Dirty Playboy - Alex Wolf Page 0,95
not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” The verse hit me as soon as I left the jail, and I have to make Rick see that. Make him see better days are ahead, if he’ll just trust us. If the roles were reversed, there’s absolutely no possible scenario where he would quit fighting for me. He would tear down walls and burn cities for me. I know it in my heart, and I know he feels the same way about me that I feel about him.
No, I’m not going to sit by idly and let him rot in that cell, thinking he did something wrong. I rise up from my cubicle, knowing good and well what I’m about to do will get me fired, especially after everything I’ve already done. I don’t care.
I trust myself. I trust God. I trust Rick; trust that he’s a good man who wants to be free from his past. He deserves that, even if he doesn’t want to be with me when it’s all said and done. I don’t care. He needs, for once in his life, to have an advocate, someone who fights for him instead of using him for their own gain.
I march toward Decker’s office, nerves fluttering in my stomach, but I shove them all down. There’s no place for fear right now, only what’s right.
His secretary is away, so I walk right through the door.
The other three brothers and Tate are sitting in front of his desk while he discusses something with them. All ten eyes dart up to me.
Whatever. I don’t care. They can hear this too.
Decker stands up, his face already morphing to an angry red, like he knows what this is about, and he’s been through it and won’t do it again.
I don’t stop. I keep walking toward them.
“Now’s not the time, Mary.”
I shake my head. “I don’t care. We’re making the time.”
Decker goes stiff as a board.
Tate’s eyes bug out, and she looks away and whistles out the side of her mouth. The other brothers look shell-shocked. I don’t think they’ve ever seen me look this way. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this way; nothing but determination pumping through my blood.
Decker finally just rolls an arm forward. “Fine, get it all out and make it good before you pack your shit too.”
I do exactly what he told me to do. I get it all out, tell them everything I know so far. They all glance away when I mention the stuff about Dominic’s father. By the time I’m done, I know I’ve won over Tate, but the brothers still look unsure, and Decker is about to burst at the seams and probably send me on a plane back to Dallas.
I. Don’t. Care.
Finally, he glares at me. “I can’t have this shit at the firm.”
“Decker.” Tate levels her eyes at him.
He glances to her and softens for a moment, but it’s short-lived. “He’s not even a fucking PI. There’s going to be a review. His license is gone, never existed. We’re liable. Everything he’s touched is tainted. It puts every one of us at risk, but beyond that—” He points out to the firm. “It puts everyone out there at risk. They all have families. They all have mortgages. I feel bad for his story, but we have to think for the firm, not one person.”
“What message does that send to your employees? I’m one of them!” I don’t realize I basically scream the last sentence at him.
Everyone freezes, even Tate.
I point a finger inward at my chest. “What does that tell me? That if something happens to me, you don’t have my back? Because of the ‘greater good?’” I do air quotes when I say “greater good” then take a step and get right in his face. “That you’ll cut me loose? I no longer turn a profit when you assess me on a spreadsheet? Despite all the profit I’ve generated for you in the past? If you don’t help him, you’re a coward. Look at everything he’s done for this place, for all of you. He doesn’t deserve to be in that jail cell, and you know it.” I finally take a deep breath, and it’s like the walls are closing in on me. I’m losing my sanity, and it’s because the man I love is rotting in a concrete box. Finally, I just stare at Decker, pleading with my eyes.