Permanent (Indelibly Marked) (Volume 1) (24 page)

“Can I talk to you?” Carson pointed at her.

“Why do you need to talk to Lindsay?” Shane took a sip of his water.

“You have your time, I have mine. I need to talk to her.”

“I do too.” Emily hugged her again.

“You can put me on the list of people who need to talk to Lindsay.” Ivan raised his hand.

“Well, I need her too.” Shane barked.

“Lindsay.” Both Shane and Emily yelled in unison just as the waitress came over.

 “I think you need to give us a second.” Shane smiled. “We need to get some things cleared up before we order.”

Until that moment, Lindsay simply tried to keep track of the conversation and assess who needed her first. She turned to Emily.

“Wait.” Shane poked her shoulder.

Emily pursed her lip out.

“I’m with her so I get my answer first.”

Focused on the fact he said she actually was there with him, Lindsay turned to him, wondering what that meant on the Shane Elliott relationship scale. “Yes?”

“Why do Carson, Emily, and Ivan need to talk to you?” He asked in a sing song voice.

“I have no idea.”

Emily hugged her. “You wore the dress, right?”

Lindsay nodded, but Shane answered. “That dress was awesome.”

“I told you.” Emily elbowed her. “I knew you’d look beautiful, but it didn’t matter because Shane would love anything you wore.”

Lindsay closed her eyes. She supposed there were no secrets between siblings.

“That was good advice, and true.” Shane rubbed her shoulder. “Emily, you are a true Elliott … unlike some of us.”

“A true Elliott speaks his mind.” Dillon spoke his first words since sitting down.

“A true Elliott wants what’s best for another Elliott.” Shane leaned over the table.

Lindsay felt Shane’s grip tighten on her shoulder and quickly opened her eyes.

“A true Elliott is hungry.” Carson raised his hand.

“A Stevens’, too.” She sensed the exchange had to do with their date. The last time she saw Dillon, she ditched him at the party.

“You’re hungry?” Shane leaned over.

“Starving.” In truth, she felt a little nauseated, but declaring her need for food at least redirected Shane’s attention.

He raised his arm and the waitress returned.

 “Hold on.” Emily hit the table almost knocking over a glass. “I want to know where Lindsay went on her date!”

“Please don’t go.” Ivan pleaded to the waitress.

“You already know.” Shane shouted.

“I want her to say it.”

The waitress put her pad back in her apron pocket and crossed her arms. “It’s fine, now I want to know where she went, too.”

The table became deadly silent.

“Shane found me at the airport in Ontario.”

The group collectively sucked in their breath.

“He picked me up in a limo. He brought me flowers, and we went to the private club at the race track.” She took a breath. “We danced and won an exacta bet.”

Though she purposely left out the part about them making out in the limo, it didn’t stop the stomach flutters. The waitress gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll have the pancakes, no butter and bacon, please.”

Emily clapped, Dillon turned pale and Shane softly kissed the side of her head.

 “I don’t know how I’ll top myself tonight.” Shane strummed his fingers on the table and ordered pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast and potatoes. “I’m starving, too.”

She tried to peek at him without making it obvious, but Shane caught her.

“Miss Lindsay,” he whispered. “How am I going to top myself tonight?”

She bit her lip when Shane’s breath grazed her ear. “Just be you.”

“What?” Shane put his hand on her chin and turned her.

“Just be you,” she repeated.

“Is that what you want?”

“Absolutely.”

Then for the first time, Shane purposely kissed her in front of them all and Lindsay forgot where she was until Carson cleared his throat.

“We’re busy.” Shane looked into her eyes.

She licked her lips feeling her face turn every shade of red, and enjoying every second of it.

“You can do that all night. I need to ask your chick something.” Carson grunted.

She’d just been called Shane’s chick. The term chick had started to grow on her. She liked it.

“They kiss cute, don’t they?” Emily directed her question at Ivan then jumped up, pointing to Shane. “Oh God, look at his hickey.”

Ivan stood to study it. “Nice work, Lindsay.”

 “Hello,” Carson yelled.

“Yes.” Her voice came out scratchy and she couldn’t stop staring at Shane.

Carson banged his knife on the table, breaking the spell.

“As my brother’s business manager, you get his apprentice too.” He leaned up and took something from his back pocket and tossed it to her.

“What’s this?” She eyed the filthy envelope. It appeared as if it had been through quite an adventure.

“I’ve been carrying it around for a while.”

“I see.” Before flipping it over she picked up her napkin to shield her fingers from the grime.

“That’s from the IRS.” Shane tilted his head. “Why are you getting letters from the IRS?”

“I don’t know.” Carson shrugged. “I thought Lindsay could tell me. She’s good at that.”

The envelopes this group presented her with were like cats bringing dead mice home to their masters. First, Shane then Ivan and now Carson. Out of instinct she turned to Emily.

“Oh yeah, Carson and I made a pact we would tell you today.” Emily took three envelopes out of her bag.

“Emily Elliott!” Shane bellowed.

“I got this yesterday.” Ivan slid another envelope toward her and checked his watch. “Also, Tim from Tiger Tattoo is coming over for an initial consultation, I quoted a price for you since you were gone, but Shane and I will review your fee schedule later.”

“I need to do some work on Hugh and Stubbs, too.” Lindsay gripped the edge of the table. She now had five accounts and a consultation. Oh yeah, and a full time job … and Shane.

Ivan gulped down his water. “While you two were out yesterday, I took the liberty of setting up one of the private rooms as our new accounting office.”

“Good thinking.” Shane tapped his glass against Ivan’s.

“Hold on.” Everything was moving too fast. Lindsay laid out all the envelopes in a row in front of her.

“I think she’s losing it,” Carson whispered.

Shane dug through her purse, found a pencil and held it out to her. “I’m going to say she’s in deep concentration.”

“You can almost see her mind working.” Emily put her arm around her.

Lindsay ignored them, took the pencil and crunched down then she tossed it aside when it provided no relief. She cleared her throat. “For someone who knows everyone, how come you never had a good accountant?” Shane had a contact for everything from concert tickets to toilet paper .

“She has a point, man. If we had a good numbers person to start with, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.” Ivan glared at Shane.

“It was a hole in my system, but look, you ask for steak and with Lindsay, I gave you filet mignon.” He gave her a huge grin.

She pursed her lips and looked up to the ceiling and the four of them followed suit.

 “We trust you,” Carson said quietly.

“All right.” She took a breath. Apparently she was the general in the war against substandard accounting. After everything each of them had done for her, she had to help. “Here are the rules.”

Carson rubbed his hands together. “Rules imply she will fix it.”

“
Try
to fix it,” she corrected. “Number one.” She held up a finger. “If a customer gives you cash, you don’t put it in your pocket and let it get mixed up with your personal money.”

“If a customer gives us cash isn’t that considered our personal money?” Carson asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I think I need to write this down.” Carson held out his hand to his sister. Emily dug through purse and handed him her eyeliner.

 “I want a writing implement, not makeup.”

“I only have makeup.”

Lindsay dramatically thrust her pencil at Carson.

Before writing he raised his hand. “Where do I put the money?”

Ivan followed suit. “I have that same question.”

“Can I put it in my purse if I don’t have pockets?” Emily asked.

“I just give it to Lindsay.” Shane said. “Give her the money, she launders it.” Everyone smiled. Her jaw tightened and he corrected himself. “Not launders. She knows what to do with it.”

“What if she’s not there?” Ivan asked.

Before she could answer, Shane fielded the question. “I use my right pocket for me and my left pocket for Lindsay.”

“How do you remember that?” Carson furrowed his brow.

“L is left and Lindsay.”

The system actually impressed her.

“I get it.” Carson laughed. “Right Carson, left Lindsay.”

Her three students wrote on their respective napkins.

 “You guys are all idiots, you know that, right.” Dillon spoke up.

Not wanting to get involved with Dillon she took a butter knife and opened the envelopes.

Shane leaned back and eyed Dillon. “If you worked with us, you might have enough money to need a business manager too.”

“We’ll see how much you have left after the audit.” Dillon snarled.

The best course of action was to retreat and read the letters.

“By the time my business manager’s done with this audit, the IRS will be writing me a check.” Shane brushed Dillon’s words away with a wave of his hand.

Though Lindsay didn’t shake her head in front of everyone else, she’d bet her investment savings that the audit would result in no refund what so ever. She prayed Shane didn’t honestly believe he’d get a refund. At least they were only going back a year.

“I think the hair dye is getting to your brain cells and deluding you on a number of levels.” Dillon shot back.

Angry, Lindsay crumpled one of the letters in her fist.

“Shut your mouth. If you don’t like the scenery I suggest you go elsewhere.” Shane shouted at Dillon. “Why are you here anyway?”

“I wanted to talk to my sister.” Dillon turned toward Emily.

She shuffled closer to Lindsay. “I’m busy.”

“What’s on your calendar?”

“Not being with you.” Emily reached into her purse. “Just so you know, I’m not the only female who can’t stand the sight of you.”

“I have no gripe with Lindsay. In fact I’m trying to look out for her.”

Shane tensed.

“Lindsay doesn’t need you when she has Shane, and she’s not the woman I was talking about.” Emily stood. “I’m talking about your girlfriend. The one who kicked you out.”

“You know nothing.” Dillon stood. “I left.”

“Right.” Emily gave him an exaggerated nod. “That’s why you just showed up.”

Dillon never revealed why he left New York, but a lot of pieces began to fall into place.

“I live here.”

“Which is why you packed up without a goodbye and left. You were supposed to … it doesn’t matter.” Emily’s voice broke.

 “You know.” Lindsay announced. “I really need a calculator.”

“Calculator?” With wide eyes, Shane looked down at her. “Do you need to calculate something?”

“Yes.” She wanted to calculate exactly how fast she and Shane could get out of there without collateral damage. Some general she turned out to be, she may as well go AWOL.

Her announcement had the desired effect of distracting them and she suddenly had four phones thrust at her. She’d completely forgotten that her phone had a calculator. She breathed a sigh of relief when pancakes were set in front of her.

“Everyone sit.” Carson pulled Emily’s arm. “Let’s eat, the food’s here.”

“Stop playing peace maker.” Emily plopped down into her chair.

“Maybe it was a bad idea I came.” Dillon remained standing.

“You always think you’re right, and this time you actually are.” Emily focused on her plate.

“I’m sorry you had to witness the true Elliott family dynamic.” Dillon directed his comment at Lindsay and left.

Silence. Her stomach twisted, and she fiddled with the syrup.

“Lindsay.” Carson tapped the table.

She raised her head and waited for him to continue.

“Is that the only rule?” He picked up the pencil.

Shane put his arm around her. “Yes, tell us all what to do.”

The right answer was usually the simplest. “Don’t do anything without me.”

Everyone at the table seemed to collectively exhale.

“No problem there.” Shane kissed her lips. “She’s our IRS miracle.”

As they all dug into their breakfasts Lindsay faced her pancakes with the image of Dillon leaving still fresh in her mind. She watched them let him leave without a second thought. A huge part of his anger was directed at Shane because of her. The person walking away could have easily been her. Would Shane still be kissing her without the IRS miracle he needed?

Chapter Twenty-One

Jealousy.

Yes, Lindsay had experienced jealousy before, but never at such magnitude. The jealousy oozed over her, a slime covering everything it touched. No wonder they called it a monster. Like a giant lizard, she wanted to run down the streets of Los Angeles creating havoc until she could dig her giant claws and jaws of steel into Angie and rid the world of that particular evil.

“Shane, I really think that we should rearrange your station.” Angie shifted items on his table.

Lindsay bit down on her pencil.

“Lindsay just cleaned this. It’s fine.”

Lindsay tilted her head.

“I think it could use a little sprucing up. This segment is going to appear all over the Internet.”

“This is a tattoo shop.” He tossed a magazine aside.

“You have been begging me to get these people over here to do a piece on you and I did, even after you ditched me in the middle of my tattoo.”

“Do what you want.” Shane backed up. “My doing your tattoo will be blasted all over cyberspace.” He smiled at Lindsay.

She forced a smile and returned to her books. Just her luck that Angie had the media connections Shane wanted. Now on the same day that they were reviewing his paperwork for the audit, the giant internet blog guru decided to grace the shop with his presence and broadcast a tattoo, interview, and piercing.