“You’re welcome.”
I leaned forward against my better judgement and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “You’re a good man, Robert.”
He cupped my cheek before I could pull away. “Just not good enough for you,” he said, his voice a low grumble. I stared into his eyes, wanting to tell him he was wrong, but also not wanting to give him hope. He blinked and looked away, breaking the spell between us. I shifted back into my seat and opened the door, stepping outside.
“I’ll see you later.”
He nodded and waited as I walked into my house. When the door was shut, I heard the roar of his engine as he drove away. I leaned back against the door and sighed. I wished things could be different. I wished that I could go back and change what happened between us. Maybe things would have worked between us. Maybe everything would have been different.
My phone was incessantly ringing, but my brain wouldn’t wake up fully. I fumbled for my phone, knocking it on the floor. I finally found it under my bed and answered it as it rang again.
“Hello?” I grumbled.
“Anna,” Robert’s panicked voice came through the phone. “I need you in the city now!”
“What?” I asked in confusion, glancing at the clock on my nightstand. “It’s not even six.”
“I know. Rebecca’s husband found out that she came to see us. We need to do damage control now. Rebecca’s on her way into the office and she expects you to be there.”
I sat up suddenly, all sleep fleeing my body. I ran to the bathroom, tripping over my clothes that I had left on the floor last night and fell into my dresser.
“Ouch,” I shouted as my shoulder connected with the corner of the dresser.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I grumbled, rolling over and holding my shoulder. “How long do I have?”
“She’s on her way to the office now.”
I could hear the urgency in his tone, so as much as I wanted to ice my shoulder, I got up and rushed into the bathroom. My god, my hair was a nightmare and I had bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. There was no way I would be presentable in time.
“Robert-“
“Just hurry.”
He hung up and I quickly brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hair and pulled it back, then pulled on the most presentable clothes I could find. I ran out the door, barely remembering to pull shoes on. I was halfway to Chicago when I realized that I needed to call Eric and let him know that I would be out for at least part of the morning.
“You’d better not be calling in sick,” he said, his voice gruff.
I winced and tried to think of how to best phrase this. “It’ll only be for a few hours.”
“You work for me.”
“I know, but Robert needs me to-“
“I need you to be in the office. I had nobody to deal with Mrs. Cranston yesterday. My ass is all over her Facebook page again.”
“Look, you’re just going to have to face the fact that women like to see you working. You have a nice body and that’s what the people want to see.”
“Are you hitting on me?” he asked suddenly.
“No!” I exclaimed. “I’m just saying, you’re a man. Suck it up and deal with it. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done in the office.”
“The office? Now you have another office?”
“Look, I’ll take care of this. I promise. I’ll have donuts tomorrow morning for you.”
“I don’t even like donuts,” he grumbled.
“Yes, you do. You always sneak mine when you think I’m not looking.”
“You know, I’m your boss.”
“I know that.”
“And you’re supposed to be in my office, not Robert’s.”
“I swear, I’ll make it up to you.”
“You’d better,” he grumbled. “I hate doing office work.”
“I know, and I’ll work late tonight to make sure that everything’s in order.”
“Fine.”
After a few more minutes of him grumbling, he finally relented and got off the phone. It took me longer than I would have liked to get into the city, but rush hour traffic was a bitch. I couldn’t believe so many people did this every day. It was insane. I parked in the parking garage and ran across the street, dashing through traffic and narrowly escaping death to get to Robert’s firm. The security guard flagged me in when I gave him my name and I rushed to the elevator, hitting the button to close the doors when more people started walking my way. I wasn’t waiting for anyone. When I stumbled out of the elevator, people stared at me and my crumpled state, but I didn’t care about that right now. I practically ran down the hall, totally dismissing the secretary that stood and yelled at me to stop. I almost ran past the conference room until I saw Robert in there with a very pissed off Rebecca. When I shoved the door open, she stood and pursed her lips at me.
“I thought the agreement was that you would be here for every meeting?”
“I am here.”
“I’ve been waiting.”
Robert tried to interject, but I spoke up first. “I live an hour from here. As soon as I got the call, I was out my door. Do I look like I bothered to shower before rushing out the door to meet your needy ass?”
She smirked slightly before covering it and sitting back down. Robert pulled out a chair for me and sat next to me. “As I was saying, if he knows that you’ve been here, we’ll have to come up with a new strategy. I’ll start working immediately on finding a way around this and-“
“Wait, why do we need a new strategy?”
Robert turned to me, impatience on his face. “Because the minute he found out she came to see a divorce attorney, he probably called one of his own. By now, he’s strategizing on how to keep as much of her money as possible.”
“No, you just need to find another reason that she could have been visiting you,” I clarified.
“What? Like telling him that I was having an affair with Robert?” Rebecca said dryly.
“No, tell him that you’re updating your will.”
“We don’t do wills here,” Robert said.
“Fine, so tell him that Robert is an old friend of yours and with all your assets and how fast your companies are growing, you needed to update your will, but you wanted someone you trusted to handle it. Say that you’ve known Robert from your time in school together or something.”
“Could that work?” Rebecca asked.
“It’s possible, but would he believe it?”
“Not without an actual will for him to see,” she said, her brows furrowing.
Geez, these two were driving me insane with their worrying. “So, create another will. Make it something that’s too good for him to pass up. If you play it right, he won’t suspect a thing. You could even put provisions in there for his so-called company. Just make sure that you bring the will to him before he confronts you, otherwise it’ll look like you’re hiding something from him.”
“But if something happens to me, he’ll get everything,” Rebecca stressed. “I can’t risk that.”
“Well, just don’t die before we can have the will changed back. And maybe hire some security, you know, in case you think he’ll try and kill you.”
Robert’s eyes snapped to mine and he glared. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.
“What? It’s a possibility. She should be prepared. But as long as she plays this smart, he’ll never know. She could also use this as an excuse for the move. She can say that the city is getting to her and she needs to move someplace she can relax. And when he questions the will and the security, she can just tell him that with the chaos of everything, she feels she needs protection. Ooh,” I said excitedly. “She could hire your brother!”
“Your brother?” Rebecca asked.
Robert sighed. “My brother works in security. He’s former military.”
“Is he good? Because if I go through with this, allow him to see this will, I’m not so sure he wouldn’t try something
.”
“He’s the best,” Robert nodded. “You can trust him with your life.”
“So, we’re all good!” I said happily. “I have to get to work before your other brother kills me.”
“Wait, you’re not working on this?” Rebecca asked.
“Well, he does all the work. I’m just…here.”
“No, I want you here in the city.”
“But I don’t live in the city. I can’t keep going back and forth. The drive alone is ridiculous, not to mention how much gas money that would be.”
“I could offer you a job as my personal assistant. You would easily make three times what you’re making now.”
My eyes widened in shock. “Um, that’s really…impressive, but I like my job.”
“I’ll give you your own car and driver.”
“I don’t-“
“I don’t get it,” Rebecca said. “You’re engaged to be married, but you don’t live in the same city?”
“We’re still working out the details,” Robert jumped in. “There’s a lot to consider.”
“But you’re still getting married, right?”
“Of course,” Robert said, slipping his arm around my waist, pulling me in closer.
“When’s the wedding?”
“Christmas,” I piped up before I could think better of it. Robert squeezed my side, but it was the first thing I could think of. His brother was getting married and that was still on my mind. Hell, I was helping with the planning. It just popped out.
She glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. “I have to get going, but I want to hear more about this Christmas wedding. We’ll do lunch.”
“Me?” I asked in shock.
She was putting on her gloves, but stopped and looked at me. “No, Robert. I was hoping he could tell me about the flower arrangements and we would discuss this fabulous dress you’re going to wear.”
“Right,” I chuckled, glancing nervously at Robert. I couldn’t do small talk, and I especially couldn’t do lunch with her and talk about my fake wedding with her. That was insane.
“I’ll call you later this week to set up a time.”
She turned and walked out of the conference room and I sank down into the chair, shaking my head. “No, no, no,” I groaned. “This is so bad. I’ll have to make up some excuse. I can’t meet her for lunch.”
“Just make some stuff up.”
“I’ll just tell her that we postponed the wedding or something.”
“Anna, she’s going through with this because she trusts us as a couple.”
“And you don’t think that’s a little deceptive?” I shouted. “We’re bad people, Robert. This is bad, so very bad. We’re manipulating her into thinking we’re in love.”
“But, Anna, I am in love with you.”
“No,” I shook my head. “You want to think that you’re in love with me because of the guilt you feel over what happened between us. But what happened doesn’t matter now. Thinking you’re in love with me is not the same as actually being in love, and when you have the chance to really think about it, you’ll realize that everything you think you thought was true was all just…bad thinking.”
“Bad thinking.”
“Yes,” I shoved up out of my chair. “None of this is real. This ring is fake. It’s not even a real diamond,” I almost shouted. Robert grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me out of the conference room where people could see us and into his office, shutting the door behind him. “All of that stuff at the restaurant was a scam. Nothing was real!”
“Nothing?” he asked, pressing me up against the door. “So, when you told her how I was the love of your life and your best friend, that was a lie?”
“No, not that, but-“
“Anna, maybe that ring is a lie, but I never got over you. Hell, I’ll never get over you even if you refuse to see me ever again. I tried for the last thirteen years and it didn’t work.”
“You were such an ass when you saw me again. How can you say that you love me?”
“You were a bitch to me. You acted like I was nothing to you. Of course, I protected myself.”
“Robert, I don’t get it. What are you saying?”
He backed up, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Look-“
But he didn’t get a chance to say anything else because the door opened, almost slamming into me if I hadn’t quickly moved. Mr. Mosley walked in with an evil look on his face.
“Is it handled?”
“Yes,” Robert answered. “Everything will be taken care of. In fact, Anna was just heading out for the day. The crisis has been averted.”
“Good.” He turned to me, his eyes glimmering in a way that made shivers run down my spine. “And I trust that you handled your end of the bargain? After all, we are paying you to do a job.”
I nodded, even though I really wanted to slap him. “I said that I would be here and I was.”
“Good. I want you to stick around for the rest of the week,” he said to me.
“I can’t! I have to get back to my job.”
“And I need to make sure that everything is handled before you run off.” He turned to Robert. “Make sure that this latest incident goes away. Once it’s handled completely, Anna can go back to her life in the country.”
“I told you it was handled.”
“Then this shouldn’t be a problem.”
Robert faced off with him, neither saying anything. The tension in the air was so thick you could choke on it. Robert’s phone rang and he glanced up at me. “I have to take this. Give me a minute.”
He moved over to the windows and Mr. Mosley moved in closer, lowering his voice.
“It seems that you’ll be around more than I had planned.”
I glanced at Robert and shook my head. “Mr. Mosley, I have a job. I can’t just-“
He moved closer, almost threateningly and grasped me by the arm. “Do I need to remind you that Robert’s job is on the line? This client is very important to our firm, and if for whatever godforsaken reason she thinks she needs you, you’ll be here or I’ll make sure that Robert never works in this city again. In fact, I’ll make sure that he can’t practice at all.”
I stared at him in shock. “You’d have him disbarred?”
“I’ll do what I have to.”
“But…you can’t just have someone disbarred. You have to have proof of wrongdoing,” I hissed.
“And you think I couldn’t make that happen?”
I shook my head. “I thought Robert was the best. Why would you do that to him?”
He grinned maliciously. “He may be the best attorney I have, but this is still my company. And if he can’t come through for me when I need him to, I have no use for him. So, ask yourself, do you want to ruin his career over that piddly little job you hold in your pissant town?”
My heart hammered in my chest as I glanced at Robert. He looked over at me, his eyes narrowing as he took in Mr. Mosley’s hand on my arm. I gave him a smile, hoping he thought everything was okay. The last thing I wanted was to ruin his job. I would never be able to live with myself if he was disbarred because I wouldn’t do what was needed. I swallowed hard and returned my gaze to Mr. Mosley.
“I understand you perfectly. It won’t be a problem.”
“Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”
Robert walked over just as Mr. Mosley released my arm. “Is there a problem here?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Mr. Mosley and I were just discussing how I needed to move to the city for the rest of the week to make sure I’m here when needed.”
“I’m sure you won’t be needed that often-“ Robert started.
“But Rebecca is insisting on it. I’ll have to talk to Eric, but I’m sure I can find someone to fill in for me for the rest of the week.”
“Great!” Mr. Mosley grinned, turning to Robert. “The sooner we wrap up this most recent incident, the sooner we can all move on.”
I swallowed ha
rd, trying to figure out how I was going to work this out with Eric. He was going to be pissed. And when this was all over, would he even give me my job back? I was going to have to talk to him and explain about Mr. Mosley’s threats. That’s the only way he wouldn’t push the issue.
“Anna?”
I glanced up at Robert and frowned. “What?”
“I asked if you’re sure if you want to do this.”
“It’ll be fine. We’ll wrap this up with Rebecca and everything will go back to normal. But honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to do.”
He sighed, shaking his head slightly. “Maybe you can work for Eric out of my apartment. It’s not the most convenient for him, but there’s really nothing you can do about Rebecca right now. And with Mr. Mosley acting the way he is…”
“It’s fine. I have to grab some stuff for the rest of the week. I can talk to Eric about redirecting calls to my cell for the rest of the week. And I can bring the laptop so I can still work.”
He nodded, looking slightly uneasy about all this. “Are you sure you’re okay staying with me?”
I wasn’t sure it was a great idea, but it was for a week. What could go wrong in a week?
I was so nervous as I pulled up to Eric’s house. I hoped he wouldn’t fire me. I hoped he understood what I was trying to accomplish, which was to keep his brother from losing his job. As for staying with him, I had a very bad feeling about all of it, but the more morbid side of me wanted to see what would happen. I knew I was asking for trouble. The moment I stepped into his apartment, I knew things would change between us, but I was tired of fighting my feelings for Robert.
I got out of my car and slammed the door, giving a weak smile when Eric walked out the front door.
“I thought you were going to be at work today? I had to deal with Mrs. Cranston. Again. It was ridiculous. You’d better work overtime tomorrow to make up for it.”
“Um…about that. We need to talk.”
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you quitting?”
“It’s not what you think,” I rushed on. “I swear to you, I don’t want to quit my job, but you may want to fire me when you hear what I have to say.”
Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance Page 18