Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“And that is why you had an intimate conversation with him and allowed him to touch you?”
“There was nothing intimate about our conversation,” I argued. “And I don’t like being grabbed or touched, but I also need my job, and although I don’t know what Mr. McKenzie does for a living, he seems important. I can’t make a scene every time he grabs my wrist to ask for another Bloody Mary or a bag of pistachios!”
“I warned you,” Hale said beside me.
I swung my gaze to him. He was leaning back. His eyes narrowed with fury as he glared at me.
WHAT?! What was it they wanted to hear from me? Why was I in freaking Mississippi against my own will, in some billionaire’s house, being asked about a man who had ruined my life and another who was just an annoying passenger I dealt with several times a month?
“Let’s start from the beginning,” the other man said. “How do you know Harland Allen?”
Although that was the very last thing I wanted to talk about, if it got these people to believe me, then I would talk. Anything to get out of here. Away from all this…whatever it was.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I had just gotten out of college with my hard-earned degree, and I managed to get a job at a marketing firm that I believed would jump-start my life,” I began.
That wasn’t what had happened at all.
Seventeen
Hale
“I was hired at a marketing firm owned by Hark Allen Enterprises. My interview was done by the man who would become my boss, Ben Deck.” She paused and took a deep breath, as if we’d asked something hard of her.
Damn Millennials were so fucking dramatic.
“It was a great job. I loved it. But one day, I met a man in an elevator. He was older, attractive, charming, and he asked me to dinner that evening. I went. It was our third date that he informed me that I couldn’t tell my boss that we were seeing each other. Or anyone in the office. Until that evening, he hadn’t told me his last name, and once he did, I understood. I declined his next few attempts at asking me to dinner.” She let out a bitter laugh. “But he was determined. Flowers arrived at my desk—insanely exotic flowers. They never came with a card, but I knew. Tickets to anything from concerts to musicals appeared in envelopes on my desk. And I was young and stupid, so the day I arrived to work and found tickets to see The Black Crowes, I caved.”
“The Black Crowes?” I asked, making sure I’d heard that right.
She nodded.
“You’re thirty-four.”
“And?”
“How the fuck do you even know who The Black Crowes are?”
She gave me a disdainful look. “Chris Robinson. Who doesn’t know who he is?” She turned her focus back to Linc. “As I was saying, I caved. I sent him a text that I’d go. He picked me up, and we had a great time. I…” She paused, then added, “I went back to his place that night—or what I thought was his place. I had no idea it was an apartment he kept. Not his actual home.”
Linc was studying her skeptically. “You didn’t think the man who owned the company you worked for would own anything more than an apartment?”
“It was an impressive apartment. Penthouse, excellent view of the ocean. Not a typical apartment,” she replied.
Linc didn’t seem convinced. “And where did you think his wife was during all this?”
She scowled. “I didn’t know he had a wife. He didn’t wear a ring. I didn’t ask because…because I was young and naive.”
“And you never once thought to google the man? Find out that he was married? When he was bombarding you with flowers and tickets?”
She winced. “No. And trust me, I wish I had so many, many times over the years.”
Linc shook his head slightly as if he was disappointed. “I find that real hard to believe. But continue.”
Bay opened her mouth, appearing ready to argue, but seemed to change her mind. Her shoulders straightened, and she lifted her chin and glared at Linc. Not many people had the nerve to glare at the head of the Mississippi branch of the Southern Mafia. I almost smiled. Almost. After all, she wasn’t aware that was who Linc was.
“Do you want to hear the story or not?” she snapped.
Linc raised a singular eyebrow. “I want the truth.”
I could see Bay’s jaw flex as if she were clenching her teeth. Fuck, she was feisty.
“I am telling you the truth,” she bit out.
“Continue,” Linc said simply.
Her shoulders rose and fell before she shifted in her seat. My gaze dropped to her jacket blazer to make sure it was still fully closed. I was regretting the destruction of her blouse now. I didn’t like how on edge I was about her accidentally flashing her tits to anyone else.