KEPT: A Second Chance Fairy Tale (13 page)

Jane smirks. “Repeat that to anyone else and I’ll bill you both.”

“You’re going to bill me anyway,” I advise. “Not the office, but me personally. I’ll see you’re fairly compensated.”

“I said at no cost,” Jane reiterates. “You’re going to pay me anyway?”

“I want this woman flushed, Jane,” I state. “I want her to crawl back to whatever self-serving hole she snaked her way out of. Dillon stays with Lucy, and if I have to–”

“Jesus Christ, stop talking,” Corbin hisses. “You’re pissed. We get it.” He turns his disbelieving glare to Jane and softens his features. “He’s a little over-protective.”

Jane smiles fully for the first time since entering my office. “I can see that. Lillie raised him right. He cares about and respects his employees.”

I shoot Corbin a look to keep him quiet and, thankfully, it works. Standing from my desk, I reach across it and take Jane’s hand after she stands.

“Whatever she needs, Jane, I trust you’ll get her, but she needs to come to you first.”

“How’s that?”

“I don’t want her knowing Corbin and I are working on this. Once you get to know her better, you’ll find she’s a proud mother. She’s worked hard to give Dillon everything he has. She won’t appreciate Corbin and me interfering.”

Jane sucks in her lips, then sits back in her chair and sighs. “Well, that makes building a case for her a bit challenging, but okay. I’ll have my people work her background first. We’ll need to be sure Margret doesn’t have anything on her that we don’t know about.”

“Thank you,” I express in relief. I hand her my business card. “Call me directly. Not the office, but my cell. I’ll make myself available for whatever you need.”

Jane turns her gaze to Corbin and says, “I’m impressed.”

“With?” I ask, but she ignores me.

“There will be life after Lillie.”

Of course she’d say that. She’s a woman who assumes she sensed something between Lucy and me that she didn’t.

Closing my eyes as Corbin walks her out, I relive the entire meeting. However, only one word plays on repeat, and in a big way.

I fucking called Lucy ‘sweetheart’.

An hour later, after Jane left with her promise to help Lucy, Corbin and I still sit in my office in silence. We’re both contemplating ways to slaughter Margret Monroe if she continues her pursuit against Lucy. We’re determined to find something on her and force her to pull back or, if need be, we’ll out her to her high-society friends and paint her as the self-serving, manipulative bitch she’s proving herself to be.

“What do you want to do?” Corbin asks for the third time since Jane left.

“I don’t know. I’d like to wait and see what Jane can help with.”

Corbin nods. “Think we should call Lucy in? Maybe tell her what we’re looking into for her?”

His suggestion has merit. However, I’m not sure Lucy would welcome Jane’s help. Other than their initial meeting outside my office, she doesn’t know her, and Jane can be hard to handle professionally. I was right in telling Jane how proud Lucy is.

“I think we should wait.”

More silence passes before Corbin catches my gaze. For the last twenty minutes, I’ve felt something from him, as if he has something to say but doesn’t know where to start.

He takes a breath and his voice rolls out in a low wave, inciting the air between us. “You’ll disagree it’s my place, but I’ll speak my piece anyway.”

“Say it.”

Corbin sits up in his chair and, with a serious and hardened expression, warns, “Don’t hurt her.”

He gets like this. Corbin was raised by a single mother, much like my sister and Lucy. I wasn’t spouting bullshit when he hired her and I told him he had a soft place for them.

“I see how she looks at you,” his monotone voice states. “Anyone can see it. It’s obvious.”

Maybe he’s right, although I wouldn’t know. The few times I’ve caught myself staring at Lucy, she hasn’t been looking back. She’s been either talking to clients or the associates on staff. It doesn’t matter who they are. Everyone loves her.

“Nothing’s obvious, other than your meddling where there’s nothing for you to meddle in.”

Without pause, Corbin continues, as though I hadn’t spoken. “It’s not just her doing it, Mike. I see how you look at her when you think nobody’s watching.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I argue, but it’s a lie.

I have taken notice of Lucy, and in more ways than I should. With her vibrant personality and eccentric charm, any man would notice her.

Bracing himself in his chair, he leans toward the desk and lays a hand on top of it. “You all but threatened to physically harm Margret Monroe for doing what she’s doing to Lucy. And you did this in front of a potential new partner. What the fuck else should I be talking about?”

He’s got me. His point is valid. I still don’t appreciate or like his position in saying something, though.

“It’s not what you think,” I deny again, visualizing Lucy sitting across from my desk, giving me hell, doing her best to make me uncomfortable.

I close my eyes and take a breath.

“I’m not sayin’ you don’t deserve a break. You do. I’m only sayin’ this because she’s
not
like Ashlie. She’s not built to withstand a relationship with someone like you.”

My eyes open, then narrow. “Someone like me?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

Victoria’s words echo hauntingly in my head as I stare at Corbin’s look of concern. My wife told me she wouldn’t allow our son to grow up to be like me. I lost him because of that very reason. The person I had become, working so hard to be accomplished in life, took them both away.

“Lucy’s not
lived
since her husband
died
, Mike. The first person she has feelings for will probably be the first person to break her again. I don’t want that for her. And I sure as fuck don’t want that for you.”

Sitting up in my chair and adjusting my focus to my laptop, I grab the mouse and say nothing. It’s obvious my best friend no longer understands I’m still not over what happened to my family.

After a subtle knock, Lucy’s voice fills the room. “Michael?”

I look up to see her standing just inside the door, noting Corbin doesn’t take his eyes away from me. He’s studying my reaction and ignoring the cause of it.

“I’m headed to pick up lunch. Are you good? Do you want anything?”

I spare a glance to Corbin, who now looks annoyingly pissed off.

“I’m good, Lucy,” I tell her gently. I hold her eyes for a second and watch as she looks at Corbin, then back at me. She’s nervous, but she has no reason to be. “I’ll get something later.”

“Corbin,” she shyly addresses next. “Anything?”

“Nope,” he answers, still keeping his back to her and leveling his eyes on me. “I think we’re all
good
.”

Bastard
.

“Okay,” she hesitantly returns before backing her way out of the room.

Once the door is shut, Corbin stands, turns around, and walks away. Before he opens the door, he turns in place and tells me, “And
that’s
what I’m talking about when I say how you look at her.”

Son of a bitch.

Lucy

As I sit alone at a conference room table, people-watching, several associates I rarely talk to pass by, wishing Lillie the best and insisting she comes back often to visit. She hasn’t stopped smiling. She’s truly glad to be retiring.

I, however, am sad to see her go.

“Hey.” Corbin surprises me by pulling out the chair next to mine and taking a seat. He looks worried. “You don’t look like you’re having a very good time.”

“I am,” I tell him. “Is everything okay with you and Michael? With Jane?”

Jane Gilroy isn’t as frightening as I had imagined her to be. From what Corbin mentioned, I know she’s wearing Michael down, but she was nice during our conversation in front of his office. After she left, the door to Michael’s office remained closed, piquing my curiosity, so I dared interrupting to offer lunch. I regretted it the minute I saw them staring at each other. I’d never felt tension between them before, as they always seem to work so well together.

Nodding, Corbin answers, but avoids my eyes. “Yeah. Mike’s gotta learn to not get so spun up.”

He’s hiding something. Michael wasn’t the one who was spun up. Corbin was.

“I’m going to miss her,” I tell him casually, changing the subject as I turn in my chair to face Lillie.

“Yeah, we all will. She’s the glue that holds this place together.”

“She’s the glue that holds
Michael
together, you mean.”

Corbin offers a lopsided grin. “Yeah. She’s his rock.”

I haven’t seen Michael since I came in after finishing in the break room about an hour ago. I had assumed he’d already gone home for the evening. Just as I’m about to ask Corbin if he’s still around, a woman traipses in as if she’s strutting down a runway.

Model.

“Fuck,” Corbin mumbles.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. I want to know what he thinks about our new guest, but I don’t want to push.

“
She’s
what’s wrong,” he answers, nodding in the direction of the gift table. The woman’s standing front and center of the room. “She’s not even that good-looking.”

I laugh out loud. “You’re lying.”

He has to be. The woman is tall with bronzed skin; long, luxurious hair nearly black in color; and deep, dark eyes to match. Her cheekbones are high, and she’s wearing what I know from experience with my mother-in-law to be expensive clothes. Her bag alone probably costs more than my rent.

And, judging by the scowl on her face, she isn’t happy to be here.

“I’m not lying,” he objects. “She’s…”

He doesn’t finish, so I do. “Amazon-ish?”

“That, too. Have you met her?” he questions, lifting his eyebrow and waiting for my response.

“No, I haven’t had the pleasure. Who is she?”

“Not
who
is she,” he states with a sneer. “More like
whose
is she.”

I scrunch my nose, not understanding.

“Michael’s,” he claims. I don’t believe it.

From what little I know of him, I can’t picture him with someone as haughty as she seems to be. Actually, I can’t picture him with anyone.

“That’s Ashlie Paige.”

“Seriously?” I question.

“Yep,” he answers quickly. “Not sure why. Mike could probably have anyone he wanted, including you.” He relaxes enough to smile.

With his answer, I gasp, nearly choking on my punch. I use my napkin to wipe my mouth. “I-I…” I don’t even know what to say.

Corbin laughs. “I’m kiddin’, Lucy. Good to know where your head’s at, though.”

“Ass.”

Studying her position at the front of the room, Corbin looks over at me and grins. “She’s territorial,” he advises. “The only woman allowed near Michael is Lillie, and that’s only because Lillie’s the one woman Ashlie knows he’d tell her to go fuck herself over.”

“She’s going to hate me, isn’t she?”

Corbin reaches over and slaps my shoulder. “If she doesn’t already know you exist? Yes. She won’t like the fact you’re young, hot, and desirable.”

“I’m not any of those things,” I deny, shocked at how he described me. “Well, young maybe.”

Corbin laughs. “You aren’t around mirrors much, are you?”

I feel my face flush with his compliment. I’d like to blame it on the punch, but it’s not loaded.

Shit
.

“God, you’re easy to mess with.” He sighs when he catches me struggling. “Almost takes the fun out of it.”

I scowl. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

Looking down to his briefcase, he tells me, “I’m heading out now.” Once he stands, he leans down and grabs my glass from my hand, taking a healthy drink. “Thanks for that.”

“I’m easy,” I quirk.

“Damn, if only you were my type.”

“What type is that?” I inquire, curious to know and hoping he’ll tell me.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t. He smiles so big, his dimples almost take over. “Another time, another place.”

I smile at his back as he walks away, appreciating how much easier he makes my life here.

Once he’s out of sight, I look around the room. Most of the same people are still hovering around her, patting her back and wishing her well. She accepts their congratulations, smiling as she fills them in on what she plans to do now that she no longer has to look out for ‘her boys’.