Seventeen
Hale
“I was hired at a marketing firm owned by Hark Allen Enterprises. My interview was done by the man who would become my boss, Ben Deck.” She paused and took a deep breath, as if we’d asked something hard of her.
Damn Millennials were so fucking dramatic.
“It was a great job. I loved it. But one day, I met a man in an elevator. He was older, attractive, charming, and he asked me to dinner that evening. I went. It was our third date that he informed me that I couldn’t tell my boss that we were seeing each other.
Or anyone in the office. Until that evening, he hadn’t told me his last name, and once he did, I understood.
I declined his next few attempts at asking me to dinner.
” She let out a bitter laugh. “But he was determined. Flowers arrived at my desk—insanely exotic flowers. They never came with a card, but I knew. Tickets to anything from concerts to musicals appeared in envelopes on my desk. And I was young and stupid, so the day I arrived to work and found tickets to see The Black Crowes, I caved.”
“The Black Crowes?” I asked, making sure I’d heard that right.
She nodded.
“You’re thirty-four.”
“And?”
“How the fuck do you even know who The Black Crowes are?”
She gave me a disdainful look. “Chris Robinson. Who doesn’t know who he is?
” She turned her focus back to Linc. “As I was saying, I caved. I sent him a text that I’d go.
He picked me up, and we had a great time.
I…” She paused, then added, “I went back to his place that night—or what I thought was his place. I had no idea it was an apartment he kept. Not his actual home.”
Linc was studying her skeptically. “You didn’t think the man who owned the company you worked for would own anything more than an apartment?”
“It was an impressive apartment. Penthouse, excellent view of the ocean. Not a typical apartment,” she replied.
Linc didn’t seem convinced. “And where did you think his wife was during all this?”
She scowled. “I didn’t know he had a wife. He didn’t wear a ring. I didn’t ask because…because I was young and naive.”
“And you never once thought to google the man? Find out that he was married? When he was bombarding you with flowers and tickets?”
She winced. “No. And trust me, I wish I had so many, many times over the years.”
Linc shook his head slightly as if he was disappointed. “I find that real hard to believe. But continue.”
Bay opened her mouth, appearing ready to argue, but seemed to change her mind.
Her shoulders straightened, and she lifted her chin and glared at Linc.
Not many people had the nerve to glare at the head of the Mississippi branch of the Southern Mafia.
I almost smiled. Almost. After all, she wasn’t aware that was who Linc was.
“Do you want to hear the story or not?” she snapped.
Linc raised a singular eyebrow. “I want the truth.”
I could see Bay’s jaw flex as if she were clenching her teeth. Fuck, she was feisty.
“I am telling you the truth,” she bit out.
“Continue,” Linc said simply.
Her shoulders rose and fell before she shifted in her seat. My gaze dropped to her jacket blazer to make sure it was still fully closed. I was regretting the destruction of her blouse now. I didn’t like how on edge I was about her accidentally flashing her tits to anyone else.
“Fine. We started living together a couple of months later. He traveled a lot—or so that was what he told me. I realized later that he was going home to his wife.” She said the last word with a trace of venom in her tone.
“My roommate at the time had gotten engaged and moved out. I couldn’t afford to renew the lease on my own.
He convinced me that moving into his place would help him out.
He wanted a puppy, but he traveled so much that he couldn’t get one.
” Her face darkened. “I’d always wanted a puppy.
That was what finally got me to agree. He even let me pick her out.
Losing Remedy made the entire nightmare worse. ”
“Remedy?” I asked, thinking that was a weird-ass name for a dog.
She turned her head slowly to level me with hate-filled eyes. “Problem?”
“Who named it?”
Her nostrils flared. “Her.”
“Her?”
“Who named her?”
Right. Whatever.
“I did.”
“You named her after a Black Crowes song,” I stated.
She shot me a scathing glance, then turned to look back at Linc.
“I lived there for almost three months, happily, with Remedy, until I was called into my boss’s office one morning.
Ben had a woman in there with him. That was the day I met Florence Hark Allen.
She despised me on sight, did not believe that I hadn’t known of her existence.
I was not only fired, but my things had been removed from the apartment and were sitting out on the street for me to pick up on my way out.
She had made sure I would never work in marketing or in the state of Florida.
I never saw Harland again. The last time I had seen him was two days prior, when he left for California.
We haven’t spoken or had any contact since I was sent packing. ”
Linc picked up his glass of whiskey and took a drink while studying her.
I waited for him to speak. There were too many gaps in her story.
She was a smart woman, and I didn’t believe that she hadn’t done research on him before moving in with him.
That lie alone made me question everything she’d just told us.
People always held back truths, twisted them to fit the way they thought made them look best. She’d clearly just done that.
But, damn, she had looked convincing, doing it.
“Did Florence have you do this? Take me? Question me? If Harland is having another affair, it isn’t me. I wouldn’t throw water on him if he was on fire.”
“Eh, I find that a little hard to believe. Much like you not having done your research on Harland before moving in with the man,” I pointed out.
She swung her gaze to me. Her eyes were narrowed. “I was young and stupid. Clearly, I hadn’t learned my lesson and got in the car with YOU without doing my research!”
I smirked. “I don’t believe that either. Although all you would know from a search is that I am a very successful owner of a whiskey distillery. Why not get in the car with me?”
“This has nothing to do with Florence,” Linc said, standing up from where he had been perched on the edge of his desk. “I’m not sure if you already knew that or not. You’re a hard one to read, Miss Fox.” He cut his eyes to me. “For now, we keep her. See if he bites.”
“Keep me?” she asked, sounding panicked.
“All right,” I said, getting up. “Well, let me know if you need anything. I’ve got shit to handle at the distillery.”
Before I could turn to leave, Linc stopped me.
“When I said we keep her, I meant you.”
My brows snapped together as I stared at him to see if he was serious, then down at the woman who had not only gone pale, but looked horrified at the suggestion.
“What?” I asked Linc.
He had to be joking.
His pointed look, however, didn’t appear to be. “You heard me.”
I shook my head. “Why can’t she stay here? Downstairs?”
“My wife and child are in this house. I don’t keep prisoners.”
“You kept Lace,” I argued.
Linc sighed as if I was exasperating him.
“Luther kept Lace. Not me. I didn’t want her here. Besides, she was different. She’d been beaten and had no memory.” He pointed at Bay. “She has a memory, is possibly working with a man we want dead.”
Motherfucker!
“What…what about the cabin on the back of the property?” I asked.
“So she can run and we have to keep chasing her down? Or do you want me to put guys there to guard the door? We don’t have time for that.”
This was not what I’d thought was going to happen. I lived alone. I liked it. I didn’t want a woman there. Messing shit up.
“Dead?” Bay croaked out.
I shot her a glance and saw she’d lost even more color. Her eyes were wide. Yeah, he probably shouldn’t have said that, but she needed to know.
“Do I not get a choice?” I asked Linc, grinding my teeth.
“No.”
Fine. Fucking FINE!
“I’ll have Jayda get her a shirt,” Linc said.
I glanced back at him as he held his cell to his ear. I waited until he told Jayda to meet us at the door with a shirt before saying anything to Bay.
“Get up,” I ordered once he ended the call and started for the door.
“What—where are you taking me?” she asked.
Grabbing the handle, I jerked the door open with more force than was required. “You heard him, Snow. You’re going to my place. Whether we like it or not.”