by J. H. Croix
I shook my head. “I’m not looking for the waitress right now.”
“Oh?” A crease appeared between his bushy eyebrows. “What are you doing here then?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said, pushing every ounce of the fury inside into my tone.
Ray stilled, the frown deepening. “You did? About what?”
He was getting skittish now, his tiny eyes darting to mine and away again over and over. I straightened to my full height and rolled my shoulders back, lifting my chin. “I overheard you talking to Sadie.”
Surprise made his head jerk back, and then he shrugged. “So?”
“So you really shouldn’t speak to her like that,” I said calmly, taking another step closer.
“No offense, Evan, but what business is it of yours how I do or do not speak to my personnel?” he asked. Taking a step back from me, he swung his hand around. “This is my diner. I will speak to my personnel however I please while I’m in here.”
Stepping closer to him, I leaned a hand on a table by the wall. “It’s too late to tell me not to take offense. I’m already offended. You see, Sadie’s my friend. She works her butt off for you, and I would appreciate you not being such an ass to her.”
His gaze slid to the small window cut into the door. Outside it, Sadie was ringing up a customer’s order. When he looked back at me, understanding dawned in his eyes. “Oh. I didn’t realize she was a friend.”
“It shouldn’t be relevant,” I told him. “From one business owner to another, let me tell you that your treatment of your staff reflects on your business in this community. You want the diner to be a success, you start by treating your own people right.”
Starting to object, he narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m doing just fine.”
“Are you?” I cocked my head at him. “If you’re employing these kinds of bullying tactics with the staff you have, I don’t think you’re doing fine. If you were, you would hire more people.”
He glared at me but didn’t say anything. I took his silence as an acknowledgment that I was right. “That’s what I thought. Look, I’m sorry if I stepped on your toes by confronting you about this in your diner, but at least I did it away from the other customers. Now, do we have an understanding?”
The answering scowl on his face told me everything I needed to know about how he felt about what I’d just done and told him. I didn’t really give a fuck, though.
Carlos knew I was serious. The calm, easygoing attitude I had now wasn’t how I’d always been. When I was younger, I was a hothead, a kid with an out of control temper. It had started after Mom’s death.
Once, a fight had gotten way out of control. As a result of that fight, I still had a reputation, and Carlos damn well knew it.
“Fine. Yes. We have an understanding,” he bit out. Maybe it was against his will, but he’d made Sadie pick up more shifts against her will. From the sounds of things, he’d threatened her if she didn’t do what he wanted.
In my opinion, that made him not much of a better man than Ken was. Both were power hungry and willing to exploit good people to satisfy their own need for total control over everyone around them.
It made me sick. Thinking about Ken and his proposition to Sadie in the face of Carlos and how he bullied her, I knew I had to get out of there before the rage could take hold. I’d learned to control it, but these were extenuating circumstances. One punch to Carlos’s jaw would be so damn satisfying.
Instead of giving in to my baser instincts, I flashed Carlos a predatory grin. “Good. I’m glad we understand each other. You have a good day now.”
Turning on my heel, I made my way back into the diner. Sadie seemed surprised when she saw me, but the weariness in her eyes lifted and a radiant smile crept onto her lips.
“Hey, you,” she said, reaching out to touch my hand to give it a quick squeeze before she released it again. “I didn’t know you were stopping by.”
“I couldn’t help myself. I missed you,” I admitted. Sadie wasn’t interested in games or fibs about why I was here.
Her smile grew by a couple of watts. “That’s good to know. I missed you too. You want to take a seat? It’s a quiet afternoon. I might be able to chat in-between.”
Gaze flicking to the kitchen, she added, “Not for too long, though.”
Sooner or later, I was going to have to come clean about what I’d said to her boss, but now wasn’t the right time, not while we were still here and right in the diner. “I would’ve loved to, but I don’t want to get you in trouble. How about if I come by after work?”
Sadie frowned, shaking her head. “I have to go to my other job from here.”
“Yeah, after work as in after you’re done with your shift there? Are you too tired for that?”
She rolled her head from side to side. “Okay. No, I’m not too tired. I was just surprised. Emery will be in bed by then, so don’t ring the doorbell when you get there. Text me, and I’ll open up for you.”
“Sure. I can do that,” I told her, brushing a soft kiss to her cheek as I passed her. “I’ll see you later, beautiful.”
On my way back to the shop after I left, I couldn’t stop thinking about Sadie and fucking Carlos. It made me furious that he would exploit her need for a job like that. I never thought the man was a saint, but Jesus, he was heartless.
Knowing she had to work for a bully like that didn’t sit well with me. It was no wonder she was so damned stressed all the time. On one hand, she was working for someone who was likely a criminal mastermind and on the other, for an exploitative prick.
The need to do something about it, to help her, overwhelmed me. Financially, I was doing really well. The garage was booming, and even without the family trust my dad had hidden, swindled, or stolen, I was well-off. I could easily afford to help her out.
Hell, if we ever did get our trust money back, I could easily afford to support both her and Emery for the rest of their natural lives. Even without it, I could make a difference in her stress level. She could at least cut back to one job and even a part-time one at that.
If she would let me, that was. Therein lay the problem. I suspected she wouldn’t ever let me. She didn’t seem like the type to accept help easily. I wondered if there was anything I could do or say to convince her to let me help her.
Offering financial support was definitely not something I would’ve done in a casual relationship, but I was serious about Sadie and Emery. This was only another sign of how deep in I was, of how much they both meant to me.
Fuck. I couldn’t stand thinking about her suffering while I could help. I really, really wanted to help. She could take care of herself and Emery. I knew that. The question was whether she would allow me to help take care of them as well.
Chapter Eighteen
Sadie
One of the wheels on my cart was becoming squeaky. The rhythmic squeak of the wheel and my breathing were the only sound in the offices at the firm as I pushed the cart from office to office.
It was completely deserted again. No late meetings, no secretaries finishing up last minute tasks, and no men I could record having conversations in the corridor.
Between the tinted windows and the cloudy skies outside, I could hardly see a thing in some of the offices until I turned the main lights on. All in all, it was the perfect night for snooping.
Adrenaline flooded through me, my eyes continuously darting to the door of whichever office I was cleaning. When I passed through one of the larger offices, I decided to start snooping. There were almost as many files in here as there were in the office I thought might belong to Ken.
This one might belong to him, too, but I wouldn’t know. I parked my cart in the middle of the office and walked around, scanning the bookshelves for a clue of where to start.
A blue plastic file caught my attention. It was within reaching distance from the desk and had the very generic words “Client accounts” printed on a sticker on the spine.
I pulled it out and
flipped through, stunned when Chief Harris’s name jumped out at me. Surely, it couldn’t be this easy. Looking around me on instinct, I half expected a security guard to jump out and yell, “Busted!”
No one jumped up, though. I was alone in the office. Sliding my hands through the folds of my uniform’s skirt, I fished around for my phone. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was an entire list of accounts, all seemingly linked to Chief Harris.
Or former Chief Harris. The man had been implicated in corruption and a slew of other charges. They’d all been connected to Ken and to Roy Lovett’s case, but that part wasn’t public knowledge. Sonny’s investigation with the GBI had exposed Harris as knee-deep in the criminal enterprise they were investigating and revealed that he’d been on the take for years. They’d found enough evidence to indict him, but if they didn’t have enough evidence then, they certainly would have it now.
Only the wily old police chief wasn’t having any of it. At his first appearance in court, he delivered a speech about how he was solely responsible for all the crimes he was accused of, that he wasn’t working in cohort with anyone, and then shot himself. Right there in open court, in front of a gallery filled with people who had trusted him to keep our community safe for years.
The shockwaves of that event were still rolling through Cypress Creek and would be for years. Chief Harris was a local legend, a town icon. No one wanted to believe he was guilty of any wrongdoing. His confession and subsequent suicide spoke volumes that the evidence against him couldn’t have.
Yet I was holding more evidence in my hands right now. The accounts listed were numerous and located all over. I placed the list neatly on the desk and took a couple of photos of it. After paging through the file and taking more pictures, I returned it to the exact spot where I found it.
Anxious to get home, see Evan, and share what I found with him, I cleaned the rest of the offices in record time. On my way home, I texted Evan to tell him I was done at work. My mind was still racing over what I’d found on Chief Harris.
I knew it was going to be difficult for Sonny to see. Although his investigation had ultimately led to the exposure of what was apparently decades of cover-ups and corruption, Sonny had been close with the chief.
This was going to be yet another blow to the severely tarnished reputation of a man who once had the respect of the town and the county as a whole. It was going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but at least Sonny had his brothers.
Evan was waiting for me outside when I got home, the lights all still on inside. When I glanced at my watch to check the time, I realized it was a little earlier than when I usually got home. It happened sometimes when there were no hold-ups like people working late in their offices or conference rooms still to be emptied.
“Hey, you,” Evan said, pulling me into his arms as soon as I got out of the car. I breathed him in as I buried my face into his chest and let the tension of the day roll away. When he eased his hold on me, he kept me close and dipped his head, catching my lips with his.
With a gasp, I plunged my hands into his hair. I’d missed him so much, and though we’d seen each other a bit during the last two weeks or so, it was never like this. There hadn’t been time.
Over the weekend, Emery was around, and we stole kisses in the kitchen and behind Evan’s truck. In the week, it always seemed to be a rush.
My body melting to his, I poured myself into our kiss, savoring the glide of his tongue against mine. Within seconds, our hands were roaming across each other’s bodies, and I felt Evan grow hard against my stomach. My own need drenched my panties.
Awareness nudged the back of my mind, reminding me we were outside my house with Lori and Emery only yards away where either of them could look out the window at any moment. I broke the kiss off abruptly and stepped away from him. “We should probably keep our clothes on.”
Evan chuckled, the gruff sound sending a hot shiver through me. “Of course.” He caught my hand in his and walked to the door with me. “How was your day?”
“Long,” I said, twisting the doorknob to let us in. “I found more information for Sonny, but we can talk about that later. Lori and Emery will still be awake. Girls, I’m home!”
“Mommy!” Emery yelled from the kitchen and came running out. When she saw Evan, she squealed and went for him first. “Evan!”
Lori appeared in the doorway behind her, laughing as she watched Emery. She grabbed her purse from the dining room table. “Hey, Sadie. Evan. I’ve got to get out of here. Paulo’s waiting. See you guys!”
She swept her hand up in a wave as she headed out the door. I called to her retreating back, “Bye, Lo! Thank you.”
Emery looked between Evan and me and then shrugged with her eyes wide. “I think Lori’s in love, Mom.”
I laughed and ran my hands through her hair. “I think you might be right.”
Evan raised his brows questioningly. I mouthed to him, “Later.”
He nodded and then glanced down at Emery. “I like your pajamas.”
She beamed at him, pulling the shirt away from her stomach to smooth out the picture on it. “The unicorn’s name is Davey. The rainbow is her friend.”
“A unicorn named Davey?” Lifting a dark brow, he looked at me and then shrugged. “I guess that works. Why not?”
“She protects me while I’m sleeping,” Emery told Evan solemnly. He nodded, his expression matching hers.
“Speaking of sleeping,” I said to Emery and held out my hand to her. “It’s time for you to get to bed.”
“Can Evan come with us to tuck me in?” she asked.
Evan didn’t answer her, leaving it up to me.
“Okay,” I said, “but not so you can chat with him and get out of sleeping. You’ve got five minutes to tell us about your day, and then it’s bedtime.”
Emery sighed deeply but nodded. “Okay.”
Taking advantage of the five minutes she had, Emery launched into a description of her day. She talked so fast, I could hardly hear what she was saying, but it sounded like a good day.
Once Emery was in bed, Evan and I went to the living room to talk. The lights were dim, and we sat side by side on my red couch. With my feet resting in his lap, I took a deep breath, letting the tension of my day unwind.
“I found a whole bunch of accounts linked to Chief Harris tonight,” I told him.
Evan’s eyes widened, his brow arching. “Are you sure? I thought they already got all the information linked to Harris.”
Shrugging, I lowered my chin and gave my head a small shake. “I don’t know what to tell you. His name is all over the list. Here, let me show you.”
I reached for my phone and showed him the photos I took. Evan whistled under his breath, lifting up his hand to ruffle the hair on the back of his head. “This is going to upset a lot of people again, but it should give them a pretty solid lead now that there’s a name attached to the accounts again. It’ll save them from going after unconnected accounts.”
“I’ll send the pictures to you,” I said, tapping the buttons on my phone. I heard Evan’s begin to ping as he received the messages.
He grinned. “Thanks. I’ll follow up with Sonny.”
Watching him tap out a message to his brother, I wondered how he’d gotten involved in all this. Sonny was a cop, so his involvement made marginally more sense, albeit not much since I would’ve thought there would be a rule against investigating cases where your family was involved.
“You can tell me if this is too personal, but what got you looking into this? You don’t strike me as the kind of person who would go chasing theories about the innocence of a convicted person.”
Evan’s expression hardened. “I’m not. Lord knows, I thought Sonny was crazy for thinking our dad might’ve been set up. I begged him to let it go. To this day, I don’t think our father’s innocent despite whatever else may be going on.”
“Why then?” I asked.
He shrugged. “As time went by, things starte
d happening with my brothers. It all started pointing to there being more to the situation than we realized. I want to help my brothers, so I got involved.”
“You’re pretty close to them, huh?” It was clear as day to me how much his family meant to him. A pang shot through me. I would never know what that felt like.
“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “They mean everything to me. Our mom always told us that as long as we had each other, no one could hurt us. She said we were stronger together and to always stand up for each. I guess I’ve hung onto that.”
“You’re lucky to have it,” I told him honestly.
He reached for me and tugged me closer to him until I was basically on his lap. Placing his hand on my cheek, his thumb traced my jawline. “I’m lucky to have you too.”
My heart rate sped up, the familiar ache for him already starting to build. It’d taken a back seat earlier since we were outside and still had to get Emery to bed, but my need for him kicked into overdrive now.
Especially since he opened himself up to me. When we talked like this, the threads connecting us stitched tighter and tighter.
Evan’s gaze held mine as he bent low toward me. Only when he fit his lips over mine did my eyes flutter closed. I looped my arms around his neck, holding him close as I shifted my legs to straddle his lap.
He groaned, his hands falling to my hips. Tipping his head back against the couch, I kissed him deeper. Harder.
Reciprocating, he dug his fingers into my hips and pressed his chest against mine. We both lost our breath, kissing and nipping and sucking. I couldn’t get enough of him.
Before I could catch my breath or my mind interfered to tell me we should probably move off the couch, we were both naked, and Evan was sliding into me.
As we rocked into each other, his gaze stayed locked onto mine. His hands sought mine out and held them as he sank home. It was intense, but in that moment, it was perfect.
