Temptations - The Complete Series Read online

  "Nobody can hold their own against something like that. Don't ever think that you can. So please Serena, stop. Stop going down that path. There's nothing there for you and you might end up in trouble or worse."

  "Slade, listen. If this lead ends up helping you get acquitted, then that's all that matters to me."

  "Find another path Serena."

  "We will look for another path. Believe me when I tell you this. But we have to turn over every stone."

  "No, Serena. Either your team lays off this line, or I'll fire your firm from my case."

  I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing from him. "It's that important to you?"

  "Yes. I would sooner go to the death chamber than to see you get involved with elements such as the Garancinos."

  "I can't ask Malcolm to not go down that road. Your legal team is bound by the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, which means that we're bound to give you a vigorous defense. That means that we must, ethically, follow every lead wherever it might go."

  "You work for me. Malcolm works for me. I call the shots. I'm telling you not to go there. That supersedes any kind of theoretical concerns about the Sixth Amendment and you know this. You know this, as an attorney Serena. Now, I'm telling you, I'm ordering you, to quit on this. If you don't, then I'll have no choice but to find another firm. You might be stubborn about this, but Malcolm won't be. He needs my millions, and he needs the exposure that he's getting. My case has put your firm on the map. Malcolm won't give that up for all the oil fields in the Middle East."

  I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but, by looking at Slade's determined jaw, I knew that this was a battle of wills that I was bound to lose. "Okay. I'll call Malcolm and tell him to stop going down this road. But the prosecutor’s already on it and she's not going to be bound by your wishes."

  "The prosecutor will find nothing. She'll find a cold path. Michael is dead, and he was acting alone. Even if he weren't acting alone, but he was acting on behalf of the other Garancinos, that doesn't matter. The prosecutor won't find the thread. She can try all she wants, but she won't get anywhere with this."

  I shook my head. "Why are you so adamant about this?"

  "I just told you. I'm in love with you and I want to protect you."

  I involuntarily parted my lips and I touched them. I remembered what it felt like to have Slade kiss me, and I admitted to myself, finally, that I did feel the same about him as he did about me. "I don't know what to say."

  "I do. You're in love with me too. You know it, and I know it. I really can't stand the fact that I might lose you violently to a mobster."

  "You're not. I told you that I defend mobsters all the time. All the time. Mobsters make up a great deal of our business."

  "And I told you that mobsters aren't going to hit their own attorneys. But they will hit people who are behind giving them up."

  I felt like I was losing my breath as he continued to look at me with those penetrating eyes. I wasn't ready, though, to admit to him how I was feeling about him.

  He then kissed me, and, for some reason, his kiss burned even more than usual. There was something different about the feeling of his lips on mine, compared to what it felt like before. There was emotion behind his actions, feelings that I didn't know were there before. I had felt like I was falling for him, crazy, head over heels for him, before, but I had no idea that it might have been reciprocated. Now that I knew that it was, his kiss was that much more meaningful.

  "Slade," I finally said when our lips parted. "I can't do this. I can't just sit idly by while there possibly is a good lead on who did Jordan, not when your life is literally on the line. I can't, and you can't ask me to."

  "I'm not asking you to. I'm ordering you to." Then his hand came up to my face and he kissed my forehead. He held me close and I could feel his hardness. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. The subject is closed. I just need to feel your skin on mine."

  In spite of myself, I felt that I was losing to him. My body was, once again, betraying me. I felt my heart start to race as his hand gently, yet firmly, made its way from my shoulder and down to my chest. He cupped my breast and I parted my legs, almost involuntarily.

  In no time it seemed, he had carried me to his bed, our clothes were off, and we were devouring each other with our lips and tongues. I felt hungry, like I needed to be sated. My earlier irritation about the fact that Slade was trying to control me was soon forgotten as his masterful lips and tongue made their way to my nether-region, and he lightly, yet aggressively, licked and sucked and stroked that area. I reared back my head as I came, again and again. Then Slade sheathed his enormous manhood, and plunged it into me, which sent electricity all the way through my body. I never knew that sex, without pain, would be so glorious, and I thought that maybe I was healed from my previous addiction.

  After awhile, Slade groaned, lay down on top of me, and then rolled next to me. While he stroked my hair he said, “you have no idea what you do to me. The thought of losing you at this point…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to go there. I’m sorry, Serena, but this is for your own good.”

  I opened my mouth, determined that I was going to talk him out of his plan to fire our firm if we didn’t do what he wanted. “I understand, Slade, I really do. I know that I’m chasing a dangerous path by trying to find out more about whether or not Jordan had other dealers. But, Slade, I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we lose your case. And that’s a real possibility. Unless we get a decent lead on who else would have done this, then we’re kinda stuck with pursuing the drug dealer angle.”

  Slade said nothing, but I could tell that he was pissed. He turned away. “It’s late, and I need to get some sleep. I’m conducting business from here, even though I can’t be at the lab, obviously. So, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.”

  I felt disappointed, but I nodded my head. I closed my eyes, and I knew that Slade was trying to get rid of me. He was obviously angry and frustrated that I persisted in pursuing something that he didn’t want me to pursue. “I’ll see you soon?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.” His brick wall was definitely up, and I knew why. He didn’t want to continue to have feelings for me if there was a possibility that something might happen to me. Not that I blamed him – he had dealt with a lot of loss in his life, and apparently, he was going to imminently be dealing with the loss of his mother. I knew how he felt. That was the reason why I always tried to not get too close to people. I never wanted to feel the devastating hole that I felt when my mother was ripped from me. It was easier, far easier, to just not have deep feelings for anyone, and, that way, you never had to feel that kind of devastation.

  I nodded my head. “Okay, then, I guess…”

  He looked at me and his eyes pierced into me. He took my hand. “Please be careful.”

  “I will.”

  And, at that, I made my way out of his house and then promptly realized that my car wasn’t there. I went back in, feeling embarrassed that I didn’t think of that.

  Slade was on the phone. “Thanks, I’ll see you soon.” He looked at me. “I’m having my driver come and get you. Sorry about that. Just wait for him in the living room.”

  I shook my head. Slade wasn’t even going to drive me to my car. That wasn’t a good sign.

  That wasn’t a good sign at all.

  The next day, I called Hillary. I was concerned, of course, that she was going to find out that Michael Garancino was dead. If she found that out, she would naturally want to withdraw Santino’s plea agreement.

  “Hello, this is Hillary,” she said as she answered the phone.

  “Hillary, Serena Roberts,” I said tentatively.

  “Yes. I was just going to call you. Listen, the guy that Santino gave up is deceased. I know that I told your him that I would go ahead with the plea agreement, and I still might. Our office has some leads on some other elements that might have been involved with the transactions between Michael and Jordan.
I’ll see if they check out, and in the meantime, tell your client to sit tight.”

  I gulped. Slade’s voice was in my ears. There was nobody else who was dealing to Jordan, just Michael. I couldn’t help but think that this was also a lie, and Hillary was all but confirming this. “That’s great. Our investigators are looking into it as well. Hopefully, between our office and yours, we can start to unearth something.”

  “I’ll let you know. At first, I was furious when I found out that Michael was dead, but then when our investigators found that there might have been others involved, I wasn’t so angry anymore.”

  “Your office does work fast.”

  “We do sometimes. This is an important case, as you know, so I put a rush on finding out information.”

  “Take care, and keep me posted.”

  “You do the same.”

  We hung up, and then I called Santino. “Miss Serena,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “You know that Michael is dead, don’t you?”

  He paused on the phone. “Does this mean that the deal is off?”

  “No. Apparently there might have been others who were involved in the Michael and Jordan deal. The prosecutor is investigating these other leads. We’ll see where it goes, but, for now, the offer is suspended.”

  To my surprise, Santino was nonplussed about this. “Okay, Miss Serena. Call me when you find out more.”

  “I will.”

  We hung up and I had to resist the urge to call Slade. It seemed like our relationship, such as it was, was too up and down. I felt like I was getting whiplash all the time.

  Yet he said that he was in love with me. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but I felt the same about him. And that scared me to death. I was too attached, too close. He was a bit of a manwhore, or, at least, he used to be. Plus, he was facing life in prison or even the death sentence.

  And I still wasn’t entirely sure that he didn’t kill Jordan.

  Chapter 24

  That night, I had a dream. I was in the control room of Jordan’s lab. I had no idea how I knew that I was in this control room, as I hadn’t been there in reality, but I looked out and I saw that there was clearly a lab. I looked on the screen and I was able to see that everything that was happening in that room was being recorded. There were the images, surprisingly clear, of all that was happening. At the moment when I was being shown the images, there was nobody working. It was quiet, as it was apparently after hours.

  Then I noticed it. It was Jordan’s body, lying on the ground in a pool of blood. He had been beaten very badly, and he was obviously dead. I didn’t see anybody around, however. It was just Jordan.

  It was like I was a ghost, though, because I soon saw somebody come into the control room, and this person didn’t notice that I was there. The newcomer in the control room was a man, and he was dressed in a black hoodie and jeans. He was tall, about 6 ft, and lean. He sat down at the controls, and he pushed some buttons on the keyboard. He went through the video, frame by frame, until he got to the part where Jordan was being bludgeoned. He seemed to be an expert at editing, because, with a few strokes of the keys, he apparently erased a good portion of the video.

  I couldn’t see, however, who was on that video killing Jordan. The man at the keyboard was blocking my view, and this frustrated me.

  I held my breath, even though I knew that the shadowy figure at the controls couldn’t see me.

  Then I woke up. I looked around and the dogs were on the bed, giving me my morning kisses. This was their way of telling me that they needed to go out, and I laughed and opened the door to let them out. Then I put my running clothes on and grabbed a protein bar while I fed the dogs and gave them fresh water. I kneeled down and pet both of their heads while they ate. “You guys be good, mommy is going to go for a run.”

  They looked at me as if they understood, and I smiled. One thing was for sure – no matter what was going on in my life, these two dogs were my constants. They were always glad to see me, and they gave me unconditional affection and love. My life might be stressful – Slade’s moods were giving me fits, and my job, in general, was extremely challenging – but I could always look forward to the two dogs giving me kisses when I got home.

  I headed out the door and ran to the boardwalk of the beach. There were already people around, even though it was only 5 AM. Not a lot of people, because the restaurants weren’t quite open. As I got further down the boardwalk, I started passing enormous homes with large patios. These were the beach houses lining Mission Beach, whose boardwalk connected to Pacific Beach, and most of these homes were available for short-term rent. Once in awhile, I would catch somebody sitting outside one of those homes, sipping coffee, and I would wave and they would wave back.

  As I ran, there was something, in the back of my mind, that was nagging at me. There was something in my dream that seemed to have been cut off, but I realized that it might not have been cut off at all. I did wake up seemingly before I saw who altered the video, but there was something in the back of my mind that nagged me. I did see who had altered the video, but the memory of that was hazy.

  I tried to concentrate on my dream, as my legs and feet pounded the pavement. I had no idea if that would definitively show who killed Jordan, but I had the feeling that this was another lead.

  But what about the marijuana pill? That was the last thing that the spirit had shown me, and I figured that was a solid lead once Santino gave me the name of Michael. But it might have been deliberate misdirection on Jordan’s part. He apparently wanted our firm to go in the direction of Michael, even though Michael was dead, because perhaps Jordan wanted to get the associates of Michael into trouble.

  Then again, maybe this dream was just another piece of the puzzle. It would be, definitely, if I could just remember the part where I saw the face of the man in the hoodie.

  This was incredibly frustrating. The answer was right there and I was getting closer and closer to it; yet it seemed to be so far away.

  I was finally done with my run, headed home, showered, and packed the dogs up for the day care. I dropped them off and went into the office, prepared for another day.

  Malcolm appeared soon after I arrived. “Good news. The lead that Santino gave about Michael has led the prosecutor to file drug charges against Michael’s associate, Gianni. Gianni was apparently also involved with the marijuana pill transaction with Jordan. The prosecutor doesn’t know if Gianni is good for Jordan’s murder, but he’s in custody right now, and Hillary is trying to find some proof to make a murder charge stick. I’ll keep you posted, but Santino got his deal. We’re going to plead him out today.”

  “That’s good,” I said. I felt preoccupied for some reason as Malcolm spoke to me. Slade was bothering me, of course, but there was something else; something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

  “Is there anything wrong?” Malcolm asked me.

  I shook my head, trying to shake off the horrible feeling I had right at that moment. “No. What time are we pleading out Santino?”

  “1:30. We did a good job by him with this.”

  “Yes.” I took a deep breath. That nagging feeling that I got when I was running, earlier, was getting more and more unsettling.

  “Serena, you look pale. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

  “Actually, no,” I said. I attempted to stand, but my legs felt wobbly beneath me.

  “Let me get you a glass of water.”

  I just nodded my head and said nothing. I was unable to speak. I gripped the side of the desk with my hand because I needed the desk to steady me. My hand was shaking, absolutely shaking.

  Malcolm reappeared with a glass of water, and I took it with a very shaky hand. “Must be blood sugar issues,” I said to him, gulping down the water. “I sometimes have a problem with that.”

  But I hadn’t had a problem with blood sugar for quite awhile. I had long since learned how to eat before and after my run, so usually, my blood sugar was steady. Nonethe
less, I reached into my bag and brought out the nuts and dried fruit that I always carried with me for a snack. “This should make me feel better.”

  Malcolm was looking at me strangely. “I hope that it does. You are really looking pale and clammy.”

  I took a deep breath and then my legs just gave way beneath me.

  And that was the last thing that I remembered.

  Chapter 25

  I woke up in the hospital, and my brother Luke, of all people, was standing by my bedside. “Kid,” I said to him, stretching out my arms. “What are you doing here?”

  “I got a call. I guess that you have me down as your next of kin,” he said, hugging me back. It was so strange, knowing that Luke and I were okay. He hated me for so many years, and it wasn’t until his beautiful fiancée, Dalilah, convinced him to give me a chance that he actually did. We had been close ever since.

  “Where is that beautiful lady of yours?”

  “She’s out in the hallway. You want to talk to her?”

  “Of course. Bring her in.”

  At that, Dalilah came in and she, too, gave me a long hug. “Serena, we’ve been so worried about you,” she said to me.

  I furled my brows. “How long have I been down? I remember being in my office and not feeling well, and then, the next thing you know, I’m here and you guys are too.”

  “You’ve been out for about six hours. They haven’t been able to revive you, either.”

  “Six hours? How did you guys manage to get out here so quickly?”

  “Dalilah’s father flew us in on his plane. We came out here as soon as we got the call.” Then he shrugged. “Eh, it gives both of us an excuse to see you.”