Sixteen
Bay
Unable not to gawk at the room we had just entered like I’d been doing with everything since we had arrived at this castle they called a home, I scanned the area.
Dark mahogany wood, from the desktop to the bookshelves lining the walls, as well as the bar with a rack of lowball glasses and a few short pear-shaped glasses hanging over it.
A portrait of a black thoroughbred hung above the fireplace.
Behind the desk were tall windows with drapes that hung from the crown molding to the hardwood floor.
A cylindrical chandelier, with the same bronze as the rest of the hardware, hung in the center of the room.
The bookshelves were filled with books and only books.
Two caramel-colored leather chairs sat opposite the desk as well as a black leather chesterfield and two more of the same style chairs.
Who were these people? This kind of wealth wasn’t normal. And why did they want me? How could I have possibly gotten mixed up in something that concerned them when my life was so uneventful?
My gaze finally met the other man in the room.
I’d been avoiding him, uncertain of what I was being led to face.
This definitely wasn’t what I’d expected.
Piercing dark blue eyes stared at me as if he could read my thoughts and didn’t need me to speak at all.
If only that were true. Since Hale refused to believe anything I said, it would be handy if he was a mind reader. My innocence wouldn’t be in question.
I swallowed nervously, waiting for the man to speak.
He looked like he could have walked out of some cowboy romance novel.
Dark hair, tattoos covering his forearms that were on display as the sleeves of his pearl-snap plaid shirt were rolled up.
That was the one thing that seemed out of place.
The ink. Not something one would expect from a man who lived like this.
He wasn’t polished, but much like Hale, he had a rugged sexiness that screamed danger.
My thoughts kept going to the adorable little blonde girl, and that gave me a small sense of security. There was a child here. One who was happy and well taken care of. Surely, that meant this place was safe. Right?
“Have a seat,” the man said.
I glanced at Hale, who motioned at one of the leather chairs as he went to sit in another one.
Taking a deep, low breath, I sat down. All I had to do was tell the truth.
Perhaps this man would be more forthcoming with what it was they all thought I had done.
I’d ruled out the sex trade thing. I doubted very much they brought women here to this house in front of a child, met with them, then shipped them off.
That seemed pointless. I mean, why would they interview them?
The man walked over and leaned back slightly, sitting on the edge of his desk. He crossed his arms in front of him and gave Hale a pointed look before turning his attention to me.
“Seems you’ve pulled one over on Hale, and he doesn’t like being outsmarted, especially by a woman,” the man said in a deep voice.
I glanced over at Hale. Figured he would also be sexist too. I hadn’t done anything to him. He thought I had, but he refused to listen to the truth.
“Why is she holding her jacket together as if she is smuggling something?” the man asked.
I shot my accusing gaze to Hale.
He shrugged. “She wasn’t cooperative when I needed to search her.”
The man didn’t appear as if this was questionable behavior at all. He also seemed to understand exactly what Hale had meant by that. He looked back to me.
“Let’s start with your relationship with Harland Allen,” the man said.
I blinked. Hearing that name again, here of all places, still sent a sickening chill through me. Bitterness at all he’d taken from me hadn’t gone away. I’d only learned to move on, shove it down. Try to let it go.
“Harland,” I repeated slowly, thinking I’d misunderstood.
He nodded, but said nothing.
My gaze swung from him to Hale, who was watching me like a predator ready to pounce.
I was here because of Harland? Was this Florence, his wife I hadn’t known about back then, still lashing out at me?
Hadn’t she taken enough from me? I’d been young and stupid.
I trusted too easily. But the moment I’d been told the man I was living with was married, I had left, done everything she demanded, even left the state. Why now?
“I…” Words didn’t come. What did I say to this?
“Surprise, Snow White. I told you I knew all your secrets,” Hale drawled.
“But,” I said, shaking my head, “I haven’t seen him since I walked out of that office. I left Florida, just like I was told to do. I don’t even work in marketing anymore.”
The man cut his eyes to Hale, then slowly brought them back to me. He reached for some papers on his desk, looked down at them, and begin to read.
“It says you worked for, were in a relationship with, and lived with Harland Allen seven years ago.”
Where the mention of his name had once caused pain, it now sickened me.
He lifted his eyes back to mine. “And on the flight that Hale was on with you and Vilmer McKenzie, Hale watched you acting familiar with him. That isn’t coincidental. You understand that we aren’t stupid, Miss Fox.”
We were back to talking about 1A again? What did he have to do with Harland and the biggest mistake of my life?
“I don’t know what…” I paused. I’d said that enough. “I was not familiar with Mr. McKenzie. I’d had him on that same flight many times. I know his drink order. He is a Million Miler, and it is my job to make sure he feels important on flights.”
“And that is why you had an intimate conversation with him and allowed him to touch you?”
“There was nothing intimate about our conversation,” I argued.
“And I don’t like being grabbed or touched, but I also need my job, and although I don’t know what Mr. McKenzie does for a living, he seems important.
I can’t make a scene every time he grabs my wrist to ask for another Bloody Mary or a bag of pistachios! ”
“I warned you,” Hale said beside me.
I swung my gaze to him. He was leaning back. His eyes narrowed with fury as he glared at me.
WHAT?! What was it they wanted to hear from me? Why was I in freaking Mississippi against my own will, in some billionaire’s house, being asked about a man who had ruined my life and another who was just an annoying passenger I dealt with several times a month?
“Let’s start from the beginning,” the other man said. “How do you know Harland Allen?”
Although that was the very last thing I wanted to talk about, if it got these people to believe me, then I would talk. Anything to get out of here. Away from all this…whatever it was.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I had just gotten out of college with my hard-earned degree, and I managed to get a job at a marketing firm that I believed would jump-start my life,” I began.
That wasn’t what had happened at all.