by Paula Cox
“I’m sorry that you’re hurting. Perhaps when…you have recovered enough, you might think about it some more.”
She didn’t want to think about it. She thought she was over men for good. All she needed was to get a job and, perhaps, tomorrow might be a good idea to go and scout some new places. She might go and talk to some people and see if there was a place that had an opening. “Jason, I am sorry. It’s not possible for me to even think along those lines right now…and, perhaps, it may never be.”
He winced. “I’ve crossed over to the friend zone, haven’t I?”
She rose up on her toes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Jason, you’ve always been in that zone but if it makes you uncomfortable to have me here, I think it’s better I shifted out.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said as he let go of her hands. “You’re staying here until my plan works.”
She frowned. He refused to tell her as to what he planned and, yet, there was some scheme in his head that he thought would lure Riley back to her. Tania was only interested in seeing that man for one reason and that was to make sure she got her revenge. “Why don’t you tell me what this plan is?”
“Let it be a surprise, darling.” He stepped away and yawned. “I should go now. Although I am going to leave early in the morning but my chauffeur would be here. I would suggest that you not step out on your own. It wouldn’t be safe.”
“I won’t.” She was still worried as to what might happen if those men found her again. Whatever they planned for her hadn’t been good. She definitely didn’t want to fall in their trap again. “See you later, Jason.”
“Stay safe, darling.”
She walked into her room. Now that he’d said something like that, she didn’t feel comfortable. Why did he have to complicate matters? It wasn’t fair. She enjoyed her time here. Tania was content to sit back, relax, and let Jason take care of things for a while but now she realized she’d been passive long enough. It was time to wake up and get hold of her life. The grief that overwhelmed her for so long suddenly lifted. Sure, it didn’t fade away but it did dim a little, and now she could see that it wouldn’t be possible for her to entirely get over Riley – at least not in a short time. It would take months, years. But in the meantime, she had to live – and the first step forward was to get a job.
Walking over to the window, she stared out at the lights that lit the trees and bushes. Her gaze traveled towards the far wall and out on the street, which she could barely see. Suddenly, she straightened. For a moment, she thought that she saw a man standing opposite the house. Even from this distance, it looked as if it were Riley.
No. It couldn’t be. She blinked and when she looked back, the man was gone. Or, perhaps, he was a figment of her imagination. She’d been thinking about Riley that her overtired brain made him up. She wasn’t likely to see him again. He was gone from her life, perhaps for good. And it was the best thing ever. If she did ever see him again, nothing good would come out of their meeting.
He wanted to kill her. She wanted to hurt him. How far they came from their resplendent days when they were bathed in the glory of love – or what she’d thought of as love. Those days were gone, and it was foolish to think that they would ever come back.
After changing her clothes, she went to bed. She couldn’t sleep well, tossing and turning, thinking about what would be in store for her.
The next morning, she realized she had missed Jason He and his bags were gone, already making their way to the airport. Rather than waste time, she put together her résumé and the portfolio she’d built over the years and went out. She took Jason’s car and chauffeur. It had been so long since she looked for a new job. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for interviews and the whole, long process that went with finding a new position, but she didn’t have a choice. If she didn’t do this, she wouldn’t have work and without a steady income, she would fall into despair pretty soon.
She went into the first agency and left her information. “We’ll call you for an interview when we have a position, ma’am,” she was told.
She had nothing else to add. Actually she expected pretty much the same. Jobs were rare and good jobs were even rarer. Initially, she would have to start from the most basic position and move upwards. It was an insult for someone like her, but she didn’t have a choice. If she was the one who had left her position at the agency, she could’ve moved on to better things, but since they fired her, she didn’t have any references or clout.
Once more, she had reason to curse Riley. If he didn’t make her life miserable, she would’ve been promoted by now. Instead, she was out seeking a new job. If she ever saw him again…No. She wasn’t going to think along those lines. It was over and done with. She wouldn’t see him again.
She drove to another agency that had once vied to hire her. She might have better luck there. After she gave her name to the receptionist, Tania was ushered in to the CEO’s office. Good start! She crossed her fingers. Perhaps this might lead to good things.
“Hi, Martha, how are you?”
Martha Winters knew Tania well enough. They had worked together on a couple of deals years ago. “Take a seat.”
Tania pushed forward her folder. “I’m looking for work.”
“So I heard. Actually, I was expecting to see you earlier than this.”
Tania winced. Had she suffered a blow in the industry? Was she now persona non grata? She sucked in a deep breath of air. Rather than make excuses or lament the ways things turned out, she decided to accept blame. “I screwed up,” she said. “There was a deal and I thought it was in the bag…but turned out that I was wrong.”
Martha cocked her head. She made no attempt to pick up the folder. “Everyone screws up once in a while, Tania. Brin was an idiot to let you go over it. That deal wasn’t kosher from the get go. I’ve had the unpleasant experience of doing business with Xavier and he isn’t the most forthcoming man. And after what happened to that warehouse…well, I wouldn’t want to ever handle his properties again.”
Tania couldn’t believe what she heard. Was Martha actually telling her that all was not lost? She didn’t quite know what to say. “I should’ve have seen that coming.”
“You’re too hard on yourself. It wasn’t your fault, and even if it was, you shouldn’t have been fired for it. I don’t need to see your portfolio to know you did excellent work while you were at the agency,” she said.
“Thank you,” said Tania, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. She worked with Brin for seven years and he never appreciated her this much. She should’ve taken the job here two years ago when Martha offered. Was it too late now?
“I might be looking for someone in a couple of weeks.” Martha winced. “An agent of mine is in mid-life crises. He can’t decide if he wants to move to another town or stay here…and if things don’t work out with him, I am going to need an experienced and qualified person, and you fit the bill perfectly. Leave your number and I’ll call you.”
Tania realized that she still hadn’t bothered to get a new phone ever since she lost hers in the explosion. She’d been avoiding that task because she didn’t want people to contact her. Actually, she was in hiding. She hadn’t wanted to get back to life, but now Martha’s words made her wish that she could forget all that happened and start all over again.
“I don’t have a phone yet. Lost mine,” she explained. “But my email is in this card.” Taking one out from the folder, she left it on the table. “Thank you for seeing me, Martha. It was very kind of you.”
Martha smiled. “It’s fine, dear. Sometimes we fall down, and that’s fine as long as we learn to pick ourselves up and start walking again. I have a feeling you’re ready to do that, and I would like to help you.”
Tania nodded, feeling overwhelmed. It was nice when a stranger helped. She walked out of the office, feeling a lot more positive. Things were looking up. She was ready to get back her life. From now on, nothing and no one could derail her. She wanted to get back on her f
eet and stay up.
As she stepped out of the office, her gaze was drawn to the sleek car of Jason’s that she’d borrowed. A man stood next to it. Riley! All the breath whooshed out of her body as if someone had punched her.
What the hell was he doing here? How did he find her? And what the hell was she supposed to do now?
Chapter Sixteen
She wanted to run. She didn’t want to have a conversation with him. She didn’t want to indulge in hot debates and long arguments. More that than, she was scared of what he might do if she went near him. Would he attempt to kidnap her again? Were his men lurking around the corner, ready to grab her?
She looked around but didn’t see anyone.! He gave her perfect opportunity to confront him. Now that the initial shock wore off, she was glad for this chance. This was the time when she could ask why he did all those things that cut her heart into ribbons. This was her opportunity to take matters in her own hands. She strode forward and glared at him. “You bastard. How dare you show your face to me again.”
His upper lip curled as he gazed at her from up and down. “I just wanted to see if you were okay, but apparently there was no need for me to do that. Given this…” He pointed at the car. “And the fact that you’re living in a mansion right now, it appears that you are doing more than well.”
Fear made her blood chill. “How do you know where I’ve been living?”
He didn’t answer her question. Instead, he stepped forward. His shoulders were hunched over, and there was a wild look in his eyes. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought he didn’t sleep well during the past many days. Dark circles rimmed his eyes. His hair had grown a bit longer than before, and there was dark stubble on his cheeks. But he was still the most handsome devil she ever saw. Seeing him, all the old feelings resurfaced: pain, love, and joy. Everything exploded in her gut and she felt dizzy.
She’d allowed him to make love to her. She gave him a chance to lay his hands on her, to make room in her heart, and she allowed him to wrap her around his finger. And now she was paying the price for her naivety.
When she first saw him, she should’ve run away. Instead, she allowed him in her heart and home. What the hell was she doing here now? She should have told him to take off. Perhaps she should drag him over to the nearest police station. At the very least, she could register a complaint against him for stalking her. Maybe they would issue a restraining order and she would be well and truly rid of him.
He wasn’t done as yet. “I saw your picture in the papers. Nice outfits by the way. That man…Jason…appears to be smitten with you. Does he know that you’ve got a heart that’s made of stone?”
Anger hazed in her mind until she couldn’t think anymore. Tania jabbed her finger at his chest. “How dare you?”
“How dare I?” His voice rose up an octave. She was aware that some people were staring at them, but she didn’t care. All she wanted was to make sure that she gave it back to him as well as he’d given her. When he was quivering with pain as she did during all those days only then would she be able to sleep in peace. “You’re the one who has moved on.”
“How dare you treat me like shit. You lied to me, betrayed me, and then tried to kill me.”
“I didn’t try to kill you.” His eyes were sharp, angry. Rage coiled in their depths. “That explosion at the warehouse had nothing to do with me.”
“You were the only one there that day,” she yelled. “You rigged that place.”
“Shhh…” he said, looking around at the people who were now openly staring at them.
Was he scared? She sure hoped so. How the hell did he get away with it? She was surprised that the police wasn’t after him as yet.
“What’s the matter now? Too frightened to talk about what you did?”
“I didn’t do anything.” He gnashed his teeth. “It was…” After running his hand through his hair, he glanced around. “Yes, I belonged to a motorcycle gang. They are called Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood and they wanted the warehouse for legitimate reasons…or so I thought. But that’s all in the past now. I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. I’ve been looking for you all this while, and I thought you…”
“What?”
“That something bad happened to you, damn it. And then I found that you were actually doing quite well. You’ve found a new man and are now holed up with him in this big mansion.”
Was he actually jealous? No, he couldn’t be. If he was jealous, it had to be because he cared about her, and she already knew that he didn’t give a shit about her. He left her with those men to die. “That has nothing to do with you.”
“You are damn right it doesn’t.”
Tania was aware that she’d made these grand plans to do something vile to him when she saw him but now that he was here in front of her, she didn’t quite know what to do. Should she hit him? No, she didn’t want to stoop to his level. She wanted to yell and scream, but she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of all those people who were now eying them with open interest.
Rather than waste her time arguing with him, she walked towards the car. “I need to go. We don’t have anything to discuss.”
He put a hand on the door, stopping her from opening it. “Just tell me one thing…did you care about me at all or was that just a ruse to know more about the deal?”
That statement was so ridiculous, so crazy, that it took her a few minutes to even understand it. He was accusing her of doing a drama when she was the one who was betrayed? “You…” Tania lost her cool. She jabbed him in the chest. “How dare you say such a thing? Ruse?” she laughed. “It’s funny that you should accuse me of that when you were the one who spun this fairytale, making me believe that you actually cared about me when you got in my pants just so you could keep me quiet about the deal!”
“I didn’t plan anything.”
“Yeah, right. So the deal miraculously happened without you, and you were just as shocked as me to hear about it.”
“That’s the truth.”
She wanted to slap him. Tania had never used violence in her life to deal with any situation but right now her hand itched to slap him. It was a mark of her character that she took a careful step back to keep some distance between them. “I don’t want to argue with you anymore. It’s…useless.”
“Easy for you to say. You’ve already moved on.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I was forced to move on. Thanks to you, I lost my job. Thanks to you, I was forced out of my home because people kidnapped me. They took me prisoner and I didn’t know…” Her voice broke a little. “I didn’t know what they were going to do to me. They might’ve killed me, and I am sure that is what they planned to do.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
His words took her breath away. She nearly died twice, once at the warehouse and once in that house, and all he had to say was this. “You can take your sorry and shove it up your ass.”
“I didn’t want those things to happen to you.”
“I don’t fucking believe a word you say.”
“It’s the truth. I didn’t know that they were going behind my back to finalize the deal. They…did it to do some insurance fraud and I wasn’t a party to it.”
So that was the reason why the warehouse was blown up. Well, things made sense now. “You’re lucky that you’re not in jail.”
“I’m not in jail because I didn’t do anything wrong.”
She sneered. “Poor you, right? You didn’t have any clue as to what was going on.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” He sighed. “Look, I can understand that you’re not willing to believe I word I say. Fine. If that’s the way you want it, if you want to paint me as this evil monster who has been lying to you all along, then it’s okay, but at least have the guts to admit that you didn’t care about me.”
“I never cared about you?” She had spent days crying over him. In the beginning, she couldn’t sleep and she was stil
l having problems and yet he had the audacity to tell her that she was the one who wasn’t affected by this whole mess. “You asshole. How dare you try and make me out to be the bad guy when you were the one who wasn’t real all through this relationship. I was the idiot who thought that we were happy together, that we had something good going on, while all this time you were plotting behind my back.”
“You thought we were happy together?”
She didn’t know why she was telling him this. What was the point? Nothing good could come out of this conversation. He’d done what he did, and now it was over. They weren’t together anymore. She certainly didn’t owe him any explanations but now that they had said so much, she couldn’t back out without letting him know full well as to how much he hurt her. “I was…” No, she couldn’t tell him that she was nearly in love with him. “I cared about you a lot. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does that give your ego a good boost to know that you fooled me completely? Yes, I cried when I realized that you never cared for me, that you didn’t harbor such feelings at any time, and that is was all a lie for you.” She stopped to take a breath. “Does it make you feel good to know that you actually managed to convince me that we had a future together, that we belonged with each other? Now that you know all this, will you be able to sleep better at night.”
