A Kiss of Color: The Complete 3 Book Collection (36 page)

“Brandy came by while you were sleeping.” Xavier’s lips curved as he spoke of his sister. “She’s as glad as I am that you’re awake, and promises to spoil Isaiah senseless and be his favorite aunt.” He fell silent for a moment, his expression contemplative. “And I’m glad. It will give her something to do.” He frowned deeply, closing his eyes. “Hank wants a divorce.”

Helena felt as if her heart had been yanked out of her chest.

Hank wanted to divorce Brandy? The two had been married for nearly twelve years, and Helena happened to know for a fact that the man adored his wife! Everything from the way he looked at her to the manner in which he sent her gifts nearly constantly spoke of his affection for the blonde. How many times had Brandy told Helena how lucky she’d been to be able to marry for love with parents the way hers were?

Now, it was all crumbling around her.

“There’s no way Hank
actually
wants to divorce Brandy.” Helena returned lowly, her heart heavy. “This is something
they’ve
contrived to hurt her.” Even as she said it, Helena felt like she was the one personally hurting the attorney. Xavier and her parents were only doing this because she had chosen to help them instead of doing what she was told. Because she wanted to prove Xavier’s innocence, she was losing everything she held dear.

“Maybe she should go back.” The gray-eyed woman whispered lowly, guilt coursing through her veins. “This is something
we
did. She shouldn’t have to lose everything for it.”

But Xavier was already shaking his head, soothing the child that squirmed in his sleep against his chest. “She doesn’t want to. I’ve asked her a couple of times, but she refuses. I know she was upset about the divorce papers…they just came yesterday…but she says she’ll sign them because she doesn’t want Hank to suffer. God knows how Mom and Dad are manipulating him and his family.”

“Jesus.” Helena exhaled the word with a shudder before shaking her head. “How could they be so damn
cruel?”

Xavier’s mouth set in a tight line as his gaze went vacant, and Helena immediately regretted her question. She didn’t mean to make her lover remember things he might be better off forgetting. “They don’t like to deal with anything they can’t control. That’s all I know.” He gently raised his son to lay against his shoulder, rubbing his back gently. “But I’m going to fight them.
We
’
re
going to…as soon as we straighten out this whole mess with the company.”

The information was like a lightning bolt to Helena’s system. How could she have forgotten! The company and their accusations! The money and the time they’d spent in jail. Had Xavier managed to figure out what the hell was going on?

“Did you return the money?”

The question made Xavier’s mouth pull into a deep scowl. Rubbing with the utmost gentility over Isaiah’s head, he exhaled a long breath before speaking again. “Helena, when we got to the bank, the money had already been withdrawn.”

Helena’s eyes immediately widened in disbelief. “By whom? Who the hell would have the authority to withdraw that kind of money in your name?”

“I have no idea.” Xavier sighed. “All we know was that it was done from another branch south of the city, and that whoever did it must have had some serious paperwork to pull it off.”

The gray-eyed woman fell silent for a moment, in which Isaiah woke and begin to fuss softly. As if he had practiced the motion, Xavier passed the child to her with ease so that Helena could begin to nurse him.

When she looked down at her son, Helena saw a future bright and full of hope. He bolstered her optimism and managed to warm her heart, despite the steadily worsening situation they found themselves in. The last thing she wanted was for her son’s well-being to be in jeopardy. If they didn’t figure out who was behind this plot to ruin them, they might very well lose everything.

She would
not
let that happen.

“So…someone has stolen from you. From the company.”

The CEO nodded gravely. “Brandy’s gone out to hire a private investigator and see if she can find any more information. In the meantime...I have to put all my resources into getting to the bottom of this.”

“Of course.” Helena nodded. “Anything I can do to help, let me know.”

They’d been together for so long, and now they had officially started their family. She needed him to know that he wasn’t alone in this endeavor. She, too, had failed to see through the smokescreen when she’d agreed to have company money placed in her account. In her book, that made her just as culpable as her lover. They would work this out together – and when they found out who had caused this mess, the responsible party would pay for all this grief.

“You need time to recover, honey.” Xavier’s tone was firm, but gentle, as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You just rest for now. Brandy and I will try and figure this out. I don’t want you stressing yourself out over this. You’ve just given birth.”

Helena scowled, her gaze narrowing. “Don’t even try it, Xavier. You can’t possibly think I’m going to sit back and watch this happen. I’m going to help. In whatever way I can.”

The dark-haired man looked like he was about to protest, but when he caught sight of the determination in Helena’s eyes, his stiff muscles relaxed and he groaned, low in his throat. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

Helena allowed herself a small smile. “Xavier, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

Xavier chuckled lowly before he rose from the chair to settle carefully in bed with his family. Here, in the hospital, with just the three of them together, Helena could pretend that everything was going to be alright. That they could just remain in their little cocoon of happiness forever…though she knew that wasn’t the case.

Reality, she knew, was about to come crashing down on them.

It had only been two weeks, but those two weeks felt like an eternity. Since Xavier had brought his family home, he was faced with challenge after challenge – and he found himself torn between pouring his worries out to his lover and trying to keep her happy and healthy. The doctor mentioned that she would have a long road of recovery ahead, and it would be a couple of weeks before she would be back to her old self. She’d been placed on moderate bedrest, and though she was willing to do what it took to get better, she wasn’t happy about it. In fact, on several occasions she’d called Xavier a tyrant for refusing to let her out of bed before noon. But Xavier would far rather that than compromising her health.

Then, there were the other issues that had cropped up.

First and foremost, there was the hospital bill. The moment they had arrived at the establishment, Xavier had his lover placed in a private room, as had always been the plan. He had done so both to avoid attention from the media and to accommodate her and his new son’s comfort. However, the insurance that had allowed him to be able to book said room had been revoked while Helena was in the hospital. In fact, any and all benefits that he previously had with the company were disappearing as he rapidly lost control over his industry. Now, he was left with a monumental hospital bill close to one million dollars and wasn’t even allowed on the premises of his office.

When he’d first found out about the court order, Xavier had fought to control his anger. How could they shut him out of the company that he owned? Without him on the premises, how could they still function? He’d been trying to get in contact with Margaret for days to no avail. Meanwhile, Brandy attempted to work her magic so that all the details came together and they could eventually defend themselves.

All of them.

Every time Xavier gazed down at his newborn son’s face, he knew that they had to straighten things out for his sake. Isaiah needed his future assured…and Xavier needed his name cleared. However, the task would be easier said than done, especially since the charges seemed to be piling up.

There were the extortion charges, of course, and now fraud and conspiracy had joined the list. Helena had been his cohort and so, of course, any and all charges applying to him were hers as well; though the young woman’s only crime was loving him. The detective that Brandy had hired barely had any space to do his work as the media was constantly breathing down their necks.

Nonetheless, he had managed to find out a couple of things.

First and foremost: The company was trying to edge him out. That much, of course, Xavier knew already. They’d gone to great lengths to destroy him – whoever they were. He still couldn’t believe that it was the board doing all of this, but Xavier was beginning to wonder if he couldn’t blame everyone who worked for him. No one seemed to be willing to contact him to give him any information. It was like they all simultaneously turned on him with no warning whatsoever. Everything had been fine and dandy the last time he’d reported for work, and the next thing he knew, he’d been arrested. The only friends he had in the world were his sister and his lover.

Speaking of which…

He realized that he would have to postpone his plans of making Helena is wife. The timing wasn’t right. They were going through so many issues with money, property, the company and having a new baby that to ask her now would be to deny both of them the happiness the moment deserved. So, it was with a heavy heart that Xavier put away the ring he’d planned to present to Helena. He would give it to her when all of this blew over, and they could bask in the brilliance of the moment.

For now, there was a literal ton on their plate.

He was dealing with people who thought that he was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a criminal. Already, his refusal to speak to the media had branded him guilty. Every major news station worldwide had jumped in the bandwagon of proclaiming him an utter and complete monster. Apparently, he underpaid his employees, took a huge cut of company profits every year, and had embezzled from his company in order to build a vacation home on the Greek Isles.

Of course, none of these speculations had any shred of proof to back them up…or so he thought. As time passed, the private investigator that Brandy had hired unearthed pieces of information but by bit – all of which combined to make a fairly horrifying case against them.

Horace Wheeler had been in the business for over thirty years. He’d flown in from the east coast because he owed Brandy a favor and he was one of the few people the Thompsons hadn’t been able to intimidate or turn against their daughter. The man was old enough to be Xavier’s grandfather, graying and stooped, but his manner, Brandy attested, had nothing to do with the quality of his work. The bent, mustachioed man was incredibly discreet – to the point where he could slip in and out of the mass amounts of media personnel constantly stalking Xavier and his family with ease.

The news he brought back, however, was far from encouraging.

After Isaiah had been put to bed one night, Investigator Wheeler arrived from his daily run and assembled all of them in the living room. No matter how hard Xavier had worked to keep the extent of their situation from Helena, he knew he couldn’t hide the truth from her forever. What Wheeler told the three of them, however, was much worse than anything he could have said to her.

The man removed his jacket, sinking down onto the couch across from Xavier and Helena before glancing at Brandy. That, Xavier knew, was the signal for the blonde woman to get him a drink. Horace liked to have a whiskey nightcap every evening, and seeing as how he was doing them a tremendous service, Xavier didn’t see why he should deny the man his pleasures when they had more than their share of bottles.

Once Horace had his whiskey firmly in hand, he took a long swig before speaking. His sharp eyes scanned the room, moving over Xavier to Brandy, and finally resting on Helena before he cleared his throat. “You guys might want drinks as well.”

That bad.

Surprisingly, no one moved to get their own libation. Horace gave them a skeptical look before finally revealing his secrets.

“The structure of the company has been completely turned on its head. So far as I can tell, someone had probably launched this case in an attempt to take over the company and allocate the funds for private use. Those who worked directly under Mr. Thompson have all been replaced, and now there’s a completely new hierarchy. I haven’t been able to obtain any information about the board directly, but I know that they plan to confront Xavier in a meeting in the next one to two weeks. I’m assuming it will be their opportunity to make you do something incriminating.” This he directed at Xavier himself, and the CEO swallowed thickly.

They were going to try to
make
him confess? To a crime he didn’t commit? How the hell did they plan on managing that? Xavier didn’t plan on giving anyone a license to put him away. What he wanted to do was find out where the stolen money had gone, discreetly and as quickly as possible. Then, perhaps, he could be armed with this information before his enemy suspected.

His enemy.

The very idea seemed ridiculously cliché. Xavier had never associated making his fortune with his changing as a person. Indeed, Helena often said that he remained remarkably unchanged – unmoved by the funds he was raking in. But now, he realized that even though he hadn’t changed, his surroundings had. He was among wolves, that much was now quite clear. Whereas he might have been a bit naïve to trust everyone around him, he believed he had only hired those that saw the same goals for the company that he himself did.

Finding out that he was wrong was a bitter pill to swallow. Now, he not only had an enemy, but someone who had betrayed his trust in the most horrible of ways. They had managed to take not only his company from him, but also his reputation, his personal funds, and his safety net. To say the least, Xavier hardly felt at ease in their town anymore – not with a small son and Helena recovering from the trauma of her delivery.

And things were about to get worse.

“So if I have no specifics,” Xavier began haltingly, “How am I supposed to face the board? They believe that I embezzled millions of company dollars and lied about it. Atop that, the media is painting a picture of me as a common criminal. I have absolutely nothing.”