Page 11 of With a Broken Wing
“I’m sure you do. I don’t even want to know.” The disgust in her response was clear. “Just don’t mess it up. You’ve embarrassed our family enough as it is, don’t you think?”
The silence on the line when she hung up was deafening, and when someone stepped up behind me, the hair on my neck prickled. I hadn’t realized I’d been standing in front of the large metal and wood door until Demetri reached past me and opened it. He gestured for me to lead the way, but not before he shot me a questioning side glance. Clearing my throat, I rushed through the door and to the check-in counter.
I could feel his eyes on me while I got everyone checked into their individual rooms. When the front desk attendant handed me five keys, I clapped them against the desk and gave him a warm smile before I turned away. My eyes stung with the tears that threatened to fall, and I blinked them away as much as I could before I was standing face-to-face with Demetri.
The keys couldn’t leave my hands fast enough, and as soon as there was only one left, I took off towards the stairs opposite the elevators. Shelby and Scott waited by the elevator, and when they saw me going for the stairs, Scott spoke up.
“Are you sure you don’t want to ride with us? I promise we don’t bite… unless you want me to.” He raised a suggestive eyebrow, and I rolled my eyes. Erin’s warning from my first day repeated itself in my head.
“No, thank you. I’ve been sitting all day. The exercise will do me good!”
Without another word, I opened the door to the stairs and hurried up the four flights to the floor my room was on. Three rooms were on the third floor, but two of us were put on the fourth. I hadn’t paid any attention to who I gave which key to, and I hoped it wasn’t going to be Scott.
As I stepped in front of the door to my room, the elevator dinged. My heart raced, and I rushed to try to get the door and swipe the re-used magnetic keycard. Footsteps rounded the corner just as the lock on the door beeped, allowing me to push it open. I looked up as I stepped past the threshold and met Demetri’s judgmental stare.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but I took two quick steps into the room and let the door slam shut behind me. If he had wanted to talk to me, he didn’t try any harder. When he didn’t come to my door, I assumed he had gone to his own, and relief settled over me.
I stripped off the pink dress, trading it for the oversized T-shirt and knee-high socks I wore to bed most nights. I tossed the small bottles of vodka from the generously filled mini bar on the bed and pulled the pill bottle from the outside pocket of my bag. When I rolled the bottle in my fingers, the pills tumbled over each other, and the small clatter comforted me.
I folded my legs under me as I climbed onto the bed, dumping two pills into my hand and swallowing them with the shot of vodka. It made me clench my jaw and my stomach churn. I hated vodka, but like they always said, desperate times called for desperate measures.
The seal on the second bottle of vodka made a small click when I twisted the lid, and I swallowed the liquid in two small gulps. I shouldn’t mix the pills with alcohol because it would intensify the drowsiness, but after the way the afternoon had ended up, extreme drowsiness sounded like perfection. Two Xanax and a couple of shots would guarantee I’d have a dreamless night of sleep, and that it would come quick. Just as my eyes started to flutter shut, my mom’s words repeated in my head.
You’ve embarrassed our family enough as it is, don’t you think?
I woke up restless.The way Andy had hurried into her room when I turned the corner like I was some kind of predator played in my head on repeat. Did she think I was going to hurt her? Maybe she thought I was going to yell at her again. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have. I’d made it clear from day one I didn’t tolerate mistakes, but the way she’d shrunk in on herself instead of fighting back surprised me. That wasn’t the feisty woman I’d met or hired.
Her hazel eyes had glazed over when I scolded her at the airport and again before she hurried away with her room key. I took a gulp of the quick cup of coffee I’d brewed in the room, hoping to swallow away the guilt with it. Yelling at my employees was a somewhat regular occurrence. I was not known to be a patient man. I was sure I’d made people cry in the past, likely more than once, but something about the way tears had threatened to fall from her wide eyes made my stomach turn. It reminded me of the way she’d cried when William moved Jules to Chicago and then acted like nothing was wrong.
I swallowed the last of the shitty coffee I’d managed to choke down, tightened my tie, and shrugged on my suit jacket before making my way out of the room.7:50. I’d told the team to meet downstairs at 8:00 sharp. If they knew me, they’d already be down there waiting.
I opened the door and entered the hallway, pulling the door shut behind me, even knowing it’d automatically fall shut and latch on its own. As I turned the corner to the elevator, I saw Andy waiting. Her shoulders stiffened, but when she turned around to face me, there was a grin pulling at her cheeks.
“Good morning!” She practically chirped when she spoke, and I tilted my head.
“Morning.” Her smile faltered, but she fixed it, and when the elevator dinged, I motioned for her to lead the way. “After you.”
She stepped onto the elevator and ran her hands down the royal-blue skirt she wore. I hit the button for the first floor, noticing the way she followed my hand. When I looked at her, she looked away.
Before I knew what I’d say, I reached my hand out again and hit the button to stop the elevator, bringing it to a halt between the second and third floors. She widened her eyes and looked at me with her mouth hanging open for a second before she snapped it shut.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Her sudden mix of fear and anger was amusing. “Is that any way to talk to your boss?”
She rolled her eyes with a full circle of her head, and I considered closing my hand around her tiny throat and showing her my lack of patience before she placed her hands on her hips. “Oh, sorry. What the hell are you doing,sir?”
The way she said it sent a rush of heat to my cock, and I couldn’t resist the growl that rose from my chest. “Whydo you insist on pushing my buttons, sunshine?”
“You’re the one who stopped the elevator. Why? Do you want to yell at me again?”
There it was. The sarcastic grin on her face faltered. She was as upset as I expected after the way she’d walked away last night. “I’m not going to yell at you, Andy.”
“Then what? You had no problem degrading me yesterday.” Her voice was smaller, and again she was shrinking in on herself. Was any of the confidence she had displayed real?
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” I resisted the urge to grab her face between my hands and lift her gaze to mine.
Suddenly, the reserved woman in front of me just seconds ago was gone, and in her place was the fiery redhead. The one who looked like she would own any room. “I’m fine, Demetri. I can handle getting yelled at. I don’t need you to check on me. I take care of myself!”
