“You have to believe me. Believe us. Olivia is crazy.”
“I think its best that we don’t see each other for a while. You have some things to work out. I have my own problems to deal with.”
“No. We’re not going to leave you alone. We’re not going to let you go.”
The elevator doors opened and they were back in the lobby. She raised her hand to the doorman.
“Cab please. Hurry,” she stated. He looked at Emerson, but Emerson was running his fingers through his hair and he appeared enraged. Well, she was pretty pissed off and confused right now, too.
“Baby, please. Please listen to me.” He held her against his chest and spoke softly against her lips. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to have misunderstood the scene upstairs, but she couldn’t. They’d brought her to someone’s penthouse. Was it theirs? How could they afford that? Had they lied to her about their lives, their work, and now this woman?
“Please. Let me go. I need to get back. Don’t call me. Don’t straighten things out. Leave me alone.”
Tears trolled down her cheeks and she ran for the door. The doorman held the cab door open and she quickly got inside.
She looked at Emerson standing there, as the cab pulled away from the curb.
She’d given her heart to Emerson and Stone, and in return they turned out to be complete liars. Her heart ached. She’d never felt so horrible before, or so stupid. It seemed her choice of men was getting worse over time. She fell in love with two liars, her business was in jeopardy of failing and her life was in danger.
What else could go wrong tonight?
* * * *
Toni couldn’t stay until closing tonight. She just wanted to get home, take some ibuprofen, and head to bed.
“So you’re not going to explain it all to me? You’re just going to head home and mope?” Tina asked.
“Yes. I don’t want to discuss it. They lied to me.”
“They lied about what? Owning a penthouse? So they make a lot of money, big deal.”
“There was a naked woman in their bed when we arrived. She claimed to be carrying their child. They knew her and they’d had sex with her, probably recently.”
Tina scrunched up her nose in disgust.
“Exactly,” Toni added.
“What if they were telling the truth? What if the woman was a psycho?”
“Oh really? And she had a key, the code to their penthouse, and just happened to know that they were picking me up for a date? I don’t think so. Too many coincidences for me to accept so easily. Besides, this makes it easier with the threats I’ve been getting.”
“What threats?”
Toni sighed. “I’ve been getting threats from unknown sources interested in buying me out or making me sell. Recently I received threats against Stone’s and Emerson’s lives.”
“Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner? Call the police. Call your cousin Leo.”
“No, Tina. I can’t. It will make matters worse, and then my uncle will get involved and it will bring up bad blood between my uncle and Vince’s. They’re just threats. I can handle it. Listen, I really need to get out of here. My head is hurting.”
“Does Vince have something to do with this?”
“I don’t know. I would hope not, but considering that the last threat told me that I needed to leave Stone and Emerson or they would die makes Vince my first suspect.”
“Holy shit. What an asshole.”
“I really don’t care. I’m going,” Toni stated. She said good-bye to her staff and headed out into the night. It was nearly nine, and closing time anyway. Just a few stragglers remained inside at Bliss.
Toni headed out into the night. It was warm, but she felt a chill. She was so upset about what happened at Stone and Emerson’s place. God, they were wealthy to boot. Maybe that yacht was theirs, too?