“Oh good idea!” Tisha patted his arm and Devon struggled with the urge to shrink away as though she were going to give him rabies or something.
How lame was that? He was the canine, or at least the part time canine, and Tisha was the one who seemed totally rabid. In fact, Devon was pretty sure that she had rabies good and proper since it had already affected her brain.
Something in his manner must have affected his mother enough to let her know that all was not well in the mother/son relationship. She narrowed her gaze on him and was silent for just long enough to give Devon stomach cramps. Then she tilted her head just so and he knew the demon queen had one more ace up her sleeve.
“You know,” Tisha began in a slow and deceptively casual voice. “I was looking through some of the building maintenance contracts lately. It seems that your father kept authorizing a ridiculous increase in compensation for a company called Casa-Clean. Apparently they employ our janitorial staff.” She tapped her lower lip with one blood red fingernail. “It seems like you were recommending to your father each year that the company be given an increase in compensation because of the cost of paper products, cleaning supplies, and other incidentals.”
“Who cares?” Devon growled. This was getting into dark territory that he did not care to discuss with his mother. “Dad met with the guy every single year to go over costs. A few years ago when that bullshit green movement caught on Dad even met with Joe Flores to discuss what it would take to switch to all recycled products.” Devon needed to make his point. Fast. Screw that! His point? Try a point. A point that would make her back off. “Since you’ve never run a business or tried to keep costs down while pandering to some new fad about recycling or energy efficiency, you probably have no idea how much management time goes into that sort of thing.”
“Oh, I don’t?” Tisha placed her hand on her chest and drew back with a mocking look of surprise. “And yet what was it? Last year? You requested in writing that your father speak to Joe Flores about using the increase we gave him for overhead to give his employees a pay raise because they’d been on a pay freeze for three years.”
Devon’s pulse was fluttering so hard in his neck he was surprised it wasn’t making him light headed. “So?”
“So I wonder how you would know something like that? It’s not like Mr. Flores ever gave your father any information about employee salaries.” Mother’s lip twisted in a cruel smile. “It sounds like you’ve gotten rather chummy with the help, don’t you think?”
“Don’t I think? What? Because I talk to them and treat them like people?” Devon shot back angrily. “I don’t know what you’re trying to insinuate. I don’t care. None of this matters.”
She glared at him and pushed so far into his personal space that he wanted to cringe away. “As long as your interest in the help doesn’t hurt my plans for you to marry Tansy Dunlop.”
If this conversation continued, Devon’s head was going to explode with the anger he was currently feeling about the whole thing in general. “Marry her? So we’ve come all the way to that point, have we? It’s not about giving you some weird social boost anymore? It’s about something you want from the Dunlop family that you think I’m going to provide for you by what? Giving one of their children a foot in the door at King Security Solutions? What’s next? Getting Tansy to hold me hostage so that I’ll stop arguing with you about how you want to run the company? Do you honestly believe that’s going to work?”
To Devon’s horror, Tisha reached up and patted him gently on the cheek. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. You just smile real pretty when Tansy gets here and get ready to sweep her off her feet. Once the two of you have enjoyed your whirlwind romance and the marriage that will follow, then I’ll tell you what comes next.”
“You’re out of your damn mind.”
“No. I’m not.” She pursed her lips and pointed at Devon. “I don’t know what you’ve got going on with that little janitor, but it’s going to stop. Kings do not take up with the help. They further the family by marrying where they should.”
“Yeah, because that worked out so well for my father,” Devon snarled before he pushed past his mother and headed for the stairs. He needed to get dressed. But really he needed to get away from Tisha before he did something stupid like shift into his wolf body just to rip her throat out.
Chapter Twenty
The first thing Kami noticed when she walked in the front door of the apartment she now shared with Devon King was the note sitting on the hall table. It had been secured with an empty picture frame. Kami absently picked up the frame as the front door clicked closed behind her. It was kind of cute, or maybe sweet was the word, that Skye and Landry had left empty picture frames all over the apartment so that there were plenty of places for Kami and Devon to add their own lives to the place. It felt good to be able to do that. If only they had photographs. It was something she would have to start working on. At this point even a selfie of the two of them taken with a cell phone would be something.
Absently holding the note in her hand, Kami was still thinking about photographs when she read the short missive. Devon was going to be at a late meeting. He suggested she not wait up for him. It was a bummer, and yet the entire thing felt so normal.
Kami wandered into the living room. She took off her shoes and put her keys in a little bowl that someone had thoughtfully left on that same hall table where she had found Devon’s note. All of this felt so incredibly normal. It was like a peek into the domestic lives of other people. Those normal kinds of people she had envied for so many years now. They had homes that they went to after jobs that only lasted eight hours at a time. They worked five days a week or less and had significant others that contributed to the bills. There might be kids in their households, but they did not number in the double digits and they were not supporting people in other countries who did not care to even try and support themselves.
As Kami made her way from the foyer of the apartment to the wonderful airy kitchen, she felt as though the entire world was smiling at her. Her gaze drifted toward a corner of the living room where they might even be able to put a Christmas tree. Even the idea of a full-sized Christmas tree that did not sit sadly on a tabletop tucked out of the way was exciting.
Kami was still staring at the empty corner and wondering what kind of tree Devon might like when her phone began to buzz in the pocket of her work khakis. Real. Definitely. Devon would want a real tree. She decided that while she lifted the phone to her ear.
“Amber!” Kami wasn’t exactly surprised to hear from her friend Amber. Amber worked for a catering company that nearly always had people calling in sick at the worst of moments. Usually these calls involved a pair of black pants and a blouse. “What’s going on, chica?”
“I need you to come work this party. Armando is going nuts. We’ve had two people call in sick. It’s bull crap. I tell you!” Amber sounded harried. Armando was her boss. The owner of the catering company as well as a head chef. “Mando wants you to come in. You’re off work, right?”
What a unique moment. Never before in Kami’s life had she actually possessed the ability to choose whether or not she took extra work like this. Catering was pretty good. She could occasionally get tips, and with the last minute pay it could be as much as fifty bucks a night. But for the first time ever Kami did not have to have the money.
“Whoa!” Amber’s shock came right through the phone. “Are you thinking about it? What is wrong with you? It’s money. You love money.”
“Yeah, but things are a little different now. I moved out of my parents’ place. That means I get all of my paycheck now.” Kami sighed. “But I know you need help. So I’m not going to leave you hanging. Text me the address. I’ll be there as soon as I can find my clothes.”
“It’s in University Park. I’ll send you the address right now.” Amber sounded hurried. She was probably trying to do a thousand things at once while calling Amber as a favor to her boss. Mando w
as an older man with a wife and two grown children that ran other catering companies in other Texas cities like Houston and Austin. “Please hurry. These people are crabby as hell. You would never know that Christmas is the season of cheer and goodwill toward men. More like the season of rich people with too much money and no freaking sense!”
It wasn’t like Kami could argue with that. “Got it.”
Kami ended the call and set her phone on the kitchen counter. She would look at the address later. She really needed to find her clothes. She’d brought that duffle bag full of her stuff with her, but she had been intending to unpack this evening. That meant almost all of her clothing was just stuffed into the bag and was probably horribly wrinkled.
Fortunately it did not take long to find the clothes. They were somewhat on top. She did take a few moments to try and lay out the rest of her things. She was probably going to be later than Devon. Maybe she should send him a text. Although he had left her a note. So maybe that was how they were doing things now. It felt kind of romantic and very old school.
Kami was still hopping a little while trying to pull her black slacks up over her booty when she started looking for a pen. She finally located one on that super handy hall table. She scribbled a note down on the pad of paper and signed with a flourish. She finished fastening her slacks and swiped up her phone and keys.
Shoes took less time. Her serviceable black loafers were one of three pairs that she owned. Kami shoved her feet into the shoes right before she walked out the door. She pushed the button for the elevator and waited while she looked at Amber’s text.
It was odd. The address was familiar. Kami could not imagine why that was unless she had been there to help a caterer with another party at some point. It was possible. It seemed like these society people stuck with the same catering company for all of their social events and some of them hired a caterer pretty much once or twice a month. Armando used to tell stories of a family that hired him for their family dinner once a week.
Kami was still snorting and shaking her head over that notion when she stepped into the elevator. It was fine. She was going to show up at the party and work and it was going to feel so very much different because for once in her life she did not have to be there. She was choosing to work. It was to help out a friend instead of desperately trying to pay a bill of her own or buy something for her siblings.
“Good evening, Mrs. King.” The doorman smiled and nodded at her as though she were a queen. It was almost embarrassing.
Kami struggled to nod and smile in return without looking like a complete imbecile. She remembered the guy’s name. He was the weekend night guy. “Thank you, Mr. Button. You have a wonderful evening too.”
The front doors of Kami’s building whooshed open automatically as she approached. That still took some getting used to. No more trying not to get crushed by the heavy security doors as they attempted to slam closed with enough speed to keep anyone from slipping in behind the person who had punched in a code for the building.
It was cold outside. The sun had already gone down. They were working their way toward the shortest day of the year and even though Dallas wasn’t cold when it came to the average temperature, it was certainly cold enough. Kami was just sorry that there was probably no chance at all of a white Christmas. She was still thinking about that novelty when the bus creaked to a stop at the corner down the street from the front doors of her big gray apartment building.
Once aboard the bus, Kami studied the route she would have to take to the University Park address that Amber had sent to Kami’s phone. It was familiar. Not just familiar, but the sort of recent familiar that began to make Kami feel a bit uncomfortable. Why did it feel like she had just done this? Except not from downtown Dallas. She would have to switch busses in University Park. That was what she felt like she’d done just recently.
The truth of the situation did not hit until the bus stopped and Kami got off in University Park in preparation to catch a second bus that was currently tooling down the block with enough speed to make any pedestrian wary. The vehicle squealed to a stop right in front of Kami and she pulled herself aboard. Once she had scanned her bus pass she sank slowly into a seat and tried not to freak out.
I’m going to work at a party being held at my in-laws home.
There was almost no doubt in Kami’s mind that this was the case. It had to be. What was it? A few nights now since she had ridden this very bus to Devon’s family house in order to try and convince him to offer her shelter once her family had thrown her out?
Maybe this was good. Devon was at a meeting. This was basically his mother’s house. It didn’t matter who owned the house on paper. It belonged to Tisha Olivares-King. She was a horrible sort of person. Kami had met her more than a handful of times and had not enjoyed the experience. Now Kami could watch her in a social situation—a party. And Kami would be completely incognito. Yes. This was going to be a good thing.
There was a certain spring in Kami’s step as she made her way down the block from the bus stop. She did not even try to walk up to the front door. There were plenty of people streaming up to the door. They were being welcomed by a woman in a Christmas red dress. Kami briefly observed the circus before turning and deliberately walking around the side of the house to the entrance back by the kitchen door. This was where the help entered the house. And right now Kami was completely okay with that status.
“Kami!” Amber appeared in the kitchen door just as Kami reached for the handle. “Oh my God, we are so glad to see you! You were the only one who didn’t have another gig for tonight. So we’re one man down still.” Amber looked apologetic. “It shouldn’t be that big of a deal but, oh my God, this lady is demanding as shit!”
It didn’t take much to see that Amber’s usually calm demeanor had been very much disturbed by the vibe inside the King household. The kitchen was an absolute madhouse. There were food trays on every available surface and people kept darting through while trying to grab something and simultaneously avoid running into everyone else.
“I’m ready,” Kami told her friend. “Just tell me what to do.”
“Grab a tray and circulate. There’s a bartender out there making cocktails. We’re supposed to be circulating trays until seven o’clock.”
“It’s five.” Kami wasn’t sure why she was gaping at Amber. Was it really that surprising that Mrs. Olivares-King would order two hours worth of cocktail sausages? Talk about the overindulged rich party people! “Never mind. I’ve got it.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Amber briefly hung off of Kami’s arm. “And at some point we need to chat so you can tell me all about this crazy scheme to move out of your parents’ apartment! I don’t even want to know what your papa had to say about that!”
Kami could only grin about that as she set her messenger bag aside and grabbed up a tray. It was a heavy thing full of some kind of cracker with some weird stuff on top. Sometimes Kami entertained herself by imagining what she would do if she ever wound up as a guest at one of these parties. She would start with being totally grossed out by all the food because most of it was horrible.
Not that the guests agreed. Kami circulated her way slowly through the rooms on the main floor. The house was absolutely enormous. Kami had thought her and Devon’s new apartment was big. This made their apartment look like a shoebox. Each room seemed to flow into the next. There were fireplaces and heavy dark furniture covered in expensive fabrics. The whole house had been decorated for the holidays with fresh greenery that lent a wonderful pine smell to the house. Cinnamon candles burned in the background. The whole effect was very festive and yet the atmosphere in the house was anything but.
Kami smiled and ducked her head as she ghosted her way through the throngs of partiers. They were dressed in their finest clothes. That much was obvious. Kami didn’t know much about designer clothing, but she knew women. The jewelry alone was probably worth thousands upon thousands of dollars. There were rubies and red garnets glitter
ing at their necks and ears in an effort to keep up with the festive occasion. Shoes sparkled. Gems glittered in hair that had been twisted and twirled until it was piled so far above their heads that Kami wondered how they actually took it down at the end of the night. Perhaps they all had a private hairdresser in their home to take care of that. The pins alone made her scalp ache just thinking about it.
Kami had not even considered what would happen if she was recognized by one of the guests until she met the gaze of a very familiar woman over the top of her tray. For just a moment there was absolute stunned silence, and then Landry Fisher’s blue eyes widened and she looked completely taken aback.
“Kami?” Thankfully Landry possessed enough tact to whisper. Obviously she was savvy enough to realize that a scene would not be good. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter Twenty-One
There was no doubt in Devon’s mind that Tansy Dunlop was likely the dullest conversational partner on the entire planet earth. At least that was Devon’s assessment after spending upwards of twenty minutes listening to the woman extol the virtues of her dachshunds. Apparently she bred the dogs and showed them all over Texas.
The girl was pretty enough in her own way. At least if Devon had been into twenty-three year old women with dark curls, dark eyes framed by fake lashes, and huge boobs that were fuller than physically possible because of an expensive bra. And then there was the violently red slinky dress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. It was possible to see the woman’s pubic hair, or at least the outline of where it was. Her ears were practically sagging beneath the weight of her diamond earrings and her throat sported the kind of choker that cost men multiple months’ worth of salary. The whole package was about as appealing to Devon as a root canal.
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