Lessons in SECRET (13 page)

My Mom is not your
ordinary mother, so we spent many hours on Sunday trying to figure
out a way for me to escape the situation I’ve put myself in. The
problem is, many of her solutions included me sacrificing Isa. I know
she’s a trained spy, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to throw
her to the wolves.

“Why not, Jake? She
knew the risks when she went undercover.”

“She didn’t know
this was a national mission, and you know ‘why not.’”

“Falling in love with
her is what put you in this position.”

“So you’d give Dad
up to save yourself?”

There’s silence on
the other end of the line, and I know I’ve got her. “You know I
wouldn’t.”

“Then how can you ask
me to do the same to her?”

“You love her that
much?”

“I love her with
everything I have in me. Most of which is dark and ugly. I’m
ashamed of what I’ve had to do.”

“Don’t. Don’t you
dare talk about my baby like that.”

“I haven’t been a
baby for a long time.”

“You’ll always be
my baby.”

“You know the things
I’ve done.”

“You didn’t always
have a choice, Jake.”

“There’s always a
choice. You taught me that.”

“I love you, kiddo.
You know that, right?”

“I do. And I love
you, too. Now go hug Dad for me.”

“We’ll figure this
out.”

“
I’ll
figure this out. I shouldn’t have called you.”

“I’m going to be
talking to some people.”

“Mom…don’t
jeopardize yourself. Or Isa. Promise me. Please.”

“I won’t, but I
will
be talking to
some people about what’s going to happen when we get you out of
this.”

“I’d tell you not
to. Again. But I know you’ll just do what you want.”

“I will,” she tells
me with a chuckle. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Yeah.” I hope so.

I force myself to wait
a couple of hours more before calling Isa. I want to rush over and be
with her, but she was distant last night. I did what I could to help
her, but I could tell she didn’t really want my help. Not touching
here while we were in bed yesterday nearly killed me. I wanted to
hold her close, and tell her it didn’t matter. Whatever the hell
Ryan Griffin made her do doesn’t change how I feel about her. It
makes me want to murder him, and I
will
pay him a visit before I leave Vegas, but it’s not her fault. None
of this is.

When I call her, she
doesn’t answer. Any of the seven times I try. She also doesn’t
respond to any text messages for most of the day. I’m about to go
over there even if she doesn’t want me to, when a single text comes
through.

“
I’m fine. I
just can’t talk right now. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

I text her back that I
understand, and I love her, but there’s no response. I’ve learned
over the years to trust my gut, and it’s telling me that something
is
very
wrong. Which
spurs me to do something I shouldn’t do. I set up a meeting I
shouldn’t. But I have to know.

I drive through the
gates of Ryan Griffin’s house twenty minutes later. I have to sit
in my car for almost a full minute to get my rage under control. I
know I could kill him easily, despite the size advantage he has on
me. I also know I can’t do that without getting myself in even more
trouble than I’m already in. I’m not above hurting him, though. I
need to know what he did.

I’m more than a
little surprised when Chloe Griffin answers the door. “Hi. You must
be Mason. I’m Chloe.”

I shake her hand, and
follow her inside. Their house is a masterpiece, but I wouldn’t
expect anything less. Ryan’s a world-renowned architect, and
Chloe’s just as well known for her interior design work. We walk
down a hallway to a giant playroom. Ryan’s in there with their
daughter, rolling around on the ground. My rage starts making its way
back to the surface. How can he play with his
daughter
after spending a night with a woman he bought in a bidding war?

“Ry, your guest is
here.”

He looks up at me, and
I see the emotions as they cross his face. Annoyance, and rage that
could rival my own, before he settles his features into a smile.
“Hello, Mason. Let’s go to my office.”

He extricates himself
from his little girl after promising her he’ll be back soon. We
walk in silence to a room down another hallway. The door is barely
closed before he wheels on me, pinning me with a look that’s meant
to intimidate. It doesn’t work on me, but I’m more than a little
impressed.

“Thanks for meeting
with me, Ryan.”

“Why are you here,
interrupting my Sunday?”

“I need to talk to
you about Friday night?”

“You came to my
home
to talk about that? Are you insane?”

“I asked you to meet,
and you told me to come over. What did you think I wanted to talk
about?”

“Shit. You’re
right. Well get it over with. Is there a problem with the payment or
something?”

I couldn’t give two
fucks about his damn payment. “What did you do to her?”

“Excuse me?”

“The girl you…won.
What did you make her do?”

He smirks at me then. A
fucking smirk. Does he have a death wish? Because I’m not caring
about my future at the moment. I clench my fists at my sides, and he
suddenly realizes how on edge I am.

“Are you okay, man?
You look like you’re a little on edge.”

“Just tell me what
you did to her.”

“Ask her.”

“No. I am not going
to make her re-live what you made her do. She’s better than that.”

Understanding dawns on
his face. “You care about her.”

“That’s none of
your business.”

“All I’m going to
tell you is that I didn’t hurt her.”

“She’s broken.
Something happened to break her on Friday night.”

“It wasn’t me who
did that. She was fine when I left Saturday morning.”

“Maybe we should call
your wife in here and have you tell
her
that.”

“I’m trying to be
nice here, but don’t threaten me. What happened on Friday has
nothing to do with my wife. If you try to involve her, I
will
react. And not in a way that’s going to have you leaving here in
one piece.”

“You don’t scare
me.”

“Really? Because if
you think I’m going to let a piece of shit pimp threaten me in my
own house, you’re dumber than you normally come across.”

“Don’t come to
another auction. You’re not welcome.”

“If I never see you
again, it’ll be too soon. Now get the fuck out of my house.”

I don’t even remember
my drive home. I wanted answers that I didn’t get from Griffin. I
could’ve gotten violent with him, but his wife and kid didn’t
need to see that. Maybe his wife
should’ve
seen it, but it’s really not my business to bust up
their marriage. Plus, if it got back to the boss before I manage to
get out, I’d be dead. Then no one would be around to protect Isa.
And she definitely is my business, whether she wants to be or not.

Isa

I walk into school on
Monday with my head held high. He can’t break me. I won’t let
him. My heart’s broken, but no one will see that. They’ll just
see a well-dressed teen, with a killer manicure.

“You’re practically
glowing, Isabelle. Friday night agreed with you, it seems,” Kurt
says, putting his arm around me as we walk down the hall.

“It was very
enlightening, that’s for sure.”

“The boss was very
happy with your winning bid. You’ll be going on a special trip this
weekend, so no dates until then.”

“What kind of trip?”

“That’s a surprise.
One that will make you a nice chunk of change.”

“When am I leaving?
What should I pack?”

“Enough with the
twenty questions. You’ll know when the time comes.”

He leaves me at my
locker, which gives me time to text Reina. This could be the break we
need. If I’m going somewhere, that means she was right about this
being about more than Vegas. It also means that Mase will have to
reveal himself to me. That’s not going to go well for either of us.

I manage to avoid him
for most of the day. I can’t do that in his class, though. He calls
on me twice, and I answer, but that’s all I give him. No smiles,
and definitely no chewing on my pencil. I’m like a robot version of
myself. Speaking when spoken to, but showing no emotion. It’s not
like I don’t know how to do that. I lived most of my life being
like a robot. I just didn’t think I’d ever go back to the old me
again.

“Isabelle, a word
please,” he says when the bell rings.

“I have a test next
period, Mr. Wells. Can it wait?”

“Please come see me
after school. But I do need to speak to you.”

“Okay.”

“You think you’re
pretty great, don’t you?” Grace says as I walk out.

“Yeah, I do.” My
friends helped me realize this weekend that I
am
pretty great. “But what does that have to do with you?”

“I’m top girl. I
have been since I started.”

“Okay.”

“Tell Kurt you won’t
go on the trip this weekend.”

“I wasn’t given a
choice, Grace.”

“I was supposed to
go. I’ve been promised that trip for months.”

“Again, I didn’t
ask for this. I don’t even want it.”

“Just like you don’t
want Mr. Wells’ dick in your mouth again? You know that’s what he
wants to see you about. He’s under your spell, too.”

“This conversation is
over.”

“It’s over when I
say it is.”

“You just accused me
of using a ‘spell.’ Imagine what I could do to you if I really am
a witch,” I tell her as I walk into my next class.

I don’t want to go
see him, but I really don’t have a choice. He’s technically my
teacher here, and if he says he needs to speak to me, I have to go to
him. I know it’s not school he wants to talk about, but I couldn’t
exactly accuse him of it in front of a classroom full of students.

“Isa,” he says,
pulling me to him and locking the door when I walk into his office.
“I’ve been so worried. I wanted to be with you yesterday.”

I let him hold me, and
I even manage to put my arms around him. He kisses me all over the
top of my head, and then my face. I pull back when he gets to my
mouth. I can’t let him kiss me like he cares.

“My friends came
over. I was fine.”

“You’re not fine,
though. You can’t even look me in the eye.”

I force my eyes to his,
hoping I can succeed in looking like I’m not disgusted by him. “I’m
looking at you now.”

“You’re so sad,”
he says, searching my eyes with his own. “I hate that you’re
sad.”

“There’s nothing
you can do about it. You didn’t sell me to the highest bidder.”

His eyes go wide for
just a second. I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t been looking.
We both know he did indeed sell me to Ryan. He just doesn’t know
that I know.

“I-I…I’m sorry,
but I can’t talk about that. About what happened on Friday. I want
to be here for you, but I can’t talk about it.”

“You wanted to talk
about it on Saturday. You asked me what I had to do.”

“I know. But I
realized yesterday that it’s probably better if I don’t know.”

“What if I need to
tell you?”

He swallows hard before
answering. “Do you? If that’s what you need, I’ll listen.”

“No. Not now. I may
need to later, though.”

“Whatever you need,
Isa.”

“You mean it.” I
can tell he does, and that unnerves me a little. Okay, a lot.

“Of course I mean it.
I love you. I can tell that you still don’t believe me, but it’s
true.”

“Why? What’s so
special about me?”

“Everything. You
already know you’re almost always the smartest person in the room,
but you’re also the kindest. Your heart is so big and brave…I’m
just in awe of you whenever I’m near you. And let’s not even talk
about how beautiful and sexy you are.”

No. It’s not supposed
to be like this.
He’s
not supposed to be like this. Because it really doesn’t feel like
he’s lying. I know he’s been lying about other things, and I
missed it. But I’m watching closely now. So either he’s that
good, or he really does love me. I’m honestly hoping for the first,
because I don’t know how to deal with the second after knowing what
I do.

“I love you, too,”
I tell him as I burst into tears. “So, so much.”

He pulls me into his
arms, and I let him. Because no matter what he’s done, those
feelings are still there. And having his arms around me makes me feel
safe, even though I know he’s dangerous. It’s messed up, but
right now I just don’t care. I need him. I
want
him.

“Here, Jake. Make
love to me here. Now.”

“The classroom. God
help me, but I want you in the classroom.”

“Can we?” I ask as
he picks me up.

“We’ll be quiet.”

“Are you sure we
can?”

“No,” he says with
a laugh, placing me on my desk. “But I’m going to have you here
anyway.”

“I like this reckless
side of you.”

“I’m so glad you
wore your hair down today.”

I don’t say anything
else as I start unbuttoning his shirt, kissing every inch of skin I
expose. I love his chest. It’s perfectly defined, and oh so sexy. I
know this is probably the last time we’ll be together, and I should
take it slow, but I can’t. He has my shirt and bra off in seconds,
and spends long, glorious minutes worshipping my breasts. My jeans
and his pants are still on as I rub against him like we haven’t
been together in months, instead of just days.

He keeps a nipple in
his mouth as he reaches down to undo my jeans. I push them and my
panties down my legs. He takes care of his own pants and briefs
before thrusting into me. He stops once he’s fully seated inside.