Page 53 of Roark
“The next thing I’m going to tell you is I’m here for you in whatever way you need me to be tonight. No judgment and no regrets.”
And no promises. She didn’t say that, but the words immediately popped into her mind. But what the hell? There were no promises to be made. If not for Kaymen Benedict and his crusade for revenge, she and Roark would’ve never met. She may have come to Painswick to visit with her mother but there would’ve been no reason for her to promise a steak dinner to her friend in the IT department at the insurance company where she used to work to find Roark’s personal phone number and then insist they meet. They didn’t run in the same circles—her family worked good jobs, had pension plans and social security to look forward to in retirement, while his owned luxury B&Bs and ordered designer clothes like she ordered groceries.
“I—”
Whatever she was gonna say was cut short by an insistent knock on the door. She and Roark both jumped as if they’d been caught doing something they shouldn’t have. With a frown, Roark rolled off the bed first, and Tamika followed him. She hadn’t been prepared for what they saw when they opened the door.
A woman wearing a pink-and-gold silk scarf wrapped around her head and a pale-pink quilted robe. Another woman wearing a great black cocktail dress and red boots laced up to her knee. But the outfit wasn’t what stuck out most about this woman, it was the flecks of what Tamika was certain were blood along her face, neck and upper chest.
“Suri? What the hell happened? What are you two doing here?” Roark fired off questions while Tamika stood beside him waiting for the answers.
“Apparently not as much as you’re doing up in here,” the older woman wearing the pink and gold said. “Now, get out here and show me to my room. That woman downstairs was all flustered and could barely tell me her name, said she was going to call somebody named Geoff. But I need to lay down and get some sleep. I don’t have the time nor the inclination to wait for somebody else to come and talk to me.”
“No problem, Aunt Birdie. I’ll get you settled,” Roark stated briskly.
Tamika touched his arm. “I’ll do it, Roark. Just let me get my shoes and I’ll get Dorianne, and we can have the rooms on the first floor set up for them.”
“Who are you, and why are you coordinating rooms at his B&B? Roark, are you sleeping with the staff? Lord have mercy, this family has gone straight to hell in a handbasket.”
“She’s not the staff,” Roark insisted, but the woman’s words had already taken Tamika back to the thoughts she’d been having before the knock on the door.
“I’m Tamika Rayder,” she said and extended her hand to Suri first, because she knew this one would be receptive.
Suri extended her arm slowly, and Tamika immediately looked down to see that the back of her hand had specks of blood on it too. Roark must’ve seen it as well, because he moved quickly, stepping in front of Tamika and wrapping an arm around Suri so she leaned into him immediately.
“We need to get you medical attention,” he said and scooped his younger sister up into his arms.
That left Tamika with Aunt Birdie.
“I can take your bag, ma’am.” The bag was actually a signature Louis Vuitton makeup case Tamika was certain cost over three thousand dollars. It made the eight-hundred-dollar bag Tamika had that had been a splurge purchase when she’d received her tax refund last year look like a cheap imitation.
“You wanna take my bag, but you’re not the staff.” If it were possible, Aunt Birdie held the handle to her case even tighter and fell into step behind Roark.
Tamika ran back into the room for her slippers and came out again when Roark and his family were halfway down the stairs.
A guard was positioned inside the clubhouse, while two were out front. She’d heard Roark talking to someone named Devlin earlier today and they’d agreed that having two additional guards at the manor would also be helpful.
“They said they were family,” Jackson the guard, said the moment he saw Roark. “I checked it out before I let them in and I wanted to call you first, but she insisted on going straight to your room.”
“He sure did,” Aunt Birdie snapped. “Holding us out there like we were common criminals. It’s absurd.”
Tamika was quickly surmising that Aunt Birdie was the complainer in the Donovan family.
“It’s okay, Jack,” Roark said before giving the guy a conciliatory nod as if he already knew what Aunt Birdie had put him through while he’d checked out who they were. “Can you call the paramedics?”
“Already done, sir. They should be here at any minute.”
“Thanks.” Roark carried his sister into the parlor, and Aunt Birdie followed.
Dorianne came up to Tamika’s side as she walked in behind them. “I didn’t know what to do or say to her,” the woman confided in Tamika.
Tamika could only nod, because she wasn’t real sure what to do or say to Aunt Birdie, either. “It’s fine, Dorianne. They’re going to need rooms. I can help you get them ready.” Tamika almost frowned when she realized her words did sound as if she worked here.
“No. No. I can take care of it now that I know what’s what. Just give me about fifteen minutes. There’s hot coffee in the kitchen. I did manage to get that started when I figured it was about to be an interesting night.” Dorianne was wearing a robe as well, hers a navy blue and white checker-print, her black scarf tied in a knot on her forehead.
“Thank you, Dorianne,” Tamika said before turning her attention back to Roark and his family.
“What the hell happened?” Roark asked as he sat on the couch beside Suri.
