Jamie was back in LA to make Steadman pay. And clearly, I was also a target.
However, I wouldn’t sit on defense and wait for him to come get me.
It was time to go on the offense.
And I knew just where to start.
20
JAMIE
Opening our apartment doors at the same time had just been nice timing.
Candice showed up at the apartment on behalf of Dakota. I’d met Dakota’s cousin at a party a few weeks ago, and she’d made it clear she’d like to “get to know me better.” Her appearance at my new apartment with the last of the Steadman tapes pissed me off.
I didn’t trust Candice. I didn’t want her in my business.
It was clear, however, from what she had to say, that she didn’t have a clue what was on those tapes. I wondered why Dakota hadn’t brought me the tapes herself, but it didn’t matter.
The tapes I’d already sent to Rita Steadman, along with my blackmail note, had done the job. The Steadmans’ divorce was all over the internet. Before I ushered Candice out of the apartment I was subletting at a ridiculous price to be close to dear Jane, the madam’s cousin had thrown herself at me.
I’d not so politely declined.
Then, just as I opened the door for her to leave, I saw Asher and Jane in her doorway, looking so cozy and in love, I could’ve knocked Asher into Timbuktu and it still wouldn’t have been far enough out of my sight.
On impulse, I’d kissed Candice.
And I’d impressively held my shit together when I shook that son of a bitch’s hand.
Yet even so, despite all my maneuvering, Jane had gotten one up on me in that laundry room.
“Oh, Asher, yes, harder … Oh, Asher, I love you.”
I took the stairs two at a time, hurrying back to my apartment, heart hammering in my chest. The taste of her skin still lingered on my tongue, her scent thick in my nose.
Note to self: corner Jane and her goddamn claws come out.
Yet my body throbbed with need.
You could cut someone out of your heart, but apparently, the dick wanted what the dick wanted. Curling my lip in outrage, feeling hot blood fill my cock as the image of fucking Jane in that laundry room filled my head, I made a decision.
I’d have her again.
I’d screw her until I’d had my fill. Fuck her out of my system.
It was just another way to insinuate myself into her life. Because once I knew her again, knew what mattered most to her, I would rip it away.
Taking a calming breath, I sat down on the couch, put in earphones, and turned on the recordings from the device I’d had planted in Asher Steadman’s car.
I still hadn’t found anything incriminating and neither had my PI. This morning, Asher had driven to Jane’s, listening to the radio the whole time. Settling back on the couch, I listened to Steadman in his car now. Just the hum of the road filled the headphones. Not even a radio this time. Well, this is boring.
A minute or so later, however, I heard the ringing of a phone, and then a man’s voice I didn’t recognize filled the car.
“Asher, is there a problem?”
“Do you have time for a quick phone session?” Asher asked.
“Well, uh, yes, I can do that. I have an appointment in fifteen minutes, though. What can I help you with today?”
“Did you see the news, Dr. Jensen?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“My parents are getting divorced. They told me last night. My mother found out about the brothel.”
I frowned and got up, moving over to my laptop to open the digital folder of information I had on Asher.
“I see. You’re worried about her?”
Clicking through the files, I found the report from the PI that stated Asher visited a building on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills every second Wednesday. Dr. Jensen was his therapist.
“I think the divorce is good. I’m glad she knows some truth now. But someone sent her tapes of my father at that brothel. Someone’s been watching him.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Concerned about my mother’s safety. What she would go through if those tapes went public.”
Now I was really confused. Wasn’t Asher in cahoots with Jane? I thought they were trying to bring down Steadman together.
“I can assume you haven’t been able to share those exact worries with Jane.”