Page 28 of The Billionaire and His Driver
“Cleaning rooms? What the devil for? She’s my driver!”
“Jockey is your driver, sir.”
“Did he show up for work today?”
“Yes sir.”
“What was his excuse for not showing up yesterday?”
Elvira and James exchanged a glance. “He had no excuse, sir.”
“He’s fired. I was leaving it up to you, Elvira, but I see you’re not up to the job. He’s out. I will not have a drunk driving me anywhere. I thought that was understood when he didn’t come to work yesterday and didn’t call in. What floor?”
“He’s . . .I think he’s outside, sir.”
“Not him! Where is Sabrina? What floor is Sabrina on?”
“She’s . . .on the second floor, sir,” Elvira said, and Ronny hurried back up the back staircase.
James looked at Elvira. “In his bathrobe looking for her. Well I have never!” He was astounded.
But Elvira said nothing. She was astounded, too, but she was more worried for Brina.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Mrs. D says it’s faster this way,” Shanilla, the youngest maid, said to Gail, one of the oldest. She and Shanilla were making up the bed.
“I don’t care what that old biddy says,” Gail retorted, although she and Elvira were right around the same age. “This don’t make no kind of sense. Three maids in one room. Nobody but that hussy would think of something so lame.”
Brina, who was in the room dusting the furniture, didn’t join the conversation. She was going through the motions of working and not even hearing what the other two maids were going on about. Her mind was still caught in last night, at her apartment, and early this morning when the boss made love to her. She consented fully. It was what she wanted too. But the reality of what they’d done was just sinking in. And terrifying her.
Would others find out and look at her as if she was some whore with no morals? Would Mrs. D no longer respect her? Would he fire her if she didn’t keep giving it to him? And that man that tried to kidnap her was still out there too? What on earth was she going to do if she lost this job? If she couldn’t keep a roof over her head anymore?
She stopped dusting the dresser and rubbed her forehead.
“Brina?Brina!”
“Roof over my head.” Brina realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud at the very moment Gail was calling her name. “I mean, what did you say?”
Gail looked at her strangely. “What didyousay? What’s wrong with you?”
“I was just . . . nothing. What did you say again?”
“I said we should take our time, slow our roll, so Mrs. D will conclude that this three maids to one room experiment is a bad idea.”
“And I say we should work like we normally do and see where it goes,” said Shanilla. “What you think, Brina?”
Brina couldn’t even begin to think about something so ordinary. She’d give anything to have normal, simple thoughts on her mind right in that moment. But if lazy Gail was for it, she knew it wasn’t good. “I agree with Shanilla,” she said, and Shanilla grinned.
“See I told you . . .”
When Shanilla stopped midsentence, Brina and Gail looked at her. Then they looked where she was staring and there he was. The boss. In a bathrobe. Standing there. Brina’s heart dropped.
“Good morning, ladies.”
“Good morning, Mr. Bradshaw,” Gail said.
Shanilla had never seen him before, and was shocked when Gail said who he was. She couldn’t fix her mouth to say anything. She just stared at him.
