Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (117 page)

We all looked at each other and I finally
told her, “We don’t know, exactly. The affairs weren’t well disguised by any
standards. The stripper was only a plaything to Vick, she was interviewed by
our people, and we believe she really didn’t know anything about what Vick was
up to. As long as he paid her bills and allowed her shopping sprees, she gave
him what he wanted in the sack when he wanted it and didn’t ask any questions.
Cindy McGuire is being heavily protected, of course, by her family and refuses
to have a conversation with us about Vick. And David; he’s somewhat of a wild
card.”

“Meaning what, exactly?” Alicia asked.

“David has disappeared, physically that
is. He’s gone pretty deeply underground. He hasn’t been seen since Vick’s
death; however, he has made several phone calls to both Celia and her father.
He’s looking for money, and thinks he’ll be able to cash in on this in a big
way. He uses disposable cell phones and has asked for money to be wired to an
offshore account. So far, our investigators, and Miles’, have been unable to
find him.”

“Why does David think that Miles or Celia
would give him money, considering what we now know to be true?”

Miles sighed and said, “I’ll take that
one, son,”

He stood and walked across the room
towards the massive stone fireplace. Next to the fireplace stood an enormous
blue spruce, all decorated for Christmas with professionally wrapped presents
already underneath. Miles stopped next to the tree and seemed to be admiring
the twinkling of the lights for several minutes, before finally turning to
Alicia.

“He has something on my son that he has
threatened to go to the authorities with if I don’t send him the money he wants
by midnight on Friday.”

Alicia raised an eyebrow, but didn’t
speak. Miles turned towards her and continued, “My son was in the mountains the
day my wife died ten years ago. The authorities never had that information, so
he was never questioned regarding her death. I don’t want him questioned, and I
have gone through great pains to make sure that never happens. My son is weak.
He couldn’t stand up to an interrogation. He would crack like an egg in five
minutes or less.

“My daughter, she was cursed only by
naivety. She was thinking that she could trust this man-whore she was seeing,
and she told him some things that she never should have, things that should
have remained in the family. That little gay boy wants to use that information
now to destroy my family. If I thought he would go away, I would just pay him
the damn money. I don’t believe for a second though that he would stop there.
That boy would keep this shit up until he bleeds me and my family dry.”

“May I ask why it’s so critical that the
authorities not know Miles V was there the day your wife died?”

Brigham looked at her, and with his next
words, I think Alicia had begun to understand the disdain he held in his eyes
when he looked at his son.

“Because, little lady, my son killed her.”

CHAPTER
TWO

ALICIA

I looked at Adam and saw that he wasn’t
shocked by any of this. He walked over and put his hand on my arm and said,

“It’s alright. When Miles hired us, his
son also paid to retain us as his legal counsel. What Miles just told you was
disclosed to us after he hired us as counsel.” Adam looked at Miles, and then
back at me and said,

“We did, of course, suggest the
possibility of Miles V turning himself in. Neither he nor his father here were
interested in that suggestion, however. Until now, it had not really become an
issue. Our concern at this point is that David will in fact tell the
authorities what he knows.”

I dropped down on the plush beige couch
that I was standing next to. I watched the lights on the designer tree twinkle
while I gathered my thoughts. Looking towards Adam, I said,

“So, my job is to keep Miles IV from
getting arrested in relation to Vick’s murder, right?”

Adam said, “Yes, that is a large part of
it.”

It suddenly dawned on me why he really
wanted my criminal law expertise. “You expect me to defend Miles V also if what
David is saying he did ever comes into play.” Adam gave me a nod and I went on,
“Okay, then, what else do I need to know?” There was really no going back now.

The men spent the better part of the next
hour filling in the blanks for me before I had enough and excused myself to
turn in for the night. I had barely made it back to our room when Adam followed
me in.

My mood had significantly darkened from
earlier in the evening. He tried to touch me, but I told him I was too tired
and rolled away from him. I wasn’t really angry with him, but I was pretty
annoyed about what he’d gotten me into here. After a while, I felt him snuggle
into me and press his hips into my behind. He draped his arm across my waist
and pulled me into him tightly. I moved forward and he followed me until I was
on the edge of the bed and couldn’t move any further.

I finally rolled over to chastise him, but
before I could get any words out he covered my mouth with his. I didn’t resist
the kiss and as usual, my entire body responded to it. My stress and fatigue
was suddenly replaced by desire, and as he pulled me up on top of him and
lifted my nightgown up over my hips, I didn’t protest. Instead, I made love to
him and him to me until we were both so truly exhausted that neither of us could
stay awake a moment longer.

We woke the next morning to Hannah’s
wake-up tap on the door. We were wrapped so tightly in arms and legs that it
was almost hard to tell which limbs were whose.

After a quick breakfast with just the two
of us that Hannah served on the terrace, we were picked up by one of Miles’
drivers and driven to the airstrip. Hannah had packed up all of the paperwork
that I had not had time to finish reading through the day before. She also
issued a message from Miles, expressing his regrets at having to leave so early
and not being able to see us off properly. There was no sign before we left of
neither Celia nor Miles V, and for that I was grateful.

I felt a little guilty, but I actually
allowed myself to hope that neither Miles would be arrested and I wouldn’t be
forced to defend either of them. I also wasn’t sure that Celia was innocent in
all of this, either. The look in her eyes when she spoke about David’s affairs
with Vick had been pure hatred. Who’s to say she wasn’t involved, as well?

Nonetheless, I was their lawyer now and
regardless of my personal feelings, I would give them the best possible
defense…if any of them ended up needing one.

I read through more of Brigham’s files on
the flight home while Adam reclined in his seat and took a nap. I stopped what
I was doing and looked over at him.

He was probably the most beautiful man
that I had ever seen. I sometimes felt that it wasn’t fair that his looks had
so much power over me. His looks, of course, were not the only thing I found to
love about him, but pushing him away might be much easier if I didn’t have to
look into his sexy dark eyes when I did it.

I had enjoyed our time together at
Brigham’s estate immensely. But if things didn’t go as Adam hoped they would at
his hearing on Monday, I had already resolved to end things once and for all. I
couldn’t keep this up. It wasn’t fair to act as if I were having an illicit
affair when in fact I wasn’t.

I finally tore my eyes away from him and
continued with my reading of the Brigham file. I looked through some of the
photos, as well, during the rest of the flight. Whoever these investigators
were that Miles IV had hired, had done a fantastic job surveilling Vick.

We had photos of his intimate trysts with
Priscilla and David that looked as if they had been taken from inside the
apartment. I felt even worse for Celia then as I looked at the photos of Vick
and David. I had quickly set aside the ones of them involved in sexual
activity, but the ones of them just spending time together, enjoying a glass of
wine or just talking were up close and personal enough that you could almost
read the love in David’s eyes. Celia had definitely been the beard here and it
had to hurt the poor girl to realize it.

As the plane descended back down into La
Guardia, I sat the file aside. Adam opened his eyes and smiled that sweet,
sleepy, oh so sexy smile that I loved so much.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he said as he sat up and
buckled his seatbelt for the landing.

“Hi,” I said simply, but with a smile that
let him know what I was thinking.

As I was buckling my seatbelt, he leaned
forward and kissed me. “A few more days, and then we’ll be together…forever.
Think you can handle that?”

I couldn’t help myself. Just the thought
of having Adam to myself at last made me smile broadly. “I can’t wait,” I said,
and although I was thinking ahead about what I may have to do if things didn’t
go as planned, I didn’t have the heart to bring it up.

We went our separate ways at the airport.
Adam was going back to the office, so he took a cab. I took the town car back
to my apartment. I was exhausted and all I wanted was to relax in my own home.

After a long hot shower, I listened to my
voicemails. I had been so wrapped up in all of the Brigham drama that I hadn’t
even answered my phone in almost two days. The first message was from Kyla,
wanting to know how mine and Adam’s time together had gone.

The second was from my mother. It reminded
me that my parents would be in town in just over a week, and I had better find
some time to do some decorating and shopping for Christmas. My mother would be
shocked if she knew her daughter had waited this late in the season to get a
tree or put out so much as a twig of holly. Mrs. Winston had always begun the
decorating on the first day of December, albeit she mostly acted as an
orchestrater to her staff.

The third call was from Jack. He wanted to
know if I would like to have dinner on Friday night. I would have to give that
one some thought. Instead of calling him back, I called Kyla. A little innocent
girl talk was what I really needed after the past two days of drama and bizarre
confessions.

As it turned out, it was a lot of girl
talk. I finally hung up almost two hours later. I told Kyla what a great time
Adam and I had, what a bizarre family Miles Brigham IV had, and about Jack and
his most recent phone call. Kyla had helped me to decide that there would be no
harm in an innocent dinner out with an old friend. I had ultimately agreed, and
after hanging up with Kyla, I called Jack and accepted.

I spent the rest of the day getting things
done around the apartment and didn’t sit down with the Brigham file again until
evening. Over a cup of chamomile tea and some homemade cookies, I set about
re-reading all of the documents.

Miles IV had told me that he was out of
town the night Vick was murdered. He claimed he had been in Louisiana with a
woman he had recently begun seeing. Inside the file were copies of his private
pilot’s flight plans for the day in question. I thought that it could be used
as a very convincing alibi if need be.

There was no mention in the file of Miles
V or Celia’s whereabouts that evening. This concerned me a bit, knowing now
what I did about the murder of Brigham’s third wife. There were copies of Miles
IV bank records, as well. I assumed that these were to prove he hadn’t paid
anyone to kill Vick while he was out of town formulating an alibi. I did think,
however, that had I been the police or FBI, I would know that the great and
powerful Brigham would never be foolish enough to write out a traceable check
for a murder for hire scheme.

My eyes were growing weary. I put the file
aside at last, and headed to bed. I checked my phone before lying down,
somewhat disappointed that Adam hadn’t called to say goodnight. I started to
think about him being across town in that plush, Manhattan apartment with
Marjorie, but made myself stop. First of all, if I knew Adam, he was probably
still at work, and second of all, even if he was home, he was not
with
Marjorie. I turned off the bedside
light and closed my eyes, willing myself to dream of days to come when we could
finally be together. Maybe all of Adam’s Marjorie drama will be over before my
parents arrived for the holidays, and then it would really be a Merry
Christmas.

Adam finally called me the next morning as
I was making my coffee.

“Good morning, baby,” he said. “How was
the rest of your day yesterday?”

“It was peaceful,” I said. “Much more relaxing
than the drama we walked into at the Brigham mansion.”

Adam laughed. “Yes, they are an
interesting bunch, aren’t they? I got to spend the rest of my day working on
his civil case. We go to trial soon. The press continues to tear him up on a
daily basis, baby, and I don’t think things are looking too good for us as far
as an untainted jury pool here in New York. I don’t know if you’ve seen the
Post
yet?”

I said I hadn’t and he went on, “That
reporter I met with, Rose, did a piece today that wasn’t just about the oil
spill and the effects it had on the environment and the people, it was about
Brigham himself. She had some pretty personal things in there, and even hinted
that although she didn’t personally believe that Brigham had killed anyone
himself, it was a pretty safe bet that his hands weren’t clean. She wasn’t only
speaking about Vick’s murder; she was hinting around about his wife, as well.”