“Your father won’t be happy if I let you in.”
“And of course, you’ll always do what he says.”
“He is my husband.”
“And I am your daughter,” I say, raising my voice.
“What’s going on out here?” my father asks, appearing behind my mother at the door.
“You. How dare you show your face after what happened the last time you were here?”
“You mean when your boss thought he could force himself on me, and I broke his arm?”
Reina gasps, but I don’t dare look at her. This is my fight, and I won’t show any fear. I have been the perfect daughter all my life, and I don’t deserve the way I’ve been treated. I don’t deserve to banned from seeing my family. I won’t back down, or cower. This may be my last chance to bridge the gap, and showing fear is not in my plan.
He grabs my arm, and pulls me inside. Reina runs in before the door closes, and pulls me away from him. That only angers him more. He’s in my face, and his Spanish is rapid and angry.
“You almost cost me my job. Who would’ve paid for this house and our food then?”
“Me. I would’ve paid. I’ll pay now.”
“Your money is disgusting to me.”
“More disgusting than his? He would’ve raped me if I wasn’t strong enough to stop him.”
“He wants to marry you. He would be an honorable choice.”
“Are you even listening to yourself? A rapist is not honorable.”
“So what, you’ll never marry? Where is the honor in that?”
“Senor Sanchez, your daughter is one of the most honorable women I’ve ever met in my life. She is also a well-respected scientist. She doesn’t need a husband to validate her,” Reina tells him, barely controlling her anger.
“You know nothing about us.”
“I was born and raised for most of my life in Mexico. I understand better than you think.”
“Do you dishonor your parents, as well?”
“My parents are proud of my success. They love to tell their friends that I help people.”
He looks pointedly at her hand, and the giant yellow diamond there. “You are married.”
“Yes, but they were proud of me long before that.”
Before anything else is said, my dad’s boss walks out of the kitchen. “I thought I heard Audrey out here. I am ready for my apology.”
“You won’t be getting one from me.”
“You risk your father’s job over a little misunderstanding?”
“You slammed me into a wall, and stuck your hand down my shirt. What exactly was I misunderstanding.”
He steps towards me, thinking he’ll intimidate me, but he won’t. I open my mouth, but Reina speaks before I can. “Senor, I believe you have a contract with Corrigan & Co.”
“How do you know that, senorita?”
“Actually, it’s Senora Corrigan, and I remember seeing you when you met with my husband.”
His eyes widen, and he practically bows. “Of course, of course. My apologies for not recognizing you.”
“You need to be apologizing for assaulting one of my employees.”
“Employees? Audrey works for Corrigan & Co.?”
“I work for the Corrigan & Co. Foundation.”
“Oh, of course, the Foundation. Much more suitable for a woman.”
I seriously want to break more than his arm right now. I walk over, planning on leaving until I see Matt getting out of his car and walking towards me. Reina must’ve told him more than I thought she did, and he decided to come and give us some support.
Reina shakes her head and smiles at the asshole in front of her. “Your attitude and your behavior leave me no choice but to tell you that your contract with our company is over, effective immediately.”
“You cannot do that.”
“Oh yes, she can,” Matt says, walking in. “My wife has full autonomy over any decisions she wishes to make.”
I almost laugh out loud, thinking about how Matt wouldn’t allow Reina to ban Aiden from Corrigan when we thought he let Ellie down. Right here and now, though, I know he’s doing what he can to give her all the power in this room, so she can shut down my father’s boss. It’s the wrong move, though. That man, and my parents, will never listen to a woman over a man, not matter who she is. It’s not like this with everyone in the Hispanic community as a whole, but within this more insular one, it’s more common than not.
“You let your woman make such choices? You are a fool,” he tells Matt, switching to English for his benefit. There’s no need. Matt speaks fluent Spanish—he once told me he learned years ago so that he could honor Reina’s parents, and even though I think of him like a brother, I may have swooned a little.
“I’m not the one who just lost his biggest contract, now am I?”
“You can’t be serious. You have to honor our contract. I’ll sue you.”
“Go ahead and try. In every contract with my family’s company, there are provisions regarding behavior by the parties we do business with. You have violated the ones dealing with treatment of women by what happened with Audrey. And today, you belittled my wife, who happens to be the head of our charitable foundation. You’re done, and honestly, you should be lucky you’re still walking.”
“You’re threatening me now?”
“I was talking about either of them. But you’d probably be too easy for Reina and Audrey. They like a challenge in their opponents.”
“I can take a woman,” he says, steeping towards me.
All of a sudden my father is in front of me. “You will not threaten my daughter in my house.”
“Step out of the way before I fire you.”
“I quit. Now get out.”
He looks around, and realizes he has no options, so he leaves, slamming the door behind him. I look at my father, as tears pool in my eyes. “You defended me?”
“Yes. It was long overdue,” he says with a sigh. “I am proud of you, but I have too much pride. I let what people think of us come before my love for you. I am so sorry. You are an amazing woman, and we should have told you that.”
“Yes, you should have, but I’m glad to hear it now. If you mean it.”
“I do mean it, but I understand your hesitation to believe me. I will have to show you I mean it.”
“Yes. I’m sorry, but you will. I want to have a relationship with you both. I wouldn’t have come back here if I didn’t.”
“I would like that as well. Can you stay for a little while?”
“Yes. Reina can go back with Matt.”
“Are you sure, Aud?” Reina asks.
“Yeah. We’ll be good.”
“I’m making tamales today. You can take some to your friends later,” my mother says.
“Si, por favor,” he says in his fluent Spanish. “I love it when Reina’s mom comes to visit and fattens me up. Tamales are my favorite.”
“You could help make them,” I tell him, knowing he’ll accept.
“I’m totally down. Put me to work.”
My mother’s eyes widen, and then she takes his arm and leads him into the kitchen. I’m glad he’ll be here. I want to believe my father means what he says, but his change of heart is sudden, and that makes me suspicious.
“I’ll be in the kitchen making sure there’s some food left for the rest of us. If you need me, just yell,” Reina says, shaking her head.
“Let’s sit down, Audrey. It’s time we finally had a real talk,” my father says, and I do as he asks. I don’t know what the day will bring, but things are already going better than I’d hoped they would. Maybe they’re going just as well with everyone else, and this can all be over soon. Or is that too much to hope for?
Chapter 7
Blake
It’s been a long day of going over scripts, worrying about Jeanne, worrying about Audrey, and trying to figure out if my best friend could really be behind all of this. I can’t imagine what Jesse would get out of kidnapping Je
anne, but if it’s him, I’ll help them take him down. Hell, I’ll do it on my own if it’s him. No one messes with my little girl.
The front door opens as I’m coming down the stairs. Matt, Reina, and Audrey walk in with bags of what smell like Heaven. “Is that dinner?”
“Oh yeah. Wait until you taste it,” Matt says. “I make a mean tamale.”
“You?”
“Don’t ask,” Reina tells me with a laugh.
“Okay. I’ll grab Jeanne, if you can get your friends.”
“They’ll join us in a few minutes. We called them on the way here, and they said they were close to cracking the email,” Audrey tells me as Matt and Reina disappear into the dining room.
“That’s great news.”
“Yeah. We might be gone by morning.”
“Gone?”
“Once we find out who’s behind this, we’ll get them, and then the job will be over.”
“Oh yeah, right.”
It’s not right, though. I don’t want her to go. I don’t want what’s starting between us to die out. I don’t know how to keep her here. There’s no threat against me, but maybe she’d let me hire her anyway. No, if I hire her directly, she’d keep it totally professional. Fuck. What am I going to do? I have to do something.
“Are you okay, Blake? You look upset. I thought you’d be happy for us to find out who’s after Jeanne.”
“I am, of course I am. But I don’t want to lose you again,” I tell her honestly. “Can we have tonight? No matter what, can we just have this one night together? All night?”
“I’d like that. No, actually, I’d love it. I have a small suitcase in the car, just in case I had to stay longer.”
I pull her to me, and kiss her softly. “You can stay as long as you’d like.”
“You don’t even know me, Blake. Not really. You can’t know if you want me to stay.”
“I know enough to realize that I want you. Both in my bed, and out of it.”
“I’ll have at least a week off once things are over. I don’t know if that works with your schedule…”
I place my fingers over her mouth, and touch my forehead to hers. “I’ll make it work. I don’t start promoting my next film for a few months. I have scripts to look at, and some other things I have to work on, but I’ll give you as much time as I can.”
“After Jeanne gets her time.”
“Yeah. I won’t apologize for that.”
“And I wouldn’t ask you to. She’s your daughter, she has to come first. In fact, aren’t you supposed to grab her for dinner?”
“I’m here.”
“Oh hey, baby. I was just coming to get you.”
“After you finished kissing Audrey.”
“We were talking, too.”
“How was school?” Audrey asks her, stepping away from me.
Jeanne shrugs, which she didn’t do when I asked her the same question earlier. “Roger was being nice to me.”
“Was he now?”
“Who’s Roger?” I ask.
“Just a stupid boy.”
I don’t like the sound of that. “Did he do something to you? Before he was nice today, I mean?”
“Not really. He usually ignores me. Yesterday at the mall, he was checking Audrey out, but she shut him down. Today, he sat by me and told me I looked pretty. It was really fake, though. I think he wanted to ask me about Zack.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, and I really am.
“It’s okay. I’d rather know he’s a jerk now than keep thinking I like him.”
“How about the girls?” Audrey asks, her eyes narrowing.
Jeanne rolls her eyes. “They wanted to know if they could meet Kace.”
“You know that if you wanted that, Stella would make it happen for you.”
“Would you do it? Try and impress people so they’d want to be your friends?
“Now? No. When I was your age, yes.”
“I don’t want pretend. I want real friends.”
“Good choice,” Audrey says as we walk into the dining room.
We sit down, and start piling our plates with tamales, rice, and beans while we wait for everyone else. “Did you really make the tamales, Matt?”
“Damn straight.”
“He helped make them,” Reina says, rolling her eyes. “We both helped Audrey’s mom.”
“She likes me better, though.”
“Of course she does.”
“She said. Tell her Audrey.”
“I’m staying out of this one.”
“I didn’t even ask you how things went with your parents. I’m sorry,” I tell Audrey, mentally kicking myself. I’d be a bad boyfriend—if I was her boyfriend, that is. We’re not there yet, but I have hope.
“That’s okay. It was pretty rough at first, but then my dad defended me, and we started the road back to each other.”
“What did he defend you against?”
“No what, who. His boss, or ex-boss now.”
“He’s not an Audrey Sanchez fan?”
“Actually he’s a little too much of a fan.”
“He tried something with you?”
“Not today, but yes. I broke his arm when he did it. He showed up and was an ass to me and Reina. Matt showed up, but then my dad got in his face when he wouldn’t stop.”
“I’m sorry it took that, but I’m glad you’re reconnecting.”
“Me too.”
We eat for a little while in silence, and then the rest of the crew shows up. From the look on their faces, it seems like they didn’t get the info they were hoping for. “No?” Audrey asks.
“We’re almost there,” Ainsley says. “Yasmin insisted that Scott eat, and we decided that we should too.”
“Jesse was right, then. Whoever did this is smarter than you.”
“Jeanne,” I say sharply.
“It’s fine, Blake. I can answer her honestly. The person who did this isn’t smarter. They’ve just buried their tracks better than most people we deal with. There’s no doubt we’ll uncover everything. It’s just taking us a little while.”
“You have a whole team, though, and someone might have done this alone.”
“Burying things is much easier than uncovering them. You should know that if you’ve hacked.”
“I do. I just think you should say Jesse was right.”
“Sorry, Jeanne, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Enough shop talk,” I say, trying to diffuse what was becoming a very awkward situation. “Let’s finish this wonderful dinner. Matt worked really hard on it.”
That leads to a round of teasing from all of his friends, leaving me to focus on Jeanne. “Outside, now.”
She gives me a long-suffering sigh, but follows me out. “I don’t need another lecture. I was just asking questions.”
“No, you were trying to bait Ainsley, and belittle her intelligence. I really don’t understand it. I would think you’d love being surrounded by these women, but instead, they seem to make you angry.”
“I’m not angry, just…I’m jealous, okay? They have this exciting life where they get to use their brains, and have hot guys falling all over them. I have to go to a boring school, and have boys think I’m weird because I’m smart.”
“I thought you liked school. Not the people, but the classes.”
She shrugs. “I used to, but now I know more than the teachers.”
“Okay. I’ll find you another school.”
“You know this is the best one in the city.”
“You have to go to school. It’s the law.”
“I could have tutors. Then I could travel with you, too. And Mom, if she wanted.”
“I’d love it if you could travel with me.” I don’t mention her mom, because I know Misha wouldn’t be so receptive.
“So we can do it? Get me tutors?”
“On one condition. You need to find some classes or clubs around the city to join. Anything that gives you some time with other kids
your age.”
“I can pick whatever I want?”
“Sure.”
“Deal.”
“Deal. Now let’s go back in so you can apologize. Again. Please let this be the last time.”
* * *
Audrey
“Meet me in my theater in a half hour?” Blake asks me. “I have to get ready for our date.”
“Date? I thought…I mean…”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you flustered. At least not recently. And don’t worry, we’ll be doing exactly what you were thinking. After I wow you a little.”
“You’re not planning on wowing me when we have our ‘after’ then?”
“That came out wrong. I would like to wow your brain with the first part of our date. Then I’m going to wow your body so much that your brain completely shuts down.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you in a half hour. Should I wear anything special?”
“Just be comfortable.”
I’m not sure he really means it, but I think it’s a good idea to do exactly as he said. I’m going to be comfortable. Not glamorous, or sexy—well, I’ll be rocking some sexy lingerie underneath—just comfy and casual. Like I’d wear for a typical night in. I would put more of an effort in a regular date, but he’s already seen me dressed up. Casual it is.
Thirty minutes later, I knock on the door to the theater, wearing yoga pants and a loose t-shirt. My hair’s in a messy bun, and I have no make-up on. I’m pleasantly surprised when Blake opens the door, and I see him dressed down as much as me. He’s got a tank and board shorts on, and he didn’t shave. There’s more like an eight o’clock shadow than a five o’clock one covering the lower part of his face, and he has some glasses on. The whole look is a lot sexier than it should be.
“You look hot.”
“Starting a date with a lie. Not so smooth, Hollywood.”
“Not lying. At. All. I like seeing you all casual and shit.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“It’s the glasses, isn’t it? I’ve been told women dig men in glasses.”
“You don’t need them?”
“I do. I usually take my contacts out at night when no one’s around.”
“If you really need them, then wearing them is hot. So’s the beard. And that little bit of chest hair peeking out is doing it for me to, if I’m being honest.”
Playing in SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 9) Page 6
