BlakeDustin opened his mouth to object, but I didn’t give him the chance. “As it is, you’ve been allowed to occupy this office for much longer than you should’ve been.”“Bla—” Danny tried interrupting, but he shut up at the look I shot him.When I saw him stand down, for the moment, anyway, I turned my attention back to Dustin. “You can resign, or you can be fired. That offer stands for the next five seconds. What’s it going to be?”“I’m not going anywhere until my boss,” Dustin’s chin jutted out and he pointed at Danny, “tells me to leave. I don’t recognize your authority to make me do a single damn thing, big guy.”Danny crossed his arms obstinately. “He’s not going anywhere.”Staring me down, I knew Danny was putting on a show for Dustin’s sake. I wished he wouldn’t act this way, but he was so fucking deep into this idiotic mess Dustin had created that I doubted he could see reality anymore. In his mind, he and Dustin were right and entirely justified in their plans and actions, r
ASTONAlone for the first time all week, I didn’t really know what to do with myself. It was so strange how quickly I’d gotten used to having Blake around. To be fair, I was hardly ever alone at work, either.The silence in the room seemed deafeningly loud, especially since I could see the busy streets below when I looked out the window. I spent some time doing just that—people watching from my perch on the windowsill in the suite.When I was done with that, I ran a nice bath and soaked until my skin wrinkled while I read an e-book I’d purchased on my phone. I’d read that you shouldn’t make the bath too hot when you were pregnant, so the water cooled down fast. I kept having to add warm water.When I got annoyed with doing that and was fearful I’d resemble a prune if I stayed in the water much longer, I slipped into one of the complimentary white robes in the cupboard.Settling on the sofa with a bottle of water, I put my feet up and crossed my ankles as I flipped through the channels
AstonThe champagne was going to have to wait a couple of months, but the chocolates sounded good. “I can’t wait to get home. Thank you so much for all you’re doing. I know you never wanted that job and now you’re stuck with it.”“It’s only until you get back. I don’t mind doing it for as long as it takes until you’re home. Again, don’t you dare worry about it. You know, I’m actually enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.”“That’s good news.” As we talked and she told me all about what was going on there, I realized why she had sounded different to me before. She was different.She was still the same girl, but the bubbly exuberance was gone because she was taking her job as the manager of the hotel so seriously. There was a more professional clip to her voice. She spoke more clearly and with purpose, instead of just saying whatever popped into her head.All things considered, I was really happy she seemed to have taken to the job so well. It was comforting to know I would be a
BLAKEAston was the perfect cure for my terrible mood when I was finally done for the day. After Danny and Dustin left, I had to meet with the key staff members of the New York branch to make plans for their immediate future.I could hardly leave them without a manager after theirs left under a cloud of suspicion. I quickly learned that many of the employees suspected he was up to something, but didn’t know what. It seemed he’d treated them all like shit and I was relatively sure that none of them were in on the theft with him.Nothing we found in his records indicated he was filtering money to anyone else in the branch, and my instincts told me the others were clean, so I focused on the future instead of interrogating the rest of them. We would be keeping a close eye on the branch. If Dustin was in cahoots with someone, I would find out soon enough.Without giving them too much detail, I told the staff Dustin had been fired, and I appointed Grace, his longtime assistant, as the inter
BlakeWild laughter erupted from Dustin’s mouth as he shook his head. “You’re not half the man your brother is. Soon enough, he’ll get what’s rightfully his and so will I. There’s nothing you can do about it, you motherfucking piece of shit. Mark my words, I’ll be back.”“You’re causing a scene, Dustin.” I cast an apologetic look to the people around us, but Dustin didn’t seem to care. He was drunk and deranged, obviously completely out of it.When he got closer to our table, I noticed that his pupils were nothing more than pinpricks and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. “Don’t take another step closer, I’m warning you.”The hostess and the waiters were all frozen in place, hushed like the rest of the patrons watching the scene unfold in front of them. I only hoped their security wasn’t as useless, but there was no one in sight yet.“Or what?” Dustin shouted, spit flying as he jabbed his finger at me and then toward Aston. “You or your little whore over there going to make me?”The
ASTONThe last thing I remembered was some man slinging insults at me while Blake and I were at dinner. Before the pain started, I’d been pretty sure it was Dustin. As I was about to stand up to form a united front with Blake against the drunken thief, an intense pain ripped through my body.I only remembered flashes after that.Blake coming to me in the restaurant. Getting much less jolted than I should have as he ran out with me in his arms. Bright lights as I glided down some kind of hallway.The smell and the shouting told me I was in a hospital as the pain slowly subsided. A round faced doctor with red cheeks and curly gray hair had appeared in the room like magic, only seconds after I was wheeled in.She gently pressed her fingers on my stomach when I told her I was pregnant, got an ultrasound machine wheeled into the room at what seemed to be the speed of light and took some blood before she disappeared.It all happened so fast, I wasn’t even sure it was real. Outside my room,
AstonAfter a couple of minutes, Blake whispered. “Get some sleep, Aston. I’ll be right here. I’ll wake you the minute the doctor comes in. Wild horses and ten packs of rabid wolves couldn’t drag me away.”I trusted him to stay, but I shook my head anyway. “I can’t sleep. Not until the tests come back.”Blake glanced at the ultrasound machine still beside the bed. “Have they used that already?”“They did,” I told him, trying to remember if the doctor had said anything. But she hadn’t. If she did, I couldn’t remember it. “The doctor took all the film with her, and the flash drive that was in it. At least I think so. I can’t remember properly, Blake.”“That’s okay,” he said, soothingly. “Don’t worry, Aston. They didn’t know you were pregnant when we got here, I’m sure they’re just getting someone to take a look.”“I told them I was pregnant,” another tear rolled down my cheek.“So did I,” Blake replied, his tone quiet and even. “I gave them all the details for the doctor in Florida, too
BLAKEWhen I woke up, Aston was still sleeping beside me. She was still a little pale, but there was some color back in her cheeks and in her sleep, she didn’t look as worried anymore. She was peaceful, almost like nothing had happened.I didn’t risk moving a muscle for fear of waking her. The doctor said she needed rest and I wasn’t going to interrupt what she was getting now.When they wheeled her away from me in that hospital, it was the most frightened I’d ever been in my entire life. I nearly lost my mind when they told me I had to wait outside. It took way too long before I finally managed to get to her again.Just thinking about it shook me up. I wasn’t afraid to admit how scared I was. It was right up there in the top two worst moments of my life. Second only to the day I realized Mom was gone for good, that she wasn’t just out shopping and she wasn’t coming back.Even then, I had been so young that it was hard to understand exactly what her leaving meant. The concept of growi