“No, I was just wondering if we were kidnapped because the Bradleys think I’m about to take over their company.” I chewed on my lower lip. “A police officer, or someone posing as a police officer, came to my house recently. I’m pretty sure he was looking for some papers my father left me. Some papers that might entitle me to a majority share in Bradley Inc. Ever since I told my ex that I wanted to do some research on the company and meet his brother, Mattias, strange things have been happening.”
“Your ex, David?”
“Yes.”
“So you told your ex that you think you’re the rightful owner of his family company?”
“No, not exactly. I told him that my father used to work there and I was doing research on his inventions. The self-painter has revolutionized the way people get their home painted. It costs less than fifty dollars, and a room is primed and painted in an hour. The paint he created to work with the self-painter is only sold by Bradley Inc., and it made their company tens of billions of dollars last year. Even contractors are using it for their businesses.”
“I know what the self-painter does.” His voice was dry. “Let me get this straight. You told your ex-boyfriend that your father created the product, actually multiple products, that made his family company one of the largest corporations in the world. And then you told him you were doing research on said company, and you expected that he’d be cool with that?”
“I just wanted to talk to his brother, Mattias, the CEO. I know he has access to the files. I know his father had to have told him where the private files are kept.” My words tripped out of my mouth in a hurry as I sought to explain to him, why I’d tried to incorporate David’s help. “I just needed David to introduce me to Mattias.”
“That was pretty convenient that you ended up dating the heir to the company you were researching.” His eyes bored into mine and I didn’t even flinch at his question.
“Yes, it was.” I smiled widely at him. There was no way I was going to tell him how hard I had to work to get into a relationship with David. I was embarrassed by some of the things I’d done. Not even David knew the truth about our meeting.
“So did you meet Mattias then?” He leaned back and rested on his elbows as he stared at me.
“No.” My face paled as I remembered the phone call from David that told me his brother had no interest in meeting me. His voice had sounded odd, as if he’d been coached. “I never got to meet him. In fact, I don’t even know what he looks like.”
“How can that be?”
“I don’t know. The only information online about him is a brief blurb on the company website saying he is the CEO. He has no web footprint whatsoever.”
“Weird. I wish I knew how he did that. There are things I’d love to get erased from online.”
“So that’s basically it. A couple of days after David’s call, I started feeling like I was being watched. And then the letters came. And the police incident.” I stopped then and looked around me. “And here I am. Or I guess here we are.” I looked at the dark sky and stared at the stars glittering down at me. I felt as if they were communicating with me, telling me to keep some things to myself.
“That’s all of it?” I could hear the question in his voice. It was almost as if he knew that I was holding back part of the story. It was almost as if he knew that there were other things that David had told me. Things that I definitely was not going to share.
“Yeah, that’s it.” I said, and ran my hands down my matted hair and attempted to comb the knots out with my fingertips. I grimaced at the frizzy mess that met my touch and cried out as I yanked a few hairs too roughly. “Ouch.”
“Hey, be careful with yourself.” Jakob reached over and touched my hand and pulled it away from my hair. “Leave it alone. It looks fine.”
“Sure it does.” I smiled at him. “No need to lie to me.”
“It’s natural.” He smiled, his eyes lightening as the conversation changed. “I like women who are more natural.” His fingers touched the top of my head and then ran down the arch of my nose. “Your cheeks look rosy red and I know that’s not from blusher or bronzer.” He leaned forward and lightly licked my cheek. “Yup, no taste of makeup.”
“Obviously.” I stared back at him in shock, I could still feel the tip of his tongue on me and my body was on high alert, waiting to see what he was going to do next. “So do you have a girlfriend?” I asked softly, pretending like I didn’t care about his answer.
“No.” He laughed heartily. “I don’t do girlfriends.”
“Oh, okay.” I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad at his response.
“Though I don’t expect my woman to mess around.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just saying, when a woman is with me, there is no one else in her life. When I take a lover, she knows I own her body.”
“I see.” I bit my lower lip and squirmed in the sand, imagining him as a lover.
“But that’s neither here nor there.” He looked away and lay back. “Shall we try to sleep now? We should get up early and explore part of the jungle. I think we should try to wake up before Steve gets up. I want us to explore the jungle without him. See if we see anything suspicious.”
“Suspicious like what?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes darkened. “A gun maybe?”