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She frowned and tossed the contract on the table. “Nice,” she said. “I’ll be going now.” She got up to leave and Richard said, “Fine, go. When they kick you out of that trash apartment you live in, maybe you can live with your brother instead.”
Stella stopped at the door, looking at him incredulously. “You looked into me?”
“Of course, I looked into you,” he said. “I’d be crazy not to. You might be Stoney’s sister, but I don’t know you from a bag of hair. You think I’d go through all this trouble without finding out who you were first?”
She watched as he walked back over to the desk and pulled out a folder. He opened it, leaning against the desk. “Your credit score is in the toilet at 520,” he said, “You’re about three months behind on your car payments and a month behind in rent…”
“What’s your point?” she said crossing her arms. “That I need the money? So what? That’s not anything shocking.”
He paused, then said closed the folder. “No,” he said, “What’s shocking is that you’d let Curtis win.”
Her face flushed at the sound of her ex-husband’s name and she closed her mouth, her jaw clenching.
“I don’t know the details about your divorce,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get the file on that part of your life. What’s clear is that a year and a half ago, you had a job and plenty of money to live off of. Now you’re this close to living on the street. It’s pretty obvious you sank every dime you had in that divorce. And since by your own admission, you didn’t bother to get alimony.”
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?”
He cringed internally at her attack, but kept his cool on the outside and set the folder down on the desk behind him. “You’ll be paid 50,000 dollars biweekly,” he said. “If you sign tonight. It’s not a bad deal. Pretend to be the fiancée of the most eligible bachelor on the west coast. Think about it. Can you really afford to say no?”
She was looking at him with disdain and Richard knew she was calling him a hundred names in her head. Not a single one of them escaped her lips, however.
She walked over to the table and sat down, picking up the pen. “I will be so glad when this is over,” she said as she signed her name, “and I never have to see your face again.”
He just smiled at her. The feeling was mutual.
After she signed the paperwork and their business was concluded, he showed her out. “I’ll give you a call in a day or so,” he said. “We’ll need to coordinate some time to get you acquainted with some important details about my life so this can be believable.”
“Great,” she said dryly. “I look forward to it.”
When they got to the door, he noticed that her car was parked fairly far from his front door, at least down to the end of the block. The street was fairly well-lit, but it was still night and she was still going to be walking all the way to her car alone.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said and she put her hand up to him.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” she said. “I can take care of myself.”
Without another word, she walked down the steps and to the street. Once she was a few feet away, he turned away, shaking his head. He supposed he couldn’t be that mad at her for not accepting his chivalry. It wasn’t like tonight was particularly pleasant for either of them.
He was about to go back inside when he heard a scream. He turned back around just in time to see a man grabbing Stella by the waist and dragging her into the shadows. Without thinking, Richard leaped down the stairs and ran in the direction of the commotion. He reached her just as her assailant pulled her around the corner and slammed her against the brick wall. He pulled out a knife and put it up to her neck.
“Give me all your money,” he growled through the ski mask. “Now!”
Stella looked at him with wide and terrified eyes, her hands up. “Please…”
Richard stepped in and punched the man in the ski mask across the face. He tumbled sideways, dropping the knife on the pavement. Richard pushed him and he fell over his feet, falling back onto the pavement.
“Get out of here!” Richard roared. The man in the ski mask scrambled to his feet and ran away without looking back. Richard watched him go until he was out of sight, then turned to Stella.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded, her hands shaking as she rubbed the back of her head. “I…I think so…” She sucked in air through her teeth as her fingers touched a sore spot where her head hit the building.
Richard took her arm away and turned her around. “Let me see it.” He peered at the back of her head, gently pushing away strands of hair. When his fingers came across a small bump, she yelped in pain.
“Sorry,” he said. She turned around and faced him, her face still grimacing in pain.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’ve got a hard head.”
No kidding,he thought. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
