Page 31 of The Attraction

Without warning, Forrest places a gentle hand on my knee and holds it still. A funny warmth spreads up my leg, and the shock of him doing that is enough to stop it bouncing, and without even making eye contact with me, his hand is gone again. But just that action was enough to startle me and make me stay in the here and now. His knee is now pressed against mine ever so gently, but I can’t stop concentrating on the feel of his touch that has pushed my fear into the background while I concentrate on Forrest and what Ashton is saying.

Ashton then starts explaining who he is and his background, which I know our teams have already looked into, and everything he says checks out.

“But I know you don’t really care who I am or what I had for breakfast.” Ashton, trying to keep things light, has been giving me the courtesy of directing his dialogue mainly to me, which I appreciate.

“Well, if you are like me when I fly,” Sandon chimes in, “for a day afterwards, I have no idea what meal I’m eating, and they all just seem like breakfast to me. Something to eat and the strongest coffee you can find to keep you awake to get on to the right time zone.”

“I agree.” Ashton smiles at me. “I’m lucky, though, to be flying here on our private company jet that we bought a few years ago. Have to say it makes the flying experience a whole lot easier.”

I don’t say anything because Sandon is probably the only one in the room who doesn’t have the luxury of flying in a private jet every time he leaves the country.

A deep growly voice unexpectedly comes from beside me. “Can we get on with this?” Forrest is impatient, and we all know that, but it’s no need to be rude. I glare at him to tell him to close his mouth and not open it again in this meeting.

The silent remark I got back in his look was one that basically told me that I can’t stop him from talking.

Just watch me, asshole.

“Certainly.” Ashton gets a little more serious in his reply. “So, there are some things that I won’t be able to tell you because they are covered under privacy of the case I’m working, and I’m sure you all understand that.” We nod in unison. “When I am talking about that part, I will just generalize to keep connecting the dots for you.” Ashton leans down to his bag at his feet and pulls out his laptop which obviously has his notes on it.

“Harper, I will send a brief to you and to the two security teams of the basic information you need.” I am glad he is including me in my life.

“Twelve months ago, we started following several high-powered mafia men in Chicago who were threatening a client of ours. It was at first just a business issue, but then it became personal when he wouldn’t give in to their intimidation.” He looks around to make sure we are all still following him.

“When we started to dig into these guys, of course we found so much corruption that it’ll take a while to sift through to see what’s worth using and what’s just not worth fighting about, because it’s either not as important or there is no way you can win. My company is good, but we aren’t miracle workers. Cleaning up the dark parts of any city takes more than one team, if you know what I mean. You protect your client and walk away from the rest. Or pass it on to the feds and let them deal with it.” Ashton types in his passwords and then uses facial recognition on his phone to open his two-factor authorization. You can see he takes security seriously.

“It’s the same here,” Rem agrees with him. “When you touch something that may involve you, it’s just go in and extract the information you need, and then get the fuck out. We aren’t the authorities.”

“Exactly,” Ashton replies.

The more they are talking, I start to see that I have no idea what our security team does, and I don’t think I want to know.

“Now I know the situation with your father happened so many years ago, but the money trail for the American side of the business showed up in our searches to do with mafia money. Thirteen million dollars were transferred to an account in your father’s business’s name and then withdrawn, and from what we can understand from our side, it just disappeared. Most likely drawn out in cash by the mafia and then hidden. But the problem was that money, the thirteen million dollars, was your father’s downfall. And part of that cash that was withdrawn was the money he invested for Chester Tema’s parents. Any interest in you or your father was quiet while he was in jail for your father’s murder, but it seems now we are getting internet pings on your father’s name, and then your name, being one of the executors of Ronald’s estate. As you aren’t married, he could find you easily, but your mother has remarried, and her name has changed, and your sisters weren’t named so much when it all went down, so he hasn’t connected them to this money yet.”

Taking in everything Ashton is saying, I’m slightly relieved that my family aren’t in this drama, but that’s not to say they won’t be as it progresses.

“One thing that we know is that there is no connection between Chester Tema and the case that I’m working. He isn’t part of the mafia, nor did he have any knowledge or connection to the inner workings of your father’s business. From what we can work out, he is just a mentally unstable man who is fixated on getting his money, and we think in his mind that he believes you have it.”

“Great, so I have a stalker who is mentally unstable. So much more comforting to know, and oh, and he isn’t part of the mafia, also good news apparently. Fuck, let’s throw a party to celebrate the small win.” With my anger rising, my inner bitch is creeping to the surface.

“Harper.” Forrest saying my name makes me turn to him, and it’s enough to really fire me up.

“What? You want me to sit here and be happy that my fucked-up life could be worse and that I should be grateful? This isn’t you it’s happening to, it’s me, asshole.” In my head I realize I call him that a lot. I really need to find a better pet name for him than asshole. And also, to keep reminding myself he is trying to help me, he’s not the enemy.

He doesn’t react to the words I’ve just blasted at him, like they have just washed over him. Turning his focus back to Ashton, he asks the question we all want to know. “Let’s be real here. How big a threat is Chester to Harper? Has he got the intelligence to work out how to get to London undetected, or the ability and contacts to get here from another country?” He is blunt, no emotion, just asking for the hard truths before Ashton is even finished telling us everything.

“Yeah, what he said.” I sit back in my seat again to face everyone, sounding like a child while it sinks in how protective Forrest really is of me.

“I get it, you don’t really care about my case. And at the moment the risk is low, he is not a sophisticated man, and we think he is just stalking the internet because he can, now that he’s free.” Pausing, Ashton looks around the room. “But that is not to say that him sniffing around this money trail won’t create other interest in Harper and a case that was dead and buried long ago. That’s where I come in. My job is to make sure the mess I’m following stays in its own lane and Chester finds a new hobby.”

“And if he doesn’t?” I ask with absolute trepidation in my voice. And the moment the words leave my mouth, my leg starts bouncing again, only to have Forrest’s hand weigh it down and give me something else to focus on.

“Then we move to plan B and we get more serious,” he replies bluntly.

“And plan B is?”

“Not for you to worry about. That’s what these guys are for.” Ashton points to both Sandon and Remington. I want to stand up and stomp my feet like a toddler at the fact that they are talking about my life, but suddenly, there is a part of me that doesn’t want to know what he means.

“Then I suggest all of you make sure this thing doesn’t get past plan A. Understood?” I try to sound forceful, but I’m not sure I succeed.

---