Billionaire's Secret: Exposing Jay: A Chicago Suits Romance (Loving Jay Book 2) (16 page)

“
R
ichard
? Wow, Sam never told us who she was bringing. Great to see you.” He took my extended hand and shook it. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been my boss, moments before Calvin released the email to the entire company.

“We’re just friends.” Sam pointed at each and every one of us to punctuate her point.

“Hello Mr McAllister,” Richard said when Jay entered the room.

“Oh please Richard, he’s James in this house.”

“I am?”

“Yes, you are. Richard is here as Sam’s guest.”

“Hi!” Jenny and Marla said in unison as they walked into the house.

“You found us.”

“How could we not? It’s too big to miss.” Jenny blushed as she realized she’d said that in front of Jay.

Jay kissed the cheeks of Sam, Jenny and Marla. Jenny and Marla’s dates stood behind them.

“Collin,” I said rushing up to him, “How are you? It’s been so long, I can’t believe you’re back in town!” It’d been years since I’d last seen him, and gave him a big hug.

“This is Marla’s date Trent.” Jay shook their hands and I smiled at them.

“I don’t know what I want first, to see the wedding photos or have a tour of your house.” Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the cavernous entrance hall.

* * *

“
W
ell
, it’s a bit bigger than your condo.”

“Whatever Jenny. This is the craziest thing of all, we’re standing on the floor of the indoor swimming pool!” We’d left the men behind and I’d taken them through the ground-floor rooms and down to the basement. Or I should say lower level. We’d had to breeze through the rooms, in order to get back to the guys in a reasonable about of time.

“Shut up.” Sam’s over-excitement caused her head to waggle and her curls to bounce. I raised my eyebrows, remembering how shocked I had been when I’d found out.

“Come this way, I want to show you his horse trophy room. It’s incredible, the smell of leather is incredible. And there’s pictures of Jay as a little boy, with him mom holding him on a horse. It’s so cute.” I loved the pictures of Jay as a child, of him being all cute and innocent but still with the same hint of charisma in his eyes. I really wanted to show them one.

They followed along behind me and we stopped in front of the door of the horse room. I took hold of the door latch and tried to open it, but the door was locked. I rattled it, twisting and pushing again but it didn’t budge.

“I guess Jay locked it, another time.” Why did Jay lock it? I didn’t remember there being anything valuable. Maybe it was sentimental value.

“You are showing me your sex palace.”

“Sam!” Marla smacked her.

“No, it’s fine. You guys want to see my bedroom? Come on, and I’ll show you all the clothes he bought me!”

I led them to the elevator and pushed the button.

“Are you kidding me? And elevator? My goodness lady, this is insane.”

We entered Jay’s bedroom,
our
bedroom.

“Here, there’s some pictures of Jay of a kid in this room.” I moved to the side table with all the framed snap shots. I scanned them for the ones of him as a child, but even though the frames were the same, the childhood pictures of him had been replaced with photos from our wedding.

“Holy cow, you weren’t kidding about the see-through dress,” Sam said.

“It’s beautiful though, Abbie you look stunning,” Jenny said.

“And tasteful. I would never have guessed a sheer dress could be so sophisticated,” Marla said.

“Well, it is Vera Wang.”

“We’d better get back, Trent will kill me for abandoning him for so long,” Marla said.

“How did you meet Trent?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. He’s a partner at my recruitment agency.”

* * *

R
osie set
elaborate plates of food in front of each of us. Food I couldn’t identify but it smelt delicious. Some kind of meat in some kind of sauce displayed in the prettiest fashion.

The eight of us chatted easily, and I was glad to see my closest friends hitting if off so well with Jay. He charmed them with his charismatic ways, the men as well as the women, and my heart overflowed with love for him.

At a lull in the conversation, Trent said, “Jay, you must certainly be glad you had Abbie headhunted into Force McAllister.”

“What?” I set my fork on my plate.

“Yes, Jay had us approach…”

Jay cleared tapped his fork on his glass until he had everyone’s attention. Everyone’s but mine. What did Trent mean Jay had me approached? Jay stood and gave a little speech but I only tuned into it at the end.

“To Abbie,” he said raising his glass.

“To Abbie,” everyone said in unison and raised their glasses in response. All eyes were on me and I blushed. I hadn’t heard what Jay said, what were the chances he’d acknowledged Trent’s comment?

I waved at the cars and closed the front door after the last one had pulled away from the house.

“Jay, what did Trent mean, you had me headhunted?”

“I don’t know.” He walked out of the entrance hall to the living room. I sped after him.

“You do know. Of course you know. Otherwise you wouldn’t have cut Trent off.” I’m tired of this. Every time I think he’s not hiding anything else, another thing comes up.

“Beautiful, I’m not…”

“I’m your wife now. We can’t have any secrets. Stop hiding things from me.”

“I don’t know what it is you think I’m hiding.”

“Why did you lock your horse room?”

He shrugged. “Habit.”

“Habit to lock a room in your house?”

“Keeps the staff out. I don’t like them in there, they move stuff around.”

Jay always had a plausible explanation. I never knew whether to believe him.

“What did Trent mean?” My voice was forceful. I would not back down, I hoped. My heart pounded in my ears.

“You should have asked Richard. It’s his department, how should I know?”

“Aargh!”

* * *

A
ll weekend
I’d slept as near to my edge of the bed as possible. I hid in one of many the rooms all weekend, on the pretext of working. Jay didn’t press me for anything. It seemed like he was giving me space.

I
was relieved
when Monday morning came around, I needed to get some space and think more about what Trent had said.

“Hi Abbie,” Peter said as he dropped my mail onto my desk at work.

“Thanks Peter.”

I flicked through the envelopes looking for a document I needed to sign when I came to a mysterious pink envelope that had been mailed. It was addressed to Abbie McAllister. Only a handful of people knew about our marriage. But I couldn’t think of a reason any of my friends would mail a card to my work.

I slit open the envelope with my thumb and pulled out the folded paper inside.

That was it, nothing else. No signature. Nothing else in the envelope. I shook from my core. This blackmailing was getting out of hand. If Jay wasn’t going to go to the police about it, then I would.

As confused as I was about my feelings towards him I would not let anything happen to him. I loved him far too much for that.

Without touching it more than I had to, in case there were fingerprints on it, I slipped the letter and envelope into a large folder. With it firmly gripped in my hand, I left the office and walked to the nearest police station.

* * *

A
t first the
police hadn’t taken me seriously. Then I told them the letter was referring to James McAllister, a billionaire. The police officer filled out some paperwork and took the folder with the letter from me.

I gave them Calvin’s name but didn’t know his address.

“Thank you.” I turned and left, not convinced they would do anything useful.

* * *

“
H
i Beautiful
.” Jay pulled me into him after I’d gotten home, but I kept my arms at my side.

“I’m worried about the blackmail.” I’d already decided not to tell him about getting the police involved, knowing he’d be angry. I was the person who was angry, he had no right to be.

“Don’t be, it’s fine. It’s no big deal.”

“How do I know that isn’t just another of your lies?”

“What lies?” I pushed my body away from his and looked deep into his brown eyes.

“Like the way you lied about not wanting your picture taken because you’re insecure about your looks.”

He tilted his head to the side, almost rolling his eyes.

“You know why I said that.”

“Yeah
now
, after Calvin exposed your lie. What other lies are you telling me?”

“None.”

“But then what did Trent mean about you having me headhunted?”

“I told you. I don’t know!” He hadn’t raised his voice at me very many times, and it unnerved me a little but I was determined not to back down.

“This is what you meant when you said you wanted me for years. Not that you meant you’d wanted to settle down with someone. You wanted
me
. How did you know who I was?” My hands balled into fists as I spoke, so tight my fingernails dug into my palms.

“I’m not hiding anything from you.”

“Is it really your reputation that matters more to you than money? Or is it something else, like another little tidbit of information you’re trying to keep secret from me?”

“Abbie, no. There’s nothing. Stop with your baseless accusations.” His teeth were gritted, and I’d had enough.

“You are just like Matt!”

“I am nothing like Matt, NEVER accuse me of that.”

We were in the entrance hall, I hadn’t gotten any further into the house. I turned on my heels and stormed out the door. Found the Tony the driver in the garage and demanded he take me to Jenny’s house.

I hadn’t even had time to grab my toothbrush or a clean pair of underwear.

* * *

J
ay texted
me I don’t know how many times. I hadn’t responded. Not even once. Tony told him I was staying at Jenny’s. At least he hadn’t turned up at her door.

I called in sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. After much debate, I went into work on Thursday. If nothing else, I needed something to distract me from all my thoughts before I drove myself insane.

There’s no doubt in my mind Jay is hiding something. How did he find out about me? If Trent was right and Jay had me hunted down and given a job, how on earth did he know who I was? I’m a nobody.

The more worrying thing is why he won’t tell me. If he’d come across me walking through my old company Hamilton’s, why didn’t he just say so? What possible reason could there be for him not telling me?

* * *

T
hat night
, on Jenny’s sofa, I decided there was only one way I’d ever find out the truth about James McAllister. The same way I’d found out the truth the first time. Calvin.