by Tijan
A twinge of pleasure spread through me. She was already planning for the next time we hung out.
Her buzzer went off and she went over to it. “Yeah?”
The man on the other side spoke, “Your pizza is here.”
“Okay. Let him up. I’ll be waiting.”
“Yes, Miss Webber.”
She grinned and shook her head as she turned to me. “He always calls me Miss Webber. I’ve been living in this building since I was three. You’d think Jarvis would start calling me by my first name, but he never does.”
“You’ve lived here your whole life?”
She nodded as she collected her wallet from her purse. “Yep. My parents moved in when my dad got a new architect job. Then after they died, I didn’t want to leave the building. I did downgrade to this apartment, but I like this building. It’s home. Known all the neighbors all my life. There’s not much turnover here.”
My eyes went wide. She downgraded? I could never afford a place like this, not with the salary I earned as Mr. Hudson’s assistant. Then I comprehended the rest of what she had said. “Oh, I’m so sorry about your parents.”
She shrugged as she opened the door. “It’s fine. It was a car accident. I was told that they didn’t feel any pain. A truck blindsided them.”
I heard the hitch in her throat.
The elevator sounded its arrival and she stepped out to pay for the pizza. When he left, she closed the door behind her with a large steaming pizza box in her hand. I wasn’t sure what to say. I understood grief and death, but I didn’t understand her lifestyle. For the most part, I grew up in a one-bedroom with AJ. Mallory and Ben grew up with their parents, but they lived in poverty. All three of us had fought our way out of it. I’d been the most successful, but I would never feel comfortable in a home like this. Carter’s was different. That was Carter’s place, not mine.
“What about you and your folks?”
“Oh.” What did I say? “Um, my parents have been dead since I was nine. I grew up with my brother.”
“I’m sorry about your folks too. You must be close with your brother?”
I was. “Yeah.” I forced a wide smile and changed the topic. “The pizza smells delicious.”
She chuckled as she pulled out two plates. “Gotta love Sammy’s Pizza, right? I grew up on it. My mom always ordered delivery. I think she had a crush on the delivery guy back then, but my dad never minded. It was the only time he could eat junk food. My mom was a stickler for healthy food back then. Not me. I indulge when I can. When the pounds start sticking, I’ll have to stop.”
I had to agree. She was stick-thin and after spending so many breaks and meals with her during the week, I knew she had a hearty appetite. I wasn’t as blessed, but I never had a problem with my weight. My problem was not having an appetite like Theresa, something she had started to notice over the past week. I was determined to match her with pizza tonight, but as I made that decision she already gobbled a slice down as she searched for two glasses for our wine. I didn’t think I stood a chance. However, I slid a piece onto a plate and took the glass of wine she offered.
That was normal, to indulge after a hard week at work and laugh with your friends over a glass of wine. This was all normal. I could be normal.
Carter wasn’t normal, but I couldn’t only have him in my life now.
“So what do you want to watch?” She indicated to the couches and soon we were both situated with blankets, the pizza on the table, and the second bottle of wine beside it. As I watched her gather everything, she flushed and murmured, “I get lazy once I’m on that couch. I don’t like to get up. Don’t judge me.”
“Never.” I couldn’t contain the smile that stretched from ear to ear. Theresa was exactly the friend that I needed.
It was after the second movie and the second bottle of wine when someone knocked on her door. I fell off the couch, my heart pounding, but Theresa scowled at the door. There was no fear, there wasn’t even surprise. She sighed as she stood from the couch, a little clumsier than normal. “Excuse me while I deal with this.”
With this?
I slunk down on the couch so they couldn’t see me, but I tried to peek over the edge. As she opened the door wider and I heard a masculine voice, my mouth fell open. Did Theresa have a boyfriend and not tell me? Well. I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t been forthcoming about my life at all. I couldn’t blame her for not sharing her personal life. Then I heard her snap, “Noah, you never told me!”
I gave up on peeking and fell to the floor beside the couch. That was my boss.
He growled from irritation and snapped back, “I did too. I told you about the family dinner last week.”
“Yeah.” Theresa held her own. “You told me, you never invited me. I thought you were just being a selfish prick, like normal.”
“AAH! You make me crazy.”
She snorted. “You do that fine just by yourself. I don’t do a thing to make you crazy.” Her voice softened. “Your mother must be so angry with me.”
“Don’t worry. She blames me, said I must’ve done something to piss you off.”
“Look, come in. I’ll call your mom and square everything away. I have company so I can’t come anyway.”
“You have company?” Interest and alarm spiked in his tone. “Who?”
“A friend.”
He snorted this time, “You don’t have any friends.”
She growled. “I’d slam this door in your face if I didn’t have to call your mother.”
“Ookay,” he mocked her.
“Whatever. Come in. Be nice to my friend.” She turned around and grabbed her phone from the table beside me. As she bent, she flashed me an apology, but she spoke to the big guy who had followed her inside, “You might want to be professional. She works for you.” And then she flounced out of the room, lifting the phone to her ear as she went.
I sat up. So this was Noah Tomlinson. I never met the guy but had seen photographs of him. There’d been a few from when he had been an MMA fighter and plenty from when he won the national championship. He wore jeans and a sweater that stretched across his chest in an impressive manner. The guy was huge, and as I caught his gaze, I knew he was intelligent. A cloud of suspicion and leering was in his gaze as he raked me up and down.
I expected the owner of The Richmond to stick his hand out, smooth back his hair, and become the sleazy smooth-talker most of the guys at the top level were. He didn’t. His frown deepened and he leaned against the island counter in the kitchen. He folded his arms, making his chest seem even bigger, and scowled at me. “Who are you?”
He didn’t know—but he must’ve. “I’m Emma Martins.”
His eyebrows shot up and everything vanished. Shock and something close to panic came over him. He glanced to where Theresa had gone and, when he heard she was still on the phone, dropped his voice to a whisper. “What are you doing here?”
“I—huh? Theresa and I are friends. We’re working together. You put us together.”
He growled from the back of his throat. “I didn’t expect this. I knew you’d work together, but,” he glanced where Theresa was again, “she doesn’t know your relationship with Carter, does she?”
My relationship with Carter? Did he? What relationship? “No, no one does.” Well, he did. I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean you didn’t expect this?”
He frowned again. “That was my mistake. I’m sorry, but you really need to go. You should cut your friendship with Theresa too. She hates Carter.”
My eyes threatened to pop out. She knew Carter?
He amended, “I mean, she hates the idea of him. She’s never met him, don’t worry, but she knows he’s a friend of mine and connected to the mob. She doesn’t approve of our friendship, and if she knew your relationship with him,” he whistled and shook his head, “it would not be pretty. Trust me.”
“How do you two know each other?”
He shrugged. “Family friends. Her parents were friends with m
y parents. We took her in when they died.”
“Oh.”
His eyes narrowed again. “You’re not here trying to get her money, are you?”
WHAT?
But then I glanced around, she had money. I saw that from before, but I wondered how much she had. Then I remembered who I was living with and replied, “You think I’m scamming her for money?”
“Oh, yeah.” He relaxed and flashed me a grin. It transformed his face. I saw why a lot of the females at work whispered about his deliciousness. He didn’t have the classic model-like looks that Carter had, but when his mouth turned into a smile, it lit his face up and he was handsome in a manly and rough looking away. I knew that appealed to a lot of women. “I forgot your connections. Maybe she’s scamming you?”
I could tell by how his mouth curved up in a crooked grin that he was kidding. I was a little insulted. I might’ve grown up with a scammer, but I never did cons. AJ never allowed it, and after he died, I was determined to be successful without resorting to low-level ways of making money.
“Look,” his jaw tightened and his voice grew rough, “I really am sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that, just that Theresa’s been targeted before because of her money. She doesn’t have a lot of friends because she’s too damn trusting. I tell her to steer clear of everyone, but she tries every now and then. They never end well. That’s what I thought before I knew who you were.”
That would explain Theresa’s lack of friends, but I couldn’t shake his suspicion. He was covering up for it, but it was there. I didn’t know if my relationship with Carter kept it there or made it worse? My gut told me that he would’ve been suspicious of me with Carter in my life or not.
“Okay!” Theresa returned with a smug smile on her face. She threw an arm around Noah’s shoulders and bumped her hip into his. “It’s all good with your mother.”
He studied her with a slight sneer. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Her smile stretched from ear to ear. “I did.”
I frowned.
He groaned. “Whatever deal you struck with my mother, I’m out. I have a date tonight.”
“No, you don’t,” she laughed and poked him in the chest. “Well, yes, you do. With me and Emma.” She continued, “Brianna got a job at Octave. I told your mother that we’d go and check on her.”
“Brianna did what?” Noah exploded. “You did what?”
“Yeah, I did.” Theresa struck a cocky pose with her hand on her hip. “And you can be damn pleased with me because I told your mother that we’d go and check on her. In return, she’s not going to hold it against you that you didn’t invite me to the family dinner tonight.”
“What family dinner? Brianna wouldn’t have been there.” His jaw clenched as he said it. “She got a job at Octave? What the hell was she thinking? That place is dangerous.”
Theresa frowned. “She’s probably thinking it’s the coolest job in the world. You go there all the time.”
“I do not.”
“You take me there all the time.”
“Oh, yeah.” But as his jaw continued to clench and unclench, his anger was obvious. “How the hell did she get a job there?”
“What do you mean? The owner probably lured her there. He’s sucking up to be your friend, Noah. He always does this.”
Her voice rose a notch and his head slunk down. I got the distinct impression this was a fight they had often. My boss shot me a guarded look. There was also an apology there as Theresa started to talk more. “Why you’re friends with someone like him is beyond my comprehension. He’s bad news, Noah. He’s nothing but a—”
“—Theresa,” he interrupted and shot me a pointed look.
“Oh.” She flushed and turned to me. “I’m sorry, Emma. I don’t like one of Noah’s friends, but that’s not something you need to worry about. I’m really sorry. I forgot you were here.” Then she blinded me with her white teeth. “Want to go dancing tonight? Noah knows the owner of Octave. I might not like the guy, but his club is hot to go to.”
Oh dear. I wasn’t sure how to react.
She misunderstood. “Oh, you don’t have to worry. Trust me. I know the place can be dangerous, but whenever I go with Noah, we always get the VIP treatment. We get our own entrance and a private box. It’s completely safe. For us.”
When I didn’t say anything, she grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
She gushed, “I promise you’ll have fun. And it’s not like we’ll even see the guy. He’s barely ever at the club. He’s so important and powerful that he doesn’t have time for his friend.” As she said the last statement, her voice grew thick with sarcasm.
Noah rolled his eyes. “Can you stop griping? You’ve never met the guy.”
She shot him a dark look. “I don’t need to have met him. He’s bad news, Noah. I don’t know why you refuse to see that about him. He’s only using you for The Richmond. You’re the one who told me he wanted to buy some shares last year.”
He shook his head and grumbled, “I didn’t say he wanted to buy shares. I said I offered him more shares.”
She straightened to her fullest height and squared her shoulders back. “You’re crazy for being friends with him.”
“Drop it, Theresa. You don’t know the guy. You don’t know my friendship with him. And,” he sent another pointed look in my direction, “you really want to hash this out in front of your newfound friend?”
That did it. The tension left her in the next second and she squeezed my hand again. “I’m sorry, Emma. I get so angry sometimes.”
I tried to give her a reassuring smile back. “Oh, that’s okay. We all have our…secrets, I guess.”
“Well, it’s not really a secret, but it’s not an argument that needs to happen tonight. I invited you over because I thought it would be fun. This’ll be fun too. You’ll come to Octave with us?” She gave me a puppy-dog look.
Well. This was going to be interesting.
I nodded, but as Theresa cheered and Noah frowned, I wasn’t sure how this night was going to unfold. When we headed downstairs and piled into Noah’s car, I saw my car parked behind us. Oh, great. I hadn’t considered what to tell Mike and the other guards, but when Noah pulled into traffic and my car started to follow, I realized that they already knew what I was doing. I only hoped Carter wouldn’t get mad about the change in plans.
“Sir.”
Carter glanced towards the door and saw one of his men. He stood from the table and left his business associates behind. When they stepped into the hallway, his man waited until the door was closed before he told him, “The boyfriend met with a Bertal.”
“They found him?”
“No, sir. He went to them.”
Carter’s eyes whipped up. “Are you sure?”
He clipped his head in a nod. “Yes, sir. We held back, but when he returned to the apartment he had a briefcase with him.”
“What was in it?”
“Money, sir.”
Carter’s eyes closed in a grimace. He knew what that meant. “Are you certain?”
“He opened it in the car. Vance got a picture of it. It looked like a lot of money too.”
“Okay,” he sighed. “Double the guards on her. Make sure they blend.”
Carter returned to his meeting, but it took a few minutes before he was able to concentrate on what they were telling him. His mind was on Emma and what this meant for her. He didn’t like it. It happened too fast for his liking. The time to tell her what was going on was nearing, but he didn’t want that. Not yet. It was too soon for her to be as scared as she needed to be.
As Noah neared Octave, my phone buzzed. When I saw it was from Carter, my entire body grew warm. Theresa had insisted that I dress up. She threw a white dress to me. I hadn’t expected much, but when I put it on, it was the perfect choice. It hung low on me. The ends of the dress touched my toes, but the front of it separated. Instead of an actual dress, it was two lengths of cloth. Theresa tied it around so each one covered my
breasts and wrapped around my torso once. She declared I was a goddess and I had to admit that I felt like one. I was even more grateful now that I had listened to her advice. Tingles of excitement and nerves soared through me, but when I read it, a rush of desire made my head spin. I’m coming back tonight. Finished my work in one day. I’m flying back now. Where are you?
I replied. Will be at Octave soon. Going with my friend who knows your friend. Noah Tomlinson.
Thomas and Mike?
In the car behind me. I rode with Noah and Theresa, she’s my