Weeks later, with Colt and Imani finally settled on a private island in the Caribbean, the funerals of Matt and Sarah taken care of, his divorce from Melissa finalized, and Melissa in jail awaiting trial, he called in one of the best private investigators he knew to find Nakia. She had not returned to the Miami office as they’d all first thought despite the letter of resignation she’d left in her apartment, and neither was she anywhere in the Bahamas. He looked. Her parents claimed that they hadn’t spoken to their daughter since her divorce from Ralph. No surprise there.
Justin couldn’t dislike them any more than he already did. So, where the hell was she?
Chapter Seventeen
Nakia sat back in her office chair and rolled her neck to alleviate the tightness that had developed there over the eight hours she’d been sitting unmoving with dogged determination to finish the numerous tax returns within today’s deadline. She glanced at the clock on her computer and jumped out of the chair with a shout. Shit, she was late again!
Barely taking the time to turn off her laptop and stuff it into her computer bag, she grabbed her car keys and her handbag and barreled out of her office.
“Where’s the fire?” her partner and best friend from college, Mario, asked with a sly grin on his face.
“You’re a shitty friend, you know?” Nakia glared at him and didn’t bother to return his laugh because it was a running joke between them that Nakia was never on time for anything. Mario swore that if left to her, Nakia would be late to her own funeral. She wasn’t in the mood for her friend’s jokes tonight though. “The least you could’ve done was remind me of the time.”
Mario laughed harder. “I did you one better.” He finally sobered from his body-shaking, tears-leaking laughter.
“Yeah? What could you’ve done that would make up for your not reminding me to pick up my daughter?”
“Well, I am godfather and Uncle Mario,” he teased. “Count your lucky stars, chica.” He beaconed Nakia toward him and walked toward his office.
Nakia had no choice but to follow and then stopped at the threshold, not too surprised by the sight before her. Everything in her melted at the sight of her six-month-old chubby baby kicking her legs, waving her arms, and babbling some baby nonsense in obvious happiness at seeing her mother.
“How long has she been here?” Nakia crossed the room to kiss her baby. She wouldn’t put it past Mario to go pick up her baby from the house on some made-up errand that her nanny suddenly had. Mario was in love with his goddaughter and was sometimes over enthusiastic about his duties. It also might have something to do with him wanting a deeper relationship with Nakia as well. Even in college, Mario had never been shy about his love for her. Nakia knew that when she was in trouble that he’d drop everything to help her, and he had.
“What was I supposed to do? Ms. Wallace had a prayer meeting she couldn’t miss.” Mario tried to look innocent, but the effort was ruined by the numerous empty bottles and discarded diapers in the office bin. It was clear that baby Jayla had been at the office for hours, not the minutes that Nakia was late in relieving her nanny.
“And Ms. Wallace called you and not me?” She hugged her daughter to her chest. Justin might have her heart, but their daughter had her soul. She kissed Jayla’s rosy cheek and didn’t try to pull her hair from her daughter’s fist.
“Well, I might have gone to the house a little early and told Ms. Wallace to take the rest of the day off.”
“Mario! You can’t keep doing that.”
“But she’s so cute! And such a good baby. Besides, someday soon, we’ll be a family,” he finished hopefully.
“Mario, this kid is here with you more than she’s with Ms. Wallace. And I’ve already told you that I’m not ready to jump into another relationship. It’s not fair of me to give you that hope, because I might never be ready for that.”
“You and baby Jayla are worth the wait,” Mario cooed in a singsong baby voice while playing with Jayla’s toes. That only caused Jayla to kick her legs and wave her arms with more enthusiasm. The toothless baby gurgle encouraged Mario to make more silly faces at the baby.
Nakia sighed, knowing how fruitless it was to dissuade Mario from his belief that she’d suddenly wake up one morning and decide he was the love of her life. He’d had that hope for years. And it made her even more sick with disgust at herself for using him like this. Mario was a beautiful man, with long raven hair, olive skin, and light brown eyes. They were the same age, and he was several inches taller than she was. She knew that women chased him all the time, and he wasn’t shy about taking them up on their offers. He definitely wasn’t pining away waiting on her. Still, when it came to Nakia, he’d drop everything and everyone to put her needs first. It was the reason she worked so hard to not make him pay financially for loving someone like her. She knew her pitiful attempts at warning him that she’d never change her mind were not working. And why would they? Mario was always her go-to when things went south. He’d been there for her in college when she got a bad grade, and he helped her study to improve it. He had been there whenever she had fights with Ralph or her parents, reminding her that she was worthy of being loved despite their efforts to make her feel otherwise. He’d been there for all her bad moments for the past ten years.
And although Mario had always been there for her, she hadn’t turned to him when she ended up in the hospital from Ralph’s beating because Justin had been there, and she knew Mario would have confronted Ralph. Given his expertise with guns, she wasn’t going to take a chance that Mario wouldn’t have killed Ralph. No, her Puerto Rican friend had not been what she’d needed then. Besides, she’d been basking in Justin’s orbit and on a Justin binge. “I swear I won’t be surprised if you take her home with you next,” she teased, keeping her voice light, despite the dark thoughts in her head.
“If I wasn’t terrified you’d kick my ass, I probably would’ve done that by now.” He laughed.
“You’re terrible, and you’re not spoiling my kid!” Nakia started gathering Jayla’s baby bag, while Mario grabbed the baby seat and followed Nakia out to her SUV.
Once Jayla was strapped into her car seat and all the bags were packed in the car, Nakia walked over to her friend and hugged him. “You’re a crazy, infuriating friend, but I love you.”
“I love you too.” Mario wrapped his arms around her and returned her hug.
Nakia felt his body’s response to their hug against her stomach, but she chose to ignore it and ease out of his arms. “I’m getting the impression that you love Jayla more.” Nakia smiled, trying to pretend she wasn’t aware of Mario’s desire.
“Mi amor, dat ain’t no secret.” Mario trailed a finger down her cheek and looked at her with longing in his eyes.
They laughed at Mario’s lame joke and exaggerated accented.
Nakia was still smiling as she drove toward her house a few minutes later. She had no idea what she would’ve done if Mario hadn’t taken a chance with her a little over a year ago. It wasn’t too many people who wouldn’t bat an eye when a friend showed up on their doorstep asking for help to change their name; and then resign their secure job to go into a business venture fraught with uncertainty and very little start-up capital. Mario not only helped her to change her name, he helped her get her papers sorted in the Bahamas. It also seemed that their tax consultant service didn’t need that much capital, and they very quickly took advantage of the changing tax regime in the Bahamas to build up an impressive clientele in the time they’d been working together. They’d done well, and she was happy that Mario wasn’t suffering financially because of her poor choices. She’d never discussed Justin with him, even though he knew who Justin was. She couldn’t bring herself to talk about what happened, because then her present state without Justin would become all too real.