“Jesus...” One of the women in the room let out a shocked breath.
Adisa pointed an angry finger. “What the hell did you do, Jaxon?”
“He didn’t do anything!” Paxton jumped in immediately to defend her twin.
“He must have done something because... God, this looks so bad.”
“Why? Because you don’t want your precious IPO offering to go south?”
“No, how about I don’t want some poor girl to be screwed out of something that’s rightfully hers.”
“This girl didn’t create a damn thing. She’s just mad Jaxon dumped her and didn’t set her up for life like she thought he would.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t help that Jax isn’t exactly being nice about this.”
“Why the fu—” Jaxon abruptly stopped and took a deep breath. He jumped to his feet and shoved his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo pants. “Why do I have to be nice about this? She and I slept together and it was fine enough.” He turned his back on the room and stalked toward their father who watched him from his place by the window. “Months afterward, she wanted it to be more, but I didn’t. Our thing stopped being interesting, so I called it off. She went crying to social media and the gullible press that seems to have it out for you, by the way—” Jaxon pointed to Kingsley “—and after that, they decided to make my life hell.”
“You mean our lives,” Adisa muttered.
“By all means, make this about you,” Jaxon snarled.
Paxton stood up and went to stand by her brother’s side. The twins had been fighting for the last few months. About exactly this, and the joy Jaxon particularly took in pissing people off. When her twin turned his venom on her, Paxton gave as good as she got. But she would give anyone hell who dared to come for Jaxon.
The kid was luckier than he needed to be.
Jade cleared her throat. “Well, I looked into this girl Nessa Bannon and all the friends she’s got in her corner all over social media. They’re easy enough to discredit with the truth, but we might be looking at a multiheaded beast here. Cut one headline and disgruntled girlfriend down and another set will just rise up to take their place.”
Silence rang out in the room. It prickled over Carter’s skin and filled the air with uncertainty. Awkwardness. Now was usually the time he volunteered to fix things, use his connections and set things right. He took a breath to offer.
“So what do you want to do?” Jade stood in the center of the room with her arms crossed under her breasts, her feet wide. “Because you have to choose. I can work to make this go away.” She gestured to the wall of headlines. “In fact, most of those have already been taken down. But this is only a Band-Aid of a solution. It seems like you all haven’t even agreed on the best course of action for the company. Not really.” Her eyes met Carter’s. “You need to make up your minds where you want to go from here. You can’t stay stuck in this place of disagreement.”
And that was one thing he could assent to. Grunts of acquiescence sounded around the room. Heads nodded.
“Okay.” She clapped her hands once, the sound decisive and loud. A ready-for-battle expression on her face. “I’ll step out and you can all make a decision about what to do.” She tipped her head toward Kingsley. “I know at least a couple of you have a honeymoon waiting.”
With a touch of a button, she stopped the parade of inflammatory images across the wall. Then she stepped toward the locked door.
“You should stay.” Carter clenched his jaw and looked around the room to see if anyone disagreed with what he’d just said.
No one did.
“We can decide with you in the room, then we can move forward from here. That way, Kingsley can run off to paradise and not have any of this to worry about while he’s gone.”
His brother shot him a look of gratitude.
Okay.
“So, Diallos. What are we going to do?”
“Ms. Tremaine.” His father spoke up with his booming voice. “Jade. What do you think we should do?”
Mouths dropped open around the room. Carter couldn’t tell who was most surprised. Him, Jade or his siblings.
Not looking intimidated in the least, Jade tipped her head to acknowledge the question. “Why are you asking me, sir?”
“Because Carter and Kingsley trust you. Even this one here who doesn’t have a decent word to say about anyone outside this family.” He indicated Jaxon with a flick of his finger. “Plus everything I’ve heard about you assures me you’re levelheaded and you make a decision based on facts, not emotions.”
“Okay...” Jade snorted and shook her head. Maybe at a private joke. She turned her head to look at Carter.
Why? He had no idea.
Her gaze was assessing, like she was thinking about more than his father’s question.
Was she considering her fee? As soon as he had the thought, Carter dismissed it. Jade was better than that. She’d never choose her fee above doing what was best for the client. Even though if she finished taking care of their mess, she would leave for California. Carter knew that without a doubt.
“Pull the IPO. Don’t go through with it.”
The room erupted in conversation, shouts, disagreements. But Jade only crossed her arms and kept her eyes on Carter’s father, the president of the board of directors and the man who’d made the company what it was.
“Kingsley?” Carter’s father asked.
“I agree.”
A breath of pure surprise left Carter’s throat. His brother had been working on this with the lawyer for months. More than any of the Diallo siblings who had anything to do with the company, he was the one closest to their mother. And while he didn’t do what she wanted out of hand, Carter knew it was because of her that Kingsley started the process in the first place.
“Okay,” Mr. Diallo said.
“Okay,” Kingsley echoed.
And that was that.
Chapter 12
There was no reason left for Jade to stay in Miami.
Outside the window where she stood, a helicopter lifted into the sky. Inside it were Kingsley and his new wife, a new Diallo sister, heading off to their honeymoon in Aruba.
Her job was finished.
The contract between her and Diallo Corporation was terminated. Done.
Most of the wedding guests still remained on the property, dancing and feasting for as long as they wanted. An apparently famous local singer entertained the guests on the stage built for just that purpose and most of the Diallos had scattered, any animosity or incredulity gone once the decision about the IPO was made. They didn’t stay mad at each other long at all.
All Jade had to do was leave.
But her feet were stuck.
A sound at the entrance to the solarium brought her attention away from the disappearing helicopter. Paxton stood in the doorway.
“You should stay,” the girl said.
“I can’t. My job is finished here.” And her parents’ lawyer agreed to sell the house and throw the money from the sale in with the little bit of cash they left to Jade. She’d already planned to donate it to charity. A home for aged-out former foster kids she recently found out about.
“But surely the job isn’t or wasn’t all you had here.”
Wasn’t it?
“It was.”
A movement behind Paxton pulled her gaze away. Carter. Of course. She pushed a breath out between her teeth.
“You have much more than that here, Jade,” Carter said. His large voice, not quite as booming as his father’s but overwhelming enough for her to feel it settle deeply into her bones, filled up the entire sunlit room.
“I don’t, Carter. I really don’t.”
Paxton cleared her throat. “Well, I think I’ll let you two...um...talk things out.” She turned, briefly squeezed Carter around the waist
then dashed away. She closed the door behind her and effectively shut Jade and Carter away from the rest of the house.
“Carter, my home is in San Diego now. You know that.”
When they’d first met in Berkeley, they’d thought it was incredible that the two of them were from the same place, the same city, but had managed to meet on the other side of the country. Now the fact of her adopted home being close to three thousand miles away almost made Jade feel grateful. Carter and his family were here. She was far, far away and didn’t have to see the beauty of them, where she had no hope of having that for herself.
“Your home is anywhere you want it to be, Jade. Is it just that you don’t want to be here? With me?”
“What do you mean ‘with you’?”
“I thought I made it clear last night. I want you to stay. I want to try with you what I was too cowardly to offer you the last time.”
The last time. Jade bit her lip and turned away from him. The last time they’d seen each other in California, he’d left her with more than heartbreak. Because of what she’d done with him, she lost the last threads of connection she had to her parents. She lost... She just lost.
“No, Carter. There’s no way. We have nothing together. And we certainly can’t have anything in the future.”
“Tell me why. You owe me that much.”
That was the last straw. “I don’t owe you a damn thing! Especially not to sit around while you run yourself ragged for everyone but yourself.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Do you see yourself? You’re running all over the place, tired and hopped up on how you can save your family, but you can’t even save yourself!” The anger at how much he’d neglected himself rose up in her. “When was the last time you were home to rest instead of...instead of... I don’t know, being out in the streets being Superman?”
“I’ve been home, Jade. What are you talking about?”
“Anyway. It doesn’t matter. None of what you’re saying right now matters.”
“Don’t say that...” He had the nerve to look hurt. “We matter. The future we can have together matters.”
Her fingers shivered with cold. She curled them into fists at her sides, trying to stem the tide of words saying everything but the truth.
The truth that she was just plain scared.
Tears burned Jade’s eyes.
“But you’ve never been alone!” she cried.
She shivered and took another step back, shocked at herself for saying those words out loud.
“I’m here, Jade, and if you’ll have me, you’ll never be alone unless you want to be. And even then, I’d be waiting nearby for you.”
God, he was saying all the right things. All the things she’d needed to hear as a scared young woman with her belly full of an unplanned baby. But he was too late. She wasn’t that same girl anymore.
She didn’t have that much trust. Her parents had burned it out of her and then she’d lost the last of it with her baby girl.
God...just thinking about it brought everything rushing back. The terror of finding out she was pregnant. Her parents’ anger and hatred directed at her and the baby. Not even knowing the basic things to do to protect herself during sex much less how to take care of an infant on her own.
So alone.
So desperate.
So terrified.
The tears flooded down Jade’s cheeks. “I can’t do this with you right now. I...I just can’t.” Desperate to escape, she pushed past him and ran from the room with tears blurring her vision.
Miraculously, she avoided seeing any of Carter’s siblings as she left the house. Outside, she jumped into her car and forced herself to drive slowly, mindful of the tears that wouldn’t stop coming.
She was a mess.
She was a wreck.
And it was all Carter’s fault.
In the ten years since that afternoon in his room, she’d been turned inside out by her parents, mostly fixed herself, even convinced herself she was completely over him.
She’d turned that teenage love into adult hate. And it had been safe just that way until he’d walked into that office and turned her life upside down.
And now, the adult hate was gone. In its place, a wreck of a woman her parents left behind. Afraid to be abandoned again. Afraid to give in to what Carter offered.
“I can’t. I just can’t...” she muttered to herself and squeezed the steering wheel. The tears dripped steadily, obscuring her vision.
I need to pull over.
But when she steered to the shoulder and stopped the car, she realized she was in front of her parents’ house. Her house now, though not for much longer.
On trembling legs, she climbed out of the car. Inside the house, she stumbled to the room she’d shared with Carter for those passion-filled hours. After he’d left, she’d washed the sheets and remade the bed, then slept there although she still had her hotel room.
This was all she had. This big and empty house. Memories of being isolated from cousins who loved her and friends she’d gone to school with. From everything she’d needed to survive in the world as a woman.
The bed creaked under her weight when she sat down. She toed off her shoes and they clattered against the tile floor. She leaned back against the headboard.
Tomorrow. She would leave tomorrow.
Anything else she had to deal with the lawyer about, they could discuss over the phone. There was nothing but pain for her here.
“Are you just going to mope around in that bed or are you going to give my brother a chance?”
Somehow she wasn’t surprised to see Paxton standing in the bedroom’s doorway. What did shock her though, was the sight of Jaxon just behind her.
“I don’t think I’m Jaxon’s type,” Jade muttered.
Paxton looked over her shoulder at her brother. “I told you she was a smart-ass. They belong together.”
Jaxon turned on a light, then blinked in the sudden brightness. “I wouldn’t go planning a whole new wedding yet.” He planted himself in the doorway.
A clatter of sound came from the front door. “Where are you guys?” a high and girlish voice called out. “Hey, this house is cool!”
Then a young woman appeared behind Jaxon. She shoved her way into the room, pushing past the twins to plop down on the bed beside Jade. From the familiar set of features and bold way of walking into her house, Jade had to guess this was another Diallo.
They were all still dressed in their wedding clothes.
The young woman, who looked like anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five, examined Jade from head to toe. “You’re Jade, huh?”
“I am. And you are...?”
“Alice. The youngest at heart.” The girl looked around the room, rubbed the thick cotton sheet between her fingers then over her bare arms. Apparently, she approved of the thread count. “Our brother loves you.”
Jaxon spoke up. “She means Carter, by the way.”
Jade’s heart hiccuped in her chest, then it felt like everything stopped moving. “He does?”
“Jesus on the cross!” Paxton rolled her eyes. “Of course he does. The guy’s been gone over you since forever. Please put him out of his misery and just stay here in Miami.”
“If you don’t, those two will just sit on you until you say yes,” Jaxon said. He didn’t look like he was invested in the outcome either way.
The sitting wasn’t much of a threat. It made Jade think of girls at a slumber party, something she and her cousin Melody had enjoyed doing together until Jade’s father stopped...everything. A slumber party with the Diallo girls? No, that wasn’t much of a threat at all. Jade had long ago realized she was half in love with Carter’s family already.
“Just say you’ll stay and give him a chance to make you part of our family,” Alice said, quiet
ly insistent. “He’s a good man. You have to know that by now.”
Part of a family.
Jade’s heart thudded hard in her chest. She could barely hear them speak, the need inside her was so loud. Did they even know what they were offering?
“If you don’t stay here, he might leave us,” Alice said softly. “We’d rather gain a sister than lose a brother.”
Then the doorbell rang. Before Jade could even think of answering it, the door opened. Moments later, Carter walked slowly down the hallway. He took in the scene with little surprise.
“Come on, you guys,” he said. “Leave her in peace.”
He pushed his way past Jaxon who was still in the doorway. His younger brother lounged sullenly there, looking around the large bedroom as if it had personally pissed him off. “I’m here as moral support for Pax,” he muttered to his brother.
“Whatever,” his twin said. “You know you don’t want her to leave us either.”
He muttered something else but this time Jade didn’t hear it.
Alice stretched out at the bottom of the bed and pointed her bare feet—she’d immediately abandoned her flats after sitting down—toward Jade’s. “We’re not done though, Carter,” she said. “You can’t throw us out yet.”
“Actually, I do think you guys are done.” He jerked his thumb toward the open door. “Out.”
It was sweet. They were all there to protect his heart while he was there to...do what exactly? Jade frowned at the man she loved.
“What are you doing here, Carter?”
He sat down on the other side of the bed, so close that Jade could feel his body heat. “Trying to convince you to stay.”
“But that’s what we’re doing. We’re already halfway there. If you hadn’t come in to muck it up, she’d have moved in with us by now.”
Jade felt her mouth twitch in reluctant amusement. “Not quite, Alice.”
“You see things your way, and I’ll see the truth.” She shrugged prettily, then fixed Carter with a serious look. “You’ve had a million years to convince her to come back to you. We figured it was our turn now.”
“They do have a point, you know,” Jade said. It had been a long time. Her anger at him and what hadn’t happened between them was long gone. Now she was ready for a new chapter in their lives.
Her Perfect Pleasure Page 17
