The Lamborghini drove up to the huge office complex and stopped at the curb. Mick was behind the wheel. He removed his shades from the top of his head and placed them over his eyes, and then looked up over the steering wheel. He had been out of the country for a few days, but he hadn’t expected this much progress.
He grabbed his hardhat, put it on, and got out of his car. It didn’t look like it from out front, but it was a construction zone. Mick, in his jeans and a tucked-in pullover shirt, fit right in.
THE GRAHAM AGENCY, Roz’s new company, was written over the building’s entrance in bold black letterings, as if it was ready to go. But when Mick walked through that door and made his way inside, all of the promise of the completed, ready to go outside, gave way to reality: it was a long way from finished.
The front side of the building, which was a big, open space, was completed, but the back side, where there were numerous walls going up, was still a work in progress. Mick placed his hands on his pockets and looked around. Construction workers were everywhere. But he only came to see one worker: Rosalind. The owner of the joint. And when he saw her, across the room, going over blueprints with her project manager, he smiled.
She was in hardhat too, but everything else, from her power skirt suit to her power heels, was all Roz. And the way she was explaining her position to her manager, telling him exactly the way she wanted it, not the way he wanted her to have it, made Mick proud. If he was a woman, he would want to be just like Rosalind. Then he caught himself. If he was a woman? What the fuck?
He shook his head of that nonsensical thought and made his way to his woman. To Rosalind. When she saw him, and she smiled that grand, dimpled smile he loved so much, his heart melted. He was so far gone with this lady that he knew there was no going back.
Roz knew it too, as she excused herself from her manager, and made her way to Mick. “You’re back early,” she said as she hurried to him. “I didn’t expect you for another four hours.”
Mick swept her into his arms. “I couldn’t bear it,” he said. “I had to get back to you.”
Roz grinned as he embraced her. Even though he was casually dressed, he still looked debonair to Roz.
Especially when he kissed her. And he kissed her long and lovingly. He kissed her for all of those finger-pointing and grinning construction workers to see. But Mick and Roz didn’t care.
When they finally stopped smooching, Mick looked around. “How’s it been going?” he asked. He kept an arm around her waist.
“It’s going,” she said. “Javier’s giving me fits, but I can handle it.”
“Good.” There was a time when Mick would try to handle it himself. But no more. He was her protector, no man was touching a hair on her head, but he didn’t sweat the small stuff.
“I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” Roz said. “I’ll have my own talent agency right here In Philly. It’s right up my alley, Mick. This is going to be perfect for me. And every dime of your investment will be returned to you a hundredfold, I promise you.”
“I told you not to worry about that.”
“Mark my words,” Roz said. “The Graham Agency is going to be the toast of this town, of Broadway, of Hollywood, and of Paris and London too. International baby, when I get through.”
Mick smiled. “That’s what I love about you. Your modesty.”
Roz had to laugh at that one.
Then they just stood there like soldiers who overcame a lot of battles to get where they were. But they were still battle-scarred. Mick exhaled. “We’ve had some turbulence early on,” he said. “Some very dark days. I’m glad it’s getting brighter.”
Roz smiled. “So am I. Our best is yet to come. But what about you, Mick? How are you holding up? Everything that happened was done to hurt you. Leo betrayed you. How are you holding up?”
Mick nodded. He wasn’t going to lie. “It’s tough. Leo knew we were already having security breaches and he decided I was showing signs of weakness. He decided he was going to take advantage of that slither of an opening and take over my organization. He had to get everybody out of the way first.”
“But what would Shane and his mother have to do with that?” Roz asked.
“It was the misdirection. It was a way to get me emotionally caught up in what wasn’t even the point. I realized that when I first walked into Flo’s home. It wasn’t what it seemed. And it wasn’t. Leo’s henchmen were supposed to take me out at Flo’s, at Shane’s mother’s house. But they couldn’t pull it off.”