Page 24 of Cruel Revenge
I copied that file and took it back to my office. I put the original back where I found it, not wanting to leave it out for Heath to be surprised. He could talk to me if he wanted to know what I had done.
Carey was missing most of the day, going out to dinner with the werewolves. She gave me a bright smile as she left, and they promised to stay in my territory. That was all I needed to hear. For dinner, I picked the best restaurant I could for security, a singular building with only two entrances and exits, then bribed the owner to effectively be closed the next evening. It cost six figures, a wire transfer I could make, but would catch the eye of my accountant, who called minutes later.
“I just need the venue for tomorrow and need the privacy. That covers the food costs, the staff paychecks and large tips for all of them, and their lost business.”
“It does more than that, but fair enough. I’ll note it and adjust the monthly budget with it in mind.” The accountant didn’t keep me long. After I gave him a quick thank you, he hung up.
It was nearly ten when Carey came home and poked her head in the office.
“I was hoping for an update?” she said nervously.
“Here.” I had written the restaurant and its address down for her to tell her mother. She took it and beamed.
“Thank you!” Then she was gone.
It was midnight when Heath tentatively entered my office.
“Hi Jacky…” he said, moving slowly to my desk.
“You’re going to ask why I went into your office and went through your files.” I looked up from the file I still had on my desk, a picture plain as day.
“You made copies of something.” He looked down in an obvious way, seeing the file. “Is something wrong?”
“I need a promise first,” I said, not bothering to close the file as I stood up. It was already out there, in the open. He knew its contents since it was his work that had put it together.
“I can’t make promises when I don’t know the problem.”
“I want a promise you won’t interfere. I made a promise myself not to involve you so that this something could happen the way Carey wants it to.”
“I need to know what’s going on, because whatever this is, you needed to go through my office, and you know I have to ask about that.”
“Carey wants to meet her mother,” I said, sighing.
Heath paled, but he didn’t waver.
“When? How?” he asked, his words deceptively calm as his Talent activated and hid his emotions before they could reach my nose.
“Her mother reached out. Got her cell number. Used a private investigator. You know how it works,” I said, crossing my arms as I leaned on my desk once I moved to the other side of it. “Carey wants to have dinner with her.”
“I see,” Heath murmured.
“And she thinks you will stop her from doing this, so she came to me about it this morning,” I continued. “Apparently, you and I getting married spurred this from her mother.”
“Of course… major life change. A new stepmother might force a biological mother to act when nothing else had before,” Heath whispered, nodding, before looking for one of my extra seats. He wasn’t shaky as he walked to sit down, but he was certainly as shocked as I had been. I didn’t say anything as he rubbed his face, taking it all in as well. When he finally looked up, there was something mournful in his eyes.
“She thought I would stop her?” he asked, clearly hurt by that.
“She did,” I confirmed, closing the distance between us. I leaned to kiss his head and sighed into his hair. “She’s obviously picked up how much you and Landon don’t like her mother and figured it wouldn’t be possible if you, and he, knew. As for taking you, she just felt you wouldn’t let her really talk to her mother if you were there.”
“The latter is possible,” Heath admitted.
“Yeah…” That much was obvious. He would be cutting in to stop her mother from saying whatever she wanted to Carey.
“So she approached you to set up a chance to have dinner with her mother and…”
“I’m in charge of all security. I’m taking her entire security detail. They don’t know yet. I’ve paid for a clear restaurant, so it will just be us.”
“You’re going,” he said, looking up, his energy changing.
