Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One (24 page)

“Like I said
, you’re not being sued.  They don’t have a case, Lila.  They were just looking into you. They didn’t become one of the top firms in this city by being ethical.  Nothing they do is ethical and having you followed would have been just the tip of the iceberg in a very long and tedious process.  Thankfully they couldn’t find anything on you outside of the dirt bag that you let into your bed.”

Lila was rife with anger, but at those words
, her eyes softened slightly.

“They will stop pursuing the case because it has nowhere to go.
  You will never get an official word. It would never go to court.”

“Does the prin
cipal know I’m being investigated?”

“I’m sure she does, yes.”

Lila could feel her heart split in two.  A woman who she’d considered her closest friend.

He willed himself to stay silent.
  Never in his life was he so filled with fear at the possibility of doing or saying the wrong thing.  It was a feeling so foreign to him it stopped him right in his tracks.  “I knew neither one of you would ever let go of each other so I took care of it.  I had to.”

“Bu
t you still made sure to have me followed?  Just to be one hundred percent sure I wasn’t fucking him, right?”

“
I
didn’t have you followed, Lila. Why aren’t you hearing me?”

“Fine, so your
law firm
has had someone following me around without my permission, documenting my every move? Call me crazy, but the last time I checked that was called stalking.  And aren’t you required to summon me first
before
you start gathering information on me?  I’m not sure you’re permitted to do it the other way around.  Perhaps that gives me enough leeway to file a lawsuit of my own, huh?”

“Lila—“

“You should have told me.”

“I…”
  Jack jammed his eyes shut and said two words he hated more than anything.  “You’re right.  I should have. And I will never forgive myself if I end up losing you.”

“Losing me?
  Jack you’ve lost me.  That ship has sailed.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“You lied to me.  As far as I’m concerned if I’m in a relationship with a man who can lie to me as easily as you have then I am in a relationship that is going nowhere.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“A lie by omission is still a lie, Almeida, or did you miss that one at Harvard, too?” Lila crossed her arms over her chest.  “I think you should leave.”

“Lila, please.”

“There’s absolutely nothing you can say to me right now and frankly I really don’t want to hear it so… please just go.”

Once again Jack was left speechless by the one person in the world who had the power to shake him silent.
  “Lila.” He struggled. “I would never hurt you.  I’m on your side,” he whispered.  “I’m always on your side.”

“Do you think that makes everything okay?
  That I would see you as some amazing hero who came to my rescue?  I’ve got news for you Jack, heroes don’t fuck the girl before they fuck her over!  In fact, they don’t fuck her over, at all.”

Lila came up next to him and opened the door to her office, ignoring the nosey gazes of all of her coworkers while throwing a hand on her hip.

Jack stared at her as she held the open door.  Her face was firm but she was avoiding eye contact with him completely.  He held his hands out at his side, feeling an intense helplessness he’d never felt before.  Slowly, he began stepping out, then quickly stopped. “Everything I ever did… everything I ever said… it was all real. “

Lila continued to stare into her office, refusing to make eye contact with him.
  Only when he stepped out of her door and she’d closed it behind him did she allow the first tear to fall.

Chapter 11

Lila sat curled up in a chair on the balcony of her hotel room at the Hyatt in Maui watching the sunset.
  It was the final day of her trip with the students in her club and, though she’d been able to put on a happy face during the daily festivities with the kids, she spent every night in tears.

She couldn’t get Jack or Chase out of her mind.
  For so many years she’d been convinced that she was doing everything she could to help them after the death of their parents.  That while she loved Chase, and was fiercely protective of him, there was never anything deeper there.  Never any darkness or malice.

When Jack had
rocketed her with the news that parents of the school were suspicious of her hurting the kids, she felt like her heart had been ripped clear out of her chest.  Those kids
were
her entire heart--they meant the world to her, and she had gained as much from them as she always prayed they had from her.  A safe place to grieve, grow, accept and overcome. She couldn’t deny that she had always treated Chase with more delicate gloves.  She
had
favored him.  So much so that it had quickly exploded into an incredible monster that had people from the outside taking serious pause.

Lila swept at the tears on her cheeks as she thought of Chase.
  Hurting him had never been her intention, never in a million years, but it seemed to be the only thing she was capable of doing at this point.  She finally admitted to herself that the control she’d never been able to grasp with Danielle was the same control she was constantly forcing upon Chase, but he was now and could no longer be molded into something he wasn’t.  He wasn’t Danielle.  He was his own person, and he never asked to be the one Lila used to fill a huge void within herself.  She’d made him that person, and hurt him deeply in the process.

For that she would never forgive herself.

--
-

As Jack made his way towards the doors of his office building the next day, he stopped short when he caught sight of a middle-aged man with a full beard climbing out of a blue truck.  The man was distracted, fumbling around with a professional grade camera as he made his way into the doors of Jack’s law firm.  Jack watched him move in shock, his mouth agape, before he raced for the doors himself.

Jack threw the doors to his firm open and stalked up behind the man, taking the back of his neck violently and dragging him
toward the door of his office.

“Whoa! Hey! Easy, man, easy,” t
he man cried, stumbling forward as Jack threw him into his office.

Jack slammed the door shut and
made his way over to the man, snatching the camera out of his hand and immediately scrolling through the pictures.  As he zoomed past photo after photo his eyes searched for Chase, for Lila, for any photo of a person he loved. 

“Hey, be car
eful with that!  That’s a ten thousand dollar camera.”

Jack
finally came across a photo of Lila sleeping naked in her bed. His heated eyes rose to the man before he turned his back and hurled the camera at the wall.  It shattered and fell noisily to the floor, piece by piece.

The man screamed out, his hands going into his hair, “What the
fuck
?  Holy fuck, man, what the hell did you do that for?”

Jack
zeroed in on him and grabbed the cuffs of his shirt, ready to murder him right where he stood. “Who the fuck are you?”

“You just destroyed my camera
, asshole, who the
fuck
are you?”

Jack’s fist flew into the man’s gut, and he forced him to stand tall when the blow doubled him over.  “Who are you?!” he screamed.

“Fuck, shit…. God dammit, I’m Max! I work for Fredrik.”

Fury coursed through Jack’s veins as he heard his boss’ name.
“How did you get my brother’s keys?”

Finally realizing that Jack knew who he was, and having recognized him from the moment he’d been thrown into his office, the man’s face grew solemn.
“Look, the keys fell out of the kid’s bag while he was chasing around that blonde.  I thought it’d be a good opportunity to catch the guidance counselor in her natural habitat so I used them to get in her place.  Imagine my surprise when I found you and her together.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got news for you
, pal.  This case isn’t going anywhere.  Stop fucking following her.”

“I don’t take orders from you.”

“I’m heading the case.”

“
Fredrick is the one who pays me.  He’s the one who calls it off.”

“Whatever he’s giving you under the table
, I’ll double it.”

Max’s frantic breathing had slowed, and he couldn’t stop the smallest knowing smirk from showing.
“Look, I been following her around the city for weeks.  I know the only man whose schlong she’s violating is standing in this room right now.  She’s no child predator, but I only answer to Fred.  And you owe me ten thousand dollars.”

Jack seethed, doing everything he could not to
choke Max to death right where he stood.

---

Jack stormed into his superior, Fredrick Rodman’s, office and dropped the photos of he and Lila onto his desk. 

“Take me off this case.”

Fredrick looked up from the phone call he was in the middle of, shooting Jack a blank gaze.  He didn’t seem angry that Jack had barged into his office without so much as a knock, but he didn’t seem thrilled either.  He ended his phone call quickly, then clasped his hands in front of him on the desk. 

“I’m not taking you off the case because there’s no case to take you off of.”

“So stop following Lila. You told me that we were looking into questions that parents and administration at Dalton had as far as Lila and the kids are concerned.  You didn’t tell me that you were going to have her followed and photographed.  This is unethical, and I don’t want any part of it.”

“Since when have ethics ever been a concern of yours, Jack?” Fredrick laughed
, genuinely.

Jack’s jaw tightened.

“I can’t help but wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that you play a starring role in most of these photos yourself.”

Jack reared back, running his hand down his face. “Look, I know that L
ila is a little too close to those kids—my brother in particular.  And I understand that her affection for them is the main reason that the school has felt the need to pursue a case against her behind her back but… I’m in love with this woman. I can’t continue with this.  She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“And how in the world have you come to the conclusion
that you’re in any position to make that kind of call?  I’d say, at this point, your opinion is more than a little biased, Jack.  You were supposed to prosecute her, not fuck her.”

“Well…”  Jack gave a shrug.  “It’s a little late for that now.  In fact, if this case does go to court—which I doubt it will
, since you’ve instigated a witch hunt on a woman who has done nothing wrong. Even if it did, the entire firm could be held in breach of court if they found out that the lead prosecutor has been fucking the defendant for the last three months.  Not to mention that you’ve been having her illegally followed for even longer.  For all our sakes just take me off the god damn case.” Jack took a deep breath. “Fuck,” he whispered, burying his head in his hands.

“Look at y
ourself,”  Fredrick chuckled. “She must have a magic pussy.”

Jack held a steady hand out.
“I want.  Off.  The case.”

Fredri
ck leaned deeper into his desk. “Like I said, there is no case. We abandoned it, officially, just this morning. You might have known that if you’d shown up to work on time today.”  Fredrick adjusted his tie, having officially lost all patience. “Feel free to pull your fucking panties back up now,” he concluded.

“Good.”  Jack swallowed deeply and stood tall.  “I quit.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Fredrick scoffed. “I’ll pretend you never said that. Now go sleep it off, Almeida, before I change my mind.”

“Fuck you.  I quit.”

As he made his way out, Fredrick finally stood from his desk, leaning forward.  He was not a groveling man and he didn’t plan on starting today, but he couldn’t deny that his best lawyer was heading right for the door.

“Are you really going to walk away from the top law firm in New York City for a p
iece of ass? I know she’s smoking hot, Jack, but I saw the photos.  Seems like a boring fuck.  Nothing to write home about, and sure as hell nothing to quit your job over.”

Jack turned on his heel and stalked over to the desk.

As he closed in on Fredrick’s smiling face Jack reared back and clocked him right in the jaw.

---

Lila pulled the ice pack a few inches away from Jack’s nose when he suddenly winced.  She could see new bruises beginning to form with each passing minute and apparently she’d finally hit one of the more sensitive ones.  She had landed just a few hours ago and, though she was still overwhelmed with anger and confusion over the events of the last few days, she hadn’t had the heart to turn Jack away when he’d shown up at her door with a bloody nose and swollen lip.

He’d spent the last hour sitting with hi
s head thrown back on her couch.  She was curled up close next to him, icing his face gently.  They hadn’t said a word the entire time.

Finally, Lila spoke.
“You want to tell me what happened?”

Jack closed his eyes for a long while.  The silence persisted for a little longer until he finally opened them, again, staring up at her ceiling.  “I punched my boss in the face.”

Lila looked toward the window of her balcony, struggling with what to say.  “Please tell me it wasn’t over me.”

He didn’t respond.

“So you punched your boss in the face for me, huh?  Not the greatest way to keep your job.”

“Perhaps I didn’t want to keep it.
”

“But punching your boss?  That sounds like a great way to get
yourself blacklisted from every other law firm in New York City.  I don’t want to be the reason that you’re out of a job and homeless.”

“You know Chase and I inherited that brownstone.  I’ll never be without a home.”  He smirked, and when her face remained blank, a sigh escaped his lips. “
I couldn’t continue to work for a company who hurt you as much as they did.”

As if a reminder from the
days events suddenly dawned on her, Lila found herself getting angry once more. “So you’ve decided you’re wearing your ethical mask today, huh?  Which one will it be tomorrow?”

“Please don’t be angry at me, Lila.”

“You lied to me.”

“I had to.”

“No, you didn’t.  You didn’t have to lie to me, Jack, you made the choice to do it because you didn’t trust me.”  She licked her lips and waited patiently for a response.  When the silence persisted, she removed the ice from his face completely. “Did you think I would have blown the whistle on you?  What?  Did you think I would show up to your firm and tell your boss that the lead on his case was fucking the main suspect?  Did you really think I would do that to you?  I wouldn’t have.  I wouldn’t have hurt you that way.  Not ever.”

Jack jammed his eyes shut and slowly shook his head.
“I didn’t think those things.”

“
Then what the fuck did you think, Jack?  Huh?  If you didn’t think I would risk your job by telling your boss, then why would you keep something from me that could put my own job and my own future at risk?  I would never put your job or your reputation on the line, I would never hurt you that way.  But you had no problem doing the same to me.”

Jack brought a
hand up to his eyes, overcome.

“
The only other reason I can think of as to why you didn’t tell me about all of this is that somewhere, deep down, you really believed that I was in bed with your brother.”

“Lila…”  Jack
finally opened his eyes, and when he turned his head to speak to her, he lost his words at the sight of her standing from the couch.  His eyes followed her, watching her back constrict against her tight white t-shirt as she crossed her arms over her chest.  She moved to the other end of the room.  He stood as well, following her into the kitchen and watching as she took the back of her dining room chair in her hand.

Lila spoke, staring at the wall.
“I would never hurt Chase that way.”

Jack continued toward her until he was right behind her, placing a hand on her back.
“I know that.”

“
No,” she cried, turning to face him.  “No, you don’t.”  She allowed him to cup her cheek.  A tear fell from her eye.  He immediately caught it with his thumb, batting it away.  Her voice trembled. “You don’t know that, or you would have told me everything from the beginning.”