Sebastian: The Complete Series (33 page)

His jaw went slack and then he began to lose that perfect rhythm, his body crashing wildly into mine as he rode out his orgasm. He stilled above me, fisting the sheets as he shot into me for the first time.

“Seb!” He threw his head backwards, pumping into me, his big body glistening with sweat, so tense and pumped up, showing off every fine line and muscle. “Oh, God, baby. Yes!”

My legs fell from his hips, lying on either side of him as my vision cleared. I pulled him down onto me, our chests heaving and our clammy skin sliding over the others. I wrapped my arms around him and sighed into his hair.

Just when I thought we couldn’t possibly connect any deeper that had to happen. It rocked my whole world again and I felt another titanic shift in my life, because after that, there was no going back to the old life I lived. It had been such a long time since I’d connected physically in that way with anyone, and that moment felt deeper than of the times before. I never wanted to separate us again and I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure it happened.

It was over.

I didn’t know if he felt it, but inside, I knew there would be no more Secret Pleasures, no more clients, and no more big paychecks. It was done.

T
he next morning, I woke with Robert, feeling like I should make an effort and be as tired as he was. I didn’t have to stay out of bed. My plan was to wave him off and dive right back in bed for a few hours, but it didn’t work out that way. Before he even left for the hospital, I was on the phone to a police officer from Leeds who was looking after my case. Stalking cases were hard to investigate, and to be honest, if it wasn’t for the break in, I doubted they would have moved on it at all. Basically, until the stalker does something drastic, they don’t act.

I’d stayed out of the investigation as much as I could, just waiting for when they needed me further and not pushing. Harriot or Suzie hadn’t been in touch, and I got the feeling they wanted to stay out of this one as much as they could.

Dragging the agency into this investigation wasn’t something Harriot needed. Not only could it shut her down if someone slipped up and mentioned the sex for money thing, but it puts people off using her knowing the police were sniffing around. I was surprised I hadn’t been fired, but then having me as an employee still gave her some sort of control. If she fired me, then I had no reason not to tell the police everything.

Things had stepped up a notch.

Erm, quite a big fucking notch actually.

“Mr Knight?” The policeman quizzed me gently because obviously I had slipped off into my own dream world again. “Are you still there, sir?”

“I’m here. I just…” I looked at Robert who’d just appeared back in the kitchen, briefcase in one hand, car keys in the other. He dropped them both and came to me, holding me in his arms as I shook violently. “It’s the police, they’ve… they found…”

Robert took the phone from me and took over, quickly getting up to speed on the situation before sitting us both down in the front room, still talking to the police on the phone. “Is it him? This Anthony bloke?... But when will you know?... Yes, we can come in to the local station.”

I shook my head and got a hard glare back from Robert.

“Two will be fine. We’ll be there.” Robert ended the call and held his head in his hands. “Seb…”

“I can’t…” I took in a shuddery breath. “I have to speak to Harriot.”

“No. You have to speak to the police, and forget her and your insane loyalties. She doesn’t give a shit about you or the other men who work for her. This didn’t have to happen. It didn’t have to go this far. No one helped him.” Robert stood up and walked from me, fisting his hands beside his thighs. “He had no one.”

I broke free from the room, heading to the downstairs toilet where I retched up the bile turning in my stomach. Damien. Young Damien. He was my age. Worked alongside me and Harry. The one who had gone missing before I came here and the person I had been trying hard to not think about. He was found early in the morning while I was laying in Robert’s arms.

Found dead. Strangled. Raped and tortured.

“Damien.” I sobbed into the bowl and felt Robert behind me, rubbing my back gently. “Harriot didn’t try. She just wanted it to all go away. He was stolen by someone he went on a date with. How could she just do nothing? She makes out like she cares, but she doesn’t. We’re all just paychecks. Pretty little objects that customers can borrow and hand back in whatever state they left them in. He was my age. He was a good person. What happened to him…” I threw up more bile, sobbing through it as I felt myself hit a state of pure panic. “Was it him? Was it Anthony?”

“Harriot has never confirmed who he was with despite me pressing her to. The police questioned her, but from what Harry told me, she handed them a pack of lies and said he wasn’t working that night. If she’d told the truth, he could have been found. Maybe not, but she could have tried.”

“I thought he would turn up. I thought… I wanted it all to go away. And it did, but now… It could have been me. I could have been the one who turned up in the Leeds Canal, not him.”

“You know we have to tell the police everything? You have to, Seb. More men like Damien could go missing.”

“Harriot won’t let that happen, surely?”

“Even if she didn’t mean to put someone’s life in danger, she could do. A fake name and picture from a client, a young lad turning up and being caught off guard. We need to know who he was with, and if it was Anthony, then we need to know why she let him have another date after I told her who Anthony really was. She knew you’d recognised him. There was no doubt that you and others were in danger.”

“I want to call her. I need to know. I could get more out of her than the police.”

After dialling the office and getting through to a new girl, I asked to speak to Harriot, but was told she was out of the country. A big warning light flashed and I gritted my teeth together. I asked her about Damien. She was upset, of course, said everyone was. She gave me a little speech about how Harriot would be so sad when she got back, and how they wished they could help more with the investigation, but they had nothing to give. I snorted before I slammed the phone down in disgust.

Robert was pushed for time. He had surgery and it couldn’t just be slid to one side. I wouldn’t let him do that. It wasn’t like he was just putting off some paperwork, there was a person laid in hospital being prepared for a major operation, and here he was, worrying over me at home.

“You have to go. I won’t be responsible for someone else being in pain while you care for me.”

Robert obviously didn’t want to leave. “I just… It’s not safe. How about Harry coming round to keep you company? He should know about this. Maybe he could even offer some help, he’s been with them longer. There has to be someone in that place who cares about the staff.”

“I’ll call him. Just go, please. I’ll lock all the doors and windows. Call me anytime, but just go do what you have to do.”

Robert sighed, but he knew I was right. “I’ll be back by one thirty and we should just make it for our talk with the police. I have to go or I’ll miss my train. Be safe.” He brushed his lips over mine, holding my arm tightly like I was going to disappear in front of him. “I love you.”

“I love you. Now go. I’ll be here for you when you get back. I’ll be a total head case and have big puffy eyes, but I’ll be here.”

As soon as he left, I locked and bolted the door, then ran around every door and window and made sure they were locked. I found myself in the bedroom, huddled up to the side of the bed on the floor while I dialled Harry.

“You’ve heard?” he said coldly down the phone.

“Yes.”

“Is Robert there? I wanted to speak to him.”

“He had to go into work. He has surgery this morning which couldn’t be changed. I wouldn’t let him. He didn’t want to go, Harry.”

“You’re alone?”

“Harry, come look after me. I’m scared.” I was trying to be funny, but really I knew it came out as some pathetically scared little boy.

“It will take a couple of hours in rush hour traffic to drive there.” Harry huffed, but I could hear him moving around. "I'm going to do something I
never
do. I’m going to catch the underground.”

I chuckled through my tears.

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Harry… be careful, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll be okay.”

An hour later, an out of breath Harry was at the front door, casting a quick look over me as he rushed in. He looked like he’d just run here from the train station and was messier than I’d ever seen him look.

“Are you okay?” I looked outside briefly before I closed and locked the door.

“I’m fine, just in a rush to get to you. Leigh got here last night, thank God, or I wouldn’t have been here. I would have been in Leeds, dragging him back to my grandmother. Which is where he is now, safe and out of danger.”

“How’s my mum?” Leigh had been with her just in case someone tried to get into the apartment while Harry was away.

“She’s fine. He wasn’t stressed when he left because this only came to light this morning.” Harry put the kettle on, then turned around and hugged me tightly. His eyes were rimmed with red and I knew he felt just as horrible as I did about the whole situation. “I made some calls on my way down here. I knew Harriot didn’t give the police anything, but there are people in the agency who care, Sebastian. They just needed the right push to get them to act. She’s a powerful lady and has contacts in low places if you know what I mean. Turning her and her big money-making business over to the police wasn’t something anyone who knew her wanted to do. But…”

Harry sat me down and turned back to the kettle. “I’m not friends with anyone there, I never have been. Some people develop close relationships with the office staff, the ones who get to know everything, but even then, they’re not real friends. There was one person who I knew I could call and they would listen to.” He placed a steaming cup of milky tea in front of me and sipped his.

“Who?”

“He’s you. The guy before you I should say. The one whose place you filled when you started at the agency.” He placed his cup on the table and took in a deep breath. “Dominque.”

“Dominque?” I looked back in the cavities of my mind and remembered his name, remembered he had big shoes to fill and then looked up at Harry. “Were you close with him?”

“No one who worked with him was close to Dominque and that’s how he liked it. We were all competition, and he was at the top of his game, looking down on us all, but… he had friends. Two good ones who I knew he still kept in contact with. I used that friendship to get out some information.”

“Information from who?”

“Suzie, and one of the drivers, Thom.”

“Right.” I took a sip of my tea while I thought. “And were they okay to help out? Did they say anything which differed from Harriot?”

“Oh yeah.” Harry slumped into one of the chairs by the table and sighed. “Harriot said it wasn’t a client, that Damien hadn’t been working that night, but I knew it was a lie and so did Suzie. She booked the date, but she was off the night it happened. So was Thom.” He shook his head. “They were off together.” He met my eyes and smiled softly. “On a date.”

“Oh.” I smiled back. “Wait… a real date or had it been set up?”

“No, it was real. Dominque set them up apparently a couple of months ago and they’ve been taking things slow.”

“So… what did she find out?”

“I don’t know. She said Harriot was out of the office yesterday and was going to take Thom and rummage through her files, see what she could find out to prove Damien had been working. She has tried before on her calendar, but it had been wiped clean. All of Damien’s dates for that month had gone.”

“Shit!”

“Yeah, so she was going to go through the backup files and emails. She’s been snooping for a few days while you’ve been here, but having Harriot out of the place gave her more freedom to do it.” Harry checked his watch and then stood up. “You should get dressed, we have company coming soon.

“Who?” I didn’t really feel up to company, and I had no idea who would know to come here at such short notice.

“Dominque.”

“What?”

Harry was checking his hair in the mirror hung in the hallway. “Thom brought Suzie down this morning when the shit hit the fan. She’s raped the whole agency’s information, even taken hard drives and laptops, anything she could grab hold of. I knew you were talking to the police and she doesn’t want to be involved any more than she has to be. She’s made it out like there was a break in at the office.”

“But I just called the office this morning, everything was good.”

“Who did you speak to?”

“Some woman called Tess.”

Harry pursed his lips. “She’s an escort, one of the oldies who started this thing with Harriot. She’s covering their asses. You didn’t tell her anything, did you?”

“No. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on.”

“As far as Harriot knows, Suzie and Thom are down here for a romantic break, but you wouldn’t know because you don’t know them, and I don’t know either, so say nothing.”

“Okay.” This was all very cloak and dagger, and I felt like just slumping on the sofa with my tea and watching Jeremy Kyle while my brain fuzzed out of focus.

“Go sit down. You look ready to fall.”

While he made a call home to check in with Leigh, I combed my fingers through my hair and looked down at my rumpled Batman t-shirt and jogging pants. I looked okay. I wasn’t out to impress anyone, so why bother? I had more important things on my mind. Like my crazy stalker killing someone.