The Darkness of Perfection (7 page)

If it wasn’t for her, Jayden and I would already be married and possibly expecting our first child by now. Our life had been on hold for twelve years because of that bitch, and I wouldn’t tolerate any more interference from her.

I had to wait until Jayden left for college. I watched my beautiful, lost girl trying to be so brave in a world she didn’t belong in. She was too shy, and the hormonal vultures that surrounded her daily would eventually eat her alive. I’d been tempted too many times already to make some of those boys disappear as they stared at my girl with their lustful looks. It was fortunate she didn’t return their regard or things would be much worse for her when we get home.

“Son of a bitch!” I growled in frustration, slamming my fist against the hood.

“You’d think the bitch had a guardian angel or something,” Jerome smirked. “Maybe you should just give up.”

I turned swiftly to the fool beside me and grabbed him by his throat, slamming his head against the hood twice before holding him there, squeezing his windpipe until he wheezed.

“Whoa. Whoa. He didn’t mean it. Let’s just relax before we draw unwanted attention,” Antonio warned, looking around the parking lot for possible witnesses. He tried to pull me off Jerome, reminding me although it was well after midnight we were still out in the open.

Antonio was in his mid-thirties and had worked for our family the past five years. He’d moved up in rank, joining our inner-circle of trusted men two years ago. My brother, William insisted on bringing him with me to watch my back and help keep my temper under control. He’d proven himself over and over, handling every situation. He had the background and the knowhow, but I still just didn’t like the guy. There was something about him that rubbed me wrong.

Jerome was still new and had yet to prove himself to me. I had to remind myself that he didn’t know my history with Jayden. He was a couple of years younger than I was and blended in, making it easy to keep track of Jayden’s whereabouts on campus. He wasn’t around when she was taken from me, or the years we spent searching for her. As far as he knew she was just a pretty face that caught my attention while on vacation; nothing more, nothing less. Still, what he’d called her made me furious.

“Do. Not. Call my wife a bitch again, unless you have a death wish,” I snarled, shoving his head against the hood again before releasing him and jerking my shoulder from Antonio’s grasp. I knew she wasn’t my wife yet, but that would be remedied very soon. I straightened my jacket while Jerome doubled over, coughing to catch his breath. I pointed to her window. “Jayden is mine. She always has been. She always will be. I only need to reclaim my property and bring her home.”

I shoved my hands into my pants pockets and rocked on my heels, contemplating my next move.

Standing here staring at her dorm, empty-handed yet again, made me think that maybe, just maybe, Jerome had a small point. I’d learned her patterns and made my plans only to have them ruined time and again. The first time we tried to grab her some punk pulled the fire alarm as a gag. The next time, the girls in the room next to hers threw an impromptu allnight party.

For anyone else, I would have washed my hands of the whole deal and moved on, but the more challenges I faced, the more determined I became. Guardian angel or not, Jayden would be coming home with me. I refused to leave without her.

My brother would not win. William was dead-set against me bringing Jayden home, even though he knew she was mine. He would just have to get over his high and mighty attitude. The last few months had been annoying as hell. He’d become an old woman, always worrying and throwing up roadblocks or excuses, refusing any input from me regarding his side of our empire. Before long he’d have us sitting on the porch knitting with the women. William had kept his thoughts and opinions to himself, until I announced my plans over dinner to retrieve her. I had been careful and kept my plans to myself until the last minute to prevent his interference.

My father was pleased. He looked over the photos I’d taken of her on vacation, while my brother tried to dissuade me. He argued she wasn’t a good fit in our world anymore, since she’d had twelve years to forget her place. She would be too unmanageable, too volatile, completely lacking in what it took to be my wife in our world. There were too many unknown variables, and with the Feds snooping around, our family didn’t need the attention right now. He said it was best to leave her be and let her continue to live her life. My father reminded him that the ultimate decision was mine and he had every confidence in me to take care of any trouble Jayden might cause. After all, I had trained her before, so I was well aware of what it took to handle her.

He finally caved and assigned Antonio and Jerome to assist me.

It was all fine and good for William to have his wife, but not for me to have Jayden. I don’t know what triggered the change in him, when he became weak. The shift was very subtle in the beginning. It only really began coming out after our father’s heart attack weakened him and we stepped up to take over.

Our father was still ultimately in charge, but we handled the day-to-day running of our businesses.

Harrison Oil & Energy Inc. was the face of our empire. To the outside world we were simply a family who had dealt in crude oil and natural gas for generations.

Over the years our father and grandfathers cultivated close friendships with royalty in the Middle East and became fascinated with the way they lived their personal lives, specifically how they handled their females. Wives and daughters had no power or standing other than what was allowed them by their husbands and fathers. Men ruled their world, and no man answered to a woman.

The beginning of our family’s wealth actually came through my great-grandmother. She was the pampered only child of her family, and even though women of her generation had few rights, she was groomed to take over and run her father’s oil company. My greatgrandfather was a roughneck who worked in the field, but had great ambitions. He courted and wooed my great-grandmother behind her father’s back with a single-minded determination to better his station in life. She became pregnant and, to avoid scandal, they were married quickly and quietly.

He thought he would have the wealth and power he craved, until it became clear that his new wife never intended to share that power with her illiterate husband. He grew angry and resentful over having to answer to his wife for every nickel and dime, always under the watchful eye of his father-inlaw.

She gave birth to a son and died of a fever just two short years later. Her parents died in a house fire a few months after that, leaving everything to my greatgrandfather. He moved his mistress in, who was not nearly as strong-willed and would always do his bidding, so she could care for his infant son. Then he raised that son, who would be my grandfather, with the idea to keep power firmly in his grip by any means necessary.

My grandfather took that motto to heart and became a ruthless businessman, expanding beyond legal business ventures. He crawled in bed with the Mob and began dealing in human trafficking for cheap labor. He was very careful in choosing my grandmother from an impoverished family with too many mouths and not enough money. She was young and impressionable, and he molded her to fit his ideal of perfection. As he bragged to friends, who looked on with envy at the beautiful, meek creature that ran his home with never a word of complaint or censure, the entrepreneur in him got the idea of taking that belief even further.

When the “business” was passed down to my father, he continued to increase our family’s presence in the underworld, cutting down anyone who stood in his path. Friend or foe meant nothing to him. I learned at a young age that there were only two things that mattered to Richard Harrison: money and power.

William took over running the ‘import/export’ side of our family’s business, which is just a polite way of saying we dealt in human trafficking around the world. Young girls were “farmed” from selected orphanages on our payroll, picked up off the streets, or just taken from the families already under our control. They were trained and then sold, either to brothels or private buyers looking for a wife or mistress who could never bat an eye over their behavior and couldn’t file for divorce, taking half of their wealth, or turn them over to the authorities for their own questionable business practices.

I managed the legal fronts of our empire, dealing with oil prices, the energy boards, and all the headaches that came with offshore drilling and environmental activists, wishing I could handle it the same way William handled the lowlifes on his end. He had the advantage of being able to put a bullet in the head of anyone who protested or got in his way, while I had to smile and dazzle everyone and be well-versed in doublespeak to make things happen. It was challenging and I excelled at it, but muscle and a wellplaced bullet moved things along at a much faster pace.

I wished our father could see that the Feds didn’t start snooping around until William took over. I would have been better at running things. I was colder, harder. I wouldn’t make the mistakes he obviously had. Maybe when I came home with my prize, my father would reevaluate our positions.

“If it helps, I grabbed this flyer off her door and I overheard her tell that kid earlier she was going,”

Jerome offered, handing me the paper.

I briefly read over the invitation to a party at one of the clubs further out of town that catered to college kids, and pursed my lips in thought. He explained the conversation he’d overheard while a plan began forming in my mind. I looked up at the rain-swollen clouds again as a slow grin spread across my face. This was perfect.

Antonio saw my expression and suspected what I was planning. “Nicholas, no. I don’t think it’s a good idea. There will be too many people,” he argued. “Your brother won’t approve.”

“Leave my fucking brother out of it,” I snapped. “I don’t answer to him. This is my decision.” I crumpled the flyer in my fist and shoved it against Jerome’s chest, ignoring Antonio’s warning. “This will actually work better and be more believable. Drinking and driving on wet roads are always a fatal combination. Jayden is taking her car and going alone. It won’t take much effort to drug her drink and take her from the club. Everyone will be too busy doing their own thing to notice when she disappears.”

“Sir, I have just one question,” Jerome asked, “Why are we going to so much trouble to make it look like she’s dead instead of just taking her? It’s not like anyone would know it’s you, and it just seems like a lot of additional trouble.”

“Trust me, my family would be the first people her mother would suspect if Jayden suddenly went missing. Besides, it’s poetic justice, since her mother used an accident years ago to take her from me.

She needs to believe Jayden is dead so she doesn’t come sniffing around,” I explained calmly.

“Then why not just kill the family if they pose a problem?” he asked, still confused.

“Because I need them alive to control Jayden until she accepts her life again,” I said slowly, grinding my teeth in irritation. “You need to learn the nuances of controlling people. Everyone has a weakness that makes them easy to control. Jayden’s family is hers.

I want no mistakes; she’s going to disappear. Jerome, you’ll be with me. Antonio, you’ll take her car to the bridge and stage the accident at the river. I want it to look like she lost control and drowned, and her body swept away in the accident. The water is high and the current is strong enough to make it plausible. Call my pilot and have him standing by at the airport to meet us.”

I walked around to the get in the SUV, pulling open the door and stopped to laugh at Antonio’s worried scowl. “Smile, Antonio. By this time tomorrow night we’ll all be headed home and you can go see that pretty girl of yours.”

I could tell Antonio wanted to argue more, but I wasn’t interested in hearing it. I slammed the door

and put the SUV in gear, pulling out of the parking lot. Only one more night on the lumpy hotel bed and then we’d be home. I couldn’t wait to see the surprise in her eyes when she faced me again. Would she remember me now or had my image really dimmed that much in her memory? There was no flash of recognition in her eyes this summer. Granted, it had been twelve years and I’d changed a lot over that time. I was no longer a gangly, awkward prepubescent kid; I was a grown man who struck fear in the hearts of others. Even without knowledge of the past, she was drawn to me. She repeatedly looked for me during her trip. Her memory just needed jogging. In less than twenty-four hours, I would have Jayden and I could begin reintroducing her to her life.