Yield to Love (6 page)

“
I cannot believe this.
You are acting like a real bitch, Toye!”

Toye scowled. “I’m not the one you need to
be pissed at.”

“
I don’t need to be pissed
at anyone. I need your support.”

Toye crossed her arms over her chest. “How
much longer do you think this will take? I’m ready to go.”

Marlowe took a deep breath. This wasn’t
getting her anywhere. “I apologize for calling you a bitch. I’m
just frustrated. No one has anything positive to say about Reesa,
and I’m just trying to find some sign that my mother wasn’t a
callous, unfeeling monster.” She bit back tears. She felt like
she’d been through the wringer in the past few days. Reesa was
still having an effect on her emotions even from the grave.

“
I’m sorry too,” Toye
said. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”

Marlowe nodded. “It’s okay.”

A sharp rap at the front door made her jump.
Before Marlowe could move, a booming voice called out, “Ms. Jones,
where are you?”

“
Here!” Marlowe yelled
back as she made her way to the living room area.

A short Hispanic man appeared in the
doorway. His eyes were wide with concern as he scanned the room.
“I’m Juan. Mr. Coleman sent me.”

“
For what?”

“
A forced
cleanout.”

“
Excuse me?”

The man’s dark eyes settled on her again.
“He said you needed help clearing out a home. Me and my demolition
team are here to haul this mess away immediately. Don’t worry,” he
reassured her. “We average a five-hour turn around time. We’ll have
this place cleared in no time.”

Marlowe looked over his
shoulder outside the front door. A massive eighteen-wheeler with
the words
We Haul
emblazoned on the side sat at the curb.

“
We got a six-man crew,”
he told her. “Oops! I forgot about Linda. She’s our newest member.
So, make that five guys and one woman.”

He chuckled at his joke, but Marlowe wasn’t
paying attention. Her insides felt like a hot pot of oil ready to
boil over.

“
Let me get this
straight,” Marlowe confirmed. “Roque Coleman sent you to clear this
house?”

“
Yep. He said you could
use some help.”

“
I never asked for his
help.”

He gave her a sympathetic look. “I know it’s
hard when you’ve become attached to things, Ms. Jones. Can I call
you Marlowe?” He did anyway without her giving permission. “We can
help you recover your home, Marlowe. And we can also recommend a
therapist for you to get your obsessive / compulsive hoarding under
control.”

Marlowe heard Toye’s gasp behind her.

“
Oh, you think I’m the
hoarder? No. This was my mother’s house!” She didn’t know why she
felt the need to explain herself to Juan.

“
Mr. Coleman told us
you’re the owner, and you’re ready to sell. We can help you clear
it all out.”

She shook her head. “Please wait outside for
a moment.” She ushered the man out the front door before he could
protest.

“
What are you going to
do?” Toye asked.

“
I’m calling Mr. Control
Freak. We’re getting to the bottom of this. How dare he send
someone to clear out this house? He’s not looking out for me. He
just wants me out of here so he can have this property.” She
whipped her cell phone out and dialed his number.

“
Oh, shit.” Toye rubbed
her hands together like an evil villain in a movie. “This is gonna
be good.”

Marlowe was even more pissed when she got
Roque’s voicemail. She wanted him to feel the full effect of her
ire. She was not settling for talking to a machine! She shook her
head and disconnected the call.

“
Why’d you hang up?” Toye
demanded.

“
I’m going to deliver this
message face to face.” Marlowe pulled his card out and looked at
the address. “Plug this address into your GPS, Toye. I’m going to
give Roque Coleman a tongue-lashing he won’t forget!”

###

Roque sat behind the desk
in his office, watching his daughter make herself comfortable on
the leather sectional in his massive corner office. She sat with
her long legs tucked beneath her as she sipped an orange soda. He
remembered
when she was a little girl and
he would take her everywhere with him. He’d been afraid to leave
her with a babysitter he didn’t trust. She was older now, and
usually didn’t want to hang out with him at the office. But today,
she’d insisted on coming with him for Take Your Daughter to Work
Day. He didn’t think she was all that interested in what he did at
work; she probably just wanted to skip a day of school. Jade had
difficulty getting along with girls her own age—or girls of any
age, for that matter.

“
I can’t wait to tell
everyone in my class about my day,” Jade bragged. She snapped
pictures of Roque’s office with her cell phone camera.

“
You’ve seen this office
before. Why all the pictures?” he asked.

“
We’re taking selfies and
posting them on our teacher’s blog.”

“
Your teacher has a
blog?”

“
Of course. How else do
you think we get our homework?”

“
I assumed it was in
class.”

“
Dad, you’re so funny. Oh,
I almost forgot.” She laid her phone down, reached inside her
backpack, and withdrew a small white box with holes punched into
the lid. “I’ve got to take a pic of me and Charlotte.”

Jade named all of her pets after her
favorite childhood stories. His little girl was still there, no
matter how sophisticated she tried to act.

He waved her over to his desk. “Have a seat
over here, Jade. Don’t you want to see how daddy does things?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Not really.”

“
What’s the point of
coming to work with me, then?”

“
It’s just a formality,
Dad. I already know what you do. You talk on the phone a lot and
make deals. Like the one you’re working on now. You bought some old
neighborhood and made all the poor people leave. And now you’re
going to build a place for rich people to live and
shop.”

Roque frowned. “You make it sound so
calculating.” He was bothered by the way his daughter had
succinctly summed it up. “This deal is about more than buying an
old neighborhood. It’s about revitalizing the area and creating
opportunities for small business owners.”

She shrugged. “At least
you’re not a greedy lawyer, like Eric’s dad or a plastic surgeon,
like
Martinique’s
father. All he does is look at sagging butts and breasts all
day. What’s he doing to improve the world?”

“
There are worst things
than looking at butts and breasts all day.”

“
I said
sagging
butts and
breasts.”

Roque was saved from answering when Brett’s
voice rang out on the intercom. “Sir, Ms. Marlowe Jones is here.
She says you’re expecting her.”

What a pleasant surprise. Finally, she was
ready to sign the paperwork. “Send her in.”

Roque reached in the bottom drawer of his
desk where he kept her file. Normally, Brett kept everything neatly
filed in another room, but since this was a time-sensitive deal,
Roque kept Marlowe’s info right here next to him. He stood in front
of his desk, ready to welcome her. Seconds later, Marlowe barged
in. From the furious scowl on her face, Roque knew something was
wrong.

He barely had time to register the white
t-shirt and denim cutoff shorts she wore. His eyes dropped to the
pair of long legs sporting black, clunky work boots. Creamy, toned
thighs and shapely calves made him swallow hard.

He was so busy staring at her smooth brown
skin he was caught off-guard when she stormed toward him and jabbed
her finger in his chest, wrinkling the fabric of his silk
shirt.

“
How dare you?” she
yelled.

“
I beg your pardon. Is
there a problem?”

“
Don’t beg me, you
cold-hearted brute. And don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m
talking about. You and your cleanup crew have crossed the
line!”

“
Oh, you’re referring to
Juan at
We Haul
.
You told me about your situation and I was only trying to
help.”

Her eyes flashed and her chest heaved. To
say she was pissed was an understatement. “Help? Help whom? You
certainly weren’t helping me. You’re not looking out for my best
interests. All you want to do is swallow up those homes so you can
build your precious mall.”

“
I’m building high-rise
condos and a retail center.”

“
Whatever! I’m not in the
mood to split hairs, Roque.”

“
Well, if you’re going to
falsely accuse me, at least you could get your facts
straight.”

She thrust her hands on her hips. “You
forced those people out of their homes, and now you’re trying to
bully me. Sorry, honey, but I’m not easily intimidated.”

She had some nerve coming in here biting his
head off. He’d tried to do one nice thing, and look where it got
him. He didn’t have to explain himself to her or anyone else. “No
one forced those people to sell.”

“
A covetous developer
harassing them isn’t considered force?”

“
I didn’t hear any
complaints when the checks were being cashed.”

“
That’s all that matters
to you, huh? Throw money at a problem until it
disappears.”

“
I did those people a
favor. They were living in squalor.”

“
Those people? You really
are a callous bas—”

Suddenly, Marlowe’s glance shifted from him
to a spot on the Italian tiled floor. Her eyes grew wide. Her full
mouth crumpled into a grotesque sneer. The wild, predatory look on
her face sent chills down his spine. Roque followed her gaze to
where a giant hairy spider crawled on the floor not far from where
he stood.

Before he could stop her, Marlowe leapt
forward and stomped the tarantula beneath the thick sole of her
boot.

Jade let out a blood-curdling scream.
 

It was too late. Marlowe squished the
spider, repeatedly grinding the thing into the tile.  

Roque gasped.
Oh, shit!

Brett flew to the open door. Roque had never
seen his calm and cool assistant even jog.

“
Sir, is everything okay?”
Brett asked, alarm coloring his features.

Jade burst into tears. “Murderer!” she
accused Marlowe. “You killed Charlotte! Daddy, she killed
Charlotte!”

“
Now we lay Charlotte to
rest. She lived an idyllic existence, but her life was stripped
from her by a vicious assailant.”

Marlowe listened to the
mournful words of the pimple-faced minister dressed in a wrinkled
black robe.
Unbelievable.
They were having a funeral for a spider. She
watched as Jade placed a white shoebox with the remains of her pet
tarantula into a hole that had been dug in the backyard. A young
woman Roque referred to as Jade’s companion covered the box with
dirt.

“
From the dirt Charlotte
came, and from the dirt she will return,” the minister
vowed.

Marlowe smirked.
“Is that guy even a real minister?” she whispered
to Roque, who stood beside her, dressed in a black suit for the
somber occasion.

“
He’s a seminary student
Brett knows,” Roque replied. “But as far as Jade knows, yes, he’s a
real minister. You’ve already made a bad first impression on her,”
he chastised. “I wouldn’t tell her about the fake
minister.”

“
Jeez, I still don’t see
why I have to be here.”

“
I should think it’s
obvious. You’re a murderer.”

“
It was a damn
spider.”

“
It was my daughter’s
beloved pet.”

“
How was I supposed to
know?”

Roque touched a finger to his lips,
motioning for her to be quiet.

Marlowe stood in silence as she waited for
the funeral to end. This was all Roque’s fault. If he hadn’t sent
that heavy duty clean up team to her property, she would have never
stormed to his office. She was in the middle of her rant when
something big and black caught her eye. She had no idea it was a
pet spider. Hell, she saw that hairy fucker and she freaked! Now,
she was paying for her rashness. But she would do it again, if
given the chance. She was raised to take care of any crisis. A
freakin’ spider the size of a man’s fist qualified as a crisis to
her.

When the fake minister finished, Jade’s
companion began singing Blessed Assurance.

Ridiculous.

Ten minutes later, the song ended, and so
did the funeral. Marlowe stood awkwardly while Roque thanked the
minister and the singer and then sent them on their way, leaving
her alone in the living room with Jade. The girl continued to glare
at her. Marlowe wasn’t sure what to say to the kid. She never
thought she’d be glad to have Roque back in the room.

When he returned, he wrapped his arm around
his daughter’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your spider, baby. We can
get you another first thing in the morning, if you want.”

“
No thanks, Dad. I’m not
ready right now. I need some time to be alone.” She gave Marlowe
another glare.