Nicole was surprised her mother had come out and actually asked. For a moment, she almost told her everything. It would have been nice to just go outside and spill her guts to her mom over the phone, tell her how hard things had gotten. But she knew it was impossible. She didn’t want to sit there and listen to her mother badmouth Red in order to try and make Nicole feel better. That wouldn’t help anything.
So in the end, she just nodded her head. “I’m fine, Mom. I swear.”
“I’m sure it’s confusing right now with all the changes at your job,” her mother said delicately. It was the closest she could come to saying she was sorry about Red.
***
Nicole should have known that Kane Wright would track her down again. He wasn’t going to wait for her to come to him.
She shouldn’t have been surprised then, when the dark limousine pulled up next to her and Danielle as they walked down Fifth Avenue later that night.
It had been Danielle’s idea to get out of the apartment and go spend some time in Manhattan together. Nicole had complained that she’d just spent the day in Manhattan.
“That’s not the same—you were working. Sitting in a tiny cubicle is not spending the day in Manhattan. You could have been in Hoboken.”
“But I wasn’t.”
“Still.”
Nicole was too weak too fight. So she and Danielle had taken the train into the city and walked around, and surprisingly it was actually fun. Maybe it was all the walking and the fresh air, but Nicole found herself smiling and joking around for the first time in ages.
It couldn’t last though, and it didn’t last. The limousine pulled up beside them on the street and they turned and looked at one another.
“Is it…?” Danielle asked, her eyes wide with fear.
Nicole’s first thought was that it was Red. Red had come back to rescue her, to love her again. But that thought only lasted a moment because she knew it couldn’t be him.
This was the other billionaire, the one she never wanted to see again.
“No, it’s not Red,” Nicole said, as the limo door swung open and Kane Wright looked at the two of them from inside.
“Let’s have a chat,” he said.
Nicole glanced uneasily at Danielle.
Kane looked at them. “You and your lovely friend,” he said. “Please, I promise I won’t bite.”
“You don’t have to come. I’ll meet you back at the apartment,” Nicole told her.
“Are you kidding me? I’m not letting you get in there by yourself.”
Nicole smiled. It felt good to know that Danielle would fight to protect her. She was a great friend.
“Well then, let’s get this over with,” Nicole muttered.
The two of them got inside the spacious, luxurious limousine and sat as far away from Kane Wright as was humanly possible.
He didn’t seem to mind. The limo pulled away from the curb and into fifth avenue traffic. “Would either of you like a drink?” Kane asked them.
“Where are you taking us?” Danielle said, ignoring his question.
He looked at her without responding, and Nicole wondered how Danielle felt being stared at by this wealthy, handsome older man. His eyes had that familiar intensity that blazing confidence. She watched her friend gaze back at him, refusing to give an inch.
Finally, Kane settled back in his seat. “We’re just driving around. I told my driver to circle Times Square for a bit while we have a chat.”
“She has nothing to say to you,” Danielle
said.
“Oh? Is that so?”
“Yes, it is.”
“And who might you be? Her chaperone?” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
“Better than that. I’m her friend.”
“Oh, her friend,” Kane nodded. “That is better. It’s good to have trustworthy friends.”
“I’m sure you have none,” Danielle replied.
“Let’s not make this hostile,” Kane said. “What’s your name?”
She crossed her arms. “Don’t worry about my name.”
He grinned and snapped his fingers. “You look like a Danielle. I bet that’s your name, isn’t it?”
Danielle’s face got pale. “How did you know my name?”
Kane shrugged and smiled. Then he turned to Nicole. “So, have you thought at all about my proposal?”
She nodded. Then she licked her lips. “I’ve thought a lot about it. But I don’t think I can trust you to keep your word.”
“How can I earn your trust, Nicole?”
“I don’t think you can.”
He nodded and thought for a moment. “What if I did more than just keep Red Jameson’s dirty laundry from the public eye?”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.
“I’m a nice guy, Nicole. Really I am.”
“Only asshole’s say they’re nice guys,” Danielle replied.
Kane glanced at her. “I believe you’re in a significant amount of debt, aren’t you?”
Danielle’s cheeks flushed and for a moment she looked stunned, as if he’d slapped her across the face. But then she seemed to recover. “Everyone living in New York City is in debt. Nice guess.”
“True, most people are,” Kane nodded, as if empathizing with the plight of the common man. “But you,” he said to Danielle, “are even more in debt than most. Almost a hundred thousand dollars between student loans and credit cards. The loans you can defer for a little while, but those credit cards…” he shook his head.