by Karla Doyle
“I remember.”
“I’m honored. Hard to believe anyone aside from Candace held your attention that evening. She looked truly exquisite in that red dress.”
“The dress I bought for her.”
“Put your leg down, Officer Campbell. Not only do I doubt Candace would appreciate you marking her, it’s also misplaced. Going forward, Miss Caine will only be accepting gifts from me.”
“Whatever crazy shit you’re talking, you’re mistaken. About everything, where Candace is concerned. You know nothing about her.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be on your way into her place of employment carrying a working-class man’s bouquet of roses. You’d already know she quit her job to accept my personal invitation.”
“Whatever personal invitation you think she’s accepted from you, you’re dreaming. You may be a powerhouse in the business community, but you’re a nothing in Candace’s life. This working-class man is one hundred percent sure of that.”
“I hope your police officer’s salary affords you an accountant at tax time, because your mathematical skills are severely lacking.”
“I don’t know what your problem is, Balducci, but I suggest you walk away and don’t come back.”
“That’s my plan.” Balducci extracted a phone from an inner pocket of suit jacket. “Now that Candace is exclusively at my beck and call, I have no reason or need to come back to Lucky’s.”
The stiff cellophane crinkled inside Jake’s tightening grip. One more shot at decency, that’s all he’d give this asshole. After that, he was going to punch the bastard in the face and enjoy every bone-cracking second of it. “If you think I’m going to allow you to threaten or coerce her—”
“Stop before you say something that will get you fired, Constable.”
“Candace is more important than my job.”
Balducci’s eyebrows rose. “I believe you feel that way. How unfortunate for you that she doesn’t reciprocate those feelings.”
“You crossed the line about half a dozen comments ago, Balducci, and I’m done listening to your insanity. If Candace is courteous to you because your kids go to the same school, that’s all it is—courtesy. You may have discovered where she works, but know nothing about her feelings or her life, and that’s how it’s going to stay.”
“You have it backward. I didn’t discover where Candace works, I met her here. We’ve become very well-acquainted over the past two years. Well enough for me to know about the birthmark on the underside of her left breast and the single, large dark freckle in the crease of her upper thigh. Would you care to hear other details I know about her?”
Jake didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Fury and disgust were choking off his airway.
The arrogant son-of-a-bitch smirked. “I’ll be a gentleman and withhold the rest of my personal knowledge. However, to be clear, only recently did I learn that Candace’s lovely little Macy attends school with my son. That’s when I offered Candace the opportunity to leave the massage parlor and be available exclusively to me, and I do mean that in an all-encompassing way. The arrangement benefits me in ways you undoubtedly understand, while providing her with a safer lifestyle and more free time. She asked me to meet her this morning. Though I have no doubt you’ll miss her, I’m sure you can appreciate the wisdom of her decision.”
He wanted to call bullshit. There’s no way Candace had agreed to be this slick asshole’s exclusive anything. But Balducci knew things. Things only a man with intimate knowledge of Candace would know.
“Go fuck yourself,” he said, wrenching the door open.
“I think I’ll let Candace take care of that.” Balducci’s words followed Jake into the parlor as the door closed.
By the time Jake reached the reception desk, he could barely see anything beyond his rage-filled haze. One thing was clear, though—Candace wasn’t in the lounge area. “Where’s Candy?” Fuck, he hated calling her by that name.
“She’s not available, but we have other—”
He shut the receptionist down with a glare. “Is she with a customer?”
The young woman shook her head. “She’s not here.”
“Did she call in sick?” He’d spent the majority of the weekend with her and she’d been fine. Better than fine, she’d been great. Everything about their time together had been great. As close to perfect as reality could possibly be.
“She doesn’t work here anymore.”
“Quit or fired?” Either option was cause for celebration. He’d be jumping for fucking joy if his head wasn’t full of Balducci’s shit-talk.
“She quit. You just missed her.”
“Did she see a customer before she quit? The dark-haired European man in a gray suit who just left here?”
“I can’t share information about other clients with you.”
Déjà vu kicked in as he loomed over the desk. “Share it with me now and nobody else will know, or I’ll be back in uniform and you can share it with everybody who reads the arrest report when I shut this fucking place down.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” an attendant said from the lounge. “Yeah, Candy met with the Italian guy this morning. He’s one of her weekly regulars. He was here first thing and they went to a room. A few minutes later, he left. Candy came out next, told us she was done and took off. Happy now, copper?”
Hell, no, he wasn’t happy. The woman he loved, the woman who had claimed to love him, had lied to him. Then accepted an offer to be a sleazy rich guy’s exclusive call girl. Happy didn’t exist on Jake’s radar right now.
He slapped the bouquet on the desk and turned to leave.
The timid ginger practically jumped out of her skin. “Are you coming back in uniform?”
“No. I’m never coming back.” Neither was Candace. Not to Lucky’s, and apparently, not to him.
He took a breath before pushing the door open. If Balducci was out there, waiting to goad him some more… Disciplinary action or not, the prick had a well-earned shot in the face coming.
The bright Monday morning sunshine bounced off the parked cars, including the sleek hood of a silver Mercedes Jake hadn’t noticed before. He’d been too distracted by his rose-colored glasses. They were off now. Crushed to pieces, never to be worn again.
Between the glare from the sun and the Mercedes’ tinted windows, Jake couldn’t see the driver. Didn’t need to. The VBII vanity plate told him exactly who sat behind the wheel. Balducci tooted the Benz’s horn as Jake walked past, then pulled out of the parking spot.
Inside the haven of his SUV, Jake took out his phone and stared at the screen. No unread messages. No missed calls or unheard voicemails. Nothing.
Candace had taken the time to contact Balducci, but not him. It made no sense. No matter how much he might hate what he heard, he needed the truth. From her, directly. To his face. Right fucking now.
Candace
Thumping from her front door launched Candace’s heart to a full gallop. Despite being safely locked in her townhouse, she tiptoed down the stairs to the main floor, hugging the wall as she edged toward the source of the noise. Probably a courier with the wrong address. She’d wait for them to leave, then go back to the happy business of throwing all of her Candy-wear in the garbage.
Unless the aggressive knocker wasn’t a courier.
She wouldn’t put it past Enzo to have tracked down her home address. Or to make another attempt to get what he wanted—her. If he was the one hammering on her door, she didn’t know what she’d do. Calling the police was out of the question. Avoiding him would be next to impossible. She had no viable options to quickly and quietly get rid of him.
Holding her breath, she checked the peephole. Jake. Thank God.
“Hi,” she said, opening the door wide. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in, or are you with somebody?”
She cocked her head at the odd question. “Macy’s at school and you may always come in.”
“I went to Lucky’s.” H
e entered the hall, sidestepping her without making any contact. No kiss, no touch, no smile. “I heard you quit.”
So much for the surprise she had planned. Oh well, they could still celebrate. Only Jake didn’t look ready to celebrate. He looked…like nothing. Emotionless. A blank version of the man she loved. Certainly not happy, as she’d expected.
“Why didn’t you tell me yourself?” he asked.
“I planned to, after I took care of a few things. I didn’t expect you to go to Lucky’s this morning.”
“But you expected Balducci to go there, since you called him. Sorry, I guess I should refer to him as Enzo, since he told me that’s what you prefer.”
A chill rippled through her. The one secret she’d tried to keep from Jake, blown open. She should’ve known better. Done better. Too late to change the mistake. All she could do was set the record straight. And hopefully, undo the damage.
“Please come in and sit down, so we can talk,” she said, reaching for his hands. “I want you to understand why I made the decision I did.”
Shaking his head, he pulled his hands free. “Not interested in listening to you rationalize going from one sex gig to another.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He grunted. “That’s basically what I said to your new boss when he started shooting his mouth off.”
“I don’t have a new boss.”
“Can’t really say he’s a customer now that he’s calling the shots. Is sugar daddy better? What does Enzo want you to call him? Sir?”
No, this couldn’t be happening. “What did he say to you?”
“That he met you at Lucky’s and you’ve been seeing him for two years.”
“As a customer. I haven’t been ‘seeing’ him.”
“Okay, let’s keep it technical. You’ve been getting him off for the past two years. Weekly, according to your former coworkers.” Jake’s hard, cold gaze bored through her like an icicle to her heart. “And since he knows you have a freckle between your legs, it’s safe to say he’s enjoyed more than just your hand and mouth on his dick.”
The knot in the pit of her stomach tightened. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I knew what you did at work from day one. Hearing that asshole talk about it made it a hell of lot more real, but whatever. Doesn’t matter now.”
“It matters to me.”
“Bullshit. At the gala, you let me believe Balducci was nothing more than a fellow parent from Macy’s school. You lied to me.”
“Jake—”
“Stop.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “After I told you how it wrecked me when Anna lied to me, how she kept the truth from me, you did the same fucking thing.” Contempt laced every word that’d left his mouth. “I loved you, Candace. You and Macy. You know I wanted you to get away from Lucky’s. For your sake, not mine. I would’ve taken care of you and expected nothing in return. But you agreed to be that sleazy prick’s personal prostitute instead.”
“He told you about his offer,” she said, as Jake’s fury and scathing comments began to make sense. “And he told you that I accepted it.”
He nodded, glaring at her. Almost a taunting stare, as if he were waiting for something. For her to apologize, break down and plead for forgiveness, maybe?
None of those things would happen. With her whole heart, she regretted withholding the full truth from Jake. But right now, he didn’t deserve her apology. He didn’t deserve to know she felt like shit for hurting him.
He hadn’t come here looking for confirmation or denial. He’d knocked on her door assuming the worst. Stormed into her home and treated her as a liar and a whore. The only thing he deserved was her anger. And he had it.
She moved to the door and opened it wide. “I think you should go.”
“And not come back, right?”
“That’s your decision.”
He grunted while stepping through the opening. “So you’re going to lie to Balducci too? Let him believe he’s got the exclusive on you, then sneak me in and hope he’s the one who doesn’t find out this time?”
“No, I told him the truth this morning. I told him I’m out of the business, immediately and permanently, because I only want to be with one man—you. I told him to stop attempting to contact me, and under no circumstances am I interested in accepting his offer.”
Jake’s lips parted, but she shook her head, holding up one hand.
“I didn’t tell you that I knew Enzo from the massage parlor because I didn’t want to ruin our special weekend together talking about that. That was our time. Yours and mine on Saturday night. Yours, mine, and Macy’s on Sunday. I thought it wouldn’t matter what’d happened in the past, at that job, because I had already decided I wasn’t going back. I made that decision the first night you and I were together, Jake. Before we had sex. I didn’t tell you immediately afterward because Macy got sick, which stirred up a mess with my parents.”
“Candace, I—”
She shook her head. “I planned to tell you I’d quit today, when I asked you to help me take all my Candy stuff to a dumpster. That was my big, happy plan.” She laughed bitterly at the foolish dream. So stupid, thinking things could be wrapped up with a tidy bow, after everything she had done. “Then, I was going to ask you to help me find a new place to live, away from the city. Someplace you and I both liked, since I hoped you and Trooper would spend a lot of time there. And, yes, I initiated the meeting with Enzo. I thought that by telling him directly, face-to-face, he’d stop pursing me. Obviously, I was wrong about that. I was wrong about everything, including us. Including you.” Swallowing hard, she held back the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “Goodbye, Jake.”
Chapter 16
Jake
Powerless. That’s how he felt when the door closed in his face. He couldn’t have fucked things up worse if he’d tried.
“Candace.” He knocked on the wall of wood separating them. Normally, at first, then harder. Hard enough to turn his knuckles red. “I know you’re still there, I can feel it. Please, open the door.”
The door remained closed. A solid, silent fuck-you. One he’d earned.
He stared at it, focusing on the small window. Barely blinking. Desperate for even a glimpse of her face, to catch sight of her hair. Anything that’d prove she hadn’t walked away. Maybe it was wishful thinking.
He had to know. The rage that’d propelled him to this place had died down to a low, flickering flame, but it still burned. He’d gone about this totally wrong, but he hadn’t been alone making the mess.
“You could’ve told me. You should have told me. Everything. Not waiting for the right time. The right time was immediately. I would have understood. I would have been fucking overjoyed that you chose to get out of there.”
Still nothing.
Shit. He wasn’t leaving here until they fixed this. He laid his fist to the door again, this time in hammer mode.
“Hey,” a husky male voice called. “Get away from that door, or I’m calling the cops.”
He turned toward the source of the threat, Candace’s neighbor to the right. “I am a cop.”
“Then I’ll call a better one.” The neighbor, a burly, bearded man in his fifties, at least, stepped outside to continue the conversation. “Cop or not, no man has the right to behave that way toward a lady.”
Shame wrapped around him like a wet blanket. And not only for his behavior while outside the door. Inside had been worse. “You’re right. Thanks for giving me a verbal slap.”
“Hope I never have to do it again.”
“You won’t.” He backed away from the door, saluting the neighbor guy while turning toward the street. “Thanks for looking out for her.” Something that should be his job, but might never be again.
Jake
“What?” he asked, when his buddy stared at him from the other end of the barbell, instead of settling onto the bench for the next set. “You want more weight on there, is that what you’re
waiting for?”
“No.” Curtis cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. What’s on your mind, Campbell? Because it’s sure as hell not your workout.”
“What’s wrong with my workout?”
“You’re blindly going through the motions. Not focusing. Not pushing yourself. Not—” A look of actual pain crossed his face. “Talking.”
“We rarely talk while working out.”
“Incorrect. I rarely talk. You rarely shut up.”
“Awe, thanks, man. So nice to know you care enough to notice.” Jake opened his arms and took a step toward his broody-faced partner. “Can I get a hug to go with that compassion?”
Curtis raised one arm, warding him off with a pointed elbow. “Not one step closer.”
Annoying the shit out of his permanently intense friend lifted Jake’s mood. Enough that he jumped on the offer to talk. “Candace broke up with me.”
“Sorry to hear it,” Curtis said while getting situated beneath the bar. “So, what’d you do to fuck it up?”
“What makes you think I did something?”
A patented Lawler snort left Curtis’s mouth. “You’re an impulsive hothead, of course you did something to fuck it up. Again. Question is, what was it this time?”
Sharing the details of his stupidity might earn him more than a snort or pained expression. If he went ahead and told Curtis what he’d done, how he’d treated Candace, there was a very real chance his friend would punch him in the face. He certainly deserved one. Hell, maybe he even wanted one. Might knock some of the guilt away.
“There was a guy at the gala on Saturday night. Some rich-as-fuck, bigshot businessman, there with his wife. They started talking to Candace because they know her. Turns out they’ve got a kid in her daughter’s kindergarten class. I could tell she was uncomfortable, so we exited the conversation pretty fast. She let me believe that was the only way she knew them, but it turns out, the guy is one of her regulars. Has been for a couple of years.”
“Ouch.” Curtis switched to a sitting position on the bench. “How’d you find out she lied to you?”
