"Theo will kill me if he finds out about this," Richard said under his breath, sliding the phone over the table with his tattooed hands.
"He doesn't have to know...yet," she uttered as she took the phone from him. "The call will be untraceable?"
He nodded, his face grim. "I don't know why you are so desperate to get to that woman."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You now have this," he said, waving his hand around the bar. "People underground are getting used to seeing you around. Sooner or later, you will be the next Ms. Kane—"
"I don't want to be like her."
"You liked her before you started to believe she killed Jamaica."
"I didn't like anyone before and I still don't now."
"Of course, you are lying," he said with a sigh. "You can just leave whatever life you had up there. You can tell Theo to give you a new identity so you can do more things. Being a part of this world doesn't have to restrain you from the things you love to do."
"But I want my old self back."
"Is it really that important that you prove your innocence? Will people actually care?"
"I care."
He shrugged. "If you say so."
"Don't you want to know who killed Jamaica? Don't you want to put the one who did it—"
"No, not anymore," he interrupted. "After everything she did behind my back, I have doubts about everything else she did in front of me."
He was hurt. It was all over his face. As much as she wanted to defend her friend, she couldn't justify her actions. Jamaica never told her anything of her life underground. She had to be found dead for Desiree to find out about her secret life. Maybe Jamaica was not entirely as good as Desiree thought she was, but she was good to her. She had been her best friend for years. They had gone through a lot together. That could not have meant nothing to Jamaica, could it?
She looked away from Richard because she didn't want to be reminded of what her friend did to the man. "I have to go. Thanks for this," she said, throwing the phone inside her bag.
"Just make sure you tell Theo. Don't do anything without telling him, Desiree. Because if you as much as betray my brother, you'll have to face me again."
Desiree could only nod. She knew Richard didn't give empty threats.
She left him inside the bar and looked for Tatiana. And she found her friend in the usual café they frequented.
"You owe me big time, Des," Tatiana said even before she sat down.
"I know. Did anyone suspect you?" she asked.
"Of course not. Because no one saw me do it." She slipped a small piece of paper toward her. "You promised you're going to be her godmother."
Desiree smiled. "Yes, I'm going to be the best godmother of your child."
"Why do you want her number anyway?"
"I need to tie some loose ends. Don't tell Theo, okay?"
Her friend just nodded and shrugged.
"Did you have a hard time getting it?"
"No, not really. I just visited Kane in her new office, asked if she wanted to get some coffee. Not new between us, really. She had always been my coffee partner before you. Her secretary was out so I went out to her desk when Ms. Kane was immersed in a phone call. I found the files of the models and that's it. Her number was there along with her address just like you said."
Desiree nodded. "Good. Thank you so much."
Tatiana waved her statement off with one hand. "Just don't let me lie to Theo if he finds out and confronts me. Either you lie to him really good that he doesn't find out or you tell him now."
"I'll tell him when it's done. I just really need to talk to her."
"If you say so."
She spent the rest of the afternoon with Tatiana and waited until Theo was done with his transactions.
They went home with her secret all to herself.
*****
She was getting used to her new life. Her old-new life.
It had been two weeks and so far, she was still alive.
They were yet to meet the new boss but Khaye was apprehensive about it. Petroff may have disappeared but it was not an assurance. The new boss could be just as bad.
There were still reporters hanging outside her new apartment complex. Marco tried to do something about it, but she had to remind him that it was his idea in the first place. She never talked about the murder with him, but she had to do it whenever she had to in front of the cameras or the reporters.
Gian had been trying to make contact and she had been ignoring his calls.
"Maybe you'll have to talk to him," Marco said the other night. "You eventually have to do it."
"I'm not ready," she had said. And he didn't press her.
But that afternoon, as she was walking out of the building where she just had a shoot with some other models, her brother was already waiting for her.
She started to panic. She looked around and forced herself not to cry out for help because, really, he was just standing there.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, not moving any further out of the building.
"You have been avoiding my calls."
"I don't want to talk to you."
"I told you to stay away, Khaye. I told you to stay away."
"I heard you the first time. And no, you are wrong. I don't have to stay away. I am completely safe now. Do you see anyone coming after me? Shooting me as I walk out of doors? Petroff is gone. He might be dead for all I know. And unless you work with the man, I don't have any reasons to be alarmed," she lied. There was still the new boss, she thought.
Her brother just stared at her with face blank as a sheet of paper. "If something happens to you, I will not be held responsible. I told you to go and stay away from Marco and you did both for just four fucking months. You don't know what he's capable of, Khaye."
She wouldn't be swayed by his empty threats. "Yes, I know. And I know he is a good guy and he will be there to protect me while my own brother refuses to do so."
"You really believe that, do you?"
She held her head high and uttered, "Yes."
Gian stared at her for a few quiet moments before he slowly nodded. And without another word, he turned around and left.
She let out a breath. She wasn't sure until when she would have to hold her breath around Gian. Maybe until she was sure he wouldn't do anything that would hurt her.
Maybe never.
*****
Marco nearly had another chance to track Richard Karlsson again, but the man was an expert and the trail was lost.
He had sat in his desk thinking of ways on how to find him again and nearly gave up. He would have to be patient. The man would surely be careless again.
And there was still Desiree.
She would contact Khaye.
All he had to do was be there when they met.
*****
Desiree found Theo inside his study. He was frowning at his computer, his fist under his chin.
"What are you frowning at?"
"It's the files—"
She rolled her eyes. "It's the files again?"
"I know I should be finding a way to contact Khaye, but someone is doing that for me at this very moment. We just need to wait for the perfect time. She will fly to another state in a week so we can go there and meet her ourselves."
Desiree couldn't wait another week but she didn't tell him that. Instead, she reached out and closed his computer. "You need to rest," she told him, stepping in front of him. He looked up at her with tired eyes. "You look like death."
"If we want to blackmail every fucking government agencies who acquired our services, I have to double my efforts. And I need more files. What Vernier had wasn't enough."
She shrugged. "Then find more. I'm sure you will get to them in no time."
"If Vernier's replacement shows his face."
"He hasn't yet?"
He shook his head and closed his eyes. Desiree pulled his head to rest against her stomach, playing with his hair. Then she felt his lips moving over her silk nightgown, his hands on her thighs.
Desiree hitched up so she was now sitting on his desk and he rolled his chair closer toward her. "Tell me," he murmured as his mouth covered the tip of one breast over the silk.
"Tell you what?" she breathlessly asked. He stood up as his mouth left a damp spot on her nightgown and traveled up to her collarbone.
"Your dreams."
Desiree frowned. "My dreams?" she asked against his lips.
He kissed her for a long time before saying, "Yes. Tell me just for the fucking sake of telling me."
Her hands started working on his belt as she spoke. "I want to work until I am old enough to retire." His hands lifted her off the desk to bunch her nightgown to her waist. "And I want a quiet house by the lake. It will have a very large window overlooking the waters with a coffee table where I can stay for hours." She had unbuttoned his pants and pushed it down his hips. "And a big bed where I can make love to a very hot man for hours long."
His chuckle vibrated against her neck. "Will this man be someone you sort of love?"
"Hmmm...preferably, yes. And he will have to sort of love me in return."
Theo pushed her on her back until he was bending over her. "That is probably the simplest dream I've ever heard."
"I'm a very simple lady to please," she retorted. She wrapped her legs around him, grinding her hips against his. His hands cupped her breasts, their breathing changing into heavy rasps.
His kiss came with a groan and their words turned to different sounds of fiery passion.
*****
Theo was called by his father for an important meeting inside his office the next day. He left Desiree at the usual café she went to and met the old man in haste.
Her hands trembled at the thought of what she was about to do. She waited until her coffee arrived and took her time finishing her cup.
By this time, Theo would already be out somewhere in his father's office. Those kinds of meetings took long, she thought.
Looking around, she checked if anyone was with her. And like most days, she was the only person there. The server was gone inside the kitchen.
With shaking hands, Desiree opened her bag and grabbed the phone Richard gave her the other day. Then she fetched the paper Tatiana handed over that same afternoon.
She punched the numbers, her fingers barely still, and brought the phone to her ear. She almost jumped when it connected and started to ring.
"Yes?" Khaye's familiar voice answered.
*****
"Close the door," his father ordered.
If the man called you inside his office, it was something serious and it was something private.
"You must know by now that Petroff has been missing. Vernier died under questionable circumstances."
He just nodded in his seat, his leg crossed over the other in an attempt to act cool.
"And just recently, I found out that someone had acquired a tranquilizer gun the day before Vernier died. The same gun incapacitated Vernier's guards. And just yesterday I was informed that a traceable phone was placed in the hand of the same person."
Theo's heart began to hammer.
His father stared him in the eye and said, "Apparently, one of my sons have been killing off my best men behind my back."
His brows lifted in feign shock. His mind was already running to different possibilities. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, forcing his voice to sound ridiculous.
The old man planted his hands firmly on his desk, his eyes boring into Theo's. "I want you to kill your brother."