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Chapter Twenty
The pretty young receptionist jumped as I slammed my palms down on her desk. She looked up and offered me a shaky smile. “C-can I help you?”
I grinned back. “I’m here to see Amber Dean.”
“Do you have an appointment?” she asked as her eyes moved to the computer.
“Nope. But if you could point me in the direction of her office, that would be great,” I replied smoothly.
Her hands shook as she reached for the phone on her desk. “I’m sorry, I’m going to call security if you don’t leave right now.”
Skins moved quickly, grabbing the chord of the phone and tugging it forcefully, so it pulled right out of the wall. He shrugged. “Oops.”
I chuckled. “Stay here. Don’t let anyone in, I’ll try to make this quick.”
He flashed a cheeky smirk at the sweating receptionist as he moved to the office door and flicked the lock. “No problem, we’ll get acquainted.” I saw her shudder, but with the way her eyes watched him I could tell she wasn’t entirely scared.
I headed down the hallway, it was only small and each office space had a name on the door. It didn’t take me long to find the right one. I turned the handle and pushed the door, which swung open with force, slamming back against the wall. A dark haired woman looked up at me beneath her lashes as she held a phone to her ear. Her white collared shirt was all business with a feminine flair, hugging her upper body and accentuating her breasts. Her hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and what little makeup she had on wasn’t overdone. She was beautiful but professional.
“I’ll call you back,” she murmured into the receiver before placing it down. Leaning back in her chair, seeming rather relaxed despite my dramatic intrusion she said, “Can I help you?”
I shut the door behind me before I answered, “I’m hoping you can,” I stated, walking forward and bracing my hands on the back of a large armchair. “You’re Edward Dean’s daughter?”
Her lips pursed tightly and she pushed to her feet. “Yeah,” she answered, pulling her shoulders back as if she was expecting a fight. “And if you’re here about him then you might as well turn and walk your cute ass back out again because I couldn’t give a crap what you have to say about him.”
I raised my eyebrows, surprised by her tone and the strength behind her words. “You’re the one who took the DNA test.”
Her eyes widened momentarily, and the harsh tension in her body seemed to fade. “And you are?”
“The man who has temporary custody of your little sister, and would like to keep it that way. But I’m having a few problems with that,” I explained vaguely.
I didn’t expect the laughter that chimed from her as she fell back into her large office chair.
She held out her hand, gesturing to the seat I was gripping tightly in my fists. “Please, sit down. I’m guessing this has something to do with Mary and Allen Sanders?”
My brow creased as I eased my way around the chair and lowered myself into it. “You know them?”
She huffed out an amused breath. “Unfortunately, yes.”
I knew this wasn’t good. “Tell me,” I demanded, leaning forward and bracing my elbows on my knees. She eyed me warily and I clasped my hands together, trying to calm my agitation and frustration. I wanted information and I wanted it now, but bullying it out of Amber wasn’t going to get me anywhere. She obviously was a strong woman, young but hard, and I knew the second I began demanding shit from her that she would protect herself and possibly force me out. I needed to be on her side.
I sighed. “Look, I love Jayla. As far as I’m concerned, she’s mine. She has a home and a family with us, and the last thing we want is to lose her. Especially if that means possibly putting her at risk. So I need to know what you know, I need to protect her.”
It took a few moments but Amber seemed to warm to my presence. I could see her mind working, the cogs turning. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, she took me by surprise.
“My dad was an asshole,” she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders as if those words were fact and she’d come to simply accept them. “Nothing he did ever surprised me. He hated people and people hated him. But what he did love was money, and he made a lot of it in his time.”
“How?”
“He made the right investments at the right times and he was a defense attorney, one of the best in the state. But it wasn’t because he was a convincing man or because he worked hard…” she let the words hang in the air and I knew exactly what she was getting at.
He was dirty.
He didn’t play by the rules.
He bent the rules to fit his client’s needs.
“His clients pay him big dollars to get them off?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
