“I’m taking the day off, Cordon.”
“What? In the middle—”
“Yes, I know,” I interrupted. “But I am. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I hung up the phone and leaned back into the bed. So the Blooms had come to their senses after all. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for their family home, but they were about to get a fantastic deal for it. Some people had a lot worse.
And it looked like I was going to be keeping my job.
“What was that?” Beck asked.
“You,” I said into Beck’s ear, “are going to have to get another job.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Beck
I didn’t get back to Alice’s apartment until Tuesday morning. Neither of us wanted to leave the comfort and safety of Sam’s bedroom, and we didn’t for as long as possible. But when the next day of the week stubbornly rose bright and clear, Sam admitted that he’d probably have to go into work that day. He’d suggested that I stick around at the apartment, wait for him to get home so we could continue where we left off, but Alice’s texts had been getting increasingly frantic despite my best efforts to sooth her and plus, I needed a change of clothes.
So while Sam went off to work, I headed back to the small apartment in the Village. I intended to start my job search right away — after all that miserable time unemployed in Gainesville, I would never again not work — but after gathering a handful of promising notices online, I promptly fell asleep at the table.
Eventually I woke up to my cheek stuck to my keyboard. It was only noon and Alice wouldn’t be getting home for a while. I considered continuing with the search, but ended up walking to the much more comfortable couch and covering myself with a blanket. As I drifted off again, my eyes found that long crack in her ceiling, the same one I’d traced again and again on my first morning here, reminding myself that I’d actually done it.
It seemed so long ago. I was a different girl then. I hadn’t realized how much I was missing out on in life yet. Like love. I wasn’t sure if I loved Sam yet, but I could feel the potential. Because if what I had with Troy was a flickering bulb, dimly lit and moments from death, then what I felt for Sam pulsed with the strength of the sun, white-hot and blinding, burning with a fire hot and deep. I’d forgotten what love felt like — if I’d ever felt it at all — but it felt like the right course.
I woke to the door bursting open. Alice never seemed to enter any room casually, but always like she’d been flung through it by a stray wind of a hurricane.
“What the hell happened to you?” she demanded immediately. “I haven’t seen you since Saturday night!”
I groaned and pulled my blanket over my head. “Shhh,” I said through the fabric. “Let me wake up before the questions start.”
Alice strode through the living room, dropping bags and flinging her keys. “Take your time, but make it quick,” she called from the bathroom. “I need to pee, but by the time I’m done, I want a full explanation.”
I shook my head and peeled the blanket back. I couldn’t deny Alice the truth, even though Sam and I were both in complete agreement about our relationship not getting out at work. But Alice obviously didn’t count as a work friend, so that was fine, right?
“I hope your three day bender was worth it,” Alice called through the door. “Because if the rumors are true then I have some bad news for you.” She reemerged back into the living room with her arms crossed.
I sat up all the way and cocked my head. “Wait, are you mad at me?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed it in her tone, but it was definitely on her face.
“Yes!” she said. Then she paused. “No, I mean, I don’t know. But Beck, come on.” She rubbed her forehead. “I recommended you for a job and I know I said he’d probably fire you sooner rather than later, but I didn’t think you’d actually deserve it. You almost got lucky yesterday cause the boss was out too. But today? Talk of the office is that he’s hiring a new assistant. You’re officially the fastest turnover and you would not believe the idiots he’s had in there before. So come on. Out with it. Where were you?”
I sat stunned for a moment working over what she’d said. She wasn’t wrong, of course. But I hadn’t even considered that all of this might look bad on her in any way.
“Alice, I’m so sorry,” I said earnestly. “Trust me, it’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?” she asked. “Because honestly I have no idea what to think.”
“Sam and I are together now,” I said simply.
Alice’s body froze. Her eyes widened and her brow furrowed to comical depth as she processed what I was saying. “Wait a minute,” she said. “You don’t mean…”
I nodded. Alice looked like she would have been less shocked to hear that I spent the weekend in a forty-eight hour cocaine-powered orgy on a blimp.
Then the tension broke and she howled. “No way! No fucking way! Nope. Uh-uh. I don’t believe you.”
I grinned as any irritation from my friend dissipated at the realization. “Well the good news is that I’m moving off your couch.”
Alice’s mouth dropped. “Wait so you’re really serious? And you’re moving in with him?” Somehow her eyes managed to get bigger and her voice dropped to a serious whisper. “Are you going to be his sex pet?”
I snorted. “What are you talking about?”
“No, seriously. Blink twice if you’re being coerced. I’ll call a hotline.” She fumbled for her phone, but I jumped up off the couch and grabbed her shoulders.
“Alice. Listen to me. I promise I’m not being— I don’t know, human trafficked or whatever you think is going on. Sam and I just… we like each other. It’s weird and great and I still don’t know entirely how to feel, but I’m giving it a shot.”
Alice relaxed and let out a short laugh of bewilderment. “Wow, Beck. This is insane. Fantastic, but holy shit. Have you been at his apartment for the past few days? Oh god, that’s why he wasn’t in yesterday.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Dude, you might be trying to hide this, but everyone’s weirded out by him being gone. You got to understand. He never misses work. Hell, I don’t think he even takes weekends.” She looked at me with a new respect. “He actually really likes you.”
“God, I hope so,” I said. “But yeah, he doesn’t want me coming to the office anymore.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe you thought I’d just fuck off on my job.”
Alice threw up her hands and went into the kitchen. “Look, how was I supposed to know? All I know is we’re out one night with a group of billionaires and the next you’ve completely disappeared. How was I supposed to know you weren’t partying in Ibiza or, alternatively, being shipped in a crate to some Middle Eastern harem?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on. I told you I was fine!”
Alice stuck her head through the divider between the kitchen and the living room and fixed me in a look that said don’t be so naive. “That could have been the traffickers using your phone.” Then she raised two boxes of pasta. “Which one?”
“Butterfly every day of the week,” I said. “And you’re too obsessed with traffickers. Look, I’m okay, I didn’t let you down at work, and you get to have your entire apartment back to yourself soon. Things are going great!”
“Sure, sure,” Alice said, back in the kitchen filling a pot with water. I heard the stove kick on. “Only are you sure?” She came back into the living room. “Sam’s a billionaire. He exists in a different world than the rest of us. Do you even know him well enough to move in with him? Because trust me. I do not mind you living here. If it wasn’t you, it’d be Daniel which—” She made a choking noise.
I nodded. “I know it’s fast, but there’s nothing keeping me there if it doesn’t work out. Trust me. If I was able to leave Troy, I can leave Sam too.”
Alice gave me a crooked smile. “Well, then I give you my blessing. But at the first sign of trouble, I want you back on this couch. Seriously. No matter what.”
I returned it. “Thanks, Alice.” Then a memory occurred to me, shoved to the back of my mind with everything else that’d been going on. “Is Daniel okay?” I asked. “The last time I saw him you were dragging his limp body down the street.”
“Oh god, don’t remind me. I’m afraid he might be even dumber than he was before, but he’s not going to die. Which from the way he makes it sound, he got beaten within an inch of his life. Could you believe that guy, Mac? Daniel may be an idiot, but he’s unhinged. Did you see the way he was looking at me?”
I grinned at her offended tone. Alice went back into the kitchen continuing to lambaste Mac — his attitude, his drunkenness, that thing he said about — what was it? — eating her? I let her talk until she got to what I knew was coming.
“I mean, he’s not even that good-looking. Okay, he kinda is, if you’re into assholes. And his accent is pretty hot. Except I could barely understand what he was saying there at the end. But whatever, it’s not like I’m ever going to see him again. Which is good,” she added, “because I don’t want to have to give him a piece of my mind about punching a harmless idiot like Daniel.”
“Are you sure you never want to see him again?” I asked. “Because you sound like you want to.”
Her head poked back into the living room. “God forbid! Hell, I’m never even going to drink Mac Walsh Liquor again, let alone talk to the prick.”
I waited, silent.
“Besides, where would I ever even see him again?”
I grinned at the wall. “I think I could have Sam introduce you formally,” I called.
“Don’t you dare!” she said. “Besides, I think Daniel might have rubbed his two remaining brain cells together and realized he was an asshole first. He’s being weirdly considerate lately.”
I dragged myself off the couch and went into the kitchen to give Alice a hand. She regaled me with other stories about Daniel who, despite all odds, looked like he was becoming more serious then “just a fling” as we ate noodles and jarred sauce at the table until I noticed that it was fast approaching six.
“I’m going to go out for a minute,” I said. “I’ve got some applications filled out. I want to drop them off in person.”
Alice raised an eyebrow. “Already? Damn, you’re getting on it.”
I nodded, gathering up my phone and wallet and stuffing them in my bag. “I have to. I need money and just because Sam is loaded doesn’t mean I’m going to be using his.”
“But why else date a billionaire?” Alice called after me as I headed for the door.
I stopped in the hall and turned around. “I can name you about eight and a half reasons,” I said. Then I closed the door, cutting off her shout of approval.
Maybe Alice thought I was rushing out too quickly to look for work, but it wasn’t in my nature to be idle. It also wasn’t to mooch, which was partially the reason why I’d kept working for Sam in the first place. Obviously I wouldn’t be paying half the rent at Sam’s apartment, but the only way I was moving in with him this quickly was if I had an exit strategy. And as nice as Alice’s offer to return was, I needed to know I could support myself, without the help of anyone else.
Was it too soon to be moving into Sam’s apartment? I’d thought he was joking when he mentioned it, sometime last night as we lay side-by-side, sweating and exhausted. I’d balked for a moment. It seemed awfully fast. But I did want to get off Alice’s couch and picturing coming home every day to see Sam’s handsome face, to roll over in bed every night and feel his strong, steady presence beside me… Once I had it in mind, most of my objections faded to the side.
But first I had to fill my only prerequisite and that’s what had me walking down the streets of the Village, handing out my resume at each of the notices I’d pulled earlier that day.
It was a beautiful evening in the city. People hurried home or to late shifts around me, each in their own bubble — talking, texting, listening to music and mouthing the words. I melted into the flow of traffic and enjoyed being out. The future had never looked brighter. In fact, from here, I could see the Astor building. Sam had texted me earlier telling me that unfortunately he’d be working late to catch up on what he hadn’t gotten done earlier. As much as I’d miss him tonight, the sight of his biggest project filled me with pride at what he was accomplishing.
Of course, that pride was marred slightly by the memory of Dorthea Bloom’s proud tale of struggle and heritage, now coming to an end. I hated that the family was losing their legacy, but Sam reassured me that the payout would be well worth it. Their kids wouldn’t have to worry about college. The sick woman would get the best care possible. All things had to come to an end sometime.
I blinked hard. My thoughts of the Blooms seemed to have conjured one of them up in front of me. Anne, Dorthea’s daughter, was walking the opposite way down the street, a hard expression on her face. At first I thought she didn’t see me, but then I realized she was walking directly at me.
“Anne—” I started, but she cut me off.
“You people make me sick,” she said in my face. Even as the harsh words left her mouth, emotion cracked through her voice and tears blossomed in her eyes.
I took a step back, horrified. “What are you talking about?” was all I could come up with.
“Oh fuck off,” she said, clasping a hand over her mouth as the tears began to spill. “You know what you did.” Then she shouldered past me, knocking me to the side and storming off down the street.
I stood in stunned silence as people flowed around me, wondering what the hell just happened. What was she talking about? What was going on? A sinking feeling took a hold of me. Wasn’t it a bit too convenient that the Bloom family had just suddenly decided to change their minds? Especially after that disaster of a dinner?
But then that would mean…
That would mean that Sam had lied to me.
I restarted my feet, ordering them to drag me out of traffic. Pressed under the awning of a grocery store, I pulled my phone out and scrolled to Sam’s number. But my thumb hesitated over his name. Would he just deny it? And deny what? I still had no idea what was going on.
I knew what I had to do, where I had to go. You don’t have to, that cowardly side of my brain whispered. You could just go back to Alice’s and forget about it. But on second thought, fuck that. No, if Sam was lying to me, if there was something else going on here that I wasn’t privy to, then I had to find out what and why and who to punch.
So I again forced my feet to take me away, following the sight of the Astor two blocks over to where the Starling sat, just as decrepit as ever.
I only hesitated for a moment. Then I firmly pressed the same buzzer that Sam had only two days before. I listened to it ring before finally someone answered.
“Hello?” It was Dorthea, but the smile had gone out of her voice. It broke my heart to hear.
“Hi,” I said. “It’s Beck Harris. I have some questions.”
There was no response through the speaker and I thought for a moment that she was going to ignore me. But then the door jolted unlocked. I pulled it open, walking back into that familiar hall. This time there was no friendly Patrick to greet me on the stairs and the family portraits stared accusingly from the wall.
I walked slowly up to the fourth floor and tapped lightly on the door.
Dorthea opened it immediately. Her face was red, as if she’d just scrubbed away tears, but she looked me in the eye firmly. And she didn’t invite me in.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I just ran into Anne,” I said. “She was upset. She— she yelled at me. I don’t understand. I thought you decided to sell.”
“We didn’t decide anything.” Her voice was hard. “We were told. Yesterday afternoon, a man from your boyfriend’s company came to visit. He said that if we wouldn’t decide to sell, he’d report us to the city for safety violations. It’s complete bullshit. We’ve always kept the building up to date.”
“So then fight i
t,” I said. “The inspector—”
She waved away my words. “Oh honey, the inspectors don’t give a shit about us. They care what their bosses say and this fellow seemed to imply that even if there wasn’t an issue, they’d find one.”
“You could contest it,” I insisted. “In court.”
Dorthea’s hard expression faded a bit and was replaced with an even worse one: pity. “Beck,” she said, “you don’t understand. They always get away with it. Because they have money and we don’t. I can’t afford to pay lawyer fees, not for the kind of legal process that would take. By the time it’s done, we’d have to sell anyway, just to keep out of debt.”
“But the payout will be good, at least,” I tried desperately.
Dorthea let out a humorless laugh. “I suppose. If we’d taken Mr. Callahan’s offer last week. But the man came with a new price, half of what the building’s worth. If we don’t take it, we’re going to be drowning in fines from the city. So we’re taking it. We lost this time.”
I didn’t even know what to say. Could Sam really be capable of doing this? Blackmailing this perfectly nice family just to get their building? Low-balling them now that they had no choice? I considered — hoped — that maybe he didn’t know. Maybe this was someone else. But who else could it be? Sam had told me himself that he was the only one who knew the Blooms weren’t selling.
“I’m so sorry,” I finally said.
She nodded slowly. “Well, I’m sorry for you,” Dorthea said. “I couldn’t imagine being with someone who put money above morals.” Then she shut the door in my face.
I stood there for a few minutes, stunned, thinking it over. In the end, all I could come up with was one solid thought: Troy had been right, Sam too. And in a way, so had I. Everything was for sale.
But only if there wasn’t a depth to which you would stoop.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sam
I checked the time. Seven o’clock and I still hadn’t made nearly the headway into the work I wanted to do today. How could I, when my thoughts kept drifting back to Beck? God, she’d looked so perfect this morning, stretched out beneath me as I whispered in her ear—
The Boss (Billionaires of Club Tempest #1) Page 15
