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“Your brother is in my lobby.”
“Ew.” She replied flatly. “You really know how to be a buzz kill.”
I chuckled, “I know, but I wanted you to know so that you didn’t run into him on accident. Stay at Halo until I call you and tell you he’s gone. Understood?”
“What if I’m told by my boss to go do something else?”
“Then you call me, and I will take care of it.”
“I don’t want to hide.”
“I need to know if he knew what happened, or if he knew you were out there on your own.”
A long pause filled the air and then she sighed. “I saw him two years after I left Mav. He knew.”
I stilled and ice filled my veins. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
She sighed again and I imagined her leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs in that sexy as hell black dress, “Because I didn’t know you intended on making good on this call for justice so soon.” She paused and I knew she wanted to say more. “I didn’t want to spend any more time in the past. We keep circling back to it and I hate the way it makes me feel.”
“I need this Cora.” I hardly recognized the pain in my voice as I left myself vulnerable to her judgements.
“I see that now Mav. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you beforehand.”
“What happened when you saw him?”
She sighed again. “I was working at a twenty-four-hour diner in lower Manhattan, and he came in with a bunch of friends. They were eating when I got there for my shift and I approached him, stupidly happy to see him.”
I could tell by the cold in her voice he didn’t embrace her with open arms. “What did he do when he saw you?”
“He threw a glass of soda on me before I even got within five feet of him and told me to stop being pathetic and bothering him like I was some panhandler on the street. And then they all left and didn’t pay their bill. I had to work for two weeks straight just to cover their tab out of my tips, forgoing paying my own bills.”
I growled again, imagining how good it would feel to push my fist through the center of Jake Valentine’s face.
My office door opened, and my eyes followed Reid as he walked in, eyeing my murderous stare.
“I’ll make sure he regrets it baby.” I said. “I love you Cora.”
“I know you do Mav. I love you too. But don’t let the past consume you, it will just continue to darken your soul. Come into the light with me instead and leave it all behind.”
“I’m going to burn their world to ash, and only then will I let your sunshine chase the shadows from my soul.”
She sighed, “I support you in whatever you do, just know you don’t have to do it.”
“I know baby. I’ll call you when he leaves.”
“Okay.”
She hung up and I gripped the receiver in my hand so tight the plastic creaked beneath my fingers before I hung it up.
“New development?” Reid asked, unbuttoning his jacket, and sitting down.
“Jake knew she was on her own out here. He threw a drink in her face and stiffed her with a bill she had to pay out of her tips as a waitress.” With each word that crossed my lips, my blood thickened and heated up until it was molten lava.
“Son of a bitch.” Reid said, shaking his head and running his fingers over the ridge of his lips. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to find out what this project is that he wants my partnership on, and then I’m going to go in and seal the deal before him and steal it.”
“Genius.” He said confidently. “Are you going to tell him you’re back with Cora and know everything?”
