Page 72 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
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It had taken halfthe dinner for Kostya to start behaving normally around her. How could she have turned into Victim Number Two from a season of Law and Order? But she’d finally managed it. It was the Housewives of Simi Valley story that did it for him.
“How long did you work as a maid?”
“A little over three months,” she answered. “You’re right; I’m loving this lobster tail.”
“I noticed.” His blue eyes gleamed as she licked her fingers. He put another piece on her plate.
“Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“Watching you savor my meal gives me more pleasure than me eating it,” Kostya assured her. Heat hit her hard. Her stomach clenched as she processed his words and she pressed her thighs together…tight, trying to relieve the pulse of need roaring through her body.
“Now, tell me more about that story you wrote.”
Lark blinked, trying to get her head together. “Uhm, yeah. Those women were a bunch of self-entitled bitches. They weren’t just looking down their noses at the men and women they were taking advantage of, in some cases, they were abusing them. Blowing the lid off that scam was a highlight, let me tell you.”
“I thought I’d read all of your articles, I missed this one.”
“It was one of the first I ever wrote, so it didn’t go national. It made it into the LA Times and that was it. But on the upside, I got to testify because three of the women didn’t take their plea deals.”
“You know, I’m having a hard time picturing you as a maid.” Kostya leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his white wine. “Well, I take that back, I guess I could see you in a very specific French maid costume.”
The way his eyes twinkled invited her to laugh at him, so she did. “You say some outrageous things, you know that don’t you?”
“I like it when you smile, and I like it even better when you laugh.”
Why does him saying that make me feel so good?
“You do realize, I was trying to do the same thing with you, don’t you? That’s why I started telling you this story.”
“Well, it definitely caught my attention. Now I want to hear it all.”
The waiter came and cleared their plates. “Would you like to see the dessert menu?” he asked.
“Yes,” Kostya answered. “I’d like some coffee as well. What about you, Lark?”
“Coffee would be good,” she nodded.
The waiter handed them each a dessert menu, and Kostya put his down on the table and looked at her expectantly. “So, how did you get hired?”
“I’d gotten wind of this story from the daughter of one of the women working for Esther Riggs. Her mother was born in America, but her parents were from Haiti. Her English wasn’t good, and she wasn’t quite sure what was happening. She lived at the Riggs’ home, but she saw an envelope with her name on it, so she opened it. When she found a check from the government addressed to her, she took it to her daughter. That’s when her daughter came to me. Leah and I knew each other when we had done a work-study course together.”
“Why didn’t you and Leah go to the police?”
“Her mother was scared to death. She knew that the Riggs family was well-known in the community and it would be her word against Esther Riggs when she went to the police. What’s more, she knew she would be fired. Not only was she employed with the Riggs’ but so was her sister, and then her husband was employed as a gardener with a friend of Esther’s, and she knew that if she caused any problems, they’d all be fired.”
“But wouldn’t that be true if you investigated?”
The waiter came back with their coffee and they chose their desserts.
“Mirlande, Leah’s mother, felt that if I investigated and found something, then the police couldn’t cover it up and that justice would be served. So it was Leah’s mom who got me the job at the Riggs’ house.”
“And you were a maid?”
“My backstory was that I aged out of the foster care system and I’d been living with a friend who wanted me to leave. Therefore I needed a place to stay. I didn’t have a car, no education, and very little money. The only real problem with me is that I didn’t have enough time paying into the system so that I could collect disability so I was worthless to her for her scams, but I think Esther really needed someone like me to be a gopher. I was put to work running all the errands. It was ‘Stacy, go to the dry cleaners,’ or ‘Stacy, go back to Trader Joe’s the avocados were too ripe,’ or myriad other things.”
“How come I’m betting you were always helpful getting the mail?” Kostya joked.
