But he couldn't untangle the issue from the woman. Because she was the inn. The inn was her. These people were a part of her. And he wasn't the kind of person who could be so cold to tell her to just suck it up and fire her staff. He couldn't be that guy.
He lifted his hand and knocked twice before he could talk himself out of it, convince himself they could just ignore the issue.
The door opened a long time later, and everything James had been thinking flew away. Because there was a man in her room. A half naked, barefooted man in her room.
James was comfortable enough with his sexuality to admit the guy was good looking. Dangerous. Bad boy material. He was the kind of man they wrote romance novels about. He was the exact kind of man he could picture Emily with.
And there he was in Emily's room.
“Hey,” the man said after waiting a moment for James to speak.
James shook his head, taking a breath. Well. That settled things, didn't it?
“Hey,” he said, holding out the pile of paperwork in his hand. The man took it, looking curiously from it to him. “Tell Emily that this is the proof she wanted,” he said, already moving away from the doorway. That was that. It was settled.
“Wait,” the man called, stepping into the hallway. “who do you want me to tell her came by?”
“She'll know,” James said, turning and walking away. Slowly. Deliberately. Not like he was running.
But, fuck, he was running.
Seventeen
“What do you mean he checked out?” Emily asked Devon later that night after she had shooed Dane into an empty room upstairs. After she and Meggie had a long talk. After she took a walk in the woods and cleared her head a little bit.
Devon shrugged an apologetic shoulder. “He checked out.”
“Like he is saving the room still but needed to go away on business for a few weeks?”
“No,” Dev said, sighing a little. “No. He's like... gone gone. He took all his stuff and he paid his bill.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn't say much. He said he was going home.”
“He doesn't have a home,” Emily shot back.
“Well then I guess he's... I don't know.”
Emily watched the concern on Devon's face and found herself pulling herself up straighter, making her face impassive. “Well,” she said, sounding chipper. “this is good. This was what we wanted: him out of our hair. Now things can go back to normal.”
“Right,” Dev said, raising a brow, looking at her like she may have just lost her mind.
“Okay,” Emily said, reaching to straighten the items on the desk. “This is good. I'm gonna go grab his linens so we can get that room ready as soon as possible. We should start getting reservations for the holiday soon.”
“Mmhmm,” Dev agreed, watching her flit around the room like she used to. Before James had showed up. He wondered if she even realized how calm she had been around him.
Emily sprinted up the stairs, opening the door to his room and going straight to the bed and pulling the blankets off onto the floor. She walked deliberately around the room, grabbing towels, straightening things that had been pushed out of place. She opened the closet and froze. There hanging inside was the sweatshirt he had been wearing when they had hooked up. The one he had bought at the lodge gift shop.
Without thinking, she felt herself reaching for it, pulling it to her chest and burying her face in it. She sank slowly to the floor, a crack starting in her chest, feeling the sensation she had been dreading. The sensation that forced her to try to pretend it was no big deal, that this was a good thing.
It was the feeling of the parts of him slipping away.
It was the realization that she would never feel that way again.
She closed her eyes tight, trying to keep the tears from coming. They wouldn't help. They would make it too easy to lay around and wallow for something that was never hers to lose in the first place.
He had obviously changed his mind. Who knew why. Maybe men like him didn't need reasons. Maybe he was used to different women in every town. Used to making declarations that he had no intentions to keep.
She couldn't blame him. If she had a life like his, that's exactly what she would do. Different man in every port. Just fun sport sex. No second thoughts. No regrets.
She shouldn't have fought it for so long. They could have had a fun little tryst right from day one. Maybe then she wouldn't feel like she had missed out on so much more than she had got.
“What are you doing?” Dane asked, his voice low and deep.
Emily looked up to see him standing in the doorway looking down at her with a smirk. Tall and dark and sexy and he wanted her. While she was practically crying into some rich city guy's sweatshirt. “Nothing,” she said, balling up the sweatshirt and getting onto her feet. “Just cleaning out this room so we can fill it.”
Dane nodded, despite knowing there was something going on. He wasn't going to press the issue. That wasn't their thing. “I didn't get a chance to tell you earlier as she were pushing me out of your room and up here.”
Emily turned back to her straightening, not bothering to look over at him. “What?”
“Someone came by your room earlier.”
“And?” she asked, rolling her eyes. Why did she have to eke things out of him?
Dane cleared his throat. “A man came to your room earlier,” he clarified, watching as she stilled and straightened, turning to face him. His lips went into a firm line, nodding his head. “Yeah,” he said. “I thought so.” He took a deep breath, looking out into the hallway, then stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. “Really, Red?” he asked, smiling. “Your new boss?”
“Oh fuck off,” Emily said, hurling a spare towel at him. “I'm sure all those women you bedded weren't cliches.”
Dane smiled widely, revealing one overly sharp eye booth. “Anyway,” he said, tossing the towel back at her. “he handed me some paperwork and told me to tell you it was your proof.” He watched her face fall slightly. “Proof of what?”
Emily took a deep breath, trying to ignore how quickly her heart was beating. “He found proof that someone is stealing from the inn.”
“Like... what? Stuff out of the rooms?”
“No like... falsifying documents and stealing money out of the bottom line.”
“Jesus,” he said, shaking his head. “these people have been here forever.”
“I know.”
“Do you know who?”
“No,” Emily said, feeling unbelievably sad. Because she knew what was in her future. She knew she would be spending the next few days and weeks watching what everyone was doing, second guessing things she never would have thought about before. She would be looking at her friends and trying to figure out which one was being disloyal to her.
“That sucks, Emmy,” Dane said, shrugging a shoulder.
“Yeah.”
“And he just... took off?” Dane asked, watching as Emily swept dust off the nightstand.
“Yup.”
“How convenient,” he said, sounding angry for her. “He gets to go back to his life and you're stuck here trying to deal with this shit? What a dick.”
Emily made a huffing sound. “Whatever. It's better this way. I don't have to deal with him sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.”
“Sure, Red,” Dane said, not sounding convinced. “Look... if you need any help with any of the stealing stuff... let me know, okay?”
Emily paused for her hectic cleaning for a second to send him a small smile. “Thanks, Dane. I appreciate it.”
He nodded once at her and moved out the door, leaving it open.
Emily collected the linens and moved down the stairs into the laundry.
–
She slipped into her old schedule with surprising ease. Devon and Meggie sent her sideways glances which she pretended to not see. Looks of symp
athy. Or curiosity. Looks she didn't need. She was fine. She was back to focusing on work like she was always supposed to. It didn't matter that he was gone. Since he hadn't really even been there for that long to begin with.
There were bigger things to focus on. Like who the thief was.
It had taken her all of thirty seconds to discount Meggie as a possible suspect. She didn't have access to the office and she couldn't pick a lock to save her life. She was notorious for locking herself out of her house and was probably the only reason the eighty-year old locksmith in town managed to stay in business. Devon seemed an equally unlikely culprit seeing as he was already filthy rich. Which left the options much more limited.
There was Alec. With his love of horses, his sexy man bun, and somewhat anti-social personality. The few servers they employed for the dining room. And the two cleaning ladies. All people she had worked side by side with on multiple occasions. Often daily.
She kept a running tally in her head of things that might be red flags. The new diamond earring in one of the server's ears. Supposedly a gift from a girlfriend. Maria, one of the cleaning ladies, was known for dropping a lot of money getting her hair and nails done weekly. Everyone had always attributed it to her husband's spoiling her, but thanks to James, she now needed to look at it with more scrutiny.
Six days into knowing about the theft and she still hadn't weeded anyone out. Everyone had their small splurges. But ones that could easily be explained. Nothing ostentatious.
And then Alec drove up to the inn, beeping a horn until they all rushed out to see what all the fuss was about.
There he was, leaning against the side of a pristine cherry red nineteen-sixty-seven Pontiac GTO.
Emily slinked out the back door, rushing behind the buildings on Main Street so she wouldn't be seen until she got to Eric's garage. She let herself in through the open doors, finding his body sticking out from underneath the hood of someone's car. Classic rock was blaring from a stereo in the back. She walked over, turning down the dial.
“There are only two people in the world who would dare turn down my music,” he said, barely lifting out from under the hood. “and one of those people would be over her getting me half naked by now,” he said, sounding serious. “What do you need, Em?”
Emily took a deep breath, feeling sick. Literally sick. Like she might vomit all over his filthy garage floor. “How much does a sixty-seven GTO cost?”
Eric turned to her, a smirk playing at his lips, his gray eyes interested. He grabbed a rag out of his back pocket, rubbing his hands lazily. “Never figured you for a muscle car fan.”
“I'm not,” she said, putting her hand to her rolling stomach. “Please just tell me.” Put her out of her misery.
“Please?” Eric asked, his smile fading. “You never say please. Alright, alright,” he said, holding up his hands when she opened her mouth to speak. “don't get your panties in a twist. A lot of factors go into that. But if you need a range... twenty to... eighty.”
“Thousand.”
“No, twenty to eighty sheep. They accept livestock as payment still.”
“Ha ha,” she said, taking a deep breath. Even if the car he had was at the lowest end... twenty-thousand dollars was nothing to sneeze at.
“What's going on, sweetheart?” Eric said, endearments easy on his practiced tongue. “You look like you're gonna be sick.”
“Nothing,” Emily said, shaking her head, walking past him. “Thanks Eric.”
“Emmy,” Eric called, sounding concerned but she was already gone.
There was no way that with his salary he could afford a car like that. Not even if he had low living expenses. Not even if he saved for years.
She wasn't exactly sure what the protocol was supposed to be. Did she need to compile actual physical proof first? But as she saw him standing there, alone on the street in front of the inn, she couldn't wait.
Because she had been the one to champion his employment when Marion had wanted to go with one of the kids of a local farmer. She had vouched for him even though she didn't know him from Adam. True, his drop dead gorgeousness might have had something to do with it back then, but she was the only reason he even had a job. And he was fucking stealing from her now?
“You're fired,” she said as soon as she was close enough for him to hear her.
Alec turned, his mouth quirking upward like she was joking until he saw her face. “What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about the termination of your employment. Did you think we wouldn't find out eventually? Seriously? You're such an asshole. How could you?” she asked, slamming a hand into his shoulder, making his back slam into his car.
“Emily what the fuck?” he asked, grabbing her hand as she tried to hit him again.
“Answer me,” she demanded, hitting his shoulder with her other hand.
“When you ask me a question that makes sense, I will.”
“No... you know what? Fuck it. You're done. Just go.”
Alec's face went from confused to devastated in a blink of an eye. He dropped her hand, his mouth opening and closing. “Emily...”
“You're fired,” she said again, turning and walking before he saw her lip starting to quiver.
“Just...” he called and she stopped walking, but didn't turn to face him. “just take care of the horses. Please,” he begged, his voice sounding undeniably defeated.
She nodded once then ran into the inn, past Devon who jumped up out of his seat. She held a hand up to stop him, storming up the staircase, through the hall upstairs and banging on a door so hard it shook in its jam.
Dane opened the door quickly, his eyes going big when he saw her. She shoved past him, into his room, pacing in front of the windows where she could see Alec getting in his car and pulling slowly away, before falling down to the floor on a hysterical sob.
“Emmy... what...”
But she couldn't hear him, curling her knees up to her chest and crying inconsolably into them, her body shaking, the tears hot and insistent.
Because it felt wrong. It didn't matter how the signs pointed to him. She had worked closely with him. She had loved him as a friend. And it felt so incredibly, indescribably wrong for it to be him. To know that she wouldn't see him around anymore. He wouldn't be there in the stables, taking care of the horses like precious children. He wouldn't be there on Thanksgiving, hauling ass and then sharing a meal. He wouldn't be there anymore.
Because he had betrayed them.
Was there any harsher realization in the world than betrayal?
Dane sat down on the floor next to her, his shoulder brushing hers, his hand on her knee as she let herself mourn.
Eighteen
James threw on a new gray pinstripe suit and went into work. It felt foreign and uncomfortable. But different was good. Different meant something else to focus on.
He was in his office before anyone else on the floor showed up. It looked different in the early morning, all empty. Desks lined either side of the room, facing the middle where a long line of faxes and copy machines were situated. It wouldn't be long until the ambitious staff members with dreams of promotions would show up, eager to find the next big deal to bring to the boss. Eager to smooth over and hiccups in current deals.
Toward the back of the room, a half glass wall sectioned off the office for the head of acquisitions. And also his office. Even though he really was never there often enough to warrant a desk. He opened the door, looking at the desk to the left, covered in paperwork and files. A neatly stacked amount of chaos. He turned toward the desk at the right. It was completely empty. Nothing on it at all but the standard computer monitor, a small stack of EM Corporation stationary, and a cup of pens.
He sat down, powering up his computer and spending a good fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to find the files for deals, all of which he looked over every detail of before checking around on the ideas for the future.
The new head of acquisitions who, when Lena had turned it down to move in with her mechanic in Stars Landing and bake cookies, showed up a half an hour later. Tall, thin, brown-haired, green eyed. Young. Maybe in his late twenties, early thirties in a pricey black suit. He looked over at James with drawn in eyebrows for a second before inclining his head toward him and going about his own work. Seth or Sade or something like that. He seemed like a nice enough guy but he just wasn't in the mood for socializing.
Elliott walked onto the floor a few hours later, the noise outside of James' office quieting immediately. Through the glass, he watched as everyone glanced at him and looked extremely busy. Elliott had that power. That fear-inducing aura that clung to him like a second skin. He opened the office door, walking straight to the desk across from James', not even bothering to glance his way. Because he was never, ever there.
“Carter,” he addressed the man.
Well he fucked that name up royally.
Carter nodded up at Elliott, one of the few employees who didn't seem to cower at their boss' presence. He ever so slightly tilted his head to the side toward James.
Elliott turned slowly, his mouth falling slightly open. He shook his head once, as if he wasn't sure he was seeing what he was doing. “James?” he asked, looking back at Carter again before moving across the room. “What are you doing here?” he asked, looking down at him. “Are you... wearing a suit?”
“Nice to see you too, Elliott,” he said, sending him a small smile.
Elliott's brows drew down, watching him. “Hey Carter,” he called, not looking at him. “can we have the room for a minute?”
Carter got up and walked out the door, stopping to sit on the desk of someone in the other room, obviously not willing to miss whatever might happen between the Michaels brothers.
Elliott was silent for a long time, looking at his brother like a puzzle that wasn't fitting together right. “Last I checked, you were supposed to be in Stars Landing.”
What The Heart Knows Page 14