"Jake you should put all this behind. You should move on and live your life. Whatever happened is in the past. Sometimes I feel scared, I have already lost your father, I cannot afford to lose you too." I could see mom's reasons but I felt determined nevertheless.
"I can never put this behind mom. Not until I get to know who was responsible for his accident. I can never live-in peace, knowing dad's murderer is out there. He deserves justice."
"Oh. My boy. How I wish this nightmare ends for all of us."
"It will, mom. I promise."
As they say, no matter your age, you will always need your mom. After dad, I felt an overwhelming urge to take care of her. I hoped that she moves on and lives a happy life.
***
"What time do we meet him?"
"We will land by one pm, and we can head straight to the meeting location," Augustin said.
"Just ensure nothing goes wrong. We need this."
I was now in Norway with Augustin and his team. The pieces of evidence we were going to fetch were vital for our situation with Windson's. As soon as we landed, we were driving to our meeting location with our contact, which was a farmhouse at the city's outskirts.
We were an hour into the drive, that's when I felt Augustin was acting alert, his posture got stiff and his eyes were suspicious.
"Boss, we are being followed." The driver said.
I turned around and saw a black SUV following us.
"Take the next right; try to lose him." The driver nodded and took a sharp turn.
"We have another car with some of our men tailing us. Let me send them our location." Augustin said. He immediately took his phone and called a number.
"I had no doubts left that David Windson was watching us like a hawk." I sighed, gripping my fist in an attempt to control my anger.
"There is a basement car park two miles straight onto the left, try and lose this idiot and park there. Our back up will meet us there. We can change cars". Augustin instructed the driver.
We went in circles for a while, but eventually, we were successfully able to lose the SUV. We changed cars in the basement.
"If you reencounter him, give him a good tour." Augustin winked at the driver of the car that we were initially in.
We met our contact, and he gave us solid proof against David Windson, including many forged documents and audio of his dealings with an in charge at the tender committee.
This gave me solid ground to slap him with a lawsuit. The litigation will be a huge financial blow. Even if I could not hold him behind bars, but I could cost him a lot of his resources and take his company back by several years. That will help me buy time to find more about his involvement in my dad's accident, and also in the recent attack on Erica.
I was deep in thoughts when Augustin broke the silence. "Today was good progress. We will fly back early morning tomorrow. It's not safe to stay long in a foreign land under such circumstances, especially in David's territory".
"I agree. Make the arrangements."
"Sure. We are going to check-in into a modest motel for the night if that's ok with you."
"Sure."
***
Emma.
NYC
It was the weekend, and I made plans to meet with the girls. It felt like a decade when I last hung out with them. We decided to meet for lunch at a cafe in one of the malls in the city center. As usual, Brett followed me there.
I met Niki at the entrance while Britney hadn't showed up yet; she was running late. We decided to take a walk in the mall for a bit to wait for her.
We were strolling around, while Brett's attentive eyes never left my back. When Britney arrived, we all headed in the restaurant. I gave Brett a slight nod before getting in.
"Who is this monkey? And why the hell is he following you? I think he is in for some special treatment by me; you guys wait here; I will go sort him out." Niki growled, she clearly noticed Brett when I gave him a nod.
"Hey, Relax. Wait, I know him. He is Brett. He is umm… a bodyguard."
"What?" Niki and Britney said in unison, completely shocked.
Here we go. What was I supposed to tell them? I did not want to give a lot of details about Jake's personal life. Wasn't my place to talk about it.
"Since when do you need someone to guard your body?" Britney was bewildered.
"Jake assigned him. It's for my safety. He is the one who saved me in Lofoten too."
"Jake assigned him? Bossy much, isn't he? Is he a control freak or something? I don't understand." Niki was in a state of total disbelief.
"Is he a dominant kind of guy or something? I have heard rich guys often have kinky personalities?" Britney added with her eyes and mouth, both wide open.
"Eeww. No and No." I told both Niki and Britney in an annoyed tone.
"God, you two have no filter on your mind and mouth. Jake is amazing. Please don't jump on stupid conclusions. This arrangement is… just temporary, umm until he resolves some things."
"What things?" Britney inched closer to my face. She was hell curious. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath." Well, some business rivalry. But it's just precautionary." I murmured, almost struggling to find the right words.
"Are you in some sort of danger Emma, like real-life danger? You are scaring me." Niki held my arm. Her cheeks lost their color.
"No. Nothing like that, I said it's precautionary, Jake just worries too much. Chill." I let
