Permanent (Indelibly Marked) (Volume 1) (20 page)

Not wanting to deal with a broken door when she needed to catch a plane in the morning, she stood and approached the door. No longer would she allow an Elliott to bandage her wounds.

“This isn’t a joke.”

“Shane.” She pressed her hands on the door.

“Lindsay, I need to talk to you.”

 “You need to go.”

“I’m sorry, please, I’m all messed up.” His voice softened. “Please, Lindsay.”

“It’s late, you need to go.” She put her forehead against the door.

“I need to talk to you, I’m so sorry.”

The tears were stronger than her. “Shane, please don’t make me do this, I’m asking you to go.”

“Lindsay.”

There was only two inches of wood separating them, but it may as well have been a whole country. She took a breath and swallowed, trying to force her heart back into her chest. “Shane, it’s all right, please don’t apologize or give me an excuse, I’m just asking to be left alone. Please.”

“I really need you Lindsay.” His muffled voice came through the wood.

“I’ll take care of your audit, don’t worry. I just can’t see you right now. I have my real job I have to attend to.”

He hit the door, causing her to jump back. “You won’t let me see you for even a second?”

“Shane this whole night was a bad idea, we both knew it.” Maybe it was better they let it all out. “I won’t leave you hanging with the IRS, but I’m asking for a little time, I’m sure you understand.”

“Don’t say that. We both wanted this.”

“I need to go, please leave.”

“You’re crying.”

“So what.” She forced herself away from the door. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Don’t make me leave you like this.”

“You already did.” Her only choice now was to walk away, go to bed, and get on a plane back to where she belonged.

“You look beautiful.”

She forgot Shane could see through her window and stopped on the way to her bedroom. No matter what, she’d keep her vow. She made it all the way to her bedroom door before quickly turning and catching a sight of that Mohawk.

With every bit of strength, she shut the door behind her.

Chapter Sixteen

“Smoking or nonsmoking?”

Once more her phone vibrated and Lindsay tensed. Even as a numbers person, she’d lost count of how many times her phone went off. Though she only slept a scant sixteen minutes, she woke to a couple of messages from Shane but luck for once was with her. Neither he nor his car were at the apartment building when the company car picked her up for the airport.

Luck? No. In truth she wanted him standing there with flowers and an amazing reason for why he didn’t show. No she didn’t, she had to get over this.

“Miss?”

“What?” She didn’t know what she wanted. Yes she did, she just couldn’t have it. The one thing she did have was a ton of voice mails and text messages, but she refused to listen to them or read them. Shane’s words would only suck her back in and she would hurt all the more for it later.

“For your room.” The man at the hotel front desk waved his hand in front of her face. “Do you want smoking or nonsmoking?”

Her phone shook her pocket and scattered her thoughts.

“We’re having dinner with the client tonight.” Rick leaned on the counter holding a golf club in one hand.

“Excuse me?” the man asked again.

“This sucks because I was hoping you and I would have time to plan our own strategy, not Mr. Sebastian’s.”

The phone vibrations reverberated throughout her body. “What are you talking about?”

Last night should have ended with a kiss that still lingered on her lips, helping her make it through the next couple of days with Rick and Mr. Sebastian. She sighed.

Rick stepped closer to her. “We have the chance to clean up. Make it big. We have what the others lack.”

With his comment and her phone going off once more, she closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose.

“You don’t look so well.”

“I don’t feel so well.” Shane wouldn’t be there to hold back her hair, cuddle her and kiss her, and she shuddered when the phone vied for her attention again.

“Then maybe we should get you into a room.” The man at the desk brusquely interrupted.

“She can’t. We’re going to play a round.” Rick held up the golf club. “Mr. Sebastian already rented a set of women’s clubs for you.”

“You want me to play golf?” It was an invitation to something that mattered. This was her chance. Business happened over golf, and even though she didn’t play, they wanted her and she wouldn’t miss it.

“I guess. We never had a girl before, and Mr. Sebastian thought it would be harassment if we didn’t take you along. We need you in your best form to get our client signed for future services.”

She let his words wash over her. Everyone wanted something from her. She took her phone out of her pocket. Everyone. They were all clearly lined up in her ledger. Mr. Sebastian wanted her to tow the line and be the numbers girl in his schemes. Rick wanted her to team up in some strange coup to take over the company. Dillon wanted a ride.

She took a deep breath and finished the list. Shane. He needed an accountant and therefore he thought he needed her.

“Do you play golf?” Rick’s voice and her vibrating phone broke her epiphany.

“That’s a very loud vibrating phone,” the hotel clerk said.

Her gaze alternated between her phone, the man and Rick.

“Smoking or nonsmoking?”

She opened her mouth to answer but the phone went off again. No more! She looked at the screen. Everything was Shane, even the calls that weren’t from Shane were from his minions. They all wanted to make sure he was taken care of, but she was on the trip to take care of herself. No one badgered Shane as to why he didn’t show up. She turned out to be the villain and it was the end.

“May I?” She held her hand out for Rick’s club.

“Do you play?” He handed it over.

Without further thought, she dropped the phone to the tile floor, lifted the club and smashed the device to pieces. The crunch of plastic sounded like music to her ears. The pieces scattered across the floor and she smiled at having actually killed it.

“I don’t play golf, but tell Mr. Sebastian thank you anyway.” She handed the club back.

Never again would she go anywhere she wasn’t wanted. Not to a golf course, or out for drinks, or to a tattoo shop. “I would like to go to my room for a while. Then I think I’d like to take in some of the sights of San Francisco.” She wouldn’t wait to be included and sit around hoping some gorgeous man would come take her sightseeing. “Nonsmoking.”

The desk clerk gave her a thumbs up and handed her a key.

She walked away without another word.

*~*~*

The mismatched paint, the cheap wood, the fake shiny gold knob. Holding a six pack of black cherry soda and a value-sized bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, Shane considered all the different ways to take down his enemy, Lindsay’s door.

“There he is.” Ivan’s footsteps pounded up the stairs.

“How long has he been like that?” Carson asked.

“Since he stopped holding his head yesterday.”

“Is he hung over?”

“No.” Ivan shook his head. “I think it’s a migraine. Or a brain tumor.”

Shane closed his eyes and forced them open again, just in case the door moved. There had not been a sign of life from the Lindsay camp since he started standing sentry.

“I thought she wasn’t in there.” Carson approached his brother.

“She isn’t,” Ivan said. “She had a business meeting, we all knew that, but we never got her flight information. He called Lou down at Hollywood Police, but she isn’t technically missing and he isn’t technically related to her, and technically no crime has been committed.”

“Technically.” Carson waved his hand in front of his brother’s face. “I think this could be considered stalking.”

“He won’t budge, he won’t go to the shop, and he won’t go in his apartment because he said Dillon’s aura has polluted it.”

In a sudden move, Shane thrust the chips and drinks at Carson. “I’m sorry I was an ass.”

“I accept.” Carson took his treats and handed them to Ivan. “I heard about what Dillon said. You weren’t in your right mind.”

“Can you tell Lindsay that?” He put his hand on the dilapidated door. Why did she live there when she could be in Beverly Hills? Maybe because he was meant to find her? “Oh man.” He pressed his forehead to the wood.

“Where did you go when you didn’t show up to take her out?” Carson crunched a chip.

He moaned. “I drove around Sunset.” For hours he drove up and down Sunset Boulevard, his stomping grounds. When he was younger he owned the strip, could get into any club, find a chick in an instant. He knew everyone and they knew him. At first he basked in the lights, checking out the scene and trying to convince himself that the whole conventional girl thing wasn’t for him. “The Sandstones are playing at the Roxy,” he mumbled

“Do you want to go see them?” Ivan asked.

“No.” After driving for an hour and reading every sign, his every thought was of Lindsay. After two hours he wanted his date. During the third hour he hated himself. By then he’d parked and taken up people watching. “I bet that girl wanted to see them with her guy.”

“What is he talking about?” Carson offered Ivan a chip. “What girl?”

Ivan sighed. “He saw a couple outside the Roxy, and he wanted it to be him and Lindsay.”

“But he said he didn’t want to see the Sandstones.” Carson shrugged. “Is someone else playing there tonight?”

“No! There was this group all around, a bunch of guys and girls standing there…” Shane banged his aching head against the door again.

Ivan put his arm around him. “And off to the side there was this couple. Your brother has decided he would rather be the couple guy than the group guy.”

“Awww.” Carson patted his Mohawk. “Shane’s growing up. Maybe this week we’ll take the training wheels off of his El Camino.”

“So what now?”  Shane groaned. After seeing the couple, he could only picture Lindsay. He made an illegal U-turn and sped back, hoping he would repair the damage. “She hates me and she’s gone!”

“Has Emily been guarding her car since yesterday?” Carson looked between Ivan and Shane.

“We’ve been taking shifts.” Ivan pried Shane from the door. “This can’t go on.”

Carson dug his phone from his pocket and dialed. “Her phone goes right to voicemail and it says her mailbox is full.”

“Shane left a few messages.”

He left a million messages, but he wished he had the code to her mailbox so he could erase some of them, the ones where he sounded like a total tool. There was a law for texting while driving, but they needed to make one for texting while suffering heartache. “I need to find her.”

Carson paced between his and Lindsay’s apartment. “We need to go to the source.” He stopped.

“The source is Lindsay, and I lost her.” Shane scratched his nails down either side of his hair.

“We’ll go where she was last spotted.” Carson pointed at Ivan. “Like a hunt.” He pushed Shane toward the stairs. “Let’s go.”

With no choice, Shane followed. Somehow, someway he had to get her to forgive him.

Chapter Seventeen

“Lindsay.” Rick screeched her name from across the huge hotel lobby.

For a moment she considered pretending she didn’t hear him. All she wanted to do was go up to her room and go to bed. The meeting went fine, they’d had their second dinner with the client, and she wanted to be alone to wallow in her own misery.

“Lindsay.” Mr. Sebastian called to her.

Like it or not, Mr. Sebastian was her boss. Actually, she didn’t like it, but forced a fake smile anyway.

“There’s our human calculator.” Mr. Sebastian rubbed his hands together and motioned them to a small booth in the corner of the hotel bar. “Let’s discuss our strategy over a bottle of wine.” He raised his hand for the waitress.

Wine reminded her of Shane, but everything reminded her of Shane. If she found a moment that she didn’t think about him, it felt like something was missing, but then he reappeared along with the sickening twisted knot in her stomach.

“Are you all right?” Rick took her arm. “You look a little pale.”

“Nothing a little red wine won’t fix.” Mr. Sebastian grinned. “The visions of numbers are dancing in her head. Let the mistress of the house work.”

Rick mock bowed to her.

“She was absolutely brilliant today.” Mr. Sebastian stood.

As he reenacted their meeting with relish, she couldn’t believe that when she arrived in California, everything he described was what she wanted.

“She dangled the carrot oh so nonchalantly. Speaking in her soft tones she told them only a few little things they could do to reduce their burdensome taxes, all the while adding her pearls of wisdom.” He pointed to Rick. “Then you came in and told them how we could fix their books.” He chuckled like a kid at a circus. “I know the two of you will get creative, and you know how I like to reward creativity.” As a grand finale he reached into his pocket and pulled several bills from his money clip, handing each of them five one hundred dollars. “It’s cash, so you don’t have to declare it.” With that both he and Rick broke out into uproarious laughter.

The Lindsay from Ohio would never have taken the money, while the Lindsay from California stared in awe with how they did things on the West Coast. But she was Lindsay stuck in the middle, a foot in both worlds. Though she took the money, she promised she would put it to good use. No matter what, she would not compromise her morals and she would do nothing illegal.

She wiped her brow. Watching Mr. Sebastian peel those bills off the roll reminded her of Hugh and Stubbs and, of course, Shane. “Oh wow.” Every aspect of her life in both worlds seemed to be intertwined with Shane. What was she going to do when she returned to Hollywood the next day? An urge to run raced her heartbeat, and she almost stood, but there was nowhere to go.