Page 45 of Mile High Baby
“Did you join her for dinner?" Knightly's voice was tinged with disapproval.
Shit. I hadn’t noticed that Knightly and Mrs. Tillis were at the table. Caroline was doing dishes.
“You were up there a long time, Mrs. Tillis said.”
"I was checking the area and upper floors."
Knightly's brows furrowed as he watched me. My stomach clenched as I worried that he knew I was lying. God, if he knew what I'd really been doing, Henry would be on the next flight home to kick my ass. I'd be out of a job for sure for fucking a client. Interesting how my biggest concern was how wrong it was to fuck my friend's daughter and only now did I consider I'd be fired too. Except hadn't Dax's wife been a client?
So what, Sterling?Jesus. Victoria was just a woman I was hopelessly attracted to. It wasn't anything more than lust.
"I do hope she's okay. It's too bad we couldn't invite a friend over. I heard Samantha Layton was back home," Mrs. Tillis said.
"She's got her hands full with Mrs. Layton," Knightly said.
"Yes, of course. Poor thing. Both of them.”
"I’m heading to my room. I'll be checking the house later." Hopefully by that time, Victoria would be done with her terrace outing and Knightly, Mrs. Tillis, and Caroline would be in for the night as well.
“I'll go up and see if she needs anything,” Mrs. Tillis said more to Knightly than to me.
Once in my room, I collapsed on the bed, letting my self-loathing consume me. Some was from betraying Henry, but mostly, it was from hurting Victoria. I wondered how Mrs. Tillis would find Victoria. Would she reveal what I’d done to the woman who appeared more motherly than servant? That should have caused fear, but mostly, it caused anguish.
I wallowed long enough that when I returned to the kitchen, it was empty. I went to my work nook and started the evening check-ins with the team, starting with Ian.
"All is well here. Banion is abiding by our rules. Archer made a visit here, which I think impressed the importance of keeping to the plan onto Banion.”
"Good. Any sign of Pitney's goons?”
“If they're here, they're laying low.”
I was glad that Ian understood that simply not seeing signs of danger didn’t mean it wasn’t lurking. “Let me know if anything comes up.”
"Will do."
I disconnected from Ian and contacted Dax, who was in charge of keeping tabs on Pitney’s court case. It occurred to me that I might have to do it when Dax returned home to Las Vegas. That is if Elliott didn't pull the plug on that part of the investigation.
"Hey, Alex. Nothing new to report. Pitney is making PR rounds looking like a fucking hero. He’s made a donation to a homeless shelter to provide education to the kids residing there.”
“What a motherfucker.”
"Yeah, considering many in this shelter are homeless because he evicted them from a new property he bought. I'm not sure if he's going to raze the building or convert it to high end condos, but—”
“What about the D.A.'s case?” What Pitney did with his new building didn’t concern me as much as what he planned for Henry.
“Yeah, well, Pitney's uptake in popularity has the D.A. even more uncertain about pursuing prosecution on what little evidence of fraud that they have."
"Fuck.” I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger.
“We did learn that a news piece about the evictions is about to be published on all of Banion’s media properties. That could push Pitney to do something."
It likely would, but Pitney wasn’t stupid. “Maybe, but my guess it would be like all the other cases. We wouldn’t be able to link him to anything he did to Henry.”
“We could still set him up. With him out of town, the daughter could be—”
"No!" I probably said that with more emotion than I should. "She's already had her life upended by Henry. Besides, Henry wouldn’t go for that.”
"Alright. It's your call."