“What?” He laughed, but the sound was nervous.
“You’ve been working for a year to get something going with Simon,” Cooper continued, watching his friend’s eyes, seeing the flash of guilt before it disappeared again.
“Oh, come on. Really?”
Ignoring the halfhearted denials, Cooper asked, “If Jacob hadn’t died—if Terri hadn’t shown up—how were you going to work it?”
“Are you nuts?”
“No. I’m pissed.” Cooper saw it in his eyes. Dave was realizing that there was no point in denying anything anymore. “How the hell could you do this, Dave? We’re friends. We’ve worked together for years.”
“Together?” Dave choked out a laugh and shook his head. “No, Cooper, you’re my boss. I work for you.”
“So the hell what?” Stunned, confused, Cooper countered, “You’re my assistant. That’s a bad thing?”
“You still don’t get it.” He laughed again. “A bad thing? I hate every minute of it.” Every semblance of a smile, of friendship, drained from his expression and his eyes were fiery. “Everything about it. I jump when you say, go where you say, do what you say. My God, I do most of the damn work around here and I’m still just an employee. I’ll never be more.”
“If you believe all of that, you’re the one who’s nuts. Yeah, you do a good job, but we all do.” Outraged, Cooper said, “Oh and yeah. Poor you. Sorry about the six-figure salary and the five weeks of vacation every year—at whatever Hayes hotel you want to stay in. Yeah, it’s rough to be you.”
Dave sneered at him. “What the hell do you know about anything? You’re the golden boy. Everything goes your way. You’ve got money falling out of your pockets. Your ex charges a ten thousand dollar dress to your account and you shrug it off as a cheap way to keep her occupied.
“You want to know how I would have handled Simon if that simpleton hadn’t shown up to take over? I’d have gotten the shares you promised me and I’d have sold them all to Simon for a damn fortune. Then finally, I could have lived the way I want to. Hell. The way I deserve to.”
The viciousness pouring out of the man shook Cooper. How could he not have seen any of this in all this time? Hell, he’d never even guessed that Dave was so eaten up by jealousy that it had soured him completely. Ten years with this man and it turned out Cooper didn’t know him at all. What did that say about his judgment? He wanted to trust Terri but how the hell could he let himself? What if the face Terri showed him was as false as the one Dave had been wearing for years?
“Man, you should be an actor. You kept up the best friend role all these years and never let a damn thing slip.”
“Please.” Dave waved one hand. “You see what you want to see. Always have. God, you looked at Terri and saw a mastermind trying to sell you out?” He laughed. “Seriously? Her?”
“She’s no simpleton,” Cooper said tightly. “In the short time she’s been here, she’s turned quite a few things around. Plus, she’s not a liar. That’s something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Really? And you do?” Dave sneered and shook his head. “Didn’t you just chase her off, accusing her of backstabbing you?”
He had. Pain jabbed at him at the reminder of how she’d looked at him. How she’d turned and walked away. How he hadn’t stopped her. And he’d deal with the guilt of that later. For now, though... “Time for you to go, Dave.”
“Oh, I’m going. Don’t worry. I’ll be hired at another hotel chain before the week’s out.”
“I wish them luck.” Cooper folded his arms across his chest. “We were friends once, so I won’t have you tossed out...”
Dave held up one hand. “Spare me the speeches.”
“Fine. No speech. Just two more words. You’re fired.”
Even after this confrontation, Cooper could see that the finality of those words slapped at Dave. But he recovered quickly. “Fine. I’ll take my severance package in lieu of notice. And I won’t miss any of this one damn bit.”
When he left, Cooper stared at the door for a long time, wondering if Dave was right about at least one thing. Did Cooper only see what he wanted to? Was he blind to anything that might shake up his view of the world?
Okay, two things. He had assumed that Terri was the betrayer. Even knowing her inherent honesty and the fact that she could be as blunt as a sledgehammer, he’d believed it. Or at least a part of him had.
Because it was easier that way. It would have given him an excuse to get rid of her. To buy her out and make her leave. It would have given him a reason to stop this connection with her before his feelings grew even more than they already had.
And now that the damage was done, the question was, did he try to undo it? Or did he leave it alone for both their sakes? He wanted to go to her. To hold her, tell her he was wrong. Tell her that what he felt for her was so damn startling he didn’t know what to do with it. But he didn’t. Because if she left now, he didn’t want to watch her go.
* * *
Terri opened the door and Jan rushed in. Her short, spiky black hair was perfect and her bright green eyes sparkled. She wore black leggings, a sapphire-blue tunic sweater and flat black boots.
“Wow! First class plane ticket, a limo with champagne to pick me up and a gorgeous bellman to wheel my bag. I could get used to this.” Jan dropped her purse onto the dining table and pulled Terri into a hug.
Terri hugged her back, more relieved than she could say that Jan, with her outsized personality and fierce loyalty, was there with her. Then she looked past her friend and saw Jake, the bellman, waiting.
“Oh, hey,” Jan turned and reached for her purse. “I need to tip you and—”
“No, you don’t,” Jake said with a wink and a wicked grin. “It’s on the house.”
When he left, Jan fanned herself. “Boy, he’s a cutie, huh?” When she looked at Terri, Jan must have read the misery on her friend’s face because she instantly went feral. “Okay, who hurt you? Just point me at them.”
“God, it’s good to see you,” Terri said softly. “Everything’s just a mess.”
“Messes can be cleaned up,” Jan told her and threaded her arm through Terri’s walking into the living room. “Let me have one minute to have a small orgasm over this suite, then you can tell me all about it.”
Terri laughed, dropped onto the couch and started talking. Jan’s features displayed every emotion in the book as Terri went through what had been happening in the past couple of weeks. She told her everything, didn’t hold back, and by the time she was finished, Jan was furious.
“What is the matter with this Cooper? Can’t he see you were set up?”
“I don’t know,” Terri said, still hurt from the night before. “Maybe he doesn’t want to know it. He said himself he never wanted me here.”
Jan gave her a gentle shove. “Well, it wasn’t up to him, was it?”
“No, but maybe it is now.”
“Why?” Irritated, Jan jumped to her feet, walked away a few steps, then came right back. “You’re a partner in this business, Terri. He doesn’t have the right to bitch about it. Well, okay, he can bitch, but he can’t change it.”
“No, but I can,” Terri admitted. Leading the way over to the wet bar, she opened the fridge, pulled out a bottle of wine and uncorked it. As she poured two glasses, she said, “I wanted you to come because I needed the company on my drive back to Ogden.”
“What?” Jan took her glass and had a sip.
“I want to stop by my mom’s and pick up Daisy, but then I’m going back home. I don’t belong here, Jan. And Cooper doesn’t want me here.”
“So you quit?” Jan set her glass down, propped both hands on her hips and gave Terri a hard look. “Really? Your birth father wanted you to have what he spent a lifetime achieving and you’re going to walk away because Cooper’s bent out of shape? You came here for you, r
emember? Because it was finally your time to do something that you wanted to do.”
Put like that, leaving, giving up, sounded like a terrible idea. But Terri had been haunted all night by these and a million other thoughts. And alone in the dark, she’d decided that this was the best way. Just leave the situation. Let Cooper have his business. She’d proven to him and to herself that she was up to the task. That she could do anything. Maybe that was enough.
“It’s easier this way,” she argued. “I sell him my shares and we never have to see each other again.”
“Uh-huh.” Jan shook her head and dropped into one of the chairs, waving a hand at Terri to get her to do the same. “And the fact that you love him is what—going to be ignored?”
“It has to be. He doesn’t want me here, Jan.”
“Because you’re dangerous to him, Terri.”
She laughed. “Me? Dangerous?”
“Yeah, you.” Jan took a breath and let it out again. “He’s had everything his own way for so long, he doesn’t know how to share.”
“He’s not a kindergartner,” Terri said.
“All men are kindergartners,” Jan countered.
“So I should stay and be miserable waiting for him to come to his senses?” Terri shook her head firmly. “That doesn’t sound like a good time to me.”
“Well, hell, of course not,” Jan said. “But why should you be miserable? You said yourself that until this blowup with Cooper, you were having a great time. You’ve got a knack for this and you know it.” Terri’s. “You have just as much right to be here as Cooper, yes?”
“Yeah...”
“You’ve come up with a few great ideas already, right?”
“True, but—”
“You’ve got friends here, don’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Terri admitted, thinking about all of the people she’d met and worked with over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, she would have said she did have friends. She would have counted Dave among them. Now how could she be sure about any of them?
“Well, I do. You’re you, Terri. You’ve got friends. People who are on your side. Are you really going to walk away? Show them all that you can be defeated this easily?”
“Easy?”
“Okay, bad word, but you know what I mean.” Jan gave her hand a squeeze and sat back. “Don’t give it up, Terri. Don’t let him take this from you. You wanted this. For yourself. Why should you leave because he’s being a giant pain in the ass?”
Jan had a point. Heck, she had lots of points. Terri felt her balance reassert itself. Jan was right. About a lot of things. And this is exactly why Terri had needed to talk to Jan. Her friend saw through layers to the bottom line better than anyone she’d ever known. And she knew she could trust Jan. With anything. Terri only wished that Jan were here all the time instead of all the way in Ogden... Terri actually felt the lightbulb go off in her head as a brilliant idea occurred to her.
“I’ll stay,” she said quietly. “I’ve made something here. Something I love. That I’m good at. You’re right. I shouldn’t have to leave to make Cooper feel better, so I’ll stay.”
“Atta girl!” Jan grinned, toasted her with the wine and took a big gulp.
“If you will,” Terri finished.
“What?” Confused, Jan looked at her and waited.
“How would you like to move to Vegas and work at Hayes Corporation as my executive assistant?”
“Are you serious?” Jan asked, her eyes flashing excitement.
“Oh, yeah. Very serious. I really need you here, Jan. I can trust you to always be honest with me. To tell me when I’m being stupid or about to make a huge mistake—to come up with fabulous ideas to shake up both the company and Cooper—” The more she said, the more Terri knew this was the right thing to do. She could have her best friend with her, and Jan would be making more than twice as much as she had in Ogden.
“Well, sure, but you don’t have to hire me for that.”
“Just hear me out,” Terri said quickly and this time it was she reaching for her friend’s hand. “You can live here with me. This suite is four thousand square feet.”
“Holy God!” Jan’s gaze whipped around the room, then back to Terri. “That’s bigger than both our condos put together!”
“I know! We’ll have plenty of room. And you’d work for me. I’ll pay you a huge salary and you’ll get great vacations in any of our hotels every year and—”
“Stop the sales pitch,” Jan said, scrambling up to rush around the table. “You had me as soon as you said you needed me. I really missed you the past couple of weeks, Terri. And I’d love to live here. Hello? Jake the bellman for one...”
Terri gave her a tight hug and for the first time since she came to Vegas she felt good about facing the future. Even if that meant working with a man who didn’t trust her—and would never love her.
Eleven
God, it was good to laugh again. After an hour with Jan, Terri felt better than she had in a long time. It was going to be brilliant, having Jan in Vegas with her, working with her.
When a knock on her door sounded, Terri’s laughter ended abruptly and she had a wild thought that maybe it was Cooper, coming to apologize. To tell her that he’d been wrong from the beginning and that he understood now that he loved her and trusted her and—
“Wow,” she muttered, pushing up from the couch. “I lead a rich and full fantasy life.”
“Cool,” Jan said with a grin. “When you get back, tell me all about it.”
“I don’t think so,” Terri said. Her tiny, hopeless fantasies were better off staying private. Then she looked through the peephole and felt fury rise up inside her.
Yanking the door open, she looked at Dave and demanded, “What’re you doing here?”
All apology, Dave squeezed past her before she could close the door on him and shut him out. Holding up both hands, he said, “Just listen to me for a minute, Terri, then I’ll go.”
She closed the door, crossed her arms over her chest and stood hipshot, tapping the toe of one boot against the tile floor. Behind her, she felt more than heard Jan walk up to join them.
“Who are you?” Dave asked.
“Is this Dave?” Jan asked.
“Yes, this is him. What do you want, Dave? Haven’t you already done more than enough?”
Jan lined up beside her and mimicked Terri’s stance. “Why are you listening to him, Terri? Let’s just toss his ass out.”
“Now, just a minute,” he argued, flashing a furious glance at Jan.
“No, you wait,” Terri interrupted and stepped into his space. Poking him in the chest with her index finger, she demanded, “Why did you do it, Dave? Why did you set me up? Let me think Cooper wanted a merger with Simon Baxter?”
His gaze shifted between Jan and Terri like a cornered dog, before settling on Terri. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“Really...” Jan wasn’t asking a question.
He huffed out an impatient breath and ignored Jan completely. “Terri, Cooper wanted me to do that. He set it all up so you’d fail miserably. He wanted an excuse to finally get rid of you.”
“Bastard,” Jan murmured.
Terri had to agree. If it was true.
But she remembered the look of shock and anger on Cooper’s face and she was willing to bet it had been real. If he’d been acting, he deserved an award. Shaking her head so hard, her blond ponytail swung from side to side behind her, she said, “That makes no sense at all.”
“Sure it does,” Dave argued quickly. “He figured you’d be so upset at your ‘mistake’ that you’d sell him your shares and he’d have what he always wanted. The company all in his name.”
“What a crappy thing to do,” Jan said.
Terri could feel her friend’s anger, but she still wasn’t convinced. Not en
tirely, anyway. “Why are you telling me this? If you were willing to set me up for Cooper’s sake, why turn on him now?”
“Because he fired me,” Dave said and lifted his chin. “He doesn’t want any loose ends. Didn’t want to risk you finding out he’s been using you all along. For the past couple of weeks, he’s been softening you up, placating you by accepting your ideas, sleeping with you to keep you off balance—all to eventually convince you to leave.”
Terri felt cold all over. Funny, but anger could be ice as well as fire. Was Cooper really that underhanded and vicious? Or was Dave playing her again for his own reasons? How could she know? She’d cried enough. She’d been furious. Now she was just cold and calm. Cooper had gone through a lot to get rid of her. Why? Why not be up front and honest in the first place? Why not just offer to buy her out right from the beginning?
Because, her mind whispered, he’d known you wouldn’t walk away then. It was too new. Too important for you to try. So he let you. Encouraged you. All with the plan of making you quit in the end.
“He doesn’t give a damn about you, Terri,” Dave was saying. “Or me, for that matter. We’ve been best friends since college and he just tossed me out. He’s incapable of caring, Terri. Cooper Hayes is an empty shell.”
She wouldn’t have thought so. But she’d seen a side of Cooper after the Simon blowup that she never had before. And still, she knew a Cooper that Dave didn’t. Passionate and warm and funny. He didn’t seem empty to her—just...guarded. Cooper had to know that Dave would come running to her to spill his guts, wouldn’t he? Why would he be loyal to the man who fired him? So again, Terri was left feeling at sea, not knowing which way to turn or who to believe.
He left shortly after and the quiet in the suite was overwhelming. Terri got herself a bottle of water and took a long drink while Jan watched her as if she were an unexploded bomb. Which was what she felt like. Everything inside her was so tension-filled it was a wonder she hadn’t already burst.
“Okay.” Jan looked at her. “Do we believe him? I mean yeah, we’re already mad at Cooper because he’s a jerk. But Dave set you up. Why should we believe him now?”
Tempt Me in Vegas Page 15