by Linda Kage
Brick wrinkled his nose. “You call her Lana?”
What?
I shook my head and sent my brother an odd look. “Of course. What do you call her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Mother?”
“Hmm.” Pass. I motioned vaguely toward Kaitlynn. “Does Lana know she’s working for you now?”
“Not yet. Not that I’m aware of, anyway.” Brick leaned against his desk. “Did you know Mother never paid her?”
“Of course.” I scowled, wondering how Brick didn't know that already, and I settled my gaze on Kaitlynn. I always grew uncomfortable standing in her presence; what if she looked at me and could tell how much I’d done for her? What would she think of it? Would she take it the wrong way? I honestly never wanted her to find out. It was frankly embarrassing.
“Since you’re not aware if she knows,” I went on, talking to my brother as I frowned at my stepsister, “then I’m sure Mother doesn’t know yet. Just warn me the second she finds out. I’d like to be out of the country that day.”
Brick yawned. “Whatever. She doesn’t intimidate me.”
With a snort—because that was about the biggest pile of horseshit I’d ever heard—I lifted the design, getting back on track. “So who really drew this?”
Brick frowned. “Why don’t you believe I did?”
“Because I’ve known you your entire life,” I said, “and I can tell when you’re lying. You did not make this design.”
Across the room, Ezra—who’d yet to say a single thing since I had walked in—leaned toward Kaitlynn and murmured something in her ear.
I jerked my gaze that way and watched her smile back at him in return. Something in her gaze, however, when she looked at him tipped me off to a startling revelation.
They looked way too cozy together.
I pointed at them before I could stop myself, saying, “What the hell? What was that?”
Nash and Kaitlynn turned to me as one and blinked out their guilt before Ezra cleared his throat and said, “What was what?”
“You two. What was that look you shared?” I stepped toward them, squinting out my suspicions. Oh yeah. They were definitely attracted to each other. “Are you dating? I didn’t even know you knew each other.” I turned to Brick. “Are they dating?”
Brick snorted. “No.”
“Holy shit,” I cried. “They are?”
This was bad. This was very, very bad. Kaitlynn absolutely could not date Nash.
But Brick tried to cover for her. “No,” he insisted. “I just told you they weren’t.”
“And I just told you, I can tell when you lie, you idiot.” Forgetting him, I turned to the other two and tried to reason with them. “Are you insane?”
Okay, so maybe my reasoning skills needed some work.
“You realize how dangerous this is, don’t you?” I focused on Kaitlynn. “Lana wants him for herself. She won’t let you get away with trying to take him.”
“Hey, can we stop talking about me like I’m some kind of possession?” Nash huffed moodily, while Kaitlynn grinned and pointed teasingly at him.
“See, I told you she had the hots for you,” she exclaimed gleefully. “Even Hayden sees it.”
“Of course I can see it,” I boomed. “Everyone can see it.”
“I don’t see it,” Ezra mumbled under his breath.
Dear Lord. I couldn’t take any more of this.
I pointed at him. “This thing with you and Kaitlynn stops right now.”
Nash arched defiant eyebrows. “Did you just give me an order, Carmichael?”
At least he recognized an order when he heard one. “If you insist on putting my stepsister in such a dangerous position, then hell yes, I am.”
But the lovestruck idiot just frowned. “Why does everyone seem so convinced a relationship between Kaitlynn and me would spark the wrath of Lana? Even if it did upset her, what the hell can she really do to us?”
What the hell could she do to them? What the hell could she do?
I laughed, literally laughed in my boss’s face.
Then I sobered and shook my head. “Let me give you a little rundown on Lana Price-Carmichael-Judge and her past relationships with men.” Flipping up my index finger, I got started. “First guy she ever fell in love with didn’t want her back, so what did she do to him? She married his father, ruined the relationship between the two, and made it so the son was completely cut out of his dad’s life and will. Which brings us to the father, also known as husband number one.”
Which would be Brick’s and my sperm donor: Charles Godrick Carmichael.
I held up a second finger. “What happened to him? Well, he’s dead.”
The other three in the room seemed to go tense and still, so I lifted yet another finger.
“The next guy she got involved with ended up being married already, but we can’t ask him how his relationship with Lana ended because both he and his wife are still missing. Twenty years later. So Lana moved on to husband number two.”
When the fourth finger lifted slowly, I caught Kaitlynn’s gaze. She gulped and stared back, looking suddenly lost because she knew who I was talking about.
Arthur.
“And we all know what happened there, don’t we?” I murmured softly.
Kaitlynn shuddered, hugged herself, and then shook her head insistently. “But that was a heart attack.”
Yeah, except it was what Lana had done after the heart attack—faking a new will and paying off Fin Tin—was what I was referring to. Not that I could tell Kaitlynn any of that. Yet. The fewer people who knew of my suspicions, the less likely it would be to tip Lana off to my investigation.
So I waved a dismissive hand. “Doesn’t matter. Once Lana fixes her attention on a man, he ends up either dead, destroyed, or missing.” Glancing toward Ezra, I smirked. “Where do you think you’ll land, Nash?”
He glowered back. “I guess I’ll have to create an option four: none of the above.”
I let out a small, disbelieving laugh. “Yeah, good luck with that.” I was actually rooting for him on this one, but still, I wasn’t very optimistic he’d succeed, not against Lana. I’d seen the destruction she’d caused one too many times.
My worried gaze swerved back to Kaitlynn. “Just make sure my sister doesn’t get caught in any of the crossfire. She’s already survived enough brutality at the hands of Lana. Now…” Turning back to Brick, I held up the piece of paper. “Are you going to tell me who designed this shoe or not?”
When Brick merely scowled, refusing to answer, Kaitlynn sighed. “I did,” she admitted.
Huh? I whirled toward her, not expecting to hear that.
She gave me a timid little wave, and I closed my eyes, sending up a prayer for deliverance, because this was one juicy shit sandwich right here.
If Lana learned that her sweet, young beautiful stepdaughter was not only gaining the attention of the man she wanted, but that she could also design a damn fine shoe as well, she wouldn’t let Kaitlynn survive the day. She didn’t take it well when anyone was a better fashion designer than her, and if that someone else was the very stepdaughter she loathed most and had just fired from her unpaid internship, then she’d go atomic.
I didn’t even want to think about what she’d do if she learned about the budding relationship forming between Kaitlynn and Nash. I only knew Lana would probably take that harder than the shoe design.
I had a hell of a lot more damage-control on my hands here than I honestly thought I could handle. What if I couldn’t protect Kaitlynn this time around?
Five minutes later, I returned to my own office, sweating profusely and hissing curses under my breath as soon as the door fell shut behind me. But seriously. Motherfucking son of a bitch. I paced the room, wondering what to do.
Nash, Brick, and I had agreed to keep Kaitlynn’s identity over her shoe design concealed, but who knew how long it’d really stay hidden.
And from the way Kaitlynn and Nash merely look
ed at each other, Lana would no doubt find out about them within the hour.
I wasn’t sure how to safeguard my stepsister from all the impending doom headed her way.
Opening my top desk drawer, I removed a bottle of pain relievers and popped two pills just as my office phone rang. I swallowed the medicine with a bottle of water before barking, “Carmichael,” into the receiver.
“My office. Now,” Lana’s voice snapped in my ear.
Shit. I closed my eyes. Had she found out about Kaitlynn and Nash already? Or the shoe design? Or the fact that Brick had hired Kaitlynn mere days after Lana had fired her?
Honestly, the summons could be about anything.
But I wouldn’t be able to derail whatever plans Lana had against Kaitlynn unless I learned what they were, so I heaved out a breath, wiped the cold sweat from my brow, and made my way downstairs toward the first floor.
In the light of day, her outer office looked different than it had three nights ago during the Halloween party. Shyla offered me a nervous smile when I opened the door, and she tipped her head toward the closed entrance to Lana’s lair.
“She’s waiting. Go on in.”
I didn’t want to comply. I dreaded every moment in Lana’s presence, but to figure out her game plan, I had to get closer.
Opening the door, I stepped inside without a word, braced for impact.
“Sit,” she said, busy writing something in a leather-bound planner.
I closed the door behind me and moved to the chair across the desk from her. As I sank down, doom landed in my gut.
What if this summons had nothing to do with Kaitlynn after all? What if she’d discovered it was me who’d broken into her office during the Halloween party? Or maybe she’d caught on to the fact that I knew about Fin Tin being alive. She could’ve called me in here to oust me, demand the key back to her apartment, or—fuck—fire me from JFI altogether.
It took everything I had to keep my expression placid and bored as she finally lifted her face and stared stonily.
Whatever she said, I knew I wasn’t going to like it. I never did. But today, it could be any number of disastrous topics.
“This girl you brought into my home Saturday night,” she finally said.
I blinked, not expecting that subject. Sitting up straighter, warning alarms clanging through my system, I said, “What about her?”
Lana smiled knowingly, like a snake about to strike. She knew she’d just prodded a vulnerable spot.
Folding her hands together, she placed them meaningfully on top of her desk and answered, “I think I’d like to get to know your Gabriella a little better.”
Gabriella?
Gabriella!
She’d learned Gabby’s name. How the hell had she learned Gabby’s name? This was not good.
“She seems like an interesting young woman,” Lana went on, her smile anything but kind.
What the hell? Sweat dribbled nervously down the center of my spine. Why would Lana care anything about Gabby? This couldn’t be because she thought I was serious about Gabby, could it?
This must mean—hell, I had no idea what it meant. There was nothing logical about it. Which meant it couldn’t be good.
Pretending to keep my cool, I merely nodded. “She is an interesting woman.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” Seemingly amused by my lackluster answer, she added, “Which is exactly why I’m inviting the two of you for dinner this evening.”
What?
Over my dead body.
My mouth formed a smile as I laughed out my fake delight and then shook my head. “Well, thank you for the offer, but I regret to inform you we’ll have to decline.”
Lana narrowed her eyes. “Let me rephrase.” Sitting forward, she reached out slowly and placed something deliberately on the center of her desk.
I lowered my gaze and cringed when I saw a tattered cheaply-laminated name tag for a place called Trudy’s Café with the word Gabriella printed on it.
Goddammit, Gabby, I wanted to howl. You just let the snake right into your home. Lana not only knew her first name now but where she worked. From there, she could learn everything.
As I closed my eyes in doom, Lana growled, “You two are having supper with me tonight or I’ll be having a talk with Trudy and getting your darling friend fired. Is that understood?”
Opening my lashes, I glanced across the desk and smiled tightly. “Six o’clock sound good?”
Lana sniffed, tipping up her nose. “Lord, no. Who could eat at such a ghastly hour? You’ll arrive at eight sharp. And make sure your little maid is appropriately dressed this time.”
Chapter 12
Gabby
He was back. One day after I called the idiot out for being a liar and a thief, then demanded he leave me alone for the rest of eternity with every ounce of energy I had in me, and here Diego was again, back at Trudy’s.
This was becoming creepier by the minute, especially when he appeared at the opening of the alley when I stepped out the back door of Trudy’s and into the alley with a bag full of garbage, almost as if he’d been watching and waiting for a moment to corner me somewhere alone.
He didn’t have a bouquet of bloodred roses this time, however, just a dinky, half-wilted weed infested mess of daffodils that he appeared to have pulled from someone’s flower bed on the way here.
I wasn’t sure if the daffodils were because of my visit to Rosewood the day before, where they must’ve refused to sell him anymore bouquets, or because he knew he no longer had to pretend to be rich for me. In either case, I wasn’t amused.
Tossing the trash into the dumpster, I let the heavy, metal lid slam closed with a resounding clang as Diego started toward me, his smile wide and wolfish.
“Really?” I growled. “Do you even know what no means? What else do you ignore from women when they tell you no?”
“Mi reina,” he crooned with a leer, clutching his heart as he stopped about ten feet away. “You wound me. I don’t think I deserve such treatment.”
His act was so fake I rolled my eyes. “Well, you’ve been lying to me since the moment we met,” I countered. “Do you think I deserve that kind of treatment?”
“But you have the truth now. So…” He spread his arms wide and was back to smiling and causing half the petals on the daffodils to fall off their stems. “¿Te gusta?”
“No!” I cried. “I don’t like.”
“Only because you haven’t tried me on for size yet,” he challenged. Then his jaw hardened and eyes flared with angry resolve. “Then you’ll change your mind. I am a hell of a guy, I tell you.”
Setting my hands on my hips, I shook my head and sighed. How was I going to shake this man? His persistence might’ve been flattering if it weren’t for one—okay, three—small details: he was too full of himself for my taste, I knew all this wasn’t really because of me at all, and his attention was turning a little too scary for my taste.
“Fine,” I grumbled, arching him a severe glance. “You name one thing about me that you like, and I might consider a date with you.”
Might meaning no way in hell, but he didn’t have to know that.
His eyes lit with delight, and he heaved in a deep breath as if he had a whole list of things to babble on about. So I lifted a finger to stop him before he could even start. “Something not physical,” I added for good measure.
And just like that, his shoulders sagged as his face fell.
He looked good and truly stumped. Not a single thing came to mind.
Wow, was I that unremarkable personality-wise?
Always lovely to learn.
“Well, there you have it,” I told him, lifting a miserable hand as I proved my point. “This…” After motioning to the alleyway around us, I turned back to him. “Has nothing to do with me specifically. You have absolutely no regard for me as a person at all.”
He opened his mouth to argue, so I rushed to add, “It’s all about the chase to you. So please, go find a girl who actu
ally wants to be caught. It’ll end far better for you that way, I promise.”
Cocking his head to the side as if he didn’t understand my English, he frowned a moment before answering, “Unless you do want to be caught.”
I narrowed my eyes. “But I don’t.”
“Unless you do,” he repeated, grinning mischievously.
Oh, for the love of God.
“Except I really fucking don’t,” I declared, making him frown as if he were tempted to physically force me to change my mind.
I fisted my hands down at my sides, ready to brawl if he got physical, when I noticed someone pass the entryway to the alley behind him. The other person glanced toward us, only to pause, backtrack, and then start our way a second later.
I focused on the newcomer, only to start in surprise when I realized who was joining us.
“What?” I blurted.
At first, I merely blinked, certain I was seeing things, because what in the world would he be doing here? The stench of garbage must be messing with my head and making me see hallucinations, because there was no earthly reason for me to ever cross paths with this guy again.
But he just kept growing more visible and larger the closer he came. I definitely wasn’t seeing things. Squinting at him, I shook my head slowly. “What the hell?”
Diego glanced over. When he caught sight of the approaching man, he puffed out his chest noticeably as if he’d just sniffed competition. Then he scowled at me accusingly. “Do you know this man?”
I frowned at him, ready to tell him to butt out of my business, except the expression on his face told me how threatened he felt by the newcomer, which made me think, hmm.
As soon as the idea bloomed, I ran with it, acting before I could fully reason everything through.
Spinning toward my unsuspecting savior, I sniffed and I narrowed my eyes as I slammed my fists against my hips.
“You’re late,” I accused with an arch of one eyebrow.
The man slowed to a halt. He lifted one of his own eyebrows in return, then glanced at Diego before turning back to me.