Chapter 15: Griff

Chapter Fifteen

GRIFF

" Y ou owe me big time." I toss my helmet on the sofa in Evers' office.

"For what reason? I called you in after your morning run." He throws a folder onto the coffee table in front of me.

"I had an appointment."

Evers arches his eyebrows at my terseness. Sending the text to Lauren that I couldn't meet up this morning pissed me off, so my tone is shorter than usual.

"At six? The girl, then?"

"None of your business."

The folder has new tests. "You want me to take these to a print shop and watch over the production so they aren't stolen?" The exams are in two weeks, so I guess there's some urgency but not enough to require a sunrise meeting.

"No. I want you to get your friend to steal them and hand them over to Roberta."

I toss the file down. "No."

Evers furrows his brows. "No?"

"No. I'm not making Lauren a target of a rich crazy woman."

"She's already the target of the rich crazy woman. Having her deliver these tests will ensure no one else becomes hurt."

"Just Lauren."

"You've locked her down by now, right? So she's got plenty of protection."

"The first line of defense is not placing the body you're protecting in harm's way. The suggestion kind of pisses me off, if I'm gonna be honest." I say it as mildly as possible, but Evers knows I'm serious.

He's silent for a moment and then says, "Fair enough. I'm trying to get Vasey out of harm's way, and it's not right to ask you to put Lauren there in her place."

"Why don't you give Roberta the test results yourself? Or, hell, just skip all those intermediate steps and just pass the shithead on to Harvard."

"Roberta's son has a history of failing grades. A C is a remarkable outcome for him. The board will immediately want to review his test results, and there will need to be proof that he worked out the solutions on his own. The essay portion will need to be in his writing, and he will have to show his work in his own hand in the math portion."

"I'll help you where I can, but Lauren isn't part of any solutions." I get to my feet. "Call me if you need me."

I spend the rest of the morning with a lawyer going over Mick's situation. The lawyer has a lot of suggestions, and all of them are pretty good. I'm eager to share this with Lauren.

When I arrive at the salon, the goth girl squints up at me in confusion with her fingers poised over her keyboard. "Sir, your appointment is not for another three weeks."

"I know. I'm here to pick up Lauren."

The black brows shoot up. "Are you guys a thing now?"

I plant an elbow on the marble counter top. "Yup."

"Since when? The hair cut?" The receptionist has abandoned all pretense of working. We're gossip pals now.

"We met before that, and I came here because of her."

"Tell me more." The girl's enthralled.

I'm happy to mark my territory. Everyone should know Lauren is mine and they should keep their hands to themselves. "Ran into her while she was on the job and knew she was the one. Basically love at first sight."

Lauren bursts through the curtain separating the front desk from the waiting room. "Let's go. I'm starved," she shouts. She grabs my arm and drags me out of the salon and toward the elevator. She punches the elevator buttons with way more force than necessary.

"What's the problem?"

Without looking at me, she says, "I think we should break up."

"No." I should've skipped the meeting with Evers and gone to breakfast. She can't have time away from me because negative thoughts creep in.

"I'm serious."

"That may be, but it's still not happening." I step into the elevator car and pull her next to me. She doesn't push me away. That's a good sign.

"You can't keep me from breaking up with you. That's not how it works."

The elevator arrives on the first floor. I hold the door open and wait for her to exit. "Even if you wanted to break up with me, you wouldn't be able to."

She frowns. "You can't stop me."

"I don't need to because you won't leave me. The sex is too good and you love me." I gently nudge her toward the Ducati.

"You don't know I love you." But her words don't come with conviction.

I plop the helmet down over her head. "You had sex with me and you've never had sex with anyone else before. That's how I know."

She knocks my hand away. "Back at you. You've never had sex with anyone before either, so you must love me."

"I do."

Her jaw drops. I push it closed and buckle the strap. "We're having seafood for lunch." I pinch her cheek and then climb onto the bike.

"I thought seafood was a euphemism," Lauren admits as we take our seats.

"That was originally my plan, but you work late and need a little fuel inside of you. While I know my loving is magical, it probably won't sustain you like a good dish of lobster mac and cheese."

"You'd be surprised what I can survive on," she murmurs with her eyes downcast as she throws that bomb on the table.

It's a good thing this place has tablecloths. "Now you're taunting me and you're going to pay for that later, but I have enough self-control to last until the end of your workday."

She makes a disappointed face. I'm going to have to fuck her about ten times tonight for that.

I wait for her to finish the meal before bringing up Roberta Ware. "I didn't want to spoil your appetite, but I need to tell you some about my friend Evers. He loves this woman named Vasey Hamlin. They met when they were young kids in the system. Evers wanted to marry her, but he had no money, so he joined the military so he could get a free education. That's where we met. Anyway, we ended up serving several years together, and then we got out, invested some money and made a little more. Evers bought this academy because Vasey dreamed of being a teacher."

The waiter comes by asking if we want dessert, but Lauren waives him off. "Dreamed? Like past tense? Don't tell me she died."

"No, she's alive, but she's not a teacher. She's a nanny. She was at a beach several years ago and ended up saving this girl named Jasmine Ware."

"Jasmine Ware as in Thomas Ware's daughter?"

The wheels are turning in her head. "Right. Thomas Ware, the billionaire industrialist."

"Who recently remarred?—"

"And has a song, Gideon?—"

"Who she wants to get into Havard." Lauren slaps her hand on the table.

"Exactly. He's cruel, self-centered, and dumb. It's a trifecta of terrible. Vasey can't leave Jasmine alone with this kid, and until Jasmine is free, Vasey and Evers can't be together."

"What's this have to do with Gideon?"

"All the Wares have gone to Harvard, but the key is that they've all gotten in on their own, no legacy buy-in. Roberta is trying to prove that her son, Gideon, is worthy of being a Ware, but that requires him to get accepted to Harvard. If he can get into the Academy, this problem is solved for Roberta."

"But Gideon is dumb, and so he needs the tests to cheat. You want me to deliver some test results to her?"

"No. I told Evers that it's not your problem. He needs to figure it out, otherwise you're going to be a target. I don't like that. I'm just sharing this information because it's real important we keep Mick's nose clean. We can't give her any ammunition. I talked to a lawyer this morning, and we can get Mick's record washed so that there's only this theft charge. I'm going to offer him a job at the gym, so between work and working out, he'll be busy. That okay with you?"

"Yes, it's great and super generous, but do you even need the help?"

"Yeah, we always need help. Turnover's a real bitch, to be honest."

"You should tell him that," she advises.

"Do you think Mick will be on board? It's important for him to buy into this on his own."

She nods. "I think so. He hates school, so working at your gym would be better than an office."

"Great. We'll talk to him about it tonight after dinner. Next subject."

She lets out a soft laugh. "This feels like a meeting with an agenda and everything."

I grin. "I'm trying to get all the outside stuff taken care of so that all is left to think about is which horizontal surface we're going to have sex on."

Her cheeks turn bright red, but she waves her hand for me to continue. "Fine, what's next?"

"Living arrangements. I want you to move in with me. First, I live above the gym so it's easy for Mick to get to work. Second, while you have the hottest ass this side of the Atlantic due to the stairs you walk every day, the place is a death trap. I'd need a full week to itemize all the things that are wrong with it."

Lauren rolls a tiny bit of the table cloth between her fingers. After a long pause, she says, "Why don't we see how dating works first?"

"Lovers live together." This is non-negotiable, but giving her too many ultimatums might scare her off, so I keep that thought to myself

"And when you're done with me, where do Mick and I live then?" She won't look me in the eye. I reach out and gently guide her chin around so that she can see I mean business.

"Lauren, there is no breaking up. You just need to get that your idea out of your head right now. Not only are we not breaking up but we're getting married soon. You're a little skittish, so I'm holding off on my proposal, but you're mine now. I'm yours, and you have to accept that responsibility." I pinch her chin gently.

"How can you say that? You don't know what the future holds."

I gather up all my patience. "I do know the future. I'm not breaking up with you, and if you try to leave me, as politically incorrect as this is, I won't let you. I'll kidnap you, lock you up in my apartment, feed you, buy you nice things, come make love to you twice a day. You gave me your body when you had never given it to anybody else, and you took mine in return." I give her a mock look of hurt. "Are you going to throw me away like a used dishcloth?"

"No, I never said that," she protests.

"Great." I drop my hand away from her chin. "We're in agreement. We're together forever. You're moving in. I'll bring some boxes over tonight."

"Why do I feel like I'm being steamrolled over?"

"I'm making your life safer, which makes me happy. This is what Evers would call a win-win." I give her a wink and catch the waiter's attention for the bill.