Conquer Your Love

“Brooke?” Sylvie called. “Are you coming?”

“I thought I saw something.” I turned away from the woods reluctantly.

“Of course. If I inherited an estate with an eerie chapel, I’d think it’s haunted, too.”

She was laughing at me. I slapped the back of her head gently. “That’s not what I meant. It looked like a tall figure dressed in black.”

“Now you’re creeping me out. Can we please go inside?” Sylvie whispered.

“It was probably nothing anyway.” I tried to infuse as much confidence into my voice as I could gather, but my glance trailed back to the trees. “I’m a little paranoid.” Funnily, my words didn’t sound particularly convincing.

“I would be too if someone tried to kill me,” Sylvie said, yanking at my arm. “Nothing against you, Stewart, but I feel safer around the guys.”

We barely reached the house when the rain turned into a torrential downpour. Sylvie locked the backdoor behind us and I switched on the lights. She brewed us our obligatory afternoon coffee while I stood in front of the large bay window, staring at the puddles of rain and my reflection, unable to shake off the feeling of being watched.

***

We decided to drink our coffee with the guys in the library. The moment we entered, Jett’s arms moved around my waist and stayed there, his chin resting against my head. I could feel his heart beating in unison with mine as his body heat warmed my skin.

“Why are you wet?” he whispered.

“We visited the chapel.”

He looked at me but didn’t break our embrace. “How is it?”

“It’s beautiful.” I paused to consider my words and found that none could do it justice. “You should check it out one day. See for yourself.”

“Did you find anything yet?” Sylvie asked, her hands resting on Kenny’s shoulders, her eyes fixed on the computer. My eyes moved from her to Kenny’s arms and for the first time I noticed one of his tattoos looked like Jett’s.

“We’re getting there,” Jett said, his lips descending to nuzzle my neck.

I tried to twist my way out of his arms. He didn’t let go. “What have you found so far?”

“We haven’t checked everything but—” Jett held up the disk and smiled triumphantly “—the entire hard drive is on this disk.”

There was something in his tone that made me look up. “What’s on it?”

“It’s going to take days to go through everything but we found a file containing a spreadsheet with numbers. I’ve written a couple of them down,” Kenny said, pointing to the indecipherable handwriting on a sheet of paper.

“What do you need the numbers for?” Sylvie picked up the paper and walked over to me so we could look together.

“The first three digits of each and every number match the corresponding line in the black book,” Jett replied. I met his glance and something passed between us. “They’re all here. Look them up.”

I counted the rows. There were thirty-six in total—the exact same total of numbers. The first row on the paper started with the same three digits like the one in the black book.

“Okay,” I said. “The corresponding lines start out the same but after three digits the code seems to change?”

Jett nodded.

“What do you think they are?” I asked.

“If you count the number of digits, I’d go for sort codes, bank accounts, or passwords,” Kenny said. “And since Jett has financial relations here, I suggest we drive to his bank and make a discreet enquiry.”

“I could give my advisor a call and ask to see him today,” Jett said.

“And if that doesn’t work out, I’ll hack into the bank’s system,” Kenny said.

“Nothing new there.” Jett grinned at me, revealing his gorgeous dimples. “Kenny’s the best money can hire. No wonder he’s so popular.”

A professional hacker? Holy cow.

I had assumed that was just a joke. I bit my lip to hide my shocked expression.

“That’s so hot,” Sylvie mouthed to me.

Of course she was into bad guys. And if they could do something as illegal as hacking into a bank’s database, they immediately attained ‘keeper’ status for sure.

Chapter 25

We arrived in Bellagio in Jett’s replacement car. Jett drove, Kenny sat in the passenger seat, while Sylvie and I huddled together in the backseat. My head was throbbing so hard, I felt slightly nauseous. Maybe it was the prospect of being pregnant, or maybe my nausea was the result of being pregnant. Either way, I was scared out of my mind.

I rested my head against the cold glass window and closed my eyes, the sound of the rain splashing down on the asphalt relaxing me. All I could think of was how my life had changed into a mess. Just when I thought it couldn’t get more complicated, life twirled up another whirlwind of chaos, pushing me onto unknown territory.

There’s nothing more frightening than not knowing what the future will bring. A baby was one of the biggest challenges I could think of. I had no job, no money, and knew nothing about raising kids.

“We need to get some aspirin from the drug store,” Sylvie said to no one in particular.

You have enough aspirin to last you for a year, I wanted to say when I noticed her conspiratorial smile and consequent wink. She wanted to get rid of the guys, of course.

“There’s a large one on the main street. We could pop in quickly,” Jett said, making it clear he wasn’t going to let us out of his sight. His worried gaze brushed over me in the rearview mirror, and I shot him a weak smile.

A few minutes later the car came to a halt in front of the drug store. This was our chance to get out before he found a parking spot.

“You stay here. We’ll be back in a minute,” I said, opening the car door before Jett could argue.

“Be quick,” he called after us.

The rain was falling so heavily, we dashed for the store, eager to take refuge. Through the glass windows I could see Jett and Kenny’s eyes following our every move. Figuring we had no time to waste, we headed straight for the counter.

“We need more pregnancy tests,” Sylvie said to the same lady, who’d served us on our first visit. “One from each brand you have in stock.”

The woman nodded and smiled at me, probably sensing my turmoil.

“Oh, and a pack of aspirin,” Sylvie added, nodding toward the window.

“Why do you need so many?” I whispered, pointing to the tests.

She shrugged. “What if they’re faulty? We want to be sure either way.”

We paid quickly, hid the pregnancy tests inside Sylvie’s huge designer bag, and walked out holding the plastic bag containing the aspirin.

“Thanks,” I whispered to her before we reached the car. I really appreciated her support.

“You know I’m always here for you, no matter what.”

With a questioning glance aimed at me, Jett started the engine and joined the main traffic, heading for the bank.

“Where’s the paper?” he asked as soon as he had parked the car. Kenny handed it to him and Jett folded it in half.

“Okay, this is what we do next,” Jett said. “You stay here with the girls while I meet with my bank advisor and pretend I have to transfer money to two accounts. Don’t come after me and don’t leave the car.”

“Got it,” Kenny said. And then Jett was gone.

***

The silence in the car felt awkward. Sylvie played with her hair, Kenny stared out the windows, and I was busy fidgeting with the hem of my shirt. I used the moment to get a good look at Kenny, not least because he seemed to genuinely care about Sylvie and I sort of wanted her to date one of Jett’s friends.

From up close, I couldn’t deny Kenny was attractive. His strong features and cropped dark hair gave him a somewhat rough and manly edge—quite the opposite of Sylvie, who looked as sweet as a pie. If someone could see past the tattoos that covered half of his neck, his left arm, and his whole shoulder and back—or so I was told—he might just scrub up well enough to meet Sylvie’s rich parents. I smiled at the prospect, until I realized he lacked two important features: money and success. Sylvie never talked much about her parents, but it was enough to know they valued social status higher than personality.

“The spreadsheet’s the only thing you found so far?” Sylvie asked Kenny.

“No.” He threw us a fleeting look over his shoulder. “I’ve discovered a whole lot of other stuff, but it’s all irrelevant.”

Focus on I.

He had not yet shared his findings with Jett. I swallowed hard.

As if on cue, Kenny’s eyes rested on me. His expression was impassive, but his eyes twinkled. I couldn’t help but feel slightly alarmed. Did he know? Could he somehow have tapped into our search engine history and stumbled upon the word ‘pregnancy?’

“What stuff?” I narrowed my gaze and a silent warning passed between us.

“Favorite bookmarks like certain sports pages, Facebook pages and Wikipedia. Cookies people always fail to delete… that sort of thing.” He didn’t smile, but his dark blue eyes twinkled again. “Like I said, all irrelevant.”

My heart banged hard against my ribs.

He knew.

I could see it in his eyes. Hear it in his words.

“I guess he wasn’t careful enough,” I suggested, meaning I hadn’t been careful enough to erase any traces and because I was the soon-to-be owner, Kenny probably thought the info material on pregnancies concerned me.

“I’m good at this stuff. I pick things up. It’s like they just fall into my lap.” Kenny leaned back in his chair and put his iPod on speakers, the sound of hard rock making me even more nervous.

Damn it, Stewart.

Of course deleting the browser history wasn’t good enough when it came to hiding something from a professional hacker. Sylvie and I forgot to clear the cookies, and that’s probably one of the first things someone like Kenny would check before trying to recover previous versions of the hard drive. I was ready to bet my pay check he could probably retrieve any sort of information, including the time one used the internet long after I reset the browser.

“What is he talking about?” Sylvie whispered.

I shrugged and shook my head.

After what felt like half an hour, Jett finally left the bank. My stomach fluttered as I watched him cross the street. Tall. Mesmerizing. Dark hair and perfect bone structure. A body to die for. It made me almost anxious to know he was with me.

He opened the car door and slumped into the driver’s seat. From the way he threw the bag to Kenny before slamming the door shut, I could tell he was angry.

“Anything?” Kenny asked, switching off the music.

“Nothing.” Jett started the engine and steered the car out of the parking lot, his face emotionless. He was pissed big time though, which was obvious from his driving—faster than usual.

“What did—” Sylvie began. I elbowed her gently and shook my head, my gaze uttering a silent warning.

Jett’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until the white of his knuckles showed through his skin, but he remained quiet. Knowing Jett, letting him calm first was the only way anyone would get him to talk. He’d start the conversation when he was ready.