"So just like you threatened to have your cronies drop offers, you'll have them extend them," she challenged. "Is that it?
He said nothing, but Gina knew she was right.
"I will not quit." Twisting one hand free, she jabbed his chest with her finger. Her dizziness hadn't faded but fury made her stronger. "You'll have to fire me, or I'll be right back on that rig when it opens."
A smile ghosted Austin's lips. "No doctor will clear you."
The reality that he wasn't making an empty threat sucked a little of the fire from her fight. He must have seen it because he released her other hand and straightened as if the argument was over.
"So you have them in your back pocket, too?" Disgusted at what money could buy someone like Long, she snorted and fumbled with the side rail. "You can bet your fine ass I won't be staying in a hospital where my care can be influenced by your whims."
Managing to release the side, she pushed up into a sitting position and slid until her legs dangled over the edge from the knees down. Her stomach lurched up into her throat, a cold draft hitting her spine from where her hospital gown was open in the back.
Not anything he hasn't already seen, girl. Just get your feet on the floor and go from there.
Hands seized her shoulders. She felt the press of Austin's chest against her body and then he hooked her legs with one arm and hauled her back into position on the bed.
"It's not your doctor," he said, jerking on the side rail to raise it. "The requirements I'll list will make it impossible to clear you. Let's start with no concussion in the last six months because, in case you haven't figured it out, baby, you've had one hell of a hit to your pretty little head."
Oh, she'd figured it out all right. She didn't need Austin Long or a medical degree to know that. The entire time he'd spent glaring and hissing at her, Gina had seen and heard more than one of him.
As her blurry vision worsened, she knew she couldn't work the rail's latch on her side a second time.
She managed to slide around his big body. Her feet touched the floor and she teetered forward, legs starting to fold. Austin caught her. At first it felt like she was wedged between steel maws, but then his posture softened.
His hand slid down in a way she had memorized.
"The hell you will," she snapped. "Do you think it's escaped my attention that you've been escorting another woman all over town?"
She managed to twist in his embrace until she could see his face. He looked confused. She snorted. He must have even more women than the one she knew about.
"Your fluffy blonde Barbie doll," she elaborated. "So, please, try to show at least a little respect for my intelligence and stop pretending like you give a shit about me."
His lips pursed, then flattened. His hands moved up to grab her shoulders. He held her like that, not saying a word until she managed to gain control of her legs. Releasing Gina, he stepped to the end of the bed then stopped to look at her.
"You have one week to pick your replacement," he warned. "The rig will be operational by then and if you haven't named someone, I will."
She opened her mouth, but a resolute shake of Austin's head made Gina hold her tongue.
"You can sue me, you can drag both of our names through the mud." Stopping, he moved to the door, his hand flexing as he gripped its edge. "But you will not put yourself back in that kind of danger."
He left then, closing the door behind him, their next—and final—meeting set at the following week's end.
17
Her mother showed up less than ten minutes after Long left.
Somewhere between the parking lot and Gina's room, her mother mentioned passing him though neither stopped to greet the other. Austin might have made the connection, but Alice Banks was in the dark about her daughter’s relationship to the man.
Past tense relationship.
That made it all so much easier, then, for Gina to pass her tears off as a product of the pain. And even easier, when her mother expressed apprehension about Gina returning to the same work, for Gina to appear to relent and tell Alice she would take one of the jobs she had been offered since passing the bar exam instead of staying at this one.
Since her mother didn't know Austin had been her lover, it never crossed Alice's mind to expect any more explanation than that, or any more from Austin at all aside from a reference letter to use in the future.
Gina didn’t expect any more than that, either.
* * *
After being discharged and spending another day in bed at home at her mother’s insistence, Gina immediately threw herself into looking for her replacement.
She had a few classmates who had graduated at the same time and passed the bar who were still without a position. Her first thought was to reach out to one of them—until she remembered the guy had pretty much considered law school his golden ticket and didn't seem overly concerned with ethics or any public duty that attached to the license.
She cast a wider net, checked which law schools that had environmental law journals and looked at the roster of students who had contributed or served on the journal's editorial board. If they had articles published, she read them.
Frankly, she had nothing else to do.
Eventually picking six final candidates, she tracked down their current contact information. Two were already at firms, a third was picking up another degree. She called the three remaining candidates, scoped out their interest in the position after long conversations with each over the phone and had them email their resumes. She marked her order of preference and shoved it in an envelope on Wednesday afternoon.
Mailing it would have been the smart choice after all that had occurred between her and Austin.
And Long certainly hadn't specified that she had to deliver it in person. As sharp as he was, she imagined the omission was intentional. He wanted email or snail mail or a phone call to his secretary, anything other than Gina showing up at headquarters, furiously marching past Gladys and wearing a face that dared the woman to so much as breathe as Gina barged into Austin's inner office.
In retrospect, her entrance would have been grander if he had actually been sitting at his desk.
More so if he had been alone.
Slowly rotating to her left, Gina saw Austin leaning with his back against the floor to ceiling window that overlooked the city. He had been talking to someone when she entered. She looked to the couch. Long blond hair, fluffy body.
The woman turned, smiling, her eyes blank.
Gina crumpled the envelope in her hand. The rest of her body remained as still as a statue.
"Sorry," the woman said, leaning forward as her hands searched for something. "I didn't realize you had an appointment."
"Neither did I," Austin answered stiffly, pushing off from the window and starting toward his desk. He paused halfway to glance at the blonde. "On the table to your left, baby girl."
Gina felt his words like a punch to the gut. She dropped the crumpled envelope on his desk and turned to leave. One step away from the office door, her legs froze as she heard a distinctive click-click-click.
"Baby girl" had found what she was looking for—a three-piece, folded metal pole that, when unfolded, became a white cane with bands of red at the top and bottom.
…The kind blind people used to navigate and warn those around them.
Gina, girl, you are going to hell.
She nodded at the voice in her head. Or voices—it seemed like she heard her mother, grandmother and baby sister passing judgment on her all at once. She deserved it, too. It didn't matter if the woman was sharing Austin's bed. She hadn't done anything to earn Gina's anger.
"This is Miss Lacey Addams Long," Austin said as he slid into the chair behind his desk. "My cousin. Lacey, this is Miss Gina Banks."
Lacey extended her hand in Gina's direction, her smile faltering as Gina stayed near the door. Gina's mouth moved, but she didn't know what to say. She wanted to apologize, but she could hardly explain why she
was sorry to the woman. Woman or girl? She looked so damn young in person.
"I..." Still tongue-tied, Gina managed to get her legs working and took hold of Lacey's hand. She squeezed lightly.
Lacey returned the gesture with a much firmer grip.
"I won't break," she laughed.
"Sorry..." Gina's gaze jumped from Lacey to Austin and back. "I didn't realize you were blind. I mean..."
Girl, you better just stop talking...even lemon mouth is better than what you're doing now!
"Well," Lacey shrugged cheerfully and then started sweeping her cane side to side as she came around the couch. "Legally, I am. I have about fifteen percent in one eye and twenty in the other. Austin has been taking care of me while I'm here to see a specialist. Normally my mother would be with me, but she….she's been very ill lately."
Hearing a soft click at the back of Austin's throat, Gina had a feeling Lacey's mother wasn't as sick as the girl thought. Or maybe that little sound of disapproval was meant for Gina and not the absent mother.
Not that it mattered at that point. She was there to drop off three resumes, resumes that she should have mailed. She could hardly expect him to follow her recommendation now that she had made a fool of herself.
"Good care, I hope," Gina said as she side-stepped away from the arc of the girl's cane.
"Oh, yes. If Austin isn't watching me, Wake is."
"Wake?" Hearing Lacey's wistful tone as she said the name, Gina's curiosity got the better of her and she looked, at last, toward Austin. "Miami Wake?"
"He goes where he's needed," Austin answered flatly.
"Right," Gina nodded. She couldn't tell by his face or voice whether he was pissed or just bored. Maybe he didn't want a reminder to the last time they'd been in a room together.
Moot point, really. In less than two minutes, she would be out of his life forever.
Seeing Lacey head for the door, Gina called her back. "Please, don't leave on my account. I was just dropping off some resumes."
"And I was just monopolizing his time while I angst over possibilities that may never materialize."
Lacey smiled when she spoke, but her voice warbled.
Despite her attempt not to, Gina glanced at Austin again.
"Surgery to restore her sight," he explained with the same flat voice he had used earlier.
"Or lose it entirely," Lacey added.
"Oh..." That was all Gina could get out. If she hadn't already felt like a jealous witch, she would have after hearing that last detail. "Then I really should be leaving."
She pointed at the envelope. "I listed my order of preference. They're all strong candi—"
Austin pushed the envelope toward her. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of an oppressive sense of deja vu. Other than Lacey, the entire scene was too close to her first visit to his office after their encounter at Boudrot's estate. That time she had a folder full of environmental studies that she wanted him to look at. He had pushed those aside as well and all but ignored her until she started to storm out.
Well, that was one action she wouldn't repeat. Lacey had enough on her mind. She didn't need an angry woman charging past her, bulldozing everything in her path.
Her fingers brushed the envelope, but she couldn't bring herself to pick it up. Not yet.
"You don't want me to leave them so you can at least look over their qualifications?"
"It would get lost." His hand gestured at the pile of papers that littered his desk. She had never seen it messier than it was at that moment.
"Right," she said. Her nose stung with the threat of tears, but she managed to keep the defeat out of her voice.
At least she hoped so. Austin seemed to read her with ease, but maybe Lacey wouldn't notice. She had to be a hot mess if she couldn't hide her emotions from a blind person.
Gina headed for the door, slowing as she passed the girl. "It was nice to meet you, Lacey. I hope your decision brings you peace."
Lacey's head bounced. She turned away with a muffled thanks.
Gina entered the outer office and let the envelope fall into the trash can next to Gladys' desk. She was almost out of the room when Austin stopped her. Just like the first time, his hand came up to block the door.
"You have your passport, right?"
Her voice abandoned her. She couldn't even turn her head to stare blankly at him. She just kept looking at his hand as she slowly nodded.
"If you want to name your successor, you'll be ready at nine tomorrow morning at your apartment. Pack a bag to last a few days."
She drew a shaky breath in. She guessed he wanted one last fling. The experience would either be salt rubbed in her raw wounds or one last sweet memory to carry her through the rest of her life—because she couldn't imagine letting another man into her bed, or her heart.
Words refused to come, so she nodded and prayed Austin still watched to see her response.
18
A limo picked Gina up the following morning, and proceeded to take her to the airport, where she was handed an envelope by the driver.
…With a one-way ticket to France.
One-way?
What in the world did that mean? she wondered as she watched the limo pull away from the curb. She rubbed her fingers against the ticket's edge and rechecked the envelope to make sure she hadn't missed seeing a second ticket.
There was none.
She looked up the lane to a stand of cabs waiting to take new arrivals to their destination. She checked the envelope again then pulled her phone from her bag. Opening her banking app, she looked at her available balance and then her available credit. She had no idea what the airfare home would cost if it came to her paying, or whether she might find herself on the hook for a day or two of lodging waiting for a flight back if none of the immediate flights had an empty seat.
Then she remembered the hiring bonus on two of the job offers she had pending.
“Oh, what the hell," she sighed, dumping her phone into her bag and entering the terminal to situations unknown.
It wasn't as if she truly expected Austin to leave her stranded in another country as some sort of mean parting gift.
He may be the kind of guy who took pleasure in pushing all of Gina's buttons, but he was also the man who looked after his sweet little cousin. And, whatever the weekend had in store for her, she didn't want to spend her life wondering what would have happened if only she had stepped onto the plane.
Ten hours later, with a short layover in New York and another limo ride from Nice, France, to Monaco, Gina found herself in a very familiar hotel suite. She'd never stepped foot in it before—never even ventured out of the United States.
But still, she knew the place because it was another luxury hotel owned by the Kehoe brothers, complete with the drawers beneath the bed filled with the lubes and condoms and variety of devices designed to please, sometimes with a side dose of pain. She knew the panel that hid a St. Andrews Cross on the other side and more instruments and toys and probably chemicals, all of which Austin hadn't thought her ready for the last time.
The only thing she didn't know was Long's location. His suitcases were present. Actually, there were more suitcases than one man needed, so she decided to open them. She found clothing in her size, dresses, blouses, pants, shoes, bags, and silky things to wear beneath the outfits.
More than a weekend's worth.
Zipping the luggage shut, she returned the bags to where they had been placed along the wall. She sat on the bed and tried not to remember how her heart had been crushed the last time she stayed in a hotel owned by the billionaire brothers.
At least the mattress was insanely comfortable, Gina mused. She rolled toward its center, folded her hands across her stomach and stared at the ceiling. She hadn't slept the night before. The jump from Louisiana to New York had been too short for a nap and she had only managed half an hour on the flight from New York to Nice.
In no time at all, she fell asleep.
Aust
in woke Gina with the brush of his finger against her cheek. She pushed onto her elbows and stared at him. He stared back, his expression guarded.
Someone had to go first. She didn't really want to be that someone. He may have extended the invitation, but she had gotten on the plane. It seemed to her that it was his turn.
So she waited.
With a soft, short laugh, he dropped his gaze to the mattress.
"Have you changed your mind about me being some kind of monster?" she asked, unable to bear the silence any longer.
His brow furrowed, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
"The last time..." Looking around the room, she snorted then returned her gaze to his face. "When I said 'accident.'"
"I've never had a single negative thought about you, Gina." His eyes met hers, his entire expression earnest.
She burped out a nervous laugh. "I've had plenty of negative thoughts about you. I don't know if I should add liar to the list."
Unexpectedly, Austin smiled at her. His brows lifted playfully and then he shook his head, his expression serious when he finished. "I guess I've given you more than enough cause."
Damn right—he kept dumping her like she was some kind of wrapper to a tasty meal he had just finished devouring. Half the time she was around him, he made her feel used up, weak, foolish...
"Stop," he warned, capturing her hands and holding them close to his chest. "I can tell where your thoughts are heading and it isn't productive. I brought you here to talk about the future, not the past. The last time we were together, part of me was operating on auto-pilot—some kind of biological instinct to bind you to me."
She took a sharp breath in.
His hands tightened in response.
"Your reaction in Florida made it clear," he continued, "that no matter how much I was coming to desire a commitment between us, you had no such interest in me."
Gina jerked her hands back. If Austin Long didn't realize she was hooked on him and hooked hard, she had overestimated his ability to read people—to read her.
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