Taboo Boss - Natasha L. Black Page 0,15
suitable accommodations for the two of us.
I was also thinking about Amanda. Asking her to fly all the way out here to bring my laptop was possibly on the extreme end of the secretary duty spectrum. She had sounded perfectly willing to do it, though, and I wanted to make sure she would be comfortable while she was here. This was a great opportunity for us to buckle down and get some work done without the distractions of the office.
The work itself would be an ideal distraction for me. I could focus on getting projects done rather than dwelling completely on Danny and my desire to take him down.
As my brothers pointed out, we still weren’t completely positive he was behind the arson. There wasn’t any direct evidence linking him to it, no witnesses or security camera footage. That reminded me. I needed to make sure to add a robust security system to the details I planned to add to the bar when we rebuilt.
Because we were absolutely rebuilding. There wasn’t even a question in that. At least there wasn’t in my mind. Pulling this shit might have been an attempt to scare us off or frustrate us to the point of getting us out of business, but that wasn’t happening.
The bar had gained massive popularity in the little over a year since Ava came and took over as manager. Her ideas for revamping it transformed The Hollow from a basic neighborhood bar to a destination that people from all over came to.
They were especially impressed by the special theme nights and other events Ava planned. They brought huge crowds, and some of them even required us to sell tickets to control how many people tried to get in. As exciting as that was for all of us brothers and our mother, it also put a target on our backs.
This wasn’t something I had wanted to put too much thought into before. Most of the neighborhood had been very welcoming of us and excited for our success. After all, the more people who came to The Hollow, the more who were exposed to their businesses as well. It was especially true when we had the block parties and bar crawls.
Somebody clearly wasn’t happy for us. And I was very confident I knew exactly who that somebody was. We just needed to prove it.
I went to work calling around to all the hotels around the Astoria area trying to find rooms. As I packed up my luggage and stuffed it into the trunk of my rental car, I was losing hope. My options were getting thin, and I was starting to worry she and I were going to end up in the deadbeat motel after all.
By the time I got to the airport to pick her up, things were looking up a bit. I smiled at her as she walked toward me. I met her a few steps later and took the bags from her hands.
“Thank you so much for doing this for me,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”
“It’s not a problem,” she replied. “I’m happy to do it.”
“Well, again, I really appreciate it. Let’s go get settled, and I’ll show you around a bit if you’d like,” I said.
Amanda smiled brightly and nodded. “I would like that.”
“I have to warn you about something,” I said as I put her bags in the back of the car and we climbed into our seats.
“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just about where we’re staying. The only hotel I was able to find in Astoria was a complete mess. Nothing’s been done there since like the dawn of time and it hasn’t been having its best years for the last couple of decades. I couldn’t stand to stay there anymore, and I definitely didn’t want you to stay there. So, we’re going to go and stay a little bit outside of town. It’s not far, just not within the city limits,” I said.
“Oh,” she said. “That’s not that big of a deal.”
“Well, that isn’t the whole thing,” I said. “I called every hotel within a thirty-mile radius. Apparently, there is some sort of convention going on and the only one I found with any vacancies at all only had one room left.”
“One room?”
“Yes,” I said, pulling away from the curb and driving out of the parking lot. I reached in front of me to input the address of the hotel into the GPS of my phone sitting in the cupholder. “But it is