Chapter Seven

“How was your night?” I asked, closing his office door. He hadn’t texted me at all this morning, so I knew it had probably been a late night.

“It was actually really good! Nichole stayed late, and we got ahead of the workload for once in a very, very long time.” Dean beamed. “And we grabbed a quick bite at that place down the street, that one I’ve been meaning to take you to. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach.

“Oh, that um … sounds really fun.” I swallowed dryly. I should have put up more of a fight to stay and should have been the one he went to the restaurant with, not Nichole.

“What’s wrong? You look upset?” Dean looked worried, and I cleared my throat.

“Nothing. I’m glad you two had a nice date—err, night.” It came out snide, and I didn’t bother trying to stop it. Turning on my heel, I headed out of his office without another word. I’d felt so bad about leaving last night, I’d felt guilty, but apparently he didn’t mind. Apparently, he had a blast with Nichole.

My blood boiled as I thought about her. There was no way she wasn’t trying to step in on my boyfriend, and I didn’t take that kindly.

“Hey!” I almost froze as Nichole waved at me and wanted nothing more than to go over there and knock her out. I wanted nothing more than to ruin that pretty little outfit of hers, with the Gucci label and her Prada purse. I took a deep breath and forced myself to step past her.

Storming into the bar area, I found Melina working. She looked up. “What did he do now?”

“He went on a date,” I snapped.

“He what?” Melina stared at me with wide eyes.

“Oh yea, him and Nichole went out to dinner last night. Cute, isn’t it?” I snapped. I couldn’t fucking believe it and blew out a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I closed my eyes. In and out. In and out, just like I’d learned in therapy. I was going to calm down, and then go in there and have a rational conversation with Dean about this.

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Melina asked.

“No. I’ll talk to him; I just need to calm down. Otherwise, I’m going to bash that bitch’s brains in.”

Melina snorted. “I got in touch with that guy I was telling you about and asked for a rush job … I don’t trust her and want to get this all out of the way as soon as we can. He said he should be able to contact me tonight with some basics. Then we can discuss if we want him to dig deeper or not.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll text you as soon as I hear from him.”

“I know.” I gave Melina a smile. To think, I’d been jealous of her less than two weeks ago; it’s amazing how fast your emotions for someone can change. I pulled her into a quick hug. “You’re a good friend. But if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go try and talk to Dean.”

“Good luck!” she called after me as I marched back to Dean’s office. By now, most of the girls were here for work. A couple of them gave me a smile; none of them I’d ever worked with or even knew of, but I smiled back anyways and hoped they wouldn’t know I had no fucking clue who they were.

I knocked twice on Dean’s door before opening it.

Dean and Nichole stared at me with wide eyes. I swallowed dryly, resisting the urge to bash her brains in, and forced a smile over my lips. “I’m sorry; are you two busy?” I raised an eyebrow.

“No,” Dean snapped. “Come on in; what’s up?”

For a split second, I didn’t think Nichole was going to leave. I licked, trying to restore moisture to my lips as I strode into the room and cleared my throat. Finally, Nichole headed for the door, leaving Dean and me alone.

“So ...” He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want?”

“To say I’m sorry.” Oh, that is so not what I wanted, but if I had some other girl moving in on my boyfriend, I wasn’t going to give her any help. I was going to patch things up with him. “I just … it really hurt that you took her out to dinner, and … and it feels like you were eager to get me out of the building last night so when you said that … I just … it hurt.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at him because it was the truth. I was hurt by what he’d done.

“And you don’t think I’m hurt? Don’t you trust me at all?”

“I do …” I whispered. “I … I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright; why don’t you stay with us tonight? You really should get to know her; you might like her better if you got to know her.” Dean cleared his throat. “And you, uh, might think she’s not trying to sleep with me if you get to know her.”

My brow furrowed. Was it just me or was he avoiding my eye? I smiled and nodded. “Alright, I’ll stay late tonight. And I can get to know her better. But just for the record, I’m staying late to spend time with you, not to spend time with her.” I closed the distance between us and gave him a quick kiss.

“I love you.”

His words took me off guard. I knew they shouldn’t, but they did. I stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds.

“I love you too.” And I meant it! I really did love him.

*

Everyone had long since gone home; well, of course, Dean and I were still here—and, of course, Nichole was. She seemed more than eager to spend any time with Dean that she could. I kept a close eye on her as we went over some of the projects we’d be working on soon, and she took notes. I did notice she touched him a couple times; the first time I tried to write it off, after all he was just handing her a pen, but the more it happened, the harder it was. A couple times, I could have sworn I caught her staring at me—almost challenging me to step up and say something. I didn’t.

It took everything I had, but I didn’t. I was tempted to leave after two hours, just to see if she would try to make a move on him, but I couldn’t; I didn’t want Dean to have something to hold against me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, letting me know I had a text. I reached for it as fast as I could.

You want to know her details? PI contacted us. He knows what her deal is.

I stared down at the phone with wide eyes. I had to get out of here without Dean questioning it too much. Damnit. I bit my lower lip. “I um, I have to go.” I stood, hoping he wouldn’t ask me why.

“Why? What’s going on?”

I closed my eyes, wishing I’d left faster. Not that I really could have just ran out of the building.

Nichole looked up at me, waiting for my answer. I felt the blush rise to my cheeks as I tried to think of a reason for having to leave. I stared down at my phone and held it up to them.

“Uh, Katie. She’s going through some stuff with some guy that she’s been seeing. She needs girl time.”

“Alright, will I see you tonight?” It sounded a little hostile to me, but I didn’t say anything about it. I just smiled.

“Do you want to come over tonight?”

“Sure.”

“Then I’ll see you later.” Because you know ‘sure’ was what every girl wanted to hear. I frowned, turning on my heel and heading out of the office, and then biting my lip as I came to a stop after closing the door. I paused. It’s wrong. I knew it was. I knew I should have just left as soon as I closed that door behind me, but I didn’t. Instead, I stepped to the left so they couldn’t see my feet, and I leaned towards the door.

“Are you okay?” Nichole asked.

“I’m fine yes. I just …” He paused. “It’s nothing.”

“I’m sure she’s telling the truth. I’m sure her friend is just in need of help.”

“Yea, so am I.”

“I mean really, what would she be doing that she needed to hide?”

My jaw dropped. That bitch was trying to start issues with us. Of course, she is! I knew all along that she would try to, but nope, Dean thought she was nice and sweet. My eyes narrowed as I resisted the urge to go in there and smack her. Biting my lip, I listened to the silence in the room. He hadn’t bothered to come to my defense, which meant that he was considering all the things I could be hiding from him. Without another thought, I walked out of the casino.

My body felt numb as I marched to my car and slipped inside. I don’t really remember getting home. But I do remember seeing Melina’s car as I hurried towards the building door and up to my apartment.

When I stepped inside, Katie and Melina were there, but there was also the man we’d hired to figure out who Nichole really was. Everyone turned to look at me.

“You look like shit,” Katie said.

“Gee, thanks.”

I made my way over to the couch where everyone was sitting; for a split second, I was thankful I hardly spent any time here anymore—that way my house was at least sorta clean. Although I did notice a load of dishes done that hadn’t been cleaned when I was home. Katie must have washed them for me; I had a little quirk about hating company seeing dirty dishes. I strode over to the group and sat down with them all. Katie reached out, touched my hand and gave me a wide smile. If she knew the details, they weren’t that bad, or she was just trying to be comforting. I forced a smile over my lips and turned my attention to the man in the room, clearing my throat.

“So, this is everyone, right?” He looked around, kind of nervous.

“Yes.”

“My investigations normally take a little bit longer than this to be honest, but it seems this is all very cut and dry.” The man cleared his throat as he grabbed his file. “I didn’t realize I would be doing a presentation; otherwise, I would have made more than one copy of everything.” He opened the folder and pulled out a paper. “Her name is real according to all the records I could find, which made everything much easier to track. You said you were worried because she was getting close to a male friend of yours, correct?”

“Yes.” I spoke before anyone else could. “My boyfriend.”

“I see.” The man nodded. “And I’m willing to bet he’s … forgive me for being blunt, well off.”

“You could say that. Why?” This time, it was Melina who cut in.

“Because that’s her type.” The man pulled out a couple pieces of paper this time. “Over the past three years, this girl has dated five men; all of them have ended up filing for bankruptcy about two weeks after it seems like she ended their relationship.” I took the paper from him before Melina or Katie could and stared at the names written on it, along with a job title, and what I assumed was their income before they filed for bankruptcy.

“Do you have proof that she dated them?”

“Of course.” The man smiled. “It’s my job to have proof. It’s in the folder, which, of course, you will be able to keep in case you plan on confronting her, or your boyfriend.” He looked at me as he spoke.

“Thank you.”

The man shrugged. “It’s my job.” He cleared his throat. “Anyways, I took the chance to talk to some of these men, as well as people who know them, and basically what seems to happen is Miss Lateian approaches them with the interest in work. At first, it was just working for them as an employee, but after graduating college, with student loans a man is still paying, she suggests a partnership. After a couple of weeks of long hours and lots of work, she shows interest in buying stocks in the company; of course, she sells them while they are at their highest and then doesn’t have to worry about it when the business files for bankruptcy. Anyways, when she buys the stocks, she insists they go to dinner—her treat. That normally leads to sex.” My heart did a backflip before landing in the pit of my stomach. I swallowed dryly as Katie and Melina turned to stare at me.

Everything was dead silent. I couldn’t bring myself to look at anyone so instead just stared at the dingy white carpet on my floor. The private investigator’s words wouldn’t stop replaying in my mind.

I swallowed dryly, feeling like I was about to be sick, and then forced myself to look up at everyone staring at me. I refused to show them how hard this was.

“Then what? She just takes them for all they have?”

“Pretty much, yes. Lavish trips, shopping sprees, new cars.” The man handed me a folder. “There are bank records, of course, taken with permission of the men they belong to.”

“Why hasn’t anyone reported her before?”

“Because they all thought they were the only victim. They didn’t realize she’s been conning other men before them, and because it happens in different places every time, no one ever hears about the other one.” The man shrugged. “And I think all of them were a little embarrassed to admit it had happened to them. They all knew they should have been more careful, but they were more than happy to help me and to provide any information on her that they could.”

I took the folder from him, listening to what he had to say. This was all so unbelievable. It wasn’t something that was supposed to happen in real life. This was supposed to be something that happened in movies.

“Thank you for all your work.”

“There is one more thing you should know about Miss Lateian …” I bit my lip, fearing what he would say next. “She’s never had any record of violence, but she does have a mental record. What this woman is doing takes a lot of skill; she could already be on to you, and if she is moving in on your husband, you’d best move fast to make sure he doesn’t become her next victim. She’ll most likely ask to borrow his credit card to buy them coffee the first time because she will have forgotten her wallet. It’s how she’s opened up the door to each other man buying her things, and normally they just let her keep the card afterwards since they are already in a sexual relationship.”

Again, my heart did a backflip. He wasn’t having sex with her, was he? Oh, God, I felt like I was going to be sick just thinking about it.

“Thank you,” I managed, but it wasn’t a good idea. I swallowed down the urge to puke. Katie jumped for me and touched my arm gently.

“He’s not like all those guys,” she whispered. “Dean would never sleep with her. He’s smarter than that.”

I’d thought he was smarter than to get involved with this kind of girl, and knowing that he wasn’t, left me questioning a lot about him. I bit my lip.

“Thank you for your time.” Melina and the private investigator stood, and I heard them head to the door. “I’ll be sure to wire you the rest of the cash.”

“Thank you, ma’am. It was a pleasure to help you. I truly hope you are able to … clear up this situation.”

“Oh, we will.” I heard the door open and close before I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. Why did this have to be happening to me? Why did it have to be happening to us? I let out a sob seconds before I feeling two sets of arms around me.

“It’s going to be okay,” Melina whispered. “We’re not going to let this bitch take advantage of our boy like this.”

Our boy. I liked the way that sounded, but I wasn’t sure he was mine. If he was so willing to sleep with Nichole … if he had slept with her, I knew I’d never be able to forgive him for that.

I pulled away from them and sighed, wiping away my tears. “Alright, so now what do we do?” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. As much as I would have loved just to sit there and cry, I knew that wasn’t going to fix anything, which meant I had to get my ass in gear. Pushing myself up, I paced through the room, biting my lip. “I guess, we need to tell him the truth about this girl.”

“Do you think we should confront him in front of her?”

My brow furrowed, mulling it over. I would have loved to see him find everything out in front of her. “No.” But I knew it would be best to tell him when they were away from each other, that way he wouldn’t jump right to defending her and have her see it. He could have time to process everything, and then we could confront her together. Or he would take her side and fire both Melina and me.

I swallowed dryly.

“Should I call him?” Melina asked, reaching for her phone.

“No. Actually, you should leave before he comes here.” Melina stared at me with wide eyes. “There’s no point in both of us getting fired.” I gave her a weak smile. “Anyways, it might be better if it is just the two of us doing it … maybe. But if everything goes bad, I want you around keeping an eye on him. And as far as he’ll be concerned, you had nothing to do with it.”

Not that it would actually matter. If things didn’t go well, we’d be over, and I’d be fired—but that didn’t mean I didn’t want Melina keeping an eye on him. I still didn’t want him to get hurt or have Nichole take advantage of him. Chewing my lip, I pulled my phone out from my pocket and dialed his number.

Melina and Katie stared at me without saying a word. My heart raced as it rang once, and by the time it rang again my heart was pounding in my chest so hard I was surprised he couldn’t hear it when he answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey … um, I need to talk to you about something. Is there any way you can come over?”

“Now?” He let out a sigh of frustration. “Nichole and I are working.”

I felt hurt tug at my chest and tried to ignore it, but when I spoke, it was obvious how hurt I was. “Okay.” I felt tears prick my eye again. “I um, I guess … just come see me when you can please. I don’t want to talk about it at work …” I swallowed dryly. “I’ll talk to you later?” It came out as a question because I honestly wasn’t sure if we were going to talk later.

“Wait—”

“No. I’ll let you get back to work. I don’t want you to get distracted or anything … I don’t want to be a burden on you. I’ll just, talk to you later. Bye.”

I hung up without telling him that I loved him because I honestly couldn’t bring myself to tell him knowing that I was probably so damn close to losing him. I swallowed dryly and tucked my phone away as a tear ran down my cheek.