Page 30 of Her Beastly Billionaire Rock Star
“I’m just glad you’re here.” He released her and stepped to the side so she could enter the house. “Let me introduce you to Charlotte.”
Their relationship had changed since he’d taken her on that picnic. Aside from feeling more at ease around her, he found himself seeking her out because he enjoyed being near her. If he was reading her correctly, she seemed to feel the same way about him.
Their talk at the pond had shined a light on something he’d been harboring a while without even realizing it. In the days and weeks since then, he’d done more soul-searching than he ever had.
He’d phoned many of the people he called friends and apologized for treating them the way he had. Most sounded shocked. A few were less than impressed and didn’t give him the feeling that they really believed he was working to change. Normally, it would have made him furious, but the only thing it did this time was give him extra determination to prove he wanted to be seen differently.
He couldn’t fault them. He’d done the twelve steps before, but looking back, none of his apologies were sincere or heartfelt. It had just been one of the steps, and he was walking through it. Not that he could say he didn’t fall back to old habits now from time to time, but he’d managed to notice the signs of what seemed to trigger his anger. That had helped a lot.
Emilia passed by him and stopped just inside the door. “You’re different. I noticed it on the phone, but now I see it. I’m excited to meet Charlotte.” She winked.
“Don’t start.” Malakai loved Emilia, but the woman was good at her job. She could read a person as well as Charlotte. “She’s just a friend.”
Nodding, Emilia smiled. “If you say so.”
Great. Now he had two women who could apparently read him like a book, and they’d be staying under the same roof. “Just let me introduce you.”
They stopped when they got to the living room, and Charlotte approached Emilia with her hand outstretched. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you so much.”
“Nice to meet you too, and it’s my pleasure. It gave me an excuse to visit this big lug.” Emilia poked Malakai in the stomach. “It’s been too long.”
“Yeah, it has,” Malakai replied and waved to the couch. “Have a seat and relax. Can I get you anything?”
Emilia flopped down on the couch and let out a long exhale. “No, I’m good. Glad to be still for a second.”
Charlotte laughed and replanted herself in the chair she’d used before. “I remember traveling to see my mom in Greece. By the time I got there, all I wanted to do was sit and not feel like I was moving.”
“You’d think I’d be used to it. I do a lot of traveling for clients.”
Malakai sat at the far end of the couch and set his ankle over his knee. “Yeah, I distinctly remember feeling that way many times.”
Emilia sat up and curled her legs under her, facing Charlotte. “Okay, tell me everything. Start from the beginning. Leave nothing out, even something you might think is trivial or insignificant.”
“All right,” Charlotte replied and started filling Emilia in.
Malakai learned a few things too because she did as Emilia asked and started at the very beginning when her dad met Octavia’s mom. He couldn’t picture Octavia as a sweet little girl or that she and Charlotte were at one time friends. Well, not exactly friends, but not enemies for sure.
“So, when you got back from college, it was all done? Octavia was in charge, and you were working for her?”
Nodding, Charlotte hugged herself. “I didn’t have to, and at first, I didn’t think she’d let me stay. Octavia loves control, though, and she seemed to enjoy hurting me.”
“And your relationship became strained after high school started?” Emilia asked.
“Yeah, more than strange. It bordered on hostile. She didn’t like me, and I think my dad and her mom were having marriage problems. Octavia and her mom moved out for about seven months while my dad and her mom went to counseling. I don’t mention it because they worked it out and ended up moving back in.”
Emilia’s eyebrows knitted together, and she sat quietly for a moment. “Would you let me look at your laptop? Or mind a friend of mine looking at it? Well, two of them now. They’re better together, Mia Wolf and Ryder Whitlock. They’re with the Guardian Group, a private security firm. You can trust them; I promise.”
“If you think it’ll help.”
“If Mia and Ryder can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.”
“Okay.” Charlotte dropped her hands to her lap. “Should I go ahead and get it for you?”
Emilia nodded. “That’d be great. They’ll just need remote access. Once they have that, they’ll be able to dive in. I’ll give them a heads-up to get on it. They owe me a couple of favors anyway.”
Standing, Charlotte shook Emilia’s hand again. “I’ll get it right now. Thank you so much.” She hurried out of the living room before Emilia could even respond.
Turning to Malakai, Emilia wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh yeah, you like her. You like her a lot.”
