Chapter Forty-Four
Mulaney
“Go back to the city. Take care of your business.”
I passed Ruby the bag of pork skins. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“At the rate you and Easton are going, we’ll all be pregnant before long.” She munched loudly and gave me the side-eye.
“Do I talk about you and Granddaddy’s sex life?”
“We’re discreet enough so nobody knows about it.”
The bag of snacks landed in my lap. I snatched a pork skin out. “If I leave, who’s going to see about you?”
“In about five seconds somebody else is gonna come in here and ask if I need anything. I’m fine and none of y’all are listening.”
“You’ve been home three days.”
“Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Right on cue, Stone came into her living room. “You need anything, Grandmama?” He kissed her cheek and she flashed me a see? look.
“You think I can’t take care of her?” I shoved back in Granddaddy’s recliner until my feet were propped up.
“It ain’t about you,” he said, annoyed.
“The doctor said you can’t upset me,” Ruby interjected. “And don’t you have a movie to finish shooting?”
“They can kiss my—”
“Foot,” Muriella finished for him, placing a hand on his arm.
“Exactly.”
“I thought when you got it finished you were going to come out here for a while. Spend some time with me. If you don’t get it done then you won’t be able to, and somebody’s gonna have to help when Mitch and the girls are in Paris.” She gave him a pitiful face that he fell for every damn time.
“But what if you need me now?”
“Then I’ll call, and you’ll get here in a hurry.” Ruby took my sister-in-law’s hand. “You need to get back and find those newlyweds somewhere else to live.”
Muriella’s cheeks turned pink. “They can stay for a while.”
Ruby pushed out of her chair. “I’m going to get some tea and no, I don’t need y’all to do it for me.”
As soon as she disappeared, Stone and Muriella sat on the sofa closest to me. He leaned toward me, voice low. “We need your room back.”
Muriella smacked him on the arm. “No, we don’t. We won’t need the bunk beds for a few years.”
“Do I need to find somewhere else to go or not?” I asked, looking back and forth between them.
“No,” she insisted.
“I’m glad you’ve changed your tune about kids,” Stone said.
“Why does everybody think that all of a sudden?”
“You sure seem to be working on making one.” Muriella squeezed his knee and gave me an apologetic look. “Well, she is. Anyway, you don’t have to move. It’ll be nice having a live-in babysitter.”
I zeroed in on Muriella’s stomach. “Are you?” She nodded shyly. “Does Ruby know?”
“We haven’t told anyone but Daniel and Vivian.”
“Not even Mama?”
“Nope,” Stone said smugly. He grabbed me in a headlock and gave me a noogie.
I flailed about trying to get away. “How old are we?” I kicked at his shin, narrowly missing the coffee table.
“Not too old for this.”
“Will you stop it?” I grabbed for his hands but couldn’t see a thing.
“When did you get so worried about your hair? I’m sure Easton’s seen it look worse than this,” my annoying brother rattled on.
“Let me go.”
Abruptly, he did. I lost my footing and fell to the carpet.
“What’s all this fuss about?” Ruby asked, hand on her hip.
“Nothing,” Stone and I answered at the same time.
“I want y’all out of here by tomorrow.”
“Does that include us, Miss Ruby?” Vivian eased into the room with Daniel behind her.
“Lord, no. Just those renegades.”
“That’s it,” I said, shooting to my feet. “Easton.”
He rushed in from the kitchen. “What’s the matter?”
I raced over to him. “Ruby just named our new company.”
“What new company?” she asked.
“Renegade,” I said, punching him in the bicep.
“Perfect.” He slung an arm around my shoulders. “I like your hair.”
“Told you, and he’s probably seen it worse after—”
“What new company?” Ruby insistently asked again, interrupting Stone.
“I’m going to work for her,” Easton said. “She’s a good boss.”
“Tough,” Grandmama said resolutely.
“Can you keep this between us for now? We’ve got some loose ends to tie up.” I leveled everybody with my most serious look.
“Stop wasting time and get to it. You’ll see how hard it is when you’ve got little renegades running rampant,” Ruby said.
Easton beamed, and I groaned. “We’re out of here.”
“Miss Jacobs? I mean, Mrs. Carter.”
Holly put her notepad on the sofa and worried her lip between her teeth.
“If you can hang with me just a little bit longer, I promise things will get better.”
We’d been back in New York a few days, and between playing catch-up and trying to figure out who the hell had bought a pipeline in our names, it had been tough.
“I, um—”
Demure was a word that often came to mind when I thought of Holly, but she had backbone. A necessity to deal with me.
“What’s going on? Is it Gabriel?”
“No,” she said, eyes widening. “He loves it here. It’s, well, I—Mr. Carter came by here a few weeks ago. He wanted to know if you and his father were having an affair. I didn’t confirm it, but I didn’t deny it either.” She dropped her chin to her chest, blonde hair falling in a curtain around her face.
“Why would you do that?” And why was Easton confronting Holly about that in the first place?
When she looked up at me, her eyes pled for understanding. “Please don’t ask me that.”
“I kinda have to. You’re the last person I’d expect to betray me.”
She bolted from the sofa toward the floor-to-ceiling windows of her apartment. An uneasy glance in the direction of her son’s room had my eyes following.
“Don’t ask me,” she said sharply.
I cocked my head. “You gotta give me something. That could’ve destroyed my marriage. I was doing a fine enough job of screwing it up on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Holly whispered, the fight in her replaced by fear.
“Are you in trouble?” Holly wouldn’t have misled Easton for no reason.
I sat back and studied the woman I’d trusted for years. Her arms were folded over her stomach as if protecting herself. Her face was pale and stress lines radiated from her eyes. There was genuine regret staring back at me, yet a resoluteness. She was scared. Her priority had always been Gabriel first then CE. Well, then me, if I was honest. She was an exceptional assistant, never late to work, never questioned her role or what I’d asked of her. Hell, I’d never worked with someone who could anticipate things before they were actually needed.
“What’s going on, Holly? This isn’t like you.”
“Mrs. Carter, please.”
What was she asking of me? I’d never seen her looking so . . . terrified. It was as if someone had hurt her but she couldn’t say who. Or they’d threatened her. She didn’t defend me when Easton asked her about me and Harris. She respected Easton and Mr. Carter. One person had stirred this shit up about Mr. Carter and me having an affair. “Why are you afraid of Drew Carter?”
She hugged herself more tightly. “I’m sorry I lied. I understand if this compromises my position.” The tremor in her voice confirmed my suspicions.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said carefully as she shrank in on herself.
“I—” She seemed to debate what she wanted to say as she stared at the ha
rdwood floor. When she finally looked up at me, sheer terror was in her eyes. “Please.”
My anger shifted from Holly to Drew. “I heard you tell someone on the phone you didn’t have the money. Did he make you a loan? Is he bothering you?”
“I-I’d rather not say.” She fiddled with the cross necklace.
“If you needed something, you could’ve come to me.” Our relationship was as personal as it had ever been, which wasn’t much, but I would help her in any way she needed if I could. I hated she’d gotten tangled up with Drew somehow.
“Not this.” She snapped her mouth shut as if she’d said too much.
I wanted to kill Drew . . . again. “How much do you owe him?” I grabbed my purse off the floor and pulled out a wad of cash.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of your Drew problem.” I unfolded the bills and straightened them.
“You can’t do that.”
I paused. “He’s the epitome of hell on earth. The sooner you’re done with him the better.”
The front door burst open, and Gabriel ran straight to his mother. Carlos strolled in behind him.
“Hi, Mama. Hey, Miss Jacobs.”
“Hi, Firecracker. Carlos.” I nodded at him.
“Hello, ladies.” His eyes landed straight on Holly.
She knelt and hugged her son while Carlos and I took in the scene.
“I scored two goals,” Gabriel said proudly.
Holly ran a hand over his head. “Is that so?”
“At soccer,” Carlos clarified.
“I thought Muriella was watching Gabriel,” she said stiffly.
“She said it was too cold out for her,” Gabriel explained, though Holly didn’t seem satisfied.
“Dinner is in twenty minutes.” Carlos’s gaze didn’t waver from Holly as he spoke. Apparently more had been going on in my absence than I realized.
“I don’t want to get on my sister-in-law’s bad side. She’ll kick me out, and I’ll starve.”
“If you’re gone, there won’t be anyone to pin things on. I’ll be gone too,” Carlos said matter-of-factly.
“You can come live with us,” Gabriel volunteered.
Holly looked like she wanted to rescind that offer stat. “Go hang your jacket up,” she said, and her son scampered toward the coat closet by the front door. She turned her attention to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know that.” I held out the stack of money.
She looked at it like it was poison. “Thank you, but I can’t take it.”
“You can,” I insisted, trying to shove it in her hand.
She put her arms behind her back and shook her head. “I’ll figure out a way.”
I admired her desire to solve her own problems, though I didn’t immediately put the money away.
“If anybody understands what he’s capable of, it’s me. You don’t have to face this on your own, even though I admire that you do. Whenever you change your mind, the offer always stands.”
She grimaced. “I can handle it.”
Her words seemed more about convincing herself than me. She’d made up her mind, and I had to respect that.
“One more thing,” I added. She looked wary. “The new company is made of three people as it stands. You, Easton, and me. We’ve always worked well together, but know very little of one another beyond that. Maybe we can’t leave SPE right this second, but the culture change starts now. We’re a family business, and you and Gabriel are part of that. Is that going to be a problem?”
A sheen glazed her eyes. She cleared her throat. “No.”
“No more Mrs. Carter, okay? I’m Mulaney.”
“I’m more comfortable with Mrs. Carter.”
“In a professional setting, fine. But here, it’s Mulaney,” I insisted.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We’ll work on it.” Inside, I was fuming. What the hell had Drew done to make Holly this terrified? Why? Why was he hell-bent on ruining me? I hated holding in this anger. I hated not knowing what Drew was up to. But right now, I had a woman I totally respected who needed Calm Mulaney, the woman who stayed in control at all times. And I could do that for her. She deserved much more, and I would get to the bottom of this. But for now . . . I pointed my head toward the door. “Come on. Supper’s waiting.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Easton
“I’ve been thinking.”
I put my hands in my pockets and my right hand squeezed the stress ball as we descended the stairs to my parents’ new apartment. Stone’s friends owned the entire building now, and my parents were staying a few floors below Daniel and Vivian in a unit the previous owners had renovated to put on the market.
“That could be dangerous,” Mulaney said, bumping me in the shoulder when we reached a landing.
“Dad seemed to think I took money from the company because I needed it. He told me I could’ve come to them.”
She paused on the step in front of me. “You don’t think he put that LLC in our names or bought the pipeline?”
“It doesn’t make sense from any angle, but it seems to be the only answer for now.” I worked the ball with more intensity.
“He was dead set against that pipeline.”
“And purchasing it with cash would make Carter Energy financially vulnerable, hence the sale.”
She turned toward me, her nose wrinkled in concentration. “Who has the most to gain with Carter Energy gone?”
“All I can think of is SPE since they’re the ones that bought it. We’ve been rivals, but we’ve always operated with a certain level of mutual respect.”
We reached their floor. Mulaney exited the stairwell first, and I placed a hand on the small of her back. I needed to touch her to center me.
She knocked on the mahogany front door. “Let’s just ask him.”
“I thought we were waiting for more information?”
“I’m tired of waiting.”
Drew answered, broadly sweeping his arm toward the living room, which already looked like a home, no sign they’d only moved in recently. “Hey, sis.”
Mulaney stiffened when he kissed her cheek. “Hey,” she said flatly. He’s an asshole. That’s what Mulaney thought of Drew, and when I looked at her and saw how tense she was, it was clearly more than just a personality difference to her. I hadn’t spoken to him about the accusations he’d made about Dad and her, nor about her and the male prostitutes, and that was poor form. My wife deserved more from me than that, but I couldn’t fathom why he’d lie so blatantly. Why he pointed the finger so aggressively at her for CE’s failings. Why he . . . loathed her so much. I had to resolve this. But when?
“What’s up, big brother? I’ve missed my roommate.” He clapped my shoulder and pulled me in for a bro hug.
“You can give my room to someone else. I won’t be needing it.”
“She might put you in the doghouse.” He flicked his chin toward Mulaney. Her fingers fluttered at her side, but I wasn’t sure if she wanted to punch him or flip him off. “There’s two bedrooms at my new place downstairs, though it needs serious work.” His face pinched in dissatisfaction. Not all the apartments were up to date; Drew’s was one of them. “Besides, I’ve always got interesting guests.”
I squeezed the life out of the stress ball and prayed my wife would let this conversation go.
“There they are.” Mama met us before we reached the living room and hugged both of us. “Come sit. Tell me all about Miss Ruby.”
Dad emerged from down the hall, the lines around his eyes more pronounced than they had been the last time I’d seen him. His tight smile was forced. “Whiskey, anyone?” He made a beeline for the decanter on a bar cart without waiting for a response.
“I’ll help,” I volunteered as Mama and Mulaney settled in on the sofa.
Dad was silent while he poured. I burned to confront him about the pipeline, but now wasn’t the time. Mulaney and I were going to ask him to join our new company, though this was
n’t the time for that either.
“Harris and I have decided to stay in New York.” Mama lifted her glass of water. “With the apartment and being close to all of you, it’s the right decision. Plus, I’ve found a good doctor, and I’m already feeling so much better.”
“You look beautiful.” Drew patted her knee.
“Thank you, baby.”
Dad drained his drink and slammed the glass on the coffee table.
“What’s the matter?” Mama asked. “You’ve been on edge for three days.”
His expression lightened, but only for a second. “I thought we’d overextended ourselves at Carter. That was why the coffers had gotten so low.” He folded his hands and looked at the carpet. “But that’s not the case at all.”
Relief and apprehension swirled through me. I knew where the money had gone, well, before it disappeared, but I wasn’t sure how or why it had gotten there. Finally, we may have some answers that no matter what spreadsheet or report I looked at in EXODUS, I couldn’t find.
“Are you saying we didn’t have to sell?” Mulaney asked.
“The money was stolen.”
All the air was sucked out of the room. We stared at each other, at a loss.
“By who?” Mulaney was the first to find her voice.
Dad looked everywhere before his gaze settled on me. “I can’t understand why you did it, son.”
Mama covered her mouth with her hand. “Easton?”
“You think I stole from CE?” I burst from my chair.
“Y’all are out of your mind,” Drew said, and I gave him a nod of gratitude for coming to my defense.
“I wish I was.” The disappointment written on my father’s face was unbearable. “I found the forty million, but not the rest of it.”
“That’s the rainy-day fund.” Mulaney stood and threw a protective arm around me.
“The reserve account was depleted,” Dad argued.
She poked her fingers into my side. “Tell them.”
I explained why I’d moved the money, but instead of diffusing the situation, the tension only mounted.
“If you’d have discussed this with us, we might not have had to sell.” Dad snatched his glass up and stalked to the bar.
Heartbreaker: A Workplace Friends-To-Lovers Romance (Paths To Love Book 3) Page 25
