Lip Lock

by Susanna Carr

  What did she do to Curtis? Because she didn’t take him up on his offer for sex? Or was this another form of his sick humor?

  Glenn stood in front of her. Towered over her. “Curtis grabbed the deal we made him.”

  “By offering my name,” she replied dazedly. Who’s the con artist now?

  “You’re not getting one from us.”

  She looked up at him. “I’m not asking for one.” What would she do with it? She had no information to give. No names. Nothing.

  When she found Curtis…

  And then it hit her. Hit her so hard, she wanted to gag.

  Even if she proved her innocence, she’d already lost her job. There was no way—no way—they were going to let her continue working here.

  She lost. Bile filled her mouth, knowing that she gave it her all and managed to lose. All that hard work, the juggling, the sacrifices—the lies. All for nothing.

  “Molly?” Annette snapped her fingers right in front of Molly’s eyes. “Don’t you get it? You can go to prison for this.”

  Prison. They feed you there, don’t they? You get a roof over your head. Heat in the winter. They probably have cable TV.

  Wait. What was she thinking? Now was not the time to give up! She was not going to prison. She had done nothing wrong.

  Molly looked up and saw four of the most powerful people she’d ever met staring back at her. They were ruthless and they had more money than she could imagine. They also had the very best legal minds working for them just one building away.

  She had no job, no money for a good lawyer, and a reputation for lying.

  Was this the punishment she received for all the lies she told? Was she now getting punished for telling the truth? If that was the case, she should learn to keep her mouth shut.

  Her emotions were jumbled and threatened to ooze out of her, but she took a deep breath, determined to appear unflappable. “I don’t know why you assume Curtis is telling the truth.”

  “Because he is—was,” Annette quickly corrected herself, “one of the greatest minds in computer programming and you are a receptionist with a talent for lying.”

  “A receptionist is supposed to lie,” she muttered. How many times did she say, “Oh, sorry, he’s not at his desk,” and other such polite ways of saying the caller wasn’t important enough.

  “He had everything to lose,” Glenn said. “And you have nothing.”

  Ha. Curtis was now known as a renegade programmer. Thumbed his nose at the establishment. By the end of the year he would have a cult following.

  The phone rang. No one moved. No one took their eyes off of her. It rang again.

  “Are you guys expecting me to get that?” she asked.

  Kyle answered it. It was the first time he’d moved or said anything since his advisors took over. She allowed herself to look at him, greedily taking in every detail of his gorgeous face and sleek, masculine body.

  She lost something with Kyle, too. Something that could have reminded her that life didn’t have to be always worrying or hardship. That life could be fun.

  Kyle looked at her and their eyes met. The pain dragged against her like claws. It was a good thing she didn’t get involved with Kyle. Thank goodness she listened to her instincts.

  “You can leave, Molly,” Kyle said as he hung up the phone.

  “What?” Glenn whirled around. “You can’t let her walk out.”

  “There’s nothing on her computer or in her belongings that corroborates Curtis’s story.”

  “She had the blueprint!” Glenn shouted.

  “It’s not enough to press charges,” Kyle explained coolly. “Only enough to fire her.”

  Kyle turned his attention on her. His eyes were wintry, and his gorgeous face held no hint of kindness. Molly knew she couldn’t reach him or plead her case. His decision had been made and it was final.

  “Molly, there are two security guards outside those doors. They will be with you at all times as you clean out your desk and they will escort you from the premises.”

  So, that’s that. Could he be any more dismissive?

  “Your ID, please.”

  Molly slowly rose from her seat and walked over to him. She felt like she was walking through thick sludge as she made her way to him. With fumbling fingers, she unclipped the ID from her dress. She dropped the piece of plastic in his outstretched hands, careful not to brush her skin against his.

  “You can so forget about dinner,” she said in a hiss.

  She saw his muscle bunch in his jaw. Molly pivoted on her heel and walked to the door, doing her best not to look over her shoulder. Not to expect him to come to his senses and call her back.

  Why did she say that? Molly knew that for exit lines, it sucked. Like he was going to care. Or remember.

  Yep, it a good thing she hadn’t slept with him.

  “You let her go?” Glenn shoved his hands in his hair and paced the floor. “You fucking let her go!”

  “I didn’t have enough evidence,” Kyle said, wondering why he felt the need to explain his actions.

  Glenn motioned at the door where Molly had just left. “We could have gotten it out of her.”

  “Which would have been intimidation and illegal,” Kyle pointed out coolly.

  “Then why did you pull her before you had enough?” Glenn yelled.

  Good question. Why did he? Why didn’t he act with strategy, instead of following his anger? “I messed up. I saw the blueprint on her desk and I snapped.”

  “You messed up?” Glenn paced faster. “This woman may have taken all of our ideas, which will bring in millions, and all you can say is that you messed up?”

  Kyle locked eyes with the other man.

  Glenn viciously threw his hands in the air and stormed off. He ripped the door open, the wood panel slamming against the hinges as he walked out.

  Timothy watched Glenn leave and slowly turned to face Kyle. “I’m going to put an investigator on Molly. That could give us some good leads.”

  “Okay.” So much for getting the con artist out of his mind and out of his life. Now he’d get daily reports on what she was doing.

  “I’ll get on that now.”

  Kyle watched Timothy leave and his mind started to drift off into space. He stared at the door, feeling numb. Shutting off. Shutting down. He was definitely in survivor mode.

  He remembered that Annette was still sitting there. Kyle slowly became aware of her watching him. Studying him.

  “What?” He was in no mood for company.

  Annette chewed on her bottom lip. “Something doesn’t fit.”

  “You think Molly is innocent?” He felt the flicker of hope and was disgusted from it. He didn’t look for excuses or explanations with his other employees. He should treat Molly the same way.

  “Innocent is such a vague word. Either she knows something or she’s…” Annette trailed off. “She’s not mastermind material.”

  Kyle forced himself to turn to his computer and reach for his keyboard. “Believe me, she’s a lot more devious than she looks.”

  Annette’s eyebrow arched and Kyle ignored it.

  “You believe Curtis over Molly?” she asked.

  “Don’t you?” Kyle punched in his password.

  “Curtis got something for turning over Molly. She didn’t ask for anything.”

  “There could be a lot of reasons why she didn’t ask. Maybe the competitor can beat our offer. Maybe there’s something she wants that we can’t give.” The possibility jabbed him in the gut.

  “Maybe.” Annette paused. “About the other thing Curtis said…”

  Oh, God, he didn’t want to hear anymore lies and excuses. “Annette, I don’t have time to deal with—”

  “I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”

  That lie annoyed him. “You don’t hide a start-up company by accident. You did mean to hide it.”

  She had the grace to blush. “Only because the terms of my contract—”

  “To hell
with the contract. You want to leave? Then leave.” He focused on his computer screen and pretended to find great interest in his e-mails.

  “I spent ten years putting this company together.” Annette’s voice trembled with anger. “It’s not easy walking away.”

  Kyle glanced up from his computer. “Then why are you?”

  “Because I want something of my own.” She pressed her hands to her chest. “I want something with my name on it. My own territory.”

  As much as he hated to admit it, he understood that need. It was the same quest that drove him every day.

  “I’m not going into competition against you,” Annette promised. “I want to work with image processing for the math and science fields. This is going to fill a niche.”

  Considering she was a math geek when he first met her, he wasn’t too surprised by this passion. Annette always tried to get Ashton ImageWorks involved in the fields, but he thought the target consumer was too small.

  “I’m not taking your employees or proprietary info,” she was quick to point out. “I would never do that.”

  Annette was leaving him and not looking back. She was ready to move on. He knew why she needed to, but the way she did felt like a betrayal.

  “And if you have a need for the best mathematical and scientific image processing,” Annette said as she rose from her seat and headed for the door, “then we can form an alliance.”

  Kyle’s eyes widened at his friend’s moxie. “Are you already trying to do a deal?”

  “Softening you up.” He heard the smile in her voice.

  “Just for that, I’m going to snatch up your company in a hostile takeover.”

  Annette chuckled. “I’d like to see you try.” She looked over her shoulder. “Are we still friends?”

  “Yeah,” he said, but he wasn’t sure if that was a lie. Friends trusted each other no matter what. Didn’t they?

  Molly walked slowly down the sidewalk, carrying a small cardboard box against her hip. If that didn’t tell everyone on the street what she happened to her! She felt like a walking advertisement for losers.

  The muted clanks and dings were getting on her nerves. She peered inside the box and kept noticing that her belongings were a few trinkets and scraps of paper, and pathetically few at that. She had tossed her purse inside so she didn’t hear all the rattling around.

  Fired. The word swirled around her mind. She couldn’t believe she’d been fired. For something she didn’t even do!

  Don’t dwell on that. You’ve got bigger problems. Like where do you go from here?

  She’d have to take whatever job she could get. Two jobs. Three. She’d done it before. It nearly killed her, but she’d do it again if she had to.

  Housing. Molly winced. She didn’t know what she was going to do about that. Her credit blown. And now that she was unemployed…

  Attitude. Come on, it’s all about attitude. I will get through this. Before the end of the year, I’ll have a cozy place and a job.

  Riiight.

  It could happen. Her luck boomeranged from bad to good. Like how it did today. Everything was looking up and then—bam! Someone lost her file.

  She would have really liked to have seen what bonus she would have gotten. Molly’s feet shuffled against the pavement as she imagined the dollar amount scrolling up. Ooh, maybe some stock options. Not like she had any use for them unless she could have treated them like green stamps, but it would have been a nice touch.

  It was probably for the best that she didn’t know. Molly sighed and felt it all the way to her toes. It was going to be difficult knowing all that money had been taken away from her. That she almost got out of living in a truck.

  Speaking of which…Molly stopped and looked around. Where was her truck? Did she pass it?

  She didn’t see a truck anywhere. She parked it in this busy parking lot today, didn’t she? That was one of the disadvantages of a mobile living space. Routine went out the window.

  It was this parking lot. She remembered going behind the building where the other trucks were. Which would mean that her truck would be right…

  Where that empty space was.

  Molly stared at the pavement. She saw it, but didn’t understand it. Then it all hit her at once.

  Panic hit her in the chest. The truck was gone. The truck was…gone! And all of her stuff with it.

  Oh, no. No! She pressed her lips together. The box she was carrying suddenly felt too heavy and she placed it on the curb. She whirled around and searched the parking lot, as if her truck would miraculously appear.

  Where was her truck? Was it stolen? Towed? When did this happen? She looked around wildly, but no one was around. No one would have the answers.

  Molly shakily walked back to the empty parking space. She sat down, clumsy and tired, and stared at the gray pavement.

  She had no idea how long she sat there, hugging her knees against her chest, but it dawned on her that she needed to get up. Move. Take action. Get her stuff back. Get a job. Get a place to live.

  But she couldn’t move. She wasn’t strong enough to fight back. And even if she were, she’d use her strength to run away.

  I don’t bail.

  What she said to Kyle had been the truth. She always stayed the course. Finished the job. Paid the bill.

  Molly rested her head on her knees. And where did that get her? Nowhere with nothing.

  Maybe her good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend had the right idea. Just get up and go. Who cared what mess you left behind? Someone would have to clean it up.

  That sounded so good right now.

  But what about the truck? About her bills? What about her work record?

  No one was going to clean that up for her. She had to fix that herself.

  The weight of it all pulled her down. She felt like she was suffocating. She couldn’t breathe.

  She had to concentrate on the more important things. Food. Clothes. Shelter. Get her stuff and get a job.

  Molly’s stomach grumbled at the thought of food. When was the last time she ate? Did she throw the packet of chips in her box while the security guards watched her?

  She looked through her box, knowing that she would think better on a full stomach. At least with something in her stomach.

  Chips…chips…She could have sworn she had some potato chips. She pulled out the M notepad Bonita gave her when she got the job and saw one sheet curled backward.

  What was that? She couldn’t remember. Molly folded it over and saw a jumble of words among the doodling.

  Laurie. Family emergency. Food in refrigerator. Coming back? Key at neighbor.

  She winced. How could she have forgotten to give that note to Sara? Oh, well. Molly tossed the notepad back into the box. It made no difference. Kyle wouldn’t know the house was empty.

  Molly shuffled through her lucky pencil container and her framed photos. She froze. Kyle’s cottage was empty. The one that he never used!

  No. No. Bad idea. She couldn’t go over there. Live there. Even temporarily until she got back on her feet. That was breaking and entering.

  Unless she got the key from the neighbors…

  Diving her hand into the box, she retrieved the M-shaped paper. The rolled up bag of chips came up with the notepad, clinging to the sticky strip.

  Molly smiled. Things were looking up already.

  Chapter 9

  As the ferry docked next to the island, Molly’s heart pounded harder. Her stomach twisted as sweat appeared on her cold, clammy skin. At first she thought it might have been motion sickness. Then she realized it for what it was.

  She was going somewhere she’d never laid eyes on. In a place she couldn’t easily leave. To live in a house that wasn’t hers.

  “You are going to get caught,” Bonita had predicted the night before. “Do me a favor and plead insanity.”

  “No one will find out,” Molly had said as she stuffed jeans and sweaters she had bought from yard sales that morning into a bag. “Kyle does
n’t use the house. I’m going to go in, find a job on the island, and then get a place of my own.”

  “Never going to work,” Bonita had muttered.

  “What I’ve been doing hasn’t worked, so let’s try it in reverse. Get the home first and then everything else will fall into place.”

  “And if you don’t find a job?”

  Molly had shrugged, although she desperately hoped that wouldn’t be the case. “Then I leave and no one will ever know I had been there.”

  This is the craziest idea I’ve ever had, Molly decided as she stepped onto the island and looked around. And it just might work.

  She walked along the first street she found. There were lots of evergreen trees and rolling hills. The island was much bigger than she expected. That had to be good.

  Molly found what looked like a quaint general store. As she walked inside, a small brass bell on top of the door announced her presence. She glanced around the small, crowded, one-room store. It was like she had entered a slower, more gracious time.

  The man behind the counter stood up. “Hi, can I help you with anything?”

  “Um, yeah. Could you direct me to Main Street?”

  His smile was broad. “You’re on it.”

  Huh. Maybe the action was more toward the coastline. “Where are the shops?” she asked. “The restaurants? The Starbucks?”

  “There aren’t any, but I do have an espresso machine.”

  “Really?” No Starbucks? Was she still in the Pacific Northwest?

  “People live here to get away from it all.” The man rested his elbow on the cash register. “How long are you staying?”

  “I’m not quite sure,” she hedged. This plan might not work.

  The man eyed her beat-up backpack. “You don’t have any camping equipment.”

  Molly’s eyes widened. “Why would I need that?” Oh, please tell me these people have running water and electricity.

  “The island doesn’t have a hotel.”

  “Oh, that’s okay,” she said with some relief. Molly then realized what that meant. The job market on this island was much smaller than she’d anticipated. “I’m staying over at Kyle Ashton’s cottage.”