Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) (128 page)

What if Hugh had done something, planted some seed, given birth to some insidious plan that would corrupt Stonehart Industries from the inside?

If he had, I want to find out what it was. And stop it.

The irony is not lost on me. At the start of the year, I would have killed to be in Hugh’s position: To destroy Stonehart Industries from within. Now, I’m trying my best to protect it.

Protect it from what? Is there even a credible threat?

Nobody seems to think so. But Hugh was sneaky. He must have sensed that an end to his tenure was coming. He must have planned for contingencies.

However, after hours and hours spent poring over the reports, I find nothing wrong. Jeremy stops by to take me home that night. I bark at him and tell him to piss off.

He leaves me alone. But just before he does, something frightening comes into his eyes.

Whatever
, I think.
I’ll deal with that later
. Jeremy wanted me integrated into his company, and I’m doing exactly that now.

My office is a mess. Papers from Hugh’s file are strewn all over the floor, all about my desk. Even though I don’t see anything there, intuition tells me that something
is
hidden. That something
is
layered beneath the neat rows of fiscal figures.

I pick up a sheet at random. It’s an inventory count of medical devices being shipped to Norway, to one of Stonehart Industries’ subsidiaries. From there, the English labeling will be removed, the devices rebranded, and sold under a different name to companies all over Europe. Companies that would never deal with Stonehart Industries directly, because they are competing rivals. But presenting the devices to them as a genius invention dreamt up by a young start up? Well, they have no qualms about it then. And no amount of due diligence could uncover the original supplier. That’s how convoluted the link is.

These are things known only to executives within Stonehart Industries. Secrets of doing business locked under bulletproof NDA’s, noncompetition, and other such contracts. The whole company is run like this. Turning it into a public corporation does not reveal such ties.

It just makes stockholders much richer.

The question is: Why did Hugh have a printout of this particular shipment? Why this one over any other? There are hundreds. Hell, there may be thousands!—like these being made every day. This one is from over a year ago: April, 2013. What makes it so special?

I put it back down. I wish there were some clue: a handwritten annotation, a single pen stroke, an arrow, an underline.
Something
that would hint at why Hugh kept what he did in this collection.

But there is none. All the sheets are as clean as the day they came out of the printer.

Maybe I’m on a wild goose hunt. Maybe, in my desperation to make myself seem valuable, I am seeing things that are not really there. Maybe Hugh had nothing. No plan, no ulterior motive. Maybe he was simply stuck existing in the narrow confines of the role that Jeremy carved out for him.

But dammit, that’s not what my gut tells me. Instinct makes me certain that there is something hidden there. I am convinced, if I just spend enough time analyzing it all, I’ll be able to discover that something.

Wouldn’t Jeremy be proud of me then? I’m doing all this for him. Rose was his father’s mistress. She was someone who propelled through the ranks of his father’s company and fascinated him with her intellect, her drive, her passion.

She also molested Jeremy, over and over again.

But if I think on it—and it’s an uncomfortable thought. Maybe I can understand how Jeremy’s positioning of me within Stonehart Industries mirrors what his father did with Rose.

That sort of association can only be subconscious. Hell, Jeremy’s probably blind to it. But I am not.

So perhaps this desire to make myself seem useful stems from wanting to be unlike Rose. To be
more
than Rose. There’s some very deep, very frightening shit stirring within Jeremy’s psyche. Everything he does is a manifestation of that. I’m now caught up in his life, for good, most likely forever.

I do not want him to associate me with Rose. Not on any level. And so from there comes my desire for self-sufficiency. If I uncover whatever Hugh may have been hiding, well… it brings me one solid step closer to that goal.

Chapter Nine

LILLY

“Lilly?”

Jeremy’s voice rouses me from sleep. Groggily, I open my eyes. I look up.

Jeremy is standing next to me, his hand on my shoulder. Pale morning light shines through the window of the office.

“You didn’t come home last night,” he says.

I look around me. The office is a disaster. Papers litter every surface. All of Hugh’s files are dumped on the floor, piled into haphazard stacks. I push up from the desk. There’s a sharp crick in my neck from having slept in such an awkward position.

“What time is it?” I mumble.

“Just after eight,” Jeremy tells me.

“Shit!” I bolt up.

“Relax,” he says, taking my shoulders and easing me back down. “Relax, Lilly. No one’s going to disturb you. I made sure of that. When did you fall asleep last night?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Three? Four?”

“All this…” Jeremy glances around the room. “…occupied you for that long?”

“I don’t have much to show for it,” I mumble.

“I’m not going to ask,” Jeremy assures me. “I came to check on you earlier, Lilly. But I didn’t want to wake you. I had a feeling you’d been up most of the night.”

He clears a small space on the side of the desk and leans against it. “Would you like a shower? I brought you fresh clothes.”

I nod. “And a coffee,” I mutter, standing up.

Jeremy catches me in his arms and pulls me close. “And a fuck,” he whispers in my ear.

--

And hour or two later, I’m back at my desk, buzzing.

The coffee didn’t do that. Jeremy did.

He took hold of me in the shower and washed my hair. I leaned into him, tired, still half-asleep. He kissed my neck, and lathered up my back. The rush of water was cold, and energizing. Jeremy went to his knees, kissing his way down my body, gently, intent on rubbing every single inch of skin. When I looked down, and he looked up at me, I saw such care, such compassion in his eyes… Everything clicked.

I bit my lip. He noticed. He pounced up, his erection full and hard. He absolutely devoured me. The kiss that was meant to be cautious and slow became passionate and heated. I took hold of him and started to stroke him through the slick coat of water covering his skin. He grew in my hand. Diabolical excitement awoke within me, somehow enhanced by too little sleep.

Jeremy growled and kissed me again. He positioned my leg up on the tub ledge and pushed into me without remorse.

I gasped. He groaned. Sharp jolts of pleasure ripped through my body. With every pulse, every pound, every entrance, Jeremy brought me closer and closer to the glorious edge.

When my release came, he swallowed my cry in a heated kiss, and then came hard with his cock shoved deep inside me. The feeling left me in such unbridled ecstasy that I still have not come down.

But now I’m back in the office, staring at the puzzle I’m sure is there. Some people would say there’s nothing to be found. Yet I have the inkling of a pattern emerging. That knowledge is faint, hovering just on the edge of my mind. But it
is
there. I can feel it. Pattern recognition—maybe it’s something that I inherited from my father. He sees things that others don’t. If it manifests in his art, then it’s not a curse, but a gift.

Sadly, a gift that none but I will know.

However,
not
sadly, some of that talent must have transferred to me. Formerly untapped, I can sense it, lying latent, waiting for the spark that will start the fire and reveal the hidden darkness of the room.

Or, at least—reveal the thing that Hugh is hiding in all these sheets.

--

Another half day goes by and I’ve made no tangible process. It’s infuriating, feeling that I’m close to a discovery but being unable to reach out and grasp it.

I look outside. The May sun is shining in earnest. It makes me think of beaches and palm trees and ocean-side summer parties. It makes me think of the time Jeremy and I spent on his yacht, then on his island, almost half a year ago.

I want to go away with him again. Forget all this, and just float in the bliss that his touch can provide. Get away from the frenzy, the people, and the noise.

But isn’t this what I envisioned for myself before I met Jeremy? Isn’t this what I thought I wanted when I was still in school?

Damn! Nobody says I cannot have both. I can ask Jeremy to whisk us away. We’ll return to his tropical paradise. We’ll spend a few nights there, and come back to work. He’s mobile. He can run his company from anywhere. And I am too. To be honest, at the moment I feel totally useless.

No, I’m not going to ask for a getaway just yet. Not until I uncover whatever it is that’s staring me in the face.

But I do need a little break. I push up, off the table, lock the door, and go downstairs and outside.

Immediately, I feel refreshed. The sun feels wonderful against my skin. I wander through the crowds of people, enjoying the sense of anonymity that comes from being one in a thousand.

I start to walk faster, thinking hard. My mind keeps going back to Hugh’s papers. What are they? What’s hidden there? What is—

I stop. I look around me. The crowds have gone. I’m alone at the entrance of a shabby alley.

How did I get here? I look around. There are a few pedestrians still on the street. A car or two drives by. There is the Stonehart building in the distance, dominating the city skyline. But, by God, it’s far away. How lost must I have been in my own thoughts to come this far?

I don’t like this place. I get eerie vibes similar to the time I found myself lost and alone in Jeremy’s mountain home.

I turn around, wanting to get back amongst people, away from the shadows, into the sun.

A white van screeches to a halt in front of me. The doors open. Three masked men jump out.

Before I know what’s happening, they’ve grabbed me.

I try to scream but a rag is shoved in my mouth. I struggle against my assailants but I can’t get free.

A sack is thrown over my head. A harsh, chemical smell surrounds me. Chloroform?

Immediately, I feel myself fading. The struggle stops. My limbs give out. I fall back, am caught, and carried inside. The last sound I hear is the vehicle door sliding shut.

--

I come to with a gasp. I open my eyes, but cannot see. I am blindfolded.

I try to move. My arms are locked behind my body. My legs are tethered to the floor. I’m sitting, upright, in a chair, bound in place.

Panic rises up and threatens to consume me.

I thrash about. I rip my head back and forth, trying to get the blindfold to slide off. It’s no use. Struggling is no use either. I’m bound tight.

The instinct to fight claws through me like an angry cat. I keep thrashing, back and forth, trying to get free but knowing, even in my desperation, that I can’t.

A light comes on. Right above me. I see it through the fabric of my blindfold.

My breathing is ragged. Forced. I jerk my head up—and freeze when I hear footsteps approaching.

“Well, well, well. It looks like the bitch is up.”

The voice is male. Deep. Accented and menacing. Middle Eastern? Maybe.

“Who are you?” I ask. “What do you want?”

A chair scrapes across the floor. It’s a vile sound, worse than nails on a chalkboard. It stops right beside me. I feel the man sit, just inches away.

Something cold touches my neck. I recoil.

“N—n—nuh,” the voice cautions. “Careful, now. We wouldn’t want you to cut an artery.”

I freeze. The cold object? It’s a blade.

Nightmares of the time Stonehart did that to me come back unbidden. They flash through my mind like brilliant specters.

“Who are you?” I whisper. I’m afraid to speak loudly. I’m afraid to even breathe, with the blade pressing into my skin. The slightest unexpected movement…

“In time,” the voice tells me. “Answers will be given in time. For now, you must be patient.”

The knife is taken away. I sag, the most terrible yet grateful relief surging through me.

I strain to see through the blindfold. The little gap by my nose makes the floor and my legs visible. Barely.

It’s a cement floor. The cold—I can feel the cold emanating from it.

I swallow. My worst fears from when I first found myself in the dark, with Jeremy, are coming true. Back then, I was grateful not to be in a dingy basement. Now, that is exactly where I am.

I hear water dripping from a pipe, somewhere behind me.

“Where—where are we?” I repeat. “Why did you bring me here?”

“To uncover your secrets,” the man tells me.

He stands. I feel—hear—him do it. He comes behind me. My back tenses as he places two hands on my shoulders.

He brings his mouth to my ear. “I hear,” he says, “that there are some who would pay a king’s ransom to keep you safe. Unfortunately…” He begins to untie the knot holding the blindfold in place. “it is not money we are after, but information. So you see, my sweet, how your fate is entirely in your own hands.”

The blindfold falls to my neck.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” the man says. He walks away. “For the time being, I ask you to think on your sins.”

Chapter Ten

LILLY

I twist my head around as soon as I can. All I glimpse of the man is his back. He opens a door and disappears on the other side.

The sound of it closing echoes all around me, amplified by the vast space of this dungeon.

I see the place I’m in. It fills me with horror: Four faraway walls, on all sides of me. Pipes crisscrossing above me. The light coming from a sequence of fluttering light bulbs embedded in the ceiling.