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  Secret

  Copyright © Kindle Alexander, 2015

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Edited by Jae Ashley

  Pamela Ebeler

  Cover art and interior print layout by Reese Dante

  http://www.reesedante.com

  First Edition June 2015

  ISBN ebook: 978-1-941450-04-8

  ISBN print: 978-1-941450-05-5

  Published by: The Kindle Alexander Collection LLC

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Kindle Alexander LLC, [email protected]. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from Kindle Alexander, LLC. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author's rights and livelihood is appreciated.

  Secret is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

  Trademark Acknowledgements

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  ABC: American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

  Advil: Wyeth, LLC

  Amazon: Amazon Technologies, Inc.

  Ambien: Sanofi Societe Anonyme

  Armani: Giorgio Armani, SPA

  Associated Press: The Associated Press Corporation

  Beverly Hillbillies: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

  Bluetooth: Bluetooth Sig, Inc.

  Cheshire Cat: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  Clippers: LA Clippers LLC

  CNN: Cable News Network, Inc.

  Discovery Channel: Discovery Communications, LLC

  Dolce and Gabbana: GADO S.r.l.

  Duke University: Duke University

  Ferrari: Ferrari S.p.A.

  Fruit of the Loom: Fruit of the Loom, Inc.

  Gatorade: Stokely-Van Camp, Inc.

  GQ: Advanced Magazine Publishers, Inc.

  Harvard: President and Fellows of Harvard College Charitable Corporation

  Heineken: Heineken Brouwerijen B.V.

  Hilton: HLT Domestic IP LLC

  iPad: Apple, Inc.

  Jägermeister: Mast-Jaegermeister SE societas europae

  Men in Black: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

  NBA: NBA Properties, Inc.

  Neiman-Marcus: NM Nevada Trust

  One Direction: 1D Media Limited

  Science Digest: Science Digest, Inc.

  Sperry: SR Holdings, LLC

  Southern Methodist University: Southern Methodist University

  Texas Instruments: Texas Instruments Incorporated

  Uber: Uber Technologies, Inc.

  U-Haul: U-Haul International, Inc.

  University of Oklahoma: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

  Wolfgang Puck: Wolfgang Puck Licensing LLC

  Yahoo!: Yahoo! Inc.

  This is for Bo.

  Your friendship and encouragement mean everything.

  Perry, you are missed every day.

  Kindle, you are forever in our hearts.

  A sudden flash of blinding light struck seconds before thunder rumbled so strongly the windows rattled in the seventh floor meeting room of Secret Networks’ North Dallas office complex. Dylan Reeves watched as all the attendees’ eyes shot up to the overhead fixtures that flickered wildly. The latest round of thunderstorms raged loudly outside, rocking and shaking the building. And from the ferocious sounds coming from outdoors, it seemed spring planned an early arrival this year.

  He held his breath for a full second, waiting to see if the electricity would hold this time or if that strike had been the one to finally cut the lights and leave them sitting in the dark. When the power held, Dylan exhaled a sigh of relief. This meeting was critical to the future of his company, and he needed everyone in complete agreement before leaving for the night.

  Every piece of information had been examined numerous times, even before this impromptu meeting had been called, but this decision was just too important to leave to chance. The current silence surrounding the table signified his senior staff’s acceptance of the magnitude of the proposals laid out before them. It wasn’t every day millions of dollars were thrown on the table for the company Dylan and his team had spent years developing.

  “So we’re narrowing the offers down to Wilder and Yahoo!?” Rob Jacobs, one of Dylan’s two senior executives asked, breaking the silence.

  “Those are the best offers so far. I think our game plan should be to check those companies out first. If they aren’t serious, we can look at Amazon, they’re next in coming close to our asking price,” David Masterson, his other senior executive stated.

  Dylan responded more slowly. He sat back in his comfortable leather chair, took a long drink from his water bottle and propped his tennis-shoe-covered feet up on the small office table. The file folder he read from rested in his lap as he continued to thumb through the pages, looking for anything he might have missed. After another lengthy moment of silence, he finally agreed, “Yeah, confirm Wilder for this weekend. Let’s put Yahoo! off until we see what Wilder has to say. They’re the strongest of them all, and they have the technical support policies already in place. If handled right, it should be an easy transition for everyone involved.”

  Rob jotted down notes as Dylan spoke, but David was the first to respond. “They’re big enough to absorb our company, plus I like Southern California. I think I’d do well there.”

  “Shut-up, dickhead. You’ll jinx the whole deal,” Rob said, still making notes.

  “I’m just sayin’ I’d rather live there than Northern California. Out of all of us, I was the one young enough to watch The Hills growing up,” David added, as if that explained anything. He pushed the folder out of the way and reached toward the center of the table to one of two half-eaten boxes of pizza. “Not to mention, when we move to California, we won’t have to deal with this crazy Texas weather.” He grabbed a slice of the cold pizza and took a big bite, reclining back in his chair.

  Dylan lifted a hand to head off Rob’s comeback. He looked down at his watch. It was almost seven in the evening. They’d been in this meeting for hours and needed to wrap it up. He dropped his file folder back on the table and stood, looking around for his cell phone to pull up his schedule for the next day to confirm his memory. “I think we have fittings tomorrow morning at Neiman Marcus. Don’t be late.”

  “I’m taking this pizza with me,” David said, gathering all the remaining slices into one box. David was the youngest of the three. A true millennial to the core. Since Rob was older, he’d dramatically rolled his eyes at David’s boldness, muttering something about the youth of today. Dylan had heard those same words muttered from Rob to David about a million times since they had started working together.

  His assistant, Kim, opened his office door and stuck her head inside the room. She should have been go
ne hours ago, but she always waited around to make sure he no longer needed her. Actually, most of his staff had the same dedicated attitude. They took care of both him and the company they worked for. In return, Dylan did everything in his power to give back to them. “There’s a call for you, Dylan. It’s pretty urgent. They couldn’t get you on your cell, so they called your backline number.”

  He started looking in earnest now, patting the outside of his jeans, feeling for the phone. His eyes scanned the table again. He lifted some of the paperwork, but it wasn’t there. “Who is it?”

  She looked sheepish when she replied, “The Highland Park Police Department. I’ll send them to your landline now.”

  She retreated as soon as the words were out of her mouth. His heart did a little seize in his chest, and he single-mindedly stalked toward the phone on his desk. It rang, and he reached out, quickly grabbing the receiver and lifting it to his ear. “Dylan Reeves.”

  “This is Officer Bradley with the Highland Park Police Department. Are you the father of Chloe Reeves?” he asked in a deeply Southern voice.

  He wasn’t certain he hadn’t lost years off his life as he answered that question. “Yes, sir, what’s this about? Is she hurt?”

  “She’s fine, sir, but she’s been taken into custody. We need you to come down to the police station.”

  “What’s happened?” he asked.

  “We’ll explain once you arrive.”

  “Is she okay?” Dylan asked, somewhere in the back of his mind he registered David and Rob were now close by, but he ignored them both.

  “Sir, as I stated before, she’s fine. Probably a little upset. We’ll explain once you arrive.” The call abruptly ended, giving him no clue as to what had happened to his daughter. He placed the receiver back on the cradle and shoved his hands inside his jeans pocket, searching for his keys. As he dug them out of his pocket, he spotted his cell phone on his desk and grabbed that too.

  “What happened?” David asked.

  “No idea. All they would say is that they had Chloe. I’ve gotta go pick her up.”

  “I can ride with you,” Rob offered.

  “Thanks, but no, I’ll pick up Teri. Can you close everything down for me?” Dylan was already across his office. Kim stood at his door, holding his jacket out for him. He took it with a quickly mumbled thank you as he headed toward the bank of elevators. He pushed the call button while working his phone. He’d missed six calls from the same local number, which he assumed to be the police station.

  The panic inside him started to recede, slowly turning more to anger. What had his daughter gotten herself into? The elevator doors opened as he punched in Teri’s number, but he would wait to push send until he made it out of the underground parking garage.

  He jogged the distance to his car and drove a little too quickly toward the exit. At the gate, he finally hit send on his phone as the overhead security device registered his car’s parking tag and automatically opened. His Bluetooth connected and the phone began to ring as he pulled out onto the Central Expressway service road. Luck was on his side, the thunderstorm had finally subsided. He absolutely didn’t have the patience for cautious drivers right now.

  “Hey, you, I’m almost packed. You sure you don’t want Nanny Laura to come sooner…” Teri’s voice filled the silence of his car and Dylan cut her off in mid-sentence.

  “Chloe’s been arrested.” His tone was hard and unyielding.

  “What?” Teri asked, confusion clear in her voice.

  “Teri, Chloe’s been arrested. They say she’s unharmed, but dammit, I knew she was too young to be left at that school. She’s lost her head.” He’d never wanted his oldest daughter to go off so far away from home. The University of Oklahoma was too far to keep a good eye on her. Visions of skipping class and partying all day and night filled his mind, because that was exactly what he’d done his freshman year of college. Hell, those freshman-year all-night parties were the precise reason for Chloe making her appearance in this world.

  Thoughts of his daughter and unprotected sex had a serious scowl forming on his face, taking his already bad mood to a boiling point.

  “Dylan, stop and just tell me what happened,” Teri said, her tone changing to that firm lawyer voice she used when he got this way.

  “I don’t know, Teri. All they said was that she’s safe, and we need to get there. When I asked questions, they ended the call. Get ready. I’ll be by to pick you up in less than ten minutes. I’m making the loop around Northwest Highway now,” he answered, carefully navigating the still wet roads.

  “I need to get Cate and Chad home. Should they ride with us to Norman?”

  “Yeah, that’s the other thing. She’s at the Highland Park police station,” Dylan said, increasing the speed of his sports car until he took the Mockingbird exit.

  “Why’s she in town?” Teri had just asked one of about the hundred questions he had running through his head on a continuous loop.

  “I don’t know. I was hoping you might.” Norman, Oklahoma, to Dallas, Texas, was a three-hour drive. Chloe hadn’t come home last weekend because she had mid-terms this week. There was no reason for her to be home today. He held his tongue on the rant raging through his mind. He wanted to declare he’d been absolutely right when he’d disagreed with Chloe’s decision to attend OU last fall. She clearly wasn’t ready to make adult decisions.

  “She didn’t say anything to me,” Teri said the words he’d been thinking. “You were right. I should’ve listened.”

  That was all the encouragement he needed to state his case. “Damn straight, I was right. Now we’re picking her up from a police station. Will this be on her permanent record?”

  “There’s no way to know at this point, but she has testing this week.” The panic was back in Teri’s voice. “I bet she’s scared to death.”

  “She needs to be scared to death. Being held at the police station can’t be good,” Dylan replied. “No, she needs to be scared to death of me. We didn’t give her that car for her to be traveling back and forth between Oklahoma and here at any given moment. I bet a boy’s involved.”

  “Calm down, Dylan. You’re gonna make this worse. Where are you?”

  “I’m turning on our street.”

  “I’m heading outside now.” He ended the call when he saw Teri jogging down the front steps toward the street. He came to an abrupt stop long enough to let her get inside before he was off again. Neither spoke as the seriousness of the moment settled in, alleviating some of the anger Dylan held on to. Thank god they lived close by. When they arrived at the police station, the parking lot was crowded with cars, something he wasn’t entirely certain was the norm for seven thirty on a Monday evening in this affluent community.

  “They’re busy tonight,” Teri stated, worry in her voice as she watched the hustle and bustle through the passenger side window. “Look, it’s Holly and Jack. So Allison’s involved.”

  Dylan eyed the couple closely before cutting his gaze across the parking lot to find the closest vacant spot. Holly and Jack were Allison’s parents.

  “What happened?” Teri called out to the other couple, getting out of the car before he even had the gear in place.

  “No idea. We were just told Allison was arrested. We didn’t know Chloe was involved.” Dylan could hear the frantic edge in Holly’s voice. Teri and Holly fell in step together and walked briskly toward the police station’s front doors.

  “What was Allison doing tonight?” Dylan asked Jack as they walked toward the front doors at a slower pace.

  “As far as we knew, she went to bed early to be rested for her mid-terms tomorrow.”

  “I should’ve been suspicious,” Holly called out over her shoulder. Dylan shoved his hands in his jeans pocket and kept his mouth shut. He’d never been a big fan of Allison’s. She was a wild-child to the extreme and Holly and Jack fostered those beliefs in their daughter.

  More and more headlights turned into the police station parking lot a
s they made their way to the building entrance. “Did they arrest the whole town?” Jack asked.

  “Looks like it,” Dylan said, watching the cars line up along the street, waiting to turn into the parking lot. He opened the front door to the police station and allowed the women to step in first. An officer met them just inside the doors.

  As a family, tonight was a first. Back in the day, Dylan had chalked up a few arrests for himself but had never been on this end of a jail-house pickup. He hadn’t always lived in the best part of town, but even with that consideration in mind, he doubted a uniformed door greeter had become a standard practice at police stations.

  “Your children are safe. The judge has come in and is currently speaking with them,” a middle-aged officer said over and over again as the front foyer filled with parents.

  “What happened?” Teri asked over the hum of chatter, leaning her back against Dylan when they found an unoccupied corner of the lobby. He could feel her tremble and let some of his frustration go as he wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her farther against him. The one thing he could say after all their years together, she’d been a fantastic mother and an amazing best friend to him.

  More people gathered inside the lobby and the officer repeated his clearly pre-rehearsed speech several more times, but never answered Teri’s or any other parent’s questions. After the incoming flow of people lessened and several minutes passed without any new arrivals, the officer finally offered new information.

  “I’ve been saving this to only say once. I’m Officer McDaniel. Your children were picked up tonight for disorderly conduct. The best we can tell, social media posted messages for the class of 2014 to meet this evening and protest the tearing down of the old Walter Whitley football stadium in the morning. They were protesting on private property and refused to leave.” He did that officer thing where he rested his hand on the stock of his weapon and didn’t open the floor to questions or discussion.

  “As far as we know right now, the school’s not going to press charges on the condition Judge Fredrick’s speaks with them now and assigns each one of them ten hours of community service. He’s giving them a good, stern talking to. If you all can stay put, we’ll call your name and release your child to your custody.” As the officer spoke, Teri slowly got her spine back up. She stood on her own and cut an accusing glance back to Dylan when the officer mentioned the words social media. He gave an internal sigh as she refocused on the officer in front of them.