Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Merrick

It was almost eight by the time I shut down for the day. On my way out, I took the stairs down one flight to the other floor we occupied to drop off a package in the mailroom. The hallway lights on both floors ran on motion sensors, so most of the corridors were dark by now, with the majority of the staff gone. But as I turned left, I noticed light streaming into an otherwise dark hall to my right. It looked like it might be Evie’s office, so I diverted to pass by.

She was talking on her cell, but smiled and held up one finger when I stopped.

“Dave, huh? What’s the story behind that?” she said into the phone. Evie’s smile widened as she listened. Her eyes twinkled. “Oh my God.” She covered her mouth in laughter. “That’s hysterical. And you’re right, it’s good information to keep tucked in my back pocket.” After another minute, she said, “I have to run. My boss just came into my office. But thank you for checking on me.” She laughed again before saying goodbye and tossing her cell on the desk.

“That sounded interesting,” I said.

Her smile widened. “Oh, it was interesting, alright. That was Kitty.”

It took me a few seconds to backtrack through the conversation, but I realized what they must’ve been talking about. Dave. I closed my eyes and hung my head. “Fuuuck.”

Evie laughed. “I’ve never heard of anyone being terrified of Dave Thomas. What did the guy do, other than being the founder of Wendy’s?”

“I’m going to kill my damn grandmother.”

She smiled. “Seriously. Why were you afraid of him when you were little?”

“I have no damn idea. I just saw him on a commercial once, and he looked scary to me, I guess. I was only like three years old. My sister made it worse. She used to threaten that she was going to call him if I didn’t do whatever she said. Why did Kitty have to share that shit with you?”

“She called to ask how my first day went. She said she knows you well enough to know I might need some pointers on how to keep you in line.”

“Pointers? With an S? As in Dave wasn’t the only thing she shared?”

“The rest weren’t bad.”

“Let’s hear them anyway.”

“She told me if I want to get my way with you, to bake anything with peanut butter in it—cookies, pie, brownies…”

“If you can bake a peanut butter pie like Kitty, you might work out here after all.” My phone vibrated in my pocket, so I slipped it out to see if it was important. I shook my head and turned it to show her Kitty’s name flashing on the screen. “I only heard the tail end of your conversation. Am I about to get my ass kicked for something you told her?”

“Nope. I told her you’d been nothing but sweet to me.” She winked. “Basically, I lied.”

I pretended to scowl and swiped to answer without moving from the doorway. “Hello, grandmother dearest.”

“What did you have for dinner?”

“Dinner? Nothing. I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Good. Neither did my Everly. She’s still in the office, so take her to grab a bite. And be nice. You’ve been giving her a hard time, and I know it. I can tell even though she covers for your sorry ass.”

I looked up and locked eyes with Evie. “How can you tell she’s lying about me being nice?”

“She oversold it—called you delightful. We both know that’s a load of crap. Now, are you going to do this for me or not?”

“Don’t you have some fourteenth cousin to bug?”

“Yes, and he might be going in my will if you use that tone with me much longer. Oh, and while you’re at dinner, give Everly the name of a bulldog lawyer. She needs one.”

“Goodbye, Grams.”

“Later, masturbater.”

The phone went dead, and I pulled it away from my ear and shook my head at it. “Aren’t people supposed to mellow in their old age?”

“Not Kitty, and she’d kick your ass if she heard you refer to her as old.”

I smiled and stuffed my phone back in my pocket. “How did your first day go?”

“It went well. I think I got a lot accomplished. I went around and met everyone, started reading employee files, and made my first few appointments.”

“Good.” I nodded and thumbed behind me. “I should get going. Don’t stay too long.”

“I won’t. I was just cleaning up to head out.”

“See you tomorrow.” I turned, but Evie’s voice stopped me after my first step.

“Also, I’ll make sure to tell Kitty you didn’t take me to get that bite to eat.”

I squinted. “You heard that?”

Evie shrugged. “Kitty talks loud on the phone.”

“Are you blackmailing me for a meal?”

She opened a drawer, pulled out her purse, and shut her laptop. “I’m starving and broke. Plus, I have questions about the hierarchy here at the company and the structure of compensation. I’d like to understand where all the different pressures come from.”

“What if I say it’s not appropriate for us to have dinner?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ve seen me in my bra, and you told me you hired me because I was the least-competent person. Plus, this is a business meal, not for pleasure. You’re not my type.”

I felt oddly offended. “Why not?”

“Because you have a penis. At least I assume you do. And I haven’t forgiven your kind for all the wrongs they’ve caused.”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Good. You’re not my type either.”

She batted her eyelashes. “Not into hot girls who are batshit crazy?”

I grinned. “Definitely not.”

“Perfect. Then let’s go.” She flashed a gloating smile and walked toward the door. I stepped aside for her to exit first, but she stopped in front of me. “If you want to go to Wendy’s, I’ll treat.”

“Keep walking, wiseass.”

• • •

“So what brought you to New York after you finished school down south?” I asked after the waiter brought our drinks.

Evie shrugged. “My ex-fiancé—well, sort of. Christian and I met when we were both students at Emory. I applied for my doctoral internship year in New York because he was planning on moving back to work for his family’s company, which has its corporate offices in Midtown. My sister also lives up here, so it worked out well at the time.”

“Is she still here?”

Evie nodded. “She and her husband are up in Morningside Heights. But we actually lived in New York for a few years when we were kids. My mom moved us around a lot. I lived in eleven different states before I was thirteen.”

“Wow. Did she move for work or something?”

She shook her head. “No, usually we moved when my mom left my dad, which happened every few months.”

My brows pulled together. “They didn’t get along?”

“Oh, sorry. I assumed you knew since Kitty and my grandmother were so close. Kitty was the one who finally got my mom to leave my dad for good. Almost thirty years ago, my mother stayed at Kitty’s women’s shelter for the first time. My father was abusive. My grandmother didn’t know what was going on back then. Mom kept it from everyone until Kitty encouraged her to speak to family. After she did, my grandmother came down to the shelter to get my mom, and she and Kitty hit it off. They became friends, and a year or two later, the house next door to Kitty went on the market. My grandmother had been looking for a one-story house, so she bought it. The two of them were inseparable after that.”

Shit. Evie’s mom was someone from the DV shelter my grandmother had run for most of her life? “I knew your grandmother was Kitty’s neighbor and close friend, but she never mentioned anything about your mom being…”

Evie smiled sadly. “Abused. It’s okay to say it. That’s one of the things Kitty taught me when I lived next door to her during school. It’s not something I’m ashamed of. Kitty made me realize that the more people talk about domestic violence openly, the less victims will feel like it’s something they need to hide. Anyway, there was a period of about nine months, when I was ten, where we lived with my grandmother. She had been trying to get my mom to leave my dad for years, but it was Kitty who got through to her before we finally left for good. That summer was one of the best years I had growing up, so when I got accepted into a few PhD programs, I decided to go to Emory so I could stay with my grandmother. In my third year, she was diagnosed with an aggressive metastatic cancer and passed away only a few months later. Your grandmother and I were always friendly, but we became close after that.”

I nodded. “She’s talked about you a lot over the years. Though of course, she calls you Everly, so I didn’t put two and two together when I was interviewing Evie.”

She sipped her wine with a grin. “Maybe you would have been a little nicer during my interview if you’d known.”

“Or maybe if we hadn’t met when you were sniffing your armpit in the men’s room…” I fought past a smile.

“I never did get a chance to explain that. I had dropped a cherry on my shirt and stained it, then got stuck on a hot subway for two hours and had to rush to buy a new blouse. While I was getting changed, I realized I should freshen up a bit, but all I had was a wet wipe. When you barged in, I was trying to see if the lemon smell had transferred onto my skin.”

“Number one, you didn’t lock the door. And number two, you were in the men’s fitting room.”

She waved her hand at me. “Technicalities, technicalities. You still used me to amuse yourself. Letting me sit there and squirm, wondering whether you recognized me or not.”

“It wasn’t one of my finer moments. I guess we’d both had a bad day. In my defense, I’d gone to a board meeting the night before and went another round trying to talk them out of forcing my hand to fill this position, only to have them inform me we’d been served with another lawsuit just that morning. Any shot I had of swaying things my way obviously went out the window.”

“How about we make a deal? You won’t mention what you saw in the dressing room again, and I won’t bring up Dave Thomas?” She held out her hand. “It’ll be like having a fresh start.”

I smiled and reached across the table, liking the feel of her tiny hand in mine a little too much. “You got a deal.”

Evie pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, and it opened up a clear view of her slender neck. My fucked-up brain immediately imagined licking along her smooth skin. I had to force my eyes to look anywhere else and cleared my throat. “By the way, my grandmother told me to give you the name of a bulldog lawyer. Do you really need one?”

She sighed. “I do, actually.”

“What kind of lawyer?”

“To represent me in a civil suit. My ex is suing me.”

“Is he trying to get your engagement ring back?”

“No, I gave that back. Actually, I threw it at him. But I did something he claims harmed his reputation.”

“You mean the video you showed at your wedding?”

Evie frowned. “You saw it?”

I wasn’t about to admit I’d watched it several times recently. So I shrugged. “I saw bits and pieces of it.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay, well, that kind of makes it easier anyway. Less to explain at least. My ex, Christian, and his family are suing me for fraud and defamation. He’s claiming I knew about the affair he was having for longer than I did, and that I purposefully racked up unnecessary bills for the wedding with fraudulent intent. He’s also claiming that I harmed his reputation when the video went viral.”

“How long did you know about the affair?”

“Twelve hours maybe? I found out on the evening of our wedding. We’d checked into the hotel where our reception was being held. When we got engaged, Christian’s father had given him the money clip his mother had given to him the day they were married. It was engraved with a sweet note and their wedding date. I’d secretly taken it from his drawer and had our wedding date and a note engraved underneath his parents’ names and message. I’d thought it would make a nice family heirloom. You know, maybe something that could continue being passed down through generations with dates added. Anyway, I wanted to video his reaction when I gave it to him, so I’d set up a camera in the honeymoon suite and told Christian to meet me there. But while I was waiting for him, my sister called to tell me a cabbie had just jumped the curb and run over her husband’s foot. I wound up going to the hospital to be with her for a few hours and forgot all about the camera that was recording. When I got back later that evening, I gave Christian the money clip, and afterward we said goodbye for the night since we were sleeping in separate rooms—the groom’s not supposed to see the bride before the wedding and all.” Evie rolled her eyes. “As if my luck could have gotten any worse. In any case, I’d forgotten all about the camera until after he left. I figured it had probably stopped recording hours ago, but I checked anyway and got the surprise of my life: Christian having sex with my best friend and maid of honor, Mia.”

“Jesus Christ.” I shook my head. “And you had no clue anything was going on between them until that point?”

“Nope. Well, I didn’t at the time, but in hindsight there were some clues I’d missed. Like, Mia’s name popped up on his cell phone once, and the message said something about them meeting. But when I asked Christian about it, he told me to stop being nosy because I was going to ruin the surprise of my bridal shower. And then another time I found Mia’s phone stuck in the cushions of our couch, and she hadn’t been over in a few weeks. She said she must’ve lost it when she was there last time and had been looking all over for it. But I thought it was strange that she’d never mentioned she couldn’t find it, if it went missing right after being at my house. We’re all so attached to our phones, and a new one is like a thousand dollars.” She sighed and frowned. “But never in a million years would I have thought the two of them would do what they did to me. Even after I found the video, I didn’t want to believe it right away. I thought it was a joke at first.”

“Guy’s got some balls suing you after what he did. Even if you did know about it and didn’t call things off to run up the bill, he damn well deserves it. And how can he sue you for defamation? The defense to a lawsuit like that is the truth.”

She smiled halfheartedly. “I think he’s trying to get even with me for embarrassing him publicly. His family has a staff of in-house attorneys, so there isn’t any cost for him. But I’m sure it will wind up costing me a fortune I don’t have. The ironic thing is, I didn’t even want a big, expensive wedding. Christian and his family did. They had more business associates on the guest list than I did friends and family.”

“I’m sorry. That sucks. But I do have a good attorney to recommend, and he owes me a favor or two. I’ll call him tomorrow and see what he can do.”

“Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”

I nodded. “Not a problem.”

The waitress came with our dinners. I’d ordered the salmon while Evie had chosen the chicken piccata. She licked her lips, looking over at my plate. “Yours looks good. Are you sharing?”

I shook my head with a chuckle. “Sure. Anything else you’d like?”

Evie reached over and grabbed my plate. She smiled while cutting off a piece of my salmon and replacing it with a piece of her chicken. “Actually there is.”

“Why am I not surprised…”

“Oh, pipe down. I just want to ask you some questions about the office.”

I took my plate back. “What would you like to know?”

For the next half hour, she peppered me with questions about trading, mostly how things ran and what my staff were and weren’t authorized to do. She seemed to have a pretty good grasp on a lot of industry terminology.

“You don’t have any experience in a brokerage house,” I said. “Yet you seem to understand a lot about how things work.”

“I read a bunch of books when I was offered the job.”

I nodded. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Actually…” She drummed her fingers on the table. “When I was reading up on your company, I found an old article from the year you opened. It said you had a partner. But I read your last few prospectuses, and the name disappeared from the stockholder section a couple of years back. Amelia…Evans, I think it was?”

I looked away. “That’s right.”

“What happened with her?”

I looked around for the waitress. Catching her eye, I raised my hand to call her over before returning my attention to Evie. “I don’t think that’s relevant to the job you were hired to do.” When the waitress walked over, I requested the check.

She slipped a leather padfolio from her apron pocket and set it on the table. “I’ll take it whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m ready now.” I pulled out my wallet and tucked a credit card into the slot before handing it back.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Evie waited until the waitress disappeared, but didn’t miss a beat picking up right where she’d left off. “I’m asking because oftentimes a change in management can have a major effect on employees.”

“If anything, Amelia’s departure relieved the firm of stress, not added to it. She ran the IPO division—bringing companies public for the first time. There’s a lot of pressure involved with that type of deal. We no longer take on that type of work.”

“Oh…okay. How long ago did she leave the company?”

“Three years.”

“Did any staff go with her when she left?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Was the split amicable? Did she start her own firm?”

The waitress returned with the credit card receipt, so I scribbled my name. When I looked up, Evie was still waiting for an answer. So I gave her one.

“There was no split. Amelia Evans died.”