Page 10 of Bona Fide

? Don’t Stay — Linkin Park ?

Another week,another dollar, with the holidays not too far away, every loaded politician and/or socialite wants to throw a party.

Shocker.

Emails have been rolling in checking availability, and I take them all—literally. Eight events are booked, and it’s what I need to keep my mind grounded and not floating over to things it shouldn’t. Emotions and shit that aren’t important because, at the end of the day, making money to pay off Mama’s bills and to make sure Marty is set up when he gets back home are my goals.

The attempt to get out of Wade’s hold—a long shot from hell.

It was more than a hundred-to-one, a Hail Mary without the skills to catch the football. There was no way in God’s given Earth that I was going to put myself in debt by taking out a loan or refinancing my house just to cut ties with him completely. He wasn’t going to put that big of an effect on my life.

But I sure as fuck was going to put one on his.

His eyes follow me through every inch of his office that can reach where I am. Ignoring him has become a new speciality of mine unless I absolutely and positively have to, in which I drag Emmy along with me.

Then I’m hit with her non-stop, not-so-subtle hints of wanting to know what happened with Wade’s wife and me.

Wife.

That word never meant anything to me before, but just thinking about it makes me cringe. I feel somewhat dirty, despite her bitchy ass little attitude after the shocker of the decade that rocked my reality. Her sweet approach turned into my being the scum of the Earth mixed with being a complete whore. And even though I didn’t know, I still feel like I did something wrong. That I recoil with disgust at my own damn self for signs maybe I should’ve seen before.

What signs those were, not sure. He made sure to keep his past classified and buried six-feet deep. Except his secret was still alive and walking around in Louboutin heels that cost more than my mortgage payment.

Except his undisclosed past didn’t seem too upset about it so I wonder if he’s done this before.

None of my business.

What is my business is my own. To keep everything afloat, to keep the money rolling into my bank account and Mama’s bills paid—plain and simple. I’ll never let another man with power have that much over me and my life again. I swore it off the moment I left Grant.

I’m swearing it off again—like a fucking unknowing idiot.

“Hey, Rea.” My knees jolt and hit the bottom of my desk before I jerk my eyes from my laptop to my office door.

Fuck.

Brown hair and mirrored eyes stare back at me, but it was the voice that startled me.

Jed sounds like Grant but with a softer tone, and if I’m summoning people now in my head, I’m in the wrong business.

Actually, it’s not Grant, but close enough.

“Hey, Jed. What’s up?” A smile appears on his face as he strides closer, dressed in a khaki-colored sweater and jeans.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” I force a weak grin because I really don’t have time for this shit or his.

“Just neck-deep in emails is all.”

Again, what the fuck do you want?

I’m not in the mood for a social call. I’m running away from my present, not a surprise visit from my own past.

“I should’ve called first—” He takes a seat in one of the plush chairs in front of my desk. “—but I was in the area.”

I perk a brow. “Yeah? Since when do you come to the west side of town?”

“Since you work here.” He lets his sentence seep into my brain before continuing with, “And I haven’t talked to you in a while.”

Reaching for my laptop, I close it, giving him my full attention and already thinking about a way to get him to leave.

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