The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (11 page)

She owed him the truth, and her trust.

He helped her to her feet, and leading her
over to the bed, he sat her on the edge of the unmade mattress.
“Just sit here,
cara
. I’ll take care of everything.”

Too weak, too numb, and too distraught to
protest, she leaned against the footboard and stared across the
room as if she didn’t recognize where she was. Or perhaps she just
didn’t care. Someone had invaded her private space and stolen her
most treasured possessions—possessions that were obviously linked
to her survival, and to someone important in her past.

Adam closed his eyes briefly, hoping that the
“he” she’d mentioned wasn’t a man she was in love with and who was
in love with her. The thought of her with another man was…

“You sure he’s not your boyfriend, Tashi?
‘Cause he sure treating you like he is. Girl, you should make him
your boyfriend. If a guy treated me like that, I’d be—”

“Mindy, can you do me a favor?” Adam walked
over to the window and opened it to let some air in. The smell
wasn’t as horrible as the night he’d climbed through it to save
Tashi, perhaps because it had been ajar for two days, but it was
stuffy in the room, nonetheless.

Mindy gave him a provocative smile as she
smacked away on her gum. “Sure. What?”

“I’ll need some large trash bags. Can you
check the kitchen?”

“Sure.” She looked a bit disappointed, but
immediately left to do his bidding.

She was a pleaser, Adam thought as he began
emptying the contents of the bureau drawers and the closet on the
bed.

Tashi didn’t have much, so by the time Mindy
returned with a box of thirty-gallon trash bags, all of Tashi’s
clothes were in a small pile on the bed.

He gave a bag to Mindy. “Can you gather her
personal things from the bathroom and put them in this? No cleaners
or laundry soaps or anything like that. Just necessities you think
a woman would want to take if she were going on a long
vacation.”

“Sure. Okay. You taking her with you?”

She’d thankfully discarded her gum. The
clicking sound was getting on his nerves. “Yes.” He began to stuff
handful of clothes into a trash bag, hangers and all. He just
wanted to get the hell out of this place as soon as possible, even
more so than he had the other night.

“Can you take me, too? Me and my kids?” Mindy
asked from the bathroom.

“What about Billy?”

“What about him?”

“You’d just leave him like that?”

“He’d be happy if I left. He’s always
complaining that my kids are noisy and annoying. But he puts up
with us.”

“Really? He puts up with you?” Adam’s lips
twisted into a hard line as he tied the drawstring of the first
bag, set it on the floor, and pulled another bag from the box.
Two bags
. All Tashi’s clothes fit into two trash bags—well,
one and a half bags, since the pile on the bed was a lot smaller
now.

“Wait a minute,” Mindy yelled from the
bathroom. “You think Billy is my…” She chuckled.

“Billy’s her brother.”

Adam turned and glanced at Tashi. She still
had a blank look on her face as she watched him stuff her
belongings into the bag. He hesitated, waiting for her to stop him.
She didn’t, and instead turned her head and gazed out of the
window, as if she were at peace with the fact that someone was
making decisions for her.

Mindy emerged from the bathroom. Her bag
hardly had anything in it. “My mom had me late in life. She said I
was an even bigger mistake than Billy. She was good to us and
looked after us when we were kids, but she wasn’t overly joyful at
having us.” She opened the drawer of the nightstand and began to
toss the contents into the bag. “She didn’t even put any effort
into naming us. Just, Billy and Mindy. They aren’t short for
anything, and we don’t have middle names.” She shrugged
dismissively. “I got pregnant with Kyle when I was seventeen, and
she threw me out. I moved in with his father and two of his
friends, then we had Brittany.”

Adam set the other bag on the floor. It was
hard to believe Mindy was basically the same age as he suspected
Tashi was, yet she looked a lot older. A hard-knock life did age a
person. Billy was probably ten years younger than he looked, and if
Tashi stayed here, she’d be aging fast, too. “Where’s the kids’
father?” he asked Mindy.

Mindy sat down on the mattress. “He died in a
motorcycle accident when Brittany was two months. I’ve been living
with Billy ever since.”

“I didn’t know that, Mindy. I’m sorry,” Tashi
said, joining the conversation.

Dear Lord, this place was chock-f of
sorrow and disappointment. Grabbing another bag from the box, Adam
walked to the closet to get the few pairs of shoes she owned, and
to make sure he hadn’t left anything but the neatly folded sheets
and towels on the shelf. He grabbed one more bag and scooped up the
soiled bed sheets and her nightgown that he’d tossed on the floor
three nights ago and dumped them inside. He tied the bag securely
and dropped it in a corner.

“Thanks for all your help, Mindy,” Tashi
said.

“Hey.” Mindy scooted down to sit next to
Tashi. “I’ll miss you, and not just because you babysit for me for
free once in a while when I have to work late, and you keep to
yourself a lot, and don’t socialize, but I’m sure you have your
reasons. Even though I can’t say we’re friends, I’ll miss you. I’ll
miss not having you next door.”

Adam’s heart did a jig when he saw the slight
hint of a smile on Tashi’s face. While the women talked, he went
and washed his hands in the bathroom, then walked into the living
room and the kitchen to check for important items Tashi might want
to take. There was nothing of sentimental value as far as he could
tell.

There were no pictures on her walls, no
little trinkets or other personal items, no photographs—none of the
little odds and ends people collected over the years and displayed
to express their uniqueness and make a house a home. There was
nothing to show that Tashi Holland had a past, nor where that past
was located. That lack of “stuff” only meant one thing: she’d left
her previous home in haste. All she’d brought with her to this new
location was a bag of money and a cell phone, and now they were
gone.

She had nothing tying her to this
neighborhood.
She has nothing tying her to this town either
.
The perturbing point sent him back into the direction of the
bedroom where the women were talking quietly and holding hands like
longtime girlfriends, even though their earlier conversation
indicated that they hardly knew each other.

“Where do you work, Mindy?” he asked,
strolling over to them.

“At the convenience store on the corner. I
don’t have a car so I had to take something in walking
distance.”

“Do you like it there?”

She snorted. “Like I like sandals in winter.
They keep my feet off the snow, but they don’t keep them warm.”

Adam was impressed at her analogy. The girl
had a brain. She’d just made some wrong decisions at too early an
age, and was now stuck with raising two children on her own. He
understood all about making wrong decisions—he’d almost made two
horrific ones, and he was educated and privileged. Mindy could have
sat at home and collected government assistance, like many unwed
mothers were doing, but she’d chosen to work for a meager wage to
provide for her children.

“Billy doesn’t charge me rent, and he pays
all the utilities. I just can’t ask him for anything for me or the
kids and I can’t bring any guys home. Like I would.” She puffed out
air through her lips as she flipped her blond hair over her
shoulders. “Plus when a guy finds out I have two kids, they run the
other way.” She sighed. “My neighbor watches them when I’m at work
and she doesn’t charge me that much, so…” She shrugged her thin
shoulders and looked off with a hint of embarrassment on her face.
“I’m doing the best I can.”

Yes, she was
. And Lord, she was a
talker, but she had nothing to be ashamed of. All she needed was a
chance. She was a fighter, a survivor, just like Tashi. The only
difference was that Tashi was all alone—well that, and Tashi didn’t
talk. She had people hunting her and no support system, which made
her a lot more vulnerable than Mindy who had family and friends
nearby. Mindy had been kind to Tashi, and for that reason alone,
she deserved her chance—one that he could offer. “Do you know who I
am, Mindy?” he asked.

“Besides the fact that you’re hot and sexy,
maybe rich on account of the car you drove up in, and
not
Tashi’s boyfriend?” She butted her shoulder playfully against
Tashi’s. “No.”

“My name is Adam. Adam Andreas.”

Her mouth dropped opened and her eyes popped
wide. “Like in Andreas hotels and restaurants? You related to
them?”

“Yes, that Andreas,” Tashi chimed in. “He’s
CEO of Andreas International. He’s one of the wealthiest men in
Granite Falls. Maybe in the world,” she added, sending him a
tangled look he couldn’t decipher. “Not only is he hot and sexy,
he’s filthy rich, too.”

“Oh my God.” Mindy’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Tashi, you sure know how to pick them, girl. Or not.” She leered
at Adam.

Adam gazed at Tashi, a smile tickling the
corners of his mouth. Was she becoming jealous of the ease with
which Mindy had taken to him, was engaging him in conversation, had
told him her life story just minutes after meeting him, when she’d
spent three days with him and told him nothing about herself? Well,
in all fairness, she was in no position to engage in small talk for
two of those three days, but....

“Mindy Marshall.” Mindy held out her
hand.

He shook it. “A pleasure.”

She glanced at Tashi. “Since Tashi doesn’t
want you as a boyfriend, Adam, I—”

“I would like to offer you a better paying
job with full family medical benefits in one of my establishments,”
Adam said, cutting her off. Although he liked her bubbly
temperament, he had no interest in starting a liaison with her.
“You can move out of Billy’s apartment and into something of your
own in a nicer part of town. Would you like that?”

“Would I? Yes. Yes.” She jumped off the bed
and threw her arms around him, quite indecorously. “Thank you,
Adam. Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome.” He tried to pry her
arms from around him. He was too conscious of her breasts crushed
against his chest. He would lie if he said he wasn’t somewhat
aroused. Heck, he hadn’t been with a woman in months, and here was
one clinging to him, offering him a temporary fix—the kind of fixes
he liked, yet he squelched that physical reaction in an instant. He
wanted more, something deeper and more meaningful.

And the woman with whom he wanted that deeper
and more meaningful connection was staring at him questioningly.
The rich prey on the poor and naïve and use them for their own
selfish needs.

“So, how do we do this? Over dinner or
something like that?” Mindy asked.

Adam pushed her at arm’s length and stepped
back. “No, Miss Marshall. We wouldn’t be meeting. You can call
Hotel Andreas tomorrow and ask for Mrs. Templeton in H.R. I’ll let
her know you’ll be calling. You’ll be interviewed to determine your
skills and figure out where you best fit in. You’ll have all the
on-the-job training you need, and we offer full scholarships to our
employees who wish to attend college.”

She’d gotten the message and dropped her gaze
and her attempt at seduction. “I’d love to go to college to get a
degree in accounting,” she said, her voice taking on a more
professional tone. “I barely finished high school. I’ll work hard.
I won’t let you down, Mr. Andreas.”

“I don’t expect you to.” He spoke to Mindy,
but his eyes bore into Tashi in an attempt to eradicate any
misconceptions she might have about him fraternizing with his
employees. He wondered if a male superior had sexually harassed her
at her former workplace. Had she been threatened when she
complained? Was the money that was stolen hush money? If it were,
why would “they” still be after her? His head was about to explode
with the unanswered questions.

“I can’t wait to tell Billy I’m moving out.”
Mindy’s voice broke the invisible thread of tension that was
spinning between Tashi and him. She gave Tashi a hug and a kiss on
the cheek. “We’ll stay in touch, right?”

“You bet. And Mindy, you can take the
furniture or whatever else you want. But you have to move it before
my lease runs out in two weeks. The keys are on the kitchen
counter. Give them to Mr. Yoder when he comes around. Tell him I
say thanks.” She paused. “I’m really happy for you, Mindy. I’m glad
you’re getting out—moving up,” she added on a smile. “Good luck,
and take care of those babies.”

“I will, and thanks, Tashi. I really mean it,
‘cause if it wasn’t for you, I would never have crossed paths with
this man.” She chuckled. “It’s not like we run in the same circles.
Thank you, Mr. Andreas. I’ll call the hotel tomorrow.”

“Miss Marshall,” Adam called as she reached
the door. “Can you keep all this to yourself? Don’t say anything
about the theft, or about my taking Tashi to my home, not even to
your brother. Can I count on your silence?”

Her blond head bobbed up and down. “Yes, Mr.
Andreas. This never happened. I don’t know where Tashi is going.”
She winked at Tashi and left.

Alone at last, Adam gave his full attention
to Tashi. “Is there anything else besides your clothes and the
stuff from your bathroom that you want to take with you?”

“Nothing,” she simply replied, staring at him
as if she’d just discovered he was made of gold or some other
precious metal.

He hadn’t discussed moving her in with him,
but the look on her face told him that she would not fight him on
it. She’d just given away her furniture as if it meant nothing to
her, as if she was used to leaving things behind. What else could
she do? She had no money and no job to maintain any type of
lifestyle, not even one in a run-down neighborhood like this one.
Because of her association with him, a neighbor who wasn’t even a
real friend was on her way to a better life and gaining
independence when she’d just lost all of hers, yet she was happy
for Mindy.