Dirty Playboy - Alex Wolf Page 0,85
earlier. He didn’t tell you?”
My heart sinks in my chest, and my stomach tightens even more. What is Rick doing? Fear shoots down my spine. I can’t even speak. I just shake my head.
“What do you mean you fired Rick?” Dexter walks over after clearly hearing what Decker said.
The other brothers, Tate, and Paisley follow. Abigail and Quinn stay at the bar.
Oh no. Now, they’re all going to argue about this and things are going to come out.
Decker turns to him. “I mean what I said. He came into my office, treated me like shit, and refused to do what I asked him to do.” Decker scrubs a hand through his hair. It’s his go-to maneuver when he’s super frustrated.
“What kind of shit did you ask him to do?” Dexter’s jaw tics, like he already knows what it might be about.
“It doesn’t fucking matter. He’s gone. That’s final.”
“Please!”
They all look at me right when I say the word. I didn’t even realize I yelled it so loud, and I shrink back a little and lower my voice. “Please, I’m worried something is really wrong. Can you please go talk to him? Check on him? Do something? He’s not being himself right now. He dumped me earlier, then clearly went straight to your office and pushed you to fire him. Something bad is happening.”
Decker’s about to lose it but manages to stay somewhat in control. “It’s not so—”
“I lied to you.” No going back now, I guess.
“What?” Decker’s eyes widen.
I glance back and forth at Dexter, then at Decker. I don’t want to divide their family, but I want to make sure Rick is okay, and he won’t let me near him. Maybe he’ll let one of these guys help him. “The Wells Covington stuff you had me look into.”
“Oh what the fuck?” says Dexter.
Decker holds up a hand at him. “Not now.” He turns to me. “What do you mean you lied?”
“I told you he knew about me and Abigail looking into him. He knew about Rick, though. I’m sorry, I was trying to protect him. Covington told me he knew things about Rick. Sounded like he was going to threaten you with them if we didn’t leave him alone. I know that’s what this has to be about. Please, will you just go help him? Please?” I don’t know how much harder I can beg for him to do something.
Abigail comes and pulls Dexter away because he’s about to lose it on Decker.
Decker glances to me, then to Tate, then back to me. Finally, he reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Look, Mary, I… Umm, we all liked Rick a lot. I’m going to miss him, and yeah, what he did was uncharacteristic of him. I don’t see how anything I can do would help, though. If Covington was going to threaten his job, it’s a moot point because he doesn’t have one here anymore. I can’t have him working in the office. It’s done. I’m sorry.”
Anger and heat rushes into my face, and I have to hold back the tears. Finally, I just storm through the middle of them, shouldering my way past.
“Mary!” Tate tries to reach for my arm, but I plow through. I glare right at Abigail and Dexter on my way out.
How can they not care about him? After all he’s done for their firm? More than that, they’re supposed to be his friend. As far as I’m concerned, they’re only worried about money and the firm’s wellbeing. Every one of them has caused scenes and gone off the deep end at work before, acted like absolute children. They were all welcomed back as if nothing had happened.
Once I get outside, I just stare at the sky, wondering where Rick is, knowing he’s standing under the same moon and stars, all alone with nobody there. I stand there and I just worry. Worry if he’s safe or not. I don’t know if I’ll ever take him back for treating me this way, even if he came back and apologized.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want him to be okay, to not be hurting. That’s the only thing I want for him.
This is torture. The not knowing is the worst part. I just feel so—helpless.
Rick Lawrence
It’s been twenty-four hours since I broke Mary’s heart for the second time in one day. Fuck, why’d she have to come back? I almost cracked when she surprised me. I almost wrapped her up in my arms, kidnapped