Page 34 of Escape Girl

In my Chicagohotel room, I shook off the memories and stumbled, completely disoriented, to look out the window at the unfamiliar view again.Is this my life? Is this my life now?

Chapter Ten

“Looks like acool place,” Bella said cheerfully as we stepped into Fizz.

Still annoyed that we weren’t meeting in a businesslike environment, I glanced around the bar, frowning. Didn’t look like anything special to me. Just your basic big city corner pub. Pool table in the back corner, cushioned booths along the dark paneled walls. Flat-screen TVs over the bar showing football games.

Although, it did have a nice, relaxed ambiance. I could grudgingly admit that. The dudes on barstools were laughing with one another and taking shit from the bartender, a striking woman with a faux hawk and bright red lipstick. A chalkboard on the wall announced a contest for naming this month’s original bourbon cocktail. Even though it was pretty crowded, I didn’t feel like covering my ears or taking a preemptive Advil. The volume on the TVs was turned off so no sportscaster blasted us with commentaries and no whistles blared. Instead, patrons chose the bar’s soundtrack on TouchTunes.

I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin, a change in posture I’d always affected when bracing myself to enter a social situation. My father did a similar sort of ritual stiffening, and my mother had always laugh-sighed at us both. “You two,” she’d say, hands on her hips. “You walk into a room like it’s something to conquer, like you expect people to be against you.”

“And you,” my father had retorted, “walk into a room as though you assume everyone is in love with you.”

She’d beamed at him and batted her eyelashes. “Aren’t they?”

Then she’d saunter in and three minutes later, every freakin’ person in the roomwouldbe in love with her.

I smiled at the memory before I could stop myself.

“There she is.” Bella pointed to a booth in the back, where two women sat talking. “Jo Harper is the one with the dark hair.”

Irritating to admit, but I was full of nerves about this meeting. I’d wondered about this person for years. What kind of woman would put on a disguise and trick a grieving billionaire into proposing only to then suffer an attack of morality and disappear—but not before writing intense letters to both him and his daughter, imploring them to get help and love one another?

And all that was before she started a new illegal enterprise!

Jo caught sight of Bella’s outstretched hand and rose from her booth, face placid. I supposed I’d imagined her as some sort of irresistible femme fatale, so her mostly ordinary appearance took me aback. I mean, she was very pretty—just not the movie star in my mind. She was in her mid-thirties with long, dark hair pulled back in a French braid. She had light brown eyes that contrasted with dark brows and lashes, good high cheekbones, and a wide mouth. She wore a simple long-sleeved black T-shirt and leggings with sneakers. I immediately felt overdressed in my suit.

“Nice to see you again, Bella,” she said. Bella returned her smile and offered an awkward little wave.

She turned to me. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time, Emily.”

Ugh, what did one evendowith that? This was all soweird.

I did not want to talk about any of her stuff with my father—or what had happened in August—in front of Bella and the other stranger at the table. That stuff was too personal. We were here tonight to discuss the intellectual property case, and that’s where we’d start.

I didn’t return Jo’s smile. I simply nodded and held up my laptop bag, legal pads and pens tucked into the outside pocket. “I would like to understand why you connected Bella to me, how you’re in the middle of this. What does Taggert have to do with you?”

To my surprise, Jo took a step back toward the booth and flicked her eyes to the other woman sitting there. “Your move, Tess.”

I shifted my gaze to this Tess for the first time. She swallowed some liquid from the glass in front of her before sliding out of the booth and extending her hand to me. “Tess Greene.” She wore tight jeans, knee-high black boots, and a pink T-shirt that read,If my mouth doesn’t say it, my face definitely will.She was quite tall, probably five foot eleven, with strawberry blonde curls, light amber eyes, and full cheeks.

I wouldn’t have called her gorgeous, exactly, but she radiated attitude, a confident energy that made her hard to look away from. She’d said only her name, but I felt short and intimidated.Jesus, pull it together.I shook her hand firmly. “Emily Austin.” Bella introduced herself next, eyes wide. She must have felt Tess’s vibe as well.

She gestured to the booth, so Bella slid in on Jo’s side and I perched awkwardly on Tess’s. I grabbed a legal pad and pen out of my bag. Before sitting back down, Tess craned her head toward the bar and whistled.

The faux-hawked bartender looked over and frowned in mock-annoyance. “I’m not a dog, Tess. I don’t answer to whistles.”

Tess grinned at her. “Do you answer to large bar tabs? We’ll take four of the monthly special.” The bartender rolled her eyes but gave a thumbs-up. Tess plopped back down. “You guys will like it. It’s delicious.”

My lips tightened in annoyance. I would have much preferred ordering my own damn drink. Jo met my eyes across the table, lips twitching, as if she knew what I was thinking. I looked down at the legal pad in front of me instead of returning her mischievous look.

Tess took a deep breath. “Jo doesn’t have any connection to Cole Taggert. I looped her into this situation.”

Bella frowned with her whole face. “I don’t understand.”

Tess smirked, not unkindly, at her. “After the Chicago IP firms laughed you out of their offices and before you met Jo in the coffee shop that day, what did you do about Taggert?”

Huh? My gaze slid from Tess’s face to Bella’s. She hadn’t mentioned doing anything at all.

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