Page 29 of Tempting the Player
“Jane is still here, right? I saw her at the party right before we left.”
I don’t like the way that detail annoys me. She went back down to the party? Was she at least with her friends? Where is she now?
“Yeah. She’s staying. They’ve hired someone else to take my place.”
“She fired you?” Arch wears a thoughtful expression as he waits for my answer.
I nod. No sense in denying it.
“Why?” Brogan asks.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Arch nudges him, and his lips pull into a small, knowing smile. “She thought he was into her and when she found out who he was, she realized she was just a job.”
“She wasn’t just a job.” The words are out before I can pull them back.
Arch’s smile just gets bigger. Fucker.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s done. I asked my boss to give me a few days to figure things out.”
“You could stay anyway.” Brogan shrugs. “It’s kind of nice having your grumpy ass back.”
“I’m too tired to keep my eyes open, so I’m going to bed.” Archer stands and walks over to me. “You should talk to Knox. He was already pissed you waited this long to visit. Now that he knows you were just here for a job, he’s way beyond pissed.”
“It wasn’t like that, and you know it.”
“I do.” He claps a hand on my shoulder. “But Knox doesn’t. He always thinks the worst of everyone. Don’t take it personally.”
With a heavy sigh, I nod. “I’ll talk to him in the morning.”
Brogan follows Archer into their room, and Flynn gets to his feet.
“It isn’t that I didn’t want to visit all this time,” I tell my youngest brother honestly. “But I needed to work to take care of you guys.”
“Yeah. I guess I get that, but it would have been nice to have seen you occasionally. We missed you. Even Knox. Especially Knox.”
“I missed you too.” I pull him into a quick hug, then ruffle his hair. “Get to sleep, kiddo.”
“I’m not a kid,” he says, back to his sullen self.
10
JANE
I’m sittingon the floor Monday morning, putting on my makeup in front of a floor-length mirror. I pick up my eyeliner, sweep it over both lids, then set it on the ground. I do the same with the mascara, then powder.
Dahlia grabs the powder compact before I set it down. “Don’t slam that one, it’ll break into a million pieces.”
“Was I slamming them down?”
She nods, a soft smile on her face.
“Sorry.” I inhale through my nose and blow out a breath. “I’m still so angry. I can’t believe him.”
“Yeah,” my friend says in a voice that isn’t all that convincing.
“You don’t think I should be pissed?”
“No, you should. But maybe not at him. He was doing a job. And yeah, I get how that put you both in a really unfortunate situation, but what was he supposed to do?”
