24. Emma
Chapter Twenty-Four
EMMA
S he could barely process the words over the ringing in her ears.
“Monday?” she echoed.
“Yes, for the duration of the investigation. You are welcome to appeal, of course.” Folsom gave her a derisive once-over and sniffed. “Good luck with that.”
“Wait, you can’t do that!” Emma staggered, trying to follow, but the man had already turned his back. Nearly wheezing in panic, she tried to follow him, her heart pounding so fast it was making her vision tunnel and her head pound. “I need my insurance.”
The investigator wasn’t listening. By the time she made it out the lobby doors, he had melted into the dense pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.
Where had he gone?
Emma picked a direction, running to the right. She changed directions, sprinting until she had a stitch in her side. But Folsom had disappeared.
Still struggling to breathe, Emma stepped out of the busy flow of foot traffic. It was that or get trampled.
What was she going to do? Feeling numb and on the edge of tears, she wandered until she ended up at the coffee kiosk over an hour early for her shift.
Kyle was there with Bethany. He took one look at her face and guided her to sit on the upturned bucket they used as a chair, coaxing her until she was able to explain what had happened.
“Damn, that sucks,” Bethany said, preparing a pumpkin spice soy latte for their sole customer.
“I just don’t understand how they can suspend all my benefits,” Emma mumbled. “They have no proof I’m hiding income. Shouldn’t they have proof?”
“It might be standard procedure,” Kyle said. “My cousin used to get food stamps. When she moved to another county for a new job, she told them she didn’t need the help anymore, but another payment went through anyway.”
His chin dipped down, wrinkling. “She thought it was procedure, a sort of buffer payment. But it turned out to be a clerical error. They were late stopping her payments. And even though it wasn’t her mistake, they made her pay all the money back.”
Emma could feel the blood draining from her face. She wasn’t on food stamps. Her aid helped subsidize her rent, but the bulk went toward her medical expenses. And those were insanely high without insurance.
“How do they even know I moved?”
Emma hadn’t been at Garrett’s that long. Her mail still went to Pedro’s, but Garrett must have had someone pick it up because it showed up at his place with the old address printed on it.
Emma would have had her mail forwarded by the post office, but she hadn’t believed she’d be staying at Garrett’s that long, so she’d put it off.
Bethany popped the gum she seemed to be addicted to. “Someone must have reported you.”
Emma’s head snapped up.
Kyle nodded. “It was the only way they could have found out so soon.”
He was right. Emma didn’t care how many gung ho investigators the state employed. Bureaucracy at the state level would have taken a lot longer to investigate a claim. Unless someone lit a fire under them.
“Who would hate me that much?”
As one, both she and Kyle turned to look at Bethany.
“Hey, I wouldn’t do that!” the other woman snapped.
She shook a sponge at Kyle’s skepticism. “I wouldn’t . First off, I didn’t know that moving somewhere nicer was a crime—which just figures, doesn’t it? It’s all about the one percent keeping their boot on the neck of the ninety-nine. And with Emma having to drop shifts, I know for a fact she makes less than I do.”
Bethany twisted to face her. “Unless the rich dude has decided to pay you for your services? Have you started hitting that yet?”
Emma’s shift hadn’t started yet, but she was already exhausted. And a little grossed out.
She was honest enough to admit that her relationship with Garrett had more than its share of sexual tension. But it wasn’t sordid. “I’m not sleeping with him.”
Bethany was visibly disappointed. “Why not? It’s been over a month!”
Kyle made a choking noise in his throat, but it wasn’t laughter.
“I know you’re not going to like hearing this, but I think you should tell Garrett right away,” he said. “There’s got to be something he can do.”
Emma rubbed her temple, trying to stave off a possible headache. “He’ll just offer to pay for everything. I don’t want to owe him any more than I already do.”
Bethany pulled off her apron. “Of course you should let him pay. He’ll bend over backward to do it, you know after he bends you over,” she added, thrusting her hips suggestively.
“ Bethany .” That was all she managed before the other barista threw her apron on the floor, her face reddening around her piercings.
“I can’t believe how fucking stupid you’re being! You have a gorgeous billionaire at your beck and booty call, but you don’t even entertain the idea of letting him help you. Because poor brain-damaged Emma keeps trying to prove she doesn’t have brain damage. But you do! So take the fucking help! And once you do, give the desperate fucker the reward he’s obviously waiting for—a good long fuck. Maybe if he pounds you hard enough, he’ll shake some sense out of whatever functioning brain cells you have left!”
She stalked out the door, slamming it behind her.
Kyle winced. After a long minute of silence, he shrugged. “Her shift was over anyway,” he said in a quiet voice.
Emma closed her eyes. Then she took a deep breath and stood, picking up Bethany’s apron and hanging it on the hook next to the door.
“I will tell Garrett about the investigator.”
She didn’t have a choice. Folsom would contact him next, wouldn’t he? But she doubted Garrett could get her health insurance reinstated right away. This was state bureaucracy. No, he’d just throw money at the problem.
Did billionaires pay for their health expenses out of pocket?
No, Garrett likely had the Ferrari of health insurance. Paying out of pocket would be like burning money for no reason.
Except he would do that for her.
The idea made her stomach twist up in a huge knot. Garrett was already doing so much for her by letting her live with him.
“I’m sure he’ll find a solution,” Kyle said, his hero worship front and center. “I know Hector told him he couldn’t bump you to a better plan through work, but circumstances have changed now.”
Huh? She blinked up at Kyle’s pale shiny face. “When did they speak about my health plan?”
“It was right after the garage thing. The day after he found out about your accident.”
“I gathered, but why would Hector talk to him about that?”
Didn’t discussing her paperwork together constitute some sort of privacy violation?
That didn’t make sense. Her boss had never met a rule or guideline he didn’t love. It was practically his religion.
“I know he owns the building, but Hector shouldn’t be discussing my insurance with him. ”
Kyle scratched the back of his head, the paleness disappearing under a tide of red. “Uh, well, it makes sense in light of…”
“In light of what?”
“Well, Garrett doesn’t just own the building and the finance company on the top floor. He also owns controlling interest in De Olla .”
Emma’s stupid brain processed the information with the speed of a sloth.
She was quiet for so long, Kyle became concerned. Crouching, he waved his hand in her face. “Are you okay?”
“No. I’m not.” Emma buried her hands in her hair. “I live with my boss .”
And this morning, she’d woken up with his hand squeezing her breast.