Jade (The Kings of Guardian Book 9) Read online

  "Sorry, I have another easy one. The last phone call into or out of this office, where did it originate or go?" Jade watched the little bitch squirm, but she'd give the woman credit, it appeared as if she was going to follow the farce through to the end.

  "Ummm… just a second…" The sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard filtered through. "HR department extension one, four… oh, well, hello my little friend. Paaalease tell me this is going to get someone in trouble," Jewell begged.

  "Gonna get someone in hot water for sure." Jade crossed her arms and stared at the woman in front of her.

  "What goes around comes around. The last phone call went to the desk of one Ms. Clarisse Thompkins. The woman who doesn't follow security protocols and opens emails with viruses." Jewell's delighted little laugh danced over the speaker.

  "Awesome. Would you get whoever is the head of HR now to pull Ms. Thompkins from whatever she's doing and bring her up to Nic's office? I have a little situation here that needs to be rectified." Jade watched the color drain out of the woman's face. Finally, she was starting to understand.

  "Roger can do. Do you need me to get ahold of Jason or… wait… hold on a second." The low indistinguishable rumble of a voice came through the speaker. "Zane read a memo that said Jason's covering for Nic and Jared today. He should be down the hall in the morning meeting. Hold on, let me access his calendar." Jade was taking more than a little delight in the way the woman's hands now shook noticeably, but she still held Jade's stare. Either she was braver than shit or too dumb to know better. Either way, she wasn't fit to be working in the executive wing.

  "Yep, that meeting should be finishing up. Do you want me to message him to swing by?"

  "Sure, I haven't seen him since yesterday. Get the head honcho for HR and that other chick up here before Jason shows, would yah?"

  "You got it sweets; I messaged him as soon as you asked. Hey, is Mom cooking dinner at yours again tonight? I just got done telling Zane about her red beans and rice." Jewell made a nummy sound over the line.

  "Yeah, I don't know. She's with Christian right now working on a kiddie center issue, but if you call her, I know she will hook you up." Jade was sure her mom wouldn't mind cooking. They'd eaten take out the last two nights.

  "Awesome. Should I call Tori and Jacob?" Jewell asked as the office door opened and Jason popped his head in. The frown he was wearing immediately turned into a smile.

  "Give Mom a call first and make sure it's okay with her, if it is, we can gather the clan, again." Jade waved Jason in.

  His attention tracked from her to the trembling woman in front of her.

  "Will do."

  "Cool. Jason's here, I'll call you later." Jade picked up the receiver and set it back down ending the call.

  "Hey, how are you feeling today?" Two steps later, he enfolded her in a massive bear hug.

  When he released her, and she could draw a breath, she replied, "I'm good. I was going to bother Jared today, just for the hell of it, but he was home sleeping when I dropped Mom off this morning. So, I came to see Nic."

  "I sent Nic home. Is that why I'm here? You going to bother me now?" Jason shoved over the inbox on the desk and sat down with his back to the administrative assistant and gave his full attention to Jade.

  "Yeah… no. Well, kinda. You see I came in, and I find Miss Social Media here talking on the phone."

  "Okay… and?"

  Jason appeared like he was losing his patience so Jade dove in feet first. "First, she wasn't talking about company business."

  "I wasn't doing anything that anyone else doesn't do."

  Jade swung her head and nailed the woman with a stare. When she started to speak again, Jade threw her hand up. "Just keep your pie hole closed because you don't want to dig yourself deeper."

  The woman glared at her but snapped her mouth shut.

  "Okay, so on company time with her partner in crime down in HR, she was gossiping."

  Jason groaned and rolled his eyes.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know, not a big deal right? But it seems this one decided it was all right to go into Nic's office after he asked her not to and take a picture of him. Asleep on his couch. With his tablet. Then she forwarded it to another email account and deleted the photo." Jade let those little tidbits sink in.

  Jason stood and rotated a full 180 degrees and leveled a stare at the temp. "How in the hell did you get his password to his tablet?"

  The woman shrugged and looked away as a knock sounded on the office door.

  Jason bellowed, "Come in." Everyone's attention swung to the door as it opened.

  "Mr. King, we were told to report here?" Alexis Channing stopped halfway in the door.

  "Oh, hey Jade, long time no see."

  "Alexis." Jade's curt reply pulled Alexis up short.

  She scanned the room and stopped when her eyes landed on Miss Gossip Bottom. "Ms. Foster, what are you doing here?" Alexis continued in the door and motioned for the person following her to come in. A small blond timidly crossed the threshold while trying to make herself even smaller by curling in on herself.

  "She was here acting as his admin. Why? Isn't she assigned here?" Jason shot a glance at Jade to confirm his assumption.

  She nodded her affirmation.

  Jason's query sent Alexis scurrying through her tablet. "No, she doesn't have the necessary experience or clearance for this position. I mean she has a clearance, but she hasn't been vetted for this area. I distinctly remember telling…" Alexis raised her head and glared at the young woman beside her. If it was possible, the woman shrank even farther into herself. "Sir, I don't know what is going on, but I promise I will get to the bottom of this." Alexis turned to stare at the woman behind the desk.

  Jason took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Jade fought a smile. When the man made that move, shit was going to get real, and it was going to get there fast.

  Jason directed his pissed off stare to the woman now standing behind the admin's desk. "Jade, call security. I want a complete report on what the f… What happened here and how it happened. I want to know how she accessed Nic's tablet. Alexis, my office in ten minutes." He glared at the small woman cowering behind Alexis. "I don't know who you are, but if you are involved in this in any way, you better come clean." He glared back at the Miss Foster. "I will bring the entire might of this company down on you if you don't cooperate. Consider that a promise, a threat, or an order, I don't care which."

  Jade saw her opportunity and jumped in with both feet. "Are you sure you want me to call security? I mean, I don't have anything to do for the rest of the day, and someone needs to be here to answer phones, so let me conduct the interviews here, with Alexis present as a witness. I'll get to the bottom of it." Jade had the telephone receiver in her hand.

  "Fine. Alexis, when you have answers, call Sonya and have her put you on my schedule." Jason waited for her to acknowledge his demand before he stalked out the door.

  "Well ladies, this is what we are going to do." She pointed at the little blonde. "You, go sit in the hall. Don't move and don't talk to anyone." Jade pointed at Ms. Foster. "You sit down." The woman started to sit behind the desk, and Jade stopped her. "Nope, over there."

  The woman lifted and sauntered over to the small chair Jade had indicated.

  "Now, I want answers, straight answers, or I'll stop this interview, read you your rights and charge you with fraud, industrial espionage, and violations of three Homeland Security articles concerning the violation of domestic security protocols." Jade called on every ounce of acting skill she had to keep a straight face. There was no such thing as a Homeland Security article and taking a picture of a sleeping man with a stolen password wasn't exactly espionage… unless the twit had done more than take a picture.

  Jade held up her hand when Ms. Foster started to speak. The waterworks were falling in earnest now
, but Jade wasn't going to leave any stones unturned. She punched Jewell's number up and asked her to make sure nothing else had been sent from Nic's laptop since seven this morning, which is when the majority of the administrative staff started coming to work.

  Jade put the phone down and picked up a pen and paper. "Now, Ms. Foster, let's start at the beginning."

  Chapter Five

  Nic woke slowly. His arm was pinned underneath him, and his hand was numb. He peeled his face off the wet spot on the leather cushion and swiped at the drool on his mouth with the hand he could feel.

  "Good morning, Sunshine."

  Nic jumped at the low sexy voice. His head swiveled fast enough to cause him to wince. Who the fuck was that? No, it couldn't be? "Jade?" Nic cleared his throat to eliminate the gravel that he must have eaten while he was asleep, and spoke again. "What are you doing here?" Better, at least distinguishable as English. Nic rubbed his face and groaned. The couch was okay in a crunch, but he wasn't a spring chicken anymore, and his forty-year-old body complained bitterly over the mistreatment.

  "I am here because Jared told me to come bother him at work today and then took the day off. So, I figured you'd be here."

  Ah, so that was what Jared had forgotten. Or who. Maybe. At the moment, he didn't care. "What time is it?" Nic scanned his immediate vicinity around for his tablet.

  "Almost six. That's p.m. Are you looking for this?" Jade held up a tablet.

  Nic wasn't a morning person, or afternoon person… or whatever-the-fuck-time-it-was, type person. Not without a shower and coffee. Coffee… uggg, maybe not. He drew a deep breath and stared at the woman sitting behind his desk. "Ummm… if it is mine, yeah, that's what I'm looking for. What are you doing with it?" Nic yawned and stretched.

  "Well, that is a long story. Want to hear it?"

  Jade's smile bordered on the evil side and that piqued his curiosity.

  Nic nodded. Until he had hot water, soap and maybe some type of caffeine, he wasn't driving this crazy train. He'd settle in for the ride.

  "Oh yeah, I love a good story, too! So, once upon a time, Ms. Foster, a/k/a. your recently acquired administrative assistant, decided to help herself to your tablet, take a picture of you while you slept, email it to herself, and then brag about it to her friend. She had her back to the door and was talking up a blue streak. Little did she know I had walked into your office. So, I kept quiet, and listened. You know Investigations 101 and all that. Let the bad guys incriminate themselves."

  Nic sat for a moment and soaked up the information. He rubbed his face as he asked, "Well, fuck. First, how did she get my password?"

  "From your full-time assistant, Adrienne. She left a "help" file on the computer for the temp admins, the ones that really were cleared and vetted to be replacements. Oh! I heard she had a baby boy! Isn't this her second?" Jade's trajectory change on the subject made him pause and think for a minute.

  "Third, two boys and a girl. Wait, Candi-with-an-i wasn't cleared to work here? How the fuck did she get into the X-wing?" Nic hated being behind the curve. He felt like his mind was moving through mud.

  "Oh! That's a good part of the story. It seems her partner in crime was a young woman from HR who had access to this wing as a runner. Ms. Foster got her friend in HR to change the temp assignments and place her with you. The runner from HR used her badge to escort Ms. Foster past security and into the X-wing. Obviously, your reputation precedes you. That womanreally wanted to meet you." Jade threw back her head and laughed.

  The sound was so full of light and fun that Nic couldn't help but smile. "You did the investigation on this?"

  "Oh yeah! I wasn't going to miss it. Besides, I didn't have anything else to do today, so I answered your phones after Alexis took that twit back downstairs. Oh, I had a long talk with your mom. So, she's a judge, huh?"

  Nic groaned and fell to his side, face planting onto the cushion of the couch. His ma was the living personification of an Italian mother. She was a loud busybody that was way too deep in her kids lives. She loved to feed her boys her old-world, Italian family recipes learned from generations of women before her. Yet, Judge Bettina DeMarco was also a no bullshit, career-minded woman. She'd earned her law degree at night and worked her ass off to raise three boys as a single mom after Nic's dad died in a freak accident.

  Nic turned his head toward Jade and held up his finger. "Can we never mention my mother again? Let's get back to my stalker admin. Did she do anything else with my tablet, as in access any files, or send anything other than the photo?"

  Jade scrunched up her face but shook her head, causing a miniscule ripple in the lush black ponytail that fell over her shoulder. Its sensual, luxurious slither drew his eye. He'd always thought she was stunning-a supernova that burned too bright for the human eye to understand. If he'd seen her in a club, he'd have put his best moves on her. He'd heard stories about the woman's antics, but at the time, he'd believed the outrageous recounts had grown as they passed from person to person. Not anymore.

  She lifted her hand and waved his question away with a light laugh. "Nah, Jewell did a forensic something or another and said Smurfette entered your password, took the picture, emailed it to herself, get this, a Guardian email account, and then deleted the picture off your tablet. Basically, they were airheaded Barbie-types that wanted an M.R.S. degree, and one of them targeted you."

  Nic pushed himself up on his elbow and shook his head. "A what?"

  Jade's brilliant green eyes popped wide. "Dude, an M-R-S degree. It was what oh… twenty percent of the college co-eds majored in when I was in school. Marrying a good-looking man with the means to take care of her for the rest of her life. A Mrs. degree."

  Nic threw back his head and laughed so hard his gut hurt and his eyes watered. When he could control himself, he declared, "Holy shit! I am so not a candidate for anything permanent."

  Jade's laughter lilted lightly over his admission. "You and me both! What do you say we go get something to eat and maybe a drink? I was undercover for over a year and had zero alcohol, zero sex, and zero fun. I need to rectify that, and by the look of that suit, you need to get the hell out of Dodge for an evening of fun. You can be my wingman."

  "Your wingman?" His voice cracked a little. Damn, his sex appeal had spiraled into the toilet if a gorgeous woman expected him to scope out other guys for her. Perfect. Welcome to life at the bottom of the drain. He really needed to get out and get laid.

  "Sure, I need a big strong guy like you to keep the assholes at bay. Tonight I want to get drunk, falling down, shitfaced drunk, while I listen to music and eat bar food. I need to blow off steam, but you need to change, because…." her gaze evaluated him from head to foot. "…no, just no."

  Nic peered down at the wrinkled, rumpled mess he wore. "I doubt you need anyone to keep assholes at bay, and hey… pretty damn judgmental for someone who is the reason I look like shit."

  "Say what, now?"

  "We've been busting ass working the leads and cases that your investigation spawned. The people in that cult have been rolling over faster than we can transcribe the interviews." Nic yawned and rotated his neck, cracking it.God that felt good.

  Jade stood up and came around the desk, leaning on the front before she crossed her arms. She wore faded jeans that fit snug in all the right places, and her long legs accentuated where they'd thinned until almost white in color. Her black silk blouse fell in a deep, plunging vee from her shoulders, and clearly showed the full mounds of her generous breasts supported by a bright-yellow lace bra. She wore bright-yellow, peep-toe stilettos that matched her bra and showed off her blood red toenails. Hell yeah, that combo was sexy as fuck. He was a foot guy. And a leg guy. And an ass guy. Whatever. Too many men had no fucking clue how erogenous a woman's foot could be. He'd learned to never overlook an opportunity to make a woman writhe under him. Or rather, he hadn't until a coup
le months ago.

  "Well… as glad as I am that my work is paying dividends, for your information, the only way I would ever admit responsibility for a suit looking like that was if I had just spent twenty-four hours fucking the brains out of the man in it."

  It literally took several seconds to, number one, believe the woman actually said the words he'd heard-and number two… that the woman actually had said the words he'd just heard.

  "Dude, did I break you? You ought to see your face." She chuckled and pointed at him as she spoke.

  Nic opened his mouth to reply and shut it again. He started again and stopped.

  Jade threw back her head, and her laughter filled the room.

  Nic chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "In my defense, I guess I never heard a woman say something like that?" Nic offered the question as an explanation, still stunned by Jade's statement. Shit, the stories had to be true.

  "Well, you and most men on the planet are woefully unaware of what women talk about when men aren't around. Sex is a popular topic, and believe it or not, some of us really, really like it. Just FYI, my default is the kind of sex that happens without strings, relationships, and expectations of more than one hell of a good orgasm. Don't you think women should be honest about what they want from a hook-up?"

  Nic stood and stretched. He had no idea how he landed in a conversation about sex with the sister of his best friend, but he sure as hell was there now. "I guess I never gave it much thought. I'm ahh…" He motioned toward his office's ensuite bathroom. "…going to grab a shower and change. Shouldn't you be having dinner with your family?" The Kings had been doing the family group hug thing since Jade had been back. Except for Jared, who had been with him most of the time since they returned from the compound. They'd put in some long hours. He debated the wisdom of going out with Jade for about a half second. Why the fuck not? He deserved a night out and a new bed partner. It had been too damn long.

  "Nah, Jewell and the boys are at Jared's tonight. Mom's cooking, but I talked with her earlier. She understands that I need to go out and try to find my normal again. You game or what?"