Escorting The Billionaire #2 (The Escort Collection) (7 page)

“You—ashamed of
me
,” she said and snorted.

My mother had all the nerve. “Do you understand that I’m on a job? I’m working. I can’t have people from my outside life dropping in on me. I could get fired. If Elena gets wind of this, I
will
be fired.”

“I don’t really think you need to worry about that. Do you?” She looked at me slyly.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Ma? Are you drunker than usual?”

“I am not drunk. But I had a visit from your friend yesterday. He’s bossy, but he’s generous. I think he likes you.”

“Just shut up. Please.”

She shook her head, that smug look intact. “He gave me money, Audrey.
Lots
of money. Just so I’d leave you alone. So you could be
happy
. That’s what he said!” She chuckled at this. The fact that someone wanted me to be happy was amusing to her.

“How much,” I said flatly.

“Twenty thousand dollars!” she said. She clapped her hands together in glee. “I needed a break so bad. And he gave it to me like it was nothing. It was chump change to him, Audrey. There’s a lot more where that came from.” She licked her lips, and I felt nauseous. I almost threw up right there, in the back of James’s hired Mercedes.

“Please stop,” I said.

“Oh honey—I’m just getting started.”

I looked up at her, sick with dread. “You can’t do this to me.” I felt as if I were under water, my words coming out muffled and strange. The world was crashing around me like tumultuous waves, the undercurrent fierce and scary. My mother was dragging me down again.

“All I’m gonna do is ask him for a little more money,” she said.

“He already gave you money. To be
kind
, Ma. Do you even understand what that means?”

“He’s got more to give. He didn’t even blink.” She paused for a second, her beady eyes studying me. “I bet he’d give
you
a lot more than that.”

“He’s already paying me. Through the service.”

“He’d give you more. I know he would.”

“I don’t want more. I don’t deserve more—and I don’t make it a habit of trying to suck the people around me dry.”

She smiled again, triumphant and absolutely petrifying in her dull cunning. “But you’ve been sucking him dry. That’s what you do. I bet those fancy people back there don’t know he’s paying you to do it, either.” She took in my lavender dress, my flawless makeup, and the designer bag Elena had lent me. “I bet they don’t know you’re a hooker. I bet he doesn’t want them to know.”

“I fucking hate you.” I stared at her brazenly. I’d thought it a thousand times, but I’d never said it out loud before.

She didn’t even wince. “You owe me. I brought you and Tommy into this world. Your father left me because of you kids. And now I have nothing.”

“You disgust me,” I said, my chest heaving in anger. If I hadn't had to go pretend to be a real person at a very fancy rehearsal dinner in approximately two minutes, I would have thrown myself at her and scratched her face. I was beside myself with fury.

Underneath that, her threat was like an undertow, threatening to drag me out to sea. I couldn’t let her do this to James.

I no longer cared what she did to me.

I had to protect him.

“Ma.” I made myself calm down. “I can give you more money. A lot more.” She watched me, saying nothing. “I just can’t do it now. After next week,” I said, nodding. I would give half to Tommy and half to my mom. I didn’t even care anymore. I would do anything to get her to leave us alone.

“What if I don’t want to wait? What if I think my daughter’s tricking me? And no way you’ll be able to give me as much as Mr. Fancy Pants will.” She jutted her chin out at me. “He’s filthy rich. Him and his family. I can just imagine how much they’d give me to keep quiet. To not tell the papers that you’re a hooker.”

I swallowed hard. “How did you find us tonight, anyway?”

“It was in the gossip column at
The Tribune.
” She shrugged. “Just fancy rich people, flauntin’ their money, is all. While the rest of us starve.”

I looked at her barrel chest, thinking of all the cartons of cigarettes she’d inhaled into it over her lifetime at fifty dollars a pop. “You’re hardly starving. And the last time I checked, no one owed you anything.”

She jutted her chin out at me. “I don’t like your holier-than-thou attitude, girl. Never have.”

“Just put it on the long list of things you don’t like about me,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “But I’ll give you all the money you want. I mean it. It’s a lot.”

Kai pulled back up in front of the restaurant. I could see James waiting for me on the sidewalk, his hands stuffed into his pockets. “Kai, please take my mother home.” I turned to her. “If you leave us alone, I’ll give you almost all of it,” I said in a small voice. “Some of it has to go to Tommy, though.”

She nodded. She’d already stolen close to six thousand dollars from New Horizons this morning, so maybe that curbed her attitude. A little. “I’ll think about it.”

“You do that.” I looked at her, and suddenly I didn’t want to get out of the car. I wanted to go back to East Boston with her. Back to her desolate apartment where I’d been raised. That was where I belonged. When I was younger I couldn’t wait to leave that place, to be on my own. To try to do better. But I didn’t belong to better. The filth kept coming back up to claim me. I should just give in to it, let it drag me back down, where the people I cared for couldn’t be tainted by me.

“Your boyfriend’s waiting for you,” my mother said, motioning toward the car door. James was right outside, looking antsy.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I whispered, still sick.

“You might want to tell him that. You better go.”

“
W
hat did she say
?” We were standing on the sidewalk near the restaurant, looking out at the view of the harbor. Audrey was tense beside me, her face pale and resigned. I rubbed her back, trying to make her feel better.

“She just wanted to… check in.”

“Is everything okay?”

“No. Nothing’s ever okay when it comes to my mother. But it
will
be fine.”

I pulled her against me. “She wants more money.” Audrey nodded stiffly. “How did she know we were here?”

“The
Tribune
.”

“How much does she want?”

Audrey shook her head again. “She wants whatever she can get her hands on. Don’t worry about it—I took care of it.”

“I was pretty generous with her yesterday,” I said, watching the boats go by. “That was probably a mistake. I didn’t take into consideration… how far she might go.” I laced my fingers through Audrey’s, feeling sad and angry on her behalf. Even though I should know better from personal experience, I was still surprised that a mother could be so indifferent to her child.

Or maybe it was just because it was Audrey, and I couldn't understand how anyone would want to treat her that way.

“You mean you didn’t take into consideration that she would throw me under a bus? That she would jeopardize my job? Then you underestimated her. Or maybe you overestimated her,” she said. “She doesn’t care about me. Look what she did to Tommy this morning. She doesn’t care about anybody but herself.”

I pulled her to me. “Your mother is almost making my mother look half-decent.”

We both laughed. “They’re quite a pair,” Audrey said. She sighed and looked up at me. “James… my mother might try to pull something. She threatened to.”

“What?” I asked, but I already knew.

“Tell your family about me. Expose us. Blackmail anybody and everybody she can.”

“She won’t do that,” I said. “I won’t let her get that far.”

“You can’t give her any more money,” she said. “She won’t ever stop. I’ll pay her—I already promised I would—but she has to understand that you’re a one-and-done. Otherwise, she’ll keep coming back.” She looked at me, anxiety and stubbornness playing out on her face. “Promise me.”

“Not yet—I can help you. We’ll figure it out.” I looked back at the restaurant and sighed. “We have to go in there. Dinner’s going to start, and I don’t want to call attention to us.”

“Don’t you want me to just go?” she asked. “If I leave now, she won’t be able to do anything else. Cause any more trouble. I’m worried, James. She’ll stoop as low as she can. I don’t want your family finding out about me, and I don’t want her near any of you… because she could do anything, and it would be horrible.”

“Of course I don’t want you to go. Don’t be ridiculous.” I kissed her on the forehead, careful not to mess up her makeup. She looked beautiful. She’d dressed so carefully for the occasion. I’d watched her pick out her jewelry, selecting the perfect earrings, scowling at her reflection in the mirror until she felt confident with her choices. When we’d walked through those church doors together, and I turned to look at her, my heart had just about stopped.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” She exhaled shakily. “Can you imagine what your mother would say?”

“I don’t care.” I grabbed her hand, and we headed in to dinner. We’d been gone long enough. I didn’t want my mother getting fidgety, or worse, curious. I didn’t like the way she’d been talking to Audrey at the church—I shouldn’t have flaunted our togetherness last night at the Gardner like I had. I needed to protect Audrey from my mother, to shield her.

Both my mother and her mother needed to back off and leave her alone.

Leave
us
alone.

Audrey hung back, stopping before we went in. “I don’t want you to get hurt, James. I don’t want to drag you and your family down. I think I should just go.” She pulled away from me, like she was going to run.

“No. Stop,” I said, holding her firmly. Panic rose inside me. “I’m the one who hired you. You
can’t
drag me down—we’re in this together.” I pulled her to me. “We’re going to handle your mother, and then we’re going to handle mine. And once we stop panicking, we might even be able to enjoy it. I don’t want to do this without you. Please don’t go. Don’t even say it again.”

Her eyes searched my face. “Don’t you want me to, though? Think about it.” I could tell she meant it. She thought she would be sparing me.

“Are you hearing anything I’m saying?” I felt myself getting angry, and I struggled to control it. I didn’t want to hurt her any more right now. Her mother had been bad enough. I would have Kai just take her back to the apartment to free her from the rest of the evening, but I was worried she’d be gone by the time I got back.

“No, I don’t want you to go. I want you with me. And I want this to be the end of the discussion. Can you do that for me? Can you put on your game face?”

We just looked at each other for a beat.

“Of course,” she said finally, relenting. She fake-smiled at me.

“Fake-smile more. Put your back into it,” I ordered. Her smile widened, and the actress was back. “You’re good. You’re really, really good.”

She gave out one last shaky sigh. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, making herself grin at me.

F
or better or for worse
, Cole and Jenny were at the rehearsal dinner.

“Dre!” Jenny whooped, coming up and giving Audrey a jiggly hug. “This place is frickin’ amazing!”

Audrey smiled at her, but the smile was laced with worry. “It’s gorgeous. Just like you—you’re looking really good, Jenny.”

Jenny tossed her curls and modeled her gold-lamé dress. “Coley bought it for me.”

“Coley?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at my friend. “For real?”

He slapped me on the shoulder hard. “For real, bro. So shut up.” He dragged me to the long table where my entire family was seated, along with Evie’s family, all sorts of cousins, and friends. My father sat at the head of the table, resplendent in a suit, my ice pick of a mother at his side. I deposited Audrey with Cole and Jenny at one end of the table and went up to where Todd and Evie sat looking happy and excited. I grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, and I raised it.

“I’d like to make a toast,” I said. All eyes turned to me except for my mother, who was watching Audrey and Jenny with a thinly veiled look of distaste on her face. But Audrey was watching me, a smile on her face now that looked real. She nodded at me in encouragement.

For once, I wanted to do something nice. I was tired of all the ugly. There’d been too much underbelly today. I had to be positive… for once.

“My baby brother is all grown up,” I said and patted him on the shoulder. “And I’m happy to announce he’s marrying the woman that he loves. Evie, I know that you love my brother. I do. Seeing you two together for the past week has been inspiring. I expect good things for you in the future.” My mother had turned to me now, most likely surprised. She was probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“So I’d like to toast the happy couple. Cheers to your wedding tomorrow, and for a lifetime of happiness to follow.” Everyone cheered, and I leaned down to Todd. “I mean it,” I said and gripped his shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”

He gave me a surprised smile. “Stop,” he said sheepishly.

“Don’t make him cry,” Evie said teasingly. She beamed at Todd. “He’s so alpha tonight.” They started kissing, and I took that as my cue to leave quickly. I sat down next to Audrey and pulled her face into my hands. I gave her a long, lingering kiss, for the moment not caring about all the radar in the world.

Maybe my mother would see that I was happy for the first time. Maybe she would soften toward Audrey.

Maybe… but probably not.

Hope is a four-letter word,
I thought, but I pulled Audrey close to me anyway.

C
ole dragged
me to the bar after dinner. The girls had gone to the ladies’ room. “Dude,” Cole said. He ordered two bourbons.

“Yes, dude?” I asked. “Actually—aren’t we too old for that now? We used to say that at Wharton. It makes me sad to hear it come out of my mouth now. It’s like I’m an old-timer.”

“An old-timer who’s ready to settle down?” Cole asked.

“Do you have to go there tonight, Coley?”

“Fuck you,” he said good-naturedly and had some of his drink. “You know you’ve got an emotional boner for that girl on your forehead though, right?”

“An emotional boner? I didn’t know they existed.”

“It’s like a heart on your sleeve, but bigger and more obnoxious,” he said, laughing at me. “And you totally have one.”

“She offered me a crab cake today, and I didn’t eat it.”

“You’ve fucked her, though. I can tell. Like, fifty times this week I bet.”

I shrugged. “Not fifty.”

“Then Jenny and I are winning.”

“Haven’t you been to work?” I asked him, simultaneously disgusted and impressed. He was probably exaggerating. Probably.

Cole shrugged. “Nah. I did a conference call. But this girl is like a drug for me. I can’t keep my dick out of her.”

“Does that qualify as an emotional boner? Or are you two just sort of disgusting?”

“I don’t know,” he said and rubbed his eyes. For once, my friend actually looked perplexed. “I seriously can’t keep my hands off her.” He looked back at me. “Is that love?”

“It sounds sort of like it… but it could just be lust,” I said.

“There’s definitely lust.”

“Do you
like
her?”

“I’m fucking crazy about her,” Cole said. He had that baffled look again, and I patted him on the shoulder. I watched as Audrey and Jenny came back toward us, both of them laughing. Audrey looked happy and almost relaxed.

“Dude,” he said. “Put your emotional boner away. It’s embarrassing.”