Sweet as Candy - Karla Doyle Page 0,76
later, he left. Candy came out next, told us she was done and took off. Happy now, copper?”
Hell, no, he wasn’t happy. The woman he loved, the woman who had claimed to love him, had lied to him. Then accepted an offer to be a sleazy rich guy’s exclusive call girl. Happy didn’t exist on Jake’s radar right now.
He slapped the bouquet on the desk and turned to leave.
The timid ginger practically jumped out of her skin. “Are you coming back in uniform?”
“No. I’m never coming back.” Neither was Candace. Not to Lucky’s, and apparently, not to him.
He took a breath before pushing the door open. If Balducci was out there, waiting to goad him some more… Disciplinary action or not, the prick had a well-earned shot in the face coming.
The bright Monday morning sunshine bounced off the parked cars, including the sleek hood of a silver Mercedes Jake hadn’t noticed before. He’d been too distracted by his rose-colored glasses. They were off now. Crushed to pieces, never to be worn again.
Between the glare from the sun and the Mercedes’ tinted windows, Jake couldn’t see the driver. Didn’t need to. The VBII vanity plate told him exactly who sat behind the wheel. Balducci tooted the Benz’s horn as Jake walked past, then pulled out of the parking spot.
Inside the haven of his SUV, Jake took out his phone and stared at the screen. No unread messages. No missed calls or unheard voicemails. Nothing.
Candace had taken the time to contact Balducci, but not him. It made no sense. No matter how much he might hate what he heard, he needed the truth. From her, directly. To his face. Right fucking now.
Candace
Thumping from her front door launched Candace’s heart to a full gallop. Despite being safely locked in her townhouse, she tiptoed down the stairs to the main floor, hugging the wall as she edged toward the source of the noise. Probably a courier with the wrong address. She’d wait for them to leave, then go back to the happy business of throwing all of her Candy-wear in the garbage.
Unless the aggressive knocker wasn’t a courier.
She wouldn’t put it past Enzo to have tracked down her home address. Or to make another attempt to get what he wanted—her. If he was the one hammering on her door, she didn’t know what she’d do. Calling the police was out of the question. Avoiding him would be next to impossible. She had no viable options to quickly and quietly get rid of him.
Holding her breath, she checked the peephole. Jake. Thank God.
“Hi,” she said, opening the door wide. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in, or are you with somebody?”
She cocked her head at the odd question. “Macy’s at school and you may always come in.”
“I went to Lucky’s.” He entered the hall, sidestepping her without making any contact. No kiss, no touch, no smile. “I heard you quit.”
So much for the surprise she had planned. Oh well, they could still celebrate. Only Jake didn’t look ready to celebrate. He looked…like nothing. Emotionless. A blank version of the man she loved. Certainly not happy, as she’d expected.
“Why didn’t you tell me yourself?” he asked.
“I planned to, after I took care of a few things. I didn’t expect you to go to Lucky’s this morning.”
“But you expected Balducci to go there, since you called him. Sorry, I guess I should refer to him as Enzo, since he told me that’s what you prefer.”
A chill rippled through her. The one secret she’d tried to keep from Jake, blown open. She should’ve known better. Done better. Too late to change the mistake. All she could do was set the record straight. And hopefully, undo the damage.
“Please come in and sit down, so we can talk,” she said, reaching for his hands. “I want you to understand why I made the decision I did.”
Shaking his head, he pulled his hands free. “Not interested in listening to you rationalize going from one sex gig to another.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He grunted. “That’s basically what I said to your new boss when he started shooting his mouth off.”
“I don’t have a new boss.”
“Can’t really say he’s a customer now that he’s calling the shots. Is sugar daddy better? What does Enzo want you to call him? Sir?”
No, this couldn’t be happening. “What did he say to you?”
“That he met you at Lucky’s and you’ve been seeing him for two years.”
“As a customer. I haven’t been ‘seeing’ him.”
“Okay,