His Absolute Authority: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #3) (23 page)

Jeremy smiled.  "It is.  Very pretty.  I bet Asher will love it."

"Maybe I'll get you one next time," I said.  "If you're good, that is."

"Next time you go on a random train trip to escape the press?" he asked.

I shrugged.  "You never know.  They can get a little crazy and incessant."

He laughed.  "Yeah, that's for sure.  Let's get inside.  You're going to have to hurry if this is going to work.  Just in case."

Yes, I knew this.  We were here, but... someone might be watching still.  I hoped not, because that seemed creepy, but you never knew?  What if a news crew was waiting somewhere nearby, binoculars pointed towards the mansion, trying to see something?  It didn't help that the windows here were huge.

Jeremy opened the door, bringing my luggage with him.  As soon as he stepped in, he made a beeline for one door in particular.  I waited for him to reach it and open it, then I ran in and rushed towards it.  Once I stepped foot on the stairs leading down, Jeremy followed after me and closed the door behind us.

I flicked the light switch on the wall at my side, illuminating the room below us.  We descended the stairs quietly.

At the bottom was a library.  The guest house library, to be exact.  I'd left, only to come back.  That wasn't exactly the end of the plan, but right now it might as well be.

I walked towards one of the bookshelves in particular, and took out a special book.  It wasn't really a book, though.  When I opened it, an electronic key code pad popped into view.

In bright, digital letters, it asked me: Password?

I typed it in, having known it for a long while.  I'd done this a long time ago, too; or what seemed like a long time ago, at least.  Back then I didn't know the password, but I'd managed to guess it by sheer luck and coincidence.  I wondered if me being here again, doing something similar, was a sign?  I'd had vastly different plans back then, though.

"You can't tell anyone about this, alright?" I said.

"Yeah," Jeremy said.  "I get it.  I wouldn't tell anyone, anyways."

I nodded.  He nodded back.  I pushed the button to confirm the password.  As soon as I did, something in the wall clicked and the bookshelf popped out slightly.  I reached for the edge of it and pulled.  Hinges on the other side and previously invisible rollers on the bottom of the bookshelf worked with me to bring the bookshelf outwards like a door.  Behind the bookshelf was a hidden passageway.

"Huh," Jeremy said.  "I always kind of wondered about that."

"You did?" I asked.

"Sort of.  Not that
exactly
, but the mansion is huge, you know?  Seems like there should be some hidden passageways or something."

I laughed.  "Well, there are.  You can't just go use them, though."

"Obviously.  I don't even know the password.  What's down there, anyways?"

"A lot of tunnels," I said.

A lot of tunnels, yes.  Passageways upon passageways.  Twisting, winding paths leading from the guest house to the mansion, and then multiple rooms throughout.  Stairways up to rooms on the second floor, or ladders leading to other rooms.  A variety of labyrinthine paths heading to a myriad of secret places you might never suspect.

One of those places was my sanctuary.  It was absolute safety, unknown to the world.  Or, mostly unknown.  Only four other people knew about it besides me, and I trusted each and every one of them with my life, my secrets, and everything I had.  I believed in all of them so much.

Maybe we couldn't all actually be together right now, but I suspected that on some level we'd always be together in a different, deeper way.  We could overcome anything, no matter what.  We could overcome everything, especially this.

***

T
oday had been a long day.  After putting on a show by getting into the back of a squad car with a bunch of onlooking cameramen and reporters, the police officers brought him to the precinct station.  He thought that ought to be that, but it didn't quite go as planned.  The situation still bothered him, too.

The officer taking his statement kept trying to guide him towards something darker and unnerving.  Instead of veering towards absolute facts, she began questioning more about the past and Asher's ties with Lucent Storme.  Was there any bad history there?  Could Lucent have a motive?

What bothered Asher about this was that the officer didn't ask about anyone else.  There were no questions as to whether Asher had any suspicions about who might have done it or the cause of the fire.  Nothing even remotely as normal as that.  He tried to answer to the best of his abilities, but after awhile the questions started to infuriate him.

"No," he'd said.  "I've said this more than once, and I'd prefer not to have to repeat myself for the tenth time.  I have no reason to believe that Lucent Storme and Elise Tanner were anywhere near that room on the night in question.  I have no previous bad history with them.  In fact, all of my previous history with them has been great.  My wife and I are close friends with both of them.  They've been over the house multiple times in the past.  I would invite them over again.  In fact, I'd do it right now if they were in the room with us.  Why aren't you asking about anything else?"

The police officer had waited for him to calm down, but Asher wasn't done yet.  "I thought I was here to give you details about what I remembered that night.  I didn't think I was here to answer ridiculous questions about someone who I know is innocent."

What happened next nearly sent him into a rage.  The woman sitting opposite him and taking statement notes looked him dead in the eye and said, "We have reason to believe that Lucent Storme is involved, Mr. Landseer.  On behalf of the entire city, I thank you for your cooperation so far, but if you're hiding evidence in order to try and protect a man who committed a violent, startling crime, you could be arrested for aiding and abetting a felon, along with perjury."

The rest was a blur.  He remembered staring at the woman, unsure if he'd heard her correctly.  Did she really just say that?  That his answers to her questions, his statements of fact, were aiding and abetting a felon?  What happened to innocent until proven guilty?  Outside of this room, that's what he'd been told, but apparently once he was alone with the police, in privacy of their inner sanctum, where no one else could hear, he was suddenly allowed to hear the truth; or their version of it.

Yes, if he continued to believe that Lucent was innocent, then he was acting as an accessory to a felony.  The most insane part about that was that the felony charges he was being accused of acting as an accessory for involved setting fire to his own home.  Why would he do that?  To collect the insurance money?  He could make a few phone calls, liquidate some minor assets, and have more money in his pocket by tomorrow morning than anything the insurance agency would pay him.

What kind of place was this?

He ended up leaving.  It was over now.  He finished his business with a curt nod and a gruff exchange of forced pleasantries with the officer in charge of collecting his statement, then he stormed out of the police station, irate beyond belief.  She wanted him to stay to finish with more questions, but he told her he had nothing more to tell her.

They'd be in touch.  Someone would get in contact with him soon.  It would take everything he had not to punch whomever they sent.  Was the satisfaction of giving a police officer a black eye worth the assault charges?  No, probably not.  Asher wasn't even a violent person, but this entire situation was gnawing at every last fragment of patience he had.

At least Jessika was safe now.  That was all that mattered.  After the talk at the police station, he'd gone to his lawyer and discussed matters there, and then he went to Landseer Tower to get some work done.

Now he was back home, finally.  Having just arrived, he immediately went to his bedroom to wind down and dress in something more comfortable.  Maybe a pair of those expensive sweatpants Jessika had made fun of him about earlier?  That sounded good to him.

Before he finished taking off his dress pants and button-down shirt, his cellphone rang.  He recognized Jeremy's number immediately and answered the call.

"Hey," Asher said.  "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, worked like a charm.  We're back.  I'm heading to the main house now.  Going to get some food.  I'm starving," Jeremy said.

"So Jessika is...?" Asher asked.

"She's where she should be, I guess?  I don't know how that whole thing works.  Kind of crazy, to be honest.  I don't know what's going on, I just live here."

Asher laughed.  "Seems like a good gig for you."

"Yeah, my boss and the boss lady are a little strange, but mostly it's good.  The food's amazing, and they pay me well, so I can't complain, right?"

"Wow," Asher said, grinning.  "That's the only reason you stay?  The food and the money?  I'm hurt."

Jeremy chuckled.  "Nah, you guys are really great.  I appreciate everything you've done for me, Asher.  Jessika, too.  If either of you ever need anything, I'll always have your back.  I'll be there no matter what.  Even if she wants me to drive to get ice cream and pickles in the middle of the night."

Asher blinked, unsure if he'd heard that correctly.  "What?"

"Oh, uh... sorry, I've got driving on the mind.  Ugh.  Had to drive so much yesterday.  And then last night when I went to get Elise, and then Lucent, and the ice cream?  I need a nap, seriously."

"Well, you're officially relieved from duty for the rest of the day.  I'm going into hiding.  Can you make sure no one comes looking for me?  I'll leave my phone on the bed, if you don't mind grabbing it and taking any calls that seem important.  Or you can just let them go to voicemail.  I don't care anymore.  I'm taking the night off from everything."

"You deserve it.  Go have fun, boss man."

Asher grinned.  He was definitely planning on it.  "Thanks a lot, Jeremy."

"Yeah, no problem."

They both hung up.  Asher tossed his phone onto the bed, stripped fast, and found a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from the walk-in closet.  He put them on right there in the middle of the closet, along with a pair of comfy slippers.

Heading further into the closet, he went towards his suit coats.  They all hung next to each other, perfect and pristine.  He didn't need a coat, but he needed what was in the interior pockets of one coat in particular.  Reaching in and pulling out the slim remote pad, he typed in the bedroom password, then hit enter.  The back of the closet shifted away from the rest of the wall and popped out slightly.  Asher put the remote back, then headed through the hidden doorway.

He remembered the first time he'd gone to Jessika this way.  It was long before any of this started.  He'd been married to Beatrice at the time; if you could even call what they had a marriage.  They'd been given a piece of paper stating they were married, at least.

Beatrice always slept in another room, never bothering to try and stay with Asher.  He'd always wondered if there was something wrong with him?  Was he not good enough for her?  Should he be a better... what?  Lover?  Husband?  Friend?  He'd tried all of those things, and none of them worked.  She shunned his attempts every time.

So, that one night, when Jessika was staying in the mansion guest house during quite a strange ordeal, Asher thought he'd go there.  He didn't know why.  He never planned on seeing her.  He figured he'd spend some time in the smaller library built in the finished basement of the guest house, contenting himself with the idea that someone who didn't hate him was sleeping in the bedroom two stories above.  Maybe it was a little weird, but it was better than sleeping in his bed, alone for more nights than he could count, trapped in the endless confines of an overlarge mansion.  He liked the size of it during the day, and he enjoyed the fact that there was a room for any of his preferences, but at night, at least back then, it consumed him.  It was too much.

Now he was going to see Jessika under much different circumstances.  Not that the night he was thinking about before was too much different.  If he remembered correctly, he'd spanked her.  And then they'd watched each other masturbate by way of closed circuit cameras in separate rooms.  God, he wanted to slam his cock deep inside her so badly back then.  He refrained, but... she looked so scandalous and sinful, writhing on the bed, hand buried in her pussy, delivering herself to orgasmic ecstasy.

And then for whatever reason, they'd slept together.  Actually sleeping, nothing illicit.  He wasn't sure how that happened, to be honest.  Jessika had an innocent sort of persuasiveness to her when she really wanted something.  He had a hard time denying her, even then.  Now that she was his wife, well... he thought he was in trouble.

She was, too.  He didn't have to feel badly about spanking her ass until she was red and then pounding his rock-hard cock deep inside of her until she screamed in bliss.  There was a little more to it than that, but he loved hearing her when she was lost in reckless abandon.  His name, the frantic sound of her breaths, or anything else she unknowingly said; he reveled in the noise of their coupling and sexuality.

With those thoughts in mind, Asher traversed the hidden passageways, going from their bedroom to somewhere much different.

***

I
'd been in the saferoom before, but never like this, never when I planned on staying for awhile.  Not that I planned on staying here for too long, but... it was safe, right?  The safest place I could think of, actually.

Asher and Lucent spared no expense in creating it, either.  It had a separate shower and water system from the rest of the mansion, using a hidden rain collection system buried in the middle of the mansion grounds as a reservoir.  Slim solar panels placed on the rooftops of buildings half a mile away provided electricity, too.  There were hidden wires going from those houses, down to the ground, beneath it, and straight to the tunnels and the saferoom, so we'd always have power here, no matter what.

I thought that was kind of extreme, but I appreciated the thought behind it.  If, for whatever reason, someone intended to cut off the electricity from the mansion, they'd probably never think to search the rooftops of houses that presumably had nothing to do with us for solar panels and underground wiring.  The same with the water, as well.