CHAPTER 18
Zander
Zander knocked on Harrison’s door. He had psyched himself up the entire ride over to his office and now he was totally fired up. He could not remember the last time that he had been this angry. The fury was just ripping through his veins as if it were hot lava. He was grinding his teeth; his eyes were twitching. He barely remembered making the drive over here, but suddenly he was standing in front of Harrison’s office and he was about to see the piece of garbage in person.
This was about to end.
“It’s open,” the voice came from the other side of the door.
Zander walked in and closed the door behind him. It was early morning on a Sunday; no one else was there. Calling him at five in the morning to give him this ultimatum and then asking him to meet alone with no one else around to help him was beyond stupid for Harrison. But then again, the guy had an ego the size of Texas.
“Hey, good to see you,” Harrison said. “Go ahead and have a seat. Do you want something to drink? I know it’s early, but I haven’t been to sleep yet.”
“I’ll pass,” Zander said. He did not sit down. He was standing, looming over Harrison.
“Sit down and you will sign this agreement,” Harrison said. “You should remember that I always get my way; I always get what I want.”
“Really? Do you want an ass whipping?” Zander asked. “Because you are about to get one.”
Harrison chuckled.
“Really? Do you realize that if you mess with me I’ll have you arrested and I’ll still leak the photos all over the press? You will be beyond finished kid. Now sit down and sign the paper!”
Harrison was now standing up pointing his finger in his chest.
Zander pushed him against the wall viciously. Harrison flew back in surprise hitting his head with a sickening thud. Before he even knew what was happening Zander punched him hard in the nose. It was soft beneath his fist as it caved in with a twisted crunching sound.
Blood flew high in the air as Harrison’s nose shattered.
Zander threw him to the ground and kicked him twice in the ribs before jumping on the man and punching him with three hard right hands to the jaw.
Harrison was barely conscious now. Zander wanted to hit him again and again, but he restrained himself. He’d come here to tell this jerk something.
“Listen to me you little twerp,” Zander said. “Have you forgotten how much I know about you? I don’t just know things, I have physical proof. Yeah, that’s right. You didn’t know I kept things from back in the old days, did you? With the evidence, I have on you I could get you sent up for ten years easily. If you even think of trying to tarnish my name I will make sure you do had time in the blink of an eye. And all of this will seem like a beautiful memory compared to what will happen to a creampuff like you on the inside.”
Zander walked out of the room leaving Harrison lying there in his own blood trying to remember what planet he was on.
On the drive home, he felt immediately relieved. It had been years since he was in a physical altercation, but he knew from his younger days that he could handle himself very well when it came to fighting. As a teenager, he had been a champion wrestler for his high school team and he also had studied kickboxing for a few years. It was a fun way to get the blood pumping and to stay in shape.
When he got home he was surprised to find Ember gone. When he asked Ben, he said he was not aware she’d left either.
Zander remembered just then that his house phone was right beside his bed. When he checked, it he could see a missed call from the club from last night. She had obviously put two and two together and assumed he was still lying to her about all of this.
What was it going to take to make that girl believe that he loved her and she was the one for him? He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her; there was no doubt in his mind anymore. He’d never been more certain of anything in his entire life than he was about the way he felt about Ember.
He’d realized it for sure last night at the restaurant. There was a moment when they were enjoying desert that she had asked him to try a piece of her cheesecake. He’d never actually sampled the cheesecake in that restaurant before. It was fantastic of course. When he tried a bite of it she fed it to him and as she did so their eyes met and he knew that she was the one for him. There was a magical moment then, a spark. It was like time slowed down all around them and the two of them were just together in this tiny little bubble of light and good feelings. There was no fear, no worry, no pain; it was all just love, blinding love.
He got in his car and made the drive over to Ember’s apartment. If it was the last thing he ever did he was going to make this girl realize that she was all that mattered to him in the entire world. He would tell her everything about Harrison trying to blackmail him and the violence he had just put upon the man. It was all going to be ok. He knew it. He would make her see that he would never hurt her.
But he was not so sure she would want to listen. This would now be the third time he’d had to explain himself to her to make her realize he was the guy he said he was. He was not pretending with her; he was just himself. He loved her and she loved him; she had to see that, right?
Zander realized then that he had never been more afraid of anything then he was of losing Ember. If he did not have her in his life after knowing what life with her was like he didn’t know what he would do. He needed her with every single molecule of his being. Surely, she would see this.
When he pressed the button for her apartment to be buzzed up nothing happened. He pressed it two more times and finally Ember answered.
“What?” Ember asked.
“We need to talk,” Zander said.
“I don’t want to talk,” Ember said. “I’m sure you can find plenty of girls at the club to talk to.”
“You have this all wrong, again!” Zander said.
“I don’t think so. I am not that gullible. You can’t keep doing this to me,” Ember snarled.
“I’m not doing anything. Please let me come up and talk with you.”
“You can talk just fine there.”
“I would rather not,” Zander said. “Just give me five minutes and If you still don’t want to talk to me then I will leave.”
“No,” Ember said.
The buzzer went silent.
Zander stood there for several minutes. She was ignoring him completely but he was not undaunted. Persistence was the name of his game and he always played to win.
After a few minutes, Zander saw an older gentleman coming into the building. He pretended to be on his phone and ignoring the old man so as not to arouse any suspicion. The man entered the door and before it could close Zander wedged a slip of paper in the lock and then hid out of sight until the man got on the elevator.
Then Zander walked inside and rode the elevator up to Ember’s floor. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door.
She opened the door a minute later, saw it was him, and instantly tried to close it.
Zander put his foot in the door and stepped inside.
“I will call the police!” Ember scowled.
“Just hear me out. I want my five minutes. Then I’ll go,” Zander said.
Ember groaned and threw her hands up in the air before crossing her arms and giving him a sarcastic look. “Ok, go ahead. Five minutes starting now.”
“Ok, you remember this guy Harrison who owns the club?”
Ember did not answer.
“Well, anyway he contacted me a few days ago and asked me to check out the club. I knew he was trying to weasel me into investing in it and I wasn’t really looking to do anything like that, but for whatever reason I went on the offshoot that it would be a fun night out at least.”
Ember was still not responsive. She was only half listening it seemed.
“Anyway, I told the guy I might invest in the club after I saw more about it. I’d just met you and I had no idea you were going to be the love of my life.”
“Sure,” Ember moaned.
“It’s the truth,” Zander said. “Anyway, after I started to fall for you and I saw how upset you were about the other misunderstanding yesterday I told Harrison I changed my mind and I was not going to invest. Anyway, he went nuts and started trying to blackmail me into helping him. He claimed that he had dirt on me from a long time ago and he was going to go public with that. When I called his bluff, and told him there was no dirt he had to resort to something else. He took pictures of me when I was at the club the night I met you.”
“So, what?”
“He threatened to post them all over the internet and ruin my good name. Some of my biggest investors in my real estate company would not look too favorably on me spending time at date auctions which they believe to be thinly veiled prostitution rings. They are older and old fashioned—they are completely out of touch with the way the world works nowadays. Anyway, if that got out it could really hurt my business. So, he and his company have been blackmailing me constantly and calling me. That is what you saw on the answering machine. That is where I went this morning. The guy gave me an ultimatum. I had to go there and confront him.”
“What happened? Is that why your hand is swollen?” Ember said glancing at his bruised right hand.
“Yeah, I kind of laid into him.”
“Well, that was smart,” Ember said. “Now you are going to jail?”
Zander laughed. “No. Harrison is a totally unscrupulous bastard. I have enough dirt on him that I could put him away for years. I told him all about it and he knows I’m serious. So, he is not going to be a threat anymore. I can show you his face if you need further proof. I would have taken a pic but I figured it was tacky and I didn’t want to gloat.”
Ember laughed.
“Honey, I told you before. I am yours and only yours. I will never do anything that could hurt you. I want to make you happy each and every single day. That is what I want my life to be about. I know that I can’t live without you. I don’t know how I lived without you before. I can’t explain how I got to this place with you so quickly but I know what feels right and I know what is real.”
Ember was almost in tears now. She was walking towards him.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek. “Babe. I love you so much. Please understand that I would never do anything to deceive you. Whatever happened in your past is over; it’s going to be you and me together against the world. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I love you too,” Ember said falling against him. She was sobbing quietly now. “I’m sorry. I keep doing this. I wish I didn’t have this thing in me that fights against happiness. I just have such a hard time trusting because of the past and one day I promise I will tell you all about it.”
Zander held her tightly. “I know, honey. I know.”
They stood there in her kitchen rocking with each other back and forth, holding on as if for dear life.
“So, where is Liza?” Zander asked.
“She went to visit her mom. Why?”
Zander smiled. He quickly scooped Ember up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.
They did not leave the bed for the rest of the day.