Jessica knew that her mother was now on unlimited morphine. She went to get her another pill.
“Wait.” Her mother put her hand up. “I don’t want to fall asleep yet.”
“Mom, you’re in pain. Please take one.”
“Just a minute.” Her mom’s face creased with pain. “Listen here. Boys don’t mean a thing. They won’t stay by your side. They are loyal until something else distracts them and they’re always looking for the next best thing. So you rely on yourself before you get with any boy. You be strong and you take care of yourself.” Now exhausted, she accepted her morphine and fell into a deep sleep. Jessica kissed her forehead and murmured “I love you,” but she knew her mother hadn’t heard.
A few hours later, the hospice nurse announced that she had lost pulse. A beautiful star was extinguished that night, and Jessica had never been the same.
But Jessica had always been strong. The only times that she had been hurt was when she failed to listen to her mother’s parting advice. It made her sad that they couldn’t sit and talk as they used to, whenever her mother wasn’t too tired from work and had a few spare minutes. However, it was clear that her mother had really meant what she’d said. It had been so important to her that she had saved it for her last speech to her daughter, her parting wisdom.
Jessica didn’t want to take too much. However, her pictures of her mother and her mother’s journal meant more to her than clothes and jewelry. Her clothes could be replaced with time; her mother’s things could not. She took the pictures off of the walls and packed them with a few essentials. She abandoned almost all of her things, save for the gold earrings that Evan had bought her. At first she wanted to throw them out of the window or in the trash, but then she thought of the amazing day she and Evan had shared in Mount Charleston. Oh well, she thought, why not pawn them later? She tossed them into her bag, lying to herself about how she wanted to hold onto them to hold onto her memories of Evan. Part of her still loved him; it was a deep love that would never end. But she was too angry to feel it or acknowledge it at that moment.
She gazed around the apartment from her couch. It was home. She was so sick of ditching home after home. She wanted a normal life, where she could just settle down and have something stable for once. Something like the apartment she had shared with her mother for her growing up years.
In the morning, something woke her up. She was stunned to realize that she had fallen asleep. How lucky she was that the cops had not found her! She grabbed her bags and banged out the front door. It was only five in the morning and quite chilly. But it was high by the time she hit the bus stop.
“You need a ride?” her neighbor called. She had never really spoken to them before but they seemed nice enough. They always had lots of family over and tons of kids yelling in Spanish. “Sure,” she assented. The stop was a little distance away, especially with her big bags.
At the stop, she stared at the schedule. Where to go? The world was open. She had no family to stay with. She had no friends, not even here. So there was no limit. That freedom felt terrifying rather than liberating, however. If she could have it any other way, she would have. Finally, she settled on Reno. Reno was enough like Vegas that she could make it there for a while, running her usual scams. From there, maybe she would go to Oregon to hunt Gary down, or something like that. Maybe New York City. All of those options depressed her, however.
On the bus, she half-slept with her headphones on so that no one would sit next to her and try to make small talk. Some men tried but she ignored them until they gave up, calling her a bitch. All she could think about was Evan and the sting of his betrayal. How could such beautiful eyes and such kind actions and such thoughtfulness hide such a sick pervert? How could she not have seen his sinister intentions and lewd thoughts about her running behind his eyes?
The bus dropped her off in Reno. She looked around the town and wrinkled her nose. What a miserable and windswept place. It was a mockery of Las Vegas, and just as dirty and down. She hoisted up her bags and began to walk toward the blinking light of a motel near the stop.
Here’s to a new life, she told herself bitterly.
Chapter 15
Evan continued to call Jessica, but she had either started blocking his calls or had her phone shut off. It would ring twice, click, then hang up. He desperately wished that she had shown him where she lived. For days, he tried to get a hold of her, to no avail. Jessica was the kind of girl who could not be found when she wanted to be found. Then, an idea occurred to him and he called up Geno.
“Hey, Geno. Evan Davis here.”
“Yeah?” Geno answered gruffly.
“Remember that girl I had you trace a few weeks away? Jessica Collins?”
“Yeah.” Geno crunched on something; it sounded like cereal.
“Can you do some more work on her for me? Could you find out where she lives?”
Geno was silent for a moment. Then he said, “What’s this for? Why you need to know where she lives?”
“I just need to know. Please, Geno?”
“I don’t want to be implicated in some kind of hit.”
“Do you really think I would order a hit on somebody? I just really need to find this girl. She ran off a few days ago and I’m really in love with her….”
“If she got to your money already, then she’s gone,” Geno replied. “No hope. Those scammers are good at disappearing into the underground network after a scam in no time at all.”
“I don’t need my money back. She never even stole from me.”
Geno was quiet for a moment. Then he grunted. “Well, I’ll see what I can do.”
Evan paced his office. He had a million things to get done and a million meetings to attend to. He also had to cancel all of the fake work and meetings he had set up to continue his project with Jessica. But he could not focus on any of it. A few more times, he tried to call Jessica, only to get the same result.
Geno was a fast and efficient worker. Within an hour, he texted Evan an address, along with the warning, Be careful with this girl and don’t do anything stupid.
Thanks! Evan texted back, aware that he would never get a reply. Geno wasn’t the kind of guy to ever express anything except contempt and annoyance. He never said things like “You’re welcome.” Despite the years that he had worked for the Davis family, mainly at the bidding of Linda, he never got past formalities and business with them, and never accepted Linda’s dinner invitations. He seemed to sense who Linda was and avoided her like the plague. He didn’t try to disguise his dislike and kiss her ass, like most people did.
Evan threw on his parka and ran downstairs into the spitting rain to hail a taxi. He didn’t want to bother using Lenny and possibly get Jessica’s address reported back to his mother or something awful like that. It must have been Lenny who’d told Linda that Evan had taken Jessica to the Mountain Charleston house, because no one else had known. That or the doorman, who seemed comfortable just letting Linda into Evan’s place whenever she felt like coming over. Evan felt as if he lived in a ring of spies, all working for his mother while pretending to work for him. He was a twenty-nine-year-old baby it seemed. And it was time for that to finally change. He was no longer going to be a child, and he was no longer going to let his mother ruin his life this way.
The taxi driver tried to make lots of small talk as he navigated the streets in a dicier part of the city. Evan, never the rude type, tried to engage but found it nearly impossible. His mind was streaming with different things he needed to say to Jessica.
Jessica lived in a rather average pink stucco apartment building, though the gangbanger lounging around on the corners and the old cars broken down in driveways gave a hint about the true nature of the neighborhood. It was one of the areas where Evan wished that he had hired a bodyguard. He jogged up to Apartment 2B, which Geno said was Jessica’s apartment. The B on her address was hanging crooked on the door. He rang the doorbell and began knocking. “Jessica!” he yelled. It act
ually felt good, using her real name.
There was no answer.
He began to pound on the door again.
“She’s not here,” he heard a voice croak to his side.
He glanced over and saw an old Hispanic lady smoking a cigarette in her bathrobe on the ledge in front of the apartments.
“Do you know where she is?” he demanded.
The woman shrugged. “She was only here six months or so. Didn’t have too much stuff or a car or nothing. Saw her hauling a few bags out yesterday morning. She was making a big racket so we went to see what was wrong. It was only five in the morning! Well, she was saying she had to get out of here and so my boyfriend gave her a ride to the bus stop.” She pointed down the street toward the sleazy Greyhound stop with her cigarette.
“Did she say where she was going?” Evan felt the blood pounding in his temples. Jessica could be anywhere by this point!
“No.” The woman dragged out the word in her Spanish accent.
“Thanks.” Evan dashed over to the bus stop. The taxi driver waiting below threw his hands up and Evan waved at him to wait. In the bus stop office, he checked schedules to find out what bus she might have taken that early in the morning.
He narrowed it down to Denver, Salt Lake City, or Reno. But what if she didn’t stop in one of those cities? What if she rode on somewhere else? Evan was at a loss on how to track her down. He wasn’t aware of her family or anything about her. Maybe Geno could track her down, but Evan felt bad about sending an old Mafia soldier after her. He didn’t even like using Geno to find out her address or her past. It felt shady. He wished that his mother had let him get close to Jessica and tear down the steep wall she kept around her heart at all times.
Evan rapped on his mother’s door, trying hard not to shake with fury.
Her posh, uniformed doorman showed him in. “Oh, Evan, how nice to see you,” his mother called from the living room, where she was entertaining two of her bridge partners.
“We need to talk,” Evan declared, storming into the room.
“Well, I’m a little busy, can’t you see?” his mother huffed.
“Now. Your friends need to leave. You and I are going to talk.”
Both of her friends exchanged scandalized looks. Then they got up and left, as Linda chased after them, apologizing and saying, “I don’t know what’s gotten into him. I am so sorry for his rudeness.” After she closed the door after them, she turned to Evan, her eyebrows raised indignantly.
“Well?” she demanded.
“Sit,” Evan commanded.
She looked a bit intimidated, then she sullenly obliged. “Do you care to tell me what this is about?” she asked as he paced in front of her with his hands held tightly behind his back.
Evan paced a few more times, chewing his lip as his mind churned. He was trying to find the right words without sounding like some spoiled brat throwing a tantrum. He wanted to make sure that his words had clout and reason to them so that his mother would understand that he actually meant business.
“Well?” she demanded. “I didn’t throw my friends out just to watch you burn a track in my carpet.”
“Why is it that every time I meet a girl I like, you do your best to sabotage it?” Evan finally spoke.
“Huh! I’m sorry for protecting you. But it was becoming apparent she had you under some sort of stupid spell and you were willing to let her con you!”
“I was trying to get to know her. To find out the truth straight from her. I wanted her to come forward and tell me,” Evan shot back. “And she just had, right before you busted in and threw your little tantrum. Maybe you can’t see it, but I’m not stupid and I wasn’t blinded by some kind of vixen con magic. I was handling it in my own way, Mother.”
“By sleeping with her in my vacation home?” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you had the nerve to take her up there. Lord knows what she stole from there. You know that I have precious family heirlooms in–”
“She’s not a thief! She’s a confused and broken woman. And do you know why? Because of what you did to Gail Collins.”
“What I did to Gail Collins?” She let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, my, how that wench has twisted your mind. Gail Collins was trying to sleep with my husband. Excuse me for refusing to allow that.”
“I know my father and he never would have cheated on you. I also know how territorial you get. I think you did a cruel thing because of silly jealousy and you should be ashamed of yourself,” Evan spat back. His temper was really frothing now, a volcano about to erupt in fire.
“Dear God. Is that what she told you?”
“No, it’s what I figured out myself.” He slapped his company badge on the table. “I love her. Maybe you don’t like it, but I don’t care. Look at the title on there. I’m the CEO. The CEO! And yet I can’t have a single day where I get to run my own company. I never wanted this job in the first place. If you want to run Davis Enterprises, then why don’t you do it? Why don’t you become CEO?”
“Evan, don’t be silly. This–”
“Don’t tell me to not be silly. I am furious right now. You took away the one good thing I had. There was something special about that girl.”
“It’s called manipulation,” his mother replied coolly. “She made you think that you loved her. They’re good at that.”
“Bullshit. I really did. I saw bits and pieces of the real her and I adored every minute I spent with her. She is an amazing person, and you ruined that for me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that you think she is so wonderful, Evan. But I was only doing the best thing for you. One day you will see that I was only doing what any mother would.”
“Like what you did with Mona?” Evan snorted.
Linda looked taken aback. Then she composed herself and smoothed her skirt over her knees. “Mona was no good for you.”
“So? Couldn’t you have let things run their course, like normal mothers? Instead you planted an earring in my bedroom!”
“Oh, I did no such thing. You shouldn’t blame me for your escapades.”
“I cannot believe that you are willing to make me look horrible for your own agenda. Do you know how deeply that hurts me? Do you know that Mona still hates me, and now Jessica does too?” Evan tsktsked.
Linda opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand. “I know you think I’m just some pawn and you can mess with my life as you please and do whatever suits your little personal agendas. Well, I’m tired of this. I’m tired of you running my life and running my company. From now on, you will stay out of my life and you will never meddle with me again.” Then he held out his hand. “Give me your key.”
“What?” she cried indignantly.
“Your company key card. I want it back. You are no longer permitted in my office until I can find a suitable replacement. And I will be the one finding the replacement.”
Suddenly in tears, his mother handed over the thick, bulky blue card. “Please, Evan, you’re overreacting. Please reconsider. You are my son. Don’t you see how much you are hurting me?” she wailed more as he took the key, refusing to fall for her guilt trip. “Please! That’s my company too!” she pled. She was very good at putting on different masks and manipulating people with her emotions. Evan never really saw it clearly until now. Now there was absolutely no doubt about who and what his mother was. She may as well have been a con artist instead of Jessica.
Evan didn’t bother to listen to her pleas. He turned on his heels and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. He knew she hated that. Now he wasn’t acting out of spite, but rather out of a desire to shove her out of his life and make it his own. He wanted to show her that she had no control. With her key card in his hand, he knew that he had accomplished just that. But he wasn’t close to forgiving her for her transgression and the things she had made Jessica believe about him. No longer would he sacrifice his pride and freedom for her agendas. Her twisted jealousy of poor Gail Collins n
eeded to cease, but either way, he had no intention of entertaining her games ever again. He wasn’t sure how to navigate his new position with her, but he had a pretty good idea.
He expected his mom to call, but she did not. During the entire drive home, Evan stewed in his misery. All he could think about was Jessica, the way she laughed, the smell of her hair. He would have given anything to have her in his arms. But maybe, just maybe, he should have been honest with her instead of playing his little waiting game. He had just wanted her to grow comfortable with him and fall in love with him enough to tell him the truth. He wanted to test her to make sure that his mother was wrong and that Jessica did have a heart and wasn’t just some scamming hussy.
Chapter 16
Jessica hid out in a filthy motel on the outskirts of Reno. The desert wasteland around her reflected her mood perfectly. She felt as empty as the desert with the cold December wind howling over it, shivering the cactuses and yucca. Though she had intended to only stop here for a little while, she had not been feeling well. So she ran scams and panhandled here for nearly two weeks, earning enough each day for food and the rent on her motel room. Besides, she was sick of moving around. She had really liked her little apartment and she missed it. It was nothing fancy, not like Evan’s place, but it had been home. The transient life was already old to her, even though she had been living it for nearly six years already.
The “Vacancy” sign flashed on and off, imprinting its red lines into her eyeballs. She didn’t have the energy to close the curtains and shut it out, however. Since arriving in Reno and getting off the smelly bus, she had felt queasy and horrible. At first she thought it was the bus’s stench; then she thought it was stress and guilt from leaving Evan high and dry, and her sense of betrayal. Now she was beginning to wonder if she had food poisoning. Her stomach rumbled with hunger but she knew that if she ate, she would not be able to keep it down.
Daddy Plus One: A Single Dad Secret Baby Billionaire Romance Page 9