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Nick is the first to break the awful silence. “Go find out what Manny wants.”
He strides away, back into the bedroom, leaving me alone and naked, wracked with an uncontrollable shudder. With emotion dammed up in my throat, I pad over to the intercom and answer the doorman’s call.
“Yes, Manny?” My voice is shockingly steady. Then again, I was trained a long time ago how to act as if my world isn’t crumbling all around me.
“Miss Avery, one of your friends is down here. She says she needs to talk to you.”
The announcement is so unexpected, it takes me a second to answer. “Who is it?”
“Tasha Lopez, ma’am.”
Confusion burns through my haze of despair. It’s Friday night, just past nine o’clock. Tasha should be at Vendange. “She’s here? In the building?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Manny lowers his voice discreetly. “If you don’t mind me saying, she seems very upset. Shall I put her on the phone?”
As much as my heart aches for what I’ve likely lost tonight with Nick, my concern for Tasha has me snapping to attention. “No. Don’t put her on the phone. Tell her I’ll be right down.”
When I pivot to hurry to the bedroom for some clothing, Nick is standing behind me, dressed in his dark suit pants and buttoning his white shirt. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Tasha’s downstairs. Manny says she’s upset.”
I duck past him to get dressed, my heart caught in my throat for the fact that Nick doesn’t even try to stop me, and my stomach twisting with worry for my friend.
Chapter 36
I don’t expect Nick to follow me, but he steps into the elevator with me a few moments later, each of us taking up opposite corners of the car as it descends silently to the ground floor.
Tasha is waiting in the empty lobby, seated on one of the white leather and chrome chairs near the main entrance. Dressed in her black pants, deep-V shirt, and heels, she looks like any other chic Manhattanite who might step into this building on a Friday night. But as she spots me approaching and vaults from the chair, I see the stress in her face immediately.
Her mouth is drawn, deep lines bracketing her lips. Her normally sparkling brown eyes are puffy and bloodshot, as if she’s been crying recently.
As soon as I realize her distress, I break into a panicked jog to reach her. “Tasha? Honey, what’s wrong?”
She throws her arms around me, just as a jagged sob rips from her throat. “I didn’t know what to do, Avery! I didn’t know where else to go.”
“It’s okay,” I soothe, but I feel her trembling against me. “You’re all right. You’re safe. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“Joel.” She chokes his name like a curse and my blood runs a little cold. “He tried to—” She lifts her head, and I am stricken by the true fear I see in my friend’s face. “He said if I wanted to keep my job, I’d have to—”
She doesn’t finish, her words cut off by fresh tears.
“That son of a bitch.” Fury erupts from somewhere deep inside me, as bitter as acid. I am stricken by the thought of anyone hurting my friend, especially someone like Joel. I pull her out of my embrace, holding her at arm’s length so I can clearly see her face. “Tasha, did he . . . did he touch you?”
She shakes her head. “No. I ran out of there before he had the chance. I just grabbed my purse and I ran. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Who’s Joel?”
Nick’s deep voice is a dark demand beside me. When I swivel my head to look at him, I am met with a stormy blue gaze that is a mere shade away from violent. He’s heard everything Tasha said, and his reaction seems as visceral as mine.
“Joel’s the manager at Vendange, a restaurant over on Madison.”
He nods tightly, disapprovingly, but he remains silent as Tasha launches into the details of what occurred.
“I was straightening out an order that Kimmie fucked up, and Joel comes over to me, telling me I’ve got customers waiting to cash out. I lost it. I told him they wouldn’t be waiting if it wasn’t for his useless girlfriend making extra work for me. I guess I finally had enough of his overbearing bullshit, you know? I didn’t think anything would come of it, but he was pissed. When I went to the storage room a little while later, he followed me inside. He locked the door.” She swallows hard, then blows out a sharp sigh. “He told me if I wanted to keep my job, I would have to make it up to him somehow, and that I could start right then and there.”
“Jesus Christ,” Nick mutters.
My own outrage is on full boil too. I never had much regard for Joel and his oily tactics, but what he’s done to Tasha tonight is beyond disgusting. “What about Tony? Does he know this happened?”
