Good elf gone wrong a ho.., p.33
Good Elf Gone Wrong: A Holiday Romantic Comedy, page 33
“This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”
Yes, it was. Remember? This is literally what you paid him to do.
Maybe Hudson was doing the nasty with Kelly because he was sorry for flaking earlier, I told myself, and he was going to come back to me later like at the end of a Hallmark movie and sweep me up in his arms, saying that he really did love me and he wanted to be my real boyfriend.
Yes, that was absolutely what was happening.
Christmas delusions are back on the menu, boys!
“Hudson, I thought you loved me,” I wailed, really giving my all for the performance. Yes, I’d played a donkey in the church nativity pageant when I was a kid, and it was quite the showstopper.
“I’m having your baby,” I sobbed. “How could you sleep with my sister?”
“How could he not?” Kelly was triumphant. “Look at you. You don’t belong with a man like him.”
“Gracie,” Hudson said, pushing Kelly off. “Please.”
“Kelly?” James demanded, shoving me aside. “What is the meaning of this? Hudson, were you having your way with my fiancée? Call the police.”
Astelle smacked James on the side of the head.
“Ow!” He grabbed his head.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Grandma Astelle thundered. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. You asked for it as soon as you proposed to her.”
“Mazel tov, Astelle,” Granny Murray said and raised her glass of vodka. “Broken clock is right twice a day after all.”
“James, honestly.” Kelly sauntered over to him, like she was wearing a full-coverage evening gown and not thong panties and her hair extensions. “Hudson’s the type of guy a girl hooks up with. I didn’t mean to fall in his arms. It’s the pregnancy hormones.”
I tried to contain my excitement as I waited for him to go for the kill, total annihilation, nuclear revenge, blow up the marriage and take James down.
But he didn’t lay into anyone. Instead, he bowed his head and wouldn’t look at me. “I’m so sorry, Gracie,” he said quietly. “I better go.”
“Hudson?”
Head still bowed, he walked quickly to the front door, through the crowd of my family, none of whom had wanted to stay at the country club when family drama was afoot.
The front door slammed behind him.
“Can’t we all just go back to the rehearsal dinner?” my mother begged. “There’s salmon.”
“You’re just going to sweep it under the rug?” James spat.
“Don’t act like this is the first time you met my mother,” I said, under my breath.
“It was a mistake, James. We didn’t even do anything,” Kelly purred.
James was wavering.
After weeks of planning a big, grand nuclear revenge, this was what I got. Three thousand dollars down the fucking drain. Fuck Hudson.
Fine. I’ll do it myself.
“Are you seriously going to take her back?” I asked James, lacing a decade’s worth of pent-up venom in my voice.
He jerked back.
“Are you seriously going to roll over and let her whip you? Let her drain your bank account, nag you in your own home, all while you know without a shadow of a doubt that she’s bringing back men to fuck in your house? It’s embarrassing how little self-respect you have. Hudson was right when he said you weren’t a real man. We all literally heard her tell Hudson that she wasn’t pregnant. And you still want her back?”
“Shut up, Gracie. I love you, James,” Kelly begged. “I am pregnant.”
“She’s not,” Connie called. “I heard it too.”
“Kelly doesn’t love anyone other than herself. Why? Because my parents enable her. She can do no wrong. She has and always will be treated as the baby of the family and allowed to get away with anything. So congratulations, Mom and Dad.” I applauded. “You raised a woman who has no problem cheating on her fiancé two days before her wedding and lying about a pregnancy.”
My voice rose, carrying through the house.
“You all have belittled me, berated me, used me, treated me like shit, ignored my mental health and sanity in favor of Kelly. I have put up with it way longer than I should have. James, I recommend that you learn from my mistakes and dump Kelly out in the cold.”
“She’s just jealous, baby,” Kelly cried to James. “Mom, make her stop.”
“Gracie, why are you acting like this?” my mother demanded.
I turned on her. “Because I’m tired of you treating me like my feelings and desires don’t matter.”
“You didn’t have to go get pregnant out of wedlock from some boy from the wrong side of town to make your point,” my mother snapped.
I drew myself up. “Hudson is not some boy. He is a grown, adult man, military veteran, and landowner. He works harder than anyone else in this family, and yes, I see all of you listed on payroll, yet never see you in the office,” I told my cousins and extended family, who all looked around shifty-eyed.
“Be that as it may, Hudson is still an absentee father,” my dad said with a frown. “At least James is here.”
“You know what, James?” I threw up my hands. “Marry Kelly at your own peril. That?” I pointed to my mom. “Is your future and your kids’ future. Good fucking luck. I’m not taking this anymore. I’m out.”
Then James said, “I’m out too. The wedding is canceled.”
“No!” Kelly cried, grabbing James’s shirt.
“Boo. I wanted cake,” Logan hollered.
I picked up Pugnog.
“Gracie, this isn’t like you. Gracie, come back,” my mom demanded, racing after me.
“No. It looks like there’s a room free at the cute little boutique hotel downtown. I’m staying there tonight.”
Granny Murray whooped and pumped her fist.
“You see?” Astelle berated my father. “I told you not to marry that Bethany. Look at the state of your children.”
“Astelle,” my mother shrieked, “there is nothing wrong with my children.”
“Eh?” Granny Murray waved her vodka glass. “Two out of three ain’t bad odds.”
I felt like a queen as I walked out of the house, head held high.
My feet crunched in the snow on the walkway.
If only Hudson would roll up on his motorcycle and we’d ride off into the—well, not sunset, it was pitch-black—but into the snowy winter night.
Instead, there was James, his hand on my lower back.
“You were amazing back there,” he gushed to me. “I wish you’d never given up on us, Gracie. It was heartbreak that pushed me back to your sister. Can you please forgive me, muffin?”
It was the pet name I hated.
“James,” I said as he smiled at me, smug.
“Yes, darling?”
“Fuck off.”
“Hudson ran off because he felt guilty,” I told Pugnog when we were in the cozy hotel room.
I’d stopped at the country club first and asked the caterers very sweetly if I could make a to-go plate. They’d packed up a box of food for me and included a bottle of champagne and, of course, desserts. I’d planned that rehearsal dinner, goddamn it, and I had earned this food.
I’d done it! All—well, mostly all—by myself. I had stood up to James and my parents and my sister.
Some celebratory sex sure would be nice right about now.
I broke the rules and texted him.
Gracie: The wedding is off!
Gracie: Whoo!
Gracie: I have food and champagne.
I sighed as I waited for a reply.
… and waited.
Finally, I broke down and called him.
No response.
I rolled over on the bed, drawing the fluffy robe around me.
Gracie: No hard feelings on my part BTW.
Gracie: Take no prisoners, right?
I ate a bite of the cake. Why not eat dessert with dinner?
I flipped through the TV channels, hearing phantom pings from my phone. Hudson had to respond, right?
Maybe he was driving.
Maybe he thought I was upset.
Maybe he was with someone else.
No way. He was trying there at the end to ruin my sister’s wedding, to try to help me, because he promised.
He wouldn’t just disappear. I think he cares about me.
I’m sure he cares about me.
Fuck it.
Gracie: Will this make you come see me?
I pulled back the robe, exposing my tits, and snapped a few photos and sent them to Hudson’s number.
Then I sat on the bed and waited for him to respond.
50
HUDSON
Should I show up to a dangerous billionaire’s house in the middle of the night?
Probably not.
But fuck it. Fuck everything.
I pounded on the front door of the penthouse.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, coming here? You should have called me and told me to meet you somewhere more discreet,” Grayson said when he opened the door.
“Why? You got some Rockette here?” I snapped at Grayson. “Throwing a rager?”
He shut the door behind me.
I’d been in his home before, though ‘home’ was probably inaccurate. Grayson Richmond lived in a sterile museum. There was hardly any furniture and none of the little homey touches like Gracie would have included.
Grayson’s cold green eyes focused on the books in my hands.
“Follow me.”
We headed through the dark, empty penthouse—no knickknacks, no pictures, no personal items.
This man has no soul.
Once in the study, I shoved aside the paperwork he’d been occupied with and slammed the books down on the desk.
“Looks who’s back on my good list.”
Fuck him.
I would never forget Gracie’s horror when she saw me with her sister, her shock as she stared at me as I walked out on her. I had to watch her heart break, and I couldn’t even go to her when she begged me to all because of Grayson, because of this job.
He opened a notebook at random and made an appreciative noise.
“They’re all like this,” I told him as he flipped through the book. “Even a single page could bury EnerCheck Inc. And all the books together? It’s a goldmine.”
“She even time-stamped many entries. She also notes when the incident happened and when she wrote it down. You could use these as court evidence, they’re so watertight.” He whistled, a surprisingly casual move for him. He must be surprised.
“I told you, people underestimate her,” I said, feeling proud of Gracie. It was hard to earn the respect of a man like Grayson. She’d done it without even officially meeting him.
“You really did deliver,” Grayson said, green eyes glittering in the lamplight. “Now I need you to find some way of laundering this. Can you cross-reference her—”
“Already got you covered,” I said. “You could just post all these on Facebook tonight if you wanted. If you have any concerns about the legality of it, well, a company whistleblower clued me in to them. Kelly’s the one who told me about the books. She’ll testify to it, I would bet, just to fuck over her sister.”
“Huh,” Grayson said, crossing his arms and leaning on his desk. “Her own sister? You sure?”
My heart clenched, remembering the text messages from Gracie I’d scanned in the elevator.
“Gracie blew up her marriage and made Kelly look like a fool in front of her entire family after she got caught kissing Santa Claus under the mistletoe.”
“Sounds like you got both jobs finished just in time to be home for Christmas,” Grayson said, deadpan.
“Fuck you. I don’t care if you fire me, but fuck you.”
“I’m not going to fire you. You’re incredibly valuable to me.” He stepped around his desk, sat down, and pulled out a checkbook. It wasn’t the kind my mother used to use to write bad checks. This was the type with the big fancy checks and was a literally the size of a book.
Grayson opened the checkbook and pulled out a fountain pen that probably cost more than the truck I’d driven there in. The nib scratched on the expensive paper.
My phone buzzed again. It was her. I knew it.
After a mission, I destroyed my phones. I would have to do it tonight. Gracie would be out of my life forever.
Grayson handed me the check. “Merry Christmas. There’s some extra in there since you went above and beyond. The whistleblower protection was a nice touch.”
I felt dirty taking it.
This was what it was all for? I’d ruined Gracie’s life for a piece of paper?
She was happy right now, but that was because she didn’t know that Grayson Richmond had her in his sights. He was just waiting to pull the trigger.
I threw the keys to the truck on Grayson’s desk.
“Thank you for your business.”
My phone buzzed again.
“I’d get you a drink, but it sounds like you’re busy.” He nodded to the pocket with my phone.
“Probably my brothers,” I lied.
Grayson gave me an assessing look.
“They’re messaging your burner phone?”
I scowled at him and turned on my heel.
“Truck’s parked in the public deck three blocks down. Oh, and one more free bit of advice,” I said over my shoulder, “since it is Christmas.”
“Yes, I suppose it almost is.”
“You should consider hiring Gracie.”
“Why, because if I don’t, you will?”
“No,” I said bitterly. “She’s too dangerous to have around. She’s going to figure out that I screwed her. She’s too clever not to eventually figure it out. Then I’ll have a weapon at my back. She has a hard-on for elaborate revenge schemes, you see.”
“Why would I want her in my company if she’s a ticking time bomb?”
“Because you’re a billionaire. You can handle the risk better than I can.”
“You feel guilty.”
“I don’t,” I lied.
Grayson smirked. “It appears as if the cold-blooded mercenary grew a heart this Christmas. How sweet. I’ll see you in the new year, Hudson.”
“Yeah, sure.”
I sat there in my office drinking, just so I wouldn’t have an excuse to drive.
I looked at the picture blearily—her pretty mouth, her huge tits. In the photo, Gracie was lying back on the bed, her fingers down between her legs.
“She’s not mad at you. You could go to her, be there in three and a half hours, three if you really pushed the bike.”
I took another long swig from the bottle.
“You shouldn’t,” I reminded myself. “You’re tired and stressed out. Ignore it. Ignore her.”
There would be no happily ever after because this was about to blow the fuck up.
I stared at the photo again.
Another text message came from her.
Gracie: Are you ok?
No, Gracie, I am not okay.
Gracie: I can kiss it and make it better.
Elsa knocked on the doorframe of my office.
“Delivery from Santa’s workshop.”
Elsa set the shadow box with the bits of bridal lace, Gracie’s great-grandmother’s photo, a couple of little miniature items like a small dressmaker’s doll, and a small handwritten note with the great-grandmother’s name and what the items were from and the year. There were also a few other photos of Gracie’s great-grandmother’s wedding and engagement.
“Where’d you get that photo?” I asked, pointing to one in the corner. It showed two figures silhouetted by the light of a fire, the man holding Gracie’s’ great-grandmother’s hand.
“The proposal photo? It was on Gracie’s hard drive. I snagged it before Lawrence destroyed the evidence.”
“Man, old-timey people really had it good, didn’t they?” I took a swig from the bottle. “Chill by the fire, get a wife. That guy didn’t even have to get on one knee.”
“I think it’s a sweet photo,” Elsa said, poking at me.
“Thanks, Elsa.” She took the shadow box back and rolled out some wrapping paper on my desk.
“Demarcus made tres leches cake, if you want something to soak up that booze,” she offered as she expertly wrapped the present, a skill she’d learned from all her holiday retail jobs.
“Maybe.”
My phone beeped again after Elsa had rejoined the party.
Gracie: I miss you.
There was only so much a man could take.
Fuck. I needed to be with her.
I hauled myself up off the couch.
“Where you heading, boss? We’re having a Christmas party!” Talbot called to me.
“Whoo! Look at that bonus!” Jake was dancing on the table with Grayson’s check.
“Give me that check before you ruin it,” Anderson said, taking it from Jake. “I’m putting this in the safe. We need to deposit it first thing, Hudson. Hudson?”
I was slowly dragging myself to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“The bus station.”
51
GRACIE
The street in front of my parents’ house was a parking lot when I walked up the next afternoon. The snowstorm had cleared out, and the sky was a crisp blue. The sunlight reflecting off the white snow was blindingly bright.
I grimaced as I headed up the walkway, bracing myself for nosy relatives. Everyone must want to know the latest gossip on Kelly and well, me, for that matter.
Pugnog snorted in his baby carrier as I let myself in through the front door.
“Roscoe Energy Solutions is here!” Dakota said, freaking out as she raced over to me.
“Here? Why? How?” I said in confusion.
“Didn’t you see the news?”
“No.” I had fallen asleep in a champagne-and-cake-induced stupor and only woke up when the cleaning lady demanded she be allowed inside for my dirty towels. Now I was ready for my afternoon snack and another nap.
Yes, it was. Remember? This is literally what you paid him to do.
Maybe Hudson was doing the nasty with Kelly because he was sorry for flaking earlier, I told myself, and he was going to come back to me later like at the end of a Hallmark movie and sweep me up in his arms, saying that he really did love me and he wanted to be my real boyfriend.
Yes, that was absolutely what was happening.
Christmas delusions are back on the menu, boys!
“Hudson, I thought you loved me,” I wailed, really giving my all for the performance. Yes, I’d played a donkey in the church nativity pageant when I was a kid, and it was quite the showstopper.
“I’m having your baby,” I sobbed. “How could you sleep with my sister?”
“How could he not?” Kelly was triumphant. “Look at you. You don’t belong with a man like him.”
“Gracie,” Hudson said, pushing Kelly off. “Please.”
“Kelly?” James demanded, shoving me aside. “What is the meaning of this? Hudson, were you having your way with my fiancée? Call the police.”
Astelle smacked James on the side of the head.
“Ow!” He grabbed his head.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Grandma Astelle thundered. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. You asked for it as soon as you proposed to her.”
“Mazel tov, Astelle,” Granny Murray said and raised her glass of vodka. “Broken clock is right twice a day after all.”
“James, honestly.” Kelly sauntered over to him, like she was wearing a full-coverage evening gown and not thong panties and her hair extensions. “Hudson’s the type of guy a girl hooks up with. I didn’t mean to fall in his arms. It’s the pregnancy hormones.”
I tried to contain my excitement as I waited for him to go for the kill, total annihilation, nuclear revenge, blow up the marriage and take James down.
But he didn’t lay into anyone. Instead, he bowed his head and wouldn’t look at me. “I’m so sorry, Gracie,” he said quietly. “I better go.”
“Hudson?”
Head still bowed, he walked quickly to the front door, through the crowd of my family, none of whom had wanted to stay at the country club when family drama was afoot.
The front door slammed behind him.
“Can’t we all just go back to the rehearsal dinner?” my mother begged. “There’s salmon.”
“You’re just going to sweep it under the rug?” James spat.
“Don’t act like this is the first time you met my mother,” I said, under my breath.
“It was a mistake, James. We didn’t even do anything,” Kelly purred.
James was wavering.
After weeks of planning a big, grand nuclear revenge, this was what I got. Three thousand dollars down the fucking drain. Fuck Hudson.
Fine. I’ll do it myself.
“Are you seriously going to take her back?” I asked James, lacing a decade’s worth of pent-up venom in my voice.
He jerked back.
“Are you seriously going to roll over and let her whip you? Let her drain your bank account, nag you in your own home, all while you know without a shadow of a doubt that she’s bringing back men to fuck in your house? It’s embarrassing how little self-respect you have. Hudson was right when he said you weren’t a real man. We all literally heard her tell Hudson that she wasn’t pregnant. And you still want her back?”
“Shut up, Gracie. I love you, James,” Kelly begged. “I am pregnant.”
“She’s not,” Connie called. “I heard it too.”
“Kelly doesn’t love anyone other than herself. Why? Because my parents enable her. She can do no wrong. She has and always will be treated as the baby of the family and allowed to get away with anything. So congratulations, Mom and Dad.” I applauded. “You raised a woman who has no problem cheating on her fiancé two days before her wedding and lying about a pregnancy.”
My voice rose, carrying through the house.
“You all have belittled me, berated me, used me, treated me like shit, ignored my mental health and sanity in favor of Kelly. I have put up with it way longer than I should have. James, I recommend that you learn from my mistakes and dump Kelly out in the cold.”
“She’s just jealous, baby,” Kelly cried to James. “Mom, make her stop.”
“Gracie, why are you acting like this?” my mother demanded.
I turned on her. “Because I’m tired of you treating me like my feelings and desires don’t matter.”
“You didn’t have to go get pregnant out of wedlock from some boy from the wrong side of town to make your point,” my mother snapped.
I drew myself up. “Hudson is not some boy. He is a grown, adult man, military veteran, and landowner. He works harder than anyone else in this family, and yes, I see all of you listed on payroll, yet never see you in the office,” I told my cousins and extended family, who all looked around shifty-eyed.
“Be that as it may, Hudson is still an absentee father,” my dad said with a frown. “At least James is here.”
“You know what, James?” I threw up my hands. “Marry Kelly at your own peril. That?” I pointed to my mom. “Is your future and your kids’ future. Good fucking luck. I’m not taking this anymore. I’m out.”
Then James said, “I’m out too. The wedding is canceled.”
“No!” Kelly cried, grabbing James’s shirt.
“Boo. I wanted cake,” Logan hollered.
I picked up Pugnog.
“Gracie, this isn’t like you. Gracie, come back,” my mom demanded, racing after me.
“No. It looks like there’s a room free at the cute little boutique hotel downtown. I’m staying there tonight.”
Granny Murray whooped and pumped her fist.
“You see?” Astelle berated my father. “I told you not to marry that Bethany. Look at the state of your children.”
“Astelle,” my mother shrieked, “there is nothing wrong with my children.”
“Eh?” Granny Murray waved her vodka glass. “Two out of three ain’t bad odds.”
I felt like a queen as I walked out of the house, head held high.
My feet crunched in the snow on the walkway.
If only Hudson would roll up on his motorcycle and we’d ride off into the—well, not sunset, it was pitch-black—but into the snowy winter night.
Instead, there was James, his hand on my lower back.
“You were amazing back there,” he gushed to me. “I wish you’d never given up on us, Gracie. It was heartbreak that pushed me back to your sister. Can you please forgive me, muffin?”
It was the pet name I hated.
“James,” I said as he smiled at me, smug.
“Yes, darling?”
“Fuck off.”
“Hudson ran off because he felt guilty,” I told Pugnog when we were in the cozy hotel room.
I’d stopped at the country club first and asked the caterers very sweetly if I could make a to-go plate. They’d packed up a box of food for me and included a bottle of champagne and, of course, desserts. I’d planned that rehearsal dinner, goddamn it, and I had earned this food.
I’d done it! All—well, mostly all—by myself. I had stood up to James and my parents and my sister.
Some celebratory sex sure would be nice right about now.
I broke the rules and texted him.
Gracie: The wedding is off!
Gracie: Whoo!
Gracie: I have food and champagne.
I sighed as I waited for a reply.
… and waited.
Finally, I broke down and called him.
No response.
I rolled over on the bed, drawing the fluffy robe around me.
Gracie: No hard feelings on my part BTW.
Gracie: Take no prisoners, right?
I ate a bite of the cake. Why not eat dessert with dinner?
I flipped through the TV channels, hearing phantom pings from my phone. Hudson had to respond, right?
Maybe he was driving.
Maybe he thought I was upset.
Maybe he was with someone else.
No way. He was trying there at the end to ruin my sister’s wedding, to try to help me, because he promised.
He wouldn’t just disappear. I think he cares about me.
I’m sure he cares about me.
Fuck it.
Gracie: Will this make you come see me?
I pulled back the robe, exposing my tits, and snapped a few photos and sent them to Hudson’s number.
Then I sat on the bed and waited for him to respond.
50
HUDSON
Should I show up to a dangerous billionaire’s house in the middle of the night?
Probably not.
But fuck it. Fuck everything.
I pounded on the front door of the penthouse.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, coming here? You should have called me and told me to meet you somewhere more discreet,” Grayson said when he opened the door.
“Why? You got some Rockette here?” I snapped at Grayson. “Throwing a rager?”
He shut the door behind me.
I’d been in his home before, though ‘home’ was probably inaccurate. Grayson Richmond lived in a sterile museum. There was hardly any furniture and none of the little homey touches like Gracie would have included.
Grayson’s cold green eyes focused on the books in my hands.
“Follow me.”
We headed through the dark, empty penthouse—no knickknacks, no pictures, no personal items.
This man has no soul.
Once in the study, I shoved aside the paperwork he’d been occupied with and slammed the books down on the desk.
“Looks who’s back on my good list.”
Fuck him.
I would never forget Gracie’s horror when she saw me with her sister, her shock as she stared at me as I walked out on her. I had to watch her heart break, and I couldn’t even go to her when she begged me to all because of Grayson, because of this job.
He opened a notebook at random and made an appreciative noise.
“They’re all like this,” I told him as he flipped through the book. “Even a single page could bury EnerCheck Inc. And all the books together? It’s a goldmine.”
“She even time-stamped many entries. She also notes when the incident happened and when she wrote it down. You could use these as court evidence, they’re so watertight.” He whistled, a surprisingly casual move for him. He must be surprised.
“I told you, people underestimate her,” I said, feeling proud of Gracie. It was hard to earn the respect of a man like Grayson. She’d done it without even officially meeting him.
“You really did deliver,” Grayson said, green eyes glittering in the lamplight. “Now I need you to find some way of laundering this. Can you cross-reference her—”
“Already got you covered,” I said. “You could just post all these on Facebook tonight if you wanted. If you have any concerns about the legality of it, well, a company whistleblower clued me in to them. Kelly’s the one who told me about the books. She’ll testify to it, I would bet, just to fuck over her sister.”
“Huh,” Grayson said, crossing his arms and leaning on his desk. “Her own sister? You sure?”
My heart clenched, remembering the text messages from Gracie I’d scanned in the elevator.
“Gracie blew up her marriage and made Kelly look like a fool in front of her entire family after she got caught kissing Santa Claus under the mistletoe.”
“Sounds like you got both jobs finished just in time to be home for Christmas,” Grayson said, deadpan.
“Fuck you. I don’t care if you fire me, but fuck you.”
“I’m not going to fire you. You’re incredibly valuable to me.” He stepped around his desk, sat down, and pulled out a checkbook. It wasn’t the kind my mother used to use to write bad checks. This was the type with the big fancy checks and was a literally the size of a book.
Grayson opened the checkbook and pulled out a fountain pen that probably cost more than the truck I’d driven there in. The nib scratched on the expensive paper.
My phone buzzed again. It was her. I knew it.
After a mission, I destroyed my phones. I would have to do it tonight. Gracie would be out of my life forever.
Grayson handed me the check. “Merry Christmas. There’s some extra in there since you went above and beyond. The whistleblower protection was a nice touch.”
I felt dirty taking it.
This was what it was all for? I’d ruined Gracie’s life for a piece of paper?
She was happy right now, but that was because she didn’t know that Grayson Richmond had her in his sights. He was just waiting to pull the trigger.
I threw the keys to the truck on Grayson’s desk.
“Thank you for your business.”
My phone buzzed again.
“I’d get you a drink, but it sounds like you’re busy.” He nodded to the pocket with my phone.
“Probably my brothers,” I lied.
Grayson gave me an assessing look.
“They’re messaging your burner phone?”
I scowled at him and turned on my heel.
“Truck’s parked in the public deck three blocks down. Oh, and one more free bit of advice,” I said over my shoulder, “since it is Christmas.”
“Yes, I suppose it almost is.”
“You should consider hiring Gracie.”
“Why, because if I don’t, you will?”
“No,” I said bitterly. “She’s too dangerous to have around. She’s going to figure out that I screwed her. She’s too clever not to eventually figure it out. Then I’ll have a weapon at my back. She has a hard-on for elaborate revenge schemes, you see.”
“Why would I want her in my company if she’s a ticking time bomb?”
“Because you’re a billionaire. You can handle the risk better than I can.”
“You feel guilty.”
“I don’t,” I lied.
Grayson smirked. “It appears as if the cold-blooded mercenary grew a heart this Christmas. How sweet. I’ll see you in the new year, Hudson.”
“Yeah, sure.”
I sat there in my office drinking, just so I wouldn’t have an excuse to drive.
I looked at the picture blearily—her pretty mouth, her huge tits. In the photo, Gracie was lying back on the bed, her fingers down between her legs.
“She’s not mad at you. You could go to her, be there in three and a half hours, three if you really pushed the bike.”
I took another long swig from the bottle.
“You shouldn’t,” I reminded myself. “You’re tired and stressed out. Ignore it. Ignore her.”
There would be no happily ever after because this was about to blow the fuck up.
I stared at the photo again.
Another text message came from her.
Gracie: Are you ok?
No, Gracie, I am not okay.
Gracie: I can kiss it and make it better.
Elsa knocked on the doorframe of my office.
“Delivery from Santa’s workshop.”
Elsa set the shadow box with the bits of bridal lace, Gracie’s great-grandmother’s photo, a couple of little miniature items like a small dressmaker’s doll, and a small handwritten note with the great-grandmother’s name and what the items were from and the year. There were also a few other photos of Gracie’s great-grandmother’s wedding and engagement.
“Where’d you get that photo?” I asked, pointing to one in the corner. It showed two figures silhouetted by the light of a fire, the man holding Gracie’s’ great-grandmother’s hand.
“The proposal photo? It was on Gracie’s hard drive. I snagged it before Lawrence destroyed the evidence.”
“Man, old-timey people really had it good, didn’t they?” I took a swig from the bottle. “Chill by the fire, get a wife. That guy didn’t even have to get on one knee.”
“I think it’s a sweet photo,” Elsa said, poking at me.
“Thanks, Elsa.” She took the shadow box back and rolled out some wrapping paper on my desk.
“Demarcus made tres leches cake, if you want something to soak up that booze,” she offered as she expertly wrapped the present, a skill she’d learned from all her holiday retail jobs.
“Maybe.”
My phone beeped again after Elsa had rejoined the party.
Gracie: I miss you.
There was only so much a man could take.
Fuck. I needed to be with her.
I hauled myself up off the couch.
“Where you heading, boss? We’re having a Christmas party!” Talbot called to me.
“Whoo! Look at that bonus!” Jake was dancing on the table with Grayson’s check.
“Give me that check before you ruin it,” Anderson said, taking it from Jake. “I’m putting this in the safe. We need to deposit it first thing, Hudson. Hudson?”
I was slowly dragging myself to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“The bus station.”
51
GRACIE
The street in front of my parents’ house was a parking lot when I walked up the next afternoon. The snowstorm had cleared out, and the sky was a crisp blue. The sunlight reflecting off the white snow was blindingly bright.
I grimaced as I headed up the walkway, bracing myself for nosy relatives. Everyone must want to know the latest gossip on Kelly and well, me, for that matter.
Pugnog snorted in his baby carrier as I let myself in through the front door.
“Roscoe Energy Solutions is here!” Dakota said, freaking out as she raced over to me.
“Here? Why? How?” I said in confusion.
“Didn’t you see the news?”
“No.” I had fallen asleep in a champagne-and-cake-induced stupor and only woke up when the cleaning lady demanded she be allowed inside for my dirty towels. Now I was ready for my afternoon snack and another nap.
