Black and Blue (Black and Blue Series) (21 page)

“Will you tell me when it happens?” her father’s voice stopped her, and she slowly turned around.

Jamie grinned at him. “Dad if I told you about every g caboed arounuy that was interested in me you would scare them all away. Then I would become an old maid, and I would live with you until I died.”

Her father chuckled, and shook his head. “Fine, but if you are getting serious
with someone, I want you to promise you’ll tell me.” He stood up, but didn’t move toward her.

S
he bit her lip because she wasn’t good at lying in general, and she especially wasn’t good at lying to her father. He could always tell that she was, and she knew one of her indications was her biting her lip, so she stopped. Jamie moved her hands to her back and crossed her pointer and middle finger. “I promise, when I get serious with someone you will be the first to know.” Her chest ached as she told the lie, and he stared at her as if he knew she wasn’t telling him everything.

“That is all I ask, now get some more rest. I will have Matthew wait for you out here
, and I will see you later my sweet daughter.”

As her father walked away
, her heart broke with every step he took. She knew why she couldn’t tell him, he would lock Henry up without thinking twice. And she would do everything in her power to make sure he never saw the tower.

Three hours later Jamie and Emily walked out of Cynthia’s bedroom. The first thing she saw was Matthew, he was
sitting in the same spot her father had been sitting. His bright green eyes were pinned on her, and he had a huge white smile plastered on his handsome face.

“Even as sleeping beauty awakes
, she takes my breath away,” he said, his voice deep.

Jamie rolled her eyes.
“That is the lamest thing I have ever heard,” she said which made him laugh.

“Yeah it probably i
s, but I got you to smile. So that has to count for something,” he said and she shook her head, she wasn’t in the mood to flirt, not with him at least. The only one she could think about was Henry and how she would be calling him her husband soon.

Jamie went up the
stairs and saw Henry, but he wasn’t alone. Her ex-boyfriend was there, and he slammed Henry against the wall and pinned him there with his arm against Henry’s chest.

Her instinct was to rip Ryan off of the man she loved
, but she couldn’t do that. “What the hell is going on here?” Her hands fisted against her sides, and Henry turned his blue eyes to her.

“Jamie leave,
” Ryan said, and she stepped closer, but Matthew stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Ryan you need to let go of him now
,” she said as Matthew stepped closer to Ryan and Henry.

“Seriously he is the king of drama.
What did you ever see in him?” Emily whispered in her ear ced e ma and Jamie giggled.

Henry looked at her again
, that was when Matthew grabbed Ryan’s shoulder, spun the drama king around and broke his hold on Henry. Matthew had a good four inches on him.

“You know I
am
your boss,” Ryan said, his face turning beat red.

She knew that meant he was about to say or do things that would get him in trouble.
Jamie stepped closer and saw Henry’s warning glance. “Actually, I am
your
boss, and I want to know what’s going on.”

Ryan looked past Matthew at
her. “Babe, no one ever tried to hurt you until this Blue was hired. I’m just doing what I think I should to protect you, and I need to get a confession out of him, since your father doesn’t believe me.”
Babe
was what he used to call her, at the time she didn’t mind now it made her shudder.

Everyone jumped as
someone cleared their throat loudly. She looked over her shoulder and saw her father. He didn’t look too happy and must have heard what was said. She hoped she hadn’t given her feelings about Henry away. Matthew let go of Ryan and walked back to Jamie’s side.

“You will address my daughter as Ms. Moore
, unless she tells you otherwise. You will not go over me and question my employees, do you understand me?”

Moments ago Ryan’s face was red
, now he’d lost almost all of his color. “Yes…sir.”

“Good
, now I believe I put you on guard outside.”

Ryan nodded and walked
toward her and to the door. He stared into her eyes for just a second and looked away. She knew he wasn’t done and feared he knew about her and Henry.

“Now what was going on?” her father asked and walked past her to Henry. He looked back at her, though expecting her to answer.

Jamie shrugged. “We cam
e up here and I saw Ryan slamming Henry against the wall.” She looked at Henry, and her chest ached. “He slammed you pretty hard, are you okay?” she knew she shouldn’t be asking him that, but she needed to know. He nodded, and she looked back at her father. He was staring at her as if he was trying to figure something out.

“Crap is that the time?
” Emily said, and she glanced at the clock. It was just after one in the afternoon. “Girly if you want me to mess with your fiery hair, we need to start like an hour ago.” She grabbed Jamie’s arm and shook her.

She narrowed her eyes. “Ouch…yeah
let’s go. Unless you need me for something.” She looked back at her c ba narrowefather, and he shook his head.

“No I need to speak with Henry, go get ready for your party.”

Jamie forced her eyes to stay away from Henry and turned around to walk away. She had Matthew behind her and Emily to her left. They all walked in silence, and she questioned if she’d said or done anything that would have her father thinking she and Henry might be more than what they wanted him to think. She opened her door, and stared at Matthew. She’d never allowed a guard in her bedroom and she wasn’t starting now. Jamie grabbed her black desk chair and dragged it out of her bedroom. She sat it against the wall and smiled at her new personal guard. “You can sit here, I am pretty sure I don’t be to be guarded in my bedroom,” she said and crossed her arms against her chest.

“You never kno
w you might need to be saved from a curling iron or a blow dryer,” he said and winked at her.

“I was just starting to like you and
then you say something like that.” Jamie shook her head and walked into her bedroom. Emily was sitting on her bed glaring at her. “What?”

Emily threw her hands up. “What you ask? Well let’s see, you almost gave yourself away. I think Ryan knows something. Your father seems to be putting things together, do you two always look at each other with stars in your eyes?”

Panic rushed through her as she stared at her best friend. “What are you talking about?” she said over the pounding in her ears.

Emily got up and went
into Jamie’s bathroom. When she came back she had a curling iron in her hand. “Jamie every time you look at him, you look like you might pass out. Plus the huge smile on your face is a huge giveaway. He kept it a little subtle, but when he sees you looking at him like you do, he softens a little.” She plugged the curling iron in, and turned to face Jamie.

She frowned, biting her bottom lip
. “I wanted to rip Ryan apart for having his hands on Henry,” she said and meant it, she wanted to tear off Ryan’s hands. She knew that her feelings for him were blatantly obvious, but she couldn’t help it. She always felt like she needed to protect what she loved, and that was Henry.

Emily nodded, and sighed. “I know you did and I think everyone in that room knew too. You just need to cool it down around your dad,
and especially Ryan. He knows something, and I don’t want to see you put in the tower because he is a jealous ass.”

Jamie nodded, she didn’t care about herself; she knew her father wouldn’t sentence her to death
, but he wouldn’t think twice about Henry. She got up and walked over to her best friend, and sat on the chair to have her hair done.

Chapter Twelv f ba nt="2%">

The Kiss

Jamie glanced at herself in the mirror and grinned. She looked beautiful. Her long tresses were curled, pulled to the side, held in place by pins.  The curls fell over her shoulder by her face. Her eyes were outline in thin black liner and a pale green eye shadow made her eyes pop. The inside corner of her eyes had light green glitter and she really liked that. Emily reminded her that with her face being covered up by the mask, not too many people would see her until she took it off, but she didn’t care. She loved it. It was close to the time her party would start, so she left her room to find her dad. Matthew did a double take when he saw her, and she grinned.

S
lowly his eyes took in her face. “Holy crap! My assignment just got a whole hell of a lot harder,” he said, a huge grin on his face.

If she had
met him before she knew Henry, he would have been her type. He was the type of guy her father dreamt she would marry, not a Blue. Jamie rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said and he slowly stood up. “Where is my dad?” she arched one eyebrow at him, and he smiled.

“I believe he’
s down the hall in his study.”

She turned sauntered
down the hallway. Her father’s bedroom was six doors from hers, and twice the size of hers. In a normal house family pictures lined the walls, but in her house old, framed, oil paintings in all sizes could be found decorating any of the numerous hallways. She thought about how different things were at Emily’s house. There she was included in some of Emily’s family pictures. She’d taken some of her vacations with Emily’s family and she loved them as if they were her own.

She counted two doors past her father’s bedroom and looked at Matthew
. “Wait here, I’ll be right out.” Matthew nodded and she grabbed the door knob. She didn’t knock on the door. She just walked in like she always did. Not paying any attention as she walked in, she started to say, “Da-”, but what she saw made her gasp. Her father had his arms around Cynthia, and they were kissing passionately. She must have been loud because they jumped apart as if they were electrocuted.

Jamie had never seen her father kissing anyone before, and for him to be kissing a
Blue
, well that just seemed a little too hypocritical! She wasn’t mad because Cynthia was a Blue, she loved Cynthia, she was mad because they had been keeping it from her, and she had to wonder for how long?

“Jamie!
What’s going on? Are you okay?” Matthew said coming up behind her.

S
he quickly turned around to stop him from coming inside. “I’m fine,” she said pushing him back. “Just stay out here,” she muttered as she shut the door. She turned around and slid down the back of the door to the ground. She looked at the two people who had raised her, and loved her, even if one of them couldn’t admit it fo kt aynthiar fear of going to the tower. “How long?” she asked as her father moved toward her.

His face grew hard, and she knew he was going to lie to her. “Jamie it’s not what you think.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Please don’t lie to me! I’m not stupid. I saw you!” she said and felt her face heat up with her annoyance.