by Ivy Smoak
“But you’re Master Tanner’s guest.”
“Just pretend I’m not here.”
“But you’re also Master Tanner’s best friend. Only the best for Master Tanner’s best friend.”
Okay. “I don’t really take baths, but I appreciate the offer.”
“We’ll see if I can change your mind about that tonight. Good day.” He hurried back inside with his staple gun.
Bath references should never sound dirty, but Nigel made it sound absolutely filthy. I sighed and looked down. And I swore I saw the tarp move. I grabbed the railing on the bridge. What the hell? Was there something under there?
Fuck it. I didn’t even want to know what was in that water. It was probably another houseboy dressed in lederhosen ready to jump out and scare me half to death. And I wanted no part in it. I’d had enough weirdness for one morning. I made my way over the footbridge and safely onto the elevator.
I just needed to focus on staying alive and convincing Penny to give me those prototypes. And for Nigel to stop trying to see me naked.
Chapter 24
Tuesday
I hadn’t heard from Penny all day. I’d texted her this morning to see if we were still on for dinner. But she hadn’t responded. I’d texted her again an hour ago asking if she had gotten my first text, and immediately wished I could have unsent it. Obviously she had gotten my other text and was just not responding.
I opened up my bag lunch, very aware of the fact that Tanner had probably made Nigel make it so I wouldn’t leave the office today. Not like that mattered. Poppy had waltzed into MAC International undetected before. Certainly a hitwoman could do the same.
There was a folded note on top of the food:
Mr. Caldwell,
I’m so elated that you’ll be staying with us for the foreseeable future. It is my job to make sure you are comfortable and happy during the duration of your visit. So please let me know if there’s anything you need me to acquire. At your convenience, my number is below and I’ll go out and fetch everything you require today. Or if you need me to get items from your home, I’m happy to do that as well.
Have a good and prosperous day at work. Remember to smile and be kind to others. And use your words not your fists.
Yours,
-Nigel
XOXO
P.S. I hope you like meat!
Gross. Well, the note was gross. The turkey sandwich piled high with lettuce and tomato on rye bread looked excellent. I took a bite and it practically melted in my mouth. What kind of cheese was that? Gruyere?
I looked at the note again. That was too many X’s and O’s from one man to another. And the meat comment could have been innocent. But when it came to Nigel, I had no idea. I wondered how he’d take it if I texted him that all I required was privacy. Probably not well. And then he’d also have my number. I couldn’t let that happen. And what was all that weird stuff about fighting and being kind? Did he think I was a petulant child? I pushed the note to the side and tried to enjoy my sandwich.
Tanner said that Nigel didn’t try to dress and bathe him. So maybe Nigel just had a weird crush on me. It wouldn’t be the first time a guy had hit on me. It was flattering. But very much unreciprocated. If he was giving me attention for that reason, I needed to make sure he knew I was straight. Was it rude to just tell him flat out?
There was a knock on my door.
“Not now!” Hm. Be kind and smile. Maybe that was advice I needed to remember. “I mean, yes?” I called in a more upbeat voice.
My receptionist, Mary, walked in. “I’m sorry to bother you, but do you know a Ms. Cannavaro?”
Poppy Cannavaro. I swallowed down a chunk of too much turkey and cleared my throat. “Why?” Please let there be news that she died in an explosion or something and that this wasn’t about her being outside my office right now. One can hope.
“I input all your meetings myself. And for the life of me I can’t remember setting one with her. I honestly don’t even remember seeing it this morning when I double checked today’s schedule. But I just got an alert saying you have a 1 o’clock with her. And sure enough, I looked and there the appointment is in the system.” She shook her head. “Maybe she set it up a long time ago and I just don’t remember?”
I doubted that. It was a lot more likely that Poppy had someone hack into our system. Damn it. I looked down at my watch. Poppy would be here any minute.
“Do you want me to cancel?”
As appealing as that sounded, canceling on Poppy wouldn’t make her go away. She was a pest that just kept showing up. I needed to see what she wanted now and try to squash it. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll handle it.”
“I’m very sorry, Matthew.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m sure it was just a glitch.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” She smiled. “You look well-rested today. Did the chamomile tea work?”
More like the magical green juice. Hell, maybe chamomile was the secret ingredient. Regardless, I wanted to make Mary smile today. “It must have.”
“That’s wonderful. Let me know if you’d like me to bring you a cup before work ends today. And I’ll ring you when Ms. Cannavaro arrives.”
I nodded and looked down at my sandwich as Mary closed the door. I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. What if Poppy wasn’t stopping by to talk? I swallowed hard. Was this it? Was Poppy going to walk in here with a gun and pull the trigger? Would someone find this weird note on my desk and think I was having a gay affair with Nigel? Would my murder make the late night news? How would I be remembered?”
Fuck. James. The last words I’d said to him. I knew better than that. I knew better than anyone that life could be cut short. I didn’t want those to be my last words to him. I pulled out my phone. But there were suddenly a million things I wanted to do. I needed to finally call my mom back. I didn’t care that she always pestered me this time of year. I needed to tell her that I loved her. And thank Mason for always looking out for me. And I stupidly even wanted to call Rob and make sure he knew he was my best friend too. And Tanner for the same reason. It was okay to have two best friends, and I wasn’t sure why the hell this was the last thing I was thinking about before I died.
But I didn’t have any time to call a soul, because my intercom button was blinking. I hit the light.
“Ms. Cannavaro has arrived,” Mary’s voice said through the speaker.
“Let her in.”
Mary opened the door and I held my breath.
But I slowly exhaled when Poppy walked in. Because she wasn’t holding a gun. She was holding a toddler in her arms.
The first thing I thought of was Scarlett. But there was no cute little “Hi, Uncle Matt.” And the little girl wasn’t a redhead. She was brunette.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Mary said and closed the door behind us.
As soon as the door was closed I stood up. “Did you steal that child?”
Poppy laughed. “No.”
“I swear to God, Poppy, if you…”
“She’s mine.”
“Yours?” I looked down at the little girl and then back at her mother. The resemblance was uncanny. The little girl was even holding her nose slightly in the air like she was looking down at me even though she literally had to look up at me. “You have a…kid?” I couldn’t imagine Poppy being a mom. A mobster? Sure. A mother? It didn’t quite fit. But the little mini-her scowling back at me begged to differ.
“Funny,” Poppy said. “I know everything about you and you know nothing about me. It’s good that I’m here so we can rectify that.” She put the child down on the ground. “Go play,” she said and gestured toward my shelves that held nothing to play with. And then Poppy sat down without being invited.
I watched the little girl walk over to one of my shelves and inspect some of the framed pictures. Why did I have a feeling that she was somehow trained in surveillance even though she couldn’t be older than Scarlett? The way she examined the people in the picture sent a chill down
my spine.
Poppy cleared her throat. “I heard about your eventful evening.” She started straightening a few things on my desk.
I just stared at her.
“Uncle Richard’s angry with me. So I’m here to apologize.”
I leaned forward, resting my hands on my desk. “It doesn’t matter what you say. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth.”
It was like she didn’t even hear me. She just blinked and continued on with whatever she’d planned to say. “Obviously I’m not going to hurt a child. As a mother, I would never.”
“So you brought your kid here as a prop?”
“I brought her here to show you that I’m a caring mother.”
Well, it wasn’t working. She’d barely even looked at her daughter this whole time. “I didn’t know that you were married.” I wasn’t sure why the hell that was what came out of my mouth. I didn’t care if this woman was married. For all I knew the little girl in the corner who looked like she was about to smash a paperweight was just an actress.
Poppy raised one of her penciled-in eyebrows. “Divorced, actually. I’m very much single, Matthew. For the record. But I have a feeling that’s about to change.”
I wasn’t sure which was worse. Nigel or Poppy hitting on me.
Just as I expected, I watched as the little girl dropped the paperweight onto the ground. It shattered and for just a second a smile spread across her face.
Poppy snapped her fingers. “Behave, Gigi. Children are to be seen and not heard. How many times do I need to give you simple instructions?”
Gigi’s smile immediately disappeared and she had her lips trained in a thin line, showing no shock or guilt or anything. Like a weird little demon child.
“Do we understand?” Poppy asked.
“Yes, Mother.”
“Now apologize to the gentleman.”
“Sorry, sir.” Gigi curtseyed and then just stood there staring at the floor.
I knew she’d deliberately smashed it. But I still felt bad for her. Her mom was Poppy. Wasn’t that punishment enough? She didn’t need to be reprimanded any more by me. “It’s alright. Just be more careful. You can keep playing.”
Her eyes lit up and she turned around to touch more expensive things.
I cringed.
“So where were we?” Poppy asked. “Oh, yes, I don’t hurt children. So as long as you understand, I’ll just let Uncle Richard know you and I are on good terms and we can move forward from this hiccup of a misunderstanding.”
“You swear you’re not going to hurt Scarlett?”
“I don’t recall ever saying I would hurt her. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Poppy.”
“What I implied was more of a kidnapping situation, but alas. I won’t do that either. Because I’m a mother and all that. You have my word.”
“That’s the whole problem. I don’t trust your word.”
She sighed, looking human for the first time since she’d walked back into my life. “Look, my uncle is really hard to please. As you know. I was just trying to get the results he wanted. And I mean…I did. You went to go talk to him. Or yell at him I guess. You didn’t give him a chance to tell you the news.”
“What news?”
She smiled. “It’s not mine to share. And I’m not even sure that you’ll care. For some reason he thinks you will. He’s off his game.” She looked over at Gigi to make sure she wasn’t breaking anything else. “Which is why I’ll be taking over operations soon.”
Okay.
“Just me at the head of the whole business. All alone.” She touched her chest and for some reason it seemed like she just did it to make me look at the tops of her breasts.
Where the hell was she going with this?
“You know what? We’re going to need more time to catch up than just a 15-minute meeting made at the last second, don’t you think? And maybe more privacy too. A relaxing night just the two of us. Let’s do dinner to properly catch up and I can tell you all about my plans for the company.”
Is that what she called her illegal dealings? A company? Give me a break. “I’m busy.”
“Tonight? Well, let’s do tomorrow night then. I’ll arrange it with your secretary.”
“She doesn’t arrange my personal schedule.”
“All good secretaries do.”
“She’s actually an administrative assistant. And she’s fantastic at her job.”
Poppy laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re dating her. Isn’t she a little old for you? Certainly there are people in your life a little more suitable. A certain someone right under your nose, perchance?”
“Who I’m dating is none of your business.”
“So you are dating someone? Well, that should make things interesting. Let her know I’ll be preoccupying your evening tomorrow night. No reason for her to wait up for you.”
“I’m not going out with you.”
“I never said it was a date. That was all you. I’ve always loved a man who’s forward.”
I sighed. “Poppy, we’re not having dinner. No matter what you want to call it.”
“Then I’ll just have to tell the hitmen to go forward with their plans.”
I froze. Last night Mr. Pruitt said he hadn’t hired hitmen to follow me around. I knew he was lying. But for her to actually sit there and admit it? Why hadn’t I recorded this conversation? Damn it. “Mr. Pruitt said he wasn’t having me followed.”
“Darling, you know better than that. You don’t think Uncle Richard doubled the size of our business by telling the truth? Honestly, you’re so naïve. It’s adorable.” She smiled and her teeth were so straight and white that they almost looked fake. “You’ll be perfect. I’ll have a car sent for you at 7.”
Perfect for what? “I won’t be home.”
“Yes, I’ll be sending the car to Tanner Rhodes’ apartment building of course. That is where you’re staying, yes?”
Fuck. She knew I was staying with Tanner? “That’s not…”
“Don’t play coy. It was smart to not go back to your house. Staying with a friend was the safer choice given the circumstances. At least for the time being. You won’t be staying there for long if I have my way though.”
I thought she’d meant because I was surely about to die, but then she gave me a salacious wink and lightly bit her lower lip. No. Good God, no. Did she think she was going to sink her claws in me and turn me into husband number two? Because there was literally no way that was fucking happening. I’d rather the hitwoman off me.
“I won’t take no for an answer.” She turned to Gigi and put her hand out. “Time to go.” The little girl ran over and slid her hand into her mother’s.
“Ugh. Gigi, your hand is bleeding.” Poppy pulled away from her daughter in disgust. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d made a mess?”
The little girl didn’t say anything. She just blinked even though there was blood literally dripping down her hand.
I looked over at the shattered glass. There was blood everywhere, like Gigi had been playing with the broken shards of glass, accidentally cutting her palms this whole time. How had she not screamed? I grabbed a tissue to hand to her.
Poppy snatched it from me and pressed it against one of Gigi’s bloody palms. “We’ll need to get that looked at. There goes my whole day. Follow me. And don’t touch anything. Especially my dress.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“See you tomorrow night, Matthew,” Poppy said over her shoulder, avoiding her daughter like the plague. Gigi looked down at her shoes as she hurried after her mother.
Yikes. That kid was going to grow up and be a real monster at this rate. Breaking things on purpose and not even caring when she got a cut? Scarlett screamed bloody murder whenever she got boo-boos, as she called them. I’d never seen a child not cry when they got even a little hurt.
Mary walked in. “Miss Cannavaro said to set up a dinner for the two of you tomorrow night?”
“
Yeah, just ignore her. There’s no dinner.”
“She seemed rather adamant. Oh my, what in the world happened in here?” Mary had spotted the bloody mess.
“It was just an accident. Could you call someone to clean that up?”
“Um, yes, right away.” She walked over to the door, but then stopped and turned around. “It’s none of my business, Matthew. But that woman?” She shook her head. “No one’s ever spoken to me the way she does. I just thought you should know before your date.”
I stared at Mary. I hadn’t noticed that her eyes were a little glossed over like she was about to cry. “What did she say to you?”
“It wasn’t what she said. It’s how she said it. Like I was…nothing.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Mary. But you don’t need to worry, I won’t be having dinner with her. And about whatever she said or how she said it? Ignore her. She’s the one that’s nothing.”
Mary smiled and nodded. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything else.” She quietly closed the door behind her.
I walked over to the window and looked out at the view of the city. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to have dinner with Poppy. But that depended on a few things. I needed to get those prototypes from Penny. And I needed to be able to corner the hitwoman and get a confession out of her. All without getting killed.
If I couldn’t do all that? I sighed. I’d have to go to dinner with Poppy. The thought of sitting with her through a whole meal made me feel queasy. But I wouldn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk my friends’ safety by not going to dinner. Poppy having a child meant nothing and I knew it. She was just playing a game. If I crossed her, she wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Scarlett or someone else. Or me. I had no idea what she really wanted. That was the whole problem.
I saw her and Gigi exiting the building onto the sidewalk below. They hurried over to a town car. She made the driver lift up Gigi and put her into the car. Probably so Poppy wouldn’t get blood on her dress.
What the hell do you want from me? It had to be something with the contracts I signed when I was 16. I didn’t know what else it could possibly be about. There were hidden clauses in them, I knew that to be true. But what did they say? What had I agreed to?