“I don’t know,” he said stiffly. “That’s Monica’s private business. I don’t interfere.”
No, he didn’t. He coddled her. Indulged her. Spoiled her. And allowed her obsession with my safety to run wild. “She has to let it go. I’ve let it go.”
“You were an innocent, Eva. She feels guilty for not protecting you. We need to give her a little latitude.”
“Latitude? She’s a stalker!” My mind spun. How could my mom invade my privacy like that? Why would she? She was driving herself crazy, and me along with her. “This has to stop.”
“It’s an easy fix. I’ve already spoken with Clancy. He’ll drive you when you need to venture into Brooklyn. Everything’s been arranged. This will be much more convenient for you.”
“Don’t try to twist this around to being for my benefit.” My eyes stung and my throat burned with unshed tears of frustration. I hated the way he talked about Brooklyn like it was a third-world country. “I’m a grown woman. I make my own decisions. It’s the goddamn law!”
“Don’t take that tone with me, Eva. I’m simply looking after your mother. And you.”
I pushed back from the table. “You’re enabling her. You’re keeping her sick, and you’re making me sick, too.”
“Sit down. You need to eat. Monica worries that you’re not eating healthy enough.”
“She worries about everything, Richard. That’s the problem.” I dropped my napkin on the table. “I have to get back to work.”
I turned away, striding toward the door to get out as quickly as possible. I retrieved my purse from Stanton’s secretary and left my cell phone on her desk. Clancy, who had been waiting for me in the reception area, followed me, and I knew better than to try and blow him off. He didn’t take orders from anyone but Stanton.
Clancy drove me back up to midtown, while I stewed in the backseat. I could bitch all I wanted, but in the end I wasn’t any better than Stanton because I was going to give in. I was going to cave and let my mom have her way, because it hurt my heart to think of her suffering any more than she already did. She was so emotional and fragile, and she loved me to the point of being crazy about it.
My mood was still dark when I got back to the Crossfire. As Clancy pulled away from the curb, I stood on the crowded sidewalk and looked up and down the busy street for either a drugstore where I could get some chocolate or a cellular store where I could pick up a new phone.
I ended up walking around the block and buying a half-dozen candy bars at a Duane Reade on the corner before heading back to the Crossfire. I’d been gone just about an hour, but I wasn’t going to use the extra time Mark had given me. I needed work to distract me from my crazy-assed family.
As I caught an empty elevator car, I ripped open a bar and bit viciously into it. I was making strides toward filling my self-imposed chocolate quota before I hit the twentieth floor when the car stopped on the fourth. I appreciated the added time the stop gave me to enjoy the comfort of dark chocolate and caramel melting over my tongue.
The doors slid apart, and revealed Gideon Cross talking with two other gentlemen.
As usual, I lost my breath at the sight of him, which reignited my fading irritation. Why did he have that effect on me? When was I going to become immune to his hotness?
He glanced over and his lips curved into a slow, heart-stopping smile when he saw me.
Great. Just my crappy luck. I’d become some kind of challenge.
Cross’s smile faded into a frown. “We’ll finish this later,” he murmured to his companions without looking away from me.
Stepping into the car, he lifted a hand to discourage them from following him. They blinked in surprise, glancing at me, then Cross, and then back again.
I stepped out, deciding it would be safer for my sanity to take a different car up.