Cassidy
WEDNESDAYS WERE TYPICALLY my night to cook or grab take-out since the club attended "church." You can probably guess that several local fast-food joints had a slight pick-up in business on my nights to cook, but this week Carter made more of his crack-n-cheese as I’d dubbed it. Seriously, I was going to gain a million pounds if I didn’t watch it. Of course, I thought all of this while shoveling my third helping of said crack into my mouth.
Maverick was in the shower and I was opening a bottle of wine when my cell phone rang. Assuming it was Carter, I answered it. It wasn’t him.
"Hi, Cassidy, how are you?" Tom asked.
"Um, I’m good. How are you?"
"Excellent. I’m just waiting at the airport. Heading to London for the week, then Paris the following week."
"Oh, that’s nice." I frowned and shook my head, totally unclear as to why I needed to know this. "Sorry, Tom, this isn’t really a good ti for ."
"Oh, right. Sorry, love. You’re probably getting your son ready for bed."
"Well, have a nice trip."
"’Bye, sweetheart."
I hung up and groaned. Crap! This was getting out of hand. Monday, I’d found more flowers on my desk, which I promptly returned. I was glad he wasn’t in his office at the ti. Yesterday he’d stopped by my desk to say hello and see how I was, again trying to convince to keep the flowers.
Today I hadn’t seen him, so I had hoped he’d gotten the ssage, but apparently not. I was not looking forward to the conversation I was going to have with Carter. I knew I needed to tell him everything, but I also knew he was going to overreact.
Once Maverick was in bed, I sat down in front of the television with a glass of wine (and, yes, more crack-n-cheese, don’t judge ). I heard the key in the lock an hour later and my man walked in looking hotter than normal in his tight black T-shirt, cut, and jeans.
"Hey, baby," he said, and leaned down to kiss .
I smiled. "Hi. How was church?"
"Busy," he said, and flopped down next to . "A lot of shit to cover."
"Good stuff?" He shook his head and I sighed. "Right. Club business."
He smiled. "Yeah."
"Want to heat up so crack and get you a beer?"
He chuckled. "That’d be great, babe, thanks."
I headed to the kitchen and grabbed everything.
"How was your day?" Carter asked. I didn’t answer right away, not entirely sure where to start. "Babe?"
"I have to talk to you about sothing," I said, as I walked back into the living room and set his dinner in front of him.
He frowned up at . "Okay."
"I think I’ve made an already weird situation worse."
"Honey, sit down and talk to . Can’t fix it if you don’t tell ."
"I don’t want you to fix it, Carter. I just think you should have full disclosure." I sat beside him, crossing my legs in front of .
"Tell ."
I sighed. "Tom’s not really taking ’no’ for an answer."
"How so?" he said carefully, and set his beer back on the coffee table.
Uh-oh.
I swallowed. "Well..."
I filled him in on the flowers, the phone calls, the office visits, everything, and found myself scooting back at the rage pouring off of him. Without comnt, he knifed off the sofa and grabbed his phone, leaving the apartnt, his food sitting untouched on the table.
Ace
"Yo, Ace," Booker answered.
I sat in my truck, the only place I could get complete privacy. "The fucker’s ssin’ with her. He called her again today... I thought you blocked her number."
"I did. We’ve been watching his phone. Hold on, let see if there’s anything new."
Booker did whatever the fuck Booker did, and I forced down my desire to break sothing. Booker could find anyone anywhere and no one questioned if his information ca legally or not. He was the club’s computer guy and had a knack for hacking pretty much any system, so I had to trust that he’d be able to figure out (at least on the cyber side) what the bastard was up to.
"Burner and he’s pinging it off different satellites. Don’t know if he’s doin’ it or soone’s doin’ it for him, but I’d get Cassidy a new phone, brother. Keep the phone she has, but have one that the guy doesn’t know about."
"Fuck!" I breathed out. "That’s what I was afraid of. Cassidy said he’s off to Paris and I have a feeling he’s up to sothing."
"How much does he know about her?"
"Knowing Cass, not much. She’s always been pretty tight-lipped when it cos to her private life. He knows about , though, and I’d imagine he knows who Maverick is, but outside of that, I have no fuckin’ clue."
"So, he doesn’t know that Maverick’s father’s in Paris?"
"Who the fuck knows? Cass left the father box on the birth certificate blank. Mack’s workin’ on the adoption paperwork, but it all fuckin’ takes ti."
"Okay, brother, we’ll figure it out," Booker promised. "If the asshole’s out of the country for a little while, it’ll give us so ti. My guy’s callin’ tomorrow with an update."
I sighed. "I fuckin’ hate this, Book."
"Yeah, I get it."
"Call if you find anything, even if it’s the middle of the night."
"I will, brother."
I hung up and climbed out of the truck. I’d kill anyone who got in my way and I knew that scared Cassidy, so I had to stow it.
Cassidy
Carter returned close to thirty minutes later and I watched him as he locked the door and took off his boots. The dog t him at the door just as excited as the first ti he ca in, so he gave her so love. I could tell he was trying to calm himself down. "I’m reheating your dinner, honey."
"Thanks," he said, and headed my way. He wrapped his arms around and pulled close, kissing my hair. "I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him."
I squeezed him tight. "Don’t, honey. I’m going to HR tomorrow to make a formal complaint. Either he’ll be dealt with or I’ll be fired, but either way, it’ll be sorted."
"Why the fuck would they fire you?" he demanded.
I smiled up at him. "Because he’s an executive and I’m a worker bee. Everyone knows HR’s only there to cover the company’s ass."
"Then just fuckin’ quit!"
"No." I pulled away so I could grab his dinner from the microwave... again.
"Why the fuck not?"
"One, if I quit and he does this to soone else, I’ll feel guilty, and two, if I quit, I won’t get severance or unemploynt. I don’t have enough saved to just up and quit my job, Carter."
Reviews
All reviews (0)