21. Clementine
CHAPTER 21
Clementine
T he next day Grayson said he had to run by the office.
“I don’t want to see any of those jerks you work with,” I said. “I’m going to run and get some coffee while you do that.”
And who should come in as I sat sipping my latte and waiting for Grayson but Vivi Sloane herself?
She was in a full face of makeup, her lips looking even bigger than the last time I had seen her, a condescending sneer on them.
I turned back to my coffee, without acknowledging her, but she wouldn’t be ignored.
“I guess you think you’re back with Grayson now,” she said, sliding into the chair across from me, flipping her long blonde hair across the table.
“Go away, Satan,” I said. “I’m in no mood for you.”
“if you’re back together with Grayson, you might like to hear what he says about you when you’re not there,” Vivi said snidely, taking out her phone and setting it on the table.
I examined her critically.
How had I ever been jealous of this woman?
Bitter bitch
“I’m not back together with Grayson,” I said dismissively.
She motioned me over to her side of the table.
“No,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Bring whatever you want to show me over here.”
She huffed. “Fine.”
My heart sunk a bit in my chest as she turned on the camera and I saw Grayson’s big body fill the frame. He looked to be in the FBI office and he was facing the same Chief who had ordered him to seduce and leave me.
“I’m here to talk about Clementine,” he said.
I couldn’t let it show on my face what I felt. Joy vultures like Vivi would sniff for any evidence of weakness.
My thighs tensed to leave. I didn’t want to sit here and listen to Grayson give a detailed report of everything he’d been doing at my place.
Probably instructed to find any dirt on my dad to haul him back to jail again.
And to think I had kissed this disgusting bastard!
I was just about to tell her she could have him when he spoke.
“Why the fuck did you tell them to go through Clementine’s garbage?” Grayson said angrily.
He and Chief Thomas were facing each other, each with their arms folded.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” the Chief said stolidly, but I saw a look of surprise cross his craggy face. “And we still have to keep her under investigation.”
Grayson laughed coldly. “Clementine isn’t a suspect. I can fucking guarantee with my life that that woman is an angel on earth.”
Vivi cursed under her breath beside me. Apparently this was not the kind of content she was expecting to be able to taunt me with.
“Agent Bentley, I don’t think you’re seeing the situation clearly,” Chief Thomas said. “You need to think about how important the investigation is to this department.”
“Fuck the department,” Grayson snarled.
He stalked to the wall near his desk and with one sweep of his arm, sent all the framed commendations and awards for his service directly into the garbage can in a splintering crash.
I had to stifle a gasp. Fuck.
“I will not investigate Clementine Adler,” he said dangerously.
“If you don’t go along with this,” the Chief said, his face looking white with anger, “you can kiss any chance of a promotion goodbye.”
“I don’t care,” Grayson said. “I will not consider Clementine a suspect in anything. I won’t chase Harvey Adler around in circles again. I’m not doing it.”
Chief Thomas looked pissed, his mouth tightening in anger.
“Harvey Adler has stolen from the government, and he’ll do it again. Don’t you care about justice anymore?”
Grayson shook his head. “This isn’t justice. I quit .”
The feed cut out as the door slammed behind him.
My heart was thrumming with adrenaline.
“Seen enough?” I asked.
She turned to me in a fury, her nostrils flaring.
“He’ll change his mind. There’s no way.”
My hand closed around my own phone, my fingers skimming past my passcode.
And then they pressed record .
“You left those panties in the glove box on purpose, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I sure did,” she snapped, getting up from the table. “You needed to know he wasn’t yours.”
“Yes, I was,” a deep voice came from the front door of the coffee shop. “I was hers and I am hers.”
Vivi went beet red with embarrassment and chagrin.
“Still trying to make up for what you did?” she asked tauntingly, smiling at Grayson with a tight grimace.
“Yes,” he said, barely even flicking a glance in her direction, his eyes glued on me. “I’m always going to be trying to make it up to her, and it’s never going to be enough. I was an asshole who should’ve seen the value of what I had. I should have treated her right from the beginning, not thrown a treasure away for some cheap garbage.”
“Asshole,” Vivi hissed as she stalked away.
“Grayson, I—saw part of what happened in there,” I confessed.
“Clementine, I am so sorry. I put—I put my career before you. Looking back I can’t believe I made such a stupid mistake. I don’t know how I could have been so blind. The things I thought made me a good and honorable man were—false. What would have made me a good man was being a good husband to you. Not taking advantage of you.”
My throat felt so tight that I could barely swallow.
“And I should never—never have gotten up on that stand to testify against you,” he said, “I should have gone to jail rather than do that. It’s the most shameful, stupid moment of my life.”
My throat felt tight and constricted, tears prickling at the corner of my eyes.
“My dad is a con man,” I said.
There was a muscle throbbing in Grayson’s jaw and his face looked grim and set, but his lips twisted up at me.
“I know he is.”
“I’m sure he’s done even more things you could charge him with. And he’s probably planning some crazy scheme right now.”
“I’ve already put him in jail once. I resolutely decline to do it again,” Grayson said. Then he held out a hand to me.
“Let’s go, sweetheart. We’ve got a dress rehearsal to get to.”