ChapterTwenty-Seven
Ahammering on her door the following morning woke Beth from a deep sleep.
The weather had turned milder during the night, the hail had melted, and a weak sun peeked through, giving the first sign that spring might be taking back control of the seasons.
Beth kicked the heavy blankets off, realizing that she was overheated after piling so many on top and then turning up the heating.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes as she stumbled to the door, then blinked in surprise when she saw Ansley standing there.
Her friend breezed in, in a flurry of light perfume and designer couture. As usual Ansley was perfectly turned out and wasn’t showing any signs of having been coerced into submission or held prisoner by the man - men? - who had claimed her as their wife. In fact, she looked positively radiant.
“Why didn’t you tell me you quit your job?” Ansley demanded before Beth could say a word. There was accusation in her voice as well as her manner as Ansley reached the lounge then swung around to face her.
Beth’s eyes widened in surprise. She’d only just woken up and hadn’t had her coffee yet, so she was still sleep muddled.
Shaking her head, she turned towards the kitchen to take care of that before she answered.
“Why didn’t you tell me you got married?” Beth threw back by way of a reply, after she’d gotten the machine started. That still stung.
Ansley shrugged. “You weren’t here,” she replied, her hands extended in supplication. But Beth sensed the regret in her friend’s expression.
Beth sighed and handed Ansley one of the mugs of coffee she’d poured, before moving to sit on the couch. “And you weren’t available when I got home, and all the shit hit the fan at work. Have you even seen how many messages I left you?”
Ansley bit her lip and ducked her head, her fair skin turning a rosy shade of pink. “You blew up my phone,” she responded, still not looking Beth in the eye.
“That’s because you weren’t answering,” Beth retorted, “I had to find out from the society gossip columns that my best friend had gotten married. And when I contacted Katrina, she weaved some tale about the mafia, and you being embroiled in some kind of mob turf war. I’ve been worried sick. Especially when I couldn’t get hold of you and she said you weren’t living at home anymore!”
Ansley looked uncomfortably embarrassed, and if it was possible her face was even redder than before. “I’ve been… busy,” she replied primly, and the whole thing was so completely out of character for her normally carefree friend that Beth burst out laughing.
“Oh my God! I was just thinking that you had a special glow about you! I’ve just realized what it is. You’ve been ensnared and distracted by tons of kinky sex with those new men of yours, haven’t you,” she cried, gleefully.
“I-I…that’s not what I came here to discuss,” Ansley deflected, her face now looking hot enough to fry an egg on. “Daddy phoned me, and said it was imperative that I get hold of you. He’s been pulling his hair out.”
Beth frowned, her friends’ words causing enough confusion for her to let Ansley’s sex life drop… for a moment. “Why does Mr. King want to get hold of me?” she asked.
“Premier Finance has completely messed up one of his company accounts. Because it was completed and forwarded to the tax office early, it was caught. Daddy has friends in high places. But he only has a few weeks to get it resubmitted correctly, or he’ll get massive fines and risks all of his other companies being investigated.”
Beth scrunched up her eyes, her mind whirling. “I don’t understand. What’s that got to do with me? I didn’t even know Mr. King used Premier Finance. And you must have read at least some of my messages, because you know I don’t work there anymore.”
Ansley shook her head. “No, daddy was told you’d quit when he rang them, and that’s why someone else had closed out the ComTech account. But he knows that wasn’t true because the dates coincided with when you were on holiday, so he wanted to know what was going on.”
Beth gasped. “Comtech belongs to your father?” she squeaked.
Ansley nodded vigorously. “It’s only a small company, but he’s really pissed that they messed up and he’s taken all his business elsewhere.”
Beth could barely comprehend what Ansley was saying. It wasn’t a small one. It was huge. The biggest account she worked on. She was surprised she’d been allowed to keep it. But if Mr. King had enormous accounts with her old company, and he’d pulled them, then… wow! Beth couldn’t even get her head round that. It could be crippling to lose that kind of lucrative multi-billion-dollar business. Not to mention how the gossip mill would twist things.
She couldn’t find it within herself to be sorry. Karma was a bitch. Did it make her a bad person?
Beth quickly explained what had happened and Ansley beamed. “Damien, Leonid and Roman have accounts there too. I bet they’d move them if I asked nicely.”
Beth stared at her friend, blankly. “I thought they were the Bratva?”
Ansley pursed her lips. “The Shlykov’s do have legitimate enterprises, you know. But I bet they could go and ‘put the frighteners’ on your old boss too… But that’s not what I’m here for either. Although you can bet now I know how badly you’ve been treated, I’ll be mentioning it to them!”
In typical Ansley style, her friend was talking nineteen to the dozen and Beth could barely keep up.
“So why are you here then?” she finally managed.