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She was laughing.
What a fuckin’ beautiful sound it was.
“Your face!” She lifted her head, all red-faced and smiling, her fingers dancing over the short hairs covering my jaw. “You should have seen yourself! You thought… You really thought—”
She couldn’t finish the sentence as her laughter overtook her, but she didn’t need to. I had thought she was serious. Thought I’d hurt her with my words. The relief I felt had me sagging against the couch.
Dragging her toward me with the weight of my arms.
Kelly’s laughter quieted and she peeked at me again. Tears had leaked from her eyes, and for the first time since I’d offered to take her to my safehouse, she didn’t try to wipe them away.
“Call them.” She studied the cuts on my face, then edged back. Though I didn’t want to, I let her free. “Or I’ll sing.”
“I’ll call them.”
“Now.” She snagged my cell phone off the table behind her, holding it out to me.
I dipped my head, hand closing around the phone and her fingers. “Now.”
She nodded, then climbed from my lap, though she didn’t go far. She settled back on the couch, her legs pulled up under her as she waited for me to do as she said.
So I did. I called the woman she’d chosen for my administrative assistant and set up an appointment for an interview with her. I called Van Thaylor, the helicopter pilot who’d been on my radar for months. Talked to him for a good hour before he agreed to come in and meet with me the next day.
When I hung up, I looked over my shoulder at Kelly, giving her an are you happy now stare. She’d shifted on the couch multiple times while I was talking, and I found her with her head just behind mine, her eyes squinting and her lips pinched.
“What?”
She turned her attention to the ceiling, to the light fixture that wasn’t even turned on. The room was lit only by the two lamps in the corners. “When I was growing up, I always thought having a job would be the best. Like, there’d be nice rooms where you could go sit and think without someone looking over your shoulder. There’d be a gym to work out in, free drinks and snacks in the break room. I’m not talking just coffee. I mean, like, a soft serve ice cream machine with all the fixings, so you could just have a snack any time you wished. Nice TVs and comfortable furniture. None of this corporate bullshit.”
The muscles in my back and shoulders tensed up. We hadn’t talked about her job. It was one of those things I couldn’t stand to bring up. Things were still coming out, but it appeared the trafficking ring that had grabbed her was largely running out of the company she worked for. The man who I’d shot was one of her coworkers. She’d watched one of her other coworkers get murdered before her eyes. It was a lot. A lot of memories. A lot of pain.
“You should do that.” She turned back to me, letting me see the dark shadows that danced behind her eyes. “Find a new office and make it a place people actually want to be. It’ll make your employees more loyal to you. They’ll be happy, and you won’t have to worry as much about turnover, so you’ll be happy.”
“That would make me happy.”
“What more could you want?”
I could think of something more, though I couldn’t bring myself to say it. That there was a certain redhead that I couldn’t get off my mind. That all I wanted was for her to be happy. Healthy. Maybe something more.
I couldn’t say it. Could barely tolerate thinking it, after what she’d been through. After what I’d promised her parents. So instead, I told her, “Maybe someone to handle the accounting for me.”
“Pshh. I’m pretty sure you could find someone willing to handle the millions you’ll be making once your new office opens.”
“Oh yeah? What about you?”
“Are you kidding me?” She lifted a brow. “I don’t math well. Jen had to help me through my classes in college.”
The minute she finished speaking, it was like a wall fell down, closing her off. I saw it in her eyes, on her face.
The thought of her old friend had done it.
My chest ached as she turned away again, but not like before. All the levity we’d shared had been sucked out of the room by that one simple word.
Jen.
I let Kelly have her quiet and turned back to the stack of files in front of me. Another hour passed, and I stretched my aching back. Behind me, Kelly had drifted to sleep. I watched her in the dim light, watched her pretty face.
If her nightmares could stop, maybe she could heal. I’d be there for her, as long as she’d let me. As long as I could.
