When his phone first started ringing beside him, Tom shook his head. His mouth was still pressed to mine, and I laughed.
“Are you going to answer it?” I asked against his lips.
“Nope,” he said. “I’m ignoring it.”
He flipped me over onto my back, coming down on me so his weight pressed against me, and I felt enveloped by his warmth. I wrapped my arms around his neck and parted my thighs to let him settle between them and tuck close to my body.
The phone started ringing again, and we continued to ignore it. It was on the third round of rings that continued one right after the other that Tom finally pulled his mouth away from mine and dropped his head to my chest, letting out a massive sigh.
“Answer it,” I said.
“No,” he replied stubbornly.
“Obviously somebody really needs to talk to you. What if there’s something wrong?” I asked.
“They can figure it out,” he said, lifting up to kiss me again. The ringing started up again after the half-second of silence it took for whoever was on the other end to push the Call button again. “Shit.”
“Go on,” I said.
He climbed off me but gave me a stern point. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“I won’t,” I said.
Tom snatched up his phone and walked out of the room. He came back after only a few seconds. His expression was hardened, and he started getting dressed.
“I have to go,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
He stopped dressing and leaned over to kiss me. “That was Tyler. They think they’re on to something. I need to go find out what’s going on. Do you want to come with me?”
I thought about it for a few seconds but then shook my head. “No. You go on and handle that. I’ll stay behind and focus on the issue with the company.”
“Divide and conquer,” he said, then finished getting dressed.
I nodded, and he kissed me again. “I’ll see you later.”
I watched him leave, wondering how he felt about what had just happened between us. It wasn’t like it hadn’t been bubbling up ever since we got into town. Since well before that, if I was really going to be honest with myself. But thinking about something and actually letting it happen were two very different things.
Now that we had given in to our desire for each other, how would it change things between us?
I finally forced myself out of bed and took a shower before getting dressed and settling into work. After scanning over my to-do lists briefly, I called Landon. The next few hours involved several more phone calls with Landon, each one just as uncomfortable as the one before.
It was hard to talk to him now. There was no reason to think he would, but I felt like he might find out what happened just by the sound of my voice. When he asked to video chat, it was even worse. He had to be able to see it written on my face.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Tom is just really stressed, but I’m handling it. Everything is good.”
We got off the phone, and I only gave myself a few seconds of cringe time before burying myself in the rest of the tasks for the day.
17
Tom
The papers spread across the dining room table looked more like schematics than notes from a private investigator and amateur research at the local library. For that matter, the men surrounding the table looking down at those papers and a map of the street where our bar sat, looked more like a recreation of an old Sinatra-style heist film from the sixties. I watched as Mason and Tyler grumbled over the possibility that a frankly old man could start the fire himself, while Jordan and Matt insisted it was arson for hire.
“I’m telling you,” Jordan said, one finger pressing down into the table and trying to keep his voice low despite the anger rumbling in it, “he hired someone to do it. I would put money on it. There is no way that old fart could start a fire at our place, get over the fence and out to the street, and not be seen and heard grunting by everyone within a half-mile radius. He hired a pro.”
“Considering what we know about his past, it would make sense,” Matt said, chiming in. “We know he’s at least in contact with underworld types and has a gambling problem. What are the chances that he doesn’t know someone who could light a place up for him? Especially if it meant he got more business and could pay off his debts faster.”
“I just don’t see it,” Mason said. “The most logical conclusion is the simplest one, most of the time. And the most logical conclusion is he set the fire himself. He probably got drunk one night and figured it was high time we went away and snuck in.”
“But the investigators are still saying the fire could have started inside. Do you think he would be able to break in without someone noticing?” Matt asked.
“Yes,” Mason said. “It would be hard, but it’s doable. We didn’t exactly have a state-of-the-art security system set up over there. And we don’t know that the fire started inside, just that it might have. Let’s not put all our eggs in that basket.”
“To that point,” I said, standing, “we don’t know for sure that it was Danny at all.”
A chorus of objections began, and I put my hands out in a conciliatory way to stop them.
“I know, I know,” I said. “It certainly looks like it is him. And all the evidence seems to point to it. And like Mason said, the simplest answer is usually the right one, but that said, we don’t know for sure. Stranger things have happened. Dallas said that the first fire Danny happened to be around was ruled an arson, but that the police said Danny had a rock-solid alibi. This all could be a coincidence.”
There was silence for a moment, and then Jordan spoke. When he did, his voice was low and even, but there was a barely contained rage behind it. He stared at me directly when he did so, and I felt the anger bubbling up in his words.
“Do you really think that, Tom? Is that really, what you think?”
I took a moment to respond, and then I bowed my head. “No. No, I don’t. But I also am not going to jump to a conclusion without solid, undeniable evidence. Danny is a son of a bitch, and I’d like to slap the taste out of his mouth but being a son of a bitch doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an arsonist.”
Jordan huffed in disbelief, but there was a general agreement among the rest of them. When Jordan realized he was outnumbered and that there was no uprising to challenge my thoughts, he sat down hard in his chair and took a swig of the beer that sat in front of him.
“Bullshit,” he muttered. I ignored him for the moment.
I sat back and let my brothers continue to discuss the most recent developments, which as it turned out were minimal. The police had essentially told us there was not much to learn, and that they would look to forensic investigators to figure things out. The problem of course being that there was no timeline. And without a timeline, there was no resolution.
The insurance representative was with us on the idea that it was likely arson, but his hands were tied. Unless it was ruled arson by the police, there wasn’t much he could do, and that left me either footing the entire bill for starting a new bar in hopes of maybe getting an insurance payment in the future, or playing the waiting game. My brothers had all agreed that waiting for insurance was the fairest thing to do, and since we were all very convinced of the crime being committed, that hopefully it wouldn’t take long.
The eventual conclusion was that the police weren’t doing enough, one way or the other, and that it was time for us to start taking matters into our own hands. I worried what exactly some of them had in mind, but it was nonetheless true. The police were dragging their feet. It was time for someone else to get involved.
As I listened to my brothers drift into a conversation about what else they could do to speed the investigation along, my mind wandered elsewhere. Specifically, to last night and early this morning. A vision of Amanda—her naked body curled up under th
e sheets of the bed in our hotel room, her taut nipples poking up while one hand slid between her thighs—filled my mind and I had to shake it off. Now was not exactly the time to be getting an erection, and I needed a clear mind to decide what we were going to do next.
But thoughts of Amanda weren’t going to go away that easily, and I remarked to myself how sex with her blew every other experience I’d ever had completely out of the water. She was gorgeous, obviously, but besides that there was a hunger and a passion in our experience. She was more forward and aggressive than I had ever seen her, and she knew how to get exactly what she wanted. She harbored a natural talent for satisfying my needs, doing things I didn’t even know I liked, and being so damned alluring that our second round that morning was almost as memorable as the sudden and intense first one.
As the conversation wound down, and a few decisions were made as to what we were going to do about Danny while we waited for the cops to do literally anything, I made a decision about something else. I stepped outside as the others broke the meeting and went on to do other things and hit the contact number for Amanda. She answered on the second ring, and the sound of her voice made me smile like a goof.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Amanda,” I said.
“Hi,” she responded. It was small but impactful. Never in our entire history had she ever said “hi” to me on the phone. It was always a respectful, professional tone. Now the greeting was playful and intimate. I felt my cock twitch at the promises her voice made alone.
“I have a question for you,” I said and then realized it might sound a bit much like I was asking if she was working. “Would you meet me tonight, for dinner?”
There was giggling on the other end. She must not have caught how awkward I had been, or maybe she had and that was the source, but either way, she seemed playful enough about it. She made a dramatic sound like she was thinking extremely hard about a tough decision.
“Gee, I don’t know. I guess I could be convinced to go to dinner with you,” she finally said.
“I promise, I will make it worth it,” I offered.
“I know you will,” she said, and then she gasped. Almost as if she didn’t mean to respond as flirty as she did. I laughed. “Anyway,” she said like she was trying to move on, but the smile in her voice was impossible to deny, “I’ve been working on that bug all day.”
“And?”
“We got it all sorted out. Between Landon and the team back at the home office and what I was doing, we smoothed it out. No complete code rewrite needed,” she said.
“Fantastic,” I said. “So the prototype is ready to go live?”
“Yes, it’s working flawlessly.”
“That is great news. You are amazing. Thank you so much for your help,” I said.
“You are very welcome. I am just glad I could do something useful.”
“Well, I should be at the hotel in about an hour or so. I will call you when I arrive,” I said.
“Should I go ahead and get us a table?” she asked.
“No, just meet me outside of the bar.”
“Okay…” she said, her voice trailing away curiously.
“I’ll be there soon,” I said and hung up. Going back inside, I wrapped up plans with my brothers and said my goodbyes. I grinned as I walked down the stairs to my rental car and didn’t stop smiling the entire way back to the hotel, even with all the traffic.
* * *
When I got to the hotel restaurant, I could see Amanda sitting on a couch by the entrance to the bar through the glass windows. I walked in, and she stood up to greet me, an absolute vision in a tight black blouse and skirt. They weren’t formal date clothes, but they were clearly not exactly work clothes either. Something told me she had either gone out to grab something in the time it took for me to get here, or she had come prepared for all eventualities. Either way, she was stunning, and I offered my hand to her.
“I would like to take you somewhere else,” I said. “Between us, I am a little sick of the hotel food.”
“Oh, thank God,” she said and then slapped her hand over her mouth, laughing.
“You too?” I asked, and she nodded as she tried to stifle the laughter.
“I said the exact same thing to Ava and your mother when they asked me to lunch,” she said.
“Well, the place I want to take you to is much better than here. Come on,” I said and guided her through the door. As we got into the car, she turned to me, and the sparkle in her eyes was enough that I almost told her it could wait and we should just dive into the back seat, but I held some measure of control and turned the ignition on.
“So, where are we going?” she asked.
“One of my favorite places in town. The only restaurant where I would willingly pay for pasta dishes. Plus, they have cannoli that is out of this world,” I said.
“Sounds great,” she said and sat back, her eyes still flickering to me as I drove.
We chatted casually as we made our way to Mary Rizzo’s, which was my hands-down favorite place to eat other than my mother’s. When we got inside, I was pleased to see that the hostess, the owner’s daughter, was still hanging around. She remembered me and guided us to my favorite table, back in the corner behind a fish tank that separated our booth from the others and gave us a sense of privacy, like we were the only people in the whole world.
As we ate, our conversation drifted from subject to subject, but never crossed over into talking about work or the bar. Instead, she told me stories of her teenage years, and I responded with ones of my own, often pointing out places she had seen since we had been here where my brothers and I had caused all manner of mayhem. As I finished the plate of delicious food and took a deep sip of the dark red wine, gazing into Amanda’s electric eyes across from me, I felt like even if there was a big world outside of this booth, not one thing in it mattered.
18
Amanda
“Why won’t he just tell us what the evidence is?” Jesse asked.
“Because he doesn’t want to influence our thoughts,” Tom said.
It was a few days later, and we were at Mason’s house, talking about the private investigator and what he had discovered so far as he looked into the bar burning down.
“What does that mean?” Tyler asked.
“Apparently, he found something when he went to look at the bar, and he wants to show it to us to see if it means anything,” Mason said. “He doesn’t want to tell us what it is immediately because he doesn’t want us to jump to any conclusions. He said it could have something to do with the arson, and it could just be a coincidence. He wants us to see it and decide if we think it means anything, and then we can go from there.”
“Then, let’s go,” Matt said.
“Come on,” Tom said, looking at me.
“No,” Ava said. “Don’t go with him.”
“No?” I asked with a laugh.
“No. He’s just going to do boring guy stuff. Stay here with Robert and me,” Ava said.
I wasn’t sure if I completely bought into the idea of going to talk to a private investigator about potential arson being boring guy stuff, but I went along with it. I had been hopeful to have some time to hang out without the crew of brothers gathered around her, and I enjoyed spending time with her.
“Can’t really argue with that,” I said. “Boss, I think I’m staying here for the afternoon.”
He looked at me for a second like he was going to say something, then nodded.
“We’ll be back in a bit,” Mason said. “I’ll keep you updated with anything that might happen.”
He leaned down and kissed Ava, then kissed Robert on the head.
“We’ll be here for an afternoon of debauchery,” Ava said.
“Okay, well, make sure you give Robert the keys,” Mason said.
The guys left, and I dropped down on the couch beside Ava.
“Can you believe how crazy this is?” Ava asked. “It’s like a movie.”
&nb
sp; I nodded and made an acknowledging sound. She kept talking, but I was barely aware of what she was saying. My mind was too far away. The sound of the doorbell made me jump. Ava settled Robert into my arms and went for the door. As soon as she opened it, I heard a familiar, cheerful voice.
“Hey, there,” Susan said. “Where’s my grandbaby?”
“He’s in the living room with Amanda,” Ava said.
“Oh, Amanda is here?” she asked as she turned the corner into the living room.
I smiled at her. “Hi.”
“Hey, hon. Good to see you. Glad to know you’re not just working your days away.”
“Well, she probably would have if Tom hadn’t brought her over here to meet up with the other guys,” Ava said.
“Where is Tom?” Susan asked. “And everybody else?”
“They went to meet with the private investigator,” Ava said. “He apparently found some sort of evidence when he was investigating the bar. He didn’t want to tell them over the phone what it was, so they all headed over there. I kidnapped Amanda and made her stay with me.”
“I think that was a very good choice,” Susan said with a smile. “I brought cookies in exchange for my grandson.”
Ava laughed and accepted the plate of cookies from her mother-in-law. I handed the baby over to her and reached for one of the cookies as Ava took the plastic off. They smelled warm and comforting. I took a bite and almost groaned with how delicious the cookie was.
A huge piece of chocolate melted on my tongue, and I let out a sigh. Susan laughed.
“Do you like them?” she asked.
“They are the best cookies I’ve ever tasted,” I said. “What’s your secret?”
“A little extra salt and more brown sugar than granulated. I like having more cookie part than chocolate, so I don’t put in as much as usual recipes call for,” Susan said.
“Well, they’re delicious,” I said. “Maybe you’ll teach me how to make them if I’m in town long enough.”
Taboo Boss: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 10