“What is it you need?” she asked, thinking there would be time for explanations later.
“Max has something. It’s probably in his room. I don’t think he’ll carry it on him… I tried his apartment, it’s not there, so he must have brought it to this fancy fucking castle.”
Max had brought most of his things with him, not because he wanted to erase his connection to his old place, but because the crime rate in his old neighborhood was high. “Ok, what is it?”
“A key, he used to keep it in his wallet,” he said. “Do you think you can get it for us?”
His wallet, oh yeah, no problem. Damnit. Tally covered her eyes. “I can try, what’s it for?” Robbie didn’t answer. “I’m not prying, I just… I have to know that whatever it’s for… that it won’t hurt him.” More silence. “Shit, Rob, you’re asking me to steal from him.”
There was a long, lingering pause that didn’t fill her with confidence. “Max knew you were going to rock his world even before your first kiss in Fitzpatrick’s,” Robbie said. “He told me after, just touching you was like a sucker punch to the gut.”
Maybe she’d asked for it. Robbie was trying to put her at ease and to let her know that Max probably wouldn’t consider it stealing because he trusted her. They’d once been so close that he’d have let her have anything of his without question.
She didn’t know how far they’d come from there, but Robbie was trying to remind her that the secret of her relationship with Max brought them all closer and reinforced their trust. But his words had a secondary effect he probably didn’t expect… They gave her a flash of that first night… her first date with Max.
Stepping into the hallway light, Tally looked down at the man greeting the glitterati in the gleaming foyer of this sumptuous home that he’d one day inherit. She couldn’t connect the man at the bottom of those stairs with the one who’d pulled her dress down and told her she needed to kiss him to fit in.
The memory made her ache. “I don’t want to think about that night,” she murmured, wishing for the numbness that had gotten her through her heartbreak.
But, he didn’t listen. “You didn’t kiss him back,” Robbie said. “He said the look of shock on your face grabbed him by the balls and he knew he had to have you… don’t think he expected it to happen that night in the alley—”
“Ok, I get it,” she said, understanding that his friends would never ask her to hurt him and they’d certainly never con her into it. “Go toward the north courtyard entrance and follow the path behind the rose bushes, there’s a basement entrance hidden behind a big stone pillar with a thing that looks like a frog carved into it.”
“Okay.”
She glanced back at the guests and was happy to see a large group had just arrived. They’d give her cover to get away for a while. “Give me five minutes. Meet me there.”
Concern came down the phone line. “You know if we’re seen in that house we’ll embarrass Max,” Robbie said. “I don’t want a confrontation. Are we going to fuck this up for him?”
The Max she knew wouldn’t be embarrassed by anyone he cared about. But, it had been six weeks since they’d been intimate, she couldn’t say how much his attitudes or opinions had changed in that time. Teddy’s influence could be overpowering. Max might not realize just how big an impact his new role and position had had on his nature.
Once or twice she’d been called into a room where Max was present, but he never looked at her. The first few times, it hurt, but after that, she came to understand why he did it. She was the past he had to forget.
“No.”
“Cindy said Stretton would put Max’s rooms in the heart of the house, somewhere close to the action and I—”
“I’m not leaving you outside in the cold. I don’t know how long it will take me to find it,” Tally said. “You can wait in my room, no one ever goes in there.”
She said nothing for a minute. There was sheer gratitude in Robbie’s voice when he spoke again. “Thank you. You’re an angel.”
They hung up. She clutched her phone tight and ran along the hallway. She didn’t need it to ring again, she needed a window of time to help the guys. Taking a detour by the frantic kitchen, she grabbed a plate of food and a bottle of champagne. Everyone was so busy trying to keep the wheels greased that they didn’t pay any attention to her.
Hurrying along the basement corridor, Tally went up the three stairs to the sunken entrance and peeked out. Huddled at the top of the stairs were three figures and she gestured them down.
“Seriously?” she asked, recognizing Robbie, Ryan, and Bobby. “There are three of you?” Robbie opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand. “Just come this way, I’ll yell at you later.”
It was too dark to pick out their features, so she couldn’t read all their moods. But there was no time for conversation. With the champagne under her arm, she took Robbie’s hand and led him down. They continued along the basement corridor until she got to the stairs that led up to the drawing room level, and then she kept on going up until she got to her bedroom. When they were safe inside, she locked the door.
The men bundled forward, breathing into their hands and rubbing them together. “God, you look freezing,” Tally said. “Sit.”
Bobby sat in the wingback chair she had in the corner, Ryan on the bed, and Robbie on the ottoman. Tally left the food and champagne on the dresser and went to the heater in the corner to turn it on full. The guys weren’t even wearing jackets, so she grabbed blankets from a drawer and tossed one to each of them.
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?” she asked. The guys looked at each other. “Do you want my help or not?”
“We owe some guys some money, that’s all,” Ryan muttered.
“That’s all?” she asked and shook her head. “How much money?” None of them spoke. “Guys, I can’t believe you wouldn’t trust me.”
“We trust you,” Robbie said, putting his blanket on the ottoman as he stood up. “We just don’t want you mixed up in this. That’s all.”
But she knew there was more going on; Robbie tried his best to look innocent and Ryan stayed so still, he didn’t even blink. Setting her sights on Bobby, she noted that he wouldn’t look at her. Something drew her closer to him and that was when she noticed the bruising around his eye and the blood on his temple.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Tally asked and dashed into the bathroom to dampen a washcloth. “Hell, guys, please!”
She began to wipe the blood from Bobby’s face and though he resisted, she crouched and pulled him to her.
“They caught up with me,” Bobby said. “That’s all.”
“Why would you owe people money?” she asked. “The garage is doing ok. I—”
“We borrowed it a long time ago,” Ryan said. “It’s a long story. Are you going to help us or not?”
“With this key,” she said, standing again and scrutinizing them all. Whatever was going on, it was no joke if people were getting hurt. “Okay, stay here, eat something and get some rest.”
“Tal—”
“I’m not sending you back out there if there are people who want to hurt you,” she said.
“You’re not gonna tell Max, are you?” Ryan asked. “We talked about it and we don’t want him to know about any of this shit.”
“I won’t—”
“You’ve got to promise us, Tally,” Bobby said. “Please, you won’t tell him. Promise.”
“I promise,” she said, nodding.
This was the strangest thing, but it was important to support these guys who were clearly in need. Maybe it was a pride thing; Max’s life was going well and they didn’t want to tell him that theirs weren’t working out so well. But from the certainty radiating from these guys, she knew their desire to protect Max came from a place of love. He was doing great and they didn’t want to cause him any trouble that might jeopardize what he had… Tally could identify with that feeling.
“We just nee
d the key,” Robbie said. “We have a safe, but we need all three keys… Max doesn’t need what’s in it now. Cindy made us promise we wouldn’t take Stretton’s money. We don’t want it anyway, that’s what Max is owed.”
“Ok, I’ll get it. Just stay here, eat, and then get some rest. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
Surging to her feet, she took her phone from her bra and left it on the dresser. What she was doing now was more against the rules than not answering her phone, but it was a risk worth taking.
SIXTEEN
Tally left the relieved men in her bedroom and ran to the household office to look for the spare key to Max’s suite. Most doors in the house weren’t locked, but Max would lock his, out of habit if nothing else. She’d never been in his suite before to know for sure, but his mentality couldn’t have changed that much.
Running her hands over the various keys, she found his and snatched it from its hook. She covered her tracks by moving another key over and hoped that no one would notice his keys were missing. It didn’t matter that she’d get them back as soon as she could or that no one should be in the office because the household staff was all hands-on deck for a party like this, she was still nervous.
Tally had never lived a life of crime and this experience was proving to her that she wasn’t cut out for it.
She thanked her workout routine for keeping her going as she hurried the full length of the house again to run up another set of stairs from the first floor to the third. Usually, Tally avoided this part of the building. She never really had any reason to be here, so it wasn’t hard to stay away.
But with her pumping heart and dry mouth, she slowed her pace and focused on his door. She’d always promised that she wouldn’t come here, that she wouldn’t enter his bedroom. But she didn’t have a choice right now. When she got to it, she rested a hand and her forehead against the wood. This was it, the line she didn’t want to cross.
Tally liked to picture him in his apartment, in Fitzpatrick’s, in bed, she didn’t want an image of where he lived now because it would be confirmation that their previous life had been erased. Sliding her hand down the door, she tried it and it wouldn’t give. She smiled and put the key in the lock. At least one thing about him was the same.
Taking a deep breath, she knew she couldn’t linger in the hallway because that would give someone a chance to see her. So, she slipped inside and closed the door. Resting against it, she looked at the large square room with its central living area and wall-mounted TV above the fireplace, just like at his apartment. Except, in contrast, the furniture here was pristine and there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight.
Knowing the layout from how other suites on the Estate were setup, Tally was aware of the position of each space. The office was on the left. The terrace was through the double-doors on the far wall and the bedroom was in the far right corner. She couldn’t hang around, she needed to find his wallet. If the key wasn’t in there, this could take quite some time; there were a lot of places to check.
Tiptoeing across the room, she didn’t like feeling as if she was in enemy territory. She couldn’t even turn on a light or someone outside might notice that his room was lit up while he was downstairs at the party.
Going inside the bedroom, Tally was all set to do her hunting and didn’t expect to be hit by the scent of Max. Not just any Max, but her Max. Swinging around, she closed her eyes and pressed her face to the inside of the doorframe as the door clicked shut.
“Damnit,” she whispered, hating the moisture that stung the corner of her eyes.
She could do this, she didn’t have to look at the bed, didn’t have to touch his sheets, or smell his clothes. Yet, after another half dozen breaths, she still couldn’t open her eyes. She hadn’t expected to freeze, and she couldn’t stay here like this all night. What should she do?
Forcing her head to roll against the wood, Tally peeked through one eye at the four-poster bed minus its canopy in the middle of the wall. There were nightstands on both sides, and a door to his walk-in closet beyond. There was a family bathroom off the main living room. But if this was like the other suites there would be a shower room off the walk-in too.
That bed. It was huge. Magnificent. She got a flash of herself and Max in his sheets at his place. But it was superimposed here. She imagined standing by that foot-post and him coming up behind her, scooping her hair aside and kissing her neck.
Closing her eyes, Tally lost a breath. How could she still want him like this? He was her boss now, heir to the family fortune, businessman. But it wasn’t the man at the foot of the stairs she saw in her fantasies. It was the man who’d sat at the bar in Fitzpatrick’s with her. The man who’d laid her on his bed and told her to close her eyes. The man who’d told her Monday would never come as long as he held her in his arms.
“Stop it,” she hissed at herself and pushed away from the door.
She was being an idiot. She was here for a reason. If she found the damn key, she could grab it and run, then she could erase this whole experience from her memory.
Pushing down her grief, Tally had a quick look in the nightstand drawers and found nothing. Next, she went into the walk-in. There was no window here, so she flicked on the recess lighting above the mirror and stopped for a minute to examine the rows of suits and shirts. Did he still own jeans? Did he ever wear them?
There were drawers in the furthest corner. She opened the top one to see cufflinks and heavy watches. Slamming it shut, she opened the second. It contained underwear at one-side and socks at the other. Right at the back were older socks. Fumbling around, Tally felt something square wrapped in wool.
Tugging it out, she found his old wallet hidden in a pair of socks. It didn’t occur to her, but he probably had some fancy designer wallet now, or maybe he didn’t need to carry one, maybe his name was enough to cover bills.
Opening it, she searched around inside and found a heavy silver key with a hexagonal top. Yes, that had to be it. She tucked it into her bra for safe keeping.
Closing up the wallet, she had to put it back as she found it and pray that Max didn’t go looking for that key any time soon. She squashed the wallet into its previous place and was rearranging the older socks on top when she glanced up and saw something hanging in the very furthest corner of the closet, behind everything else.
Still holding a random pair of socks, Tally was drawn toward the corner of the closet. Touching the sleeve, she bit her lip. That was her Max’s leather jacket. The one he’d been wearing the day they met and one he probably hadn’t worn since the Monday he’d left his apartment.
“Lose something?”
Whipping around, Tally gasped at the sight of him in the doorway. He was still in the shadow of the dark bedroom, so she had no idea of his expression, but his tone wasn’t impressed. “Uh…”
She hadn’t even thought of what she’d say if she was caught here especially by Max himself.
“Your feet cold?”
“My?” she asked with confusion then remembered the socks, which she held up in triumph. “Yes.” Tally tried a laugh and stepped forward. “Yes, that’s it. Socks. I just needed socks. I put holes in Sean’s and he gets upset with me.”
“You sneak into my room a lot when I’m not here?”
“No!” Great, now he thought she was some weirdo stalker. “No, actually, this is the first time I’ve been into your suite. It’s beautiful, I love what you’ve done with the place.”
“I haven’t done anything.”
Really? She frowned. “There’s a million five in decorating budget assigned for you,” she said. “You didn’t use it?”
“Nope.”
“Oh well, uh… thanks,” she said and held up the socks.
Walking forward, Tally wanted him to let her leave without having to say anything else. Instead, he stepped inside and closed the door behind himself. “Want to try again?”
Shit. No. She didn’t want to try again. But her thoughts were harder to control when
she saw his stubble was back. Yeah, his hair was still too neat for her liking, but with that scowl, he didn’t look polished enough to put her off.
Stopping in the center of the room, Tally couldn’t close her mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say either.
“Max!” a female voice called out from beyond the room—from the bedroom, to be exact.
Tally’s eyes closed slowly. She whined. “Oh God.” This was mortifying; her worst nightmare come true. “You brought Anika upstairs for sex.”
And there was no other way out of this closet, so unless Max did her a favor and distracted Anika, she’d have to listen to them going at it. Tally should’ve known better, she’d been that woman, the one he couldn’t keep his hands off. When Max wanted a woman, he did everything in his power to seduce her. Anika was sex on legs; he’d never be able to resist her.
“I came upstairs for a minute alone,” he said. “She must have followed me.”
A likely excuse, but one he shouldn’t have to give because his sex life wasn’t her business.
Turning her back to him, Tally faced the drawers. “Please tell me you have an iPod in here or something. Anything, so I don’t have to listen to you with her.”
“Shh,” he said. Tally sealed her lips when she realized his voice was right behind her. Max was right behind her. Trying her best not to move a muscle, she was like a trapped animal when his face descended into her hair. He inhaled her. “Did you come here for me?”
Turning around, she gazed up at him and couldn’t remember why she’d come. “Max,” she whispered. He began to bend down, but she pressed a hand to his chest to stop him. “Anika is out there.”
His jaw ticked. “Shit,” he said and backed off. “Wait a minute.”
Max strode out of the closet. Tally crept forward trying to hear what was being said.
“I can keep you company,” Anika said.
Tally recognized the attempt at seduction in the blonde’s sultry voice.
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