Saving Us (The Billionaire Brothers of NY Duology #1)

11. Harper

CHAPTER 11

Harper

“ P lease tell me it’s almost closing time,” I complained to Pete as I handed him some empty glasses. “And I need two whiskeys, neat, a chardonnay, two bottles of Lite, and one Manhattan.”

As much as I didn’t want to see Gage all over that leggy blonde, I still would have preferred to be in their room. The bachelor party in the other lounge had begun to get out of hand with some of the guys even encouraging their conquests of the night to dance on the tabletop. And the girls were more than willing to oblige if it kept them in the lounge room, they weren’t fools.

Pete rushed around behind the bar, filling my order as I looked between both rooms. Gage’s group was…civilized. They were talking, laughing, drinking, but with both their feet on the ground and all their clothes on. I didn’t need to look to the other side to know that several guests were in different stages of undress, some on tables, some on chairs, some on top of other people on tables or chairs.

It hasn’t been easy distracting myself from Gage’s interest in that tall beauty. Or in the way our interaction went the complete opposite of how I wished it had. Knowing he was here on business, I worked hard to keep our conversation professional, but that seemed to backfire.

“It’s like a fucking frat party over there,” Pete said.

“No, this is worse. Most of these guys have wedding rings on. This is way worse.” But we’ve all seen our share of forbidden secrets while working at this place that must stay locked up in our individual vaults. I could literally write one of those spicy romance novels Vic and I always read.

Pete slid the tray full of drinks to the edge of the bar top, and I secured it under my hand before lifting it high above my head.

“And no, sweetheart, we still have another hour to go,” Pete told me, the disdain plain in his voice.

My head snapped his way, and my disappointment had to be all over my face.

“It’s okay, you’ve got this. And I’m right here if you need me,” he offered. “Go make us that amazing tip you always do and before you know it, you’ll have those feet wrapped cozy in your socks and your body cuddled up in your bed.”

He had me dreaming of my night ahead as I strode into the land of the misbehaved, and I wasn’t paying attention as well as I should’ve been. I didn’t quite walk into him; it was more like he jumped down from the table next to me, landing at my feet.

My grip on the tray wasn’t the issue.

It was the fact that I had to move the tray to my side, out of his way, to avoid him knocking it out of my hands. That allowed our bodies to…collide. We were chest to chest.

“Whoa, sorry, beautiful. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, reaching out to steady both of us as my feet stumbled a bit.

But his hands didn’t grip me in what would be considered a usual or appropriate place. No, I felt his arms go around my waist and hips. Then his hands landed firmly on my ass, gripping it with his fingers, literally digging them into me right at the hem of my shorts.

But I kept my cool, looking up into his eyes. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy if you could see past his sweaty, drunken state. His shirt was undone by about three buttons, and his tie was barely hanging around his neck. But his smile was genuine as he tried to stay upright, his body leaning into mine. And at least he wasn’t one of the married ones, or well, he didn’t have a ring on. I got the feeling that if he remembered this in the morning, he would actually regret it. Didn’t excuse where his hands were, but so many of these guys did stupid shit when they were this drunk.

“I’m fine,” I said as sweetly, but neutrally, as possible. My eyes then gestured to the large tray of drinks above our heads. “One of these yours, by chance? I do need to keep working, ya know. Your buddies need their drinks still.”

He pulled away, but only by inches, refusing to let go of the hold he had on me.

“Let me put this down, okay?”

Twisting my body toward the table next to us, I was able to place the tray on the surface, the drinks safe. But somehow his hold remained on me, only now it moved to my hips, dangerously inching lower. I wasn’t happy with that.

“You are so hot.” His words were slurred as he spoke up against my ear. Then I felt the entire length of his body up against the back of me and my original opinion of him changed. I needed to put an end to this.

Grabbing one of the beers from the tray, I spun around again, realizing I was more comfortable when we were face to face. This happened at times here, and I always got myself out of it. Sometimes it took a bit more work than others.

“Thanks, but let’s cool you off with one of these, okay?”

Grabbing one of his hands away from me, I forced the beer bottle into his grip. He looked down at it as if confused by how it got there but proceeded to put it back on the tray. I took advantage of that and pulled away, creating about a foot of space between us. I smiled wide as I went to pick up the tray, but his hand forcefully pushed the tray back to the table. Some of the drinks rattled, and I needed to steady the bottles.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry about that,” he said. And he sounded truly apologetic.

I turned to him, his hands now up in a defensive move.

“But what’s wrong, can’t we hang for a bit?” he asked.

Keeping my smile in place, I gave him my routine response.

“I’ve gotta keep working. I’m on duty here, taking care of both rooms. Matter of fact, I’m getting behind. There’s definitely some food I was supposed to bring out to this room by now. I should probably go check on that.”

The mention of food usually gets most guys’ heads thinking in a different direction, allowing me to break away.

But not this guy. Even though he wasn’t the most obnoxious I’d run into, he was very persistent.

“Take a look around, no one here is missing any food you might need to get. Everyone is either too wasted or busy with someone,” he said as he scanned the room. “Let’s just go hang out by the rail and talk for a bit.”

“I really can’t, I…”

He attempted to pull me toward the rail, but I resisted, pushing him off me as nonchalantly as I could.

And then I heard that deep, familiar voice again.

“I think you must not understand the message she’s sending you.”

The harshness of his clipped words and how he said them should have made me jump, but it didn’t. Instead, a calm settled through me, and I didn’t need to turn to see who it was.

His voice was already recognizable to me.

But my aggressor jumped, and the anger poured out of him with Gage’s words.

“Who the fuck are you?” He stepped back as he postured himself, pushing his chest out as he stood up tall.

It was then that I was able to completely back away and observe the scene since the drunk guy was now distracted. And his loud words attracted the attention of some of his friends, but Gage didn’t seem to care as he stood toe to toe, towering over him, staring him down.

Gage looked lethal.

“It doesn’t matter who I am.”

His words were measured, calm, and murderous.

“She was clearly trying to get back to work, and more importantly, trying to get your hands off her. She was just too nice to tell you to fuck off.”

But now his words made me nervous. This was my job, my wages, and he was putting them both in jeopardy. My eyes scanned the room for Pete, hoping he was witnessing this and would help me take control of the situation, help me put an end to it before Dean, the manager, showed up.

“I’m fine, Gage, really.” My hand landed on his taut forearm in an attempt to pull him away from my offender, and thankfully that got his attention. His eyes landed on mine, but the rage in them took me off guard. They softened slightly before he turned back toward the drunken asshole.

“Well, let’s just make sure you’re fine,” Gage said as he started moving forward, making the other guy take steps back.

But then the other guy stopped.

And they were chest to chest.

“Dude, I’m not afraid of you.” Though, as the guy said it, his voice cracked, and he couldn’t quite keep his eyes on Gage completely.

And none of his friends moved close to him in a show of support.

He was completely alone.

“I think you should be,” Gage said. “You owe her an apology,” Gage’s hands fisted at his sides as he restrained his anger.

The guy laughed out loud. “For what? She rubbed her body up against me, she was coming on to me first, dude.”

My body stiffened in anger at his lies, and I wanted to intervene. But I knew I couldn’t, he was a customer.

But Gage wasn’t done.

“I watched the entire scenario asshole, that is not how it happened. Care to try again?”

The guy stared up at Gage, caught in his lie, getting more agitated. He was bouncing back and forth on his feet, his eyes now shifting from Gage to the ground. Suddenly, his hands came up, pushing Gage at the chest. “Fuck you, asshole! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Gage looked down at the guy, I think somewhat startled that he even touched him.

“That was a mistake.” Gage’s voice was calculated.

His one hand went around the guy’s neck, gripping it tight. And then he was almost holding him by the throat, the guy’s legs flailing, as they both scrambled across the floor. Chairs scraped along the tiles and got pushed aside by their advancing bodies, as Gage threw his opponent onto an empty table that skidded to a stop against a wall.

My heart was pounding as I looked around the room, noticing the horrified faces of all the guests. Even some people from Gage’s room had joined to watch the show he was putting on, including his brother, Chase.

Chase had a proud grin on his face.

I, on the other hand, was mortified.

But it was anger that bubbled to the top.

I was no damsel in distress who needed saving. Even though this guy was a tougher character to get rid of than most, I would’ve been fine, even if Gage hadn’t stepped in.

“What’s going on?”

Pete’s worried words echoed my concern for the growing spectacle that Gage was creating as he continued his assault on the guy, pinning him to the table while muttering words in his face.

“We have to stop him, Pete, before Dean gets word of this.” As I moved toward the two men in an attempt to pull them apart, I felt an arm grab me by the middle.

“Uh-uh, if he thought this guy was trouble, you’re not going anywhere near this. Stay away, princess. I’ll take care of this.”

Pete hustled to the chaotic scene and reached for Gage by the shoulder to pull him off the guy. He finally got them separated, and we were able to see the blood coming from the guy’s mouth as he lay splayed across the table. Gage, fully enraged, pulled back and spun around with a formed fist, ready to fight, but stopped when he saw it was Pete.

“Dude, we can’t have you doing this here,” Pete said, trying to calm him down. “C’mon back to your room, man. He’s not worth it. He won’t be bothering Harper anymore.”

Gage’s eyes surveyed the room, taking stock of the amount of people watching what went down. He looked at the guy on the table, now moving away, over to his friends, away from us.

And then his eyes found me.

But I thought I’d see something very different in them. He had just gotten done fighting someone for me, in my defense.

But what I saw in his eyes was anger.

The pit in my stomach clenched tight as I fought back tears. And I hated that he solicited this response in me.

This was why I’d sworn off men in my life. My visceral response was always too raw, too na?ve. I put too much stock in trusting them and their intentions.

And it always fucked me over.

And right on cue…

“Gage, are you okay?”

The gorgeous, leggy blonde had come to take care of him, rubbing his face as she wrapped her body around his in every way she could.

“I’m fine,” he said.

But his eyes remained on me. He allowed her to take his hand, but he walked toward me with her by his side and I felt trapped. I didn’t want to talk to him, not after the searing look he’d just given me.

And how it crushed me.

“Harper,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. “I’m sorry if that caused you any trouble, but I couldn’t stand by and watch that.”

We both looked into the other room, noticing the guests were packing up and starting to head out. Apparently, the fight put a damper on the mood. I didn’t care, I was happy to see them go. But I was nervous that the main client wasn’t going to be happy with his night being cut short, and our tip would be affected.

“At least they’re leaving,” Gage said.

“Yes, that’s good,” the blonde said. “What happened, Gage?”

“Chelsea, can you go get our coats? I think it’s time for us to leave as well.”

“Of course, baby,” she cooed.

And I almost vomited in my mouth.

My dagger eyes shot to his, but he refused to look at me. The anger that rolled off me had my muscles tensing as my fists coiled at my sides.

Thankfully, Pete came to my rescue. His arms came around my shoulders and he pulled me in for a hug, a kiss to the top of my head. He knew me well enough to know that I wasn’t happy with how my current conversation was going.

“Hey, guys, it’s almost closing time, so with everything that’s happened, maybe we should call it a night with everyone, what do you think?” Pete said.

Gage shoved his hands into his pants pockets before letting out a sigh. “Listen, I’ll talk to your manager if necessary to explain the situation and let him know that there was nothing either of you did wrong. That this was all on me.” There was a bit of shame in his words but not enough to satisfy me.

Pete shook his head before responding. “No worries, man. I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

Gage nodded before walking off.

Turning toward Pete, my eyes watered, the anger now converting into frustration.

“What the fuck?” I yelled.

Pete squeezed me harder, though it didn’t make me feel any better about what Gage had done to us, to me, tonight.

And that was it.

The rooms cleared out, and Pete and I were left alone.

Left to clean up the physical mess left behind. And I was left hoping I wasn’t going to pay deeply for the emotional mess he left, as well.

“Holy shit!” Pete screamed. He was running back into the lounge room as I was sweeping the floors and finishing the mopping. He ran right to me, lifted me up and spun me around in circles until I was dizzy.

“Oh my God, Pete. Stop, I’m going to throw up! What’s up?”

He finally put me down, and at least I had my sneakers on so my feet were steady.

“You’re never going to believe this, Harper,” Pete said. He was so excited, his smile made me laugh.

“What, Pete? Jeez, what are you so happy about?”

“Oh, sweetheart, come on over here,” he said as he strutted to the bar. “You’ll need to sit down for this.” He pulled out a stool, and I sat as he went to the other side so he could face me.

He tossed a thick white envelope onto the bar between us.

Thick white envelopes usually only meant one thing.

And I never had thick white envelopes handed to me. Ever.

“Pete, where did you get that?” I reached out, afraid that it wasn’t real.

But then Pete pulled out another of equal size from his back pocket. “This one’s mine.”

“Pete, what’s going on?”

He pushed the envelope toward me, but I was still hesitant to pick it up. Good things like this didn’t happen to me. I’ve had to work hard for everything I’ve ever gotten in my life.

My dad was my favorite person when I was a little girl. We had a special relationship. I was your typical “daddy’s little girl.” And I think because he and I had such a strong bond, my mom and I weren’t very close when I was young. We lived a comfortable life in New Jersey, and they were both hard workers. My dad worked in an insurance office, a typical nine-to-five, and my mom was a hairdresser. That most likely played a role as well, since she worked so many nights and weekends, those were the hours I had with my dad alone.

But then my dad got sick. And I was young. He died when I was thirteen. Needless to say, I was crushed, destroyed. But so was my mom. I was too young to really understand how much in love they really were, consumed by my own life. But seeing how lost she was without him, it was obvious. Through our loss of him, we became closer. It wasn’t a very typical mother-daughter relationship, but we created one.

But we found out, even though my father worked for an insurance firm, he didn’t have his own life insurance policy. My parents were not prepared for him to leave us so early. Life became harder. My mom needed to take on another job, and when I was old enough, I had to work to help pay the bills as well.

She has since moved to Florida, enjoying the sun in her retirement. I see her when I can, which isn’t often because it takes money to get there that I can’t spare. But we talk a couple times a week. And in recent years, I can say our relationship has gotten even stronger, even if it was only from our chats over the phone.

But things were never just handed to me. I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten.

So, staring at this envelope, this fat envelope, made me nervous.

Because good things didn’t happen to me.

“Pete, where did this come from?”

“Well,” he said, “turns out your buddy tonight must have thought that the bachelor party would stiff us. To be honest, I thought they were going to as well, but they didn’t.” He pulled out another envelope, one that more commonly resembled our tips after a lounge night. “Seems the bachelor felt really bad. I guess that asshole was his soon-to-be brother-in-law, and he made sure to leave us a tip, a pretty decent one.”

I looked inside and found a thousand dollars, five hundred for each of us. A very generous tip, all things considered. Closing the envelope, I rubbed my finger along the edges, my nerves ratcheting up. Pete pushed the other envelope across the bar top.

“There’s a note inside.”

“Just tell me who it’s from, Pete, and how much it is.” Although, it was pretty obvious who it had to be.

“Sweetheart, your boyfriend from tonight, well, in addition to keeping you safe, took care of us. He left five thousand dollars, for each of us.”

What?

“Read the note, sweetie. Although, I’m sure yours says something a bit different than mine does.” He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Don’t take long, I’m walking you home and I’m leaving in ten minutes. So, get your sweet ass downstairs soon.”

He left me with my envelope and my note.

Harper,

I hope this finds you well. My apologies if what happened tonight caused you any issues with your boss. That wasn’t my intention. But I won’t apologize for what I did. I couldn’t stand by and watch him do that to you. It pained me to see you in that situation and I’d do anything to know you’d never be in one like it again.

The included money is to cover my tip and what I’m assuming will be lost wages for the other room. I’m thinking they won’t be leaving you the tip you deserve. I hope this more than covers both.

Gage

Well, I knew I should be thrilled. And I was.

Five thousand dollars.

It would have taken another two to three months to make that much in tips, and Gage gave it to me in one night.

But why did I still feel like crying?