“Yeah. I, uh, I do.”
He pointed to the hall and the guest bedroom. “What about Felice? And the very clear, completely unambiguous company policy about romantic interactions between supervisors and employees?”
“I think maybe I had a moment of clarity tonight.”
“Really? When did that happen? In between rushing to save Felice from a gun-wielding assailant and watching your sister-in-law get handcuffed and shoved into the back of a police cruiser?”
“I can’t pinpoint the exact moment. But hiding out in that tiny little bathroom with you, and then walking back here with you, it struck me that things could have gone sideways a couple of times tonight. What if we hadn’t gotten that gun away from Garrett? What if the bullet from Madelyn’s gun—I don’t know, what if it had ricocheted, and hit one of us? I don’t want to watch you drive awaytonight, Whelan, and wonder what if? What you said earlier, about wanting to be with me, and wanting more? You were right. I do want more. Ideservemore. And I don’t want to waste any more time thinking about the what-ifs.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. “Well, since you put it like that, I don’t think the company policy is going to be a problem anymore. Because I quit.”
Traci frowned. “You can’t quit.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re fired. I’ll file the paperwork first thing in the morning.”
“Me? Why?”
She started to unbuckle his belt, but thought better of it. Instead, she took his hand in hers and began to lead him in the direction of her bedroom.
“Sexual harassment,” she said.
He stopped and pulled her toward him. “Sounds promising.”
CHAPTER 75
Six Weeks Later
Traci was loading groceries into her car when she glanced across the street and spotted the black Porsche. It was parked in a handicapped parking space. Typical.
She was waiting, leaning against the hood of his car, when Ric Eddings emerged from the liquor store with what she assumed was a handle of scotch wrapped in a brown paper sack.
He clicked the remote to unlock the Porsche, ignoring her presence. He tried to step past her, but she didn’t budge, deliberately blocking access in the narrow slot.
“Do you mind?” He was looking up the street, shifting from one foot to the other, impatient to get away, either from the parking services officer, whose light utility vehicle was paused up the street a block away, or from Traci.
“Actually, I do. I’ve been calling and texting for the past six weeks. We need to talk, Ric.”
He scowled. “I’ve got nothing to say to you. Or your little protégé.”
“Are you referring to Olivia? Your half sister?”
“Get away from me,” Ric said, deliberately hip-checking her. She bumped him back hard, apparently catching him off guard, because he went sprawling onto the asphalt road.
He scrambled to his feet, his face flushed with a mixture of rage and embarrassment. “You fucking bitch. I’ll see you and yourscammer friend in court. I don’t care how long it takes. She’s not getting a dime of the old man’s money.”
Traci cocked her head to get a good look at him. His nose was bulbous, the veins enlarged, and the whites of his eyes were yellowish. He’d lost weight and his expensive golf clothes hung off his formerly stocky frame. His hair needed cutting, and he’d started growing a patchy beard, which was coming in gray. He was aging before her eyes.
“Hope you hired a better lawyer than that hack you got to draw up that last will of Fred’s,” she taunted.
“You’re the worst thing that ever happened to my family,” Ric said, turning back to the Porsche. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
She was unmoved by her brother-in-law’s hostility. “You’d like to blame everything that’s happened on me, wouldn’t you? But here’s the thing, Ric.”
She tapped his chest with her forefinger, and he slapped her hand away, but she was undeterred.
“You are the architect of all your own misfortune. You screwed around on Madelyn, so she screwed around on you with Garrett as payback because she knew that prenup meant she’d get nothing if she left the marriage. You tried to screw me over by having your father’s will rewritten, but all you managed to do was screw yourself—because you didn’t know you had a secret half sister.”
