Page 24 of By the Letter

Leave it to Adrianto keep me waiting for the dinner he invited me to. It was supposed to be a celebratory meal, but with two more employees resigning by the end of the day, I wasn’t in the mood to party. Still, it had been a while since I’d sat down for a meal with my youngest brother.

So, I’d shown up—just to sit at his desk while he dealt with an issue out on the floor of his club, MHC. It had been over two months since I’d been here, and that hadn’t been to meet my brother.

I shook my head before I got lost in the memories ofthatnight. It had been my first time using Adrian’s app, and the experience had blown all my expectations out of the water.

Goldie…

Jesus.

Itwould be some time before I could partake in anything like that again, and I really fucking doubted anyone else would live up toher. By the time I could come up for air and have a little fun again, Goldie would be long gone. I’d deleted my profile so I wouldn’t be tempted to talk to her again, but she was never far from the back of my mind.

“Knock, knock.” Adrian’s assistant, Samantha, leaned her shoulder on the doorway of his office. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Tall, blonde, gorgeous—Samantha was what men probably imagined when they fantasized about the things that went on in a high-end sex club. But my brothers and I had known her most of our lives. She and Adrian had always been best friends. None of us saw her as anything other than a goofy, bubbly girl who’d been taller than us our entire childhoods. We’d finally surpassed her in height in our teens, but she was still just as goofy and bubbly. How she put up with Adrian’s serious, downright black moods was beyond me. But she was the only one, outside of his brothers, who could.

“Does my brother ever give you time off?” I asked.

She scratched the side of her head. “Time off? What does that mean?”

Laughing, I got up and crossed to her, giving her a hug and a peck on her temple. “It’s been a while, Sammie. Are you going to dinner with us?”

“Not tonight. I have plans.” She poked my chest. “You never replied to my email, you know. I wanted to see your reaction to that little message.”

I cocked my head. “Email? I didn’t get an email from you.”

“Two weeks ago, my guy. I sent it to your Wells Brothers address.”

“Ah.” I shoved my fingers through my hair, giving it a hard tug. “My assistant sorts those out for me. She might’ve put it in the slush pile.”

Samantha gasped and clutched her chest. “You mean emails from me aren’t top priority? I’m shocked, Ro.” Then she gave me another poke. “Hope those emails don’t get automatically deleted. I don’t think you’ll want to miss this one.”

Curious, I took out my phone and opened my email app. “Give me a hint. What was the topic?”

She gave me a cat-that-caught-the-canary smirk. “Goldie.”

My breath hitched. “Goldie? From room ten?”

“Mmmhmm. She called for you. I emailed you her message and phone number. You should really do a better job sorting your emails—”

I blanked out on everything else she said, falling backward until I landed in a chair out of sheer luck.

I found the email, every single word glaring at me on my small screen.

To:[email protected]

From:[email protected]

Hey, you!

I’m passing along a message from your sweet little Goldie you met in room ten. She wants me to tell you:

The worst happened, and I’m happy with the result. Call me if you want to talk about it.

Her phone number is: 555-235-6662

Good luck, Ro-go!

xoxo,

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