by Maisey Yates
“You would think. But these are all ambitious, smart women. They have goals, and...let’s face it, Austin, scandal like this? It would stick to them. They’re women. And...”
“I know how it works,” Austin said, his heart pounding, the sick feeling spreading through his veins. Like poison. Each pump of his heart making it move faster through him.
“You can see why it’s going to be hard.”
“Sarah?”
She bit her lip. “She sent me a letter before she died. But I didn’t get it until after she was already gone. She said that things were bad at her job. She said that there were...things she was being asked to do that she didn’t want to. That were never supposed to be part of it. It was sort of rambling. I didn’t really...understand.”
“I didn’t, either.” But you could have. You could have asked questions. You could have picked up the phone. You just didn’t want to. Because the truth scared you too much.
He closed that voice down. He didn’t have time for regret. He’d had ten years of it. It was time to take action.
“So yes, I came from a dung-heap mill town in Connecticut. There’s nothing there...nothing but a great depression that never ended. There are jobs that will break your body. There’s mud, and there’s alcohol. And lots of drugs. I left my diner job behind, that life behind, so that I could finally put an end to this. So that I could try and fix this for Sarah, and I found out that it was just the tip of a very massive iceberg.”
“Explain.”
She shook her head. “Men in influential positions. Some of the country’s wealthiest businessmen. Politicians, but then, that’s not too surprising. There isn’t a lot of hard evidence, but there is some.”
He blew out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “You know you’re going to end up with a target on your back.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you hear what you just said? You’re talking about sexual scandal that’s going to touch people in the most powerful positions. Do you know how hard old white guys fight to keep their power, Katy? Do you know just what you’re stepping into here?”
“It’s worth it. It’s for Sarah. It’s for every woman they’ve taken into this, before and since. And all the women who won’t be taken in in the future.”
“And what happens if they get ahold of you?”
“I don’t...”
“Do you think this is some kind of game? Do you think you matter to them at all? They buy and sell women. They reduce them to nothing more than a commodity. They broke Sarah. What do you think your life means to them, Katy? Nothing. You’re just a woman from Crapsville, Connecticut. You’re just a thing. And if they have to break you to save their asses, they will do it, and don’t think for one second they won’t.”
“You don’t honestly think they’d hurt me....”
“Do you honestly think they won’t? Listen to yourself. To what you just said to me. Jason Treffen is a charming man, and I bet he could charm someone even while he cut their throat.”
“You think your own father would...kill me, and you mean that in the literal sense?”
“He’d pay someone to do it,” Austin said, his blood so cold in his veins he thought it might stop flowing altogether. “After what you just told me, I have no reason to doubt it. He thinks nothing of killing someone’s spirit. Why would he stop there?”
“I’m not going to do anything different, Austin. I have to stop him.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, but I have a lot more backing me up. Work with me, and I can help. We can help.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“Friends. Friends who knew Sarah. Alex Diaz, he’s a journalist. And...Hunter Grant.”
“Sarah’s ex?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“He broke her heart, you know?”
“I know. I think in the end we all did. And now...all we can do is try to fix it.”
“It’s too broken to fix.”
“I know. So we’ll do it for the women who are still here. For the victims he’s left broken but not destroyed. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Mainly, though, I want justice. I want to watch the man who drove my sister to suicide lose everything. I want to play the metaphorical fiddle while his empire burns. And if that’s wrong, I don’t really care.”
Austin ran his hand over his face and leaned back in the seat. “Great. You can have your revenge, your justice. But you need to be where I can protect you.”
While he was forming the plan, while the words were coming out of his mouth, he wasn’t really sure what he was going to offer.
Until he said it. “You need to come and live with me.”
Chapter Four
Katy stared at Austin, her mouth hanging open. “I what?”
“Come and live with me.”
“No. No, no, no. Hell to the no.”
“Excuse me, I have a call to make.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. And she couldn’t help but stare at his large, capable hands as he dialed the number.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. Why when she looked at his hands she could feel how it had been when they were on her skin. Gripping her hips. Holding her.
How it had been to feel those fingers in her mouth. And...elsewhere.
“Yes, this is Austin Treffen. Recently, you hosted an event for my father that was coordinated by Katy Michaels.”
The hair on the back of her neck prickled and she shot him a deadly glare.
“She disappeared midway through the event, and we ran out of food and had no one to contact. I spoke to her the day after and asked her about it,” he said, looking at her as he spoke into the phone, his dark eyes burning into hers. “She had no explanation. She just said she was tied up all evening.”
Her face burned as wretched, embarrassed heat flowed through her. Worse than the embarrassment was the quick, assaulting heat of arousal. How the hell could she still be turned on by this guy? And really, really, how could he turn her on even now?
“I found the whole thing quite unprofessional and if this is the way—” He paused. “Yes, I understand she was removed from the Treffen account, but honestly, I don’t know that any of the people in attendance would be inclined to use your event-planning services when... Oh, she’s no longer working for you? In that case, perhaps we can give you another chance. I’d hardly let one bad employee spoil your reputation. Especially as you’ve taken corrective measures. Have a nice day.” He hung up and she exploded.
“What the hell? What the actual hell. I don’t even...” She heard her phone ring in her purse on the floorboard of the car. “This rant will continue in a moment.” She bent down and pulled her phone from the side pocket of her bag. “Katy Michaels, Life’s a Party, how can I help—”
“Katy, this is Alexandra.” Her boss. Oh, great.
“Hi,” she said.
“I’m really sorry to have to do this, but we received another complaint regarding your performance at the Treffen event. With all the media attention Jason Treffen is getting right now, there’s simply no way mistakes like this can be tolerated. I’m afraid we’re going to have to terminate you. Effective immediately.”
“What?”
“I am sorry, Katy. You’re very nice to have around the office, but events like these are very demanding and they simply aren’t for everyone. I’ll have the contents of your desk waiting at reception. There is no need to come upstairs.”
And with that, her boss hung up. Her ex-boss.
“You...” She twisted in her seat as best she could while belted in. “You utter bastard! You just cost me my job!”
“And now you’re in dire financial straits. I guess you take my help or my father’s.”
&
nbsp; “What’s the difference between you and your father?” she spat.
“I won’t whore you out to my friends. I think that’s a pretty substantial difference.”
“Look, the dominant-male thing was hot in bed, but it’s jerky in real life, just so you know.”
“This isn’t about being dominant. This is about keeping you safe.”
“In that case, can I use the safe word?”
“No,” he snapped. “I didn’t protect Sarah. I failed. I will not fail when it comes to protecting you. Do you understand? If I have to put you under lock and key until my father is behind bars, I will do it. Because I will not have your blood on my hands.”
“If anything happens, my blood will be on me,” she said. “I make my own choices.”
He shook his head. “No. Sorry. You don’t. Not right now. Because you might know what it’s like to grieve your sister, but I don’t think you have any idea what it’s like to know you could have stopped it. I was here, Katy. I was here and I did nothing. I didn’t see it. I see the danger now. I see it coming. I see what could happen to you. You’re not going to end up staining the sidewalks of New York because of your pride. I can’t let it happen.”
She tried to take a breath, tried to breathe around the knot of grief in her chest. The anger she felt. At him for making her lose her job. At him for letting Sarah die. Just...mainly at him. “You don’t get to control what I do,” she said. “I know how to keep myself safe. If I find anything that you need to know, then I’ll call you. Put it in my phone.” She handed her phone to him and waited while he punched his number in and saved it. “But I’m not moving into your place. That’s ridiculous.”
“You are going to do this,” he said, his voice low, rough.
She leaned in, her heart thundering hard. “Are you going to grab me by my hair and drag me back to your penthouse?”
“If I did, would you come?” he asked, letting the double entendre hang between them.
“You’re disgusting.”
“It wasn’t disgusting to you the other night.”
“Tell your driver to take me home. West 79th.”
He punched the intercom button. “West 79th.” He moved his hand away from the call button. “There, I did.”
“Thanks. You’re a gem,” she said, every word dipped in a thick coating of sarcasm.
They spent the rest of the drive in silence, maneuvering through the nightmare traffic at a pace that made Katy sweat. She was used to taking the subway and not dealing with roads, which seemed to have all the driving laws of a demolition derby.
She looked out the window and saw a side mirror from a neighboring vehicle so close that she could have rolled down the window and touched it.
Worrying about a collision was a lot easier than worrying about Austin, her job loss and the possibility of Jason Treffen coming to sell her into sexual slavery.
When they pulled up to her apartment, she got out and slammed the door behind her without saying anything to Austin.
She heard his door open and she turned, just as he stood up out of the car and looked at her over the top of it. The impact of his eyes meeting hers hadn’t lessened since that first time. Not rage, not finding out he was a Treffen, not knowing what he looked like naked—nothing had stolen any of the heat that burned between them. “I’m serious, Katy. Call me if you need something. Call me if you hear from Jason.”
She looked away. She had to. “I will. On that I’m going to work with you. I’m just not moving in with you. And now...I have no job, so if I end up on the street...”
“You’ll come live with me. You could stop posturing and just come with me now.”
“Here’s a posture for you, Treffen,” she said, throwing up her middle finger at him. Her younger brother would be so proud. Then she turned and walked down the steps that led to the lower level of the town house she shared with her roommate, Leah.
She slammed the door behind her and locked every lock before heading upstairs, trying to ignore the building panic. She had no cushion for this. No savings. She’d been so focused on landing the account for Treffen, Smith and Howell that she’d happily gone on a “trial period” pay grade, taking a cut from when she’d been working the lower-level accounts as an assistant.
As a result, at this very moment, she was two months behind on rent, and now unemployed.
Her roommate was not going to be happy. Not in the least.
“Leah!” she called.
“I’m in my room.”
“Leah,” Katy said, coming to the doorway of her roommate’s tiny bedroom. The whole town house was small. And old. And it stole about three quarters of their monthly income. But such was Manhattan. “You aren’t going to believe what just happened.”
Leah knew nothing about Sarah. Or Jason Treffen. Or her night with Austin. They weren’t all that close. But they’d met during Katy’s brief stint waitressing, and when she’d found out Leah had needed a roommate, Katy had jumped at the opportunity to get out of her studio apartment in a very seedy part of town.
“What?” Leah asked, sitting up, her blond hair falling over her shoulders in a frizzy halo.
“I got fired.”
“What?” Leah’s jaw dropped. “Do you get severance? How much severance will you get? What about rent?”
Well, that was the last question she wanted to be asked, because there was no easy answer for that, and she was already treading on thin ice. And she knew it.
“I don’t...know.”
“You have to find out, Katy. I can’t pay for any more rent on my own. I barely make what we owe in rent every month.”
“I know. But I mean...I’ve been buying food.”
“Ramen isn’t equal to putting a roof over our heads!”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I’ll find another job.”
“When? And how long until you get paid?”
“I don’t—”
“If we miss even once you know Mrs. Czarnecki is going to throw us out on our butts.”
“I know,” she said, thinking of their thin, pinch-faced landlady. Yes, she would indeed evict them as quickly as possible. Eviction might be a complex process, but the older woman had honed it into a fine art.
“Affordable” Manhattan housing was hard to come by, and it was competitive. That meant the moment she booted someone for missing a payment, she had five new applicants beating down her door, just dying to give her first and last month’s rent.
“I’m sorry but...Katy, you’re going to have to go. Logically, there’s no way you can get a job that pays well enough to cover your share, plus what you owe me, in the amount of time we’ll need you to. I can’t cover for you anymore. I just can’t. This is... It’s been a while coming.”
Katy stood there, feeling like she’d been hit over the head, by an anvil she should have seen coming, honestly. “I thought we were friends.”
“We are,” Leah said, looking almost sympathetic for a moment, before shrugging. “But I’ve ditched friends for a lot less than a good apartment in Manhattan. And I know another girl who will come room here who has a great job. It’s my name on the lease, and I’m the one that has to make sure it’s covered.”
“Leah...”
“I’m sorry. You’re a great roommate, and you never take the food with my name on it, which I really do appreciate. I’ve never even caught you stealing a Kiss from my candy jar. But I have to cover myself here.”
“I don’t...I don’t even know what to say.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something. I’ll give you a week.”
“Don’t bother,” she said, turning and storming out of her ex-friend’s room. “I hope whoever takes my place offers you thirty pieces of silver!” she shouted back.
“What?”
“Read
the Bible!”
She stormed down the hall and into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Un-freaking-believable. She was being turned out onto the streets by the woman she’d lived with for the past eight months. Not that it should surprise her, since, in many ways, nice as Leah was, she was kind of a weirdo. Labeled food and all.
And fine, fine, Katy had missed rent for two months. Which was lame, and she knew it, but she was singularly focused on roasting Jason Treffen over an open fire like a chestnut. ’Twas the season and all of that.
If she and Leah were better friends, the betrayal would hurt her feelings. As it was, it just pissed her off. And this was New York for you.
Or rather, this was life for you. At least for her.
Her own parents would have sold her for a bag of dope if the offer had ever materialized. Lucky for her, it hadn’t.
She didn’t have time to job-search and apartment-search. She was so close to taking down Treffen. So close to getting her revenge. To getting justice. And now this. All of this!
Screw Austin Treffen. And not in a good way.
She pulled her phone out and looked up the number he’d entered, her fingers shaking. This was a win for him, and she hated that. But if it ended up being a loss for his father, then nothing else really mattered.
“Get your aristocratic butt back here, Treffen,” she said when he picked up. “Bring a car big enough to accommodate my things.”
“I can do you one better. I’ll send movers.”
“I can’t afford movers,” she said. “I’m out of a job. I wonder why that is?”
“You might not be able to afford movers, but I can. And now you’re under my protection. You might as well enjoy it.”
“Oh, Austin, I’m sure I’ll feel a lot of things while I’m ‘under your protection,’ but I doubt enjoyment will be one of them.” She hit the end-call button on the phone and sat down on her bed, her hands shaking. All of her was starting to shake.
In the past few days, everything in her life had changed.
She’d finally slept with a man. And it had proved that all those shadowy, fleeting desires of hers were very much real. That there was another half to them. Someone who fit into her strangeness like a very weird puzzle piece.