All In (Casino Nights #2) (20 page)

She moved her head from his shoulder and started to ask why.

Remy shook his head. “Just trust me on this. We all need time to work through what happened. And we need to figure out how it impacts us.”

“Us?” The word tumbled out as his statement set off warning bells in her head.

“Are we really going to move past this?” His mouth tightened. “I already get the feeling you want to blame someone for losing it last night. I’m worried you’re gonna put those walls back up.”

She felt light-headed, like the blood was draining from her head. “I don’t blame you for last night.” She really didn’t.

He pinned her with a steady gaze. “Not yet, but you might get there.”

She could see the muscle at his jaw flex, a sure sign he was upset.

“I won’t,” she promised.

He looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he glanced at his watch. “You’d better go. Sometimes T.S.A. can be slow.”

She nodded and stood slowly. After he stood, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Something had changed between them, and this felt like a good-bye.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

She realized he hadn’t kissed her lips this morning, not once. Her heart sank. She didn’t want them to end. This wasn’t how she wanted to leave things, so up in the air. She wanted to stay in his arms, to beg him not to let her go.

“I’ll call you tonight when I get home,” he said, his voice gruff.

“I might be asleep.” She didn’t want to have that conversation. The one where he’d tell her everything she’d done wrong.

“Then I’ll leave a message.”

Chapter Twelve

“Francesca—Francesca, wake up.”

She felt her shoulder being poked. God, she had just closed her eyes, and now somebody was trying to wake her up. “Go away,” she mumbled.

“I will not,” a familiar female’s voice replied.

She rolled onto her back to move away from the poking.

“Good Lord, girl. The least you could do is put on a nightie. I do not need to see your boobies.”

Lorraine? What the fuck was Jimmy’s secretary doing in her room? Francesca pulled the sheet up to cover her nakedness and pushed to sit up against her headboard. She had stripped and fallen into bed at nine that morning. “What time is it?” she mumbled as she tried to focus on the woman standing beside her bed.

“Going on noon,” Lorraine answered.

Christ, she had barely slept. She let out a loud sigh and said one word, “Why?”

Lorraine flashed a huge grin. “Jimmy.” Her teeth were very white against her deep cocoa skin.

She should have known. She dropped her chin to her chest and tried to get her brain to click on. She scraped her hand across her face, and fuck, that hurt. Pain radiated from her left cheek.

“Take a moment to get your brain in gear, and then you need to shower and get dressed. Jimmy wants you to meet him for lunch.”

This could not be good. Hell, the last three weeks had been one bad thing after another. It had all culminated in the early morning hours with her getting punched by a drunk, followed by a trip to the hospital, and then an argument with Rico that had turned ugly on the ride home.

“How’d you get in?” she asked, stalling.

“Jimmy gave me his key, and it’s a good thing he did. I don’t think he would have wanted to see your bazooms. You might have given him a heart attack.” Lorraine placed both hands on her ample hips and gave her glare.

She didn’t even try to argue that this was her apartment, and that if someone used an emergency key, then they had to deal with whatever they found. She closed her eyes and shook her head. This was not good. She felt it in her bones.

Lorraine rapped Francesca’s thigh. “Girl, get yourself up and get movin’. Jimmy doesn’t like to wait.”

“Okay,” Francesca snapped. “I was just waiting for you to leave. I wouldn’t want to offend you with my nakedness in my own bedroom.” She started to scoot to the edge of the bed.

Lorraine stared in disapproval. “You’d better wash that bad attitude down the drain during your shower. You know you can’t talk to your father like that.” The woman had known her for as long as she could remember. Lorraine was Jimmy’s watchdog and would smack down anyone she thought was going to upset or disrespect her boss.

“I’ll work on that.” She tore the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her body as she made her way to her bathroom. God, she was stiff. She turned on the overhead light and looked in the mirror. Yikes, she looked awful. Her face was swollen from her eyebrow to her jaw, and purple bruising was now showing. On the other side, her “good” eye had a dark circle under it. “Not good, you’ve got to get it together,” she said to her reflection.

She turned on the shower and waited for the water to run hot. When the steam was cascading over the door, she stepped in. The hot needles stung her skin, but she continued to stand under the water. This order to join her dad for lunch did not bode well. She knew she was fucking everything up. Since her return from Florida, she’d plowed into work to avoid most of Remy’s calls. At first, he’d called her two or three times a day—more, if she didn’t pick up. That had gradually fallen to one call a day and then, every other day. Now, he hadn’t called for two days straight.

When she did answer, their conversations were stilted. She wanted to tell him how much she loved him, and that she wanted him to come here, so that they could work on their relationship. She wanted to say how scared she was she would lose him, and that she didn’t know if she could handle losing the man she loved, again. He rarely said anything about their relationship. He just talked about what he had been doing that day. She hated the distance between them.

She wasn’t sleeping, and she spent hours thinking about how she had ruined things. Not only with Remy, but with Trevor, and she feared she’d ruined Remy’s friendship with Trevor. Why couldn’t she do a relationship right? She’d almost asked him to fly out last weekend. God, she missed him.

Hadley had been watching her all the while with pity written all over her face. She didn’t have to say a thing. Once again, she’d screwed up something good. She’d yelled at Hadley earlier in the week, telling her to mind her own business. Four days had passed, and her best friend still wouldn’t talk to her.

Rico had cut back on face-to-face meetings and mostly communicated by email, because he said that he didn’t like seeing her in distress. Last night, she’d run into him on the casino floor, and he’d asked her to “walk with him,” which meant he wanted to discuss something. Instead, they’d walked up on security dealing with an irate male.

Rico took the lead; she’d stood back watching what was happening. The man appeared to be intoxicated and was yelling at the security supervisor.

A woman, the drunk man’s girlfriend, approached from Francesca’s left and started yelling obscenities. Francesca turned to deal with the woman, and a fist connected with her cheek. It carried so much force Francesca almost went down. She’d staggered but regained her footing. Then she’d grabbed the female’s arm and spun her around. The woman had tried to donkey-kick her knees, but Francesca took her to the ground. For being smaller than Francesca, she’d put up a good fight, bucking and kicking. Francesca had pulled the woman’s wrists to the center of her back and yelled, “Cuffs.” She couldn’t let go of the subject’s wrists to free her own.

A set had locked onto the woman’s wrists, and Francesca had felt an arm wrap around her waist and was lifted her to her feet.

Rico had turned her and examined her face closely. “God dammit, Frankie,” he’d growled.

She’d blinked rapidly, trying to focus on her friend and also to fight off the pain radiating through her cheek.

Rico had looked at the security manager, who had joined the group. “You got this?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Charge them both,” Rico ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Rico gave her face another glance. “Put away your keys, and then wait by my car.”

“I’m fine. I need to write a report, and I want to check in security.”

Rico’s face had gone red, and his eyes were ablaze with anger. He’d leaned in closer to her. “Do as I fucking say, Francesca. No arguing.”

It had been months since she had seen Rico that mad. So, she’d turned and left the casino floor, entering into the maze of hallways that employees used to travel around the building. All the while, she’d wondered how she’d let her life go to shit.

She turned off the shower and grabbed a towel to wrap her hair in and another for her body. She left the bathroom and walked to her closet. She chose a gray cotton, v-neck sweater and black jeans. She didn’t give a shit if she was dressed too casually to meet with her boss. She was exhausted and in pain. Now dressed, she headed back into the bathroom to dry her hair and to try to do something to her face.

As she considered whether concealer would help cover the bruise, a mug of coffee appeared on the countertop.

“Thought this might help,” Lorraine said.

“It will. Thank you.” Francesca turned to smile at her long-time friend.

“You don’t have to try to cover it. Jimmy’s seen the tape.” Lorraine shook her head. “We’ve all seen the tape.” She chuckled.

“That bad?” She meant Jimmy’s response.

“Girl, you need to remember to protect your blind side.” The chuckles increased in volume.

“I’ll make a note of that,” she responded dryly.

“Hurry up. I’ll be waiting for you in the living room.”

Francesca took another gulp of pure bliss and decided to let the bruising show.

“Lorraine, I don’t need an escort. I do know where Jimmy sits.” Francesca was aggravated that the woman was holding onto her arm and leading her to Jimmy’s table. The Library was one of her father’s favorite luncheon spots. It was decorated like a library in a manor house, and Jimmy’s table sat on the upper platform against a wall in the center of the room. He could see all of the diners, and they could see him.

She was trying to organize her thoughts so that she could explain last night’s incident. She followed the ramp to the platform and scanned the table.

Francesca stopped abruptly. She even shook her head to clear her vision. Remy was sitting across from Jimmy, watching her approach.

She couldn’t fucking believe her eye—the one not swollen closed. What was he doing here? At the moment, she didn’t really care. She hurried to the table. Remy rose from his seat and stepped around the table right in her path. He opened his arms and smiled at her.

She felt all of the air leave her chest as her heart swelled. She threw herself into him, and his arms locked around her.

***

“Oh God, you’re here.”

Remington heard the words said against his chest. He felt a huge weight lift off of his shoulders. She was glad to see him. “Missed you, Frankie,” he spoke against her hair. He felt her arms squeeze him. He leaned away to study her face.

Jimmy had shown him the tape of the scuffle. One side of her face was swollen, and she was black and purple from her lower cheek to her forehead. Her other eye was bloodshot and had a dark circle underneath. She had lost weight since he’d last held her. She had not been taking care of herself.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said.

He kissed her gently on the lips. He didn’t want to hurt her, nor embarrass her in front of her father and in her workplace. He felt the eyes of the room upon them.

“Why don’t you both take a seat?” Jimmy’s deep voice said behind them.

Remy stepped back to allow Francesca to walk to Jimmy’s side and kiss his offered cheek. The waiter appeared immediately for her drink order.

Remy watched it all, but he was trying not to appear shocked by Francesca’s appearance. He had answered a call two days ago from Francesca’s office number. He was surprised to hear Rico’s voice. The man got right to the point, telling him that Francesca was a mess.

Remy had to respect Francesca’s friend and team member. Rico didn’t give any details. He simply told him to “get your ass to The Red Rose and sort your woman out before she wrecks herself.”

He didn’t waste any time purchasing a ticket. On his drive to the airport, he’d placed a call to Jimmy’s office. His call was forwarded several times before he finally spoke to Jimmy’s secretary. He’d introduced himself and requested an appointment with Mr. O’Haire to discuss Francesca. The very professional woman advised that she would call him back if Mr. O’Haire’s schedule permitted. Before she ended the call, he’d asked to be transferred to Rico’s phone, leaving a message to ask the man to work his magic and get him that appointment.

By the time Remy’s plane had touched down, he had an appointment with Jimmy at eleven, and a room reserved for him at The Red Rose. His reservation was held under a four digit code instead of his name. Remy knew this system was used for high profile guests so their privacy was protected. He guessed that Rico didn’t want Francesca to know he was coming.

Francesca looked at the two men and asked, “How?”

Remy laid his hand on top of hers and laced their fingers.

Jimmy chuckled. “Your Mr. Cooper called me yesterday and asked for a meeting. I think he got a little more than he planned when I showed him the tape of you getting laid out by a punch.”

“I didn’t get laid out,” she told him hotly. “I didn’t see it coming, but I took her down immediately.”

“A fractured cheek and a blackened eye. Your mother is not going to be happy,” Jimmy said, shaking his head.

Francesca’s shoulders sagged. “Please don’t tell her until the bruising fades.”

Jimmy stared at his daughter. Of course, he would tell her mother.

Remy didn’t want to jump in, because he didn’t know how their relationship’s dynamic worked. However, he didn’t like seeing his woman look so defeated.

Jimmy picked up the thread after Francesca’s diet drink arrived. “As I was saying, Remy and I had a talk, and I invited him to lunch. I knew he wanted to see you, so I had Lorraine retrieve you.” He glanced over Francesca and Remy’s shoulder, and they turned their heads to follow his stare. His secretary was seated at a table facing Jimmy. She must have felt their looks and gave a little wave, then returned to typing on her phone.