Chapter 19
Mia
IT WAS OBVIOUS NOW why we were all whispering while I got ready. I applied the lipstick that matched the fuchsia dress and let Olive work some cream into my hair. “It’s not what you guys think,” I whisper-yelled.
“You’re in here every night, which means you’re listening to anything and everything that happens in that office, Mia,” Rosy pointed out, her tone accusatory but also sympathetic.
“Oh, what happens in there?” Pink inquired, and I held up a finger.
“Don’t say it, Rosy.”
She obviously didn’t care to censor herself. “Valerie and Jameson bang every time she comes over!”
“Oh my God,” Olive said louder than she should have, and we all shushed her. “And you listen?!”
“It’s not like that!” I whined, but it totally was. I groaned. “At first it was a fun little outlet, okay?”
“Fun? I’d probably rip my own ears off, but to each their own,” Rosy said and completely meant it. I wanted to hug her.
“And now?” Olive inquired.
“Well, now … and before … it’s a complete invasion of privacy, and I’m stopping,” I concluded, lifting my chin. They didn’t need to know I was turning into a jealous shell of a woman when I didn’t even have a relationship with him.
“Bull,” Pink spit out. “Now, you’re going to make him stop that shit because no one likes her. He doesn’t even like her. That man can’t take his eyes off you. I saw it in the basement. She probably is shaking in her boots that you’re here. She wants that Knight name after hers.”
“Well, she can have it.” I applied some blush to my tan cheeks and then started with a heavy eyeliner.
I probably went a little overboard since jealousy had started to creep into my veins.
I didn’t want to be the professional, nice, darling teacher now.
I wanted to send a statement that I wasn’t—that I wasn’t on the job, that I was something more than just a nanny.
And that I was available. Just like he was. He could fuck someone else, and so could I. No strings had been attached to our little rendezvous.
Olive scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Can you imagine her as Franny’s stepmom?”
I’d hardly spoken to the woman, but … “No one’s good enough to be Franny’s mom,” I said, and meant every word.
Rosy laughed. “You need extra shots tonight. We can stay out way late so you don’t have to be here to listen.”
“I really don’t listen every time.” I blushed.
“Oh please. I would listen too. It wouldn’t be fun though. I’d be enraged.”
“Yeah.” Glancing at these three women, I saw actual compassion on their faces and realized I could be real with them, so I admitted, “I might be at that point, unfortunately. I’ve been staring at that vent all day, dreading it.
You think she’s coming even with your husbands here?
” It was a hopeful whisper that sounded stupid and desperate.
Rosy patted my shoulder in pity, because who was I kidding? These women knew something was happening between Jameson and I even if I denied it.
“She’s already here with Mrs. Knight,” Olive said softly.
I sighed as I stood and took one last look in the mirror. My hair cascaded in soft waves down my back and over my bare shoulders. The sweetheart cut and tight, short dress had me feeling exposed but also single and available.
Like I was.
Very exposed and very available.
I nodded once and murmured, “Let’s go.”
Pink smiled and threw an arm around my shoulder like she’d be there to prop me up. I hoped so. I needed girlfriends, needed an outlet, need a distraction from the fact that Valerie and Mrs. Knight were here, that Valerie had his mother’s attention and was bound to have his later that night.
This was the normal sequence of events every Friday. I knew it was happening. And I’d actually had fun with it before.
Before the basement.
Before talking with Jameson.
Before starting to have feelings for my boss.
“I truly don’t know if Jameson will let her go out in this,” Rosy snickered as we made our way downstairs. “You all see how he looks at her. And now she’s a freaking smoke show.”
“Those boys aren’t letting us do shit,” Pink reminded us, and we all agreed in solidarity.
“Remember, we stand our ground. Even if Hades makes heart eyes at you, Rosy,” Pink told her as we rounded a corner. “And I’m going into Chicago. They can get fucked if they want us to stay in Paradise Grove.”
“Oh, Lord,” Olive groaned.
“What?” Pink shrugged. “If he wants to send security to watch Mia so she doesn’t run off, they can, but no one is staying locked inside this community all summer.”
“Excuse me?” I halted. “I would not run off on Franny.”
“Or us,” Rosy added just to be clear that she was a part of the equation.
“Right, or you. Or Archer. Jameson knows this. So it should be fine.” All of them stared at me. And it dawned on me in that hallway that I wasn’t privy to the whole story. I hated feeling like someone hadn’t told me something. “What?”
Pink smirked like she had a brilliant idea. “You know what, let’s go tell him.”
I stumbled, not at all sure I wanted to barge into that office, but I mean, I was a big girl. I stood up for myself. Even if the man behind that door was also a killer.
And when we opened the door, I was sure his friends were too.
The faces of those men, all dressed in dark suits, were murderous.
“Bane Black,” Pink singsonged as she sauntered in with her hand tightly gripping mine. “I’m leaving your ass to go dance tonight with these lovely ladies.”
Each of the men halted their conversation to look our way.
I could tell who belonged to who immediately by the way their eyes drifted over their significant other.
Bane was a beast of a man, eyes so cold they could make you feel like you were in Antarctica, but he kept his stare on Pink.
Jameson and another man sat on the leather sofa, but Jameson’s eyes didn’t look up from the paperwork he had in his lap, as if he were completely unaffected by my presence.
He did shift enough to pet Malek by his side, but that was it.
Instead, the man next to him glanced up at me and smirked, while Hades acted like the grim reaper in the room, a cloud of darkness shifting between Rosy and him, although he didn’t speak first.
He left that to Bane. “Mrs. Black, you sure you don’t want me to come dance with you?”
“Negative.” She looked at her fingernails as if completely unaffected, but I saw the blush on her cheeks. “It’s ladies’ night.”
“It’s your night every night. So, do what you want, but I’ll be watching and tracking you the whole time.”
“Don’t trust me?” She lifted a brow.
“Don’t trust men around your pretty pink—”
“Shut your mouth, Bane,” she told him as he walked over to her and kissed her full on the mouth. The girl was still holding my hand and didn’t even let go as he gave her a kiss to make even my knees weak. She shoved him back after a second and murmured, “Love you.”
He didn’t hesitate to say it back as Olive’s husband leaned against the desk and stared her down. “Why do you have to go without me?”
“Because girls need time away.”
“From the love of your life, honeybee?” He sounded like a dejected baby, but when he moved in to kiss her, he grabbed her ass and proved he was very much all man.
Olive rolled her eyes and kissed him two more times before pulling back. “You’ll be fine, Dimitri. Be a good daddy tonight and put our little one to bed.”
The man next to Jameson tsked at them. “I’d tell you all you’ve gone soft, but I think you know that already.”
His voice was a lot like Jameson’s, and his eyes just as cold. Their jawline and bone structure were very much the same, and it occurred to me that Jameson had a brother he’d never told me about.
Maybe more than one.
I honestly didn’t know anything about him, and he probably wanted it that way.
He wanted me disconnected, and so I would be. How dare he even act as though he cared enough to offer a flight to see my sister, when now he couldn’t even be bothered with my presence?
I didn’t know what infuriated me more: his lack of attention, or the fact that I knew he would be giving it to another woman that night. A woman who knew much more about him and his family.
His brother was quick to cover for him, though, during the awkward silence of him not acknowledging anyone’s presence. “You must be Franny’s nanny?”
“I am.” I nodded, and the title was a good reminder. That’s where I fit in with all these people.
He stood to his full height, and I was shocked at how his walk was even like Jameson’s. So easily they could be mistaken for one another, which meant they must have been close in age. “Want a guy friend along on your girls’ night?” he offered. “I’m Callahan. The nice Knight. I’m lots of fun.”
“No,” Pink interrupted. “Girls’ night only.”
Then she elbowed me as if it were my turn. Why were my knees suddenly wobbly and my palms starting to sweat? “So, I haven’t been outside of Paradise Grove since I’ve started working here, and Pink mentioned a nightclub in Chicago, which would be great considering—”
“Chicago?” Jameson’s head snapped up. I got his acknowledgment finally, but only because we were disobeying him. The deep timbre of his voice held a tight edge, and I had come to know that I didn’t want to push him over that edge.
“Chicago’s a good time.” Callahan must have known too, because he immediately tried diffusing the situation.
“No.” Jameson’s voice was loud and clear. “Mia isn’t allowed out of Paradise Grove.”
“Bro.” Callahan gave him a look. “Allowed?” Something unspoken passed between them. “She’s an employee, not a prisoner.” Then he turned to me. “We Diamonds have always been accommodating, but we’re also overly cautious. Unless my brother has another reason for you not going into the city …?”