything. Instead she thought of Lorenzo and Jolene’s betrayal. Finding out about them had hurt and she could just imagine how Grey must have felt to discover his wife had not been faithful. She sighed deeply. “So where does that leave us, Grey?”
There, she thought. She had placed her cards on the table by asking the burning question of the hour and she wouldn’t give him the chance to deny there was an “us.” There may be issues that needed to be worked out but there was still an “us” and he might as well get used to the idea.
“I don’t know, Brandy. I truly don’t know about
us.
I know that I care for you deeply and—”
“That’s not good enough, Grey.”
Grey blinked. “Excuse me?”
Brandy wiggled her way out of his arms and stood up in front of him and placed her hands on her hips. “I said that’s not good enough. Caring deeply for me just doesn’t cut it. I want someone who will love me unconditionally, a man I know I can trust, a man who is willing to take on my family, which includes the constant drama with my mother and father, and a man who is willing to father the babies I intend to have. The man I want to love me has a big shoe to fill because I plan on moving into that shoe. I’m tired of avoiding the toe and longing for the middle but avoiding it, too, because of the fear of getting hurt again. I know how it feels to hurt, Grey. Trust me when I say that I’ve experienced similar pain. But I’m willing to move forward and not look back.”