by Marie Skye
I shut my eyes. Ashley. Pushing her off me, I sat up and turned on the bedside lamp.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Ashley?”
She looked at me, stunned. “I thought you knew it was me.”
“No! No, I didn’t know it was you. Fuck, Ashley. Get the fuck out of here, now!”
She got up and started putting her clothes back on. “She doesn’t deserve you, Grayson.”
“Fucking you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. That’s all you were. Just a pussy to fuck and nothing more, Ashley. If I catch you around me, or around Emmalin, for any reason, it’ll be the biggest mistake you make that day. Now get the fuck out of my room.”
I ran my hand over my face. At some point, I had to fucking tell her. She wouldn’t even answer my texts or calls, yet she sat there, glared at me, and said, “Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Mandrake?” Yes, there was something she could fucking help me with. She could come the fuck home was what she could do, and Lydia could get the fuck out of my life. My lawyers were already working on the paperwork, but I still needed to explain this. Ashley was going to have to wait. One blow at a time.
There was a small knock at the door. I waited for her to come in like she normally did. She didn’t. Fuck. I walked over to the door and opened it. She appeared so small. And pale. I motioned for her to come in and sit. I winced as I sat.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
So she does care. I cleared my throat. “Chace punched me.”
“Well deserved,” she muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“What’s this meeting about?”
I assessed her appearance. While she looked neat, even with the cover-up, I could make out the bags under her eyes and could see the redness too. “You’re exhausted,” I whispered.
She rubbed her eyes. “I’m fine.”
I looked her up and down and noticed she was fidgeting.
“You didn’t order any food the entire weekend, nor did you leave.”
Her head popped up. “Are you keeping tabs on me?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. My feelings for you haven’t changed, Emmalin. I told you I love you, and I meant it. Just like I’m sure you meant it when you told me you love me.”
Gasping, she jumped to her feet and paced over to the window overlooking Chicago. “What do you want, Grayson?”
I came up behind her. “You. Us. A chance to explain this.” She was quiet. In my stern voice, I said, “Emmalin, look at me.” She slowly turned. “I have to leave for Paris in a few hours. Come with me.”
She laughed. “For what? So we can pretend none of this is happening? Put everything on hold, and then what? Come back here and face reality? It doesn’t work like that, Grayson.” She started to move away, and when I reached out to grab her, she stepped back.
I stood there, hands clenched at my sides to prevent myself from touching her.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.
“I have to. You won’t let me touch you,” I said through gritted teeth. Not touching her was torture.
She sighed. “I don’t know what you want me to say. Maybe time apart is good for us.”
I stepped closer until she backed herself into the window, clothes touching. Close enough to smell her hair. “I’ll tell you what. I’m cutting my trip short. I’m giving you time to think on us. After that, I’m coming after you, because you’re mine. So I’m telling you right now, stop talking like you’ve given up on us. Anything you’re thinking, you’ve got it all wrong.” I backed up, because if I didn’t, I was going to strip her clothes off, and the way her breathing picked up told me she would’ve allowed it. But I had to deal with Lydia and her shit first. I checked my watch. I had three hours until I had to leave for Paris. I looked at Emmalin. “I have to go, but I meant what I said, okay?” She nodded. It was small but promising. Right before she reached the door, I called out to her. “Emmalin.” She stopped. “I love you.”
She turned and walked out the door.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled up outside Lydia’s hotel. I didn’t even wait for her to ask me in.
“Nice to see you too, Grayson.”
“Cut the shit, Lydia.” I shoved the papers across the table toward her with a pen. “Sign them.”
She looked from the papers to me. “Oh, really, Grayson, don’t you think this is a little absurd?”
“Sign the fucking papers, Lydia. None of this is real, and you know it.”
“You would know, since you had the whole thing covered up. Were you that ashamed of me, Grayson? Were you ashamed of our baby? If our baby were here, would you still be acting this way?”
I picked up the vase on the dining room table and threw it at the front door. “There was no baby! Dammit, Lydia!”
She gasped as it shattered against the wood. “You’ve gotten worse, haven’t you?” she whispered. “It’s that girl, isn’t it? What has she done to you?”
I clenched my hands. “Don’t speak of her. I never want to hear you speak about her, do you understand me? There wasn’t a baby, Lydia. There never was a baby.” I stepped closer and gentled my voice. “And you’re not Carmen.” Her lips trembled, and my shoulders sagged. “I know you miss Carmen, Lydia. I do too, but you can’t do this anymore. You need help. We thought you were better. But after this?” I shook my head. “I want to get you the best of care, okay?” She nodded, and I slid the papers toward her. “Sign the papers, Lydia. Make it easier on yourself. Otherwise, the judge will make this involuntary.”
She stared at me wide-eyed before her tears fell. “I don’t want to go. They don’t understand me,” she whispered.
I knelt down next to her and caressed her cheek. “It’s just for a little while. Until you’re better, okay? But you can’t keep doing this. You just can’t.”
“That other girl. You love her?” I nodded. “Like you loved Carmen?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “More. But right now, we’re broken, and I need to fix us.” I stood and pulled my chair next to hers. “The papers, Lydia. What’s it going to be?”
She stared at the papers and went from being the demure woman who walked into the charity ball the other night to the crumpled woman I knew. As she reached for the pen and signed, I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Taking out my phone, I sent a text, and almost immediately there was a knock on the door. I went and let them in.
“Lydia, this is Dr. Steinfield and his associates. They’re going to take good care of you.” She started to shake, and I took her hand. “You can do this. If, for anyone, do it for Carmen.” She nodded as they checked her vitals and put a coat on her. As they were taking her out the door, she stopped.
“Wait. Will you at least visit?”
I nodded. “I promise.”
She smiled and didn’t look back as she walked out the door.
I sat for a few minutes, trying to compose myself, thinking of how bad this shit could’ve gone. It’d gone bad before. Last time, it was talking her down from a fucking ledge that she was adamant about not moving from, and it took a body slam to get her off it. She’d never been the same since the accident.
Shit. I placed a call to the hotel manager, having any damages charged to my account. I had just enough time to make one more stop before I had to board my plane. I still wanted Emmalin with me, but I needed to fix all of this first.
I reached Ellestad with the purpose of blood. Fuck with me, fine. Fuck with the people I love, and that’s where we had a problem. As soon as I walked in, his receptionist with overly big tits immediately perked up. I didn’t have time for this.
“Is he in?”
She stood up, making an obvious effort in pointing her tits out. I rolled my eyes. “He is, but he doesn’t want to be interrupted.”
I leaned forward. “Hold his calls.” I strolled toward his office before she had a chance to say anything. He had his back toward the door, talking on his Bluetooth.
�
��Nora, I told you, no interruptions!” I snatched the Bluetooth out of his ear, wrapped my arm around his throat, and slammed him down on the desk. “Not Nora, asshole.” He began struggling, but I had him pinned. “Feel that pressure there? That’s your jugular. If I apply just enough pressure, you’ll start to blackout, but who knows. I may not control myself and can very well kill you.” His eyes grew wide. “Which, let’s be honest, Dale, no one will miss you. You’ve fucked over enough people in this city that I’m sure the mayor will give me a key to the city for getting rid of such filth, but I’m not that cold of a bastard to rid a daughter of her father, even if he is a vindictive son of a bitch.” I slightly eased up, so he could breathe since he was starting to turn blue.
“The only reason I agreed to help your sorry ass was as a favor, but for some reason, you keep fucking with me. I told you to stay the fuck away from Emmalin, and you didn’t, and now you brought Lydia into this. Your own niece! You know she needs help. But you wouldn’t stop. I told you what would happen if you fucked with me, didn’t I?” I threw him off the desk, and he started wheezing and gasping for air. There was a rapid knock on the door. I moved toward him and knelt down. “You were out of warnings two weeks ago. Now we play.” I stood up, straightened my tie, and opened the door to a gaping whatever the hell her name was.
“You can resume his calls now.” I strolled past her and out the door. I sent a quick text to Benny, letting him know I wanted men on Dale.
My plane was fueled and ready to go, and I headed to the airport. I checked my phone. Emmalin still hadn’t responded to any of my messages. I got to the terminal, hoping she would be there.
“We’re ready to take off if all passengers are on board, Mr. Mandrake?” I looked out the window and checked my phone. Walking off the plane, I went down the stairs and stared out. She could still make it. I checked my watch.
“Mr. Mandrake, we have to make schedule.”
Nodding, I placed one last call. Straight to voicemail. I decided to leave a message. “You must’ve forgotten to show. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but I understand, considering the past few days.” I took a deep breath. “I’m fixing it, Emmalin. I am. It’s being fixed. Just don’t give up. I won’t let you. I’m not letting you. And yeah, that was me telling you what to do.” I hung up and boarded my plane.
I stared at the blinking light on my phone that indicated I had a voicemail. After five minutes, I finally worked up the courage to listen to it. I found myself smiling at the words “that was me telling you what to do.” Dammit. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to meet him on that damn runway and say fine, let’s pause for a day. But that wasn’t realistic.
I picked at my chicken, and looked up at the knock on my door before it swung open. Chace.
“What’s going on, honey dove?”
I just stared at him.
“Yeah, I’ll come up with a better term of endearment.” Chace sat across from me and peered at my chicken. “Is that all you’re having?” I shrugged. “You can do better than that. I’ll have something sent up.” He took out his phone.
“Chace, it's fine. I’m not that hungry.”
He looked me over. “You look flushed.”
I sighed. “I’m fine. Did you need something?”
“I’m pretty sure you know I don’t. I’m doing the best friend duty of checking in on you, and I must say the report back isn’t going to be so good, Emms.”
I rolled my eyes and stood up. “Is this what you were protecting me from, Chace? Well, you did a good job of it, so congratulations are in order because there also wasn’t anything online about it either. I checked.” I stared down at my trembling hands, trying to keep my emotions at bay before they got the best of me. I was angry, but I was also sad.
“Look at me.” He had that same commanding voice Grayson did. I peered at him through my lashes. He rose to his full height. “I’m only going to say this once, because it’s not my story to tell. You’re in a lot of pain right now and you’ve been betrayed, but give him a chance to explain. He’s suffering without you. Remember what I told you, when you and I first had lunch?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you care? No offense, Chace, but you’re kind of an asshole to him.”
He smiled. “Because you’re both stupid, and you love each other. That goes without saying. As for the asshole part, that’s for fun. I have a vendetta against him for stealing my pudding cup in the third grade.”
I rolled my eyes. “He said you punched him?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, I can’t even believe that happened. I’ve never been able to land one. He completely demolished the house. There has to be over a hundred thousand dollars in damages easily, give or take. And that’s just the lower level.”
My eyes grew wide. I knew about his temper, but geez. I cleared my throat. “I’m only working these last two weeks of my contract, so I would like for you to consider this my official notice that I won’t be accepting the position with the company.”
He sighed and nodded. “That goes through Grayson. You’ll have to talk to him about that, among other things.” He glanced back at my picked-over chicken. “Get some real food. Take care of yourself.”
As he got up to leave, I stopped him. “Chace, take care of yourself too, okay?”
He paused and gave me a nod before leaving.
The rest of the day went on with no interruptions. I left quickly, not wanting to be bothered by Edith anymore, and I had agreed to meet with Isabella for cocktails, since she was back in town.
“Married?”
I nodded, downing my second vodka cranberry. “You should’ve seen her. She was fat and ugly.”
Isabella’s eyes grew wide. “Really?”
I signaled the waiter for another. “No, she was fucking flawless. I’m the fat and ugly one.” The waiter set another drink down.
Isabella grabbed it before I could. “Maybe you’ve had enough. Did you eat today?”
I snatched my drink back. “It has cranberry in it. That’s food. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. What’s going on with you? How’s work been? And hey, what about you and Chace? He seems to really like you.”
She stared at me for a few seconds. “It’s been good, lots of traveling as you know. People are always wanting a room redesigned.”
I nodded, but clearly noticed how she avoided the topic of Chace. “And Chace?”
She shrugged. “What about him?”
I narrowed my eyes. “You guys were all over each other, and now you both won’t talk. What happened?”
She leaned back in her chair. “We talk. There’s just some things that he needs to figure out in life, and until he does, there’s nothing happening. My choice, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so let’s change the subject.” We sat silently for a few seconds.
“I need to find a new job.” I rubbed my forehead. The alcohol sure as hell wasn’t making the headache any better, and the room was starting to spin.
She checked her watch. “I have a late meeting. You know you’re more than welcome to stay with me. It’ll be fun.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll figure it out. I’m hoping my apartment will be done soon. If not, I’ll just find a place.”
She placed her hand on top of mine. “Talk to him. I hate seeing you like this.” I sighed and nodded. “I’ll check in on you later,” she assured me.
After she left, I stared into my empty glass. Yep, I was officially tipsy. I needed to go home.
I paid my tab then gracefully stumbled out of the bar to look for a cab.
“Emmalin?”
I turned. “Hey, Caleb.”
He looked me up and down and smiled. “Hey, you okay?”
I smiled. “I’m good. What are you doing here?”
He tilted his head. “I wasn’t. I was walking by.” He glanced at the building. “Had a few drinks, did you?” I nodded. “That makes sense.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “Are
you by yourself?”
I tried waving toward the building but starting swaying back, and he caught me. Just then, several flashes went off, and I looked up in confusion. The flashes continued. I realized my picture was being taken by a few people.
“Emmalin, are you having an affair on Grayson Mandrake?”
“Is this who you’re cheating on him with?”
“Can we get a name, sir?”
I stood there like a deer in the headlights. If it hadn’t been for Caleb grabbing my hand and pulling me along, I would’ve been stuck in the ground. That sobered me up quickly. We ran to a cab that wasn’t far, and I hunkered down in the backseat and covered my face.
A few minutes went by before Caleb spoke. “You okay? They don’t seem to be following us.”
I uncovered my face. “That was really bad.”
He smiled. “You’re dating the most eligible bachelor in Chicago. Everyone wants a piece of you.”
I sank further into my seat. I couldn’t help but think of how badly those pictures looked. Then I wondered why I should care. We were technically broken up. But I did care.
The cab barely pulled to a full stop in front of the hotel before both of our doors opened.
“Ms. Ross.” I was greeted by the warm, friendly eyes of Alistair. I smiled at seeing a familiar face. He handed money to the cab driver and sent him on his way.
“You don’t have to do that. Here, let me give you money.” I grabbed my wallet, pulling some bills out.
“Not necessary.” He shook his head before looking over at Caleb. “Luke here will take you anywhere you need to go.”
I guessed that was their way of kindly dismissing him. He looked at me and shrugged.
I walked toward him. “Thanks, Caleb, and sorry for all of that. Thanks for seeing me home.”
He stroked my cheek. “Anytime.” Luke nodded at me and guided Caleb away.
I headed inside, with Alistair on my heels. I was beginning to feel irritated with the fact that I suddenly had a babysitter. Couldn’t a woman go out for a few drinks anymore? I glared up at him, and he smiled. “I can see myself in,” I informed him.