“Arthur, it’s been a while,” I said to my buddy I hadn’t talked to much since his wedding.
Arthur Lattimore had been a college buddy of mine and had made it to partner of his law firm in record time. “Up to your old tricks, I bet,” he said.
I chuckled. “I’d say that wife of yours has you on a short leash.” I was only teasing. He was lucky to have met her in college. I envied him.
“Willingly,” he admitted. “She’s pregnant with number two.”
“Another girl, I’ll wager.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get. And trust me, it’s worth it. You should give it a try.”
“Fatherhood?”
“Husband, father, the whole shebang.”
“I’ll leave that to you for now. Though there is a woman I’m very interested in.”
“Though you can’t see me, I’m blinking rapidly because I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Look, I need a favor. Her father’s in trouble and I want to help them out.”
“Okay, fill me in.”
I gave him the basics about how her father had been found guilty of embezzlement, but both claimed he was innocent.
“You know criminal law is not my area.”
“I know. But I assume you may know the name of someone who is a really good criminal lawyer.”
“Let me do some digging. What’s his name again?”
I gave him her father’s name. I didn’t give him hers, though that would be easily found out if he looked.
“Give me a couple of days.”
“Thanks. And give your wife a big sloppy kiss for me.”
“I will, because I’m the only man who will ever kiss her in this lifetime and the next.”
I laughed and hung up.
Later that day, I went to Chloe’s. If I wanted a chance in hell of making it work with Molly, I needed to straighten things out with her best friend.
I knocked on the door and waited. The last time I’d spoken to her, she’d quit and had given me hell for making her life at work miserable. This wasn’t going to be easy, but I had to do something.
When the door opened, Chloe looked puzzled and I couldn’t blame her. “Mr. Hampton, what are you doing here?”
“Uh, Chloe, are you okay? You look a little, uh, tense,” I blurted without thinking it through.
“That’s an understatement.”
I wasn’t exactly good at apologies and said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
She blinked. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, I see that you’re upset about something and I was wondering if you needed help.” I was blowing this big time.
“Why on earth would you wonder that?”
“Because you appear to need it,” I said, extending an olive branch because she looked like she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“Mr. Hampton, I worked for you for months while you treated me like a dog, heaping work on me like I was a farm animal. And here you stand asking if I need help. I needed help when you gave me impossible deadlines to meet and threatened to fire me if I didn’t.”
“I did that?” It was still hard to believe. She’d been my most reliable employee. She’d made all her deadlines. I’d never given a thought that my expectations were impossible.
“You need to leave.”
The door shut in my face. I took a second to gather my thoughts. I didn’t think I’d done a good job of explaining myself, so I knocked again, louder so she wouldn’t just ignore me.
“For the love of wine and beer, who is it now? Are you planning on sleeping out here? Should I toss you a blanket or something?”
It was time to eat crow for Molly and Chloe too. “No, I was going over what you said to me and I guess I was pretty hard on you. I wanted to tell you I was sorry.”
“Look, I think you’d better leave. This is too much,” she said.
“But…”
She pointed to the street. “Just go.” A car door slammed, and someone yelled. We looked over and she said, “Well, I should’ve guessed this would get worse.”
“What’s he doing here?” I asked, feeling like I might know.
“You can ask him yourself.”
“Get away from her,” Ryan snarled.
“Hold up there,” Chloe said, but that didn’t stop Ryan. I was so distracted, I missed Ryan’s fist. He caught me square in the jaw. My head snapped back, and I had to shake it off.
I rubbed at the ache and decided not to stoop to his level. Instead, I yelled, “What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”
“Leave her alone. Don’t you even think about touching her, Hugh.”
“I wasn’t touching her. We were talking. I’m not like you, you asshole.” It was likely Ryan hadn’t told Chloe why he was fucking her.
“Ryan, I think you’d better leave,” Chloe said.
“I’m not going anywhere until we’ve had a chance to talk,” he said, before turning furious eyes on me. “Get the fuck out of here or I’ll beat the shit out of you.”
“You know something? You’re crazy,” I said, jabbing a finger at him.
“You haven’t even begun to see crazy.” Ryan puffed up his chest in front of Chloe. Even if I wanted to take him down a peg, kicking Ryan’s ass wouldn’t win me points with Chloe and maybe I’d lose some with Molly if her friend saw me as some sort of bully.
“We’re not finished, Ryan,” I said, warning that he wouldn’t always have a woman to protect him. “And if you hurt Chloe, I’ll make sure you pay.”
Ryan laughed as I played the better man and walked away.
Fuck, I thought as I got into my car. That couldn’t have gone any worse. I had no idea what Molly would say or do if she talked to Chloe.
By the time I got home, I was prepared for a shitstorm. Instead, Molly was in the kitchen.
“What’s this?” I asked.
She turned around with the biggest grin. “I just thought, why not start our truce with a homecooked meal? I hope you like it. Sit.” She ushered me to a chair.
The woman couldn’t be any sexier to me when she put a plate worthy of restaurant dining in front of me. I wanted to tell her about Chloe as it appeared she hadn’t talked to her yet but decided not to ruin dinner with bad news.
The meal was great. Roasted chicken and potatoes hit the spot. The green things on the plate weren’t bad either.
When I finished, she waited expectantly. “That was wonderful,” I said. “I could get used to it.”
Her grin was huge. “Play your cards right…”
“Hopefully, you’ll feel that way after I tell you about my day,” I said. Though her smile dimmed, she waited patiently. “I went to see Chloe. It didn’t go too well.”
“Oh, man. What happened?”
“I tried to apologize, and I bungled it. Before I could fix things, Ryan showed up.” I waited for her expression to change, but apparently, she didn’t know who Ryan was.
“Ryan?”
“Yeah, I think she’s dating a guy named Ryan. You don’t know him?”
“It’s news to me. I think you’re mistaken.”
Was I wrong? Maybe he hadn’t been there to win the inheritance. I could be totally wrong. Before I explained who Ryan was, Molly came over with a seductive smile on her face.
“Time for dessert,” she said, and we ended up in my bedroom.
The next morning, I got an early call from Ben, my finance guy.
“There is some chatter about someone trying to buy into your business,” he said.
I had a bad feeling Ryan was trying to steal my company from underneath me. But that wasn’t even the worst thing to happen. Arthur called me to come into his office. Already in a bad mood when I arrived, I wasn’t all smiles.
“Don’t look so pissed off,” Arthur said. “I have some good news. But we should wait for Molly.”
“Wait, Molly? You know her?”
“After I looked into her fath
er’s arrest, her name came up. Turns out she works here,” Arthur said. Dread filled me. “Also, James McNeill is here to explain the details.”
Arthur introduced me to the criminal attorney who was in the conference room with us. When Molly walked in and saw all of us, I knew she was going to eat my balls for lunch. She was pissed.
Eleven
Molly
The word ‘anger’ didn’t touch what coursed through me. My insides were an inferno, ready to erupt in flames. How could he? How could he go behind my back and involve the company I worked for? No one here knew of my past or the sordid details behind my father’s unfortunate incarceration. Yes, I believed he was innocent, but everything was stacked against him. I loved my father dearly, but he’d done some stupid things to help my mom and was now paying the price. My plans involved an attorney from my hometown to clear his name, not one from the company I worked for—thank you, Hugh.
“Molly, please take a seat,” my boss said. Ironically, he was one of the partners in the firm who I’d never even met. “You obviously know Hugh, but I’d like to introduce you to James McNeill, one of the city’s brightest and best criminal defense attorneys. He’s looking into your father’s case.”
“Hello, Molly.” Mr. McNeill stuck out his hand and I shook it.
Then my feet froze to the floor as I glanced around the room and noticed Hugh was there. Mr. McNeill looked at me expectantly, but someone had poured concrete on my shoes and no matter how hard I tried to move, it was impossible.
Hugh stood and came around to my side. “Are you okay?”
I blinked rapidly in succession, and then an urge to punch his teeth out came over me. When his hand gripped my elbow, the concrete on my shoes disappeared.
“I’m fine.” I smiled through gritted teeth and finally sat.
Mr. Lattimore smiled. “Great, then shall we begin? I’ll let James explain since he’s the expert.”
My nod was stiff.
“Molly, I researched your father’s case and think we may have a chance,” Mr. McNeill said.
“I know that. I’ve been working with an attorney already.” My words didn’t deter him.
“A bit of leeway exists since he was the co-owner of the company,” Mr. McNeill continued.
My palm hit the table. “Exactly. That’s what we’ve been saying all along. He did what he did to help with my mom’s nursing home expenses and thought everything was fine.”
“Ignorance is never an excuse when it comes to the law. That’s not where our leeway lies,” Mr. McNeill explained.
My brows hiked up. “Oh?”
“You see, I was able to get my hands on the business contract of your father’s company.”
“How’d you do that?”
He waved a hand. “How doesn’t matter. What matters is I did. The contract has a clause that allows each partner to take a loan against their portion of the company’s assets, which is what your father did. The only thing he did wrong was not mentioning it to his partner.”
“But he was going to, only he never got the chance,” I cried.
“That part doesn’t matter either. As long as that clause was in effect, he didn’t break the law, and therefore did not embezzle money.”
I was speechless. How had our attorney missed that? Oh, right. He was incompetent, that was how. “Now what?”
“I’m going to press for an appeal.”
“The attorney we have said that was going to be difficult given the circumstances.”
“Believe me, Molly, it’s very possible. What we have to consider though is whether the judge will grant it.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
Mr. McNeill shrugged. “It depends on a few things, but don’t worry about that. I plan to use my connections to see it happens.”
Damn, people with clout sure had advantages over those without it.
Mr. Lattimore spoke up. “Molly, I hope this eases your mind somewhat. James is the best at what he does and hopefully your father will be a free man soon.”
“Yes, and thank you, sir.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank Hugh. He’s the one who brought it to my attention.”
I turned to Hugh and smiled, albeit a sour one. I was still pissed at him.
We rose to leave with James telling me I should hear from him within a week or two.
As we were walking out, Hugh asked, “Molly, can you stay a minute? I’d like a word, please.”
“Uh, I have to get back to work.”
“I’m sure Arthur won’t mind if you stay for a few minutes.”
I glanced at the door to see that everyone else was gone. “Fine.”
“I get the sense you’re angry.”
“Great perception you have there,” I snapped.
“I don’t understand.”
“Hugh, I can’t have this conversation here. I’ll be finished in another hour. I’ll meet you at your place and then I’ll explain.”
He agreed and left. I’d never been in favor of arguing in public and my place of employment was not the ideal setting for me to launch into him over what he’d done. I’d wait it out.
Turned out to be much harder than I thought. I barely got any work done and finally left early, saying I had a headache. It was true. My temples throbbed with each breath I took. I drove around, trying to collect and arrange my thoughts. When I got to Hugh’s, he still wasn’t there. I had to wait another hour for him to arrive, which didn’t help matters. My jaw ached from clenching my teeth.
He walked in and headed directly for the cabinet where the liquor was stored. “Sorry, just as I was leaving, something came up. I got news that someone is trying to buy out my company.”
Instead of being empathetic and asking him about it, I went straight for the jugular. “How dare you tell my employer about my father! What gave you that right? No one at the firm knew and now everyone will.”
He stared at me as though I’d punched him. “I was only trying to help.”
“Trying to help? Then why didn’t you come to me first?”
“I, uh, don’t know. Arthur and I go way back so I figured he would be the perfect one to approach in this situation. I never gave it a thought that you worked at his firm.”
“Right. So now he knows and what must he think of me?”
“Think of you? Why would he think any different?”
“Oh, come on, Hugh. You yourself did it. Anyone whose father is a convict gets a bad rap too. Like father, like daughter.”
He scratched his head as though he were terribly confused. “While that may be true, I’m lost here, Molly. I thought what I did was a good deed and instead I get this. Not only that, when I got back to the office, I had a shitstorm brewing.” He gulped down half the glass of brown liquor he’d poured.
“Yeah, well, I’m going to be facing my own shitstorm when everyone in the office finds out about this. The gossip chain will run wild and then I’ll probably get accused of having an affair with one of the partners.”
“What? That’s insane!”
“In your mind, maybe, but not mine. When was the last time you worked with a bunch of gossiping admins?”
His mouth opened and closed several times before he answered. “You know what? I’ll call James and tell him to forget it. That you don’t give a shit about your father rotting away in prison. How does that sound?”
“You don’t have to get nasty about it.”
“Me? Me?” His voice rose with each word.
“Yes, you!”
Then the dreaded finger came out, aimed at me. “You need to calm down and focus on the issue at hand.”
Oh, boy, he was right. “You know something? You’re exactly right.” I stomped out of the room and headed to the bedroom. Once there, I went to the closet and threw clothes into a suitcase, along with my cosmetics and everything else I needed. Then I zipped the thing shut and marched back out.
When he saw me, he ran to the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”
> “Home. To my apartment where I’m not accosted by some domineering asshole.”
“Molly, you can’t be serious.”
“As a fucking heart attack.” As I approached the door, he moved in front of it.
“I won’t let you.”
“So now you’re keeping me a prisoner?”
“Of course not!”
“Then step aside, Hugh.”
He crossed his arms and blocked the door. “No, I won’t let you leave. You’re being irrational.”
That was the final straw. “If you don’t move, I’m going to punch you.”
He laughed. The fucker laughed at me! I’d show him. I balled up a fist and nailed him in the gut. When he doubled over, I made my escape.
Twelve
Hugh
The woman had a great gut shot. I wheezed for air as I hadn’t expected that. A part of me cursed her because I hadn’t done anything wrong. She hadn’t given me a chance to explain.
On the other hand, I could see how she’d felt ambushed. But so had I. I’d had no idea she’d worked for Arthur. Then again, his firm was the most prestigious in town.
Over the next week, I called, begged, knocked on her door, and she wouldn’t see me. I even sent flowers. Nothing.
A man has his pride. My final act was to send her a letter. A goddamn handwritten letter sent via mail. Then I left her alone.
If she wasn’t willing to hear me out, what more could I do?
The next sucker punch came when I was informed my ex had sold her shares in my company to Ryan. My cousin, the man I’d once thought of a brother, had won.
After two weeks waiting patiently for Molly to cool off, I lost it from this news. I hit bottom and spent the next three nights on a bender, calling out sick to my admin. I’d lost it all. My company and Molly.
The woman had burrowed deep in my heart in a matter of weeks. I saw her everywhere in my house even though she’d only lived here a short time. I missed her fiercely.
Luckily my cleaning lady was in when the knock came. I gave her instructions to tell whoever it was to go the hell away.
I sank in my office chair, trying to decide what my next move was, when Helga came into my office. “Sorry to bother you, but they won’t leave.”
Dirty Arrogant Boss: Cocky Billionaire Duet (The Cocky Billionaire Duet Book 2) Page 6