“Thank God you’re here, Remy.”
“Estelle. What brings you by?”
“It’s Devon. I think he’s in trouble.”
“Why do you tink dat?”
“I got a really weird voicemail from him. Here, let me play it for you.” She put her phone on speaker and dialed her voicemail so he could hear the message.
“Shit, shit, shit. Estelle, I need you to go to Remy. Don’t call me, just go see him.” There was some background noise that sounded like a door hitting the wall and the call ended.
“Where was he today?”
“He was supposed to be at work but I called and his secretary said she hasn’t seen him. I’m worried, Remy.”
“Don’t worry, cher. I’ll find out what’s goin’ on. For now, I’m gonna take you out to da compound to visit wit’ my sister-in-law, Mia. She’ll help keep you from worryin’ yourself sick.”
“Okay. What could he have gotten himself mixed up in, Remy?”
“I’m not positive, but I have some ideas. No’ting I’m gonna share wit’ you,” he said as he escorted her outside.
Estelle was clinging to his arm as he guided her toward his truck. A sound caught his attention and his head snapped up. His eyes locked with Kylie’s and he knew, immediately, that she had jumped to all sorts of conclusions and every damn one of them was wrong. “Fuck,” he said under his breath. “Kitten, wait.”
Kylie shook her head, eyes wide and filled with hurt, before she turned and rushed away from him.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Sorry, Estelle,” he said when he realized he’d said that out loud.
“Why do I get the feeling the young woman who was just here is someone you’re interested in and she just got the wrong idea?”
“Because she is, and she did.” He wanted nothing more than to go after her but he had to take care of this first. As soon as he got in the car he hit the Bluetooth on his phone and called Emelise.
“Hey, Remy. What’s up?”
“I’ve got a bit of a problem. Da wife of a friend of mine came to see me—her husband left her an odd voicemail, and I’m bringin’ her out to da compound to visit wit’ Mia. Problem is, Kylie saw us and got da wrong idea. Will you call her, make sure she’s okay?”
“Damn, Remy, how do you manage to get yourself in these kinds of messes?”
“Just lucky, I guess,” he grumbled. “Will you call her and check on her, please?”
“Of course I will. I’m just giving you a hard time. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get the chance to explain it and clear things up with her soon enough.”
“I hope so,” he said and hung up so he could concentrate on the drive out of the city.
Kylie
Kylie couldn’t breathe. It felt like her heart was shattered into a million tiny pieces and she didn’t understand it. Why did seeing him with that woman on his arm hit her so hard? It wasn’t like they were together or anything. She had no interest in getting involved with anyone, ever again, so why was she so bothered? It didn’t make any sense to her.
When her phone started ringing, she almost ignored it. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. At least she didn’t have to worry about it being Ezra. The phone she had was new, one she’d gotten with her first paycheck from her job at the club. She saw it was Emelise calling and forced a cheerful tone to her voice. “Hey, Emelise. How’s the inventory going?”
“Hey, Kylie. It’s going. That’s not why I’m calling, though. I just got a call from Remy. No, hear me out before you say anything,” she said when she heard Kylie take a breath in preparation of interrupting her. “He asked me to call you because he said you saw him in town and jumped to wrong conclusions.”
Kylie laughed bitterly. “Wrong conclusions. Right. What conclusion am I supposed to come to when I see him walking towards his truck with some gorgeous brunette clinging to him?”
“If you have no context to explain what you saw, I suppose I can see why you’d jump to the conclusion that he’s interested in the woman. That’s what you think, right?”
“What else am I supposed to think, Emelise?”
“Kylie, honey, calm down. That woman is the wife of a friend of his. She went to Remy because of a weird voicemail her husband left that has her worried. He’s taking her out to visit with Mia while he looks into it. That’s what you saw. Not what you’re thinking you saw.”
Kylie closed her eyes. She wanted to believe but… “How do you know he’s not making it up?”
“Because that’s not the kind of person Remy is. Kylie, sweetie, don’t let that bastard, Ezra, color the way you see other men. They’re not all like him and Remy isn’t interested in anyone but you. Why don’t you come to the club? We can order something in for lunch and talk more.”
She debated a moment before she gave in. “Okay. See you in a bit.”
“Good. I’ll order pizza. See you in a bit,” Emelise said and hung up.
Kylie stood there, letting the hot sun beat down on her for several minutes before she gave herself a mental shake and headed over to Scarlet Flux. Maybe Emelise was right. Maybe she should give Remy the benefit of the doubt until she had the chance to confront him about what she saw, or thought she saw.
