Page 16 of Double Daddies (Dirty Daddies Anthologies #8)
Chapter Three
Elle’s Delicacies, Texas Towers
Elle
“What a damn fool I was to believe a bakery would survive Le Chic Bistro.” The despondency in Elle’s voice rang with mocking clarity in her ears. Her hand fisted, crumbling the eviction notice as if she was strangling the life out of its originator.
The short walk back to the bakery wasn’t enough to calm her tortured mind. Her eyes misted over as she stopped to stare at the shop. Elle’s Delicacies stood as a beacon of elegance in the bustling Texas Tower. The bakery’s interior gleamed with its signature white, silver, and pink color scheme.
Elle struggled to keep back the tears as she walked inside and looked around at the polished white marble countertops contrasting beautifully with the soft pink walls and silver fixtures that caught the morning light streaming through the large windows.
Glass display cases showcased her masterpieces—triple-chocolate éclairs topped with edible silver dust, delicate pink macarons with champagne filling, and her famous red- velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting swirled into perfect peaks.
The shop had been designed exactly to her specifications, sporting custom ovens, specialized display cases, and an Italian espresso machine she had coveted for years.
“How did the meeting go with the Tower’s legal eagle? Are they offering us a reduced rental rate?” Carlos joked from behind the counter as he noticed her hesitating in the door.
Her heart bled as she looked at her two loyal staff members.
They were always willing to put in extra hours if the need arose.
Even though they hadn’t had salary increases for two years, they stuck to her side like glue.
With them, she had found her own little circle.
Not as co-workers, not as friends, but as family.
What would happen to them now? The thought hit her like a punch in the gut. Mia was a single mother, putting herself through nursing school, while Carlos was saving for his wedding… and she couldn’t offer them more than a meager severance package.
“No, I’m afraid not.” She smiled tightly as she joined them behind the counter. “I have some unfortunate news.” With tears burning behind her eyelids, she showed them the notice.
“Double D Acquisitions?” Carlos quickly scanned the document. “Aren’t those the billionaire guys? Drake Gould and Damian White?”
Elle froze, her heart skipping a beat as the names hit her like a thunderclap.
Drake and Damian. Her mind raced as her breath stuttered.
Drake Gould and Damian White. The Double D Duo.
The billionaire moguls splashed across every business magazine, their faces impossible to miss.
Her vision blurred for a moment as the memory of her run two days ago came rushing back.
The flicker of familiarity she had felt then now roared into sharp focus.
“Oh, fuck me,” she breathed softly. “It was them.”
She pressed her fingers against her temples as if she could physically stop the flood of realization crashing into her.
How had she not pieced it together? She had noticed the familiarity, that nagging sense that she had seen them somewhere before, but she had brushed it off.
Too preoccupied and distracted by their sexy physiques and her raging libido.
And now, that chance meeting replayed in her mind like a cruel joke. The men who had made her feel sexy were the very same men who were ripping her life apart.
“What an idiot,” she muttered in a voice tinged with self-loathing.
“I knew they looked familiar. I felt it. And I just… let it go.” Her jaw tightened.
“Not that it would have mattered,” she said bitterly.
“I didn’t know who they were then. I couldn’t have stopped anything, even if I had recognized them.
But still…” Her voice cracked, and she let out a shaky, humorless laugh.
“I bumped into them. Literally. The men who are destroying everything I’ve worked for. And I didn’t even know it. I smiled and apologized to them, Carlos. Smiled… and I had breakfast with them! Like some clueless fool, completely unaware that they were about to pull the rug out from under me.”
Carlos frowned and glanced at Mia with his brow knitting in concern, but Elle wasn’t looking at him anymore.
Her gaze was fixed on some distant point as her mind replayed that morning over and over.
Every second was a fresh sting of humiliation and fury.
She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms as if the pain could ground her.
Her voice thickened with emotions as she whispered brokenly, “Seven years. Gone. And they were right there two days ago, as if the universe just wanted to rub it in my face. I didn’t even see it coming.”
She blinked and looked at her staff.
“Double D Acquisitions is owned by the infamous billionaire duo themselves, as you said, Carlos.” Elle briefly wondered if their meeting had been a chance one but immediately scoffed at the thought. She was a measly bakery owner. She didn’t have anything they could possibly want.
“Didn’t the Tower management inform you of what was happening?” Carlos couldn’t hide his upset.
“No. This notice was the first I received.”
“It’s bullshit! They can’t just kick us out with only a thirty-day notice. Doesn’t the contract protect us in any way?”
“Not against mergers and acquisitions where ownership changes,” she said with renewed anger. “It’s a loophole I didn’t consider.”
“But what about us?” Mia’s voice trembled. “I need this job for tuition.”
“These heartless billionaires probably signed this notice between yacht purchases.” Elle’s tone dripped with disdain. “They don’t see us as people, just obstacles to their next profit margin.”
“If I can’t find another job, I’ll have to kick up my studies.” Mia started crying softly.
“If it wasn’t for Le Chic Bistro, this wouldn’t have been a problem. I would have had the capital to open a new shop. But the past two years have crippled my savings. I’m afraid I’ll have to join the workforce myself to survive.”
Her heart twisted at Mia’s tears, but her resolve hardened as she hugged her. Her voice softened.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll make sure you get severance pay, at the very least. It won’t be much, but?—”
“Elle, no,” Mia interrupted. “You need that money, too.”
“It’s not up for discussion,” Elle said firmly, cutting her off, even as she cringed saying the words.
She would need every penny to survive until she found a source of income, but she would rather eat ramen for months than abandon her people.
At least she could sell the equipment and offer them a couple of months’ worth of salary to tide them over while looking for work.
“I won’t leave you two with nothing. You’ve stood by me all these years. I’ll figure something out for myself. You’ll have a safety net, even if it’s small.”
The guilt that she had failed them gnawed at her, but their loyalty deserved more than empty promises. She forced the bitter thoughts to the back of her mind and planted a neutral expression on her face as the bell above the door jingled.
“The fuck no!” She sneered as she recognized the two men walking into her shop. Her heart skipped a beat as the heat of steel-blue eyes seared over her. “You are not welcome in my shop. Get out.”
“Is that how you greet all your customers?” Drake Gould’s deep voice carried a tinge of amusement, which fired her anger to a boiling point.
“The right of admission is reserved. It says so on the sign outside the shop. I’m reserving my right. Turn your asses around and kindly march out of here.”
Elle couldn’t believe that fate could be that cruel to allow karma to saunter through the door wearing two bespoke suits.
Drake Gould and Damian White—the assholes she couldn’t get out of her mind. Now, she wished that coffee had burned their grins off their faces that morning.
Her shoulders straightened. They might never have met a hostile takeover they couldn’t charm their way through, but they had never backed a baker into a corner, either.
It didn’t matter that they were eyeing her with the same intensity they probably used to devour Fortune 500 companies for breakfast.
What perfect timing. The eviction notice on the counter was still warm from Liam’s printer. The thought did nothing to calm her erratic breathing.
“This,” Drake declared, unperturbed as he sampled a dainty petit four with deliberate slowness, “is dangerous.”
“In case you missed those flashing eyes, I’d say so is she,” Damian drawled with his gaze flickering over Elle’s pristine white apron she was angrily tying around her waist.
“Since you’re clearly ancient, I assume you’re somewhat deaf, too,” she said with disgruntlement, ignoring the shocked looks of Mia and Carlos. “I’m not telling you again… Leave!”
“Well, that’s it,” Drake said with darkening eyes, albeit with a widening grin on his full and, oh, so kissable lips. Suddenly, he appeared twice as tall and powerful. “She just sealed her fate.”
“You called it once again, Drake. She’s the one. So… who’s going to tell her?”
“Oh, that pleasure will be all mine.”
Elle stomped her foot at being blatantly ignored, even while they were eyeing her like their next main course.
“One of you better start talking or leave because I’m done with senile, old men who believe money gives them the right to do what they want.”
“Old and senile… ouch, little girl,” Damian chuckled. “That stings.”
“I am not a little anything. Hit the pavement, assholes.” This time, she didn’t wait for them to react. She stomped to the door and flung it open, ignoring the bell ringing playfully as she pointed outside. “Now!”
“I guess that means she already got the eviction notice,” Damian said with a grimace.
Elle’s eyes flashed dangerously, but she forced the words back that sprang to her lips. Her confidence surged when, in silent acquiescence, they turned and walked toward the door.
“Oh!” she gasped as Drake stopped in front of her to catch her chin in one hand while pressing a business card in her palm with the other. “Let me go!”
“We’re not done, little baker. Not by a long shot. When you’ve calmed down, phone me. We have a proposal for you.”
The dratted man had the audacity to plant a hard kiss on her lips before letting go of her chin and sauntering off as if he hadn’t just sparked a raging fire to life within her.
“Well… that just happened,” Carlos said once the door closed behind the two men. “Care to share with your two very confused employees what that was all about?”
“Yes,” Mia said with wide eyes. “From all counts, it looks to be more like the chance meeting you mentioned.”
“No, that’s all it was. I bumped into them the other day on my morning run.
Until you mentioned their full names, Carlos, I never associated the two men, Drake and Damian, I met with anything other than they were super-hot…
and gay.” She snorted as she looked out the window, but there was no sign of them.
“Well, I thought so at the time, but now they’re just ruthless assholes I don’t want anything to do with. ”
“From the silver fox’s actions, I’d take a wild guess that they’re definitely not gay.
It also sounds like you might not have a choice,” Carlos surmised.
“What kind of proposal do you think he’s talking about?
Do you think it has something to do with Elle’s Delicacies?
Maybe there’s a way we’ll not close our doors? ”
He sounded so hopeful, Elle almost didn’t respond, but at the same time, she didn’t want them to have expectations that would never be realized. She shook her head as she picked up the eviction notice and shook it viciously in the air.
“Men like them don’t offer compromises unless they have something to gain. I’m a broke baker. There’s nothing I have they’d want, believe me.”