Wrong (A Bad Boy Romance)(43)
Nick strokes my hair, his fingers combing into it. “What’s wrong?”
My shoulders stiffen. Sometimes I think he can read my mind, but then again I guess I make it pretty obvious when I’m stressing over something. “I’m just thinking about the bakery.”
“It’ll take care of itself.” He keeps stroking my hair, the touch soothing.
“No, it won’t. That’s the problem. If I’m going to stay even close to solvent, I need to be there.”
He sighs and draws his hand away from me. I almost regret bringing anything up at all, because his caresses were soothing. Now he’s just holding me loosely, not even quite touching my back with his chest anymore.
“At this point, there’s no way you can ever be close to solvent.”
I turn to face him. I want to see his expression. “What do you mean?”
“You owe too much on that damn loan.” He doesn’t look particularly angry about it, but the words still send my hackles up.
“Can’t you take care of that?” I thought that was part of our deal, but maybe I was wrong.
He shakes his head a little. “Spada told me to pay it off, but I don’t have the funds. Not right now, anyway. The smart thing to do would probably be to sell and start over from scratch.”
“No.” I press my lips together hard, stubborn. “No way. No way in hell.”
“You’ve got to be realistic here, hon.” His conciliatory tone just makes me angrier. “If I’m going to get you out from under Sal, it needs to be all the way out from under. And that includes the loan.”
“I’ve worked so hard on that business. All I need is a little more time, some new equipment, and I’ll have things rolling. I know it.”
“And that takes money.”
I pull back away from him even farther, pulling a sheet up to cover myself. “You said you’d protect my legacy.”
“I will, but it has to be on my terms.”
“No.” What the hell is he pulling? This isn’t the way it was supposed to go. “No. It’s my business, and I want to run it on my terms. Not Sal’s. Not yours. Mine.”
“I’m sorry, Sarah, but that just might not be possible. Not for a while. If we sell—”
“No! I won’t sell.”
“Sarah. You have to look at this logically. I know you’re proud of what you’ve done there, but is that more important than your life? It might come down to that.”
“Goddammit,” I mutter, and fling myself onto my back. I’m so angry, and I know I have to keep it under control. Lashing out at Nick won’t help anything, and in spite of the way he’s treated me so far, I’m still afraid he might snap and hit me. God, I hate feeling that way.
We’re both quiet for a few seconds and then Nick moves a little closer. “Hey,” he says, and his voice is gentle. I turn to meet his gaze. He smiles a little at me. “We’ll work it out. I promise. And I won’t do anything right away. We can talk later. Maybe tonight after I get back home.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. I need to go to work.”
“So you’re not okay with me being alone at the bakery, but you’re okay with me being alone at home?”
“I’ve got a couple guys watching the place. They’ll be by from time to time. You might not see them, but they’re under orders to check on you. Plus I trust the security system here a lot more than I trust whatever security system you have at the bakery.”
I’m not sure if this makes me feel safer or more hemmed in. Either way, I’m going to have to deal with it.
“Okay. Any chance I can go buy some new clothes?”
He looks vaguely surprised, as if he forgot all about that. “I’ll send Chris around later—he’ll take you shopping.”
It’s better than nothing. I nod and offer him a conciliatory smile. “Thanks. Have a good day.”
“You too,” he says, and heads for the bathroom.
#
Poking around in Nick’s closet, I realize he’s gathered some clothes for me and put them in the front of the closet where I can find them. They all look to be roughly the right size. That’s handy—at least I won’t have to wear the same clothes every day until I can manage to go shopping. I’m not sure I want to go with Chris, either. I’d rather go by myself, or even with Nick.
I pick out a top and some jeans, still not entirely comfortable with wearing some other anonymous woman’s clothes. I’d so much rather have my own wardrobe back, but Nick’s right. It’s too dangerous at the moment to go back to Sal’s. I might get a chance to later, but not any time soon.