“Your family is there, at least most of them.”
“Adam and Kelly are here,” I reminded him.
“As long as we stay near DC, they’ll be free to call you in. I don’t know why Dempsey is being such an ass about it, but he can’t demand you come here from LA. If you relocate there, he’d have to travel to you, and then the meetings would be on our schedule.”
I took a moment to think. I relished the idea of sticking it to Dempsey; he was an ass. Mr. Covington made it sound sensible, and Luke still hadn’t returned a single one of my calls. “Okay. California.”
He opened the door and let Dempsey and the other three back into the interview room.
“I think you have enough information now to proceed with your cases,” he announced. “We are done for today. Ms. Benson and I will be returning to California this evening, and you can contact me if you would like to—”
“She can’t leave,” Dempsey interrupted. “We’re not done here.”
Mr. Covington gathered his papers and opened his briefcase. “I assure you, we are done here, and we are leaving DC this evening.” His tone didn’t leave room for disagreement.
Dempsey fumed, but the other lawyer’s quick hand to his arm kept him quiet.
I followed my lawyer out of the room. Finally, a victory for my sanity.
I pulled my phone out, took it off silent, and dialed Luke again.
The results were the same: it went to voicemail.
After the beep, I said it again, “Luke, please call me.”
Luke
“Something wrong with the food?” Nell asked.
I pushed my food around the plate some more. “No. It’s fine.”
“Waiting for Debbie?”
I huffed and shook my head. “That would be a long wait.”
Nell didn’t move away as she normally would. “Is she okay? I heard her folks got busted last week.”
It didn’t surprise me that Nell knew. It was a small town, and few people were as connected to the grapevine as Nell.
“It’s a long story.”
Nell shed her apron and looked left. “Julie, hold down the fort for a few.”
The young girl nodded.
Nell grabbed my plate. “Let’s take a booth.”
I liked the grub here, and didn’t feel like an argument. So I lifted my coffee and followed her down the counter. We took the farthest booth.
“I’ve got time,” she said as she slid in and put my plate down across from her.
I went through an explanation of how Debbie had been kidnapped as a child and hadn’t known about it until now, and how I’d briefly met her extended family.
“They’re richer than sin,” I explained.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Nell countered.
I didn’t argue. It wasn’t a sin in itself. “I had to let her go.”
Nell jerked back. “You what? Why?”
“It wouldn’t have worked.”
“Of course not, if you quit.” She straightened up. “Luke Carver, you’re dumber than a pile of rocks. She’s a good girl. I never took you for a quitter.”
“I’ve seen it before. I’m an ex-con. Her family would never accept that.”
She tapped the table with a finger. “It’s not up to them. It’s up to you two and nobody else.”
“It’s not that simple,” I protested.
“It sure as shit is.” She stood. “And here I told her you were someone she could count on.” She walked off, and I heard her mumble under her breath. “I sure had that wrong.”
For once I wished my hearing wasn’t as good as it was. After throwing enough bills on the table to handle the tab, I got up and left. I’d have to find a place that doled out food without advice.
Chapter 44
(One week later)
Debbie
I’d been in California for a week now, but it still didn’t feel much like home.
“Don’t be nervous,” Uncle Lloyd said as his driver opened the door of the town car for me.
I climbed out. “Thank you, Jerry.”
The driver tipped his hat. “Miss Deborah.”
He wouldn’t call me Debbie either.
Uncle Lloyd exited after me. “Well, here we are, your new workplace—as soon as you pick a department, that is.”
Josh let himself out of the front passenger seat, and I thought I caught a hint of an eye roll.
I smoothed down the skirt of my business suit, one of five Serena had helped me pick out yesterday. Skirts every day weren’t my thing, and especially not a pencil skirt like this one. It was cute in the mirror, but a bitch to walk in. The heels didn’t help either, but she’d assured me looking the part was half the battle.
Give me pants any day of the week. Guys didn’t realize how good they had it with practical footwear and attire—except maybe the ties.
The mammoth building I looked up at was a glass-and-steel structure easily ten times the size of any building I’d ever been close to. I’d seen pictures of skyscrapers in New York, but being next to something like this was completely different.
Uncle Lloyd extended his arm toward the glass front doors. “This way.”
Josh hung back with me and whispered, “Big, huh?”
I nodded as we followed Uncle Lloyd.
The name over the doors read Benson Corporation in large, gold letters as tall and wide as our entire Minimart back home.
“Your company takes up the whole building?” I asked.
“Our company,” Josh corrected me. “And not quite. We’re leasing out the bottom six floors until we need them for expansion.”
“And I’m sure you’ll see to that soon,” Uncle Lloyd said to Josh.
I followed them through the lobby, past the Starbucks and restaurant inside, to the bank of elevators.
We caught an open car a few seconds later.
The elevator doors closed. Uncle Lloyd punched the button for the seventeenth floor, and we started up. “Josh is in my old office now.” He elbowed Josh. “Getting used to it?”
“Slowly,” Josh answered.
My uncle glanced over. “Have you given any thought to which department you’d like to start in?”
I’d studiously avoided thinking about it. “Not really.”
“No pressure,” Josh said.
“Take your time to get it right,” Uncle Lloyd added. “But, we can help that along this morning by giving you a feel for some of them.”
He’d decided I would be working in the family company, and it hadn’t seemed like a topic open for discussion, or one Josh wanted to challenge.
I’d learned that Josh had recently been given the title of CEO, but his father had decided he needed to stick around for a while to “show Josh the ropes.”
Luke
“Luke, please call me,” the voicemail said again.
I knew only pain and heartbreak would result. I clicked off the phone, put it down on the center island, and went to the fridge. “Want anything?”
My sister got up out of her chair. “A diet if you have one.”