AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I could still talk her into it. I’d fallen asleep thinking about it, trying to devise some sort of plan to get her on my side. I didn’t know how yet, but it would happen. It had to happen. I just needed to get her to not think of me as a sleep-paralysis demon.
I shifted myself off the lift once I reached my desired peak, pushing my poles into the hard-packed snow to move myself forward toward the start of the slope. Doing so had been second nature for me before, and although the muscle memory was still there, the movement was clunky and my leg no longer wanted to go in the right direction. I could ski and get down the mountain, could control myself when I had to. It was always a chore, though.
The accident had changed far too much of my life, turning it upside down and making things unexpectedly too difficult. I hadn’t been paying close enough attention that day, focused too much on speed instead of safety. I wanted to get the record for the fastest time, and in the haze of my adrenaline and cockiness, I’d drifted too far toward the tree line on a sharp corner. My right ski caught on the base of a skinny aspen tree, twisting my leg a full one-hundred-eighty degrees and cracking two bones in my shin, blowing out my kneecap, and fracturing my femur.
Recovery had been harder than I imagined. I knew from the moment I’d been life-flighted to the hospital that I’d never compete again, but I didn’t know I’d be practically dead to the world for nearly an entire year. I didn’t know how many people I’d lose because of it.
I shook away the thoughts, pushing off and angling myself forward.
I had the resort. That was my pride and joy, really. Jackson and Mandy had Cassie, I had Colchester Ski Resort, and that was enough. It had to be enough. I wasn’t built for anything more unless it was purely sex or business. I couldn’t handle the breakdown of another relationship, couldn’t take the deadly ache in my chest that hadn’t gone away for years.
The freezing wind beat at my face as my feet and legs cooperated, turning and careening around the first corner easily.
If I couldn’t compete in the Olympics, this had to be enough. This, and ideally the neighboring land I needed to acquire. The same land that I needed to change my reputation for, the land I needed Raylene Harleson for, the land I had to convince my future brother-in-law’s family to invest in. And now that Ray wasn’t going to be a part of that, it seemed so far out of reach that I couldn’t even see it. I needed to be able to touch it but it was only a blur.
If it didn’t work out it would be another loss, and I didn’t want to fucking deal with another loss in my life.
————
With nothing and no one to do to fill my time, I found myself alone at the Colchester Resort’s bar. Scotch in hand, sitting back in one of the large leather wing-backs in front of the massive stone fireplace, I scrolled through my phone to keep my mind busy.
Security was nearby. One at the bar and one at the door, keeping the bunnies away from me for the time being. A few had tried shouting from the other side of the room, wanting my attention so desperately they were willing to embarrass themselves in public just to speak to me, but I couldn’t entertain such things until after the wedding and especially not on the property. I didn’t need Dominic’s parents hearing something from one of the staff members or a passing bunny when they arrived.
I’d avoided doing any work since Ray’s explosion at the restaurant. Now was as good a time as any to catch up.
I pulled up my email, scrolling through and checking for anything important I needed to get ahead of before anything else. Notices here and there of events I was expected to attend, a request to hold a competition at the resort later this year, and an invite to a wedding in November. Normal things that could wait.
I noticed an email from Ray and it piqued my immediate interest.
I tapped the screen, curiosity getting the absolute better of me, and nearly regretted it immediately.
Mr. Colchester,
I hope this email finds you well. Scratch that, no I don’t. I hope it makes you choke on whatever fancy food you have shoved down your throat right now.
You see, Wade, I’m writing this to let you know just how much of an asshole you are. Your little stunt, sad as it was, that you pulled today was the last straw. You, a man who is apparently rich beyond imagination, tried to bribe me into being your little actress so you could become even more rich. You took advantage of me. You insinuated that I needed the money. You, you fucking brute, tried to use my situation against me to get what you wanted. Privileged dickhead.
I hope you know how much I hate you. I hope you know how much I hate working behind that stupid fucking one-way mirror, how it makes me feel like a doll on display for a wretched man to get off on. I don’t know how your stupid little bunnies put up with you for an hour, even if what you said was true. No amount of pleasure could ever make up for the fact that it’s you at the end of the day.
Consider this my letter of resignation, effective immediately.
Never yours,
Ray
I nearly did choke on my scotch as I finished reading. Fucking hell, that girl’s mouth was worse than I thought. If this was how she truly felt deep down, then I had no idea what I’d gotten myself into when hiring her.
I read it again. And again. Replaying what happened at Frasca’s over and over in my mind. Maybe she had a point, no, she definitely did. I’d come at it from the wrong angle. I’d worked in her own situation to get her to do what I wanted. She wasn’t wrong, but I had something I needed, something I would stop at nothing to get. Was I really that horrible for trying to convince her to help me?
I shifted to my feet and sauntered to the bar, requesting a refill. Maybe I was that horrible. Maybe I didn’t deserve some of the women I had on retainer. But I wasn’t doing it to be malicious—if that were the case, I’d have insisted she do it without pay, that it was part of her job and given her nothing but her base rate in return. I’d at least offered her something for her efforts.
As I sat back down with my refilled glass in hand, I thought about her. Thought about her situation, her mother, her finances.
I knew Ray wasn’t like the others that mindlessly followed me. I knew that when I hired her and when I decided on her as the decoy, but I hadn’t gone into that conversation with those things in mind. I’d expected her to follow along, to be happy about the opportunity, and to take it without further questions. But that wasn’t Ray and I should’ve known better. That was every other girl who wanted my time, my attention, my money.
With her, I needed to make things right, to take accountability, to apologize.
I needed to call her.
