King's Ransom (Oil Kings Book 2)

by Marie Johnston

  “Got fired.”

  My face went cold. Fired? Why? “Where’s Carla?”

  The corner of the guy’s mouth ticked. “In the kitchen.”

  He trailed behind me with an empty cart. I followed the sound of a ruthless voice commanding how many dessert plates per cart to load and which tables to serve first.

  Amidst stainless steel shelves stacked with white plates, Carla was barking orders.

  “Why’d you fire Eva?”

  Carla cut off midsentence, her head whipping toward me. Her lips pursed. “Mr. King.” She hustled toward me. “How can I help you?”

  “By answering my question.”

  Carla sighed and propped a hand on her hip. I was in her territory and she wasn’t going to go easy on me. “I can’t have my staff be a distraction at events.”

  “So you fired her?”

  “I can’t very well ask if you’ll be in attendance at each event.”

  “But I was the one who followed her back here. I was the one bothering her.” It didn’t make sense. Eva had gotten canned because I talked to her?

  She stared at me from over her glasses. “You’re not the one who’ll lose business because of it. I employ a hundred people. I can’t let one server cost me gigs.”

  “No one saw us.”

  “Plenty of people noticed where you went and who you talked to, Mr. King.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have even hired her back after giving me no notice when she quit, but she was always so dependable otherwise.”

  “She quit because I paid her a thousand times more than you. What would you have done?”

  I got the look over the glasses again. “Honestly? After my years of working these events, I would’ve known it was temporary and stayed where I was. And if she would’ve told me why, I would’ve informed her that if things went south, she’d be the one packing her bags. Not you.”

  Eva had said something similar. Now Carla. What kind of reputation did I really have? “Why does your experience catering events make you think you know this?”

  Her mouth tightened, lines flaring all around like she was a coffee diehard—out of a mug, not a coffee shop cup. “Your lot protects yourselves.”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  She sucked in a deep breath and took her glasses off. “A server sleeps in once, do I fire him? No. The third time, maybe, depends how short-staffed I am. But if my chicken parmesan is too salty tonight, do you think I’ll get booked for next year’s event? That’s a hard no. I can have a stellar reputation, but one mediocre meal costs me the rest of that customer’s business. They spread the word and I’m out thousands upon thousands of dollars and I have to start laying off people while they cry about the new baby they can’t afford diapers for. Do I feel like doing that because so-and-so told so-and-so that King Tech’s ex-fiancée works for the company and if you’re coming, they’d better not hire me? No.”

  She put her glasses back on and craned her head around to inspect the cheesecake prep. “Make sure every slice is identical. For God’s sake, if it’s too small, set it aside. There’s always someone on a diet who’ll complain about how big the slices are. We can save it for them.”

  She marched off. I was forgotten.

  Eva had lost her job because of me. She’d lost another job because of me.

  The discussions with her and Carla mixed in my mind. I took out my phone and called Rick for a ride and told him to pick me up at the service entrance. Then I sent Taylor a message that I was leaving. He’d cover for me and have a blast doing so.

  Asking a few people for directions, I made my way out the back entrance. Leaning against the loading dock, I tipped my head back. The stars were hard to see over the light pollution, but it wasn’t the stars I was looking at. I had a lot to think about.

  Chapter 23

  Eva

  When I entered the apartment, Adam looked up from his game. He still played a lot, but he did other things with his days too. And he ate without being reminded.

  “What are you doing home so early?” he asked. He was sitting forward on the couch and not slumped back. I sniffed. Was he cooking? He’d been doing so well, going to therapy three times a week and really committing to treatment.

  I hated to shove a rain cloud over his night. “I got fired.”

  He stopped the game, not even caring that he was in the middle of an epic battle. “What happened?” He even shut the TV off.

  I could come home to that. As long as Adam was improving, it’d make the shit turn of events the last few weeks worth it.

  “Yeah, we were catering this big charity supper, so take one guess who was in attendance.”

  “Oh, damn, Eva. I’m sorry. Did he demand it?”

  I shook my head and trudged to the couch. Sinking down, I didn’t care that I wrinkled the uniform. I wasn’t sure I’d actually return it to Carla. “No, but he followed me to the back and we argued and Carla saw and canned me. Bad for business.”

  The other thing that was bad for business was to be publicly outed as the real criminal in the breaking and entering cases from years ago. I couldn’t get my old job back as a bartender because the owner didn’t know if he could trust me.

  I’d worked there for three years.

  “I’m so tired, Adam.” That catering job had been my last chance. We were using the money I’d made working for Beckett to put Adam through treatment. Then there was insurance on the car and some TLC to get it running again. If we started tapping into it for regular living expenses, it’d drain dry quickly.

  “What about that one place you put in for? The executive assistant opening? He called you back for another interview.”

  “His wife forbade him to hire me. I guess I’m a home-wrecker now too.” After breaking up with Beckett, I’d started to believe Adam. How many applications could I put in without hearing back from anyone?

  “It’s not fair that you were vilified.”

  It was fair. I’d gone looking for something in Beckett’s past to destroy him with, but it’d been my own shady past that had caused my ruin. He was a good guy with a stick up his ass for a noble reason. I was the petty thief.

  “I put some pot pies in the oven. Want one?”

  “No, thanks.” I wasn’t hungry. After serving a hundred people their meal and getting my walking papers, I didn’t want to see anything edible right now.

  I curled into the corner and pulled up a book on my phone. Thank God for libraries. I was staying far away from the TV and any social media. With the library app, I didn’t have to leave home. I could lose myself in a good book and not think about Beckett. Or wonder how Gentry’s health was and if this breakup would cost him or Kendall a job.

  Adam hadn’t turned the TV back on. “I was thinking that I could dig out the Christmas tree. Want to help decorate?”

  I’d put up the tree since I was strong enough to drag it out of the closet, but I had no cheer this year. “No. I think I’ll just read in my bed tonight. Tomorrow I have to start the job search”—and the humiliation—“over again.”

  “I get that.” The oven beeped and he disappeared into the kitchen.

  How our roles had changed. I didn’t think I was clinically depressed. Anyone who’d been through the publicity circus like I had would want to hide for a few weeks. Maybe years.

  Seeing Beckett tonight had hurt. I was glad Adam was in the kitchen. I had to screw my face up ten different ways to keep from crying.

  Beckett had been in a suit like the one he’d worn when I’d first met him. When he was talking to me, it had been all I could do not to lean in and smell him. That soap he used to lather me with. The shampoo he joked cost more than some appliances. The sauce stains on his tux I wanted to dab at.

  He hadn’t batted an eye.

  I missed him. For weeks I’d tried to keep from having foolish fantasies, the ones where the hero comes back begging for forgiveness. But I’d been in the wrong, and even more, I wasn’t worth his reconsideration.

  No mes
sages. No emails. No job. A whole week had gone by and I was as unemployed as the day I was born. There had to be something I was qualified to do with a boss who didn’t watch the news. My drama was dying down. Terra kept trying to reignite it on social media but it’d been a month. It was no longer juicy and there was always holiday drama. I guess if there was a time to go viral, the holidays worked.

  Tossing my phone on my bed, I collapsed back. What the hell was I going to do? Logging into our bank account, I was going to run the numbers again. With what I’d made the month I’d gotten paid working for Beckett, Adam and I could make it—

  I frowned. That was more money than when I’d checked yesterday.

  Locating the deposit, my stomach fluttered, then a wave of grief swamped me. I’d been paid for those two weeks.

  He’d paid me. What did that mean? Did it mean anything?

  A choked cry left me. Then a sob. Then more until I was a puddle in the middle of my bed.

  There was a knock on the door, but I was too lost in my heartache to answer. I was too ashamed that I’d lost it over a guy who couldn’t be bothered twice by me.

  The bed dipped and Adam’s hand lay on my shoulder. “What’s going on?” he asked softly.

  “I’m being stupid.”

  “You hardly ever cry, so I know it’s not stupid.”

  I hardly ever cried until Beckett gave me reason to. “It’s about a boy, which is always stupid.”

  Adam’s sigh was audible, but it wasn’t because he was frustrated with me. It was his I don’t know what to do sigh. “These are the times I miss Mom the most.”

  “I never cried over guys.”

  “No, but there were a few times you needed to. And if Mom had been around, you would’ve.” My tears came harder because he was right. “Like Glove Box Underwear Irving.”

  A laugh interrupted my sobs. “Mom would’ve hated Irving.”

  “Dad could’ve talked you out of dating him.”

  “I don’t know. I was eighteen and knew everything.” I sat up, feeling better with Adam here. It had been me and him for so long. “Beckett paid me for those last two weeks.”

  He peeked at the computer and whistled. “That’ll help.”

  “I don’t like spending his money.”

  “Eva, you worked for it. That job was separate from your relationship with him.”

  “Not really.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yes, really.” His expression turned introspective and he glanced at the bank account again.

  “Spill it.”

  “Hmm?”

  It’d been so long since we’d done this back and forth, I almost didn’t recognize it. His mind was churning over something. “You have an idea.”

  “I didn’t want to mention it until the hoopla died down, which is taking longer than expected.”

  “You can thank a woman scorned.”

  His smile was brief. “With all the extra media attention being given to Organize You, I got a call.”

  My eyes flew wide. “Seriously?” All my problems washed away. That app had been his pride and joy, his baby. And people were interested again?

  “Yes, but I told the rep that it’s years old, that there are others out there that are up-to-date.” He gave me a slight smile. “And he said he knew that but I should update it and get back to him, and to let him know about anything else I’ve been working on.”

  “But you’d need a new computer, and new—” My mind whirred over everything. It wasn’t that expensive. Well, it was, but it had been like that four years ago when Adam was setting up the app too. “With the new deposit, we could easily upgrade what we needed. Though it’d take a month off our projected budget.”

  “They also…offered me a job. This company doesn’t just acquire apps. They recruit the talent behind them.”

  My brows shot up. “That’s…awesome. Where?”

  “I could work from home, but I’d have to travel to Atlanta to the home offices a few times a year. Orientation would start right after the New Year.”

  Acid ate a hole through my body. I was so happy for him, so hopeful, but I’d be alone during the longest stretch of the year, trying to forget Beckett and applying for jobs I hated.

  “I said no.”

  He what? “What? Why?”

  “I’m doing well, and I don’t want to mess it up by leaving my routine before I get it cemented. Or by leaving you.”

  Were we ever going to get out of this cycle? He’d give up opportunities for me when I was down, then I’d do the same for him. “Adam…”

  “And I have an idea.”

  The sly look on his face was one I’d feared never seeing again. “For a new app?”

  “Yes, for a game. I got the idea about a brother and sister.” As he continued to describe his intricately versatile multiplayer game, I was astounded by the detail. All those months on the couch, he hadn’t been dead to the whole world. He’d been lost in his head, plotting and designing a game. Yes, he’d been depressed, but it hadn’t stopped him from creating. Depression had just made him think there was no reason to try to go anywhere with his creation.

  “So anyway,” he concluded. “The relationship between the players can be anything, and you can play with more than two and it wouldn’t change the functionality.”

  “That’s fucking brilliant.”

  The flash of his grin was as welcome a sight today as it had been weeks ago. “Work with me on it.”

  Stunned, I stared at him. What did I know about games? I watched him play.

  “And on updating Organize You. We can be Chase and Dickerson Enterprises, only with a more exciting name.”

  He’d done it all before, getting so wrapped up in the process that I had felt forgotten and found someone who’d pay attention to me, someone who wanted to break into houses. Graduating high school didn’t mean I was exempt from the same insecurities that had plagued me once before.

  But this time, I’d help him update his app. Go into business with him. Two kids who couldn’t find a decent job to keep the roof over their heads doing it themselves.

  “I happen to have some time on my hands.” I smiled for the first time since Terra’s news segment. “And I learned a few things in my last job.”

  Chapter 24

  Beckett

  The plane touched down in Idaho. The last time I’d landed at this airport ran through my head. Eva’s first flight. Her anxiety, her curiosity, and her head for this business all came flooding back.

  The flight attendant smiled at me. Shirley. I racked my brain to remember if she was the one who had a grandkid due next month, or if her daughter had graduated from college this past fall semester. I couldn’t come up with it. The entire flight I hadn’t spoken to her more than to let her know I didn’t need anything and that I’d be working the rest of the trip.

  Eva would’ve known what to say. Taylor too. He had stayed back in Denver. I wanted to talk to Dr. Herrera alone, and I didn’t want to inspect my reasons too closely.

  A driver picked me up and took me to a familiar office building. Everywhere I looked I was reminded of my time here with Eva. Our walk down this path. Her delight looking in the koi pond. And how I didn’t mind that we appeared to be a couple in the waiting room.

  I checked in at the desk and ignored how the receptionist looked behind me for my significant other. Sitting by myself, I clicked through my morning emails. There was one from Taylor asking if I was going to stop in at the office when I returned. I replied and said I would. I hadn’t planned to, but his upbeat conversation would be a welcome distraction from all the emotions this trip was going to dredge up.

  Dr. Herrera poked her head out the door. “Beck, come on back.”

  She was smiling, so that was a good sign. I’d expected her to reject my request for a meeting when I’d called in the first place. She didn’t need to speak to me again. She had no reason to give me a second chance.

  In her office, I sank into her cozy couch. The spot next
to me was glaringly empty. When Eva had been here with me, I’d been so attuned to her. Her reactions to Dr. Herrera, Idaho, and the app itself. Nothing about Eva had escaped my notice.

  Dr. Herrera tucked a dark lock of hair behind her ear. “So, needless to say, I was surprised that you’re still interested.”

  “And I was just as surprised you were willing to meet again.”

  She laughed and a load lifted off my shoulders that I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying around. I was so used to having the power. At home. At work. In my personal life. But this was Dr. Herrera’s territory as much as it was new ground for me.

  “I’m not in the business of giving up on people. But I have to ask you, why the renewed interest? You made it clear my son’s past was a deal breaker.”

  “Life lately has been…enlightening.”

  A divot formed between her brows as her pleasant expression changed to professional concern. “I hate to say it, but I’ve followed the news on you the last couple of months.”

  It had been almost two months since Eva and I had broken up. The end of January was a few days away, and then beyond that was my birthday. Dad had been strangely silent on the home front, but I still got occasional texts and messages from him, asking me to call. My brothers had probably told him to lay off, maybe even explained that what was fake had turned way too real, and that these last couple of months had been the worst of my adult life. Nothing had changed, just that Eva was no longer in it.

  “Eva was a strong supporter of your app. She believed in it, she believed in you, and she believed in your son. She told me over and over not to hold his history against him.” I sighed, staring at my hands, feeling way too much like one of her patients. “I’ve been shown there are some flaws in my thinking. Like how rigidly I stuck to the idea that I shouldn’t take a chance on some people who’ve made mistakes.”

  “You lost her, didn’t you?”

  I nodded, my body numb. I had lost her. She’d been mine and she’d stuck beside me and I’d driven her so far away that she was as good as lost. We lived in the same town, but I didn’t have the guts to approach her again. Talking to me had gotten her fired. Why would she ever be willing to interact with me again? This was a foreign situation for me, and I didn’t even know where to start to fix it. “We broke up, yes.”