by Zoey Parker
“Maybe when you’re finished, you can play a game with Miss Jamie. Give Traci and Erica a break.” The girls look grateful.
“Yeah, Miss Jamie! You wanna play?”
“Sure.” She smiled at Gigi, but glared at me. She was pissed that I wasn’t letting her take the kid home with her. Who did she think she was, trying to tell me what to do with my own kid?
Okay, I thought. So she knows her better than I do. She was her teacher all year long. So what, though? I was her father. Nobody would listen to a teacher over a parent. Maybe if the parent was abusive or something, but I hadn’t put a hand on Gigi. No, she had nothing to go on.
Traci and Erica jumped up when the game ended. “Okay, your turn!” Gigi smiled at Jamie.
“You wanna play, too?” Jamie asked, looking up at me. Challenging me.
“No, thanks. I’ll sit and watch, though.” I noticed the way Gigi tensed up a little when I sat down. She wasn’t comfortable with me yet. Jamie saw it, too.
“You okay, kiddo?”
“Yes, I’m okay.” She relaxed, and the game started. Jamie kept a closer eye on us after that. She was trying to find a way to get my kid out of there. No way I would let that happen. It was her versus me at that point. She would find I wasn’t easy to beat.
“Where do you live, Miss Jamie?”
Jamie looked at me, eyes narrow. I smiled.
“Yeah, Miss Jamie. Where do you live?” Gigi asked. “Do you have a house? Do you have a dog?”
She smiled at Gigi. “No, sweetie, I don’t have a dog. Or a cat, or anything. It’s just me.”
“Just you? All alone?” I asked, innocent.
“Yes.” She smiled through clenched teeth. “All alone. Just me.”
“No roommates?”
“No roommates.”
“That’s interesting.” I left it at that for a while as they played. Good. She didn’t even have a pet to bitch about when I told her my idea.
“Do you live far away?” I asked.
“Sort of,” she admitted. “Riverview Terrace.”
I should have known—the nicest part of town. Even Gigi knew that. Her eyes went round.
“I thought rich people lived there!” She looked shocked. I had to laugh a little, and so did Jamie.
“I’m not rich, sweetie.”
“But you can’t afford that on a teacher’s salary either,” I pointed out.
“That’s none of your business,” she replied icily.
“Rich parents?”
“I said it’s none of your business.” She took a turn, then let Gigi take hers.
“Rich parents,” I decided. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, you want to take people to your house, it’s good to have a nice house to take them to.”
She looked at me and I saw hope in her eyes. She thought I meant I was letting her take Gigi. She was wrong, of course. I would let her keep thinking it, though.
“You don’t have one of those side jobs, do you? You know, the way some teachers do? Not if you live at Riverview Terrace.”
She raised one eyebrow over her clear, sparkling eyes. “No. I don’t.”
“Right, I forgot. Your parents are loaded.”
“Were.” The word dropped like a bomb. Even Gigi looked at her, surprised at the way her tone of voice changed. I went quiet for a minute.
“Sorry,” I muttered. I felt like an ass. Still, that explained a few things. So she inherited a shit ton of money when her parents died. She lived in a nice place. She could live on a teacher’s salary because she had a trust fund, probably. So she thought she was in good shape to take my kid away. Interesting.
I let them play the game for a while, thinking about my plan. Yeah, it was the best way to go. I couldn’t let my daughter live with a stranger. She was mine. She was comfortable at the clubhouse. So, if Jamie wanted her, she’d have to agree with my rules.
When the game finally finished—Gigi pulled a good card, sending her to the end of the board in record time—I motioned for Jamie to follow me to my office. Flash asked Gigi to teach him how to play the game, which I would have laughed my ass off at if it wasn’t kind of cute. Gigi was very serious, explaining the rules. She sounded like a teacher herself.
I closed the door. Jamie folded her arms. “What is it now?”
I smirked. “You have a nasty attitude.”
“Wouldn’t you? You’re sitting out there, playing games with me. What was that all about?”
“I wanted to know what kind of person you are.”
“Bullshit. You were digging for something.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Fine. You’re right. I was.”
“And? Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
“Oh yeah. More than that. You’re perfect for my plan.”
She looked like she didn’t believe me—or she didn’t believe I could come up with a plan. “What would that be?”
“You wanna make sure my daughter is safe?”
“More than anything.” I believed her, too.
“Okay. If you wanna make sure she’s safe, then you can stay here and take care of her.”
Chapter Five
Jamie
“What?” My eyes nearly popped out of my head, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. I could tell from the way he grinned that it was exactly the reaction he had hoped for.
“You heard me. I want you to stay here.” He sat behind a desk, grinning still. He put his feet up on the surface, crossing his ankles.
“You can’t be serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
I sat in one of the chairs across from him. “For how long?”
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as what takes?”
He sighed. “As long as it takes to find Rae.”
“So you really don’t want her, huh?” I felt a strange sort of disappointment for Gigi, and for him. He was missing out on so much by pushing her away.
“Listen, I’m not an idiot. I know this isn’t the place for her.”
I leaned forward, crossing my arms on his desk. “You know what else isn’t the place for her? Her home, with her mother.”
He sat up, looking at me very closely. “It’s that bad?”
“It’s not good.” I told him about the day she showed up in spring clothes during a snowstorm. The times I had to give her my lunch because she didn’t have any food of her own. The trouble I got into when I bought her new clothes.
“You took her shopping?” he asked. I thought I heard admiration in his voice, but reminded myself that I didn’t care either way what he thought about me. He was lower than scum as far as I was concerned.
“Yes, I did. She needed clothes for winter. I figured the previous year’s clothes wouldn’t fit her anymore. She’s a growing girl.”
“Smart.” He nodded his head, as though he had any idea how to raise a child. He would never have thought of something like that—he probably wouldn’t think to take her shopping until her old clothes were ready to fall apart. And he thought he could take care of her better than I could?
“Yes, well, I have experience with children.” I let the words hang in the air. From the half smile on his face, I knew he understood what I was trying to say.
“And I have experience with Rae,” he said. “I know how she thinks.”
“So what is she doing, then?” I asked.
“She’s either high somewhere, or on the run from something. I wanna find her. I can’t just take Gigi without knowing what happened to Rae first. What happens if she shows up one day, wanting her back?” He looked pensive, and I wondered how deep his feelings for his daughter actually ran. He wanted to play it cool, to pretend he didn’t care, but there were cracks in his façade. I wondered if she hadn’t already found a place in his heart when he wasn’t paying attention.
I kept my cool. “I don’t think this is the right place for her. I just don’t.”
“It’s where her father is. It’s the right place for her.”
“Don’t you have a house?”
“Yeah, but I’m not there all day, am I?”
“So why don’t I stay there with her, then?” I couldn’t believe I was negotiating with a piece of scum like him. He acted like the whole thing was a joke. I wanted to slap the sneer off his face.
“I don’t think so. This place, believe it or not, is better for her than my house.”
I shuddered, imagining the absolute pig sty it probably was. I wouldn’t put anything past him.
I felt myself losing ground. To think, I was so sure I could get him to let her come with me. I was sure he’d be sick of her, unsure what to do, desperate to get her off his hands. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Wasn’t that a good thing, though? Fury’s Storm aside, wasn’t it good for Gigi’s father to want her?
I looked Lance up and down. He smiled a little, and I felt my cheeks flush. Why the heck was I blushing? I wished I could stop. I didn’t need him thinking I had a crush on him, or that I’d be a pushover for whatever he wanted from me. I didn’t plan on making things easy for him. Not one bit.
“Okay. Listen.” I folded my hands, trying to get some control over the situation. “I can stay the weekend. Just the weekend, though. You have two days to find some way to make her life better, or I’ll take her myself.”
“You have no grounds to take her. What are you gonna do, kidnap her?”
I narrowed my eyes, glaring at him. “No. You’re going to let me keep her until something better comes along. Let’s face it, I can’t stay here more than the weekend. I have to go to work, and Gigi absolutely has to go to school. She’s already missed an entire week. Didn’t it occur to you to find out where she goes to school?”
“I asked her. She didn’t know where the school was, or what it was called. Do you know how many schools there are in town? For all I knew she was from two towns over. She didn’t know her own town. What the hell did Rae teach her?” Then he looked at me, smirking. “Or is it your fault that she didn’t know?”
“Watch it,” I warned. “She was probably too scared to remember, that’s all. Wouldn’t you be scared, surrounded by scary strangers, only seven years old, if your mom abandoned you?”
His face took on a strange look, and I remembered his reference to a foster home when he was a kid. I thought he might know how it felt all too well.
“Anyway, that’s the deal. I’ll stay here and take care of her, keep her out of your hair, while you look for Rae. If you can’t find her, I have to take her with me. I won’t keep her, honestly. I won’t. But I need to be home if I’m going to work. And Gigi needs a place where she can get peace and quiet.” A bottle crashed to the floor elsewhere in the building. The timing couldn’t have been better. “She’s not going to get peace and quiet here.”
He looked less than happy with the crashing bottle, even wincing a little. “Yeah, you might have a point there.”
“So, what do you think? Are you with me?”
“Is that the only way I can get you to stay and stop bothering me?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head ruefully. “I guess I don’t have a choice, then. All right. It’s a deal.” Lance extended a hand across his desk, and I shook it. I couldn’t ignore the way his hand engulfed mine, or the way I felt a little flutter when we touched. This was no time for my hormones to start acting up, and I told myself to knock it off.
If he noticed, he didn’t show it. He stood, going out to the lounge. I followed him, wondering about the sort of person he was. He tried to play the big, tough guy. Underneath, I thought there might be a little something more than what he was letting on. After all, he cared enough about his daughter to fight with me over her. Or maybe he just liked to fight.
Either way, he was the most exciting, challenging, infuriating man I’d ever met. I had the feeling he wasn’t going to make life easy for me. That was fine with me. I had no intention of making it easy for him.
He glanced at me, nodding toward her. Like I was supposed to give Gigi the good news. I bristled at the way he thought he could tell me what to do. I wasn’t his employee, for God’s sake. Still, Gigi noticed the funny way he was acting and turned to me with an inquisitive look. I had to tell her something.
“Guess what?” I gave her a big smile. “I’m going to stay here with you this weekend.”
“You are?” She immediately jumped up onto the couch, then jumped into my arms. I laughed, hugging her. She squeezed me tight around the neck. I understood how important it was for her to feel like she had a friend with her.
“We’re gonna have so much fun!” she squealed.
“We’re also going to get you caught up on the work you missed this week.”
“Erica and Traci helped me with that already.”
I smiled at the girls, who still gave me a funny feeling. I didn’t think they liked me very much. From the way they smirked, I got the feeling they thought I didn’t think they had it in them.
“Thanks,” I said, still smiling. “You’ve made my life a lot easier, then.” Their faces softened a little, like they didn’t know what to make of me. I wouldn’t push them away or alienate them—on the contrary, I needed all the friends I could get in that place. Surrounded by men.
“Do you have anything to sleep in?” one of them asked. The one who had opened the door to me.
“I don’t. But it’ll be okay. Do you need me to get a room ready?”
She smiled. “No, I can do that for you. We have lots of empty rooms. What about the one across from Gigi’s?”
I was so grateful, I didn’t know what to say. I understood how Gigi felt, having a friend. “That sounds great.” I looked down at my charge. “Want to show me the way?” I picked up my purse, took Gigi’s outstretched hand and followed her up the stairs.
As soon as we got to the top of the stairs, I bent to whisper in Gigi’s ear. “Which girl was that? The one who offered the room?”
“Erica,” she whispered back.
“Thanks.” I grinned at her as Erica followed us to the second floor.
“Here’s my room!” Gigi showed it off with a grand flourish, and I had to say I was impressed.
“You bought all of this for her?” I asked Erica, looking over the toys and books. There was even special bedding for her, unless the members of the MC liked sleeping in Disney sheets.
“Yeah, it was fun.” Erica ruffled Gigi’s hair. “We had a great time this week, didn’t we?”
“We did! We went to Target.” She pronounced it “Tar-jay,” which made me laugh.
“And you bought all these things? Erica and Traci are so nice, aren’t they?”
“They’re my best friends. Plus you, Miss Jamie.”
Erica and I grinned at each other.
“You know something?” I sat on the edge of her bed, holding a hand out to Gigi. “Just for this weekend, while I’m staying here with you, you can call me Jamie. Just plain Jamie. No ‘Miss.’”
Her gray eyes went round, and her mouth fell open. “Are you sure?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re gonna be together all weekend long. You don’t call Erica ‘Miss Erica,’ do you?”
She looked at Erica. “Should I have? Was that dis-respeckful?”
Erica giggled. “No, sweetie. That’s just fine.”
“It’ll be our special secret this weekend. You can’t tell any of the other kids, though, when we go back to school. They might get jealous.” And if Vickie ever hears you calling me Jamie, she’ll have a cow.
“Okay.” Gigi nodded solemnly.
“Let’s show Jamie her room, okay?” Erica led us into the hall. My room was just like Gigi’s, without the toys and such. Erica turned to me. “There are clean sheets on the bed. Did you want to share Gigi’s bathroom, or do you want your own?”
“I have to ask, how many rooms are in this place?”
Erica smiled with obvious pride. “Two dozen. Plus a dozen bathrooms.” My face must have given away my
complete surprise. The entire building seemed comfortable, modern. Not at all what I had expected.
“It used to be a warehouse,” Erica explained, pulling towels out of a linen closet. “When the club bought it, they had it completely refurbished. They really went all-out. There’s plenty of room for the club members—you know, if we ever have to stay here for some reason.”
I glanced at Gigi, who was busy bouncing on the bed. “Would there ever be a reason? Have you ever been here when there was?”