Complete Fixed: The Complete Fixed Series: Books 1-5

by Laurelin Paige

  Though, I did feel differently when I imagined Hudson hugging Celia. Enough differently that I was the one to end the embrace with David.

  "What are you —?” I started to say, but he spoke at the same time. "I thought you were on maternity leave."

  "I am.” I corrected myself. “I was.” Wasn’t I? Because there I was at The Sky Launch, none of my plans to expand a secret. "I don't know anymore."

  I felt mildly ashamed that he'd kept up on my life better than I'd kept up on his. But I’d had three kids, and he was still single and carefree. Probably.

  David grimaced at my confusing response. "Hudson doesn't want you working, or what?"

  Something else I had forgotten, how suspicious David had always been of the way Hudson treated me. It was unfair, but it also wasn’t anything I felt this was the time to get into. I ran my hand through my hair, trying to think of the best way to respond.

  "He… actually..." I'd only come into The Sky Launch today because of Hudson. But even though I was pouting and hiding out here for the day, I did want to get back onto the investigation, wanted to see the threats end before I truly came back to work. I wouldn’t be able to focus on my job otherwise. "It's complicated," I finally said. "But what about you? Are you here for the job fair?"

  He smoothed his jacket. "Can you think of any other reason I would be in a suit?"

  "What about Adora?" If he was leaving Hudson's Atlantic City nightclub, I wondered if he'd told Hudson yet.

  David gave me a funny look. "You don't know about the closing?"

  I thought back to any conversations I’d had recently with my husband about his satellite businesses. There weren’t many. It wasn’t a piece of his company that he dealt with frequently enough to ask my advice over the dinner table. Although perhaps there had been a passing mention.

  "I think I heard something about remodeling. Are you saying the club closed for good?" Maybe they were doing a more drastic overhaul than I'd originally been aware of.

  "All I know is I no longer have a job," David said with a shrug.

  A new wave of frustration rolled through me. "Oh my god, Hudson. Did he even consider that people would be out of a job when he decided to remodel?" The question was more to myself than for anyone else. He should have known better. "You want me to talk to him?"

  "No, please don't." David stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled back on the heels of his feet. "Nightlife there isn't like it is here anyway. It's a dead zone. Atlantic City is not the place it used to be. I want to get back to the real city. I want my old life back."

  An idea struck, and I reached out to grab Gwen's hand and tug her closer to us, pulling her into the conversation.

  "I know! You should come back here! Don't you think, Gwen? It would be perfect to have another experienced manager like David when we get the expansion going." I turned to David. "Would that be weird? Being back here. Working under me."

  David smirked. "I think I quite enjoy working under you, Laynie."

  I rolled my eyes, but chuckled. I'd forgotten he was a guy with a twelve-year-old's sense of humor.

  Gwen, however, frowned at the joke. She was such a prude—not like Leisl, who had returned to polishing glassware before the evening’s service began. No wonder the most exciting part of Gwen’s sex party was the cleanup.

  "I'll put in my resume," he said. "But tell me about this expansion. Is The Sky Launch opening another location?"

  I opened my mouth to start telling him about my idea when I remembered that I had my laptop up in the office. "Let me show you! I have a PowerPoint presentation upstairs. Do you have the time?"

  He laughed, shaking his head. "A PowerPoint presentation. Course you do. And, yeah. I have a little time."

  "I'm coming with," Gwen announced then stared at Leisl until she looked up.

  It took Liesl a few minutes to realize that there had to be a manager still on the floor. And that she was bottom of the totem pole when it came to seniority. "Oh. I'll stay and keep doing my job. Enjoy your PowerPoint."

  "Thank you, Liesl," Gwen said, leading the way to the office.

  I turned to follow, but first lifted my head up to the bubble room where my bodyguard of the day was camped out. I gave him a wave and pointed up with my thumb so he knew where I was headed. He nodded in return.

  "Hudson still has bodyguards on you, does he?" David asked as we headed up the stairs to the manager's office.

  Still had bodyguards. The last time I'd had them had been because of Celia. Then I’d gone years without them. Now I had them again, so to David it looked like I’d had them forever.

  It was easier not to get into it. It was easier just to say, “He’s very protective.”

  Because that was true too.

  Forty-five minutes later, I'd dazzled David with my presentation. And completely bored Gwen, who had now seen it for the seventh time and likely knew it as well as I did.

  I selfishly ignored her yawns and doleful stares in my direction. After my morning, after the reminder from my husband that he always knew best, I needed a little pick-me-up. David's praise hit the spot. I'd forgotten how supportive he'd always been of me and my ideas. In many ways, David had been a better cheerleader for me in business than Hudson. David was good at what he did, knew how to run a good nightclub and all, but he didn't think outside the box very often, and so any time that I did, he was immediately struck with how brilliant and amazing and innovative the idea was.

  Hudson, while always supportive of me, was also smart as hell. Sometimes it felt hard to impress a man who'd already been there and done that. Not that I needed to impress him all the time, but occasionally was nice. But even when I did get his praise, it was hard not to worry that he was also judging my ideas, critiquing them, coming up with a better plan that he was kind enough not to lord over me.

  My plans for the expansion definitely excited David.

  "This is going to knock every other nightclub off the rails," he said. "Eighty-eighth Floor is going to immediately try to copy you. You know that, right? And I predict at least three other clubs go out of business within six months. No, not three. Five."

  I blushed. "Stop it. You are being way too nice." But I said stop it in that tone that said go on.

  Gwen rolled her eyes, and I continued to ignore her.

  He did go on. "I'm not kidding. I know you already increased business tenfold when you went to seven days a week. Adding the restaurant and the advance rentals for private, high-end events, was a game changer. There aren't any other clubs in town that even have the equity to do what you're thinking of doing, and by the time they catch up, you’re already on to the next thing. Thumbs up, Laynie. You done good. Proud of you."

  If it were possible to go redder, I would have. But I was also proud of me, too. This was exactly what I had hoped I could bring to The Sky Launch all those years ago when I was young and naïve and nervous as hell before my first presentation in this office. And now I’d done it. So I smiled and said, "Thank you."

  "Oh, speaking of the expansion," Gwen said suddenly perking up as though she'd been half-asleep. She opened the drawer to her desk and pulled out a single key. "Lee Chong dropped this off so you can go over there any time and do measurements and whatnot for whatever you need to do architecturally. It opens the door in the stairwell that connects to ours. So you don't even have to go outside and around to get in."

  I stood up from the sofa where I was sitting with David and crossed over to her to grab it.

  "I know what I'm doing this afternoon," I said, slipping it onto my keyring. "After I finish helping you clean up from the job fair, that is." It was the least I could do after all that Gwen had sat through. Seven takes of my presentation was proof she was a great friend, eye-rolls or not.

  "Is it really that late? I need to get going." David stood up from the couch and we said our goodbyes. Gwen had worked with him for a just couple of weeks, so it made sense that she only gave him a nod.

  Me on the other hand,
I let him give me another big, warm embrace. It was selfish of me, and I knew that. But it felt safe there, in his arms, at that moment. It didn't mean that I was attracted to him or that I wanted him in any way—quite the contrary. The interest I had in him even back then had been because he felt safe.

  The truth was, I didn't really want safe. Not that kind of safe. I wanted Hudson and everything that went with him.

  But for just a moment, it was nice to have a break from it all.

  To pretend for just one long moment that there was no one in the world who had ever looked at my daughter with malice, to pretend the expansion was the most important thing in my life.

  One calming breath, and it was over.

  "Laynie, you can't hire him, you know," Gwen said, the minute David walked out of the room. She said it so quickly, so immediately after he was gone, that I had the sense she'd been waiting to say it the entire time he’d been there.

  "Why not? I know Hudson transferred him in the first place because he was jealous, but that was before we were married. Surely he understands he's got the girl now."

  Gwen gaped. "You seriously don't know? David was fired from Adora because of the sexual harassment scandal. The whole remodel thing is a total cover-up."

  Now I was the one gaping. "How do you know that?" It was the first I was hearing of it, which meant it had to be a mistake.

  Except, Gwen had a reliable source. "Chandler told me."

  "Oh my god." Every bit of relaxation and ease from the last hour evaporated in the blink of an eye. So much for finding safe harbor in a hug.

  "Oh my god," I said again. My blood was boiling. "And Hudson didn't tell me?" I was so mad I could punch something. Punch someone. A particular someone. "Jesus Christ, I can't even believe him. Was he afraid that was going to break me too?"

  Add this to the list of reasons my husband was not sleeping with me tonight.

  "That really sucks he didn't tell you…" Gwen said carefully. "You don't have any reaction to the harassment accusation, though?"

  Oh. That.

  My initial fury at being left out, again, whooshed out of me in a rush. I sank back down on the couch and pressed my head into the back cushion.

  "You know what I kept thinking while David was here?” I asked after a moment of considering. “Why can't Hudson's people from the past be as easy to deal with as the people from mine? That was a real naïve thing to be thinking, I guess." I sighed, trying to decide if I wanted details.

  I didn't. It was one too many scandals for me to think about.

  "I assume that if Pierce Industries went to this much trouble to fire David and come up with a remodeling cover-up, then they have received verifiable complaints from employees, and that it's not just some rumors." I glanced at Gwen for confirmation.

  She leaned across the desk and propped her chin up in her hands, her elbows resting on the surface of the desk. "I don’t know all the specifics, but I know it was several women that filed the complaints. It wasn't against just David—there were several managers involved in the accusations. Now, I don't know how credible they are…"

  I looked her in the eye. "If a woman feels harassed, she's been harassed." I sighed again. "Poor Hudson. What a mess.”

  I tried to think about the David I had worked with, the David I'd had a personal relationship with, tried to imagine him in light of these new allegations. The guy who’d given me my first managerial position, along with a shot of tequila. If I imagined Mina in my own place, how did I want her to be treated in her place of employment?

  And then I had to admit that I knew things were off.

  "David was often inappropriate. He was my boss, and he and I engaged in the exchange of sexual favors on the premises. During business hours. And I encouraged it."

  She scowled at me. "That sounds like you making excuses for him."

  "I’m not. I'm not defending him at all. I'm just owning my part of what happened between us. He would make jokes in poor taste. I laughed at them because I thought they were his way of flirting, and I wanted him to be flirting with me."

  It was so strange how I could remember so vividly wanting that, but couldn't summon up a single ounce of the feeling of wanting him anymore.

  "I don't know what he would have done if I hadn't returned his advances like I did." Although I could guess, based on how he’d reacted when I chose Hudson. He would have been upset, pouted. He would have made work uncomfortable and tedious until I eventually either gave in or quit.

  That wasn’t right. That wasn’t fair. That was harassment.

  "Did you like him, then?" Gwen asked, puzzled. "When I met you, you definitely didn't."

  "I thought I should like him. If that makes sense. I was looking for a guy that I wasn't really into. I was too afraid if I was into someone, I'd get crazy over him."

  She grinned. "How did that work out for you?"

  I couldn't help but return the smile. "Hudson definitely makes me crazy."

  And I didn't want it any other way.

  We went downstairs then and helped get the club turned over from the job fair back to a dance floor. It was after five by that time. I knew Hudson would be back at the penthouse soon. I knew I should be going home too. We were going to need to have a very long talk about today, about the state of us. I was as confident as ever in our love. My faith in our communication, though, had been shaken one too many times lately.

  But I really did want to check out the space next door for a while first, so the next time we went up the back stairs, I split off down the hallway to the private door that entered into Lee Chong’s space.

  It was quiet inside, and dark. I’d left my phone in the office so it took a bit of fumbling around before I found a switch to turn on some lights. A few bulbs immediately blew, the place having sat unused for so long. As soon as the room was dimly lit, I heard a noise behind me, a quick shuffling that made me nervous about mice. Or rats. The scourge of New York.

  But then the shuffling sounded more like footsteps, and I walked back toward the door I'd come in, wondering if I was hearing someone in the hall outside.

  Before I got to the door, another clip of footsteps made me realize I truly wasn't alone.

  My heart sped up to twice its normal rate, and I began sweating profusely. I was sure I was being paranoid, but I was also creeped the fuck out. I took another cautious step toward the door, away from the sounds in the shadows, whispering curse words to myself the entire time, and wishing I had my phone.

  Suddenly, a form stepped out in front of me, making me jump at least two feet in the air.

  I let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, it's you."

  That was the last thought I remembered having before the world went black.

  18

  Hudson

  She was punishing me.

  I deserved it, I knew I did, but this—not responding to my texts, not coming home at a decent hour—this was especially egregious. It was past eight. I'd already tucked the kids into bed; the nanny was waiting for my cue to send her home.

  And I would, as soon as I felt less anxious about where the hell my wife was.

  The day at Celia's hotel room had been fairly productive in the end. We'd gone through almost all of the journals and made significant notes. Luckily, before Alayna had left, she shared the spreadsheet she'd made with me so that I could still continue entering the information as we gathered it even after she left. Celia and I could've probably made it through the rest of the work left to be done in another couple of hours, but I hadn't wanted to stay any longer than I already had.

  Like the slow descent of a fever, my guilt and shame at the way I’d treated my wife—whether in the hopes of protecting her or not—became too distracting for me to continue staring into the abyss of my past without letting the present bleed into it.

  I needed to be home to work things out with Alayna.

  As important as nailing down the source of this threat was, it was equally important that she and I remain a tea
m. I wasn’t sure one could happen without the other. So I'd left Celia's a little before five, intending to spend the evening making things right with my wife.

  And now she was the one who wasn't home.

  She was definitely punishing me.

  But I couldn't ignore the gripping panic that maybe it was something more. Surely it was paranoia, anxiety created from this looming danger. But it was cold and real and it wouldn't let go. This sickening, vivid fear that she wasn't home because she couldn't be.

  I texted her again. In all caps so she knew I was serious.

  ALAYNA. CALL ME NOW.

  I stared at the screen of my phone, waiting for the bubbles to indicate she was responding, not even with a fuck off. I would take a fuck off right now just fine.

  Three minutes passed. Five.

  Nothing.

  I was hovering. I didn't want to hover. She hated it when I hovered. Wasn’t that half the reason she was mad right now? Because I tried to ease situations for her that I knew she was strong enough to handle, but why should she when she didn't have to? If I'd stayed out of it, never contacted Celia about the engagement party, Alayna would have been uncomfortable when we went, but she would've survived. She would've survived beautifully, with her head held high.

  And if she’d needed a day or two in bed, upset and processing and obsessively looking through pictures of the event on social media, what would that have mattered?

  I trusted her to come back to me when she was through her anxiety.

  Maybe that was the key. Maybe she wasn't punishing me—but rather, was testing me. Seeing if I was capable of actually letting her go to work and not interfering. Not showing up, cold and demanding, when she lost track of time.

  Because in truth, I was the one who wasn't strong enough.

  For all that I blamed her for giving in to her overactive mind, I was the one who worried too much. Who was overprotective. Who couldn't handle the thought of her suffering, even only slightly. She was the one who alerted me to possibilities, her mind skittering from one thing to the next even as she stayed my rock.