Gen crossed her arms and looked at her feet. She thought she’d been safe to cry in the shower. She should’ve known better. She took a few breaths, found her center, and reminded herself the control room was probably listening.
“Yeah, okay. I needed an emotional release. A lot happened and I thought I could let off a little steam in private. I’ll remember in the future that isn’t an option. Now, if you’ll kindly get out of my way, my cab should be here by now.”
“Then get on my bike and we’ll stop across the street and give him some money for his trouble, and I can take you home. We can have this talk here, in the parking lot, but this is one of the handful of places I can’t order them to shut the feed off, so you have to know it’ll be public knowledge, if we do.”
“Those are my choices? Talk here, or let you take me home?”
He nodded and Gen said, “We’ve had this talk before. You’re being a bully, taking advantage of the fact you’re bigger, stronger, and faster than me.”
Duke smiled. “I am.”
Gen didn’t smile back, but looked back to the ground to center herself again. Without looking up, she said, “I don’t like you very much right now.”
He touched her chin and she looked up. “I know, and I’m sorry. We need to talk. You’re doing a good job of holding it together, but I can smell your grief. Your pain.”
Gen had spent a lifetime learning how to appear strong when she felt weak, but she’d never had to worry about what pheromones she was releasing. There had to be a way to keep from letting those out, she’d just never had to think about it.
“Yeah, I’ve never had to figure out how to hide that before. Give me time and I’ll figure that out, too. Meanwhile, here’s my offer to you. Take me home and force me to have this conversation now and you aren’t going to like how it goes. Let me go home, chill out, handle my client, and then talk to me tonight? Maybe the conversation will have a different outcome.”
Duke looked at her a handful of seconds and turned his head to the wall beside them. “Anyone want to volunteer to bodyguard her until time for her appointment, so I can get some sleep?”
He looked back at her and said, “I’ll walk across the street, give the cabbie some money for his time. You can ride back to your place with whoever walks out the door, set them up downstairs with the TV remote, and ignore them until time to go. He’ll follow you to the hotel you’re picking her up at, hang around across the street to watch the two of you drive off together, and then you’ll be on your own until you drop her off. You’ll be close, so I’d appreciate it if you come here when you finish.”
Tiny walked out and lifted his chin at them, and Gen looked at Duke. “Sheila’s okay with me riding on the back of his bike?”
Duke nodded. “For this, yeah. For a joyride? Never.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Gen met Pebbles and Jiminy Davidson in the restaurant attached to The Chattanoogan Hotel, where they discussed the fact Chattanooga probably made the most sense for them to relocate, since Jiminy’s business interests had him travelling all over the southeast. They were considering both Chattanooga and Atlanta, as well as a few places in between, but Pebbles liked Chattanooga best.
Gen liked Pebbles from the start, even if she did look like a well-dressed prostitute. She had boobs out to her elbows, a teeny-tiny waist, and a beautiful bubble butt. She wore a two-thousand dollar dress, and fifteen hundred dollar shoes.
It wasn’t often a client’s clothes cost more than Gen’s, but today she wore a sixteen hundred dollar suit, and nine hundred dollar shoes.
In spite of the fact Pebbles oozed sexuality, her smile was genuine, her laughter was happy, and Gen had a feeling her husband only smiled when he was around his wife.
When they finished lunch, Jiminy walked them to the parking garage, saw them into the vehicle, and told his wife to be safe and come back to him in one piece.
Gen thought it an odd way to say goodbye, and Pebbles gave a little bit of an explanation as they pulled away. “He usually makes me go out with a bodyguard when I’m not with him, but I convinced him no one knows us here and I’ll be safe looking at houses with a Realtor.”
“Does he have a dangerous job? Why would you need a bodyguard?”
Pebbles shook her head and changed the subject. “Sorry to make changes to what you’d planned to show me today, but Jiminy was right about the locations that won’t work. Also, I’m glad he changed his mind about only wanting something on the mountain. I really liked the pictures of the house you showed me on the Tennessee River.”