Falling for his Step-Sister by Alie Garnett

Chapter Twenty-Three

The house had been deafeninglyquiet for the last few days as Jonas let the dust settle. Since his arrest, Harvey had denied everything. From a jail cell, he had been pointing the finger at Jonas, as if he hadn’t been like a son to the man for a decade.

As much as Jonas hated the idea of an interview, he was starting to see that it was the only way to clear his name. Harvey was talking to everyone and anyone and lying the entire time. Jonas had to fight him as much as he could in the papers as well it seemed.

Harrison had set up an interview with a woman named Grace Atwater. Jonas had never heard of her, but since he said no to Bea and Meghan, he was left with her. Though after a day of thinking about it, he knew he should have just given the interview to Bea Bradford since she had worked so hard to get an interview from him in the first place. But then again, he hated to reward her for her actions.

“I’ve read some of Atwater’s stories, and I think she’ll do great with this kind of article. Have you had a chance to look over the articles I sent you?” Harrison asked as they walked into the paper’s office.

“No, I trust you,” he said. He hadn’t been doing anything over the last few days except thinking about Buzz and everything that had happened between them in the time he knew her. From the night in the hotel until she admitted she had been doing everything for a story. Everything.

Louisa hadn’t returned to the house since her mom and the boys left. He had texted her that Judith was gone, but still, the girl didn’t come home. She was staying with friends, was all she said. No address or any more information about where she was.

“I couldn’t have gotten you Bea Bradford even if you’d wanted her. She got fired.” Harrison led him through the busy entry of the newspaper.

“Did you talk to her about me?” he asked. It was the only link he could think of for her to know what was going on before it actually happened.

“No, especially not her since she’s a reporter—was a reporter. I haven’t heard what she plans to do now,” Harrison stated.

“I’m sure that getting out of reporting isn’t actually going to happen for her,” Jonas argued. He knew the woman better than Harrison did, after all.

“Do you know her?” Harrison stopped and looked at him.

“She spent some time stalking me. I finally figured her out, though. Sent her packing,” he finally admitted.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have talked to her about it.”

“I didn’t realize it for a few days.”

“You didn’t notice a Lovely for days? She must be losing her touch.” Harrison chuckled as he opened the door to a conference room with a lone woman at the table. For a second, he had hoped it would be Buzz. Instead, the woman was a stranger, and he didn’t want to talk to her at all.

“Jonas Raiden? I’m Grace Atwater. Nice to meet you.” The woman stood up with a wide smile on her face.

“Nice to meet you as well, Grace,” he said.

“Mr. Dean, thank you for bringing him in.” Grace sat down and looked at her paper.

An hour later, the interview was over, and Grace seemed happy with what he had told her. More than pleased with her questions, it seemed.

“Thank you for the interview, Jonas. I will send the perliminary article to Harrison for approval before we run it. I can almost guarantee the front page with this.”

“Thank you, Grace, for doing this for me.”

“I’m just happy you didn’t go with Meghan, but after she almost broke into your house, I can understand it. I had assumed Bea would get the article, but her loss is my gain. Leave it to her to land in the middle of a front-page article and mess it up. That’s Bea.” Grace chuckled to herself.

“Maybe she was just never given a chance around here,” Harrison stated as he pushed Jonas out of the door. Jonas could hear an edge to the man’s voice.

“You have to make your own chances here, Harrison. Bea just couldn’t close the deal. She didn’t have the drive to succeed in this world. All fluff and no substance on that one.” Grace had no idea when to stop talking.

Jonas stopped and stared at the woman. “Nobody was asking for your opinion, Atwater. Bea might have been the best reporter this paper had. The paper never cared enough to see what she could do. Now she is gone.” Without a word, he grabbed the notes the woman had meticulously taken the entire meeting. “She will be getting this interview, not you.”

“She doesn’t work here.” She grabbed at the papers but missed.

“Then I will find where she’s working, and that will be the paper that gets this article.” He ripped the papers, and the woman visibly groaned at him as he tossed the pieces on the floor. Her big story was gone.

“See if anyone reads it now, Raiden. Nobody even cares about you and your company!” Atwater called after them as they headed out of the office and out of the building. He was half surprised when nobody chased after them.

“Sorry about that, Harrison. I know an interview was our best bet, but …” He stopped and looked at his friend, who was just staring at him. “What?”

“Do you know where Bea is?” Harrison had his arms crossed but was grinning as he asked.

“No, but that’s what my lawyer is for.” Jonas got in the car with Harrison. It was the first time he had been outside his dad’s house in days.

“You’re in luck. I know exactly where she is.” Harrison smiled as he slapped him on the shoulder, and the car took off.

“How do you know where she is?” he asked. Harrison seemed to know a lot about the woman.

“Because I’m married to her mother, and her mother keeps close tabs on her girls,” Harrison stated.

“Bea is one of your stepdaughters? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in shock. Though it did make sense that Buzz would be one of the wild girls that Emma had talked about so long ago.

“Because an hour ago, you hated her. There was no need for you to know where she was,” Harrison admitted with a shrug.

“Who is she working for now? What paper?” Jonas demanded. He was going to give her the story she wanted—that she deserved.

“She isn’t. She just sits at home with Agatha and Louisa most of the time. Wait, is Louisa your sister?” Harrison asked.

Nodding his head, he stated, “Yes. Has she has been with Buzz the entire time?”

“Since I got home from Hawaii, she has. Nice kid. I hadn’t heard where they had picked her up.” It sounded like his sister was a stray puppy to the family, and they might be keeping her.

“My house. I should have known she would go to Buzz.”

“I thought she was stalking you, but you get to call her Buzz? I just started to get to call her that. Not a lot of people get to use that nickname.” Harrison gave him a sideways glance.

“Louisa started calling her that, and then I did too,” he lied.

Harrison pulled up in front of a large old house with Jeeps everywhere. Harrison got out of the car and walked up the steps, not caring if Jonas was following.

Following Harrison into the house, he noticed that all the shades were drawn, and the living room was completely dark, except for light coming from other parts of the house and now the open door. After closing the door behind him, he saw that there were close to a dozen pairs of eyes looking at them.

“Mom is at work,” one of the faces said. Jonas had no idea which one.

“I know, I’m looking for Buzz,” Harrison announced.

The entire group groaned and yelled, “Buzz!” at the top of their lungs. One of the group added, “She’s upstairs.” Jonas knew it was Louisa.

“Louisa, how are you?” She was snuggled into the corner of the couch next to another blonde.

“Okay. Having fun. I might have missed a week of school. Possibly my second,” she admitted. Most of those in the room whispered that it was okay, and they were still proud of her.

Footsteps on the stairs turned his attention to the redhead coming down them. Today she was in a white V-neck T-shirt that said “BUZZZZ” in red across her breasts. When she saw him, her eyes went wide, and then she bit her lip in nervousness because Harrison was with him.

“Buzz, I got you an interview for an article,” Harrison said.

“I’m not a reporter anymore. Give it to someone else.” Buzz shook her head.

“My client wants you,” Harrison reiterated.

“Ohhh, he wants you, Buzzy,” someone said from the couch.

“Shut up, Maby.” Buzz didn’t move as she yelled back.

“Can I talk to you outside?” Jonas asked. Mostly, he wanted her away from all her sisters, who weren’t even hiding the fact that they were listening to them.

“Her room is more private,” someone stated.

“The neighbors won’t call the cops about a little necking,” another added.

“Gross! He’s my brother,” Louisa said.

“Get used to it, Lou. Lovelys are hard to resist.” It was a man’s voice. Jonas hadn’t noticed a man in the group.

“Gross,” another young voice replied.

“Emmaline, you are supposed to be in school.”

A voice laughed. “Somebody’s in trouble.”

“Emma, we’re going home right now. I’ll take you so that Jonas and Buzz can talk.” Harrison grabbed the teen by the arm and headed for the front door.

Watching him leave with his daughter, he wanted to do the same thing with Buzz, except he wanted her in a completely different way. He had forgotten everything she had lied to him about since they met. All he wanted was to hold her again, touch her again. He just wanted her in his arms.