Luscious (Topped #1)(50)

Her brother was dead and the only man she’d ever loved hated her now. She was back on the street again. Story of her life.

Every eye was looking her way. She noticed Serena and Jake weren’t among them. The Miles family had closed ranks.

“Ally.” Deena stood up. Tiffany and Jenni stood up with her. All of her server coworkers, it seemed, were ready to talk to her at least.

Ally shook her head and Deena nodded. They all sat back down.

Ian Taggart’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her. His wife had joined him, but it looked like the twins had been put down for a nap. “You broke the pie maker.”

Charlotte Taggart slapped at her husband’s muscular arm. “Ian. Tact, please.”

“Baby, I don’t have any of that,” he admitted. “She broke the dude who makes the pies. She’s gotta fix him.”

She didn’t even want to get into an argument with Ian Taggart. He kind of scared her. She didn’t think he would be impressed with her little hammer. She turned to the man she’d come to talk to. “Chef Taggart, I’m so sorry to interrupt. Could I please have a word with you?”

He stood up, dropping his napkin, but his wife reached for his hand. He leaned over and she whispered something in his ear. Grace Taggart handed over their toddler girl. She’d been sitting in her mother’s lap, but she seemed content to go with her father.

“I’ll handle this,” Grace said. She stood up, smoothing out her skirt and nodding Ally’s way. “Let’s talk in the office.”

She was surprised but followed behind the gorgeous redhead. Did she not want Ally alone with her husband? What exactly had Macon said when he left? She shouldn’t be surprised that he’d talked bad about her, but she was. Somehow, even though she knew she’d hurt him, she hadn’t expected him to lash out. She’d come to know such gentleness from the big bear of a man, but she supposed that was only for the women who were worthy.

Grace closed the door behind her and the world got eerily quiet.

It was best to get it over with so she could get her things and leave. She wasn’t going to take him up on his offer to stay in the guesthouse. No way. She would pick a road and drive all night, and sometime tomorrow she would be somewhere else. Hell, maybe she’d be someone else. “Mrs. Taggart, I’m afraid I need this to be my last day. I’m sorry I can’t give you two weeks’ notice.”

“Unacceptable.” Grace sat down in her husband’s chair. The very one she’d so recently made love to Macon in. “You did a good job cleaning this place. It smells like citrus. You’ll have to tell me what you use. I can never get the sex smell out of Ian’s office. Sean thinks it’s funny to play on Ian’s desk when Ian’s out of town. I’ve told Charlotte I’ll give her the keys to the castle, but the twins don’t like to sleep much so she hasn’t had a chance for revenge yet.”

Grace gestured to one of the two seats in front of the desk, but Ally stayed on her feet. “I’m sorry about using the office. We really did clean it and well, it certainly won’t ever happen again.”

“It won’t with that attitude.” Grace frowned. “Please have a seat, Allyson. Or do you prefer Sarah? I was sorry to hear about your mother and your brother. This must be a very difficult time for you.”

She thought she’d gotten over the shock of having people know her secret. “Macon told you everything.”

“No, Macon didn’t say a word. He walked out without speaking to anyone. I’ve known that your name was Sarah Allyson Jones of Ashwick, Georgia, since Ian did a background check on you a few weeks into your employment. We made the connection between you and Macon a long time ago.”

Now she took the seat, her knees too weak to stand. “Why didn’t you tell him?”

Grace considered her for a moment. “I argued that we should. Sean and Ian wanted to watch you. They wanted to see what you would do. That’s why they didn’t tell Adam. He would have blown your cover. He did, in the end, of course. Sean thought that if we’d told Macon in the beginning, he simply would have left. It’s not hard to figure out that man was hiding some kind of secret. I thought you were investigating him.”

“I was,” she admitted.

“You did a horrible job, hon.” Grace pointed to the bookshelf. It was filled with cookbooks. “There’s a nice security camera hidden up there. Don’t worry, it’s only turned on after hours. It’s aimed at the safe where he keeps the cash. It was definitely turned off this afternoon. Sean did have it on one night a few months back. He wanted to know why you were really here.”

She searched her memory. “I don’t remember anything that would have been interesting on camera.”

“That’s my point. Sean’s trap didn’t work on you,” Grace explained. “It was turned on a night when Sean asked you to stay late. He then took a very long phone call out in the alley. He left his door wide open and the personal files of every employee were sitting right on his desk. He had to ask you to grab him a notepad off his desk to get you to go inside.”

Now she remembered. “He said he was arguing with a vendor. He was outside for a long time. I saw the files.”

“And you looked down at them and pulled Macon’s file. And then you replaced it and walked away without ever glancing inside. Why?”