by North, Paige
Move into?
He was going to move from his huge offices in the penthouse suite of the Met Life Building in New York City (not that I’d been paying attention or anything) to come work over here in the sleepy little beach town of East Hampton? His parents had since moved to the Hudson Valley a few years ago when Dex’s older brother got married and started having kids, so they could be near them. There was nothing left in town for him.
Clearly, it wasn’t me he was after, or he’d have approached this whole thing differently.
“You’re a bastard.” I couldn’t help the words from flying from my mouth.
Without even a glance my way, he mumbled, “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment,” and returned to reviewing a file. It was clear.
I had been dismissed from his sight. But I wasn’t free to leave.
* * *
Outside the building, I paced back and forth on the boardwalk while my father stood against the railing, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. He’d always been proud of this particular piece of property. He’d been so happy to build his offices right here in the middle of suburban Long Island, a place he’d come as a child for vacations.
Looking out with a squint in his eye, he seemed to have aged a decade in the five minutes since they escorted him out. He saw me approaching and went back to staring at the sea. “Go back inside, Adley. Tell Dex you will gladly stay on at the company.”
“Why would I do that? It’s your company.”
“Was my company, honey.”
“Dad, why would I keep working there after what he just did to you? To us—mom, Bailey, and Hannah. He just destroyed a family!”
“Because I need you on the inside,” Dad said. “Trust me, we’ll have our chance to get it all back. I’m already working on a strategy. But only if you stay close to him.”
I hated to tell him, but whatever strategy he had in mind, it wouldn’t work. This was hard to admit to myself, but my father had started losing efficiency. He was an old dog and wouldn’t be able to compete against the likes of Dex Banner who had the energy to be a dick to his fullest capacity. It hurt—it hurt because Dex hadn’t always been this cold-hearted. I’d seen a different side of him—a loving, sweeter side, but that was before the shit that happened.
I thought we had put it all behind us.
Back when Dex was interning with us, he’d returned to the office late one night to pick up some files he’d forgotten when he saw my father in the meeting room—yes, the same glass-encased room we’d just been in—banging Missy Lombardo, one of our secretaries. Missy had always had a reputation as that kind of girl at school, which I didn’t have a problem with, except when it came to married men.
My father, namely.
Dex had seen them together and my dad knew that he had. So, he’d stepped out of the room to ask Dex that he please keep quiet about the matter, that it’d been a single offense, that he’d been having issues with my mother, but it would not happen again. He needed Dex to be discreet about it, knowing a chance existed of Dex telling me, since we’d been seeing each other all summer.
Dex agreed, telling my dad that in exchange he needed to stop the extracurricular booty calls with Missy. With anybody. According to Dex, my dad agreed but the following week, he stayed late at the office to finish working on a case when he again saw my father and Missy, this time leaving the office together.
That night, something terrible rocked this little beach town, and to this day, nobody knows exactly what happened. What we did know, was that Missy had died.
But my dad swore he wasn’t with Missy after work. He’d dropped her off at home. Still, Dex’s account would be enough to incriminate my father, so then came the rock and the hard place—whether or not to go to the police with what he knew about my father and Missy.
Dex and I had just had the most perfect night of our lives down at the lighthouse in Montauk. A seaside dinner that ended with us making love behind one of the dunes at midnight and confessing our love for each other.
Romantic and cheesy, yeah, but it was my first time.
Things were different then.
Then came Dex’s second sighting of the two of them together leaving work, and the next morning, Missy was found dead, strangled in her apartment. Dex couldn’t hold in the knowledge of my father’s affair anymore and spilled it to me. I couldn’t believe anything I was hearing. Immediately, I went to my father and asked if it was true. He’d slept with Missy, yes, he said, but he hadn’t killed her.
I believed him. Because as much as my father wasn’t a perfect man, commanded attention, and could’ve been impulsive at times, the one thing he wasn’t and would never be—was a murderer. Still, it all could’ve ended very badly if Dex had gone to the police with his information so I did the only thing I could—begged him not to say anything.
He didn’t know what to do, and our perfect summer ended.
It ended with me in tears, begging Dex not to call my father out, asking him to have mercy for me, my mother, my sisters. Dex never did tell the police. At least we thought he didn’t, because they never came knocking on our door. But that night, Dex was gone. Back to NYC and college. And with him gone, my heart broke and never did heal.
* * *
But now Dex was back and getting his revenge.
There was only one thing to do—go inside and tell Dex I’d be happily staying on. My dad was right. If I left, there’d be no Carlyles to watch the business, but with me there, I could serve as his informant and do my father’s bidding from within.
I also needed the money.
That sucked to admit.
Things hadn’t been the same the last few years. My dad had been working way too much, we’d stopped taking ski trips, and then my mother had started drinking more than just sour apple martinis. My school loans needed paying off, the rent for my apartment had gone up without notice, and my dad no longer had any extra cash lying around. The cleaning lady my mother had hired for me stopped coming every other day then only came once a month. Finally, she stopped coming altogether.
The man I adored, revered as a business god, had lost his touch.
Things had changed in the land development industry, and Dex was now its king. I would have to do the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life—suck up to him. Heading back into the building, I was met with the same security guard again. “Which way are you headed?”
“I need to see Dex.”
“Mr. Banner is busy at the moment,” the man tried stopping me from heading to the elevator.
“I don’t care how busy he is, he’ll talk to me,” I said, full of confidence I hoped would appear as genuine. His walkie-talkie buzzed with static and I heard the voice on the other end.
“Let her through.”
Dex.
I bolted into the elevator and took it to the fourth floor where my father’s office was—had been. Bursting in, I stopped and got a look around. His framed photos had already been removed, the ones of all of us during our last trip to Aspen, and a new desk was brought in.
My heart broke even more. It felt like the world was falling apart. “You don’t waste time, do you?”
“This company is drowning, Adley. Would you want me to waste any?” He thumbed through his phone while standing at the window. He could’ve been a fashion model. Full of confidence and striking male authority. God, he was beautiful.
“The least you could do is look at me when you talk to me.”
He looked up.
My insides trembled. I would never talk to a superior in such a sassy way, but I had to remind myself that Dex wasn’t my superior. He might’ve been CEO, and he might’ve been wearing a fancy suit, but inside, he would still be the same kid I spent my summer with when I was eighteen and he was only twenty.
“You’re right, how rude of me. How can I help you?”
His aloofness pissed me off. Everything about him was pissing me off. It angered me that he was capable of acting this way after the
time we spent together. I guess I hadn’t meant anything to him and it was about time I shouldn’t let him mean anything to me anymore either.
“Why did you do it?” I demanded.
“Do what?”
“This.” I gestured around the office. “Why did you take my dad’s company from him when it’s so small compared to your…empire…in the City. We’re small potatoes to you, Dex. We pose no threat. You already have it all. Why take what little we have left?”
He threw down the folder and picked up a different one, like they were disorganized, offensive, more work for him to do. “I have unfinished business here.”
“Which is?”
“That’s for me to know, sweetheart.” He smiled and slid his hands into his pants’ pockets.
“I’m not your sweetheart,” I spat.
God damn him, even now, he looked sexy. When I should’ve thought of attacking him with a letter opener, I could only think of throwing myself onto him, sitting him in that chair, and straddling him. I hated myself for thinking that.
Dex sighed and went back to looking at something on his phone. “Listen, Adley. Do you want to keep your job or not?”
I cringed hearing my name from his lips again. “Yes. For now.”
“Then I’ll need you to be a good little worker and do everything I tell you to do.” He looked up at me.
“You can’t abuse my role here.”
“What you call abuse is someone else’s opportunity to work for me. Do you have any idea how many people would kill to be in your position right now? If I were you, I’d be saying thank you for keeping me on.”
On top of everything, now he wanted gratitude?
I could’ve spit on him.
I might’ve been here to make sure I kept my job, but I would not be kissing Dex Banner’s ass, no matter how badly he might want me to. He’d lost that chance five years ago.
“I only came in to tell you that I would stay,” I said. “But I won’t be humiliated. Not by you, not by anybody.”
By the time I was done with my sentence, Dex was already on a phone call, totally ignoring the manifesto I was giving him. I was nothing to him. After everything we’d shared five years ago, I was nothing more than a “little worker” who didn’t even get the courtesy of direct eye contact or the dignity of being heard.
“Whatever.”
I stormed out of the office, slamming the door as hard as I could. The sign with my father’s name affixed to it popped off and slid along the wooden floors. I picked it up and bit my lip to keep from crying. For the second time on this same date in history, Dex Banner was changing my life.
3
Dex
Fuck.
She’d looked fucking amazing.
I had not expected that.
I’d expected to come back to East Hampton and find Adley Carlyle looking older, dumpier, maybe a little fatter around the middle, maybe out of touch with reality. I don’t know why I imagined that. Probably because I’d hoped I wouldn’t be attracted to her, hoped this would be easier, but now I saw it wouldn’t be that simple.
She was insanely beautiful in her summery yellow dress, and my God, those eyes hadn’t changed one bit. Still big and innocent, still green like sea foam, still looking like a late summer day.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
She was the same gorgeous girl as five years ago, only more rounded out, more mature, more womanly, more sophisticated and fifteen times more gorgeous than the city girls I was used to. It all came rushing back to me. Everything. The nights we spent on the dunes, the sunrises we watched come up together, the dinners, and all the parties. I’d waited the whole summer for her to let me in and believe in me enough to trust me, and finally, she did. Taking Adley’s virginity had not only been a pleasure, but an honor.
Taking her father’s company today had been easier.
Seeing her eyes rimmed with tears like that had been the only difficult part, but the rest, I’d admit, gave me pleasure, especially the look on Old Man Carlyle’s face. But when Adley held her upper lip stiff and talked to me like I was a dick (deservedly), I knew she was holding back some hard-felt emotion, but that was Adley for you—strong on the outside, falling apart on the inside.
I had smiled at her pain.
Yes, it was a dick move, but I couldn’t let her see how I really felt—guilty for leaving.
Angry that even now, she still defended that weak piece of shit father of hers.
Even after everything I told her that summer, despite everything I’d seen after hours, the secrets I’d been forced to keep, she still chose to believe the old man over me. I think that’s what hurt the most out of everything. For once, I wanted someone to choose me—my word—over someone else, someone more powerful.
I’d gotten enough of that shitty dynamic at home with my stupid brother, Jaden, always commanding attention from my parents. So much that I could never get a word in edgewise. I think I spent most of my school years trying to buy their love with good grades, awards, and accolades.
Did it make me ambitious, hardworking, and cold? Yeah.
So be it. Look at me now—it had paid off, hadn’t it?
In business, it had. But with my parents? In the end, they moved to Westchester to be near my brother anyway. I guess being at the top of my game and pulling in billions a year wasn’t good enough for them. Just like facts about her old man weren’t good enough for Adley either.
Carlyle was her father, and sometimes people went out of their way to defend family they loved. I understood. That was why I left town. I didn’t want to come between her and her old man anymore. God knew I always wanted a relationship like that with my own, but in the end, Adley had chosen to stand by him, and it made sense. We’d only spent one summer together, not eighteen years like her and her dad had.
I thought I’d be her hero, but in the end, I’d been her harbinger of bad news, the one to destroy the illusion of her perfect life. Daddy wasn’t who she thought. I left so she could live her lie a little bit longer, not because I didn’t love her.
Hell yeah, I loved her.
She probably assumed I didn’t from the way I left town the next morning.
But it was the opposite. Because I loved her, I left her and her family alone. I didn’t want to destroy her by showing her the truth. Five years had gone by, though, and now things were different. I’d thought a lot about that summer and how I should’ve gone to the police. I’d let a young girl’s family believe their daughter’s killer was never caught when I knew the truth, knew Big C was more than likely responsible for her death.
The truth had weighed on my conscience for way too long. So when I saw the company was doing poorly, I knew that was my chance to get him back for what he did. He never should’ve asked me to look the other way, and neither should Adley have, but those two were cut from the same cloth—they both lied to themselves to keep from facing hard facts.
Now I was back, and their little fantasy life of perfection in East Hampton had to come to an end. It was only fair. I just hadn’t expected seeing Adley again to affect me so damn much.
I poured myself another whiskey on the rocks and ignored the ocean staring me right in the face in favor of pics of me and Adley together from five years ago. They were still on my phone—I hadn’t looked at them in that long. I’d purchased this penthouse suite with balcony terrace for business here, though I had no idea how long I’d be staying. I’d even hired the same maid my parents had employed for many years when we lived in town— Rosemary Perkins. When I called her up, I was glad to see she was still around and had extra time on her hands to work for me.
She popped open the balcony door, and I flipped my phone screen over.
“I saw Adley Carlyle around town quite a bit,” Rosemary said, setting down a small bowl of cashews with a napkin for me. “She’s still so pretty, don’t you think?”
I side-glanced her. “I didn’t hire you to be nosy, Rosemary. Just bring the cashews and sweep the floors
, and nobody gets hurt.”
She laughed. Because no matter how powerful I’d get, she’d always be older, wiser, and treat me like a mom would. Better than my mom ever did. “Same old Dex Banner. But you don’t fool me, kiddo. I know you’ve got a good heart.”
I smirked at her. “Thanks, Row.”
“I’ll leave you alone now to look at your old photos. Too bad you and Adley aren’t a couple anymore. You looked good together. I miss seeing her around the house.” She went back inside, closing the French doors behind her before I could respond.
Damn Rosemary.
I flipped my phone back up. No use in hiding things from her.
There we were—me and Adley at the beach, me and Adley at Longhouse Reserve, me and Adley riding bikes all over the island and taking a drive down to Montauk in my old convertible. Fuck, that summer had been lit.
We almost had it all.
Because of her, I’d finally believed in love. Because of her, I felt maybe there was hope for me. For my heart, anyway. My situation at home had fucked me up pretty well, to the point that I never thought I’d be good enough for anyone, but Adley showed me that I was enough. I didn’t have to overachieve to make anyone believe it. She believed in me, because she loved me.
Yeah, we were young and stupid back then.
But those were the best days of my life.
Then Old Man Carlyle had to go and fuck everything up.
My view of him, my view of Adley, my perfect life by the sea—gone. What started out as the father-son relationship I never had, the mentor every man should have, turned out to be the biggest lie I’d ever known. Cheated on his wife, fucked a twenty-year-old almost the same age as his daughter (who knows how many more there were), and most likely, murdered her with his own hands.
I knew it was him.
I’d seen them around hip-to-hip that summer. She must’ve threatened to say something to his wife, expose him for the dog he was, because the morning after she left work with him and got into the same car, she’d been found strangled to death. When I confronted him, Carlyle had tried telling me that Missy Lombardo had lots of boyfriends, that he was one of dozens, but that was bullshit. Utter bullshit.