“Professor Denike,” she said coldly.
CHAPTER 18
“What areyoudoing here?”Staci asked in shocked anger at seeing her former mentor standing there, who had been the one to take her to court for a second time. Tony’s grip tightened on her, lending her support.
“Can we speak?”
“Speak.”
“Privately?”
“No, if you want to speak, then you can speak right here and right now. However, you will listen to me first.” She didn’t wait for him to respond. “Once I walk out of this building, I will never see you again. You were my mentor when I was young. I looked up to and respected you while I was trying to navigate the adult world at the age of thirteen. You were like a second father to me. I thought I meant something toyou, but when I started being successful outside of working with you, you became jealous and bullied me, along with your friends. It was proven in a court of law, not once, but twice, that the ideas were mine. I even held the patent on them. Now, you and your friends take me back to court with lies. I used to respect you, but no more. I won’t even mention the trust I had in you that you shattered by your actions. In my book, you will never get that back from me.” She crossed her arms over her middle, lifted her head, and looked down her nose at him. “I’m done, I have nothing more to say.” She looked at her empty wrist, then back at him. “You have two minutes of my time, then I’m gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Professor Denike said. “I believed my cousin when he said he could help me get that grant. I believed that I was right, for that, I’m sorry. All I saw was the numbers of that grant and thought I could go places, that I could finally get out of debt.”
“That’s not what the grant money was for,” Jason spoke coldly. “It was specific to helping veterans to get them a new prosthetic, not pay for your personal bills.”
“I know that now.” He sighed heavily and looked at Staci with what she could only describe as puppy dog eyes. It was a disgusting look on a fifty-something-year-old man. It reeked of desperation. “I was wondering if I could work with you.”
The group stared in stunned silence and turnedas one to look at Staci. Her response was delayed by several seconds as she stared at Denike with a completely blank face. Then she tipped her head back and burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she had to lean over and put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. When she stood up again, while still laughing, she turned on her heel, and walked away, never looking back. The group followed her.
Outside, they stood in a circle, and Tony gathered her in his arms. She had stopped laughing by then, and shook her head as she wrapped her own arms around Tony. The hug only lasted a few seconds, then she turned to the others.
“Did he really ask if he could come and work with me?”
“Yep,” Paula laughed. “I can’t believe the audacity he had.”
“Yeah,” Ilsa said with a giggle and a shake of her head. She looked at the group and sighed. “What is everyone going to do now?”
“I’m heading back to Broken Two,” Staci said as she looked at Tony with a raised brow. “Is that okay?”
“That’s fine, is there anything you want to see here, since you’re from here?”
“Nope, I did that before I headed to Colorado months ago. I have no reason to stick around here any longer. Besides, being here put me behind on working on Reid’s leg, which is almost done, and I’vebeen working on Adele’s, and have a meeting with Opal when I get back.”
“Good,” Tony said, and turned to the others.
“We’re going home,” Marcia said, and Lloyd nodded in agreement. Everyone said they would be returning the next day, and Tony turned to Shay.
“What about you?”
“Well, since I’m on leave for thirty days, I was wondering if I could go to this place you told me about, Erin’s Way?”
“I’ll answer here,” Jake said as he held out his hand to shake. “I’m Jake Cogburn, boss of Brotherhood Protectors, Fool’s Gold.”
“I’m Hank Patterson, founder of Brotherhood Protectors, and his boss,” Hank, who had been silent for the last two days said. “You’ve passed the background check, I personally don’t think there would be a problem, but let me call Erin.” He put actions to words and whipped out his phone in front of them and placed the call.
“Hey, Erin, it’s Hank Patterson. I’m in Seattle with the others, the case is over and they’re coming home, I’m going back to Montana. There’s a guy here named?” He looked at Shay with a raised brow.
“Commander Shay Hall,” Shay, Marcia, and Tony said as one.
“Commander Hall.” Hank paused, listening, then smiled into the phone. “He says he’s off for thirty days. Probably twenty-five by the time he gets toColorado.” He listened again and grinned as he hung up and turned back to Shay.
“Erin said it was fine, this way she can meet you, show you around, or have someone show you around, and tell you what you will be doing. If you want, you can even help Tony out at New Double.”
“What’s that?” Shay asked.
As they walked toward their cars, Tony, Marcia, and Lloyd explained what Erin did and about all the irons she had in the fire, along with how everything worked. Shay opted to fly to Colorado with them, and two days later they drove into the driveway, passing beneath the Erin’s Way sign.
