Off Limits: A Bad Boy Romance Read online

I nodded. “I want him taken into police custody.”

  The man nodded. “So do we. If something happens to Hale outside of the prison system, my enemies will make sure to pin it on us. However, within the prison walls, things are . . . different.”

  I turned and looked out at the ocean. The consequences of my decision would be a lot different than what I’d originally planned. I had to know the truth, unabashed. “Are you planning on having him killed?”

  The man shrugged. “I can’t speak for the future, but let’s just say that I plan to exact some payback for his past transgressions.”

  “As in?”

  The man grinned. “He’s going to spend quite a few weeks walking bowlegged. Now, how about a little fishing?”

  * * *

  When Vince and I got back to the hotel, Rita and Alix were waiting for us. “After so much time at her place, I thought the four of us could go out for a nice evening off,” Alix said, “so I booked us a reservation at Night Market. You guys up for Thai food?”

  “Sure, I love Thai food,” Vince said, then looked at Rita, his head cocked to the side. “What?”

  “It’s not your typical Thai food,” she said, coming over and kissing his cheek. “But you might enjoy it. I do hope you have something more formal than your perennial jeans and t-shirt.”

  Vince shook his head sadly. “No, ma’am. Sorry.”

  I clapped Vince on the shoulder and laughed. “It’s okay. You and I are close enough in size that you can borrow a sport coat of mine. Throw that on top of some clean jeans and a fashionable shirt, and you’ll be able to get away with it.”

  Just as I finished, the phone rang, not giving Vince a chance to respond. “Hello?”

  “Kade, it’s Layla. How are you?”

  I blinked, shocked. “Uhm, hi, Layla. I’m doing okay, I guess. How can I help you?”

  “Derek’s memorial service is Monday, and I . . . I didn’t want that to happen with animosity between us. Is Alix there?”

  Alix, whose eyes had widened and was standing in front of me with her hands clasped at her chest and her face full of questions, looked at me in a near panic. I nodded and held up my hand. “Yes, she’s right here. I’m going to put you on speaker phone. Just a second.”

  I set the phone down on the table. Rita and Vince looked at each other and faded back into the bedroom, closing the door politely behind them. I turned on the speaker and reached for Alix’s hands. “Go ahead, Layla.”

  “Alix?”

  “I’m here, Mom,” Alix said, tears trickling from her eyes. “I . . . I miss you, Mom.”

  There was a choking sound on the other end of the line, and I knew that Layla was fighting back tears as well. “I miss you too, honey. Oh, Alix, I’m so sorry about what I said and did in the hospital. I know it wasn’t your fault, I’m so sorry . . . ”

  “I’m sorry too, Mommy,” Alix said, breaking down. She put her head in my shoulder and sobbed, both women crying for a few minutes. “Mom, I want to see you.”

  “Me too, baby. Can you two come to the house? It’s your house too, you know. I’ve been a fool in that regard too.”

  I looked at Alix, who looked over at the bedroom door. “What about Rita and Vince?”

  “You made plans for the night already,” Layla said, overhearing Alix’s question. “I understand.”

  I shook my head. “No, Layla, we’ll be there. Tell you what: how about, instead of us coming to the house, you come out with us? We’re taking two close friends out to dinner as a bit of a celebration, and I think it would make the night complete if you were there too.”

  Layla’s voice came back, curious. “Kade. Celebrating?”

  “Yes,” I said, thinking quickly. “I asked Alix to marry me, Layla. I know it’s weird, and I know this might be awkward, but . . . ”

  “I’ll be there,” Layla said with finality. “Where and when?”

  “How about we come pick you up?” I said instead. “Alix’s car can easily seat five. We’ll just stick Rita in the middle in the back, between you and Alix.”

  “Okay. I think I’d like to meet your friends anyway. When can I expect you?”

  I looked at Alix, who smiled and wiped at her eyes. “As soon as we can get changed, Mom. Nothing too formal, but say, not casual either? I’m going with a summer dress I have.”

  “Okay, honey. Alix . . . I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mom. See you at the house.”

  CHAPTER 30

  ALIX

  Salinas, California is supposed to be the center of the California wine country. It’s situated in an area a few miles inland of the Big Sur coastline region, and is located in the middle of the biggest grape producing valley in California.

  The reality of Salinas is that it’s a pretty poor area, actually. With lots of undocumented immigrants, migrant farm laborers, and not a lot of good schools, Salinas is a picturesque crap-hole of a town. Gangs and gang violence are always bubbling beneath the surface of the town, and even when I’d come up to do modeling shoots, my agency had been very specific about me being in and out of town during daylight hours only.

  Still, driving down main street, the town looked pretty. “This place looks nice enough to me,” Rita said, looking around. “It looks like an old-fashioned small town.”

  “Mostly,” Vince said. He pointed toward a store on his right. “But check out the wall on the corner there.”

  I looked, seeing lots of spray-painted graffiti, and nodded. Indecipherable to me, it was still a clear sign that there was lots of violence in the area. “So what now?”

  “Now, we put out the bait, let Sydney try and bite, and deliver him to Vince’s friends,” Kade said. “Then we go back for Dad’s service.”

  “It was a nice touch that Layla, even when she was so angry, delayed the service so you could attend,” Vince said. “Just sayin’.”

  “Well, I am his son, but yes, I agree.” Kade said. “Go ahead and park here. Rita, do you have a wireless signal?”

  “Strong and clear,” she said. “What do you need?”

  “Have you gotten any more updates on Syd’s location?”

  “None. He’s gotten wise about Web usage, and that hit at the ATM certainly wasn’t him.”

  Considering that the feed had shown a woman, I nodded at the understatement. “Probably another one of his targets,” I muttered. “So are you ready?”

  Rita nodded and pulled out her cellphone. “It’s wirelessly linked to this computer, so I can upload it to his email without him getting my number. If he thinks he’s got security measures, he can’t even imagine what I’ve got going on here.”

  I nodded and got out of the car, making sure that a large sign for Salinas was in the background. I looked in at Kade, who nodded and gave me a thumbs up. Time to go to work.

  I’m not much of an actress, one of the reasons I never went in that direction, but it wasn’t hard to work up some tears and anger in my voice. After all, the bastard had blackmailed me, hit me, cheated on me, tried to either kill or rape me, and had certainly tried to kill Kade. When I was ready, I hit the record button on the phone.

  “Syd, I tracked you down. You ruined my life, you son of a bitch, and I can’t take it anymore. Kade’s left me, my Mom hates me, I can’t work any longer . . . motherfucker, I can’t do it anymore. So, you win. You have my phone number, call me. Tell me how much it will take to get you off my back forever, get those files deleted, and get a new start on my life. Please, Syd.”

  I shut off the camera and wiped at my eyes, quickly getting back into the car. Rita handed me a couple of tissues, and I blew my nose noisily. “Well, that’s certainly not dainty.”

  “Can it, Vince,” Rita said, not even lifting her eyes from her computer as she typed. “Just make sure your boys are ready when Syd calls to set something up. He’s too arrogant not to.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Rita grinned and tapped the touchpad on the laptop. “Good boy. Now we wait.”

&n
bsp; We didn’t have to wait long, Sydney must have had a phone notification or something set up on his email. My phone rang, and I looked. Syd. “Hello, Sydney.”

  “So Alix, coming to your senses, are you?”

  “I’m still not coming back to you, Sydney. I’d rather jump into the Pacific off Big Sur.”

  Sydney’s evil laugh chilled me, and I had to resist hanging up right then. I wondered again, for perhaps the millionth time, how I could have fallen for Sydney. “Alix, I don’t want a relationship with you anymore. I just want money, and perhaps some sugar. You think you can do that?”

  “You still want to fuck me,” I said, a quick grin flashing across my features as Kade’s fists tightened in his lap in the front seat. “Fine. What the fuck ever. Get your fucking rocks off, as long as you delete the damn files. I want them all deleted, Syd. And you take down the videos of me and Kade from the websites you put them up on.”

  “You know that won’t ensure they won’t pop up in the future.”

  “It’s a start,” I said, letting him think I was deluded. It’s the Internet, once something hits it, it almost never comes off. I knew that very clearly. I grew up in modeling and in the Los Angeles area. “Where and when?”

  “There’s a motel, just north of the Northridge Mall on Main Street. The Bluebird of Happiness. Meet me there in forty-five minutes. No car, you walk up and I’ll meet you in the parking lot. We can talk money and sugar then.”

  The phone went dead in my ear, and I pulled it away, wiping at my ear like his words were some sort of infectious disease that I had to clean away. “Bluebird of Happiness motel, forty-five minutes from now,” I informed them, “and I’m supposed to be alone, no car.”

  “Not a problem,” Vince said. “That sort of thing can be dealt with. Sydney will be looking for Kade, your BMW, stuff like that. A couple of guys hanging around will barely register on his radar. He’s a photographer, for crying out loud.”

  “Good point,” Kade said. “Come on, let’s go.”

  As it was, the motel was only about two blocks from the mall, so we decided to park there. On the way, Vince called his contact, informing him of the conversation between Syd and myself. He spoke quickly, then hung up. “They’re going to meet us in the Disney Store of the mall with time to spare.”

  “Disney store? Really?” I asked. “What the hell for, someone needs a pair of Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas?”

  “Probably because they don’t think Sydney would have anyone there who would tip him off,” Rita said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Vince said, glancing in the rearview mirror.

  “Okay, so what now?” I asked.

  Kade grabbed a hat and pair of non-prescription eyeglasses, slipping them on. It didn’t take away much from his physical presence, but it did obscure his face. “Let’s go. Sydney doesn’t know Vince or Rita, so you two can follow behind more closely than I can. I’ll be in the mall, maybe a store or two away. You guys can call me if you need help.”

  We split up, taking different routes into the mall. I saw Rita and Vince holding hands and looking like any other young couple when I turned around on the escalator like I was looking around, although I wondered if Vince was able to focus as much as Kade would have wanted. His face wore such a stupidly happy look. Then again, I guessed I wore the same expression a lot, based off of the way Mom looked at me the night before at dinner.

  Inside the Disney Store, I stood close to the DVD sales rack, pretending to decide whether I should choose between the re-issue of Aladdin or if perhaps Big Hero 6 was more my taste. I checked my watch and saw that I had only fifteen minutes to make Sydney’s deadline, and I was about to go when a conservative-looking man in chinos and a jean jacket came up to me. “Nice choice. I have a nephew who is nuts over the Avengers though.”

  “Thanks. But I’m shopping for a young child.”

  “Good to know,” he said. “So shall we go? I believe we only have twelve minutes to make your deadline.”

  I nodded, and we turned to leave. I caught Rita out of the corner of my eye and she nodded slightly, her and Vince leaving soon after. As the man and I headed toward the exit, he spoke quietly. “I hope that Vince and the girl with him don’t follow us the whole way. I already have men at the motel, they’re waiting to move as soon as Sydney shows his face. They’re not even worried about getting a confession or evidence; our connection within the LAPD tells us they already have a slam-dunk case of blackmail and extortion on him.”

  “And once he’s arrested?”

  “No offense Miss Nova, but you don’t strike me as the type of person who wants the details about what will happen to him. At least, not if you want to sleep at night.”

  “Fine,” I said. “And if things go bad?”

  “My men are used to this stuff. Sydney’s an amateur. If we had the evidence we have now, we’d have done this a long time ago.”

  We were at the corner, and I could see a Denny’s with four motorcycles parked outside, along with men who looked a lot like my escort. “Your boys?”

  “Just the distraction, in case Hale’s got his own backup. My real boys are already in position.”

  I saw the sign for the Bluebird of Happiness ahead, and my escort nodded. “There. I’m peeling off now. I’ll be there though. Relax, and best of luck.”

  I looked around as I walked, seeing that Rita and Vince had disappeared from sight, although I thought I could see Kade in his hat and glasses about a hundred yards behind me on the other side of the street. Taking a deep breath, I finished walking toward the motel. Turning into the parking lot, I looked around for the main office.

  I was halfway toward it when a horn beeped behind me, and Sydney waved from a car that was pulling into the driveway. I squinted, pretending not to see who it was, and he beeped again. Playing dumb, I looked around like I was blocking his path, and stepped back and out of the way, across the lot from him. I wanted him out of his car, and whoever might be in there from being able to intervene. It was a ploy, but one that I hoped would be effective.

  Thankfully, it worked. “Get over here, you dumb bitch,” Syd said, opening his door and getting halfway out. “Jesus, you are as stupid as you are hot.”

  Things went tremendously fast then. Three men, clear bikers from their clothing, stepped out of the bushes and the area surrounding Sydney’s car. Two of them were carrying pistols while another racked a pump-action shotgun. “Hello, Syd.”

  Sydney looked around and recognized the weapons pointed at him, if not the men. He turned to me and growled. “Really?”

  I nodded. “Really. Have fun in jail, Sydney.”

  Two of the men, the one with the shotgun and the pistol toter closest to Sydney, pulled him out of his car and dragged him off. The other pistol toter climbed into the still-running Honda and closed the door, driving off. Less than fifteen seconds had passed, and I turned around, heading back toward the mall before someone from the motel office could step out.

  As I did, I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. With that weight lightening, I started to walk faster, then faster.

  Eventually, when I saw Kade walking toward me, I began to run.

  * * *

  The skies were overcast, a rarity for California at that time of the year. Being a relatively famous man, Derek Prescott’s interning had drawn quite a crowd, from lawyers at his firm to community groups that he’d worked with to even some media, who were covering the last chapter of a very dramatic death.

  Kade was finally starting to show some real emotion, and it was nice to see. He’d shown some here and there, but now he was really letting it all out as the reality sank in. I think he’d held most of his grief in until the whole Syd situation was taken care of. But I didn’t say a word, I just held his hand and stood by his side.

  Derek’s will had requested that he be cremated, which had been done while Kade was still in the hospital. The cause of death had been a massive heart attack, but in a note that had eased my mind, the report said
that the attack had begun even before Derek had taken the podium. That he had dropped at the particular moment he did was just pure chance.

  Still, I could feel hundreds of eyes on me and Kade as we stood next to each other in our black suits, our eyes hidden behind sunglasses. Mom wore black as well, with a veil over her face instead of sunglasses, next to me. When I reached over at one point at the graveside to hold her hand, she took it, squeezing tightly as the minister continued on.

  When the service was over, we went to the ocean, putting Derek’s ashes into a small radio-controlled boat. Layla passed the controls to Kade, who sent the boat out into the ocean. With a full charge of its battery and specially designed system that would keep the craft going in a straight line after it lost contact with the radio controller, it would be three to four miles out into the Pacific before it sank.

  “Thank you for coming,” Mom said as we walked away. I struggled in the loose sand with my high heels, but sandals would have been inappropriate for the occasion. “So how long are you staying?”

  “We’re going back to Portland tomorrow,” Kade said. “Layla, thank you for having us.”

  “It was the right thing to do. He’s your father, and you two were always close,” Mom said. “I was wrong, and I’m glad you forgave me for that.”

  “Thank you for forgiving our deception, and for accepting Kade and me,” I said, giving Mom’s hand another squeeze. “Are you going to be okay?”

  Mom nodded. “I guess. I don’t think I’ll be keeping the Laguna house though. It’s just too big and has too many memories. I still can’t go into my bedroom without crying. I’ve been sleeping in the living room on the couch most of the time.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Kade asked. “Stay in California?”

  Mom shrugged. “Maybe. I still have a lot of friends around here, and I’m too damn young to retire to Florida or Arizona.”

  “What about coming up to Portland?” I asked. “You’d have family, and it’d be nice to get to spoil my little sibling.”