Page 77 of No Longer Mine

All we could do was wait, and I hated every minute that passed when I couldn’t act. My mother’s face flashed across my phone screen with her incoming call.

“Yes?” I tried to answer softly, even though the thought of her married to such a monster bothered me greatly.

“What’s it like in such a position of power?”

I wished I could tell her the truth. “It’s a lot of forced smiles and bullshit to be honest.”

“Everything you thought it would be?”

“Yes and no.” I didn’t elaborate. I wasn’t a talker.

There was a beat of silence before she let out a breath. “I feel like I’m in the middle of the Cold War.”

What did I say to that? “I’m sorry.” I wasn’t.

“No need to lie. I just miss you. You never come around anymore. When are you going to tell me what happened?”

“When I’m not worried about your phone being bugged.”

She laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “He wouldn’t do that.”

We both knew that he would.

“Why don’t we have lunch soon?”

“Are you and Father coming to the city?”

“We’ve been here for a while. He says he has a lot of business to attend to.”

Women. I closed my eyes and leaned against the corner of my desk. “I would love to have lunch.”

“Why don’t you bring that girl you went out to dinner with the other night?”

“What?”

“Gabriella saw you at Sistina the other night with a redhead. Said you both looked cozy and that it didn’t look like a first date.”

I let out a groan. There were eyes everywhere. How could I protect Scarlett from my father’s wrath, too? I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It was a first date.”

“I would love to meet her.”

I gritted my teeth. “Okay, let me know when you’d like to have lunch.”

If my mother knew about Scarlett, then there was a good chance that my father knew about her. Nothing made me more nervous than that. I grabbed my coat from the back of my leather chair and walked out of my office. Don was waiting for me at my secretary’s desk. Both of his booted feet were kicked up, one ankle crossed over the other. He was flicking his lighter open and then shut.

“Cut that out,” I snapped. “We have work to do.”

“You’ve been working all day. Answering calls, typing away on your computer, brooding. It’s time for dinner and a nightcap. Maybe a drink or two?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I do not brood.”

“Politicians are supposed to be good liars.”

“Sometimes I wonder why I hired you,” I groaned out.

“Sometimes I wonder why you still keep me around, but at least I’m enjoying myself.” He winked at me which gave me the urge to smack the back of his bald head. By some miracle, I refrained.

“Fine, one drink but only after we check on something,” I ground out.