by Amber Malloy
“Something tells me you still have that hang-up about the smart ones,” Knox said.
“Most successful,” he muttered.
“Huh?” Andre grunted
“Hawk thinks they’re too good for him, so he doesn’t go down that avenue to begin with,” Knox explained.
“Oh hell, that’s why he picks the criminally stupid or just plain ole criminals. I swear the one last year lifted my Rolex off my wrist when we were playing poker.” Andre showed off his watch. “This one is okay, but that baby…” He whistled low and shook his head.
“No,” Hawk ground out through clenched teeth, determined to get this talk over with, “that has nothing to do with it.”
“Well, you could have fooled me.” Knox shrugged. “And for the record, you’re too old for this crap.”
“Ah-ha. I’ll get some wings now, then head over to Moe’s when we get back home.” Andre slapped his hand on the table as if he’d discovered the answer to climate change. “Yeah, that’s what’s up.”
Blindsided at the funky turn his life had taken, Hawk slumped farther down in his seat and groaned.
* * * *
Lexi had made the rounds in California before the big day. To lift her spirits, she’d visited Girls’ Code in the tech program. They had won third place in their competition, which wasn’t bad—but not the placement she’d hoped for.
Then she’d made a stop at the salon to get her hair cut even shorter. Lastly, she’d spent the rest of her time cleaning out her storage container, where she’d left reminders of her craptastic marriage. Why she hadn’t set all of it on fire after the divorce, she had no idea.
Lexi waited outside of SugarTech for her lawyer. Using her highest of heels and sexiest of skirts as beautiful armor, she believed that no matter what happened, she was somewhat prepared to deal with the outcome. At least that was the lie she’d told herself.
“Early this morning, shocking.” Maureen pressed the fob on her SUV while she stepped past her.
“How so?”
“To my best recollection, I don’t recall you performing one single act I have requested of you.”
“That’s not entirely true.” Lexi followed her into the revolving door of the building.
“Case in point, this emergency meeting,” Maureen finished once they stepped into the lobby.
They waited for the elevator. “Keep your answers vague unless required to elaborate. This is not court, but don’t give them more than they need.” When the elevator cab arrived, they stepped inside. Since Lexi had nothing polite to say, she kept quiet on their short ride up to SugarTech’s floor.
“If the board votes you off, we’ll negotiate an exit offer,” Maureen said before the doors slid open and they stepped onto SugarTech’s level.
Lexi opened her mouth to point out that a little positivity would be nice but stopped in her tracks at the sight of the wives. Her feet seemed to register their presences faster than her mind. Lexi practically sprinted straight to them.
It had only been a few weeks since she’d seen them last, but it felt closer to years. They clutched each other in one big group hug. A huge wave of energy supercharged her body.
“What are you guys doing here?” she said, muffled by one of Lashonda’s outrageously puffy soldier sleeves. “I thought I lost you in the divorce.” She held on to them tighter, not realizing how much she’d come to rely on this bad ass gang of women.
“Divorce?” Remy asked. “But you guys weren’t even in a relationship.”
“Yeah, I thought you and Hawk were one very long booty call,” Lashonda added.
“Of the twelve-month variety, if I am correct,” Dahl pointed out.
“Okay, okay.” Lexi held back a sniffle.
“Not to make this about me, but I think I’ve had a year-long booty call before,” Dahl poked out her lip and admitted, before they burst into laughter.
“Lexi, wrap this up.” Maureen snapped her fingers with a frown on her face. “We have to go.”
These past few weeks had allowed Lexi a lot of time for introspection. During their marriage, Josh had managed to isolate her from friends and family, while parceling out small amounts of affection to keep her in check.
She’d allowed herself to fall for his abuser 101 schtick hook, line and sinker. There was a people pleaser aspect to her personality she hadn’t realized existed until after the divorce. In a short amount of time, she’d realized people pleasing never got anyone shit.
“Go on without me.”
“We’re going to be late,” Maureen pushed.
“Then you better hurry.” Lexi hardened her tone. Cussing at her lawyer seemed wrong on so many levels—but felt totally justified at this point. Before she could let loose on a long stream of expletives, Maureen tilted her nose in the air and walked into the office.
“We wanted to wish you good luck.” Dahl rubbed her shoulder.
“A phone call would have been cheaper and easier.” She laughed.
“True, but we wanted celebrate your win with you,” Lashonda said.
“A win? You guys have way more faith in me than my lawyer by far.” Deeply grateful, she took in the faces of her friends. “Thank you for showing up. I appreciate it.”
“It’s nothing.”
“No,” Lexi said, her eyes were already watering, “it means a lot.” The support she never had stared back at her from three powerfully sweet women.
“Ahh,” someone cooed, as everyone came in for another hug.
“Break a leg, Hot Nerd,” Remy whispered.
The pregnant wife hadn’t said much. Lexi wondered what was on her mind, but she didn’t have time to find out. Reluctantly, she broke loose from her cool-ass friends and headed to her proverbial execution.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Every board member was seated and accounted for at SugarTech’s emergency meeting. Lexi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Six white men, one Latino and the rest women, all white, needless to say, dissected her with their eyes across the long conference table.
Lexi had never thought about the racial makeup of the board. She’d barely attended any meeting unless a vote was needed, and even than Josh had made sure she only showed up for that in video chat.
He’d wanted to give them the impression that she was too busy creating apps to be bothered to meet with them. That meant that none of their people knew her and would not be inclined to vote in her favor. She felt the odds of keeping her board status were nil. Josh had appointed her the Wicked Witch of the West, while he’d crowned himself the all-powerful Oz.
They opened the proceedings, discussing her latest skirmishes with the law and how her actions represented the company as a whole. From across the table, Josh kept his boyish face strangely passive. She imagined him gloating on the inside.
She’d had more than a few signs in college that he was not only spoiled but lazy. He’d hidden it well with his humor and charm. Where most girls would have dumped him after they’d been conned into writing more than five term papers for him, Josh had led her to believe he would do the same for her. In all the years she’d known him, he’d never returned the favor.
“We will pass a vote on whether the company should allow Lexington Waters to stay on SugarTech’s board,” the acting CEO announced. Josh was the natural choice to take over as head of the company, but that had been Lexi’s one and only stipulation. Instead, the board had had to appoint Josh’s friend. Lexi highly suspected she was the dick in pussy type of bud to him. Shit! She was going to need some serious therapy after this.
Lexi held up her finger. “First, may I say something?”
“Not now,” Maureen whispered, placing her hand on her leg and squeezing. “We can appeal later.”
Though Maureen had come highly recommended, Lexi wondered if Josh had gotten to her lawyer. Perhaps she was paranoid. However, the douche had given her plenty of reasons to be suspicious.
The acting CEO nodded her head for Lexi to proceed.
As Josh’s gray eyes twinkled in amusement, she ignored the grin that he tried to hide behind his hand. It was her ex’s thinking pose that made him appear attentive rather than bored. She hated public speaking, and the fuck-stick knew exactly how much.
“Not anyone here can say we’re perfect—”
“Oh hell,” Maureen muttered.
“Unfortunately, people often behave illogically under high levels of stress. I went through one of the most stressful times of my life last year, and I may have made some rash decisions.” Lexi kept steady eye contact with each board member. Failing to skip over Josh, she caught his eye roll, which caused her to stutter.
“Last year was just a small example of your inability to lead this company.” Josh seized the moment to take over the floor. “But your behavior of late is the reason you should be removed from the board all together.”
The sheer sound of his voice caused Lexi’s hand to involuntarily twitch. Direly wanting to bash his face in, she intertwined her fingers together and lowered them into her lap.
“As I was saying,” she announced loudly, cutting him off. “This room is filled with brilliant businessmen and women who have made a misstep or two. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a couple of DUIs in the room and a few lawsuits of the paternity sort.” Lexi noticed the frowny faces and the nervous leg jitters from the men in the room, but she didn’t care. Who were these people to judge her?
“Stop,” Maureen hissed under her breath.
“But what I’m positive no one has questioned is your right to be in the room, much less be invited to the table—especially the one you single-handedly built.”
“If that’s all, Ms. Waters.” The acting CEO cleared her throat. “May we vote?”
“Finally,” Josh sighed.
* * * *
Lexi’s heartbeat thundered in her ears. She continually stabbed the button to the elevator with her finger but got nothing. As the nervous energy pumped her up, she settled for the stairs to work off her adrenaline. She took two steps at a time. Without breaking her neck, she landed on the last floor, thankfully feet first, and shoved open the lobby door.
Huffing out of breath, she frantically looked for the girls but didn’t see them. Did they make plans for later? She couldn’t remember whether they were sticking around or not. Her thoughts were bouncing around a thousand miles per hour.
“This isn’t over,” Josh growled. Snatching her by the arm, he pushed his face close to hers.
“Wow, when money is on the line, you move fast. What did you do, take the stairs or hop on your broom to fly down here?”
“Laugh now, but when I get my company back, you won’t be finding shit funny.”
“According to that vote”—she yanked her arm out of his grip—“you don’t have a company.”
“You may have made a couple of codes,” he spat, “even started the initial process, but this is my blood, sweat and tears. You wanted to create websites, for fuck’s sake!”
Josh’s gray eyes turned a wicked shade darker. What the hell did I ever seen in him? His sweet mask of goodwill slipped away, leaving the petulant child who had squatted inside of him baring his teeth at her.
“Look… Look…” Running his hand through his chestnut hair, he turned away. When he faced her again, he’d schooled his expression into a tight smile. “We can work something out. I mean…I’m sorry. This doesn’t have to be over.” He grabbed her hand. Completely shocked by his Jekyll and Hyde impersonation, she jerked away from his touch.
“Are you serious?” No longer disillusioned that Josh wasn’t always a monster, she considered breaking into a run.
“Hear me out. We just hit a rough patch. Every married couple does.”
“A rough patch,” she repeated, confused by his utter lack of self-awareness.
“This was a bump,” Josh continued his bullshit. He closed in the space between them as he clasped her shoulders. “Why would we throw eleven years down the toilet without a fight?”
Delirious with the twist and turns from the day, she bowed over with laughter. “Good question.” She petered off with a hiccup. “Probably because you tried to mentally break me down and embarrass me in front of the world. Oh, and that was only after you took every dime I had to my name.”
“Don’t exaggerate.” He pursed his lips in a tight line.
Bored with the conversation, she glanced around for an official out. “I wish I was.” The girls stood waiting for her in front of a black SVU. Lexi attempted to walk around him, but Josh tightened his hold on her.
“Taking you down won’t be hard.” He fixed his face with that slick smile that had always gotten him everything he wanted. Of course, it was only for the public. Lexi knew if they were alone, he’d be losing his shit. “Don’t forget. I still have that video of us.” He puffed his hot coffee-fetid breath in her face. “And I’m not above using it.”
“Good talk.” She shoved him in that soft spot right under the chest plate.
“Oooof.” He stumbled back, and Lexi hurried passed him. “Enjoy this little victory, baby, because when I get through with you…” he huffed, out of breath.
While they waited for her to join them, the girls did a little dance with humps and thrust. Crude didn’t quite cover their moves, but it was adorable, nevertheless.
“Josh Stewart?” Lexi peeked over her shoulder when she heard the full use of his name. Two officially dressed men approached him, flipping out their badges. “We’re going to need you to answer a couple of questions for us.”
“What’s this about?” He straightened up to his full height.
“An unauthorized video. We were hoping you could clear up a couple of things.” Stopping in her tracks, Lexi turned all the way around to witness the agent place his hand on Josh’s arm.
“We won’t be going anywhere without my lawyer,” Josh demanded.
“Not a problem, Mr. Stewart.” They steered him toward their vehicle. “Your attorney can meet us at our office.”
“What? No.” Josh struggled against the tight box they maneuvered him into. “I want him now.”
“Call him from the car.”
Lexi’s eyes connected with Josh’s before the agents placed him in their SUV and winked because…Fuck Josh. That’s why.
“Oh wow, that was better than dodgeball,” Remy cooed. The wives surrounded her in one big huddle.
“How were you able to—?”
“We had Tanya save the video on her phone with the help of a really good hacker. She traced the original sender of the app and the server where Josh kept the video stored.”
“So, is that why you came?” Lexi confronted the three biggest instigators.
“Besides supporting you?” Dahl nudged her with her shoulder. “Yes, we totally wanted to see that.”
“Live and in person.” Lashonda smiled bigger than she’d ever seen before.
“Also”—Remy reached out to fix the neck of Lexi’s long sweater—“remember how we made you watch Flashdance for girls’ night?”
“Uh yeah.” She drew out the words. “And it sucked.”
“That movie is a whole college semester in problematic eighties films,” Remy told her, waving her opinion off. “But, it’s also his favorite.” She grabbed her arms and turned her in the opposite direction. Three cars down, Hawk leaned against an old pickup truck, holding peach roses and a puppy. Instantly, the sight melted her heart.
“To tell you the truth, I think it’s because the lead was bi-racial like him. I mean, otherwise, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Dahl admitted.
“Don’t forget the boobs,” Lashonda added. “It’s always the boobs.”
“Go ahead. You know you want to.” Remy shoved her in the direction of the damned cutest thing she’d ever seen. “And act like you weren’t drunk when it was on and play along.”
As she approached him, Lexi ignored the fluttering in her stomach. Butterflies couldn’t hold a candle to the Flock of Seagulls going nuts insid
e of her…the band, not the birds. Big and bronze, his muscles rippled under his denim shirt.
Hawk had tied his wavy hair back in a ponytail, which drew out his strong bone structure. Fighting off a full-blown smile, she stopped in front of him. “Are those for me?” His hooded eyes roved over her body, landing on her face. He passed the roses to her. “And…” She tried to grab the furry booger in his arms, but he pulled the puppy out of reach.
“The dog’s mine.” Hawk chuckled.
“But in the movie, it was Alex’s.”
“If you remember, she also gave him a rose back,” he said.
Lexi plucked a flower from the bundle and passed it to him. When he accepted it, she bit her lower lip at the adorableness overload.
“How did it go?” Hawk asked. His deep voice was extra gravely. Resisting the urge to touch the slight shadow on his face, she clasped the wrapping around her roses even tighter. Regardless of his natural bedraggled beauty, he seemed exhausted.
“Like you don’t know,” she poked.
With a slip of a smile, he raised his hazel eyes skyward before he returned his gaze back to her face. “Pretend that I don’t.”
“Ah.” Lexi felt suddenly shy but mainly uncertain. She shifted from one high heel to the other. “They had the vote. I didn’t think I stood a snowball’s chance of winning. Then a miracle happened, and the oldest most curmudgeonly board member voted in my favor. Who knew Frank Stolley was a hockey fan?”
The corner of Hawk’s full lips turned up, and he ducked his head. “He’s not… Sports aren’t really Frank’s thing.”
“So, my boyfriend—”
“Your what?” he prodded with a teasing smile. He raised his eyebrow, most likely waiting for her to elaborate.
Instead of repeating herself, Lexi sucked her lips into her mouth, hoping the earth wouldn’t open, swallowing her whole.
“Before I ’fess up, let me start with this,” he said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interfered in your business with Josh.” Hawk flipped the puppy around, forcing the furry monster to hypnotize her. “In the past, I’ve never had to ask.”