by Cynthia Dane
“Well, then.”
Alice needed the distraction of a job. She needed to feel in control again.
***
“Irasshaimase!” Alice picked up a thick stick and pounded the taiko drum behind her. “Ogyakusama imasu!”
Amazing how much Japanese a person picked up after only three days working at an izakaya. Alice hadn’t even heard of the traditional Japanese pub-style bar until she got a lead for a job. She didn’t bother applying until she double and triple checked that Monroe Industries didn’t have their chopsticks in the communal bowls.
Now she was already making good headway and decent money. The manager gawked at her résumé before taking it straight to the owner of the large restaurant. Two hours later, Alice was dressed in a hakama and bandana, shadowing a college kid who had already been working there for two years.
Like any restaurant, there were quirks to be honored. This place strived to be as authentic as the native Japanese owners could make it, complete with on-the-floor seating and the staff speaking stock Japanese phrases to the diners. Alice didn’t have to know as much as the waiters did. All she had to know was how to greet guests. After that first night, Alice took a study sheet home to distract herself with. Candice had to deal with Alice’s butchered Japanese all night, not that she complained. I’m totally teaching Pete this stuff when we get him back from Candice’s friend. Alice would die to hear him caw “Irasshaimase!” whenever someone came home.
Tonight, the place was crowded, but not so crowded that it was difficult to keep up with the influx of guests or decide which waiter to give them. In fact, this place was ran so damn well that Alice almost considered it a blessing in disguise that she had quit Blue Bird to run off to Chicago with Monroe.
Don’t think about him. Alice went back to her podium after seating the last two guests. She pulled out an erasable marker and marked that table as taken.
“Hey, Alice!” Liam, one of the senior waiters at the restaurant, approached her when no one else was around. “Everything going well?”
Alice liked Liam. Since her first day on the job, he had been nothing but friendly and helpful – and not even in a creepy way like some guys at these jobs could be. He never acted like he expected something in return or that Alice should be so grateful for his attention. Everyone loves him. She kinda did too.
“Yeah,” she said, twisting the cap on her marker and avoiding eye contact. “Thanks for checking in.”
“No problem. It’s been a blast having you so far. You really filled in for us after Sadie went back to college early.” Sheesh. It was already that late in the summer? “Anyway, I don’t have much time left in my break, but I was going to ask if you wanted to, um…”
Alice glanced up into Liam’s blue eyes. “Yeah?”
“Well, some of us are going bar crawling later. I’m the designated sober man who has to babysit everyone, and I could use some help.”
Alice laughed. “You want me come be sober with you at some bars while our coworkers get drunk?”
“What? Like that isn’t fun?”
Liam put his hand on the podium. Damn. He had some nice muscles. Did he say he played community basketball? I used to go to all the basketball games in school to watch the boys. To say she had a soft spot…
“Might be fun with you,” she flirted back.
Liam smiled. He had such a dazzling boy-next-door smile, and it killed Alice inside.
Supposed to. It was supposed to kill her inside.
Too soon, girl. It had only been two weeks since she shrieked at Monroe to get out of her life forever. The bastard had taken it to heart. Not a single word for him. Not a single word in the press, which was probably how he liked it. Had Russell received word yet that Alice was no longer a nuisance? Was Alice in the clear, free to live her life?
Which meant dating again?
Yeah, so it was too soon, but this wasn’t even a date, technically. Could it turn into a date? She supposed so.
An intimidating hand clapped Liam on the shoulder. The head waiter nearly jumped out of his tanned skin.
“Don’t you have some work to do, Mr. Gable?”
Alice dropped her marker.
She was hallucinating.
Definitely, definitely hallucinating!
Liam craned his head around with an unsolicited whimper. Damon Monroe glared back at him, hand unrelenting.
“How’d you know my name?”
“Let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Gable.” The whole gang was here. Ms. Sarah Clayborn, one of the bodyguards… for fuck’s sake, was that the driver? Alice looked around for the exit. All blocked! Her only chance for salvation was running back to the staff room, but she had a feeling Monroe wouldn’t give a fuck about honoring the sacred line between (difficult) guest and employee safe haven. “Ms. Culver is already spoken for. By me.”
“Who the hell are you?”
Monroe released him. “Her fiancé. Get out of here.”
“Uh, boss?” Liam spared Alice one glance before rushing off to the back of the restaurant. A party of three stepped through the doors. The bodyguard advanced on them, sending the two men and one woman back into the elevator from whence they came.
Alice picked up her marker. She needed something to channel her spite into.
“Party of four?” she cheerily asked after doing a quick headcount of her ex-boyfriend’s entourage. “We have Japanese style or normal style seating.” When Monroe didn’t immediately answer, she continued her spiel. “I suggest the Japanese style seating if you’ve never tried it before. Really completes the experience we’ve set up here.”
Monroe slapped his hand on the podium. Alice did not flinch. The spite was taking over, though. Her smile died the moment he came closer.
That. Cologne.
Damn that fucking cologne. Damn Damon Monroe for evoking a shitton of memories Alice didn’t want to have.
“We need to talk.”
Alice would not budge from where she stood. Her boss would surely be coming out of his office soon enough. Monroe didn’t own this place. He would have to leave.
“We don’t have to do anything,” she chirped, as if she were a singsong bird. “But I do need to ask you to please step back, sir. Guests are not allowed in the podium area.”
“Alice!” Monroe gripped both sides of the podium. If the thing weren’t bolted to the floor, it may have shook in front of Alice. “God fucking damnit, this is important!”
If there was one thing she learned from him during their brief time together, it was how to level her piercing gaze at anyone. Man. Woman. Janitor. Multibillionaire with some serious fucking complexes. “God’s not here to damn anything, Mr. Monroe.”
She dared him. She dared him to call himself a god.
“If you don’t come with me right now,” he grumbled, “there will be consequences.”
A part of her had missed this snarling stubble-faced brute, but mostly, she was seeing him with new eyes. Wow. He’s got issues. “What consequences would that be, sir?”
He leaned across the podium, breath kissing her lips. “I will take you over my knee and strike your ass crimson.”
She dropped the marker again.
“Now do I have your attention?”
Alice leaned closer to him, refusing to back down. At the very least, she would make him take her down. “I dare say you do.”
“Good.” He stepped back, taking his cologne with him. “Find us a place where we can speak in private. We have sensitive things to discuss.”
What a time for the restaurant boss to finally show up. “For the record,” Alice said before her boss could demand what was going on. “You’re not my fiancé.”
Monroe coolly looked over his shoulder. “We’ll see about that.”
It was close enough to the end of her shift that, after a brief conversation between Monroe and the restaurant owner, Alice was allowed to leave early. She did not go with Monroe, however. Instead, she grabbed her purse from her locker a
nd motioned him into the small meeting room that was currently unoccupied. The bodyguard stayed outside the door.
“You’ve got five minutes.” Alice pulled her hakama uniform off and stood in only her black T-shirt and dress pants. “Make them count, Damon.”
He opened his jacket and pulled out a thin manila envelope. It landed on the table.
“You were right,” he said. “About everything.”
Alice wetted her lips and crossed her arms. “You came here to apologize, huh?”
“I came here to offer some explanations and to have you answer some questions of mine.”
“And to get back together. I swear to God, Damon, if you don’t even bother to…”
“Shush.” He held up his hand. Somehow, that was effective. “First things first, my love.”
Fuck him. Fuck him for making her crumble with that sweet phrase. For the first time in two weeks, her heart thawed. A little.
Monroe opened the envelope and revealed a stack of photos and typed reports. “As much as I didn’t want to believe you back at the hospital, I had already suspected some foul play afoot in my family. I have always suspected. I was only stupid enough to believe that everything would continue to be fine if I didn’t look it in the eyes.”
Alice steeled herself.
“First, I hired a private investigator to track down my mother. I should have done it long ago.” Monroe picked up the top photograph. The highly magnified and deformed face of Julia Monroe inadvertently looked right into the camera lens. Her hair blew across her eyes and mouth, but the burn scars could not be shielded no matter how much curly hair she grew. “You were right about her injuries. When I looked into it, I was mortified.”
“So?”
He showed her one of the typed reports. “After you were right about that, I tracked down the box you supposedly gave me. Mr. Clayborn had unpacked that suitcase for me. He swore he hadn’t looked at it, but the box mysteriously disappeared into a drawer I never use and certainly didn’t store any clothing in. When I got a hold of it… damnit, Alice, I was so angry. You had met my mother more times than I have in my adult life. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The things she was telling me? That wasn’t exactly something I could bring up with a man I hardly knew.”
“We…”
“Damon,” she said softly. “Think of it from my end. I went out with you because you were hot and knew how to spoil me. Yes, I fell in love with you. Quickly. That didn’t stop all reason from living in my head. On the contrary. I spent a lot of time convincing myself that I was a fool for following you to Chicago. I quit my job to be your sex slave for a week.”
“I…”
“I didn’t know if that woman was crazy or even your real mother. I should have told you about it, yes, but it’s over now. What was in the box?”
“Her wedding ring from her marriage to my father.” Damon reached into her pocket. “A short note saying she loved me and hoped that I was happy. And this.” He pulled out a trinket. A tiny stuffed bear that barely covered Monroe’s palm. “This used to be mine. I remember it. She must have included it to prove it was her.” He swallowed. “She had it all this time.”
Alice looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“So if you were right about that, I wondered, what else were you right about?” Monroe waved away any words she wanted to interrupt with. “I did a full investigation into my own father. Do you know how I felt when I gave the order? Ashamed. I felt ashamed. Let me tell you, Alice, I am not a man accustomed to feeling fucking ashamed.”
I bet you’re not.
“Nor am I man accustomed to feeling betrayed. Imagine my confusion when I discovered some mysterious payments my father has made over the years. This wasn’t including all the other shady bullshit he does.”
“What did you find?”
“I was able to track a single company over the years. This company showed up with the same amount of money owed. Innocuous enough, until I realized that this company had a charge every time someone my father disliked conveniently disappeared.”
“God, Damon…”
“The latest charge was two weeks ago. The night before your incident.”
Monroe sat down in one of the chairs, weary. Alice resisted the urge to go to him. I want to touch him. To console him. To let him know that I will always be here for him. That I love him! No, no, the spite was still necessary. Alice couldn’t fold so easily.
“I can’t believe he would do that.” Monroe placed his head in his hands. His voice was muffled. “He would kill the two women I have loved the most.” He sat back up. “Why? Why would he do that to my mother?”
Alice pulled out another chair. “Your mother told me that she tried to see you after the divorce. She went to your school, but security caught her and threw her out. She was attacked shortly thereafter. Your father was doing the same thing he did to me. If not killing her, then sending a serious message. She got it.”
Monroe shook his head. What he said next was not something Alice expected.
“I had Ms. Clayborn contact her the other day. I’m supposed to meet her tonight.”
“Wow.”
Monroe met her gaze from across the table. Here I go, falling into those pools of ambers again. “Come with me, Alice. I want you there with me when I meet my mother for the first time in years.”
She opened her purse and pulled out the emerald ring. It was still in the plastic Ziploc the hospital had put it and her choker in.
Alice slid the ring across the table. Monroe caught it with a deft hand.
“There’s something else you need to do first.”
“You’re right,” he said, reclaiming that commanding presence Alice succumbed to so easily. Monroe rounded the table. “I’m not meeting my mother until we come to an agreement about this fiancé thing.”
One thing even the most cynical corners of Alice’s heart could say: the man was damn convincing. Especially when he kissed her like that!
***
“Damon?” A weak yet hopeful voice sang down the hallway. “Damon!”
Nothing could stop the woman barreling down her hallway. Not Alice, not the bodyguard, and definitely not Damon Monroe, who opened his arms to his crying mother.
To think – the last time this woman held her son was almost twenty-five years ago, when he was no taller than her waist. Now he was big enough to pick up his mother and coddle her like she used to coddle him when he was a child.
Alice had a feeling that Julia’s country house didn’t hear many tears… of heartbreaking happiness.
Chapter 17
“Something will have to be done about my father,” Monroe said at midnight, sitting in front of the unlit fireplace in Julia Monroe’s study. “I can’t be around either of you until something is done about him.”
Julia, sitting across from her son and Alice on another couch, nodded. “He is a vindictive, twisted man. Should he find out about either myself or Alice… it won’t be good. Our bodyguards will only be able to do so much. Assuming they’re not paid more to look the other way, like mine used to be.”
Monroe flinched as he leaned forward. Alice remained wrapped around his arm. Her emerald ring twinkled on her finger. “I have a plan. I’ll need both of you to help me, though.” He fondly looked at his fiancée. “I’ll need your cooperation the most of all, my love.”
Alice stroked the stubble on his face. “Anything for you.”
She meant it, too. That spite was still in her heart. Only now it was no longer directed at Monroe. It was directed at Russell, at the people who would come between her and Damon. The world. The industries and hierarchies waiting for them to fall.
Alice had seen her future, as Monroe had seen his years ago. In order to make her dreams come true, however, she would have to assume the mantle of a woman she still barely knew. Both in herself, and sitting across from her.
She looked up at Julia, who in turn watched her carefully. “Tell me everything I need to k
now,” Alice said. “I want to be prepared for anything.”
***
The first real time alone with her Master was one of the relieving of Alice’s young life.
“I missed you so much,” Monroe muttered, kissing every inch of her throat as he held Alice in the back of the limo. He had already arranged a hotel room for their reunion, but someone was unable to wait until they got there. “I am never going without you again.”
“I don’t want you to, sir,” Alice replied. She was happy to do whatever he wanted. Soft and slow? Beautiful. Fast and furiously carnal? Delightful. Both summed up their relationship quite succinctly. “I want to always be available to you.”
He kissed her so hard that she whimpered against his lips.
Alice soon found herself falling over his lap.
“Remember what I said earlier about you disobeying me?” Monroe grabbed her ass as she inhaled the leather of the seat beneath her face. “Come on, Alice, did you think I forgot?”
On the contrary. She had been counting on him remembering.
The first cry of the night was the weakest of them all. Alice still needed a little time to assimilate to the role she so desperately wanted to fill.
***
He presented her with the first of many folders carefully put together for her reading ease. At least he had the decency to do it in the privacy of their hotel room. Alice had a feeling he would not be so gracious in the immediate future.
“Don’t sign anything now,” Monroe said, pouring her another glass of wine. “Take your time going through it. I’ll arrange for you to have one of the best lawyers in the business.” His smirk was more relaxing than the wine. “I know he is, because my own lawyer hates him.”
Alice attempted to read the legal jargon splattered across the page. Colored stickies highlighted the most important parts.