Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (35 page)

She shakes her head, dismissing my words
. “No, I let you in. I told you things I’ve never shared with anyone.”

“And have I done anything
to lead you to believe my intentions were anything but true?”

She considers what I’ve
communicated to her, and I notice some of her anger vanishes from her body. She walks to the chair and takes a seat and calmly asks, “Then how did this happen?”

“I know you want the story, and believe me, I want to tell you, but you need to eat something. You had a rough night last night, so can you let me make you something to eat first
, and then I’ll tell you everything. Okay?”

She eyes me warily
, and I hate it. “Fine,” she barks. “But only because I feel like something died in my mouth,” she croaks making a weird face. “I’m going to shower and brush my teeth. But when I get back, you need to do some explaining.”

Watching Faith leave the room, I sit down and try to get the tension to leave my body. I slept terrible, waking up every hour or so to check on her to make sure she wasn’t suffocating
on her own vomit. Once I finally got to sleep, I kept dreaming, and this time I remembered the dream because it wasn’t one at all. Her words replayed over and over in my head. “I’ll always love Trey Miller.”

I grab my phone and see missed calls from Jett and Hattie, both
of whom, I assume, are still sick. There’s a text from Jett notifying me he’s feeling better, and he’s covering at work until I get there. Never in a million years did I think he would step up, but he is, when I need him most.

I’m feeling relieved that everything is okay at work and then I hear the shower water start running, so
it means Faith is okay, too. There is the distinct sound of cabinet doors shutting loudly, followed by a groaning Faith.

I’ve never made breakfast for anyone other than my mom, and I was probably ten when that happened.

Her fridge is stocked with the basics, including eggs, so this will have to do. I hope she likes scrambled, because it’s pretty much all I can make. There is half a package of bacon in a baggie, so I dump it into a frying pan and turn the fire up high. As it begins to sizzle, sparks of grease fly out splashing my arm, which causes me to flinch. The stove has a vent overhead, so I flip it on because the bacon is starting to smoke up her small kitchen area, but it’s not too bad.

She walks out of her room with a towel wrapped around her head wearing sweats pants and a
t-shirt. The scowl she was sporting when she left me earlier is still there, but not as harsh as it was before.

Her stomach lets out a loud growl when she smells the food. “Meat,” she grunts as she walks around me to grab a plate from the cabinet. She throws a few pieces of bacon onto her plate and spoons a heap of eggs next to them.

Right when I think she’s going to sit down, she walks over to the fridge and grabs a bottle of ketchup and takes it to the table. I have an idea of what she plans to use the ketchup for, but I hope I’m wrong because the idea of it is disgusting. But I watch in horror as she opens the bottle and squirts an obnoxious amount all over her eggs. I have to look away before I gag.

“What?”
she asks, baffled by my reaction.

“Nothing,” I shrug, suppressing another gag. “I didn’t realize people actually do that.”

“This is my favorite thing when I have a hangover,” she admits taking a mouthful and savoring it. She swallows the bite and shrugs. “It doesn’t happen often.”

“What the eggs and ketchup bloodbath or the hung-over part?”

“They kinda go hand in hand, Trey. But yeah, the hung-over part. I don’t get drunk very often, only when I’m really upset. Or in this case, betrayed.”

“
But that’s the thing, Faith. I didn’t betray you. I came over yesterday to tell you what I found out about Brad,” I start, but I’m interrupted from revealing anymore because the sound of keys at her front door cut me off. The knob turns and we both turn in that direction, only to see Brad Emerson himself walking through the door.

A duffle bag drops from his hands when he’s gained entrance. “Does someone care to tell me what
the hell is going on here?” he demands, looking between the both of us.

“Brad?” Faith appears surprised by his entrance
. She surveys the room, glancing from Brad to me and back again. When her eyes remain on him she finds her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard about what happened
, and I tried to call you, but when I couldn’t get you, I took the first flight out.” He rushes toward her with his arms outstretched, and she reluctantly stands to accept it. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

“Please don’t call me that,” she mutters quietly, but I can still hear it. “You came here because of me?”

“Of course. And we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

“Are you?” I ask him in a low, threatening tone.

“Yes, I am,” he argues, his cold eyes boring into mine. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“I was about to tell Faith what happened.”

“We
know
what happened, Trey. I think you need to go. Faith needs people around her who support her.”

“You’re right,” I agree with a bemused smile as my body tenses. “And you support her?”

“Yeah,” he scoffs, wrapping an arm around her. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for this woman.”

“Or to her,” I mutter. The words barely get out of my mouth before he lunges at me, but I dodge before he connects. He loses his balance and stumbles forward a couple of steps, but rights
himself. “Try that again, and you’ll regret it,” I warn.

He looks at Faith and gives her a faint smile before turning to me again. “Get the hell out of here.”

“Not until Faith tells me she wants me to go,” I say holding my eyes firm to Faith's.

“Trey, you need to go.”
Her voice is strong and calm when she looks right into my eyes.

Brad might as well have punched me, at least the wind would have been knocked out of me and it would be expected, but this isn’t. I was going to tell her everything
I figured out, that her boyfriend - this asshole, is a snake who’s trying to take her down, but she doesn’t want to listen to me.

“Fine,” I snap at her and point, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you about him.” I turn to leave but
face her before I shut the door behind me. “I guess what people say when they’re drunk isn’t necessarily the truth, huh Faith?”

* * *

The radio is turned off as I run through the last day in my head. Brad has gone out of his way to destroy her career, our relation-friendship, and is trying to make himself look like the good guy by flying out to check on her. More like cover his tracks.

Did she ever get around to telling him she wanted out?
If she did, there’s no way that he would be here.

Did she tell him about what’s been going on between us
?

It suddenly hits me and her words come flooding back.

I don’t get drunk very often, only when I’m really upset. Or in this case, betrayed.

Shit. In her drunken fit, she was talking about seeing me at the bar,
and I thought she was talking about Chicago. She’s never mentioned seeing me at that night at the
Wired Spirits
; she’s only said she was drunk that night. But she knew who I was.

There’s no way she was drunk that night and come to think of it, I don’t recall alcohol on her breath at all. Granted, I was hung-over the next day, but
the kiss is burned into my memory as if it happened yesterday.

I know, without a doubt, Faith has known from that moment who I was and where I came from. She wanted
the kiss. She wanted me.

I pull into my parking space at work and slam my hand against the steering wheel. Faith belong
s with me, it’s what she wants deep down, and more than anything I want her, too.

“You look like crap,” Jett says when I walk into the building wearing the same thing I had on yesterday. “Have you slept at all?”

“Barely,” I admit. “And I’d stay away because I haven’t showered either.”

“Where have you been? Or do I need to ask?”

“Jett, you have no idea how jacked everything is right now. While you were out sick, the bullshit that unfolded around here played like a bad suspense movie.”

“Sounds like I picked a great time to get sick.”

“Yeah, but I have some things to take care of so I’ll tell you about it later.” I walk to my chair to sit and run my hands through my hair as I try to piece together everything that’s been happening. Cave contracts, press releases, and mockups are strewn all over my desk because I left in such a rush yesterday.  I’ll be playing catch-up for hours.

Jett takes a seat and reclines with his arms crossed over his chest. “I had all of your meetings moved to this afternoon, so we’ve got time. Fill me in.”

Bits and pieces of the conversations I’ve had with Faith, Grayson, Cal and the email with Brad collide in my head. Where do I start?

“Brad is trying to sabotage Faith’s career.”

“Who’s Brad and why is he out for her?”

“Brad Emerson is the Rock Solid star
.” I lean back in my seat, mimicking his position. “We worked together years ago. And he happens to be the guy Faith is dating.”

He leans forward
. “Ah, the ‘open’ guy. Go ‘head.”

“You know both Faith and I wanted to win the entire Cave contract,” I sigh and roll my eyes
. “You also know we ended up working together. Brad somehow figured it out, he supposedly came to town for the night, and my guess is, he got into her email and saw one of our conversations. Something happened with Cal’s son, and he needed a press release issued, but instead of issuing a release, Rock Solid sent out a private email that contained very personal details.”

Jett’s eyes look like they’re going to pop out of his head
. “Why would this guy do that?”

I raise a brow and scoff, “One guess.”

“Faith.”

“Faith,” I repeat. “She was about to talk to him about whatever they have going on. Maybe they did, I don’t know. But I think he found enough email information to back up his suspicions and decided to get me out of the picture and sabotage her career at the same time.”

“What the hell is wrong with this guy? Why would he do that if he supposedly loves the girl?”

“Because he’s an asshole and only cares about his own career. Faith was on track to knock him off his perch as a top seller, and if there’s one thing Brad hates, it’s being shown up.”

“So what are we going to do about it?”

“Funny you ask
.” I grin at my brother and laugh. “I have a few ideas and I need your help.”

“Sign me up.”

“The question then is - how do you get dirt on a guy who’s never left a trail?”

“Bait ‘em?”

“Yep. We’re going to
catfish
an asshole.”

Brad used his position as Faith’s boyfriend to screw her over and now we are going to use the same means to get to him.
Someone as cunning as Brad knows how to work the system and there isn’t much he wouldn’t do to protect himself and his interests.

Faith is one of those interests, although I’m certain it has less to do with his loyalty to her and more to do with winning.

When I left
Faith’s yesterday, I knew that there was a chance I wouldn’t hear from her. This time, I welcomed the silence because I spent the rest of the day handling the things I could and spoke with Cavette so we could set up the alcohol awareness PSA.

Jett helped get everything together and then we went to work on our plan that took us well into the night.

I’m dragging ass this morning, but it’s worth it.
She’s
worth it.

“Alright
.” Jett walks in with a stack of papers. “We’re all set.”

“Great, and Hattie?”

“I told you she’d agree to it,” he grins. “In fact, she decided to use their engagement as the perfect situation to approach RS. What’s the first step?”

“
I’ve tried to make some calls this morning, and it appears that she might still be working there. In my experience, when the finger was pointed at me, they suspended my accounts pending further investigation. They turned all of my accounts over to Brad because he was in the know about what had been going on with each one.”

“So?”

“I have a feeling that he might be ‘handling’ her accounts until she’s in the clear. So Hattie and Evan need to establish communication with Faith, right away.”

“You don’t think she’ll recognize Hattie’s name?”

“She might, but Brad won’t. Like I said, if he’s handling her accounts, he will be the one responding from Faith’s email, so it’s a non-issue.”

“Why are you so certain Faith won’t be answering emails?”

“Been there,” I answer quickly. “Since I was the one who ‘damaged’ the account with a client, they didn’t want me getting to the others. Within one hour, my email account was suspended, and he was handling all communication with my clients. They knew it wasn’t me, but wanted to keep me quiet. Her bosses aren’t stupid. If they’re buying his line she’s the one who screwed up, there’s no way she has access to her email right now. I’ll write up something for Hattie to send, but she’ll need to do it from her personal account, and she needs to blind carbon copy me on every email that goes out.”