Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (140 page)

“I need to make sure my people know what
happened before the press gets a hold of this. We need to prepare a statement.
Reassure everyone that nothing pertaining to the campaign, or donators was
taken.”

“I think your parents are right, you do
need a vacation. You should see yourself right now,” I told him.

Alex seemed to not hear me. He dialed the
phone and stepped into the other room as I was still talking. I stood up and
walked nearer to the partition that separated the two rooms. I could hear Alex
talking, but couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. I stepped closer, and
suddenly Alex pulled open the swinging door and said,

“What are you doing?”

I decided not to even try lying. I was
tired of this entire mess and just wanted some answers. “I want to know what’s
going on, Alex. I want to know what you’ve gotten yourself involved in.”

Alex didn’t say anything for a few
moments, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, he said, “Okay, but
not here. After the police leave, I’ll meet you somewhere and we’ll talk. I’ve
needed someone to talk to for a while now. Please, though, don’t say anything
else until they’re gone.”

The detective that brought Alicia back was
just leaving the room so I only nodded at him. He turned to me and said, “You
still okay?” She smiled at him and nodded.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ALICIA

Adam left to go with the detective for his
interview. Alex went back into the kitchen with his phone and left me alone in
the dining room. I picked up my phone and saw there was a text message. It was
from David. He said he was nearby, but as long as we were okay, he didn’t want
to come in and blow his cover. I texted him back and said we were okay. I asked
if he knew what was going on. His next text said,

“Yes. Have the two men in custody, we will
talk tomorrow.”

The detectives at last told Adam and me
that we could go home. Alex was planning to go to Mercy hospital to check on
his parents. Adam offered to go with him. Alex hesitated, and then accepted
Adam’s offer. Undoubtedly, it would give them a chance to talk. I was okay with
driving myself home, but Adam didn’t like the idea. We were all still shaken up
by what had happened tonight, and he didn’t want me to be alone. He called
Kyla, and while we were waiting for the contractor that Alex must have paid a
fortune to come out so late at night to hang a new door, she arrived to take me
home.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

ADAM

When the new door was finished, Alex and I
headed to the hospital. I drove, as I was becoming more concerned about Alex’s
state of mind by the minute. I wasn’t sure if it was Alex’s anxiety about how
his parents were doing, his anger about his home being violated, or what he had
said earlier about needing to talk, but it was blatantly obvious that he had
something heavy weighing on his mind.

We drove silently for the first few miles,
and then Alex broke the silence at last by saying,

“I hope we can still be friends, after I
tell you what I have to say.”

I glanced sideways at my friend. I felt
only pity for him right now, but I knew it was due to the situation, and soon
the anger at what Alex had been involved in would return. I only gave a slight
nod of my head and waited for him to go on.

“I’ve got myself in over my head, Adam. I
don’t know what to do. This all started out to be my dream. The job I always
wanted, and I knew I would be good at it…I am good at it, when I’m left alone
and allowed to do it,” he sighed heavily and raked his hand through his hair
and down across his face again. “But, there’s too much money involved, too much
power at stake, people just can’t leave it alone.”

“What people?” I asked as we merged into
the swarm of traffic waiting to pay their toll to cross the bridge that led
back into the city.

“People like Brigham who wanted to control
me because he felt like I owed him something for installing me in this position
and others, bad people. These aren’t people you mess with, Adam. I mean, my
career is not all that is at stake here. They are coming after my family now.”

“Alex, You’re not making a lot of sense.”

He sighed again, “I know, I just don’t
know where to start. The jest of it is this…I was placed in my position by
Brigham, to control the funds that were coming in to the campaign and make sure
that the people who were elected would be ‘sympathetic’ to his cause. That is,
look the other way when it came to his shoddy practices in the Gulf, and stand
up to the EPA when they started breathing down his neck.

“It sounds a little shady, I know, but I
looked at it as an opportunity to do enough good that it would overshadow the
other things I was doing. The President is a good man. He hasn’t been in office
long enough to do all of the good that I know he can do. I thought that I was
doing some of what it would take to allow him to fulfill the promises he had
made to the American people in the future. I did my job well, and I was doing
such a good job, that money literally started pouring in. That kind of money
began to attract the attention of other people.”

He got quiet again as we made the turn
into the hospital parking lot. I found a space and turned off the ignition. I
looked at Alex and said,

“Who were these other people?”

“First, I met a man named Johnston at one
of the fundraisers. He said his boss owned a large textile company in the UK
and was planning on moving it into the States. He said they wanted to support
American politics in an effort to ease their transition. Again, not exactly the
most honorable motives or intentions, but I told myself that as long as the
money was coming in, the President could get re-elected and that was the end
goal, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer, I knew the question had been
rhetorical.

Alex continued, “Their money started
pouring in, and at first it was all good. Then, I met the man at the top, Mr.
Grant. He’s a refined, smooth-talking, mean son-of-a-bitch. He told me, in the
politest way possible, that he had arranged for Vick to be killed. He said he
was going to make sure that Miles Brigham IV was found to be responsible for
it, and he said I was going to make sure that the money he had put into the
campaign stayed liquid enough to be moved around. He introduced me to his son,
Jack. Jack became my main contact after that and let me tell you Adam, Alicia
is lucky to be rid of that snake.”

“So,” I said, still trying to grasp all of
what Alex was telling me. “The point of killing Vick was to frame Miles?”

“I guess,” Alex said, sounding wearier
than ever. “You see, Grant had approached Vick before he and Miles had their
falling out. Miles told Vick to blow him off. Brigham runs his own shady deals,
but he knew these guys were going to be trouble of the very worst kind, and he
told Vick so. Vick said thanks but no thanks and went on with his life. Problem
was, when Miles found out that Vick was sleeping with his daughter’s boyfriend,
he wasn’t willing to stand behind him any longer. This gave Grant the
opportunity he needed to get rid of both Vick and Miles. Kill Vick and his
boyfriend, and frame Brigham. Unfortunately, the boyfriend got away, and no one
has been able to get to him. He’s surrounded by Feds and Grant’s people want no
part of that. They didn’t see him as a big enough player to worry about,
anyways.”

Alex took another break. He started to
open the car door to get out, but I stopped him by saying, “What about
Marjorie? What did she do to get involved in this mess?”

Alex looked surprised, and by the look on
his face I thought he was going to deny knowing anything about that. Instead,
his denial seemed to turn into resignation and he said,

“They went there looking for you. I swear,
Adam, I didn’t know about it beforehand or I would have stopped them somehow.
Jack is obsessed with Alicia, Adam. You have to keep him away from her. I was
there when he heard the news about Marjorie. He was livid. He said the fools
were supposed to have ‘gotten rid of the buffoon who thinks he’s going to marry
his girl’. They were supposed to have gone in and made it look like a robbery.
Kill you, and leave Alicia grieving. Jack believed that would be enough to push
her right back into his arms.

“Instead, they found Marjorie alone. She
was never one to do things the easy way; I don’t have to tell you that. They
said she gave them hell, scratching and clawing at them like a wild-cat. She
wouldn’t shut-up and the men, afraid someone would come up to the apartment to
find out what was happening, had killed her. They tried to make it look like a
suicide, but she had fought them too hard, and the murder was apparent. They
weren’t worried, though. They knew you would be the primary suspect, and Jack
paid that journalist, Rose Dugan, a pretty penny to skew everything she wrote
against you. He even fed her information that he had gotten from a bug he’d
planted in your offices.”

I was trying to process all of this
information. The attorney part of me was already going over in my head what
kind of charges Alex was apt to face over all of this. I had one more question,

“Was that all the break-in was for at the
office? Just to plant the bugs?”

“Partly, but remember, they still wanted
to ruin Brigham, as well. Stealing his files was all part of their end game.
They took the others, just to try and make it all look random.”

“And what about tonight? The detective
said the driver heard their accents, and they were English. Was that Grant?”

“Tonight was about making me pay for
trying to stand up to them. I tried to tell them I didn’t want to be a part of
this anymore. They didn’t take it too well. This was why I didn’t want my
parents staying at the house. I was afraid they would try to get to them when I
wasn’t at home. I should have done more to protect them.”

Alex opened the door the rest of the way
then and said, “I don’t know what you’ll do with all of this information, but I
know that you’re too honest of a guy to let it go. I’m okay with that. I’m
tired. I want it all to be over. Right now, though, I need to see my parents
and make sure they’re okay. I’ll be expecting the authorities when I get home.”

He stepped out of the car and without
allowing me to say anything else he closed the door and headed up the walk
towards the front entrance. I watched him go, all the while trying to figure
out in my head what kind of deal I would ask for after Alex agreed to testify
against all of these people and I became his attorney.

I drove back to the city, home to Alicia.
Tonight, I just wanted to lie in her arms and think only about her and how
happy she makes me. Tomorrow with a clear head, I would think over all of what
Alex had told me before calling David.

I wanted to offer my services to Alex, and
convince him to tell David what he had told me tonight himself. I was still
angry at my friend for allowing himself to become involved with these people,
but I could see the anguish in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

Alex was in over his head. He wasn’t a
murderer. He wasn’t a bad guy. He had gotten drunk on power and allowed it all
to go to his head and cloud his judgment. I would have to give some thought to
the bad press that representing the man who had been somewhat involved in the
murder of my ex-wife, but I honestly believed that deep inside Alex was still
the person I had grown so close to over the years. He was the friend that had
stood up for me at my first wedding, and sat up with me at night through the
bad times with Marjorie.

I would have to convince everyone else
that the true bad guys here were the ones who would kill a man, and frame
someone else for it, and kill a woman who just happened to be in the right
place at the wrong time.

I thought about how glad I was for
Alicia’s good judgment in not waiting to talk to Kyla about Jack; he was a lot
more dangerous than either of us had thought. Alicia had been getting a bad
feeling from him from the start, but I had mostly written my dislike of the man
off to simple jealousy. I hadn’t wanted this man who was so obviously still in
love with my fiancé to keep popping up in our lives. I shuddered when I thought
about how many times Alicia had been alone with the man. I pressed harder on
the accelerator, aching to get back and hold her in my arms.

Kyla had gone home by the time I got
there, but Alicia was waiting up for me. She could see in my eyes and the sag
of my shoulders how tired I was. She didn’t ask me to talk about it. She simply
took me by the hand and led me to bed. After helping me strip out of my clothes
she curled her soft, warm body up next to mine and just let me hold her.

Somehow, she was always able to sense exactly
what I needed, and when I needed it. My last conscious thoughts that night were
that I had never felt so emotionally connected to anyone in my life, and to
remember to thank God for giving her to him, and keeping her safe.

EPILOGUE

2
YEARS LATER

ALICIA