Boyfriend for Hire (32 page)

She nodded as tears streaked down her cheeks.

He clamped a hand on Leduc’s shoulder. “You heard her. Step away. Or don’t. Give me an excuse to do what I’ve been wanting to do for months.”

The scene had caught the attention of others going in and out of the bank. A small crowd gathered to gawk. Someone pulled out a cell phone, held it up to get a better shot.
Everyone’s a reporter these days. Why not call effing 911 instead? Maybe lend a hand and help a fellow human out?

Leduc stepped back, snarling at Dave. “Who the hell do you think you are? I don’t know what your supposed beef is with me, but we were having a private conversation here. Buzz off before I have you hauled off for trespassing.”

Dave took a step closer to Leduc, forcing him to back away from Emma and putting himself in the middle.

Emma peered around Dave. “No, we weren’t. You asked me to go to lunch to discuss my future at the bank. Yet the whole time all you talked about was you and your stupid golf game. When we got back here, you tried to kiss me. When I dodged your disgusting lips, you pinned me against the van and told me if I put out,” she air quoted the last two words, “then I could count on going far.”

“Shut it, you stupid bitch.” The manager ignored Dave as he took a step in Emma’s direction, his hand raised.

Dave blocked his path, stepping closer until he was in Leduc’s face. The guy was a bully, and Dave hated bullies. His vision went hazy as blood pounded in his ears. Beating Leduc into the pavement sounded like a good idea. Brody and Jase could bail him out. Or not. Didn’t matter, it’d be worth it.

“Is that what you told Tawny too? Play along as your mistress and she’d go far?”

The man flinched as if Dave had struck him already.

“Yeah, you didn’t expect her to tell anyone. Thought your threat of blackballing her would keep her silent. Except it wasn’t a threat. You’ve been bad-mouthing her to every prospective employer who called on her.”

Leduc puffed up his chest, looked Dave in the eye. “I fired Tawny for inappropriate behavior. She came on to me. Made sexual promises in exchange for a promotion.”

Dave pushed back without even touching the guy. All he had to do was glare and Leduc slinked backward. “And yet, that’s exactly what you just did with Emma. A little ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’” How this idiot got promoted to bank manager he’d never figure out. Unless, of course, Leduc scratched his way up the ladder.

“Ms. Torres was also let go on the grounds of not fulfilling her job duties. She pushed her work off onto another to do and then took credit. And this,” he pointed to himself and then Emma, “is different. Emma suggested over lunch she was interested in a more personal relationship. For all I know you’re a plant to help her set me up and then blackmail me into giving her a promotion,” said Leduc.

Emma snorted as she stepped closer to Dave. “Oh please. You said if I didn’t play along with your little game, you’d fire me. And oh, from the way things felt when you put my hand on your junk, it would have been a very little, teensy, tiny, itty-bitty game.”

“You’re lying,” Leduc said.

“No, I’m not, and you can take your job and shove it so far up your personal vault, it never sees the light of day again.” She poked her finger at his chest, stopping short before she could make contact.

Impressive, he hadn’t seen the tigress behind the kitten façade when he’d rounded the van earlier. But with someone in her corner, Emma was a force to be reckoned with.

Leduc’s face turned fire-engine red. He sputtered a few obscenities. “That’s it. You’re fired.” He turned to Dave, stuck his index finger almost up Dave’s nose. “As for you, if you’re not off of bank property in thirty seconds, I’m calling the police and having you arrested.”

Dave stopped Emma from saying anything else by putting a hand on her arm. “Go ahead, fire her. I’ll have her hooked up with an attorney before the end of the day to file the harassment suit. I’m betting Tawny and a few others will be happy to join her. As for me, you can’t have me removed. I’m a bank customer and I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I can do anything I want. I rule this place and these people. If they don’t do what I say, everything I say, I can and will fire them. I’m the manager.”

“Go ahead. Let him do it.” They all turned to the new voice. One of the other tellers, Dave couldn’t remember her name, but he remembered she’d always been polite and professional to him. “Don’t worry, Mr. Leduc, I’ve got it all on tape this time so no one will question who said what.” Apparently another victim.

But it wasn’t the teller doing the happy dance that caught Dave’s eye. Standing at the edge of the crowd, gripping her purse until her knuckles turned white, was Tawny’s mother.

Holy effing shit. He was screwed.

Emma hugged Dave and then went to her friend with the cell phone.

“Hey, Dave!” Phil, Tawny’s coworker and his new dive buddy, ran up to him in the parking lot. “Wow, that was pretty intense. Good thing you came along and saved her.”

“The guy is slime. I can’t believe he’s the manager here.” Dave looked around the lot, but he couldn’t find Mrs. Torres among those still standing around. Leduc had stormed inside the bank, red-faced and cursing under his breath.

“Yeah, no kidding. I didn’t know this is where Tawny used to work.” Phil scratched the top of his skull and dropped his voice. “Hey, I’m sorry about the two of you. I really thought you two would be one of our next events.”

What the hell was the guy talking about?

Phil didn’t give him time to ask. “I was really shocked last night when I saw her out with that slick dude. Initially, I thought he was a client, you know, having seen him at the office and all. Then last night, well, I don’t go around holding my clients’ hands. Not like that anyway. So hey, now that diving season is winding down, give me a call if you want to catch a football game sometime. I’ve got season tickets to the Pats.”

Dave didn’t know what the guy was babbling on about; all he wanted to do was find out what went down with Tawny and Ivan last night. “Yeah, sounds great. Sorry to cut and run, but Emma looks like she needs me. See you around, buddy.”

What the hell
, was the only thing running through Dave’s mind as he gave some lady (the assistant manager or someone) from the bank his statement. The more he ran Phil’s words through his mind, the more pissed and confused he became.

Something wasn’t right.

Tawny covered her eyes with a cool cloth as she lay back on her couch. She prayed the budding migraine would go away. Really, she had no time to deal with a soul-splitting headache. Her to-do lists were not checked off; as a matter of fact, they were overflowing between work and Cherry’s upcoming wedding. Her boss had been fantastic. The moment she had noticed Tawny’s distress, Mrs. Spinelli sent her home with orders to not even think about work.

How could she not, though? She had three weddings she was in the midst of planning, and for one of them, she was not only in charge, but was the maid of honor.

As one of the other weddings was this weekend, Tawny couldn’t afford to be lying around like a lady of leisure. Things were busy, busy, busy. If push came to shove, she could always hand the other wedding over to a another, but that wasn’t fair. Everyone had a sizeable workload.

This sucked. Tawny needed to check tasks off her list. Show she could be counted on. After all, her career in finance was dead.

And then there was her second appointment for today, a private menu tasting for a new restaurant that hoped to woo the company into using them. Her mouth had been watering for days at the thought of Cuban cuisine.

A couple of hours of downtime to let the meds kick in and do their job, and she could put some hours in tonight. Tomorrow she’d wake refreshed and hit the ground running.

The doorbell pealed through the room, splitting her scalp open. Before she could sit up, the bell went off again and again. If she didn’t kill whoever was lying on the button and get thrown in jail, she’d have to ask David to disarm the annoying ringer. Oh, maybe it was the man himself and he’d heard of her predicament and was now, as she crawled (okay, not really, but it felt that way) to the door, standing there with a chocolate cupcake for her. She’d totally forgive him for ripping her head open with the noise.

Or would, after he explained what the heck was going on with them.

A peek out the peephole had her groaning in despair. It was not a sinful cup of sugar, fat, and caffeine waiting for her. Opening the door, she greeted her guest. “Hi, Mom.” Tawny left the door open and walked back to the living room and sank into her favorite chair.

The door slammed, rattling all the windows in the front and sending sharp, shooting pains through Tawny’s head. Her mother clomped her way to the edge of the room before (thank gawd) coming to a halt.

She looked around the room, ran her finger over the end table, and sniffed in satisfaction when no dust could be found. Tawny had been through this before, like every time her mom visited. Moving out hadn’t released her from her mom’s rules (make your bed every day, do your dishes, put your shoes and coat in the closet, be ready for the priest to visit at any given moment). The woman would have made an excellent drill sergeant, Tawny was sure of it.

“Why aren’t you at work? It’s the middle of the day. Did you get fired again?” She paused, clenching her jaw shut before exhaling a deep sigh. “Or did you quit?”

Tawny leaned back to rest her head against the soft cushion of the chair. Why couldn’t she have joined the military like Dante? A drill sergeant would be easier to please than Katia Torres. “I’ve got a migraine, and why would you even ask me those questions?”

Her mom moved to sit on the edge of the couch, her hands clasped together in her lap. “It isn’t easy to raise a child, much less four as strong headed as you. We tried our best, though. Taught you wrong from right. Taught you the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. We loved you, each of you, for who you are.” She sighed again, one of those long, deep, dramatic releases. “We failed you.”

Tawny sat up. “What? How did you fail me?”

Her mom took her hands and held them in her lap. For several minutes she didn’t say anything, simply looked at their clasped hands. When she looked up, two tears ran down her cheeks. “We did not teach you to trust us. Shh, let me speak. If we had, then you would not have lied to your family about your job at the bank.”

Oh man.
Tawny had thought after her conversation with her dad in the shed that they had moved on from this. She’d apologized for not telling them about being out of work months ago. Why couldn’t her mom let it go?

“If we had done our job right, you would have known you could tell us the truth. You would have told us you quit.” She let go of Tawny’s hands long enough to wipe the corners of her eyes.

It took time for the words, the meaning of those words—“you quit”—to work their way past the pounding pain. Oh no. No. No. No. If she knew that Tawny quit instead of getting fired, did she also know why? And how did she know?

“Did he hurt you,
mija
?”

Crap, guess that answers my question
.

“No. How did you find out?” She couldn’t imagine Leduc admitting what really happened to anyone. If he did, he could lose his precious job. Emma knew the jerk had blackballed her from several jobs, but Tawny couldn’t recall telling her the truth. She hadn’t even told Cherry.

“David—”

“What?” Tawny squeaked as she tried to wrap the logic around her brain. Why would David tell her mom?

“It does not matter, Tawny Maria-Isabella. You should have told your father and me the truth.” Gone were the tears, and in their place was the disappointment she’d seen on her mom’s face too many times to count.

Tawny jumped up from the couch and paced back and forth, trying to figure out how this all happened. How could David betray her trust? She’d made him swear he wouldn’t share the information with anyone. Of course, at the time Tawny had thought it would have been Jason or Brody, possibly Cherry he’d tell. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined him telling her parents. “It matters to me, Mom.”

Her mother stood, and up came the finger pointed dead at her chest, nailing her to the floor. “Did you file a report with the police?”

“What? No.” Tawny dropped her head forward and stared at her bare toes. She needed a new pedicure. Maybe harlot red because she knew what her mom must think about her right now, and that color fit. “I just want to forget about it.”

“Did you lead him on?”

Yep, there was the accusation. Talk about déjà-freaking-vu. Same line she’d heard as a teen when Chris what’s-his-name pinned her against the wall outside the girls’ locker room and stuck his tongue down her throat and his hand up her shirt. The teacher had busted them and called her parents.

She might have partaken in a little harmless flirtation with Chris. Nowhere had she invited him to feel her up. Yet her parents hadn’t believed her. Chris, a natural-born charmer, had the teachers and administration wrapped around his pinkie, so of course it couldn’t have been his fault.

“No.”

“If you do not report him, then he is free to do the same to others. Not all women will be strong enough to fight him off or walk away. Some like your friend Emma.” Her mother’s voice softened and Tawny’s gaze shot up.

“Oh, he didn’t? Not to Em. Oh no. It’s all my fault. Is she okay?” Tawny raced for the phone.

“David was there. He saved her.”

Of course he did. He was everybody’s hero.

“Good. That’s good. I should call her tonight. Apologize, make sure she’s okay. See if she needs anything.” She was rambling, and she was pretty sure her head would split open any moment now. Tawny wanted to bury her face in a pillow and cry. Her actions, or rather lack of action, had put a friend in jeopardy. Her keys sat on the end table where she had dropped them earlier. If she headed over now, would she make it safely or crash the car? The headache intensified (
thanks, stress
) sending a sharp, piercing pain through the right side of her brain.