Wrong for You (Before You #3)(8)
“How much do you need?”
She laughed as she tapped her finger on her sassy, pink lips. “Two hundred fifty thousand should do it—at least for a year. Are you offering to cover the shortfall?”
His eyebrows climbed his forehead. Damn, the Foundation was broke—really f*cking broke. When he frequented the place as a teen, it always had ample resources to feed the kids, plenty of employees, and relatively new equipment in the music room. Initially, he wanted to spend his time teaching the kids music, but now he thought his time could be better spent elsewhere.
“The application,” she said, holding out her hand and breaking the silence that ensued after the financial bomb she dropped on him.
When he handed it to her, she scanned the limited information he provided, which included a fabricated work history. Earlier he’d been concerned about his lack of relevant work experience, but now that he had a clear picture of the Foundation’s financial situation, she couldn’t turn him away. She needed him, and as f*cked up as it was, he liked that Little Violet needed something from him. Not many people did. Oh, they wanted stuff from him…like attention, money, and the power a connection to him and Chasing Ruin offered, but that was superficial.
“With all this experience in the music industry, you probably wanted to work in the music room.”
His application wasn’t entirely accurate. He wrote that he worked in the music industry at his agent’s company. He wanted to keep his identity secret as long as possible, partially because he didn’t know shit about Violet. For all he knew, she might sell him out to the first tabloid that answered her phone call. But also because he liked the idea of spending a month just being himself without any of the fanfare of being the drummer of Chasing Ruin nipping at his ass.
“Initially, I thought it’d be a great idea, but now I think I’d like to spend my time raising money to keep the Foundation going.” If she’d go for his idea, it’d be ideal because he could stay behind the scenes and there wouldn’t be much chance of one of the kids recognizing him. Between living in her basement and being holed up in an office at the Foundation, he could maintain a low profile for the entire month and no one except his agent would know his location. This whole idea sounded better and better the more he thought about it.
She started shaking her head. “I don’t think—”
“Just hear me out,” he interrupted. “I work for a fairly well-known talent agency in LA. I have plenty of contacts I can extort money from. You’d be stupid to turn me down. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars is nothing in the music world. I’ll have that and more by the end of the month.”
Violet slipped her feet into the nude colored heels that she had abandoned next to the ladder. “I don’t know. I would need to train you and give you more background on the foundation.”
“Trust me, all I need is access to your computer so I can generate the receipts and a short but sweet letter about all the great things the Foundation does for underprivileged teens in Missoula.”
“It couldn’t hurt,” she finally answered after few long moments.
A smile spread across his face. “Great. Let me know where to start.”
She motioned toward the office at the end of the hall. “This way.”
Alec picked up the bags of food from the floor and followed her down the hall. The office didn’t look any better than the rest of the building. The computer on the desk looked like a relic from the early 90’s and the desk with its chipped veneer looked even older. Violet slipped into the chair behind the desk and tapped at the keyboard for a few minutes. “Okay, everything you need is up.” She stood up. “I’m going to grab some lunch before the kids start showing up after summer school or whatever else they're doing this summer.”
“No need. I brought you lunch.” He held out one bag of food for her. “Well, as long as you’re okay with burgers and fries.” Now that he thought about it, most women he knew would rather die than let a burger or a fry cross their lips. Her stomach grumbled and he chuckled. “I guess that’s a yes.”
She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and cheeks flushed tellingly. “My stomach doesn’t lie. I’ve been living on peanut butter sandwiches for a couple days. I’d take anything at this point.”
“What the hell?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
She lifted one shoulder nonchalantly. “It’s not a big deal. I’m just trying to make the Foundation’s money last a little longer and I cut my salary. It’s only temporary.”
Even though he didn’t know much about Violet, he didn’t like the idea of her struggling to feed herself. “What about your family?”
She laughed, her eyes lighting up. “I’m not going to beg them for money, and even if I did, they wouldn’t help. I’d be playing right into their tough love strategy to get me to do what they want.”
“And what’s that?” Alec asked, watching her unfold the wrapper around her burger and lift it to her mouth.
“Mm,” she moaned as chewed her first bite. Watching her eat was one of the sexiest things he’d witnessed in a long time. Women in skimpy dresses didn’t have a thing on seeing Violet make love to her burger as though it were the best thing to pass her lips in years.