Authors: Elle Saint James
She stilled, then sent a squint-eyed gaze up into his eyes. “Are you joking?”
“Yes. I am.”
“Not funny.”
“Maybe not, but you aren’t crying anymore. I’d say we’ve moved up a step.”
Deacon crossed his arms. “Don’t be an ass, Boyd.”
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to lighten things up. I hate to see you cry, that’s all.”
“Let me ask you, sugar. Would you be upset if I watched you have sex with Boyd?”
She tilted her head to one side, cast a gaze first to Boyd and then over to him. “No. That might be sort of sexy.”
“So then our immediate problem is solved.”
She opened her mouth, but he held up his hand. “No more what-if scenarios.”
She closed her mouth and sighed. “Okay. Fine.”
“We love you. It’s as simple as that. We don’t want to ever be without you again.”
“I love you, too. I really do.”
“Music to my ears, sugar. Relax. Everything will work out. You’ll see.”
Deacon, Boyd, and Jessica showered, dressed, and were about to leave her apartment when her phone rang.
She frowned but answered it. “Yes.” Then she listened silently, frowned some more, and after a few minutes rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Are you kidding me? Listen, this is my
one
day off for the week. I’ve got plans shockingly enough. And they do
not
include checking over our daily procedures because some bigwig from company headquarters
might
come and check them during the five-second duration of the walk-through he’d do anyway.”
Deacon and Boyd exchanged a look. Who the hell was doing a walk-through of this hotel on today of all days?
“Well, I have every faith that you can check things over yourself, Gregory. Let me repeat myself. I’m off today. I’m not even on call. Do not contact me again today. Are we clear? Great. Thank you.”
She hung the phone up and then stared at it.
“You really want to go down there and check through your daily procedures, don’t you, sugar?”
Jessica gazed up at him and smiled. “You know, if I didn’t know the two of you, I’d already be on my way down there. You’ve corrupted me.”
“Or maybe you need to get a day off at least once a week without calls. Shit, you’d think you were the owner or something.”
She laughed. “I don’t even know what conglomerate owns the Ryder Hotel. This is actually the first time I’ve heard of anyone from headquarters coming here.” She paused and glanced back at the phone.
“Want to stop by your desk on our way out?”
A relieved smile shaped her mouth. “Would you mind?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll be five minutes. I promise. Then we can leave.”
Deacon opened the door to her apartment and they all exited. “Why don’t you follow us in your car, so that if it takes longer than five minutes, you won’t torture yourself over making us wait.”
She pushed out a dramatic sigh. “You are so good to me. I appreciate it.”
“From one workaholic to another, I understand. Do what you need to do. We’ll head out and meet you there.”
Boyd slid in behind her and kissed her cheek. “Just remember that we have that really big bed we want to show you.”
“Oh, I won’t forget.”
“And you have the directions?”
She patted her pocket. “I’ll be there as fast as I can. Seriously, I don’t know why Gregory is being such a pain in the ass. Maybe I never noticed because I never had to divide my time before.” She grinned as they stepped into the elevator.
They parted company in the lobby. Deacon watched her slip behind the desk at the end of the front counter and into an office door.
“How long do you think before she shows, Mr. Workaholic?” Boyd asked. They walked through the hall leading to the underground parking structure.
“I’d say half an hour depending on what’s involved.” He opened the passenger door and climbed into Boyd’s massive truck.
Boyd started the engine and revved the motor a couple of times and put the gear into reverse. Before he pulled forward, he said, “Let’s pick up some prosecco on the way home.”
“So you want to get her drunk again?”
He muscled the wheel to exit the garage. “No. I just want to fully persuade her to join us. Plus, she likes it, and this time the three of us can share it so she won’t get drunk.”
Deacon settled back against the bucket seat and closed his eyes. “Is it just me or does it seem like she’s shielding us from something?”
Boyd shrugged. “Whatever it is, she needs to know we can protect her, and that we’d love her anyway.”
“I don’t think it’s about being protected. More like the real reason she doesn’t want anyone watching her have sex. I just don’t know what it could be. What would make her so frantic?”
“I don’t know, but don’t push her. If she wants us to know, she’ll tell us.” He took his focus off the road and glared at Deacon.
“Or you’ll get her drunk on prosecco and ask.”
Boyd grinned. “Don’t give me any ideas.”
Deacon inhaled deeply, then pushed his breath out slowly. “By the way, you smell like girly fruit shampoo.”
Boyd sniffed the air. “So what? You do, too. That will have to be a part of our discussion today. Once we get this relationship going, we need to put more manly soap and shampoo at her apartment.”
“Until we can convince her to move in with us.” Deacon pictured her in the big master bedroom easily.
“Even better idea. And will we ask that today?” Boyd turned into a liquor store a couple blocks from the hotel.
Deacon nodded. “However, I’d like to put it in the discussion list directly after the importance of manly toiletries.”
Deacon glanced at the hotel over his shoulder. He could still see it from the liquor store parking lot. Five years ago, when the DRMC found this area outside the property they’d purchased, the hotel was one of the first structures completed in the newly developed rejuvenation of Ryder, Colorado.
Their security guy, Clayton Forrester, had been instrumental in getting things done both at the DRMC property and also getting people interested in building up the tiny mountain town. Although usually all it took was a wad of money to make things happen, Clay went the extra mile, and the city of Ryder was a growing thriving community they could be proud to live in. One they planned to make their permanent home.
He sincerely hoped Jessica loved them enough to put aside her fears and join their lifestyle. Given his current feelings, he knew he’d never make her do anything she didn’t want to do.
He did love her enough to give up certain aspects of the life. He’d make that clear when she arrived today.
She was the most important thing in their lives. And he’d make sure Boyd knew it, too.
* * * *
Hurried and, for the first time ever, resentful of being down at her job, Jessica entered the manager’s office behind the main check-in counter like a whirlwind heading straight for the small desk space she had there.
She was obviously dressed for her day off as she approached the hotel’s senior manager. “Hi, Karl. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Jessica.” He nodded. “I didn’t expect to see you either.”
“Gregory called me in to locate the concierge daily procedures file. When is the headquarters visit?”
“Not for thirty minutes or so. We probably won’t even get that deep, but it’s good to be prepared in any event.”
“Right. I agree.” She moved to the desk and computer she shared with all the other concierge staff and logged on.
Her initial search brought up nothing. She didn’t panic, though. Instead she went to a place she kept all her files organized and peeked in. Nothing. No procedures were listed anywhere. And then she did panic a bit. Not over the procedures part. That could be easily resurrected with a call to corporate, but housed within the files was a daily log. What happened day to day at their stand. What special requests they performed to make hotel guests happy. Most important, any praise, feedback or otherwise, was housed in that same file.
And it was gone.
Gregory appeared suddenly at her side with an alarmed-sounding tone. “Did you find it yet?”
“No. I can’t understand it. Last night before logging off, I updated the whole file. Did you look at it today?”
“No. I’ve been busy directing people here and there all morning. What are we going to do? The headquarters guy will be here in less than an hour.”
Jessica was about to respond, but Karl walked up. “Problem?” he asked.
“The concierge procedure file is gone. We can’t find it anywhere,” Gregory said in an over-the-top, panicked tone. “I think it must have been deleted. What are we going to do if the guy from headquarters asks for it?”
Jessica wrinkled her brow.
What the fuck?
“Deleted? Are you sure about this?” Karl sent a worried glance to Jessica.
She in turn sent a glare to Gregory. “No. We aren’t sure.”
“But I’ve looked everywhere. In each and every file. It’s gone.”
Karl bent over the desk and started searching through the files. Jessica sighed. “Karl. Don’t worry. I’m sure it isn’t deleted. How could that happen?”
Gregory got a smug look on his face. “You were the last to update it last night, isn’t that right, Jessica. I hope you didn’t accidentally wipe the whole file out.”
Karl cursed under his breath and sent her a
very
worried glance. “Please tell me you didn’t delete the whole file, Jessica.”
This was snowballing into dangerous territory. What the fuck was Greg up to? She’d always known he was a suck-up, but she didn’t think he’d sabotage her like this.
“I’m sure she didn’t mean to, Karl, she’s just been so preoccupied lately. She hasn’t been her usual proficient self.”
“Preoccupied?” Karl straightened up. “What’s going on, Jessica?”
She sent a scathing look to Gregory over the made-up issue of her lack of competency lately and finally spoke up in her own defense. “Nothing is going on, Karl. I haven’t had a chance to look everywhere on the computer for the file, but I will. And as for being preoccupied, that’s simply not true.”
Gregory raised his eyebrows and shook his head as if she was some delusional mental patient that he calmed by talking in low tones. “Then where is the file, Jessica? I haven’t been able to bring it up all morning.”
“So you didn’t add anything to it yet for the entire morning?”
He lifted his chin as if in defiance. “I have handwritten notes on a yellow legal pad because I couldn’t find the file
you
supposedly saved last night.”
“Supposedly?”
Karl spoke up. “Where is the file, Jessica? Are you certain you didn’t delete it by mistake last night?”
“Yes. I’m sure I didn’t delete it. Besides it doesn’t matter.” She lifted her hand and showed them a flash drive she kept attached to her key chain. “I have the file in its entirety right here. I always make a copy at the end of my shift and put it here on my flash drive.”
Gregory frowned. “You aren’t supposed to do that.” He turned to Karl. “She can’t do that, can she? Is that a punishable offense?”
Karl pushed out a long breath and remained silent. It was as if he wasn’t in the mood to separate two quarrelling children fighting over a broken toy.
“Practically speaking, it’s a good thing I did.” She inserted her flash drive into the computer and downloaded a copy of the file updated as of the evening before.
“This is everything as of when I left work last night. Too bad I can’t capture any information you added this morning, Greg. Oh right, you didn’t add any. You also didn’t call me this morning first thing when you discovered it missing. Why not? I mean
you
didn’t delete the file by ‘accident’ did you, Gregory?”
His face turned bright red. “I most certainly did not.”
She’d take the hit for copying files when she wasn’t really supposed to, but having to remove the knife that Gregory had inserted between her shoulder blades when she hadn’t been looking or expecting it was more the more painful task. Had she been too distracted this week to notice Gregory’s antics because of her newly discovered love life?