“More than likely.”
“Not more than likely. I know it was. I came by to check on her that night around ten thirty. She was already at her apartment.”
“That’s what I have. I’m working on curating Rathbone’s reputational profile now.”
“Thanks, Chanel. And expect your bonus to hit tonight,” he said.
“I’ll call you when I’m done piecing together this profile,” she said.
Ash hung up the phone call in a daze. None of that was definitive proof, but it sure as hell was convincing circumstantial proof. It was more than enough to consider going to talk with Kallie again. But to what end? He’d berated her. Embarrassed her. Said such horrid things to her.
“Fuck!”
Ash threw his phone against the wall and it splintered into a million tiny pieces. He felt his heart racing out of control. His conversation with his father was ricocheting around in his head and the conversation with Eris and Jeremy was ringing in his ears. He placed the heels of his hands to his temple and pressed as hard as he could. Until all of the voices silenced, and h
e was left with nothing but his own voice.
The small, whispering voice that had been so beaten down by betrayal and conspiracy and alcohol.
And his tiny little voice only had one thing to say.
Work it out.
Three words. Three words that held the weight of the world. Was that a thing he could do? Were things salvageable between him and Kallie? What Chanel had told him, it was breathtaking. It fit more with Kallie’s story than it did with James’s interview. Could it be that he really had gotten this all wrong? And if he did, would it matter at that point? The things he’d said to Kallie ... all of the names he had called her. It sickened him. Standing in the light of what could be possible shed a new light onto his interactions with her over the weekend and he cursed himself.
Ash was an idiot.
He didn’t want to be like his father. He didn’t want to always assume women were using him. And the more he turned everything around in his head, the faster he paced. And the faster he paced, the quieter all the voices became. And the quieter they became, the more his headache dissipated. Then, for the first time in almost two weeks, he could think clearly.
Kallie wasn’t that type of girl.
And he wanted another chance.
He had no idea if she would give it to him. He had no idea if he even deserved a third chance. The voice message Eris had played for him was right. Ash hadn’t been the man he’d shown himself to be on the island, and that sent Kallie running. And for a good reason. And now, he stood on the precipice of possibly begging her for yet a third chance.
How many chances had she given James?
Would that someone make him like her ex?
Fuck, he didn’t know. All he knew was he had to try. He didn’t know what he would say or how he would approach her or if she would even agree to talk to him, but he had to try. If there was any possibility that Kallie hadn’t done anything wrong, then he was an ass and she deserved an apology.
But more than that, it meant he hadn’t placed his trust in the wrong person. Hadn’t placed his love in the wrong woman.
And to Ash? That would always be worth chasing down. No matter how many times it took him to get it right.
Chapter 9
Kallie
Tuesday morning and Kallie was back in the office. Back to the grind of organizing the world while hers fell apart. She sent off some invoices and took a couple of videoconference calls with people who had set up one-time appointments for her to go over their schedules. If they wanted to talk about the interview that had been blasted on television, they didn’t mention it. And Kallie was thankful for it. The last thing she needed was people setting up conferences and appointments with her only to corner her about what was going on in her life.
But she figured it was only a matter of time before someone tried that route.
All Kallie did was go through the motions. Sending out quotes, sending out invoices, taking a phone call. Sending out quotes, making more appointments, shuffling things around. Her job felt like a lie. Her apartment felt too empty. Everything in her world was wrong. Slanted. Fake. And she didn’t see a way out of it or a way to fix it. The only good thing was that she didn’t see things getting any worse. Which meant the only way she could go from where she stood was up.
Until a knock came at her door.
“Come in,” Kallie said.