Behaving Badly in Vegas (Vegas Love #3)

14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Hunter

Day two back at Mystique sucked slightly less than day one.

First thing in the morning, I left another message for the private investigator, Rudy Mendosa. One of several in the last thirty-six hours. I’d been waiting on pins and needles to hear from him. Patience wasn’t my strong suit. Jennifer Johnson was a missing piece of the puzzle I needed solved.

Why hadn’t she contacted me when she discovered she was pregnant?

Why did she keep Carina a secret?

How could she drop her child off on my doorstep without so much as a fuck you?

Was she planning on coming back and ripping Carina from my life?

Fuck that! I may not have been there from the beginning, but I was here now, and I wasn’t giving up my daughter without a fight.

My old personal assistant, Daniel, poked his head into my corner closet. “Welcome back, Mr. Dorsey. ”

He was a good kid, young but ambitious. Daniel started working for me right out of college as an intern. He proved to be competent, conscientious, and a stickler for details. I liked him immediately. “Come in, Daniel. What do you think of my new office?” I leaned back in the creaky chair and motioned to the room around me.

He tried not to stare at the dented aluminum desk or the chipped paint on the wall. “It’s ummm…”

“A shithole. It’s okay for you to say it.” I motioned to the plastic chair in front of my desk. “Please, have a seat.”

Daniel sat down cautiously on the rickety chair as if it might crumble under his weight. He wasn’t a small man, so his chances were fifty-fifty. “You shouldn’t be in this room. It’s an insult.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more, yet here I am. I suppose I only have myself to blame, but I’m working on correcting that issue.” Leaning forward on the desk, I steepled my fingers. “I assume Leonard sent you here.”

He nodded. “I should have come by yesterday to say hello, but yes, Mr. Moroski sent me. He wanted me to train you on doing payroll.”

I scoffed. “Train me? I learned how to do payroll when I graduated college. It was my first real job at Mystique.” Since almost everything was automated, it was even easier now. “If I’m doing payroll, what will Helen be doing?” Helen had been doing our payroll for the last seven years.

Daniel’s lips twisted to the side. “Mr. Moroski fired her.”

“What?” How did I not know this?

“As a matter of fact, he fired everyone who used to work for you. I’m the only one left.”

My eyes bulged. “Everyone?”

Daniel nodded.

“Fuck. How in the hell did he get away with that?”

“He convinced your dad it was unnecessary overhead.”

Interesting. I tapped my fingers together, my mind spinning a hundred miles an hour. “I see.”

“He’s not happy you’re back. I overheard him talking to your dad. I’d watch your back if I were you. ”

My jaw clenched. “Thanks for the heads-up.” Daniel had it wrong though. Leonard was the one who should watch his back. He might have had my father’s ear, but I had his blood. It was my family’s legacy on the line, and I’d do anything to protect what was ours. Getting rid of Leonard Morosk-hole would be an added bonus. It would make what I did to Trent look like child’s play. Getting my hands dirty had never been a problem and mine were going to be filthy.

Already bored to death with payroll, I watched Charli on the cameras feeding Carina and singing her terrible songs. She carted clothes to the laundry room, folded them, and took them back to the bedrooms. I liked watching her, became obsessed with it. It was wrong to spy on her, but she still had her privacy. There were no cameras in her bedroom or the bathroom. I may have been a creep, and my morals were loose at best, but the point of the cameras was monitoring her with Carina, not getting a free peep show.

Charli put Carina in the stroller and rolled her to the front door, then ran back to grab the grocery list from the counter. Although I found her to be a bit free-spirited, I couldn’t deny she was a breath of fresh air and exactly what Carina needed.

Both Mrs. Hadley and Ms. Peters would have taken excellent care of my daughter, but they were both in their midsixties with their own families. Neither would be able to dedicate the time, patience, and energy Carina required. Truth be told, I enjoyed having Charli around, which was exactly why I wouldn’t be going straight home after work.

I picked up my ringing phone and stared at the screen. Finally! “Mr. Mendosa, you’re a difficult man to get ahold of.”

“And you’re a very persistent man, Mr. Dorsey.” He chuckled .

I tapped my fingers on top of my metal desk in a rhythmic pattern. “You came very highly recommended. My attorney, Sam Steinburg, said you’re the best and the best is what I need.”

“I always liked Sam. What can I do for you, Mr. Dorsey?”

“I need to find a woman.”

“Don’t we all?” he interrupted, clearly amused.

I gritted my teeth. There was no time for bullshit or games. If he found this entertaining, maybe he wasn’t the right man for the job. “This woman is the mother of my child. We had a one-time fling, and a week ago, she dropped my six-month-old daughter at my door with a note and disappeared. It’s of utmost importance to find this woman. All I have is a name on the birth certificate. Sam already tried to find her, but it seems she’s a ghost.”

He cleared his throat. “I see. Would you recognize her if you saw her?”

“Doubtful.” I rolled my eyes. “She worked at The Sapphire Club, and I was far from sober.”

“And you’re sure the child is yours?”

“Ninety-nine point nine percent, according to the paternity test.”

“All right, then. You should know I charge by the hour. The longer it takes to find her, the more it will cost.”

“I don’t care what it costs. What I care about is finding this woman before she changes her mind and tries to take my daughter away. I don’t want any loose ends. Everything needs to be legal.” The more I thought about this faceless woman, the angrier I got. At least Carina was young enough that she wouldn’t remember being abandoned. I, on the other hand, didn’t have that luxury.

“Email me everything you know, and I’ll start looking. I haven’t been unsuccessful yet. If she’s out there, then I’ll find her.”

Did he think my daughter birthed herself? Of course, she was out there, unless sometime in the last week, she’d faced an untimely death. Jennifer Johnson might have been selfish, but I had no doubt she was alive.

“I’ll send you a contract within the hour,” Rudy promised.

I felt only slightly better after the phone call. I wasn’t any closer to finding Carina’s mother, but at least there was a plan in place. The situation was out of my control, and it bothered me. I strived for control in every aspect of my life. It was why I related better to numbers than people. They didn’t lie or drop babies off at your home or leave you. Numbers were safe. They were logical and predictable.

Charlotte Bently was anything but predictable. She was a complete wild card. I thought about her job at Oasis. I’d never seen her perform, but I’d seen enough shows in Vegas to know what she did wasn’t safe or logical.

It was reckless.

I shouldn’t have cared, but the thought of her climbing high above a stage with no safety net pissed me off. She had zero regard for her own well-being, and it infuriated me.

An alert on my phone reminded me of my “meeting” with Gia in ten minutes. She was going to make me grovel; I was sure of it. The look and tone she gave me yesterday indicated she still held animosity toward me. What I did was wrong, but it’d been over a year. She got the job and my brother. What else did she want?

I wasn’t big on apologies, but this was a necessary evil. Getting back on good terms with Gia would help smooth things over with Trent. And although I hated to admit it, I needed Trent on my side to be fully reinstated at Mystique. It was a sticky web I’d trapped myself in.

I locked my computer and headed down the hall toward Gia’s office, contemplating my words to her as I went. Passing Trent’s office, Charlotte’s brother, Tom, sat at his desk like a sentry, making sure he wasn’t disturbed by random nonsense. It was the same thing Daniel used to do for me. Now, I was available to anyone at any time. I rarely even shut my door because the lack of windows made me feel claustrophobic.

Before I could stop myself, I stood in front of Tom’s desk and stared down at him. “Why did you let Charlotte work at Oasis?”

He slowly lifted his head and looked up at me through his dark-rimmed glasses. “Excuse me?”

“You and Charlotte are nothing alike. You’re down to earth, yet you let her climb thirty feet in the air and perform dangerous stunts. Why would you do that?” Tom was a numbers guy. He was rational. Conservative.

“Let her?” He pushed up his glasses with one finger. “You obviously don’t know Charli that well yet. My sister isn’t someone who can be controlled. She does what she wants when she wants. She wasn’t made to be put in a box. She was made to soar above it. If you tell her she can’t do something, she’ll push back twice as hard to prove you wrong.”

“I’ve already begun to learn that,” I said, shoving my hands in my pockets.

“Also,” Tom said, standing up, “I may be out of line, but because she’s my sister, I feel I have a right. I didn’t want her working for you, but she has her own mind and doesn’t listen to reason. She doesn’t know your reputation, but I do and if you hurt her in any way, there will be consequences. Am I clear? I’m the only one she’s got in Vegas, and trust me, I won’t hesitate to protect her.”

It was hard to take him seriously in his sweater-vest and bow tie, but I appreciated his passion. “Your sister is safe with me.”

He let out a sarcastic laugh. “Ha! I highly doubt that. The only one you care about is yourself.”

Before I got fired, Tom wouldn’t have had the balls to speak to me that way. He used to scurry away like a scolded dog when I entered a room. A lot had changed since I left. “I have no interest in hurting your sister. I’ll make you that promise.” I stuck my hand out as a peace offering.

Tom stared at my hand, then grasped it with a firmer hold than I expected. “I’m holding you to your word.”

“I’d expect nothing less.” I let go of his hand and glanced at my watch. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with Miss Romano.”

He smirked at me. “You mean Mrs. Dorsey.”

I cringed. Like I said, a lot had changed. Although I knew she married Trent, it was difficult to think of Gia as my sister-in-law. “Yes… Mrs. Dorsey.”

“Good luck. You’re going to need it,” Tom said as I walked away.

I didn’t need luck. What I needed was to be charming as fuck and get my new sister-in-law to quit looking at me like I was a chewed-up piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her Louboutins—real ones now that she and Trent were married, not the knockoffs she used to wear.

Eating crow had become my specialty since returning to Mystique. It tasted foul in my mouth, yet here I was, willing to eat another huge helping.

“May I help you?” Penny said as she positioned herself between me and Gia’s office door.

God, not this again. I was tired of being treated as a second-class citizen instead of a member of one of the most prestigious families in the hotel industry. “I’m here to see Gia.”

Penny held up a finger. “Let me see if she’s ready for you.” She disappeared into Gia’s office, closing the door in my face.

I paced back and forth in front of her door. My time was as valuable as Gia’s. More valuable, in my opinion. Being kept waiting annoyed me, but that was the whole point. This was a power play to remind me of my disgraced status. To let me know I wouldn’t be let off the hook. I glanced at my watch again. It was officially three minutes past our agreed meeting time.

Late.

I hated late.

The door opened and Penny stepped out. “Mrs. Dorsey will see you now.”

I pasted on a smile. “Thank you.”

Penny held the door open, and I headed toward Gia, who stood in front of her desk. She wore a black pencil skirt, an emerald-green blouse, and sky-high black heels on her feet. Her vibrant red hair was twisted into a professional updo. Diamonds sparkled where they hung from her ears. She was gorgeous. I always thought Gia was attractive, but she’d upped her game. My brother was a lucky son of a bitch.

Speaking of the devil, Trent sat on the leather couch pushed against the far wall with a bag of microwave popcorn on his lap. He gave me a cutesy wave, fluttering his fingers at me.

“I thought this meeting was between you and me,” I said to Gia without taking my eyes off my brother .

“Don’t worry about me. I’m just here for the show,” he said, tossing a few kernels of popcorn into his mouth and chewing obnoxiously loud.

“Trent, I only agreed to let you be here if you kept your mouth closed,” Gia chastised him.

My brother mimed locking his lips with a key and tossing it over his shoulder.

“Thank you.” She turned to me and motioned to the chairs in front of her desk. “Please have a seat, Hunter.”

It was cute the way my brother listened to his wife. My father kowtowed the same way to Rose. I vowed to never bow down to a woman. There was a certain order in the world that would turn to chaos if the power hierarchy shifted. If love turned you into a wet noodle of a man, I wanted nothing to do with it. The current situation was humiliating enough.

“Thank you for seeing me, Gia.” I forced a smile I didn’t feel. Everyone knew I was an asshole. I owned it, lived up to it, and had been rolling around in bed with it for years. Apologizing went against everything I believed in.

She sat behind her desk with an equally fake smile. “Of course. What is it you want to talk to me about?”

As if she didn’t know. As if she and Trent hadn’t been motherfucking me behind my back for months. “I owe you an apology.”

Gia raised an eyebrow and leaned forward on her desk, clasping her hands. “Oh, really? Whatever for?”

“You know what for.”

“I’m not sure I do. You did a lot of shitty things to me, so excuse me if I need you to be a bit more specific.”

I should have known she wouldn’t make this easy. “I’m sorry I invaded your privacy and recorded you and Trent having sex.”

She motioned her hand for me to continue.

“And for emailing the video to everyone in the office.”

“You humiliated me.”

I sighed. “I know. It was the wrong thing to do. I shouldn’t have let you become a casualty of my anger with Trent. I was so hell-bent on exposing him that I didn’t consider the ramifications. ”

Gia tapped her fingers together. “I see. Anything else you’d like to apologize for?”

Anything else? Did she realize how rare apologies from me were? She’d already gotten more than anyone else in my life. “Like what?”

“Here we go,” Trent chimed in from the corner.

Both Gia and I glared at him as he threw more popcorn into his mouth. It irritated the fuck out of me. “Enjoying yourself?” I asked.

“Immensely. Please continue.” More obnoxious chewing followed.

Gia turned her attention back to me. “Let’s see… what else could you possibly have to apologize for? How about propositioning me like a whore? How about treating me like a floozy instead of a professional? Or maybe for trying to single-handedly destroy my career? For not taking me seriously?” Her neck turned red and her carefully contained rage exploded. “For letting the whole goddamn office see me come! You tried to ruin my reputation and my life!”

Bam! Bam! Bam! The hits kept on coming. When she put it that way, it sounded worse than I remembered. “I’m sorry for all of it. I shit on you, and you didn’t deserve it. I have no excuse.”

She took several deep breaths through her nose in an effort to bring her blood pressure back to normal. “It’s a start. I accept your apology, but I haven’t forgiven you and I sure as hell haven’t forgotten.”

That was obvious. “Tell me, what can I do?” It was a dangerous question. A woman scorned and all that.

Gia tapped a manicured nail against her ruby-red lips. “I’m so glad you asked.”

Fuck! Whatever this was, I wasn’t going to like it.

“Trent and I haven’t gotten to meet our niece yet, and from what I hear, she’s quite the cutie. Soooo… I’d like to invite you to our apartment this Saturday for family dinner.”

Fuck that! I turned to Trent and glared at him. “That’s a firm no.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It was her idea.”

Gia rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did that sound like a request? What I meant to say is we’re having a family dinner, and you’re expected to be there. I want to meet Carina. ”

“I have plans,” I lied. I had no objection to Gia meeting Carina but spending an entire evening with my family sounded like medieval torture.

“Cancel them. If you want back in this family, then I’m your ticket. I don’t know if you know this, but your father adores me. I wouldn’t want to have to tell him you’re creating a hostile work environment.”

I gnashed my teeth. “This is blackmail.”

She waved her hand at me dismissively. “Call it what you like. Six o’clock. Casual attire.”

“Fine!” I stood abruptly and headed toward the door.

“One more thing,” Gia announced.

I halted and looked over my shoulder. “What?”

“Bring Charli.”

I ignored her demand and stormed out.

The day kept getting better and better!