Once the stench of Walter wafted out of my office behind his overly starched ass, I tried to refocus on the stack of papers that Keli had so diligently collected and separated for me. I went back to highlighting the important parts that would go into the different programs I used to keep track of inventory, accounting, and the general running of the coffee shop, all destined to go from my steady updating to the brain of my accountant and actual specialists who would do the real heavy lifting.
I was doing a fairly decent job, with a flash of flames and Clay entwined with Aisha hitting my brain and heart only every other line, when the office door opened and I bit back a bark for whoever dared to interrupt me to get the fuck out when I saw George staring down at me. Fuck. "Who tattled?" I was thinking that Keli was going to end up in a fucking time out if she was going to be a tattle tale with my uncles every time someone or something unpleasant popped up when I was in house.
"Well," he offered, nose scrunching up at the chair that Walter had sat in making me wonder if my office was bugged or wired for surveillance and giving me a better idea of the fucking mole. "He's tall, dark, pretty goddamn sexy if you ask anyone with a fucking pulse." Clay, my cleverly hidden, supposed to be dead as a fucking doornail other half was watching my every move, which meant-
"That's why you fought Davey's insistence that I shouldn't come back to work," I sat back and shook my head. "That's dirty, Georgie, even for you."
He'd taken the second chair and didn't try to look abashed by the dressing down I was giving him. "You're safe with Clay and the others watching, Charlotte, and I will NOT be apologizing for that." George studied me, the papers, the laptop, then back to my face. "Which part of what Walter the Useless told you bothered you the most?"
"Did Clay tell you what he told me?" George nodded. "So he told you that he burned a hotel down with the woman they have in their group? That there's some kind of hate fucking lust between them that didn't cool even after she SHOT Jensen, Carrie's guy?" He swallowed and looked a little green around the gills but nodded again. "What am I supposed to do with that, George? He didn't push her away, or keep his distance after that, hell, for all I know-"
"They aren't, Char." I stared at him waiting for the proof. "Clay might be a lot of things, but I have a hard time believing that he's faking what he feels for you, special ops or not." He shook his head and leaned forward. "He broke into our house to be with you for a few hours. He BUGGED our fucking house to keep you safe and he rigged this damn shop up so he can breathe easier knowing that Walter might be whispering bullshit in your ears, BUT those asshole twins AREN'T torturing you or abducting you." I sighed, wanting to cling to what he was saying, but I could SEE Aisha's long thin legs, her smooth skin, the exotic look of her entirety. And then there was me. "Stop that right now, Charlotte Elizabeth Ramble." My eyes were locked on his and he looked fierce. "You are an amazing young woman who is worth every goddamn moment that any man gives you, but you are more than worthy of Clay's love. He loves you and you deserve it, you do."
"I think you're biased." I pulled my papers toward me as I moved closer to the desk and tried to get back to work. "You still see the little broken girl that I was when-"
"I see the woman that little broken girl grew into," he cut me off and kept going. "Charlotte, your parents were shitty at parenting, I won't sugar coat that, but honey, you have to know that you ARE better than the sum of them. If for no other reason than because you saw them for what they were, two very broken people who shouldn't have ever gotten together."
"And," I smiled when I looked up at one of the two men who raised me to be the woman I became. "Thanks to you and Davey, if you two hadn't picked up the slack, I shudder to think what might have happened to me."
"Then let's not think about it," he shook his head. "Leave whatever bullshit Walter came to spread where he spewed it, Char, you KNOW Clay. That's enough."
I nodded, thinking that at least until I could speak to Clay I'd put the worries to the side. Dwelling on it wouldn't help, but after assuring George I'd see him at the house after I finished the paperwork, I realized pushing the images away was easier said than done.
