Page 53 of Everest

I tip my head back and meet his eyes. “I’d like that.”

Kallum steals a kiss, and his hand starts to creep into the waistband of my panties. “Oh no, you don’t,” I mumble into his mouth. “I have to leave in five minutes, and Promise is probably downstairs waiting on me.”

“She can wait.” Kallum nips at my bottom lip.

“I’m not doing that to her, it's rude.”

“Rude is makin’ me walk around all day with my dick hard.”

“You’ll live.” I shove him with my elbow. “Besides, my first meeting is in twenty minutes. We don’t have time.”

Kallum gives up his quest, but not without grumbling.

After putting on a dark gray pencil skirt and blouse, I sit down on the edge of the bed and slide on a pair of slingback heels. “I’ll make it up to you tonight.”

“Fuck yeah, you will.” Everest pulls his cut over his shoulders. “Tonight, you’re going to put that mouth to some other use besides pissin’ me off.”

“Hey, I make no promises. The day has just begun. There’s plenty of time to figure out how to make you mad.”

By lunchtime, Promise and I are rethinking whether the fuss we made was worth coming into the office. When we first arrived at the office, Catcher perched himself outside the entrance before we made him sit in a corner in our small waiting room. We learned quickly that a huge, broody biker standing guard in front of the building might not be good for business. Promise’s first client of the day was Mrs. Dexter. Catcher’s presence scared the hell out of her. Mrs. Dexter is a sweet eighty-two-year-old woman whose husband passed away last year. She had been married to the late Mr. Dexter for over forty-seven years. They had two daughters together, and Mr. Dexter has a son from a previous relationship.

It turns out that his son didn’t take too kindly to his father, leaving his wife and two daughters with everything in his will. The point is that his good-for-nothing son had robbed them blindly after he hooked up with some bad people when he was twenty-one and then left town. Mrs. Dexter said he’d show up every few years with some sob story about losing his job or apartment.

They’d let him come home and try to help get him on a straight path, but then he’d just disappear in the middle of the night, taking anything of value with him. They hadn’t seen or heard from him in close to ten years. Then he heard about his father’s passing, and suddenly, he was back in town. Let’s just say he was expecting to hit it big and was sorely disappointedwhen his stepmother and sisters got everything. We’re talking two point two million dollars. Poor Mrs. Dexter and her daughters have fought her stepson for eight months. Luckily, they are due in court in a few weeks. Promise has that case in the bag, though. Mrs. Dexter will come out on top when it’s all said and done.

Exiting my office, I see Promise at the entrance, saying goodbye to Mrs. Dexter. “I don’t know about you all, but I’m starved.” I look at Catcher. “You good with pizza?”

“Pepperoni and sausage, no olives.” He grunts.

“Noted.” I turn to Zara, who is sitting at her desk. “What about you?”

“I’m not fussy. I’ll eat whatever you guys get.”

“Cool.” I pull out my cell, dial the pizza place down the block, and order delivery. “Pizza will be here in twenty minutes,” I tell Promise once she’s done seeing Mrs. Dexter off. “I’m going to call and check on my mom. Let me know when the food is here,” I call out over my shoulder on my way back to my office.

Sitting behind my desk, I use my laptop to pull up my bank account to ensure I have sufficient funds to make this month’s payment at Golden Hills. Once I ensure all is in order, I call the director, Mr. Briggs, who answers on the third ring.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Walker. This is Ms. Monroe.”

“Hello, Ms. Monroe. How are you?”

“I’m well. I’m just calling to see if I can settle my mother's bill over the phone and to ask how she is doing. Unfortunately, I can’t get there to see her today.”

“I looked in on Faye this morning, and she’s doing great. If you like, I can have her nurse call you later this afternoon with an update.”

“That would be great.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all. Anything to help. As for the matter of your mother’s bill, it’s been settled.”

Confused, I ask, “Settled? What do you mean? I haven’t paid yet.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Monroe, I thought you were aware.”

“No, I wasn’t. Can you tell me who paid it?” I ask, but I already have my suspicions.

“Sure, let me just pull up your mom’s file.” I hear the shuffling of papers over the phone. “Here it is. It says it was settled with Mr. Mercer. He is a really nice gentleman. He stopped by yesterday. He ordered all transactions associated with your mother’s stay to be drafted from his bank account indefinitely.”

That asshole.

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