Page 8 of All In

Memphis let the woman ramble as she paced the room.

When she fell quiet, Jeremy cleared his throat. “I hate to ask, but do you have anything of his here that we can look at to try to get some answers? He wouldn’t talk to us.”

Kimberly shook her head. “I think maybe he has a tablet in that suitcase. You can look.”

Memphis grabbed the bag she pointed to and opened it.

“This is company property, but I still need your consent to take it,” he said, holding up a sleek tablet in a black leather case.

Kimberly waved. “Yes, please. Take it. I’m at the point that I want to just burn his shit. But I’m a woman of society and good breeding, so that isn’t allowed. I’ve got six months to grieve before my family will expect me to move on and marry someone else.”

It was a part of high society that Memphis never understood.

“Andrew is supposed to be a man of good breeding,” he said with a shrug. “If you want to light some things on fire come to the house later. I’m sure we can arrange something.”

Jeremy plugged his ears. “I cannot be privy to your discussion of destruction of property,” he said.

That made Kimberly giggle.

“Seriously, though. If you need a place to lie low, let me know. I’ll talk to Rylee about you staying at the house or I can put you up in one of my other properties.”

Kimberly gave him a kind smile. “I’m glad you found someone, Memphis. Really.”

He kicked himself for bringing up Rylee when the woman in front of him was in the process of canceling her wedding. It was a jackass move.

“We should get going if we’re going to look into this before lawyers and investigators start demanding I hand it over. I’ll call you about dinner at the house.”

They were back in the SUV five minutes later. Memphis had already had enough of this day. He was ready to drop his attorney off and head back to the house to spend some time with Rylee. Then he remembered he needed to pick up her best friend. He didn’t want to be resentful of Rylee’s friends, but he wanted her all to himself for a few more weeks.

When the SUV pulled up the long driveway of the villa, he jumped out as soon as they reached the front door, having told Carla he wanted to spend a few minutes alone with Rylee before she came downstairs. He took his jacket off in the entry and jogged up the stairs. His excitement over quality time with Rylee was curbed when he opened the bedroom door and found it empty.

“Rylee?” he called as he backed out and went down the hall to the room she’d slept in her first few nights here. It was empty too. Had she left? Maybe his declarations of love had been too much. He checked the pool house and patio next but didn’t spot her. As he was about to go back in the house and start making phone calls, he spotted the security guard he’d left at the house standing near the grove of trees that had been planted by landscapers. It was designed to look like a forest in the middle of a desert. Something he’d thought was a nice touch when he took over the villa from Hunter. He jogged over.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Miss Colton asked for some privacy while she took a walk, so I’m standing here. She’s not far ahead of me.”

Memphis scowled but didn’t yell at the man the way he wanted to. He glanced at his phone. The screen showed full bars. She would have gotten his messages. Was she deliberately disobeying him? Perhaps it was the perfect opportunity to remind her of their arrangement.

“You can head back to the house and make sure Carla is settled,” Memphis told the guard. “I’ll take it from here.”

The guard gave a curt nod, and Memphis leaned against a tree as he contemplated just how to approach Rylee. Whatever he decided, it was going to end with a sore ass for her and an orgasm for both of them. He eyed a bush with particularly long branches and grinned as a plan began to form.

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