“I don’t know,” Fiona said with another grin. “Beautiful?”
Spencer’s forehead lifted at the very thought that she would diss Richard’s lady like that, and do so in Richard’s face. He looked at his brother quickly. He knew how menacing Richard’s temper could be.
It was obvious by the look on Richard’s face that he was pissed with Fiona, a woman he had little regard for in normal circumstances. But Spencer could also tell his brother had bigger things on his mind than to even entertain her little comment.
And Spencer decided to move on too. “Who would have tampered with her brakes?” he asked his brother. “That’s some scary shit. Who would pull that off?”
Richard shook his head. “I have no idea. But I want those bastards found.”
“You’ve got men on it?”
“I contacted Darwin. He’s got every man available on it.” Darwin was the Shetfield organization’s security chief.
“What about Janet?” Spencer asked.
“What about her?”
“Are they checking out her enemies too?”
Richard looked at Spencer with a frown on his face. “Why would she have enemies? Why would you ask me something like that?”
“You mean you haven’t asked her?”
Richard realized he hadn’t. “No.”
“Because you just assumed they were trying to harm you by harming her?”
“That’s what I assumed, yes.”
“But Richard, why would they? You just hooked back up with her. There hasn’t been enough time.”
When Spencer said it, Richard realized it too. He realized he’d been so traumatized by how closely it came to certain death for Janet that he hadn’t been thinking straight at all!
Spencer saw it too. “We’ll get out of your hair,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay.”
“Thanks, Spence.”
“Come on, Fee.”
“Already?” Fiona asked. “We just got here.”
“And we’re just leaving.” He looked at Richard. “I’ll call you later,” he said, and then he and Fiona left.
Richard, still shocked that he hadn’t even considered the possibility that the perps could be enemies of Janet’s, walked over to his full-sized bar and poured himself a shot of whiskey. He drank it down fast, sat the glass back on the countertop, and then let out a loud burp. He made another phone call, to Darwin, and then he headed upstairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Janet was lying in his bed, under the covers, when he made it upstairs. He folded his arms, leaned against the doorjamb, and watched her as she lay. It was still uncanny to him how much she appeared to belong there. But it was still sad to him, too, because he knew she could have been there six years ago, had he only taken that chance.
He aimed to rectify that error if it was the last thing he ever did.
Janet, feeling just as relaxed as Richard thought she looked, moved from her side to her back. And that was when she saw him standing there. “I didn’t hear you come up,” she said. “They’re gone already?”
“You sound like Fiona,” Richard said as he pushed himself away from the doorjamb and made his way up to the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed and continued to stare at her. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel good. I started to take another long tub bath,” she added with a smile. She had taken a bath when they first arrived at Richard’s house from the hospital. “But I knew it was just my nerves acting up on me.”
“That was quite the ordeal you went through, Janet. Don’t minimize it.”
“I know it was . . .” Just thinking about it gave her the willies. “It was the worst thing ever, Richard. When I saw that train coming and I still had no brakes, I almost froze I was so scared. It was you, yelling for me to turn it, that made me snap out of it and do what I had to do.”
“If you think you were terrified,” he said, shaking his head. “When I kept calling your name and got no answer? I nearly died, Janet. I’ve never been more afraid of anything in my entire life. I thought I had lost you when I literally just found you.”
Janet knew exactly what he meant. That thought had crossed her mind too. She thought she’d never see him again. And it was an awful thought. She reached out her arms to him.
Richard pulled the covers back, got in bed beside her, and pulled her into his arms. They held each other that way for several more minutes. And then they laid there, side by side, facing each other.
“I don’t know why I got in your bed like this. I need to take my behind home. Mo’s going to start worrying soon.”
“You still haven’t told him?”
“No. And I don’t intend to. No brakes? He’ll worry himself sick if he found out.”
“But you’ll have to tell him something. You don’t even have a car any longer.”
Janet laughed. “I forgot about that!” Then she thought about why she had no car any longer, and the smile faded.
“I have some bad news,” Richard said.
Janet looked at him. “What?”
“You’re going to have to tell Mo exactly what happened.”
“Just because I don’t have a car? I’ll let him know there was an accident, sure, but I won’t have to let him know the extent of what happened.”
“He’ll figure that out himself,” Richard said.
Janet didn’t understand. “And why’s that?”
“Because you’re going to stay with me from here on out, until I know for certain who those bastards are that tried that shit.”
“But . . . stay here?”
“Or I’ll stay at your house,” Richard said. “But either way, you’re staying with me until I find the assholes responsible. Where I go, you go. From here on out.”
Janet felt a sense of alarm that she would, in essence, need a bodyguard, but she also felt elated that Richard would be that bodyguard. Finally she just might have a man willing to look out for her. It was a strange-new-world experience for Janet.
“That includes tomorrow,” Richard said.
Janet looked at him. “What about tomorrow?”
“I meet with the lawyers. I was supposed to meet with them today.”
“About the mill?”
Richard nodded. “Oh, yeah. That hasn’t been resolved.”
“So you’re going to settle out of court?”
“Absolutely not! I did that too many times before. I’m fighting it this time.”
Janet gave Richard a look that let him know she wasn’t exactly in agreement with that decision. “What is it?” he asked her. “You don’t agree?”
“I don’t know enough to agree or disagree. But I wonder if you know enough.”
Richard frowned. “Why wouldn’t I know enough?”
“Have you spoken with the workers yet?”
“Those females filing that lawsuit? No. And I don’t intend to.”
“Not them,” said Janet. “But the workers in general. Those not a party to the lawsuit. They just might give you an earful.”
Richard hadn’t even considered it. He exhaled. “I guess we can pay the mill a visit before I meet with the lawyers tomorrow.”
“We?” Janet asked. “What you mean we, white man?”
Richard laughed. “Where I go, you go. Remember?”
Janet smiled. “I remember.”
“Which reminds me,” Richard said. “I’ve got my security chief running a background check on you.”
Janet was surprised. “A background check? What for?”
“Not to check on you, per se,” Richard said, “but to check on any enemies you might have.”
Enemies?” Janet asked.
“People in your past who may want to do you harm. Like Rooney and Rice for instance.”
“Why would Rooney and Rice want to harm me?”
“Had they gotten that contract with me, I would have been, by far, their biggest client. You said William Rice blamed you for failing to close the deal.”
>
“That’s true.”
“It’s a long shot, but I want it checked out anyway. Can you think of anybody else?”
Janet didn’t have to think about it. She was already shaking her head. “No. It never even occurred to me that somebody would have bothered with my brakes because of a grudge against me. I just assumed---”
“They were after me?” Richard asked.
“Maybe not after you,” Janet said. “But upset with you for being with me.”
“Like one of those women I fool around with?” Richard asked.
Janet nodded her head. “Like Margo from the restaurant, yes. That’s kind of what I figured.”
“I thought about that. And my guys are checking that angle out too. But time isn’t on our side. It hasn’t been enough time for word to get around about you and me, unless they were already snooping in my life. And besides, those women don’t give a damn about me. They liked the gifts and bragging rights, but that’s about it. There’s a line of men in this town who can give them both of those things.” Then he smiled. “No worries, okay?”
She smiled too. “Being with you makes life feel so different,” she said.
Richard looked at her.
“Even in the midst of that traumatic experience,” she continued, “I felt unburdened afterwards because you were there as soon as I stepped out of that car. That means a lot to me, Richard.”
Richard smiled. “Your being here with me,” he said, “means more to me than you’ll ever know.” Then he paused with a look that appeared anguished. Janet immediately wondered if it was because of her confession about him being there for her. Was it too much too soon for him? It was obvious, given his lifestyle, that he was commitment-phobic. What was she thinking?
But that wasn’t it at all for Richard. Because he had a confession of his own. “I regret,” he started saying, but then stopped. And then he started again. It needed to be said plainly, he felt. “Six years ago,” he said, “I regret not pursuing you, Janet.”
Janet stared at him.
And he kept talking. “I regret not giving it my all to make you mine. I should have. My life would have been so different had I made that commitment to you. But I didn’t. I was certain I’d hurt you. I was certain I’d leave you. That’s what I thought it was, anyway, all these years. But now I realize that wasn’t it at all. I wouldn’t have hurt you. I wouldn’t have left you.”
Janet was shocked to hear that. “Then why didn’t you give us a try?” she asked him.
“The simple truth is that I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
Richard began rubbing the side of her face with the back of his hand. “You have the smoothest skin I’ve ever felt,” he said.
“Richard!” She wanted a straight answer. “You were afraid of what?”
Richard exhaled. “I was afraid that you’d hurt me. That you’d leave me. And I wouldn’t be able to come back from that.”
Janet was stunned. She stared at him. She didn’t know what to say.
Then she found the words. “I’d never hurt you,” she said to him. “How could you have thought I’d hurt you?”
“I’ve never met anybody like you, Janet. I didn’t know what to think. Or to do. I just knew I wasn’t taking any chances. Even in my businesses I’m risk-adverse. I don’t take chances, I just don’t. I should have taken a chance with you.”
Janet wrapped her arms around Richard, and he pulled her to him, hugging her too. “I won’t hurt you, Richard.”
“And I won’t hurt you, Janet. We’re in this thing together. We’ll sink or swim together.”
But Janet would have none of that. She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “We’ll swim together,” she said. “No sinking. We can prevent that forest fire. We can prevent that drowning. It’s up to us, and how committed we are to making this work.”
He smiled. “You’re so right,” he said. “We’ll swim together.”
Janet smiled, too, and they kept their arms around one another, staring into each other’s eyes, until Richard kissed her on her lips.
And that was all it took. They fell into a long kiss as they embraced each other tightly. Janet could feel Richard swelling against her, and Richard could feel Janet’s heart hammering against him. Which, he now knew, was how she expressed her state of heat.
Richard was so caught up in the throes of their passion that he removed his clothing, removed his dress shirt that she wore, got on top of her, and ravaged her breasts for several minutes. So much so that Janet almost came from that feeling alone. They were so caught up in passion that he entered her, raw, and neither one of them said a word.
Janet knew she should have stopped him. But she was too caught up in the throes of passion, too. And when he started moving inside of her, and she felt him in the raw, she could hardly contain herself. She held on and enjoyed every second. They both enjoyed it. So much so that they even forgot about the incident earlier. And the all-day hospital stay. And they were no longer stunned by the fact that they both had decided to give their relationship a shot, which meant commitment, which neither one of them had any experience with. And even that was okay. Because they loved being with each other just that much.
And then Richard’s self-control broke, and his slow-motion lovemaking changed, and he began to pound.
So much so that the bed seemed to move. So much so that Janet was screaming in elation. So much so that Richard came first and poured into her until his tank was nearly empty, and they still kept going at it. They couldn’t seem to stop themselves.
Until Janet’s cell phone began ringing.
“Get it later,” Richard said, pounding her still.
“I have to get it now,” she said, reaching for her phone. “It may be Mo.”
It was Mo. He hadn’t heard from her all day and wanted to know if she was okay. She said that she was, and that she was with Richard, and that she would call him back later. And then she tossed the phone aside, as Richard continued to pound her and suck her breasts in such a way that she couldn’t begin to think about anything but how wonderful it felt. And she began to have another orgasm. And he came again, too, just after she did.
It was later, when it was all over and they were wrapped up in each other’s arms that they both reached the same conclusion: that Mo needed to be told exactly what was going on, and how little they knew why it was happening. And he needed to be under Richard’s protection too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Janet was right. Those workers, males and females alike, gave Richard an earful. And it wasn’t just Lance Colvin that was the problem, they said. Most of management, which was all male, the ladies pointed out, treated the good-looking women as if they were their play-toys. They made those women section leaders or gave them all of the overtime, the workers told Richard and Janet, but they had to pay a price to get those perks.
“Perks,” Janet said, as she and Richard walked out of the mill and stood at his Porsche. He opened the passenger side door for Janet. “They called them perks.”
“I had no idea all that shit was going on,” Richard said. “Was it like that when you were there?”
“No. Not that bad. I mean, Lance was an asshole. He truly was. But he was overall fair. At least to us regular girls. I can’t speak for how he treated the so-called good-looking girls. I wasn’t privy to any of that.”
But when they walked up to the passenger side of Richard’s car, and Richard opened the door for Janet to get in, he lingered before letting her in. “You know what one of the lawyers phoned and told me last night?”
“What?”
“That if we didn’t settle, the plaintiffs were going to mention the fact that I harassed you, too, when you worked here.”
Janet was shocked. “Me? You never harassed me! Where would they get that nonsense from?”
“One of the ladies worked here six years ago and she remembered when I purchased that Mercedes for you and offered you that promotion to ass
istant manager. She remembered how it was all the rave at the mill. Mainly because you were only twenty-two, had just gotten hired, had worked in a meat packing plant for four years as your only experience, and suddenly you were going to be second in command. They said I was as bad as Lance.”
“That’s a lie,” Janet said. “What you did for me wasn’t harassment in any way.”
“And if I go to court?”
“I’ll be happy to testify to that fact. Although,” she added.
As Richard waited for her to say more, he noticed a car parked down the street, on the same side as the truck stop café. Then he looked at Janet when she didn’t continue. “Although what?” he asked her.
“If they’re telling the truth about what’s going on at this mill,” Janet continued, “why would you want to fight that?”
Richard exhaled. “I have to, Janet, or every one of those ladies will want a piece of the pie too.”
It was a dark gray Chrysler 300, he noticed. It wasn’t on his property, but it was down the street from his property and looked odd parked there. And when it began moving slowly toward Mill property, Richard paid special attention. It was creeping along so slowly a couple cars flew around it. It was moving too slowly, Richard felt, as if it had other intentions beyond going from point A to point B. And then it suddenly began accelerating.
“Get in the car, Janet,” he said , refusing to take his eyes off of that Chrysler. “Get in the car now!”
Panicking, she was getting in without asking him why. His voice made her understand the seriousness, and she didn’t hesitate. But he pushed her in anyway as he pulled out his gun, ordering her to stay down. If those were the perps in that car, he was determined to get those bastards this time.
And as soon as he saw that the passenger on the backseat of that car revealed a rifle in his hand, he began firing first, running toward that car. He knew he hit the gunman on that hand because the rifle fell out of the open window. Now Richard was the one with the hardware advantage, and he aimed to use it.
“Stay down!” he yelled to Janet again as he began running across the dirt lawn of Mill property toward the street, running and firing at that Chrysler as it was speeding away. Richard was running as fast as he could, with an angle to cut that car off at the pass. And he didn’t stop firing as he ran. He took out the back windshield of that windshield as he fired, with the glass shattering all over the trunk. And he also managed to hit one of the tires. But that was all.
Plain Jane Evans and the Billionaire Page 16
