by Jana Mercy
Home? Ha, her aunt refused to remain in her apartment when she learned Gray would be doing a trial run on stage for about ten people.
Gray carried Aunt Genevieve up the stairs only to carry her back down and, amid much ado from the employees, settled her in all her colorful glory at a table. Sophia caught more than one look passing between her aunt and Elvis. Not your typical looks of employee-employer, either.
Oh yeah, there was definitely something between those two.
Sophia was glad. Her aunt deserved happiness. A shame she never had a husband and kids. Growing up with Madame G as a mother would have been like a constant trip to the circus. Always excitement and adventure in the air.
Elvis turned to Gray. “You ready to stir up the fleas on these hound dogs?”
Sophia covered her snicker. Elvis was a riot. A perfect match for her flamboyant aunt.
“As ready as I’m ever going to be.” Reluctance oozed from each word.
Guilt smacked Sophia full force. She should have found someone else and not let Gray go through with something he found so distasteful.
As if he sensed her mood shift, Gray kissed her forehead. “Go on, find a seat and cheer me on. I’m going to need at least one woman eager to see my goods unveiled.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I need a practice run. Probably need more than that but there isn’t time.” He pushed her toward the door. “Now, wish me luck and go with Elvis.”
“But—”
“Sophia.” Both men fussed simultaneously.
“But—” She winced.
“What’s this fascination you have with my butt?” Elvis teased, hurrying her out the door.
Her feet dragged but moments later she plopped down in the chair next to her aunt’s.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
Sophia opened her mouth to beg her aunt to stop this stripping shenanigan but the music came on and Aunt Genevieve’s attention diverted to the stage.
“Oh, I love this song.” Her aunt’s eyes glowed with excitement while she waited for Gray to appear.
The lights lowered, spotlights danced across the stage and Sophia settled back in her seat. Her aunt would think her mad if she asked her to stop Gray’s performance. And, if she did, would Aunt Genevieve forgive her for ruining Strip or Treat?
In the tuxedo she’d straightened minutes before, Gray slid across the stage, searched the small crowd until he met her gaze, then smiled. A heart-stopping smile meant just for her. A smile that said he cared about her and her presence gave him the strength to carry out this performance he didn’t want to do.
He moved with exaggerated slowness across the stage, more fluid than any of his performances with Elvis present. He shrugged one shoulder free from his black coat and then the other. With a sexy wink, he tossed the jacket into Aunt Genevieve’s lap.
“For a man who can’t dance, he’s not half bad.”
“Sign of a good instructor,” Elvis assured them.
Sophia ignored them both and watched Gray tear off his shirt at a crescendo in the lyrics, leaving his chest bare beneath the suspenders he wore.
He turned his back to them and stretched his arms, creating a fascinating play of muscle ripples across his back. Not tacky or overly macho, just a nice slow flex of a great set of muscles.
Several of the guys in the audience whooped their good-natured cheers. Aunt Genevieve clapped in delight. Elvis howled. Sophia merely stared.
“Say my name,” the singer sang over and over while Gray moved to the beat of the music. “Say my name.”
He jerked his pants and the material tore loose.
“Say my name.”
Sophia jumped to her feet, her breath catching in her throat.
Gray looked confused but didn’t stop his performance, which was almost over anyway.
“Say my name,” the lyrics blasted.
“Gray.”
“Sophia, you aren’t really supposed to say his name,” Aunt Genevieve teased, tugging on Sophia’s pants leg for her to sit back down.
What was she doing? And why? She begged Gray to do Strip or Treat, practically offered to seduce him to do it. So why the second thoughts?
Because she knew they didn’t have a future together and very soon she’d be leaving Nashville and he’d be left to wonder if everything between them had only been a means to an end.
Gray was so much more. She cared for him but how much more could there be between them beyond the here and now, the physical? And what about the books? Could she continue to ignore Gray’s possible connection?
Not that she believed he was really guilty. Not really. But then again maybe she just did not want to believe. Certainly she didn’t feel able to tell him everything she discovered at the club. Maybe her subconscious saw things she chose to ignore.
If Gray were guilty, he’d go to jail.
Claustrophobia choked her, threatened to rob her senses.
She spun to leave the room, to catch her breath and crashed into a tall blond man’s chest. She stumbled. He reached out and caught her.
“Nate?” She stared, not believing her eyes. But he had to be real. She could feel his hands holding her arms.
“This is what you broke off our engagement for?” His gaze touched over the racy club with obvious interest.
“What are you doing here?”
“Despite the fact you gave back my ring, I do care about you. I was worried.” He peered down at her through his gold-rimmed glasses, a curious look on his handsome face.
Sophia shot a concerned glance at her aunt. Genevieve’s attention was riveted on Gray. Unable to stop herself, Sophia looked at the man performing his strip act.
Steely eyes bore into her. She almost expected him to stop his performance and to verbally demand to know who Nate was. His gaze already demanded to know.
Blood pounded in her temples. She needed to deal with one problem at a time. First, Nate, since he was right here. Then she’d talk to Gray. Really talk to him. There had to be trust between them and maybe she should make the first move. Then she’d figure out what to do about the club’s financial fiasco and how to save her aunt and possibly Gray, in the process.
“Come on,” she told her ex-fiancé. “Let’s go somewhere private.”
“What about the rest of the show?”
Nate’s amused tone grated on Sophia’s last nerve. She grabbed his elbow and started upstairs to her aunt’s apartment. But that’s where Gray would carry Aunt Genevieve once his show finished. And she couldn’t very well take Nate into Gray’s apartment.
Without further thought, she pushed Nate into the supply closet, the one Ken trapped her in—had it been only a week ago?—flipped on the light switch and closed the door. At least they would have privacy, albeit in dusty, cramped quarters.
“You could have called first.”
“What? And missed all this fun?” Nate’s blue eyes twinkled from behind his glasses. “Why are we in a closet? Don’t tell me that muscle-bound stripper riled you up and you want a quickie. That was never our style. Although, that might be where we messed up.”
“What?” She scowled, wondering how he could find humor in this mess. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know as well as I do that we should never have gotten engaged. We’re all wrong for each other.”
“Maybe.” Reluctance to admit the truth shone in his eyes. Too bad. She knew they’d made a mistake. Soon, he’d realize it too.
“No maybes about it,” she maintained. “Now, tell me why you’re really here.”
“Would you believe I missed you and plan to convince you to come home?”
“No.”
He looked halfway affronted.
“Truth be told,” she continued, “you probably miss your secretary when she’s on vacation more than you’ve missed me.”
“That’s not tru—” He stopped and his expression became strained. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt one bit to see realization register on his handsome face.<
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“I care about you, Sophia,” he insisted, moving closer. Although Nate was a powerhouse in the business world and known as a lethal adversary, Sophia had never been afraid of him. Nate had always been a gentleman and treated her like fragile glass. Maybe that had been part of the problem. She liked being treated as a woman, not a prized possession. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” he continued.
“I care about you too. As a friend. But you don’t love me any more than I love you. We don’t push each other’s boundaries, don’t make the other be more than we’d otherwise be.”
“I’d say I’m already pretty damned successful. And you’re great at numbers, even if you did settle for that IRS job.” He shrugged when she glared at his reference to her job. “Still, it’s a respectable living. It’s not like we’re underachievers, Sophia. Besides, who needs boundaries pushed when you’re already at the top?”
“I do.” She squared her shoulders. “You do. Haven’t you ever wanted to do something just for the fun of it? Just for the rush? The excitement of venturing outside your safe zone? When was the last time you played, Nate?”
His face hardened. “What does playing have to do with anything?”
“Because you need to live a little. I need to live a little. Actually, I want to live a lot. That’s what I’ve discovered here in Nashville. I’ve discovered I don’t always have to do the expected and you know what? It’s okay.” She smiled. “Personally, I’ve found it can be damned satisfying. You should try it sometime.”
His blond brow arched at her language. She screwed up her face. If he reprimanded her like a child, she’d scream and prove him right.
“You’ve changed.” He didn’t sound as if he was sure he liked the changes. Too bad. She did.
“Yes.”
“Your parents aren’t going to approve of this side of your personality.”
“So?” He wasn’t telling her something she didn’t know. “I’m tired of living my life for everyone but me. This is my life. Not my parents’. Thank God I didn’t go work for my father after graduation. They would have controlled me that much more. It’s as if mother has been afraid to let me venture outside her safe little circle.” She took a deep breath. “I love her but I’m not going to be confined by her hang-ups. Not anymore.”
“Looks like I put off my trip to Nashville too long.” He stared at her as if expecting her to sprout horns any moment.
“Why exactly are you here?”
“I came to bring you home. Your mother called this morning and begged me to.” He took his time elaborating. She could tell her outburst affected him. But he quickly filed it away under his polished business veneer that never cracked and made him a very wealthy man. “But I would have anyway once I got the call from the private investigator I hired.”
Sophia threw her hands in the air. “You hired a private investigator? I told you I wanted to handle this myself.”
“I know.” He nodded. “And I respect that and usually I wouldn’t interfere but not in this situation. Your judgment is clouded by this aunt. I’m afraid you’re mixed up in a drug ring of some kind. Probably money laundering. You need to come home, Sophia. Now.”
“What?”
“The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations is investigating this place while we speak.” He kicked totally into business mode. A mode where Nate excelled and truly did push boundaries. “All my guy found out was this club is a key link in a major drug ring they plan to bring down. Soon from all indications.”
“Oh God.” She’d known deep in her heart what had to be happening but to hear Nate confirm her worst suspicions knocked the breath out of her. Sophia slumped against the wooden shelf behind her. Could her aunt really be involved?
How could she not be?
And Gray.
Phone calls during all hours of the night to Gray.
“It’ll be okay,” Nate assured. “I’ll take care of this. Just come back to Atlanta and my lawyers will sort this out. You won’t have to do a thing.”
Sophia barely registered Nate’s assertion. Her mind raced. Dear Lord. “I gave the books to my aunt’s accountant yesterday.”
“She pays someone to keep her books?” Nate looked appalled. “I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t keeping her books on computer but to hear that she’s paying someone and they’re still doing things the old, old-fashioned way.” He shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
“I suppose the discrepancies are why Mr. Hooper hasn’t pushed the issue.” Sophia rubbed her aching temple, wishing the supply closet carried aspirin along with its abundance of booze. Then again, booze might work just fine. “This guy has to be behind whatever problems are in her books, right? Aunt Genevieve isn’t involved.”
“Sophia.” He sounded as if he talked to a two-year-old. “There’s no way your aunt can’t know about whatever is going on. The club’s barely meeting operating expenses. She’s bound to have noticed something like that.”
“My aunt is innocent. Why would she steal from her own company?”
“Like I said, the best my guy can tell, it looks like the club is being used as a cover.”
“A cover?”
His Armani-draped shoulders shrugged. “The TBI thinks the club is a front for narcotic sales. I’m not even sure they’re aware of the accounting discrepancies. But you’d better launch an official inquiry immediately if you plan to keep your job. There’s no way you could have unlimited access to those books and not have realized something was up. Hell, if you don’t launch an IRS investigation, you’ll probably be in legal trouble yourself. I’m no lawyer but not reporting this equals something along the lines of aiding and abetting.”
“No.” The one word came out as a soft whoosh. A million different thoughts and emotions ran through her at once. Drugs. She’d been here for two weeks and hadn’t seen anyone using drugs.
Memories of Ken and the coughing stranger reminded her otherwise. She’d never smelled any cigarette with a stench like had billowed from that car. But that had probably been marijuana. People didn’t need financial cover-ups for that, did they?
And Gray’s phone calls, well, those strange late night phone calls had nothing to do with the club’s problems.
“No,” she repeated but her voice broke.
“Shh, it’ll be okay. I’ll take you back home to Atlanta and notify the proper authorities. We’ll file a formal inquiry and make it look as if you weren’t covering for your aunt. You don’t have to deal with this anymore.”
Go back to Atlanta?
“You’re wrong. I have to deal with this.” For her aunt, for Gray but more importantly for herself. If she’d learned nothing else during the past two weeks, she learned that she was her own woman.
“The police can sort it. If your aunt’s innocent, the truth will come out.”
“I won’t go back. Not to become robotic like you.”
He stiffened against her.
“Not to go back to existing without really living.” She slapped her hand against a shelf. Dust flittered into the air, causing her to sneeze.
“God bless you.”
She couldn’t read his tone, at least not more than to know he wasn’t happy about her accusations. She clasped her stinging hand, remorse filling her.
“I’m sorry, Nate. I shouldn’t have said what I just did but I deserve better than what I had in Atlanta. For that matter, so do you.”
“You’re upset.” He wrapped his arms around her in a comforting motion.
Yes, she was but she’d meant every word. But she hadn’t meant to hurt Nate. She leaned against him and thought how sad that he’d never know the strong emotions roaring through her. But Nate liked things neat and orderly. Love, hatred, fear, guilt, joy, none of those things fit into the nice life he’d created for himself. Still, he had always been good to her. Much like a big brother.
She rested her cheek against his chest a moment longer, knowing that when she pulled away, she’d truly be saying goodbye to her past.
She didn’t want it back. Ever.
The closet door was flung open and Gray filled the doorway. His nostrils flared and his eyes looked possessed.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
* * * * *
Gray experienced a moment of déjà vu.
Only this time Sophia wasn’t struggling to get away from the man who held her.
“Gray?” She straightened but he recognized the doubt in her eyes. What the hell was going on? Why would she look at him with uncertainty? “This is Nate Fleming,” she continued.
Gray sized up the man who looked like a GQ model. Bet his suit didn’t have rip away seams. Nate didn’t look any happier to see him than Gray was to see the pretty boy businessman holding Sophia.
Gray didn’t budge as the man took in his barely-there shorts and the fact he wore nothing else. Hell, he hadn’t meant to jump off the stage at the end of his number to go for Sophia but when he watched her go into the supply closet with the blond man, protectiveness surged forward.
Protectiveness along with an unhealthy dose of jealousy.
“You are?” Nate asked, his eyes running over Gray’s mostly naked body.
Let him look. He could kick pretty boy’s ass with both hands tied behind his back.
“Oh.” Sophia’s cheeks blossomed with nervous color. “Nate, this is Gray Erickson. He’s…” Gray’s teeth clenched while he waited to see how she’d categorize him. Coworker? Neighbor? Friend? Lover? Man of her dreams? “My aunt’s bartender.”
“Bartender?” The man’s amused gaze bounced to Sophia. “I’d have guessed he was one of the strippers.”
“Tonight only,” Gray provided, eyeing the easy way the man’s hand draped at Sophia’s waist.
“Sophia, dear, what are you doing in the closet?” Madame G’s voice boomed from behind Gray.
“Not what you’d be doing in the closet with two men,” one of the crew called out.
With a pink face, Sophia glanced at the man holding her. “Guess the closet didn’t provide the privacy I hoped for.”