Crash - Part Four (8 page)

He hauled the whip up into the air and I felt the leather tails leave my skin. I held my breath and dug my nails into my palms, waiting for him to punish me.

I heard the leather move through the air just before I felt the impact of it on my skin. The sting of leather on my ass was only mildly painful, but the tension had built up inside me so much that I expelled all the air from my lungs in one violent breath and moaned as if I were already experiencing the orgasm that was surely going to hit me before much longer.

“Did that hurt?” Carter asked.

“Only a little.”

“I guess I will have to go harder next time, then.”

This time, I didn’t have time to hold my breath before he brought the whip up and down again in one smooth motion. I yelped and winced at the pain on my skin. My breath was as heavy and fast as my beating heart, but I soon found myself ready for more.

“Again,” I commanded. “I’ve been a very bad girl, Carter. I need more punishment than that.”

Carter didn’t need to be told twice. He snapped the whip down again on my ass, and then again and again in quick succession. I let out a deep, guttural scream as the pain worsened each time he brought the leather down. The whip had now touched every part of my rear that wasn’t covered by the leather thong.

He grabbed hold of my right ass cheek and dug his fingers in hard. “God, you have such a nice, pert ass. Just looking at this ass and not being able to fuck you is torture for me.” He untied the straps holding up my thong and pulled the whole thing off. “Judging by how wet these are, it looks like you enjoyed your punishment rather more than you were supposed to.”

He lifted me up so that he could get undressed. Then he stood, completely naked before me, and pushed me back down onto the sofa before climbing on top of me. He spread my legs and pushed his shaft into my wet, eager slit. He grabbed hold of my hair with one hand and pulled my head back.

“I love you,” he whispered into my ear. “But now I’m going to have my way with you.”

He let go of my hair and grabbed a hold of my waist in his strong hands, lifting my ass up before thrusting his entire member inside me. Each time he slammed against me I moaned into the soft cushions of the sofa. My pussy was so wet he could barely stay inside me, and I came twice before he pulled out and sprayed his passion all over my back. Thankfully, leather was quite easy to wipe clean.

A few days passed, during which John and I were able to live relatively normal lives. The lawyers took a while to draw up the settlement agreement, and it was another day or so before the business world noticed that the lawsuit had been dropped. We were not allowed to talk about it, but the local community seemed to have a strong intuition that we had won. Once a couple of the local tech websites ran with the story, it became news. That was when our lives really changed.

John and I were inundated with calls offering us jobs, consulting positions, investments, and interviews. I ignored most of those calls and emails, but I did respond to a few where people who had written to thank us for taking on PharmaTech. It seemed that the company had pissed off a fair few people over the last couple of years, and usually, they got away with it.

Whereas before only one journalist had wanted to speak to me, now they all wanted to get fifteen minutes with me and John. We rejected all the offers for the time being. Neither of us really saw the benefit in speaking to the press at this point, and we were both concerned we might slip up and say something we shouldn’t about the settlement. One day soon we would sit down with Bethany and get a better idea of what we could and couldn’t say, but for now, we intended to keep our mouths shut.

I took some satisfaction in knowing that Amanda’s article was the only one out there of its kind, and that it must therefore be getting a lot of hits. I had approved her article just before the settlement and it should have now been online. But when I ran a quick search, nothing came up. I went back to my email to make sure I had responded to her confirming I was happy with the article. The email was there, but she had also replied with a further comment that I had missed. The email lay dormant amongst the other 649 unread emails.

I noticed an issue with the story. Can we talk? I think it’s important.

Amanda had done enough to earn my trust, so I replied, asking if she could meet at the coffee shop again. She emailed me back immediately and we agreed to meet.

With all the attention I had been getting recently, I half-expected to walk into the coffee shop and need to sign autographs. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not one person seem to recognize me. Even Jane, the waitress I knew, wasn’t working today. Amanda was already at a table and had bought me a coffee, so I walked over and joined her. She looked a lot less relaxed than she’d been last time we met, and that had me a little worried.

“Sorry it took me a long time to reply to your email,” I said. “Things have been crazy recently.”

“That’s okay,” Amanda said, and then went quiet.

“I couldn’t find the article online. Does that mean you weren’t able to sell it? I don’t want to sound big-headed, but I would have thought the article would be in high demand right now.”

“I never showed it to my editor.”

“You holding out for a better price?” Amanda was a freelance journalist, and she had every right to sell her stories to the highest bidder—although as I understood it, the correct practice was usually to offer it to a preferred editor and give them first right of refusal. Still, I could hardly blame her for trying to cash in a bit. After all, she was the one clever enough to ask for the interview in the first place.

“No, no, it’s not that. I’m not going to publish it because I don’t want to draw any additional attention to you personally, and to the lawsuit.”

“What do you mean? There already seems to be a lots of attention on the lawsuit, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Besides, we won!”

Amanda forced a smile, but it soon disappeared from her face. “Congratulations. I know you are the talk of the tech industry at the moment, but they aren’t looking too closely at the case. Fortunately, most of them don’t want to look directly at the court filings. But someone is bound to do that sooner rather than later, and when they do, they will put the pieces together. You don’t want that, so I thought it best to not publish the article.”

“We don’t have anything to hide,” I said, frowning. “There are certain things I can’t say, but everything we filed with the court is public information and I don’t have a problem with it.”

“The thing is, I did a bit more digging after the interview. I’d been so pleased with how it went that I forgot to ask one of the questions on my list.”

“What question?”

“You didn’t just sue PharmaTech. You also sued another company—an LLC that I had never heard of. I went back to the court documents and reread them. The LLC you are suing was the investor—or an investment vehicle for an investor, anyway”

My stomach tightened as I realized where Amanda was going. I had never looked at the official documents filed with the court, but it only made sense that our lawyers would have sued the investment company as well as PharmaTech. The investment company was likely an empty shell, so we’d get no money from them, but that LLC did have one very important secret that I wished would stay hidden.

“I want you to know that I was trying to help,” Amanda said. “And I still will help, if I can. Anyway, I did some digging and found out who was listed as the founder of the LLC. That information isn’t easy to come by—fortunately I have a, uh, contact at the Secretary of State who was very helpful—but someone else might do the same.”

If it were any other journalist in front of me right now, I might have played dumb and pretended to have no idea what she was talking about. But Amanda had earned my respect, and it was quite clear she knew what was going on.

“You know about Carter?” I asked.

She nodded. “I got lucky. When I found his address of record, I went snooping and saw the two of you come out of the building together. Listen, I don’t fully understand what is going on here, but you seem like a really genuine person, so I don’t believe the two of you were up to anything shady.”

“We weren’t. The whole thing is a complete mess, but those claims against PharmaTech were true. Still, Carter and I are an item.”

“I figured as much. I have no right to tell you what to do, but if you do want my advice, here it is: you and Carter should not be seen together for the foreseeable future. In fact, I would recommend Carter go underground, if at all possible.”

“Why? The case is closed now, so he’s out of the woods, isn’t he?”

“Legally? I don’t know, maybe. But that’s not the point. Once PharmaTech comes clean about this drug, then some very powerful people are going to get involved, and powerful people want to become even more powerful. They do that by seeing people get punished. Emily, everyone involved in this affair will end up sued within an inch of his or her life. They may even end up in jail. It may take a while, but it will happen.”

“What can we do?” I asked. I had assumed that Carter had covered his tracks, but if Amanda could find him, then others would, as well. Carter had nothing to do with the bribery, of course, but once the lies started flying, then who knew what would stick? He already had a criminal record so that wouldn’t help his case.

“His best chance is just to stay under the radar. I know it sounds a little drastic, but maybe have him change his name or leave the country. He doesn’t have to hide, as such, but he should make it harder for people to find him.”

“We can do that,” I said immediately, not thinking through the consequences of such a big step.

“No, Emily. You don’t understand. It’s not something the two of you can do—Carter has to do this by himself. If you stay with him, then he will be found out. I’m sorry, Emily, but if you want Carter to stay out of this mess, then I recommend you don’t spend any more time with him.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. It was a stupid question. She was sure, and so was I.

“Yes. I’m really very sorry. Let me know if I can help.”

Amanda got up and left, leaving me to wonder how on earth I could ever end the best relationship of my life.

Lots of words could describe what I was about to do, but I had no idea which one was correct. Was I being brave? Sometimes I thought so. I was taking a huge risk that could easily backfire on me, and the knots in my stomach made it clear I was nervous. I couldn’t believe I was giving up a man who made me happy, happier than I had ever been in my life.

Or was I just being stupid? I was giving up everything because there was a chance something bad might happen. Just that—a chance. I wasn’t afraid to take risks in life—if I was, then I would never have started my business—but this wasn’t a risk I was taking. It was a risk Carter was taking.

When I told John what I was going to do, I had assumed he would try to talk me out of it. I was hoping he would succeed. After he got over the shock of what I was saying, he actually seemed to agree with what I was about to do.

“Is there really a chance he could go to jail?” he asked.

“I spoke to Bethany about it, although I was a little vague on the details. I know she is our lawyer, but I still don’t want her to know all that kind of stuff. Anyway, she said that he probably wouldn’t go to jail because the government wouldn’t get involved in that part of the case. If the FDA did start digging around, they would focus on the bribery allegations involving the drugs. Carter’s role as the owner of the LLC only touched on the corporate espionage stuff, and that is something to be sorted out between private parties.”

“So, what’s the problem, then?”

“The problem is that Carter will be hounded for the next five years or so by every person who wants to sue PharmaTech because of the faulty drug. Think about it: there are going to be hundreds or thousands of legitimate cases, and even some where people just sense some easy money. Bethany said that lawyers would sue every party they think could be responsible. In all those hundreds or thousands of cases, Carter will be sued. Plus, desperate people like that scumbag CEO will tell lies about everything. If someone so much as thinks Carter was involved in the bribery, then you can bet prison will be back on the table.”

“I’m sure Bella’s family will pay for an expensive lawyer to protect him.”

“I’m sure they will, but would you want to be associated with all those lawsuits? That will follow him around for the rest of his life. I’m just not sure I can do that to him. Every day, he will wake up wondering if today is the day he goes back to prison for something he didn’t do. He’s already done that once.”

“Wow,” John said, shaking his head. “This is a tough decision.”

“You don’t think I’m being stupid?”

“You’re definitely not being stupid. I’m not one hundred percent sure I would make the same decision, but I can see why you are thinking about it. I still think Carter would survive all this—he’s a pretty tough guy, after all—but I admire you for not wanting to put him through it.”

“He’s already spent five years of his life in prison sticking up for a girlfriend. I can’t ask him to do something similar for me. He deserves to live his life.”

“It won’t be easy. You do realize that, don’t you? He’s going to do everything in his power to keep you.”

“I’m hoping that by the time I’m finished with him, he won’t think I’m worth fighting for. It’s the only way. Will you help me do this?”

John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to fight off a sneeze. “I can’t quite believe I’m going to say this, but yes, I will help you get rid of the best man either of us will probably ever know.”

In the end, we came up with a plan of sorts. It wasn't a great one, but it would have to do. I had considered inventing a pretend boyfriend or lying about having an affair, but John had talked me out of it. That would be far too out of character for me, not to mention no other man could hold a torch to Carter. He would see through that lie in a second.