Page 16 of Haze
“I’ve always encouraged you to tell him about Hazel. I hope you take this opportunity to do so,” Emilia said matter-of-factly.
“Tell her.” Koren snorted.
Devyn elbowed her cousin and focused back on Emilia. “But I thought he triggered you.”
“Why would you think that?” Emilia asked.
“You just said it was hard to think about him without thinking of that night,” Devyn pointed out.
“Right, . . . but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about him or to him. He wasn’t the one that shot me, was he?” Emilia asked.
“Well, no,” Devyn replied. That she knew for a fact. It was one of those men on the cheap blue motorcycles that shot her friend.
So why do you hold this against Haze?
She shook her head as she tried to focus on what Emilia said.
“You need to do what’s best for you and Hazel, love. I’ve always said that. We all have.”
“And I’ve been stubborn,” Devyn said, her tone sad as she looked down at her lap.
“Say that again,” Koren said.
“Koren, hush,” Emila chastised.
“No, she’s right. I just . . . that man . . .” Devyn sighed heavily before she gathered her thoughts and admitted something she had been holding in for the past three years. “I think I fucked up.”
Tears slid down her cheeks as she settled into her admission. By trying to protect her daughter, she now had to face that she may have caused more harm than good.
Heaviness had settled onto Devyn’s chest as she moved through work the following day. She stayed cooped up in her office all day, shuffling through paperwork, responding to emails, and dodging her employees aside from the meeting she held that morning. She had to clean up the mess that’d happened the day before with HR before anyone got any ideas and decided to sue her for an unsafe work environment. She didn’t think any of her employees would actually do that, but in this business, she had learned not to put anything past anyone. People saw an empire and would automatically work to dismantle it out of jealousy or greed.
A knock at her door startled her out of her thoughts.
“Come in,” she called out.
A woman she didn’t know stuck her head into Devyn’s office. “I have a delivery for Ms. Frost?”
Devyn stood and rounded her desk. “That’s me.”
The delivery woman handed her a large vase of roses. After thanking her, Devyn closed her office door once again and placed the flowers on her desk. A card rested on top of the beautiful arrangement. Quickly, she flipped the card open and read.
For any damage I caused yesterday. Forgive me and let me take you out tonight.
-Haze
A thin piece of paper fell out of the card, and Devyn bent down to grab it. When she straightened up and realized what itwas, she almost dropped it again. It was a check for twenty-five thousand dollars.
“What the hell?” she muttered, and without thinking, she grabbed her phone and dialed Haze’s number.
“Thicka.” His deep voice startled her out of her confusion. Her pussy wept at the sound of him, and she was at a complete loss of words for a second. “Hello?”
“Oh! Hi. Uhm, I just got your flowers . . . and the check.”
“I’m glad you got them. How you doin’ today?” he asked.
Her brows furrowed. He completely brushed past the fact that he sent her such a fat ass check.
“Haze, the money is too much. I mean, yeah, you didn’t need to come up in here, putting my employee in a headlock, but I don’t need twenty-five thousand.”
