Fallen from Grace (25 page)

Grace’s favorite part was the beautiful display of chandeliers hanging from the middle of the room and intermittently in front of the box seats. They were the same exploding firework style as the main entrance of the opera house but from her seat she could admire them in private. Crowds of people always made her feel uneasy.

She accredited the anxiety to a mishap that occurred when she was a young girl. Her parents had made her babysit Cade, he was fifteen and she was sixteen. They told her to stay home but her friends were going to the mall and she wanted to go with them but her parents said no, she had to stay home and watch her brother.

He was fifteen, perfectly capable of taking care of himself. As a birthday present, Grace’s parents had given her a brand new, black Saab and she was supposed to pick up her best friends Devon and Katie. After her parents left she told her brother to stay inside the house and not to answer the door or telephone unless it was her. He threatened to tell mom and dad if she didn’t take him so she caved and brought him along.

At the mall she gave him twenty dollars, showed him to the arcade and said to call her cell once he ran out of money. Hours went by and Grace didn’t even think about him. She shopped with her girlfriends. A boy she had a crush on, Parker even showed up and her friends followed jealously behind as they held hands and he flirted and whispered into her ear.

When the mall announced ten minutes until closing, a bad feeling settled in her stomach. She had completely forgot about her brother. Cade hadn’t called and it had been hours. She looked at her phone and realized it had been turned off the entire time. She checked her voicemails and had several from Cade, asking where she was and one angry one from her father. They had come home early and she was to come home immediately. When she tried to call Cade, his phone went straight to voicemail.

She hurried to the arcade and searched for him but he was already gone. When she gave his description to the guy closing the till behind the glass cased containing the prizes he said he had left over an hour ago with some guy. Grace tried calling his cell again but it still went straight to voicemail.

She remembered the nauseating, gut-wrenching sickness that washed over her as she walked out of the arcade and watched hundreds of people exit the mall. It turned out he had left with his friend Max and his older brother but it was the worst hour of Grace’s life. She searched the entire mall for him and had her friends parents come pick them up. On the way home she tried to think about what she was going to tell her parents. She lost her brother, he was gone.

When she walked in the front door and saw him playing video games with his friend she wasn’t mad or angry, she was relieved. She rushed over to him and pulled him off the couch into a hard hug that squeezed all the air out of his lungs.

Jeez, Grace. Don’t get so emotional.
He shrugged out of her hold and whispered.
Max’s brother brought us home. I told Mom and Dad that he agreed to babysit us so you could go out with your friends.

She glanced over his shoulder, at the gorgeous guy sitting at the table next to her father. He smiled and winked. And that was when she first met Ethan White, whom was to be her first boyfriend, first kiss and the reason she didn’t date for her remaining years of high school. But that was a whole other story.

Ellis took a seat next to her. “Looks like a full house tonight.”

“Yes, it does.” She looked at him. “Have your guests arrived?”

He shook his head. “Average politicians, always running late.”

“You’re never late.”

“I’m not the average politician.”

She smiled. “This is true. You’re anything but
average
.”

Ellis laughed. “I hope that is a good thing.”

“It has its perks.”

For a moment, she questioned her decision to leave him, but just the thought of Judas caused the familiar pang of excitement to shoot through her stomach and flood her cheeks with warmth.

“By the color in your cheeks, I’d say you thoroughly
enjoy
my above average status.” His voice dropped an octave. “Come home with me tonight.”

Ellis may not be open to discussions about his past, or forthcoming with his political endeavors, but what happened between them in the bedroom came without a filter. Outside of it, their relationship was stagnant, and until now it had worked, but for the first time in her life, Grace craved intimacy.
And not with Ellis.

She glanced at her hands. “I can’t,” she whispered.

A frisson of tension noticeably flowed from Ellis. She skimmed the crowd below, and swore she saw Judas, but the lights dimmed and the sound of the orchestra caused her to jump. Ellis laid his hand over hers, and she gave him a tight smile.

Throughout the first act, she couldn’t help glancing at the area where she thought she saw Judas, though it was impossible to be sure it was him. The build was right, and so was the dark hair. The idea he was sitting below her made it difficult to enjoy
Norma
, a performance she’d been looking forward to.

The entire first act her stomach was in knots and her palms were sweaty. Who was he here with? Why wasn’t he answering her calls? Finally it was intermission, and the room was once again lit and faces identifiable.

Grace tried not to be obvious as she skimmed the people below, but once she saw him she was like a baby fawn caught in the headlights. When her eyes locked with Judas’s, everything around her went dark and quiet. She wanted to do a swan dive off the balcony right into his arms, but just as the excitement prompted her to catapult herself out of the red velvet chair, her innate calling to question erupted like a volcano. Who was he here with? She looked at the woman next to him—a beautiful blonde wearing a white dress who was getting up out of her chair, but then she was suddenly in his lap.

And he was kissing her!

Bile rose in her throat, and a flu like ache hammered her bones. She had to get out of here, and at the risk of being obvious, excused herself to the restroom. Her legs felt like jelly, and she barely made it to the bathroom before collapsing inside a stall. Tears streamed down her face, and the reality she’d been living in, the one where she thought Judas cared about her and deserved to be saved, was like a poorly crafted, fake knockoff Persian rug yanked out from beneath her.

Did she have a right to be mad?

Grace was engaged to Ellis, and she’d told Judas they could never be together. So why did it hurt so much? She didn’t want to admit it to herself but she knew the answer.

If he really loved her, he wouldn’t have kissed that woman in front of her.

J
UDAS
’
S
EARS
WERE
RINGING
. His hands were shaky, and his thoughts were in disarray. They all led to one solitary question—
what have I done
? The answer wasn’t pretty. Not only had he just sexually harassed an employee, but he’d played right into Ellis’s plan and severed any affection Grace held toward him.

That son of a bitch.
The smile on his face made Judas want to commit murder, but he had a disgruntled employee he was responsible for, and her car was in the underground parking garage at W&W.

It was a quiet ride all the way to the parking space next to her white Nissan. Jolene made no attempt to get out. She sat motionless in the passenger seat as Judas turned off the music and stared at the brick wall in front of them illuminated by the headlights on his car.

“I’m sorry, Jolene. I know I crossed the line. I’m sure you’re well versed on our sexual harassment policy, and can file a claim Monday morning, or sooner if you wish. I can give you Jack or Dick’s home number.”

“I don’t want to file a claim, Judas.”

He looked at her. “I promise you won’t lose your job.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a great employee, and invaluable to the firm. You handle several lawyers at a time, but you’re never stressed.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. Why did you kiss me?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “It was a sorta, in-the-moment thing.”

“Do you like me?”

Judas looked at her, completely caught off guard by the question. “I...” He nervously rubbed his neck.

Jolene unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over the console. Judas knew what she was about to do, but after his sordid behavior at the opera he wasn’t going to stop her. She placed her hands on either side his face, then kissed him. Her tongue grazed his bottom lip before plunging into his mouth. He gave her what she wanted, and she was breathless as she pulled away.

She spoke quickly. “I think you’re amazing. Believe it or not, I’ve had a crush on you for years.”

Judas took her hands in his and lowered them down between them. “Let’s not rush into anything. Like I said, what happened was spontaneous and probably not a good idea. Jack frowns upon employee fraternization.”

“I know.”

“And you have a boyfriend.”

She rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “Tim isn’t really marriage material. He hasn’t even gone to college. He sits at home all day, collecting unemployment and playing video games.”

Judas chuckled. “Well, I’m not really boyfriend
or
marriage material.”

“Are you serious?” Her eyes widened. “You’re a catch, Judas. Incredibly gorgeous, successful, and every woman at W&W secretly hopes you’ll look their way. Why do you think I dropped everything to come out with you tonight?”

“Because you wanted to go to the opera?”

She rolled her eyes again. “Don’t act like don’t know the affect you have on women.”

He laughed. “I promise you, it’s not intentional.”

“Well, someday a woman is going to come along, and she just might reject you, Judas Woods.”

Ouch
.

Grace flooded his thoughts, and he hated what he’d done tonight. He looked at Jolene and forced a smile. “Tim is lucky to have you. Maybe he’ll pull his head out of his ass and get a job. You’re not such a bad catch yourself, Jolene.”

She blushed. “Coming from you, that means a lot.”

Glancing at the clock on the dash, he ran his hand through his hair. “It’s-”

Jolene interrupted him. “You know, it’s really sexy when you do that.”

Judas stopped mid-sweep and looked at her. She laughed and slapped him on the leg.

“I may have been wanting to say that for a while, and since you’re the one that kissed me first, I thought this might be my only chance. Especially since you obviously have no plans to take that kiss further.”

“Jolene I—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you had a reason for what you did tonight, and honestly, I don’t mind the role I played. I’m just happy you picked me.” She gave him a flirtatious wink and slid out of his car.

Judas was speechless. Jolene knew the kiss was for show. He should have known she would figure out; she was extremely smart, and Jack didn’t hire just
anyone
to work for him.

After she safely got into her car and waved at him, Judas followed her out of the garage. She took a left on to the street, and he took a right, but he wasn’t headed home. He was headed to his secret hideaway. Only one other person knew about it
—
Rebecca. He had taken her there once when she was drunk, but he doubted she remembered where it was located because she was so hungover the next morning she could barely open her eyes as he’d drove her home.

He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw the familiar black SUV following close behind. He glanced down at his phone, then turned it off. He wouldn’t risk Ellis tracking him. Stepping on the gas, he weaved between traffic and ran a red light. The guy driving was good, but Judas was better. He cut a guy in a red Ford pickup off, forcing him to slam on his breaks. He watched the pickup slide sideways in his rearview mirror, blocking traffic, then he ran the light and turned right. He took several more streets before he backtracked to his Brooklyn apartment.

He hadn’t taken on any new clients, and he had finished the cases he’d been working on. Judas was ready to disappear. By paying his Brooklyn landlord cash, it was off the grid which was exactly where he wanted to be right now.