Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“It was fine.”
Her nose wrinkled in disbelief.
“I mean it, Sia. They didn’t even say much. I didn’t keep this a secret on purpose. You’ve just been…” I swung my gaze to Jake. “Preoccupied.”
“Addison.” Her voice softened. “You can tell me anything at any time.”
“I know—”
“Just tell her!” Jake threw his hands in the air. “Sorry. I want her to know so we can talk.” He gave me a look. “So we can talk about the other thing.”
“The other thing?” Sia echoed him, confused.
The other thing was Cole. My insides twisted in a knot. I figured Jake had guessed that Cole was our landlord, but I didn’t relish the idea of having conversations about him.
“Yeah.” I took a breath. “The other thing.”
Sia looked back and forth between us before shaking her head again. “Okay, someone start. I’m dying to know what I’m missing. Missy mentioned there were two delicious-looking guys at the party, but she didn’t catch their names.” Her forehead wrinkled. “Wait. She told me one, but she didn’t know the other…” Her wheels were spinning, and then it hit her. Her eyes got big and wide. “Oh, holy shit. No way. You guys talked to Carter Reed?” She turned to Jake. “The Carter Reed, the mob guy?”
He nodded.
“So?! You guys have to tell me everything now.”
“Okay. Okay.” I held up a hand. “You need to sit down because I know you’re going to get worked up about the first part.”
“She might get worked up about the other part, too,” Jake mumbled, scanning his place. “You can’t throw anything, Si. Promise me that.”
“Huh?”
I ignored that and waited for Sia to sit. Once she did, I took another breath. “First, you have to promise me you won’t do anything.”
“Why would I do that?” She shot Jake a look too. “Why would I throw anything?”
“Sia, promise.”
“Okay. I promise.” She drew an invisible X over her heart. “You get my drift.”
One breath. Then I started. “My in-laws were there with Mahler because he’s representing them against me.”
She turned to look at Jake, but kept quiet.
“And Jake is representing me against them.”
“What’s the case?”
I kept going, not skipping a beat. “They’re suing me about the house, but it’s a bullshit case. They have nothing legal to stand on.”
“What?” Her mouth dropped.
I nodded. “They’re saying I don’t have the right to sell the house, that Liam bought it with their money.”
“Assholes!” Sia said. “What complete, utter assholes. Who do they think they are?” She jumped up and started pacing. Her hands were flying in the air. “And let me guess, next they’ll say you don’t get Liam’s inheritance? I bet they’ll try. I bet that’s why they started with this lawsuit. Don’t tell me—they had to see your bank statements?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Her head bobbed up and down. “I’m livid at them. I want to cast them out of every social event in the city. Wait.” She stopped in her tracks. “Can I do that? How connected are they?”
“And that brings us to the other thing,” Jake announced.
“What thing?” Sia turned to her boyfriend.
Jake glanced to me, and his shoulders rose slowly before he said, “Our landlord.”
“What?”
I fought against squirming in my seat. Sia read body posture like no other. If I started fidgeting, she’d know immediately something more was going on. I tried to keep a stone face.
“Cole Mauricio,” Jake said.
“Who?” The ends of her mouth dipped down. “That’s the name of this building.”
“We met him last night, too,” he added.
“I’m confused.” Sia’s gaze skirted between the two of us.
Jake was waiting for me, but I shook my head. I was smack in the middle of this “other thing,” but I wanted no part of talking about it. I looked at the elevator with longing. I could escape. I just needed a valid reason to go. Jake could explain all of this without me here, including Liam’s connections to Cole’s rival family. But when he started talking, I didn’t have a good enough excuse. I had to sit and listen, and Jake loved telling her everything.
By the end, her mouth was on the floor. “No fucking way.”
Jake’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “He’s our landlord, Sia. The head of the Mauricio family owns this building.”
“But you aren’t sure?”
“I’m mostly sure, but we can dig it up. There are public records.”
“Whoa.” She leaned back in her seat, fanning herself. “Addision, you had no idea?”
“About Cole?” My words were out before I could stop them. Shit. I hadn’t meant to say his first name, like I knew him. “I mean—what?”
“About Liam and his grandmother.”
“Oh.” The knot that had twisted in my chest as Jake talked loosened slightly. “No. I had no idea, but it makes sense.”
“Yeah. He didn’t like his family, and you’re right. He kept you away from them for so long. That does make sense. A lot makes sense now.”