11. Grayson
CHAPTER 11
Grayson
T he first thing I did when I woke up was contact my Chief and told him I would be staying with Clementine and protecting her for the foreseeable future. I was going to need a lot more time than a few days to get her to forgive me.
“Are you on good terms with her?” Chief Thomas asked. “Because, if you are, there are a few questions we’d love to get her input on.”
Am I on good terms with her?
She fucking hates my guts, and for good reason.
“Maybe,” I said.
“It’s an order,” Chief Thomas said, surprising me.
What in the world would they need with Clementine? She was not under investigation.
“Talking to your handlers?” Clementine asked serenely as she walked into the kitchen.
I didn’t know if it was a good or bad idea to take Clementine. All those stupid awards and medals I had been so proud of seemed like the work of a total dipshit when I balanced them against what I’d given up.
Her.
But an order was an order.
Still, for the first time I wondered what Chief Thomas was thinking.
“Would you like to come down to the station? They’re wanting to ask you a few questions. It’s entirely voluntary,” I added, because I wanted Clementine to see that I wasn’t an asshole. Or I was attempting to not be an asshole.
The constant thrum of regret in my veins matched with an ache deep in my chest.
Clementine had to forgive me. I didn’t know what I could hope for, but I knew I couldn’t go on with her hating me like this.
“I’d love to see what Thomas & Thomas Associates are up to,” she said.
Oh, shit.
But Clementine was already sweeping past me and out to the car.
“At least take one of these breakfast burritos,” I said. “You haven’t had any breakfast.”
“I’ll just get coffee on the way,” she called back.
“You need food,” I grumbled to myself, hurrying back and quickly wrapping up one of the burritos to carry out to her.
“I’ll drive,” she said. “Not sure your car can make it.”
Gritting my teeth, I followed her.
It galled at me that Clementine wouldn’t let me protect her. Apparently I couldn’t be around her without the desire to protect and take care of her almost swamping me with power.
In the five years since I’d seen her, Clementine had worked herself up into a very in-demand costume designer. Her designs were rightly seen as unique and unforgettable. Whereas all I had was the same crappy car and a bunch of meaningless awards on the wall.
I had spent those five years unhappy, driving myself hard at work, unclear what was wrong and unwilling to face what I had done to Clementine and how I felt about her.
And she had thrived without me.
I was nothing more than a big, random boner-having, pain in the ass to her.
It fucking stung, and it stung even worse to realize I deserved it.
“I tried to come find you after the trial,” I said as we drove to the FBI office. “But you were gone. I sold that house, but you were owed money for it, too. I still have it in a savings account, and I can transfer it to you. You should have stayed so I could give it to you.”
“Don’t bother,” she said dismissively. “Save the money and buy yourself some better pants.”
We rode in silence for a while, as her rejection dug into me, seemed to burrow under my flesh and cling to my bones.
“Why did you come to the trial?”
She popped her sunglasses up and my eyes felt like they raked greedily over her, wanting to drink in every contemptuous curl of her lip, even the slim pencil skirt, expensive blouse, and high-heeled boots that unfortunately were not for me.
“I wanted to see for myself if it all was a lie. And I got my answer.”
Her eyes held mine for a moment, then she looked coolly aside.
The words caught in my throat.
“It wasn’t like that,” I said, feeling like I was choking, drowning in my desperate desire to make her understand.
“I heard exactly what it was,” she said. “You seduced me to get information about my Dad and I meant nothing to you. That’s it.”
She shrugged. “I won’t lie and say it didn’t sting at first. But I’m over it now.”
“ No ! I didn’t—” I tried to say, but she held up her hand.
“Save it, Grayson. Let’s just get through these two weeks and hopefully you’ll leave me alone. You’ve done enough damage.”
“It wasn’t just a lie,” I croaked. “I did care. I want to make it right.”
But she only shrugged again and turned on the radio to a super loud rock station, the music blaring too loud for talking.
How the fuck could I ever convince her?
Cold despair settled in my gut like a stone.
All my attempts at conversation were rebuffed, and even in the elevator going up to our office she folded her arms and stared resolutely at the ceiling.
Fuck
It was painful how badly I wanted her to forgive me.
Clementine strode ahead of me into the room. Despite being approximately 5’2 with heels, she looked completely self-assured, poised, and confident.
“Oh, look, it’s Thomas & Thomas,” she said as my coworkers turned around to greet us, and I felt the first warning signs of danger.
“It’s the CEO,” and here she pointed at Chief Thomas.
“Oh, and of course these other upstanding tax-preparers.” And here she pointed at Vivi, Nakamura, and Williams.
There was a moment of awkward silence and I saw Clementine’s gaze roam over the FBI office, the desks, the walls, then stop on the huge and embarrassing framed picture of Senator Mancini awarding me a medal for Distinguished Service to the Bureau.
I felt suddenly sick with shamefulness.
“Ms. Clementine Adler,” the Chief said, extending his hand to her. “You’re looking well. We’d love to get your cooperation on a few matters. Namely, encouraging your father to work with us after he gets out. He could help us go after the real fraud kingpin and find that missing $50 million.”
I felt another little stab to my heart.
That’s right. That’s her name now.
I had been thinking of her as Clementine Bentley, but of course that wouldn’t be her name anymore. She would have raced to change it.
Clementine ignored the Chief’s outstretched hand and leaned back against one of the desks.
“How fun it must have been for you all to help Grayson cheat,” she said chattily. “You lying to me when I called the front desk,” she said, pointing to Nakamura. “You covering for him and pretending he was in a meeting when really he was out fucking someone else,” she added, pointing at Williams.
“And of course you lying to my face and telling me I had nothing to worry about,” she ended, turning to face the Chief.
I had never seen him look so knocked off balance.
They all looked somewhat uncomfortable.
Vivi was the only one who didn’t look uncomfortable.
“ So sorry for the deception,” Vivi said, her smile stretched ghoulishly across her tight face. “That must have been so rough on you. It was necessary for the investigation, of course. But still. My heart just bleeds for you.”
I feel anger scour across my skin. Why had I never seen what an unpleasant pinched bitch she was? But my head wasn’t on fucking straight when I was fucking her.
She was obviously jealous because she remembered Clementine as this shy little thing who never put herself forward, and now she looked like sex on a stick.
“That’s ok,” my ex-wife responded sweetly. “I’m sorry for all the times you were deceived.”
The smile was still pasted on Viv’s frozen face.
“How exactly was I deceived?”
“Oh, Grayson is a real smooth operator. I bet he even told you some shit like that he only had sex with me when it was necessary to keep up the disguise . But all those dinner dates with you he canceled the last minute? Late-night fucks he called off? That time you were at the restaurant and he texted to say he couldn’t make it? He was fucking me. He fucked me all the time, Vivi. That tight sweet virgin pussy, you know.”
Vivi’s face fell almost comically.
“How dare you!” she cried, looking over at me. “That’s not true!”
Clementine crossed her legs, leaning back against the desk.
She couldn’t more visibly look like she didn’t give a shit.
“I assure you it is,” she said, glancing down at her nails, then pulling a little file from her purse.
Vivi was still staring at me, her eyes angry and red.
“You said you only fucked her a few times,” she said.
“I never said that,” I replied. “ You assumed it. Look at her. You shouldn’t have deluded yourself.”
Let there be no doubt about whose side I am on. If only I hadn’t been so stupid back then.
Clementine flicked her eyes over to me, filing her nails with unconcern. “Of course, he was my first, so I didn’t really know what I was missing.”
Despite my resolve to keep my mouth shut except to apologize, I couldn’t help asking,
“What do you mean missing ?”
“Well, you were faking loving me.” And here Clementine smiled at me, a tiny bit of her pink tongue flicking out mockingly. “And I faked it, too. Every time we were together.”
I heard various suppressed gasps.
“You were not faking it,” I said.
“Of course I was, darling,” she replied. “Every damn time. Big enough cock, but you don’t know the first damn thing about what to do with it.”
Nakamura suppressed a little choke of laughter.
I bit back my anger and chagrin at what she said.
I knew that was a damn lie!
“Your dirty talk needs work, too,” she said into the frozen silence.
The Chief cleared his throat, as Clementine continued to file her nails with complete unconcern.
Vivi coughed angrily, and I could tell she was glaring at me, because my eyes were glued on Clementine’s elegant, tanned legs, the way her skirt was pulled up a bit, the way I was practically salivating to see more than an inch of her thighs.
Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to be between them right now, crawling underneath the desk to spread her wide so I could lick and tease her, make her scream and admit she had lied about what had happened between us.
“We would like to ask for your cooperation,” the Chief said again, trying to get the meeting back on track. “There are still. . . a few loose threads in the investigation we’d like to tidy up.”
Clementine cocked her head.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think I will cooperate. But there’s a reporter from the Daily Post-Gazette who is planning to write a story on the investigation. It seems there are some. . .questions about what happened. I think I’ll help her instead.”
There was absolute dead silence in the room.
“After all,” Clementine said, smiling at each of us in turn. “ She’s not the one who fucked me over.”
With another brilliant smile, she unfolded her legs and turned to walk out.
“Real shame about that $50 million dollars,” Clementine added coolly. “You jackasses spent years planning this investigation and didn’t get the kingpin. I wonder why?”
Then she walked out without a backward glance.
Clementine wasn’t getting away from me, and I had already moved to follow her, when the Chief grabbed my sleeve. “Agent Bentley, you must get her to change her mind . By any means necessary. She cannot do that interview. My boss would not like that kind of attention on this investigation.”
I frowned as I looked back at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I want you to make sure Clementine does not participate in this witch-hunt.”
“Surely you aren’t asking me to interfere in an outside investigation,” I said.
There was silence for a beat.
“Of course not,” the Chief said. “I am merely suggesting you encourage her to see the benefits of refusing to be interviewed. After all, if news gets out about some of our more unorthodox methods, the whole department could be subpoenaed.”
I made a noncommittal noise and left.