by Linda Kage
In front of us, my mother seemed pleased by this turn of events. Clasping her hands together, she breathed out a long, delighted breath. “Excellent,” she cheered. “That takes care of the business portion of the evening then. Now, as soon as dinner’s ready—”
“Ma’am?” a voice said from the opening of the hall that led back to the dining area.
I glanced over to find a uniformed waiter standing there. He bowed slightly to Lana and added, “Dinner’s ready.”
Next to me, Gabby groaned, “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
I glanced her way to find her gaping in disbelief at the waiter, so I turned back to study him more closely just in time to catch him spotting Gabby as well and gaping right back at her with the same surprise.
“Gabriella?” he rasped, shaking his head in confusion as if he was sure he was seeing things. Then he peered my way and instantly narrowed his eyes. “Oh,” he muttered bitterly. “I see.”
As he spun away and stalked off, Lana fluttered out a hand. “What was that?” she asked, shifting her gaze between me and Gabby in open curiosity. “What just happened?”
Gabby looked so miserable I knew she wasn’t going to answer. And I didn’t have a clue as to what was wrong until—ah hell. I suddenly recognized him.
“Was that Daffodils?” I blurted, making my mother echo, “Daffodils? Who’s Daffodils?”
Gabby narrowed her eyes at me and even bared her teeth in my direction. “Yes,” she snarled, clearly aggravated. “That was Diego.”
I shook my head, confused. “Well, what the hell is he doing here?”
She winced, and her face brightened with embarrassed color—or was that guilty color?—before she answered, “He works at Preston Estates. Obviously.”
Yeah, but—Oh.
Realization struck me like a thunderbolt. Daffodils had been the reason Gabby had been inside this very building on Halloween night.
But why had she been here to seek him out? She’d made it sound as if the attraction there had always been one-sided, that she’d never returned his feelings.
Unless she had.
The realization stabbed me straight through the gut.
Fuck.
I’d never caught Gabby lying to me before, but clearly there had been more going on between her and the waiter who liked to bring her flowers at the café than I’d originally assumed. I didn’t like learning this. I didn’t like thinking of her as a liar.
It made me feel betrayed.
“Excuse me.” Lana clapped her hands to get our attention. “But who is that young man and how does he know our Gabriella?”
I glared at her, too upset to even breathe right. Unable to deal with this and my mother, along with everything she’d piled on us tonight, I growled, “We’re leaving.”
“What?” Truly surprised, Lana blinked rapidly. “But—”
“You got what you wanted from us. Gabby will be here first thing in the morning to clean. Have her uniforms ready. But right now, we’re leaving.”
Gabby squeaked out her surprise when I grabbed her hand and hauled her toward the door. Lana rushed after us.
“But you haven’t even eaten. Is this because of that handsome, young waiter? Were he and Gabriella lovers? Dear Lord.” She eyed Gabby speculatively. “Does she means more to you than I originally thought? You look quite jealous right now, Hayden.”
I jerked the door open and glared over my shoulder at her. “Goodbye.”
Nudging Gabby—a bit forcefully—into the hall, I slammed Lana’s stupid diamond door in her face and stormed down the hall, pissed that I’d been wrong about the one woman who’d made me think maybe life didn’t have to be so miserable after all.
Jesus, I was such an idiot.
I had trusted her.
But why had I trusted her? I barely even knew her.
This sucked. And it hurt. God, here came those fucking feelings I’d been trying to avoid for eight long years. They slammed into my chest, nearly robbing me of breath.
All the while, I just wanted to grab Gabby by the shoulders and shake her, demanding to know why. Why couldn’t she just be what I’d needed her to be? Genuine and honest and spunky, merely everything she already came across as being.
Why couldn’t something in my life finally be true?
Chapter 17
Gabby
I marched down the hall, glaring at Hayden’s rigid back and stewing, so mad I could barely see straight. What pissed me off more was how ticked off he looked about the appearance of Diego.
I mean, where did he get off, acting all indignant and churlish after merely seeing someone irritating from my life? I’d just spent the last half hour with his fucking mother from hell, being played and controlled. I had more right to be upset here than he did. Especially after he’d just thrown me under the damn bus and haggled over a deal for me to remain trapped in her clutches.
The bastard.
Unable to keep my anger in check a second longer, I jogged ahead to catch up with him, muttering, “Way to have my back, back there. I mean, thanks a fucking lot. Really appreciate it. Asshole.”
He’d been reaching out to open the door to the outside, but my words caused him to drop his hand. Spinning around so fast that I jumped in surprise, he barged forward, right into my personal space until he was looming over me ominously.
Eyes flashing with heat, he snarled, “For your information, it wouldn’t have mattered to me why you had me put on that little show with you in the alleyway earlier for Daffodils. I would’ve helped you regardless. I honestly don’t give a fuck if it was actually to make an ex-lover jealous and not to shake off an unwanted admirer. So you never had to lie about it, okay?”
“I…” Jaw dropping, I gaped at him before sputtering, “What?”
“You made it sound as if his pursuit was entirely one-sided, that you’d never had any interest in dating him. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and you’d been trying to shake off the close-minded Neanderthal—as you specifically called him—for weeks.”
“Yeah,” I spat, “because that’s exactly what happened.”
Pointing down the hall, he boomed, “So, you’re telling me you didn’t come here, to this building, on Halloween night, specifically because of him? Because we both know you didn’t come with the intention of stealing from my mother. And I can’t picture you willingly stepping foot inside a pretentious place like this unless you had a damn good reason.”
I threw my hands in the air, frustrated by this turn in the conversation. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about freaking pest Diego. That man had been a thorn in my side since the moment I’d met him. But apparently, I had to clear the issue up with pain-in-the-butt Hayden before I could even start to rage at him for what he’d done to me.
Gah, what a nuisance.
So I cried, “Of course I came here that night because of Diego.”
Hayden’s eyes flared, and he sucked in a breath as if I’d just stabbed him straight through the chest and he hadn’t seen it coming.
“Well, then you should’ve just said you two were a thing,” he muttered.
“Except we’re not,” I bit out from between gritted teeth.
Not that Hayden heard a word I said. Railing on, he growled, “There was no reason to lie. If you can’t even be honest with me, then—”
Reaching my threshold of patience, I hauled off and slugged him in the arm to get him to shut up and listen to me already. “I didn’t lie, you asshole! You have everything all fucking wrong.”
He blinked at me once, then furrowed his brow into a deep frown. “I have what wrong exactly?”
“I just said. Everything! You have it all wrong. Because I didn’t lie. I never had and never will be anything with Diego.”
“Then why the fuck would you come to the place where he works to see him?”
“Oh Jesus,” I cried, lifting my hands and balling them into fists because I wanted to slug him again. So bad. “I really don’t want to
explain this to you, especially when you’re being this damn annoying. Gah. Sometimes, I just want to strangle the life out of you.” My fingers un-balled just enough so I could mimic the act. “Why do you always have to be so insufferable and intrusive and just so damn—”
His mouth slammed into mine, his fingers gripping my hair and teeth biting my lip.
It had to be the most brutal kiss I’d ever experienced, nothing soft or gentle about it, just sharp angles and ripe anger. I punched him once in the front of the shoulder for pissing me off and actually thinking this kind of distraction would actually work to settle me down, then I gripped his hair just as tightly as he was gripping mine, and I climbed him, kissing him back with the same savage intensity because—shit, I needed an outlet for all the energy and anger that coursed through my veins.
And he was a really awesome kisser.
He backed me into a wall and lifted me, his touch merciless and fierce but oh-so fucking possessive and hot that I melted in his arms, hiking my legs up and wrapping my thighs around him until he was pushing his erection right up into that hot nook that craved sustenance. When his tongue thrust deep, I almost couldn’t tell if it was in my mouth or pussy because I literally felt sparks in both places.
“Goodness gracious!”
Startling a pair of old ladies who were entering the building and found us devouring each other alive, Hayden tore himself away from me so abruptly it left me open and exposed and wilting down the wall like a rag doll.
“Well, I never,” one woman announced, pulling her purse in tight as if she thought we were going to rob her, while the other fanned herself and grinned, wistfully saying, “Oh, to be so young again.”
Hayden answered neither of them, just fisted his hand and set it against his mouth to help hide the stain of arousal on his cheeks.
After the women bustled past, eyeing us repeatedly as they went, he finally slid his gaze to me, his eyes dark with anger and lust. Hand reaching out, he rasped, “Come on. Not here.”
I nodded because he was right about the location, but I refused to take his hand as I peeled myself from the wall and straightened my shoulders rigidly, then stalked past him toward the door. He took my elbow, his grip surprisingly gentle.
We walked to his car without speaking. He opened the door for me and then shut it for me as soon as I was inside. And we still didn’t say a word when he slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. In fact, we were probably a few blocks down the street, before he cleared his throat and licked dry lips.
“If—” he started, only to need another moment before he repeated, “If you’re willing to tell me why you were at Preston Estates on Saturday, I’m finally ready to listen. Rationally.”
I almost wanted to refuse him. But then, he really was being so damn composed and reasonable about it, pulling himself together to talk it out peacefully, it would’ve been immature of me to refuse now.
“Fine,” I said before heaving in a deep breath to begin my tale. “I was having a really bad day. I’d been working overtime at the café a lot because the turnover there is awful. Then I had to deal with my father and everything that’s been happening with him because of his leg and unemployment and hospital bills. Not long after he lost the limb, Miguel was diagnosed with diabetes, which has been a nightmare all on its own. So when he got sick with the flu last week, I just lost it. He was probably at the tail end of it that night, but I just…” I shook my head. “I’d had enough. I’d spent all that evening paying bills until our bank account was in the negatives. Literally, the negatives. I wrote a hot check for school lunches, banking on the fact they wouldn’t cash it until after Friday when I got paid, because his school always deposits their checks late. And then Miguel told me he was hungry, and—and I didn’t even have a can of freaking chicken noodle soup in the apartment for him. So I tried the neighbors, except none of them answered their doors. I even tried Kaitlynn up on the fourth floor.”
“She was at the company Halloween party that night,” Hayden supplied quietly.
I nodded. “Yeah, I learned that later. But at the time, I had no one to turn to. And I suddenly felt so tired. I wanted—no, I needed—someone else to take over for a minute. So I thought of Diego. He’d been asking me out nonstop and acting like he really liked me. And he’d told me he lived at Preston Estates and was in the movie industry, and he always brought me the most amazing bundles of roses. I’d never been impressed with all his bragging and talking about himself, but I thought he was rich, at least. And maybe, I don’t know—it was stupid—but I figured if I finally agreed to go on a date with him, he’d help me out just a little and maybe buy me some, you know…”
“Chicken noodle soup?” Hayden supplied softly.
I rolled out a lame hand. “Yeah,” I whispered, feeling my chin quiver. “I wasn’t thinking. It wasn’t a smart plan. I know that now. But at the time, I just—I was…”
“Desperate?”
“Yeah.” My chest shuddered as I exhaled a harsh breath, disappointed in myself over how I had behaved. “I chickened out when I saw him. He was serving drinks at some event going on in the ballroom, and then he picked some guy’s pocket right in front of me, and I—I turned away and stalked off, more mad at myself than anything for even considering the idea. I walked around blindly for so long I got lost, and I somehow found my way in front of your mother’s door. When she came out and insulted me, it was like the last straw, you know. I’m not entirely sure why I went into her apartment. She left the door open as she stalked off, but that’s no excuse.”
“Maybe you wanted to pretend like you were someone else for a little bit, someone from a different world who wasn’t dealing with the problems you were dealing with.”
He sounded so understanding and patient with my plight that I hugged myself and bowed my head shamefully. “I wish I could have a redo of the entire night all over again.”
“I don’t,” Hayden answered with such assurance that I looked up to blink at him in confusion.
He pulled to the curb, and I realized we had arrived at my building.
Twisting in his seat to face me, he added, “Because you and I never would’ve crossed paths if you hadn’t gone out to find Daffodils that night or if you hadn’t broken into Lana’s apartment.”
The way that he watched me as if looking inside me told me so many things that he felt. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. It was all so overwhelming. Did I really hate this guy? Or did I really like him? He could make me waffle between either emotions at the drop of a hat. The whole thing was seriously confusing me.
“Why did you do what you did earlier?” I asked softly, still betrayed by it but willing to talk it out without the anger and explore his possible good attributes. “I thought you were going to help me.”
“I did help you,” he murmured, reaching up to sift the backs of his fingers gently—almost lovingly—across my cheek, “in the only way I knew how. And also…” He cleared his throat, looking distinctly uncomfortable before he dropped his hand from my face and added, “I need your help in return.”
I wrinkled my brow. “How so?”
Turning to face the front windshield, he gripped the steering wheel and confessed, “You can’t share anything I’m about to say with Kaitlynn.” Then he turned toward me. “With anyone.”
I frowned. “Okay,” I said slowly. “So, Kaitlynn’s involved somehow?”
He nodded. “And right now it’s just me theorizing and guessing. None of it might be true, so I don’t want to unnecessarily upset her if I’m wrong, even though I doubt I am.”
“Wrong about what?”
He heaved out a breath. “When Kaitlynn’s father died, I think Lana somehow changed his will so she could steal most of Kaitlynn’s inheritance.”
“Oh, shit,” I breathed. “Are you serious?”
Hayden nodded. He went on to explain a crazy impossible story about Kaitlynn being cheated out of her inheritance, about estate lawyers coming back from the
dead and living in Mexico, and his mother being at the hub of it all.
“I have another meeting set up with Detective Gutierrez at the police department on Friday evening. I’ll present him with all the evidence I have then about Finley being alive and living in Cancun. But I was hoping to have something concrete against Lana as well, proving she was involved in altering Arthur’s will, because she had to have been involved.”
“And what if she wasn’t?” I asked, playing devil’s advocate.
He shook his head. “If she was receiving phone calls from Finley, she can’t be completely innocent. It’s just not possible. But I’m sure I can find evidence one way or another to prove or disprove it. I know Lana; she collects souvenirs, especially from the more cruel things she does. If she was involved in changing that will, I guarantee you she still has the original stashed away somewhere. I just need some time to search her apartment to find it.”
When his gaze lifted meaningfully to me, I realized what he was truly asking. “Or you need an inside woman to play at being the maid and search for you while I’m dusting and vacuuming. Holy shit, you want to bring down your own mother.”
Something that looked vaguely like shame and self-disgust entered his gaze before he rasped, “It’s the only way. She needs to be stopped. For her own good as much as everyone else’s.”
I took in his expression and could almost feel the turmoil he was experiencing. I agreed with him fully; the woman he wanted to expose deserved punishment on all counts—she needed to be stopped—but still. She was his mother. No matter what she’d done to him or anyone else, this couldn't be easy for him.
Nodding slowly to show him I couldn’t judge him for his actions, I said, “She does need to be stopped.”
His gaze filled with a wary hope. “So, you’ll help me?”
I snorted. “Fuck yes. If that bitch gypped Kaitlynn out of her rightful money, I’m in. I am so in.” Besides, she’d threatened my family tonight. No one did that and got away with it.