Deep in her gut, she knew that one day, her sister would need help getting away from Derrek.
Chapter Eight
Cole had to find something to do. He paced the store, trying not to think about what Jillian might be going through. He rubbed a hand over his face. He hated feeling helpless. He’d felt helpless when the police had called about Francesca’s death as well as a myriad of other emotions – grief, despair, anger, guilt and hurt. He was bombarded with more emotions than he’d ever experienced in his life when the officer had told him how Francesca had died.
It would be so easy to pretend he hadn’t heard Jillian’s phone conversation. To pretend someone he knew about wasn’t in a similar situation as his sister was. If only so he wouldn’t have to relive the bad memories. But he could never do that. Not after being in the dark about his sister. Neither his dad or his mom knew the extent of her abuse – she’d carefully hid it from all of them.
Now Jillian’s sister? He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t overheard. A little while later, when she opened the shop door and stomped inside, the wind blowing her chestnut hair across her face, he waited for her to say something.
Anything.
When she didn’t, he finally asked. “Is everything okay?”
Her eyes flashed fury. “It’s like the boy who cried wolf!” Jillian yelled.
“She was lying?” As awful as that was, a weight lifted from his shoulders as relief settled into his chest.
“No. More like, Derrek made it up to her so now everything is fine and dandy. Makes me want to puke.” Jillian marched over and threw her purse on the shelf beneath the counter and turned back toward Cole. Her luscious bottom lip was protruded into a pout and his screwed-up feelings were back once again.
“I’m sorry,” Cole said over the lump in his throat. “I don’t know what to say.”
His damn earrings picked that moment to agitate his ears again. He casually rubbed his left lobe, then the right one, then the left, trying not to accidentally unclip them or move them from their positions. Thankfully, Jillian was so pissed she didn’t notice his discomfort.
“There isn’t anything to be said. The truth is, I can’t do anything about it. Not until Arabella is ready to leave Derrek herself. Gosh, you’ve been here two days and you already know my problems. I’m sorry for bringing this all to work.” Jillian told him as she hopped onto the back of the counter. The long boots she was wearing came up to her knees, leaving inches of sun-kissed skin exposed before her black skirt left the rest to his imagination.
And he had a wild imagination.
Focus, Cole.
“You know, I never understood that. How people aren’t supposed to bring their life to work with them. Because isn’t work your life and vice-versa? One can’t be put away simply because you aren’t there. Life doesn’t stop while we’re at work. It never has for me.” Cole said.
The corner of Jillian’s mouth pulled up, making her look so damn cute. “I never looked at it that way. I just hate this feeling of helplessness that I know she’s hurting and there is nothing I can do to help. No, that she won’t let me help.”
Cole raised his eyebrows – that was something he could relate to. Strangely, it warmed him that he and Jillian had similar thoughts, even though his weren’t as immediate as hers were.
“It’s not a good feeling. Does she have anyone else she can talk to? Sometimes it helps to talk to someone that isn’t close to the situation.”
“I don’t think so. Derrek would freak if he found out she was talking to a counselor or something.” Jillian bunched up her shoulders. “The guy is a creep. And so far, there isn’t a thing I can do about the situation. Rather than burn the happiness right out of me, let’s change the subject. How is the basement coming along?”
“The basement is done. Everything that isn’t Lacie’s worthy has been set aside and everything that is worthy, I’ve separated out to be inventoried and brought up here.” Cole didn’t want to leave her this way, hated the thought of what was going on in her life, but he couldn’t be late for his meeting. “You’ll be okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I will.”
Cole smiled. “I have a meeting I have to go to but I’ll be back later,” Cole said.
“Your meeting! I forgot all about it. Sure. I’ll see you when you come back. Hopefully we get some customers that will buy something. You know,” she said more thoughtfully, “When we’re done with all of this inventory, we need to look at our options and marketing on how we can get people back in here.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Lacie’s is lucky to have you, Jillian.” He gave her a small smile and made his exit. He was meeting the guys at Zander’s office to go over the groundbreaking of The Francesca Project and lucky for him, Zander’s office was one block from the lingerie store.
Zander Morgan was an architect and had been the one to design the women’s complex. They’d become good friends when Cole had hired him to design the headquarters for Deluxe Posh. Before that, Deluxe was being run from three locations – none of which were in a centralized location. Zander hadn’t missed a beat. He still didn’t as far as Cole was concerned.
Gaining proper entry to the building, he took the elevator to Morgan Architecture and was greeted by Zander’s beautiful receptionist, Izzy Martinez. She didn’t greet him with her usual smile, and he realized belatedly it was because he was Levi at the moment and not the Cole she knew.
Hell.
“I’m here to see Zander. He’s expecting me. Levi Clark.” Cole managed without laughing. In a weird way, it was almost a relief to walk around being in disguise. He was the proverbial “fly on the wall.”
“Yes, sir.” She buzzed Zander, using her headset. “Mr. Morgan, Levi Clark is here to see you.”
Bewilderment flashed across her eyes and she wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t know why that is so funny, but you can go back.”
“Thanks.”
The wide double doors clicked as Izzy unlocked them for him. The building itself was old—a department store way back when—but the inside was modern and appealing. Zander had taken it down as far as he could without ruining the outside of the building and had the inside renovated to perfection. Deep cherry trim and matching wooden floors complemented some of the older brick supports that couldn’t be taken down. The ceilings had been lifted and transformed into large metal beams with dropped chandeliers. The place was a mixture of office space and a reception hall.
At the time, Zander had considered covering the old brick with drywall but in the end, he’d decided to leave them as they were. The end-product was fascinating and set Zander on a new path of designing plans for historic buildings within the downtown area. All over really, but lately he’d been working a lot in this area with all the new growth and development.
Cole opened the door to Zander’s office, which coincidently was pointed toward Lacie’s Lingerie. From the corner window, he could see the large, elevated patio that was the back of Lacie’s.
“Damn bro, Michael was right. You do not look like Cole. Are you gay?” Zander asked.
Cole choked. “What?”
“You. Are you pretending to be a gay guy as well? With all the clothes and shit…” Zander gestured with his hand toward Cole’s ensemble. Yeah, he probably did look that way. Carlos loved him some good men so it wouldn’t surprise Cole if his clothes were giving off that vibe.
“If I am, it wasn’t intentional. Least not on my part. Maybe Carlos’s. He obviously helped.”
Zander Morgan was tall and stocky. While they frequented the same gym, Cole wasn’t near as large in that capacity as Zander was. And Zander proved it every time they shared the boxing ring.
Cole had yet to kick his ass. And they’d been going rounds at least once a month, if not more, for the past two years. Yeah, since Francesca died. Zander had promised it would be a great stress reliever and the guy was right.
“Dios mÍo,” Zander said. It’d taken Cole a little while to understand wh
at Zander said every now and then—his Spanish often mingled with his English—but Cole was becoming a pro at Spanish terms.
“Yeah, tell me about it. And these earrings give me a rash.” Cole said as he pulled the earrings off his lobes, shoving them into his pocket.
Zander chuckled. “Only you, my friend.” Sometimes he felt closest to Zander because there was a moment that Zander and Francesca had a small fling. Francesca had a crush on Zander for a while and once she’d graduated college, they’d gone out a few times.
“What did my sister ever see in you? Giving her big brother a bad time.” Cole joked.
The loss of Francesca—even though there were no intimate feelings left between Zander and Francesca by that time—had solidified the men’s relationship with one another even though they’d been friends prior to that.
That and the fact that Zander made the best Mexican food in all of Colorado.
“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t? Come on. The guys should be here any second. Let’s head to the conference room.”
Before walking out, Zander bent over his desk and buzzed Izzy. “When Dylan and the other two arrive, will you let them know we’ll be in the conference room please?”
“Will do,” Izzy replied sweetly.
“Does she ever have a bad day? She’s so cheerful,” Cole said.
Zander laughed. “That’s why I pay her so well. Everyone loves her.”
“I was a little disappointed she didn’t greet me then I remembered it was because of my costume.”
Zander laughed and shook his head as they headed down the hall and into the conference room. The room was sealed off from the rest of the space, meaning there were no windows to the outside. A massively large table with twelve chairs positioned around it took up the room. There was the standard wall for presentations and projections and the opposite wall had a bunch of clips set a certain width from each other for the company to tack up their blueprints and construction documents.
“Food smells amazing,” Cole said. Three silver warmers sat on a white-clothed table in the corner complete with plates and utensils. An open cooler was at the end of the table and Cole helped himself to a Mountain Dew.
Michael walked through the open door as Cole popped open his drink. “Greetings,” he said and thrust a manila folder onto the table.
“Bad day?” Zander raised his eyebrow.
“More like terrible. The AP just announced there’s another dating site, Millionaires Plus One or something like that. For millionaires to find a match. That’s just the competition Together needs.” Michael stretched back into his seat and folded his arms behind his head, while multiple creases lined his forehead.
“It can’t be worse than Lacie’s Lingerie and the fact that it’s losing money as we speak,” Cole said. “Money that should be going toward the project.”
“No, worse than that is I lost a bid for a new hotel that’s going to be built off 144th. I can’t believe we screwed it up. Someone mixed the time up and our bid got submitted too late,” Zander said.
“Whoa Cole, you do look different. What’s up, gentlemen? Is this a pity party?” Justin Hollinsworth walked through the open door with Dylan Truex trailing behind him “Because if it is, let me just say that my food and beverage manager just fucking quit. Nothing can be worse than that.”
Dylan closed the door behind him. “Scary different. Although I give props to the hat. Good call. Give me a break,” Dylan said, no longer addressing Cole but Justin. “Hire someone else. Y’all need to quit your bitching. I have great news. The city gave the approval. Team is out there right now marking the ground.”
This garnered yeahs and whistling amongst the men and high-fives all around. Michael even got up from his chair with a small grin on his face. “I knew you’d be able to pull some strings.”
“It was awful. Comparable to having to listen to my great-aunt Freda talk about her toenail fungus,” Dylan said.
“Ain’t touching that one,” Zander said.
“Me neither,” Justin agreed.
The men pulled up seats and attempted to get to the business of The Francesca Project.
“Isn’t this great?” Michael said. “Running our damn meeting and not needing board packets or last month’s minutes? We can just come in here and get shit done?”
“It is great. Although I don’t deal with a board,” Zander said.
“Me neither,” Cole said.
“You know I do, and yeah, it’s a nice break.” Justin said.
Dylan shrugged. “I do what I please with Dirty Gains.”
“Can we eat? I’m starved,” Michael said.
Zander dropped his pen onto the table. “Sure, why the hell not?”
“You can’t control your appetite for thirty minutes?” Dylan asked. He ran a hand through his dark-colored hair in exasperation. “This is why you need to eat breakfast every day.”
“Did you seriously just say that?” Cole asked.
“Yes, I seriously just said that. It’s the truth. Your body is a temple, you should treat it as such.”
“Mmmm, these steaks are going to do just that for me,” Cole replied.
“Mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. Yum.” Was all Justin could manage over the growl that came from his stomach. Cole shook his head.
Once the guys got their food, they sat at the table and for the first few minutes, all that could be heard was the gentle cling of forks meeting plate as the men sat in silence and devoured most of their meals.
“How’s the undercover boss coming along?” Zander asked Cole.
“Ohh, I’d say it’s coming. Slowly. The woman is killing me,” Cole said.
“In what way?” Justin asked, swiping his mouth with his cloth napkin.
“Didn’t I tell you guys? Jillian Winters, the woman that owned The Peekeasy, which was the lingerie store in the building I bought—also whose lease I didn’t renew—she was forced to close her store—”
“Because of you,” Michael interjected.
“Ouch,” Dylan said.
“Well, Rebekah hired her on and she works at Lacie’s now.” He shoveled a bite of steak into his mouth, slowly realizing the room was silent. He glanced up to find four questioning gazes staring at him. “What? I had nothing to do with that part. So she’s convinced she can turn Lacie’s around. And I’m thinking Rebekah might have been stealing from the company.”
“Hmm, not good. Do you think Jillian can? Why couldn’t she have just moved her store? Makes you wonder.” Dylan asked.
“She’s looking pretty good so far at improving things. She closed it down because The Peekeasy projected a certain image and she didn’t have enough financial resources to relocate into an equally ideal location like where she was.”
Michael hooted with laughter. “You mean to tell me that not only did you not renew her lease, but she came crawling back and now she’s sharing her expertise with you? Unbelievable.”
“I wouldn’t say crawling back. She was rather reluctant. I get the feeling she wants to learn more from the store—gain more insight in the business. Anyway, you’re not going to believe what I overheard today. She got a phone call from her sister. Boyfriend’s beating her up.” Cole didn’t have to look up from his almost empty plate of food this time, to know that his four friends and business partners’ eyes were on him. So he continued, “Jillian is trying to help her out, but I guess she keeps going back to him.”
Cole met their gazes. Zander shook his head, his eyes blazed with fury. “Men like that ought to be taken out and stapled up somewhere. Like those carnival games where you get a dart and have to pop the balloon, only all the victims get an opportunity at throwing at least ten darts at the asshole.” They all agreed with him.
“I had similar thoughts. Anyway, needless to say, I want this project going as soon as possible.”
“After today, it’s well on its way,” Dylan said.
“All the permits are in place,” Zander said. “I have Izz
y coordinating the ground-breaking ceremony with everyone involved. We’ve even sent an invitation to both senators, all representatives and the governor.”
“We ordered gold shovels and before you ask, no, they aren’t real gold. This is a not-for-profit,” Cole said. He rested his elbows on the table and leaned in. “About Jillian, did I mention she’s fucking gorgeous and sassy and I don’t fraternize with employees?”
“Maybe you should.” Zander suggested. “If she’s what’s got you feeling alive for the first time in two years, surely the rule could be broken.”
“She thinks I’m Levi. Levi could enjoy her company. But Cole…Cole has some making up to do.” Even though she’d assured him that everything was well and good between them, he still felt guilty about her store.
“What are you going to do about the sister?” Michael asked.
“Nothing. Build The Francesca Project. Jillian made it very clear to me—well, Levi—that there wasn’t anything that could be done. Her sister would leave the relationship when she was ready to leave. I just hope it doesn’t get to a point where it’s too late.”
Silence descended upon the men once again and Cole had no doubt they were all thinking of his sister. His beautiful, Brainiac, salsa-dancing sister who had still been too young to know what the world was like. What careers were like. What children and family were like. His chest physically ached at the thought of her and of all the women out there in the world that he wasn’t going to be able to save. Of the women, for whatever reason, who weren’t going to be strong enough to speak up when around their abusers. He sent up silent prayers, asking to give them courage. Always questioning why his strong sister wasn’t ever able to do that. He would have taken care of her, given her a place to live so she wasn’t homeless.
“When do they think it’ll be done?” Dylan’s quiet voice filled the wrenching silence.
“My guy said next spring. So long as they have a good winter,” Zander said.
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