Deadly Intentions (Hardy Brothers Security Book 1) (10 page)

“You told her you were leaving, right?” Finn asked.

James swallowed hard, avoiding the accusatory stares Grady and Finn were shooting his way. “She was asleep. I didn’t want to wake her.”

“So, instead you thought you’d have sex with her and then sneak out in the middle of the night?” Grady prodded.

“She was asleep,” James mumbled.

“You’re an ass,” Finn announced.

James frowned. “Why do you care?”

“Because we know her,” Finn replied. “We’ve known her forever. She’s not the type of girl you just pump and dump. Why would you want to hurt her like that?”

“I don’t want to hurt her,” James said, cringing at Finn’s take on the situation. “I just don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”

“Oh, I’m fairly sure she knows you’re an ass now,” Finn said. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that she was going to get all mushy in the morning and I didn’t want to deal with it,” James admitted. “I don’t know why you’re suddenly the morality police. You snuck out of that woman’s house just last month, and you didn’t hear me ragging on you about it.”

“I didn’t know her,” Finn shot back. “I had no intention of knowing her ever again. This is different.”

“How?”

“Because you want to know Mandy,” Grady supplied. “That has been pretty obvious since the day she walked into our office.”

“That’s ridiculous,” James sputtered.

“You keep telling yourself that,” Finn argued. “Because I don’t think you were worried about Mandy getting mushy in the morning. I think you were worried you would get mushy in the morning – and the great James Hardy can’t have that, can he?”

Finn was legitimately angry – and James didn’t blame him. No matter what he said, nothing was going to make him feel worse than he already did.

Grady blew out a sigh, running a hand through his long hair as he considered their predicament. “Maybe it won’t be a big deal. Mandy isn’t prone to dramatic fits. Tomorrow is Saturday. Just go to her apartment in the morning and apologize. Maybe she’ll take one look at that hangdog expression on your face and kiss your tears away.”

Grady was joking, but James had already considered doing just that. Instead of admitting it, he said something else. “I have other stuff to do tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going to need you to watch her tomorrow.”

Grady’s eyes darkened. “Are you kidding?”

“No.”

James ignored his brothers and walked into his bedroom without a backwards glance, shutting the door and locking out their indignant comments. He glanced at his empty bed and felt a strange, new emotion: Loneliness.

In the other room, Grady was still dumbfounded. “Did he just stick me with his morning-after jilting?”

Finn shook his head angrily. “It looks like.”

“Well, great.”

Grady paused outside Mandy’s apartment door, his hand raised to deliver his ready knock, and then thought better of it.

“I did not create this situation,” he muttered to himself. “James is going to fix this problem. Not me. This is not my problem.”

Grady turned, ready to run, but he stilled when he heard the door open behind him.

“Grady?”

Grady’s shoulders slumped as he turned. He looked Mandy over. Her eyes were a little puffy – like she’d been crying – but she didn’t look like she had a knife hidden in her purse to cut his throat if he said the wrong thing. That was something at least.

“Hey, Mandy, how’s it going?”

Mandy rolled her eyes. She had no doubt James had filled in his brother, both of them probably, boasting about his great conquest, and even greater jilting, before having a good laugh about her stupidity this morning. “Fine.”

“Oh, good.” Grady shuffled uncomfortably. “So, um, what are you doing today?”

“Why do you care?”

“James wanted me to make sure you were safe,” he replied. “He had a previous engagement he had to take care of,” he added hurriedly.

“I bet,” Mandy replied dryly. “You can tell James that I’m perfectly fine and I won’t be needing his … services again.”

Grady frowned. “I don’t think … .”

“You can go.”

Grady blew out a sigh. “I’m not going to make excuses for him.”

“Good. Don’t.” Mandy’s heart clenched. She did not want to be having this conversation. She’d spent two hours this morning crying and cursing James Hardy’s very existence. If Grady persisted, she was going to lose herself in another crying fit and she’d already decided she wasn’t going to waste one more tear on James Hardy.

“He’s confused,” Grady pressed. “He didn’t exactly see you coming.”

“Then he should have said no when I asked him for help,” Mandy said, moving around Grady and pulling her keys out of her purse as she headed toward her car.

“I don’t think he could say no,” Grady replied, keeping a few feet away from her as she trudged down the sidewalk. “You just have to give him time.”

“I have no time to give him,” Mandy argued. “I’ve given him enough … time.”

Grady rubbed his forehead worriedly. He’d known Mandy for a long time. Granted, he didn’t know her as well as either of his brothers – especially now – but he’d never known her to be cold and vacant. The woman stubbornly getting into her car right now was a stranger.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m having lunch with my stepmother,” Mandy replied. “We’ll be in broad daylight with a bunch of other people. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Grady remained rooted to his spot for a second, and then climbed into his own truck. He watched as she backed out and pulled away. He couldn’t remember ever being this angry with James – not since they were kids and he wrecked his bicycle, that is. He wasn’t just going to let her run around without someone watching over her. She was still in danger.

Mandy pushed Grady out of her mind as she drove to Don Pablo’s. When she’d agreed to lunch with Sheryl earlier in the week, she had no idea that her stomach would be such a jumbled mess. Spicy food was not going to be her friend today.

Once she got to the restaurant, she parked and checked her reflection in the rearview mirror. If Sheryl asked, she would just say she wasn’t feeling well. There was no way she was going to admit her ill-advised dalliance with James. It just made her look like an idiot – and she already felt like enough of an idiot to cover everyone involved in this horrible situation. When she’d woken up this morning and found that James had slipped out of the apartment during the night, it was like someone had hit her in the gut with a baseball bat. Actually, that would’ve hurt less than the inevitable shattering of her heart that accompanied the realization that he was gone.

Mandy plastered a fake smile on her face when she got inside the restaurant and found Sheryl already seated. She didn’t know her stepmother all that well, but she’d agreed to a lunch because Sheryl had sounded so lost on the phone. Once she got situated in her seat and placed her order, Mandy turned to Sheryl expectantly. “How are you?”

Sheryl looked Mandy over, concern etched on her face. “I should ask you that, dear,” she said. “You don’t look well. Are you sleeping all right?”

Mandy fought the sigh on her lips. “My stomach is a little upset.”

“Oh, we can go somewhere else if you think that will be easier on your stomach.”

“This is fine.” Mandy didn’t tell her that she would feel like throwing up no matter where they went. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Sheryl took Mandy’s word as truth and then started chattering. With her mind as confused as it was, Sheryl’s inane chatter was hard to follow but, luckily for her, Sheryl managed to keep up both ends of the conversation herself.

After pushing her salad around on her plate for a half hour, Mandy finally let the waiter take it away, promising him that there was nothing wrong with it and that she just didn’t feel well.

Grady watched the scene from his spot at the bar, nursing a margarita as he ignored the two women eyeing him from a few seats away. Mandy hadn’t noticed him following her, which wasn’t a surprise, since her thoughts were clearly on something – or rather someone – else.

He’d never seen the woman sitting across from Mandy, so Grady used the opportunity to gauge her from afar. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but given Sheryl’s big gestures and constant cackles, he had trouble believing the conversation was orbiting planet Serious.

Grady wracked his brain, trying to remember what the background check on Sheryl Avery had revealed.
Knitting. This woman liked knitting – and ceramic cats.
Even though Grady was suspicious by nature, he couldn’t help but feel that Sheryl was not a threat. Just because she didn’t look like she was about to jump over the table and stab her stepdaughter with a knitting needle. That didn’t mean that she hadn’t hired someone to terrorize her and she was just a really good actress.

The other thing Grady noticed from his lofty perch on the bar stool was sadness.
Mandy looked sad
. She was usually quick with a smile – and even a laugh – but both of those expressions seemed forced. Sometimes he really hated his brother.

For her part, Mandy listened to Sheryl’s mindless chatter and tried to push memories of James out of her head. She still didn’t understand how he could take something so beautiful and turn it into absolute crap in such a short time. He must have a rare gift.

When the waiter returned with the check, Mandy dug into her purse for money.

“This is on me,” Sheryl chided.

Mandy smiled. “Thank you. This has been nice. We should do it again some time.”

“I’m not down here very often, but I’d like that,” Sheryl replied.

Mandy nodded.

“Now, why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong with you,” Sheryl pressed.

Mandy frowned. She knew she hadn’t exactly been a sparkling lunch conversationalist, but she had no idea how Sheryl could’ve picked up on her conflicted emotions. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re obviously upset, dear,” Sheryl said, patting her hand encouragingly. “It looks like you’ve been crying, too. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on.”

Mandy forced a fake smile onto her face. “Nothing is wrong.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Mandy blew out a sigh. “It’s just work stuff.”

Sheryl narrowed her eyes. “Work stuff makes you cry on a Saturday?”

“It’s been a long week.”

“They’re all long weeks,” Sheryl countered. “Something tells me this has something to do with a man, though.”

“No,” Mandy said hurriedly. “There are no men in my life.”
Not now, anyway.

“Oh, okay,” Sheryl said breezily. “I’m assuming that whatever is wrong has nothing to do with the man sitting at the bar watching us then.”

Mandy swung around, her gaze landing on Grady almost immediately.

Grady froze when their eyes met.
Crap.

Mandy turned back to Sheryl, her lips tightly stretched as she swallowed the string of curses on the tip of her tongue. “Will you excuse me for a second?”

Sheryl nodded, watching Mandy with a knowing smile as she stalked in the direction of the bar.
Ah, young love.

Mandy’s was furious by the time she made it to Grady. “What are you doing?”

“Having a drink?” Grady inclined his head toward the half-empty margarita. “What a coincidence, running into you here and all.”

Mandy caught sight of the two women watching Grady from the other end of the bar and rolled her eyes.
Good grief. Did the Hardy men emit some sort of musk whenever they were around the opposite gender?
“Are you following me?”

“No.”

Mandy reached over and pinched Grady’s forearm viciously. “Are you following me?”

“Ow!” Grady jerked his arm away. “Fine. I’m following you.”

“Why?”

Grady lowered his voice. “Because someone has tried to kill you twice.”

“And yet your brother did more damage,” Mandy mused, immediately hating how pathetic she sounded. “I’m fine.”

“I promised James I would watch over you.”

“Why would he even care? He certainly didn’t care this morning.” Mandy felt guilty for unloading on Grady, but the real target of her anger had stolen away in the dead of night and was now hiding like a frightened child.

Grady’s eyes softened. “I think the problem is that he cares too much,” he admitted. “He’s just all caught up in himself right now. Give him a little … .”

“Time,” Mandy finished for him. “You’ve already said that. I’m not giving him time. I’m done with him. I think he’s made me look like enough of a fool, don’t you?”

Grady couldn’t argue with her. If he was in her position, he didn’t know what he would do. He certainly wouldn’t open himself up to more hurt. “I’m sorry.”

Mandy blew out a heavy sigh. “You haven’t done anything to be sorry about.”

“I’m still sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Mandy replied. “I’m a grown woman. I’ll be fine.”

Grady was silent. He didn’t know what else to say.

“Now, go to your brother and tell him I’m fine and that my world didn’t suddenly cease turning because he walked out on me.”

Grady opened his mouth to argue.

“I’m not joking,” Mandy pressed.

Grady reluctantly got to his feet, dropping a ten on the counter to cover the margarita. “I don’t feel right about leaving you.”

“I’m fine,” Mandy said. “I’m going straight home after this. No one will get me between the restaurant and the apartment. I’ll be home way before dark.”

Grady still wasn’t convinced.

“Go,” Mandy pushed him. “And you might want to see if one of those women will give you their number. They’ve been eyeing you since I walked over here. You might get lucky. Heck, you might get lucky with both of them.”

Grady slid a glance at the women, shaking his head. “They’re not my type.”

“No,” Mandy agreed. “Probably not.”