“I’m going home today,Slade.”
“What the hell? We have an agreement. You’re not due to leave for another threedays.”
She nodded, but somehow her agreement didn’t soothe the panic that was building within him. “It’s true. I was supposed to stay for a few more days. But, when I get a call from my contractor asking me what paint color I want to select for the renovations I apparently sanctioned after one of my stores was burglarized, I think it’s probably best if I carry my ass homeimmediately.”
His mouth suddenly dry, Slade swallowed slowly. It was both from physical need as well as an attempt to stall for time for him to get hisbearings.
On some level, he’d always known this moment was coming. He’d assumed he’d have time to prepare her for it, get her to understand the purpose of his deception. Explain the role he played in this lie so he would look more like a savior than asinner.
Not likethis.
Like this, he could see the anger burning in her molten eyes. He could see the anguish of his lie in her rigid stance. With each labored breath she huffed, he could see the cracks in the foundation of theirrelationship.
“Darlin’, you need to let meexplain.”
She squinted, sharp lines spreading on the side of her eyes as her steely gaze evaluatedhim.
“Let you explain what, Slade? The fact that you used our wager to hold me hostage in Texas while someone was ransacking one of my stores? The fact that you went behind my back and enlisted my best friend and employee to lie to me about something important going on in my company? Or are you going to explain how you could violate my trust the way you have? What exactly can you fucking explain tome?”
She stomped away from him, returning to the closet. When she re-entered the bedroom, she flipped the lid to her suitcase open and threw the armful of clothing in without bothering to sort or foldit.
The sound of the zipper closing pulled him out of the deep freeze he’d been standing in. He closed in on her, not caring if she belted him for invading her space. Lord knew he deserved it if she did. But he had totry.
“Mandisa, I know you’re pissed. You have every right to be. I should’ve told you. But Icouldn’t.”
“Whynot?”
“Because your store being vandalized was just one step in Bull’s plot to force you to accept his original terms of purchase. I was trying to protectyou.”
“Bull might run shit in Texas, but for damn sure he doesn’t have shit to say about what goes down in Brooklyn. How was my store being vandalized going to force me to sell tohim?”
Slade released a long, heavy breath, and sat down on the side of the bed. He moved the suitcase out of the way and motioned for her to sit next to him. It almost killed him when she looked at him as if he were asking her to jump off aledge.
Not long ago she would’ve trusted anything he asked of her, but now a simple gesture was met with disdain andmistrust.
She took a moment more before her curiosity won out and she sat next to him. He went to rest a hand on her arm, and she pulled away. Apparently sitting beside him was where she drew theline.
“The Pitkin Avenue store was supposed to be the first of your stores to be hit. Aaron uncovered that Bull actually planned to have all of your stores destroyed. With all your stores gone, you couldn’t’ve afforded to rebuild. The only thing you’d have left worth selling was the name and yourformula.”
Her eyes danced back and forth as her mind attempted to process Slade’s revelation. He could almost see the pieces clicking into place for her in herhead.
“Why is my formula so important to a place like Venus? It can’t just be about tapping into the African American market? He could hire people to create a cosmetics line for him. Why does my formula matter somuch?”
“It doesn’t matter at all to Bull. But it matters to C.E. Stuart. They want your formula. It would take them years of study to develop what you’d already created. Buying the rights to all your research and your line would have saved them millions. Bull knew his time was coming to an end with my company. He was attempting to secure a cushy position with C.E. Stuart. He was going to buy your company, then sell it to Stuart before he leftL.I.
“Once we discovered what Bull was up to, I knew I had to do whatever was necessary to protectyou.”
She stood up and walked to the foot of the bed, looking around at the room as if she was cataloguing everything. “You did this to protect me? That’s what you’re tellingyourself?”
“Mandisa?”
“Slade, just stop. This is bullshit, and you know it. Yes, your father was apparently doing some sneaky, dangerous shit. Please explain to me how keeping me in the dark about it protectsme?”
Slade understood her anger. But quite frankly, she was beginning to piss him off with the attitude. Yeah, he’d kept some shit from her, but ultimately he’d kept her safe and stopped the threat against herbusiness.
He stood up, stalking around the end of the bed to meet her. Being as tall and big as he was, Slade was always aware of his body language. He was always afraid of others perceiving him as a threat because of his size. But with Mandisa standing directly in front of him, arms crossed, eyes wide, and chest heaving with anger and defiance, the only person in that room that was possibly in danger washim.
“Slade, I don’t really want to hear your bullshit. You lied to me. That’s all I care about. That’s all thatmatters.”
