“I expect you to begin the search for the home today. If you don’t find something suitable in a week, I’ll find one.”
“Why the hurry?”
“We’re married, Gabi. No one will believe it’s for real if you’re living here and I’m somewhere else in the same city.” He handed her the paper, watched her unfold it. “Phone numbers, addresses. We should be able to keep a lid on our marriage until I return. If something leaks, call me.”
“I’m not one of your employees,” she told him.
He wanted to contradict her, decided against it. “Please.”
She turned the paper toward him, pointed at a number. “What’s this?”
“The code to the parking structure in my building.” He tapped his fingers on the counter. “What do you drive?” he asked.
She shook her head. “My car is in the shop.”
“I’ll have one of mine brought here for you.”
Was that a grimace? “My insurance was canceled.”
“Your . . . what?” he asked.
“My auto insurance. It’s a long story.”
Hunter looked at the time. “A long story will have to wait. I’ll fix it, bring you a car.”
Gabi rolled her eyes. “Do you fix everything with money?”
Yeah, he did. “And wives.” Was that a smile? “I’ve got to go.”
She turned away and picked up her cup. “I’d wish you a safe trip, but if your plane goes down, all my worries are over.”
It was his turn to smile.
“Judy?”
Rick called her name from the open door of his office.
“Yeah?”
“Can you come here?”
She pushed away from her drafting desk and the project she was working on outside of the office. The desire to move up the architectural ladder was crying out.
The familiar wall of monitors and equipment that Rick surveyed filled an entire wall. There were a dozen homes, plenty of coming and going . . . lots of conversations that they most often didn’t listen in on.
Judy slid her arms around the broad shoulders of her husband’s back. He reached up and kissed one of her hands before clicking into his computer and bringing up one of the houses.
The image of Gabi standing over the sink in the kitchen of the Tarzana home looked innocent enough, then Judy realized the shake of her shoulders. She was crying, which cut Judy to see. “Oh, no. I thought she was doing better.” Judy looked away, feeling like she was invading the other woman’s personal space.
“I did, too. Russell told me she had a visitor, so I searched the video.”
Rick cued the images, turned up the volume.
“Who is that?” Judy asked when a tall man walked in behind Gabi. His business suit told her he had money. He looked directly into one of the cameras and frowned.
“I’m not sure.” Rick pointed at the kitchen feed. “Notice how Gabi is ignoring him.”
“She’s upset.”
“Pissed, listen to her voice.”
Why do you care?
“Wow. She’s spitting venom at the man,” Judy said.
“Keep listening,” Rick told her.
It didn’t take long for Judy to realize that the man was a client for Alliance, then Gabi laid into him. You have what you want. We’re married and will stay that way for the duration of the contract.
The strange man stared at her and said, Eighteen months is a long time to keep secrets.
“Oh, my God.” Judy sucked in a breath. “Did he just say what I think he said?”
Rick turned in his chair and lifted both eyebrows. “He sure did.” He pointed back to the live feed and zoomed in.
There, sitting on Gabi’s left ring finger, was a rock the size of Judy’s thumb. “She didn’t.”
“I think she did,” Rick said.
Judy turned from the monitors and headed for her office to retrieve her purse.
“Where are you going?” Rick asked, following her.
“To talk to her. She’s obviously upset. My guess is no one knows what’s going on. If Meg and Val knew, Meg would have called me.” Meg was Judy’s best friend and Gabi’s sister-in-law.
“I’ll take you.”
Judy pushed her hand on Rick’s thick chest. “No. She’s still not completely comfortable with men. I’ll go.”
“I guess it’s pizza for me tonight,” he said with a grin.
“Save some for me, Green Eyes.”
He kissed her and patted her butt as she walked out the door.
The doorbell buzzed several times before Gabi moved from the kitchen counter to answer it. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see Judy’s face behind the peephole, but she was.
Running her fingers under her eyes, Gabi knew it was useless. She’d been weeping since Hunter left, the reality of what she’d done set in.
She opened the door and tried to smile.
Judy’s face filled with sympathy, and her first words brought fresh tears to Gabi’s eyes. “Oh, hon . . . what happened?”
Judy pushed inside, kicked the door closed, and dropped her purse on the floor.
Gabi accepted the other woman’s hug and cried. “I-I got married.”
They stood in the hall for a couple of minutes, Judy tried to soothe her over with soft words. Who would have thought a woman a good five years younger would be the one comforting her?
“C’mon.” Judy led them into the living room where they sat on the couch. “Start at the beginning.”
The thought of letting it all out, every detail, was tempting. But what would be the point? Judy was a direct link to her brother, and if Val found out that Hunter had blackmailed her into marriage, she’d have to contend with his wrath instead of focusing on clearing her name.