Page 78 of Escorting the CEO
“Forgive me that you slipped my mind.” My voice was ice. “I assumed you had other plans—like usual.”
“Nothing is more important to me than my son!” But Luke tried to squirm away, and she grabbed his wrist again, tightening her grip.
“Mommy, that hurts.” He started bawling.
She looked down at him in annoyance. “Shutup.”
“Okay, that’s enough. Let him go.” Rory’s face was red.
Gigi didn’t release her grip. “I am not taking orders fromyou. Miranda told me all about you, you’re nothing but a two-bit hook?—”
“That’s enough, Gigi!” I roared. Luke started crying harder. “Let the boy go with Rory. I’m sure you need more money—I can help with that. But only if you let gonow.”
Gigi released Luke, and he ran to Rory.
Rory hugged him. Over his shoulder, she gave both Gigi and me a withering stare.
I held her gaze for a moment, but all I saw in return was her judgment.
“Let’s go, buddy,” she said softly to Luke, holding him tight.
She shot me another disgusted look before she turned away.
I felt as if she’d slapped me. But what was I supposed to do? Gigi was making a terrible scene. It wasn’t good for Luke.
It wasn’t good for me, either.
I knew what she was thinking—I was buying someone else, buying us another way out, shutting up the horrible Gigi with cash instead of actually solving a problem. It was a band-aid of dollar bills slapped onto a gaping wound, and it wouldn’t help Luke. Not in the long run.
Rory and Maria held his hands, forming a chain of protection, and hustled him off, far away from his awful mother.
Far away from me.
BREAK
RORY
The interior of Barrington Manorwas cool and blessedly deserted. “I’m going to take him to his room, if that’s okay with you,” Maria said, her brow creased into a V of worry.
“Of course.” I hesitated before saying, “Maria, about what Gigi said about me?—”
“Please, you don’t need to say anything. Gigi is…” She glanced down at Luke’s tear-stained face. She sighed and shook her head, mom-code forI won’t say it in front of him.
“You don’t owe me an explanation.” She looked worn out from the scene, but her voice was kind. “You have a good heart. Luke cares about you, and so do I. Thank you for helping him.”
Touched, my eyes filled with tears as she scooped him up, kissed him softly on the head, and swept him off to the peace and safety of his room.
That poor kid. It was evident from her drama outside that Gigi only cared about money. The way she’d yelled at Luke, yelled at all of us infrontof Luke, then gripped his wrist told me everything I needed to know about her.
I had a mother like that.
The parallels were not lost on me. In one day, both my mother and Gigi had wreaked havoc at Barrington Manor.Tammy Harris had shown up, caused a scene, then gleefully accepted a bribe. Gigi Barrington had just done the same. The moment Rhodes offered her cash, she immediately let Luke go. She hadn’t even spared her son a backward glance while Rhodes was making his offer.
It made me sick.
Transaction, transaction, transaction.That’s all that was going on at Barrington Manor. Rhodes had offered to pay my mother off, then I’d closed the deal when I offered her more. Then Rhodes had bribed Gigi in order to get her to stop shrieking and quiet down about me being atwo-bit hooker.
That’s all we did, Rhodes and I. Paid people to be quiet. To keep our secrets. To support the facade.
