FOUR

XAVIER STORM

“So, have you decided the cause of action to take? Legal, or are you going to destroy her the dirty way?” Roland, my PA who liked to think of himself as my friend said, dancing around me as he tried to catch my attention through the throng of men that surrounded me.

I docked into my limo, and he entered as well.

“All I’m saying is, if you go the legal way, this could do wonders for the company image, endear you to the masses.”

And this was exactly why Roland could never be my friend. “Since when has winning the heart of the masses meant anything to me?” I asked, keeping my voice cool, even though I felt irritated.

But it was not Roland’s constant nagging that irked me, it was something else…. The paradox that was Marie. I hated unsolved puzzles. How the hell did literal innocence and the pain I’d briefly seen in those eyes blend well with cunning and treachery?

“Okay, okay, hear me out,” Roland continued, with his palm up in the air. “Better goodwill equals more patronage, more patronage equals bigger money – see! It's in your best interest to win hearts.”

“Yeah, like I need more money? I’m the richest man in my state,” I fired back absent mindedly.

Roland suddenly leaned in to sniff me, his eyes widening a fraction. “You slept with her didn’t you? Her scent is all over you.”

“How do you know her scent?” I asked.

“It-it’s musk,” he breathed out, squirming under my scrutiny “You once said you hated that scent on women, for you to sleep with a woman wearing musk, she must be special – I mean, it’s not that I’m saying this Marie is special, of course she’s an awful for all the things she has done, she –”

“I know what you mean Roland,” I answered finally if only to shut him up. Marie Lockwood was a devious innocent looking woman who stole secrets from companies, using it as blackmail material, forcing these companies to sell off to rival establishments.

That was how she had destroyed Marrish enterprises, and my only friend, James Sawyer.

“Do you think she’s working alone, or she’s working for someone?” Roland asked, for once reading the room.

I shrugged. “At first, I thought she worked for one Garrick Sloane, but he’s small fish, she’s the boss of everything –”

“She told you this?”

I frowned. “Garrick did, but he had no reason to lie.”

Roland squirmed on his seat a bit, scratching the back of his head, and fidgeting about.

“Spit it out Roland.” I snapped in exasperation.

“What if Garrick is setting her up to take the fall for him?”

I scoffed. “I didn’t get this far by being stupid you know. I had them investigated, turns out there’s documents connecting them to every single company that went under in the past five years. The payments made were all to an account in her name.”

“But –” Roland began.

“No buts,” I snapped. “I’ve met Marie, she’s every bit as devious as she seemed.”

And yet before me, she was innocent, the tiny voice in my head wouldn’t let go.

Roland sighed. “And have you decided if you’re going about this the legal way?”

A slow smile curved at my lips as the limo pulled into my high rise estate in Beverly hills. “Its too late for that. My men already have her under lock and key.”

Roland sighed again, it was long and tired. “She’s taken you back into the streets of crime hasn’t she?”

I nodded. “You bet. I don’t give a damn about what she’s done in the past, but messing with James was her biggest mistake.”

James, I learned was waiting for me in my study, and a gaggle of reporters were waiting for me in front of my house.

It was nothing new, just some desperate journalists hoping to get a snap of the elusive Xavier Storm. Whoever had gotten that picture of me in the past must have given them hope.

Already, my men were seizing cameras and deleting photos as I walked in.

James was sitting on the front porch, rocking the chair slightly, with a vacant look in his eyes.

His eyes lit up when he saw me, but he didn’t smile.

“Let’s get in James,” I said tightly. “You’re giving the reporters outside a field day.”

He shrugged. “What do I care? I’m no more someone of any importance, everything I have is gone.” But he stood up and followed me inside.

“I was in love with her, you know?” He whispered softly, almost reverently as we got in. “Now, all I want is to see her suffer. I want her hurt as badly as she has hurt me.”

My smile was genuine and cold as I poured us both a sniffer of whiskey. “Consider it done.”