Reverie

by Shain Rose

  “And they will again.”

  “Yes, they will again. And without you backing them, they’ll win. You and I both know it.”

  “This happens all the time, Vick.”

  “But maybe this time we can stop it.”

  “I need you to be realistic at some point, Victory.”

  “And I need you to disappear into my damn dream world for a second, Jett, and take a chance. Shoot for past the sky. Get into the damn stratosphere with me and save some lives here.”

  “You were warning me about that mobster last night and now you want to get in bed with him.”

  “It’ll be strictly business with them.”

  “You sure about that?” The question shot out of my mouth loaded with a ton of different meanings, and I wanted her to answer every one.

  She cleared her throat and broke eye contact with me. “Of course. Steven asked me to dinner tonight, and I’m … well, you know I’m committed to that. I’m not getting into bed with the mob.”

  “Committed to what exactly?” I didn’t know why I was asking the question.

  “I want a relationship, Jett.”

  “Oh, and Stevie will give you one.” My tone was condescending. “He’ll also keep you nicely packed in a Stepford wife box.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I mimicked Stevie’s gormless face and whined, “Vicky.”

  She stood up and paced back and forth in front of my desk. “This is irrelevant. Back to the meeting, please? Levvetor needs us, and Bastian doesn’t think it is a good idea to have any company other than Stonewood Enterprises invested in them.”

  “Then, he should have put it on the table for me to take into account before the meeting.”

  “So, you’re saying no based on principle?”

  “It’s a matter of respect, Vick.”

  “Levvetor is saving lives. Has it occurred to you that maybe lives are a little more important than you getting respect? Can we focus on that?”

  “I focus on that every single day.”

  She halted as my voice boomed out louder than I intended. I rose from my desk and faced the city I fought for every day, instead of that infuriating woman. “Have you noticed the work we do, what we stand for?”

  “Jett.” Her voice was a whisper. “I know you do a lot …”

  “I don’t need reassurance, Victory. Or praise, for that matter. I need you to see the bigger picture. If I fold to a man like that without him giving me respect, my company will fold a lot faster for a lot less. We can’t afford that. The city I work for can’t afford that.”

  “The world can’t afford that,” she continued for me. She’d made her way over to the window and stood beside me. “I see you scooping up wounded passengers and putting them on your overloaded boat to carry them to shore. You're their captain, Jett. And you spend every hour of your day making sure everyone has a life vest.”

  I glanced over at her, and her honey-colored eyes shone with sincerity.

  She continued, “I’m ecstatic to be a part of that. And I know Bastian is asking for one more passenger on a boat that could sink at any moment because it's beyond capacity. Everyone here works extremely hard. I know everyone enjoys it, but you have to trust them to be able to handle more. The boat can take on more than you think. They are the best of the best, after all. And then reward them for it.”

  “I do reward them,” I retorted.

  She exhaled loudly. “Really? With what?”

  “Money. A good salary. A very good salary.”

  She nodded and nudged my shoulder with hers. “True. But sometimes people like to have a little fun. They want to feel a part of the family. The Stonewood name shines bright, Jett, and I bet if you give your people a little release, they will come back rejuvenated and ready to kick even more ass.”

  “They’re rejuvenated now.”

  “We’ve all been working extra-long hours since your father stepped down, and not one person is going to complain, partially because they’re scared to but also because no one has the energy.”

  My jaw worked and I pulled on the cuffs of my shirt, considering what she’d said. At the bottom of my tower, figures rushed back and forth, and I was reminded of how this city drained people, how you could get swallowed up by its pace. My company operated the same way. “Fine.”

  “Fine, what?” Her eyes widened.

  I smiled at her surprise. “You think my team needs something. Halloween is in a few days. Throw a party. The Monday after, I’m holding a meeting to discuss Levvetor. If the team agrees it’s something we want to take on, I’ll do it. If they’re hungover and nonresponsive, I win. You drop it.”

  “Deal.” Her smile beamed radiantly.

  “And.”

  She groaned when she realized I wasn’t done.

  “You wear black every day for the rest of the year.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Dead serious, Vick. Your colors are too damn bright.”

  “Oh my God,” she mumbled, starting to walk out. “I have to plan an epic party. Please, for the love of all that is holy, loosen up before then.”

  The rest of the afternoon, I gazed at the damn paperweights, except for the moments I glanced up to see pink fluttering around down below.

  By the end of the day, I wondered if the smell of strawberries would ever leave my office. Josie, Bob, and others turned off their computers as the sun set. I wondered if Vick would stay late, if she’d wait to see if I wanted a repeat of our other night.

  A rude reminder came when she closed down her computer and walked out with Stevie. A feeling pooled in my belly and burned its way through the rest of my body, a feeling I wasn’t much accustomed to.

  I got back to work. And after a couple more hours of work and research on Levvetor, I texted Bastian and Vick together.

  * * *

  Me: I’m considering Levvetor for the next week. I’m not committed, and I sure as hell want warning next time.

  Bastian: You think my pops gave me a warning before the meeting? I meant no disrespect.

  Me: Lie to someone who will believe it, Bastian.

  Vick: Is there a reason I’m included here?

  Me: Bastian seems to think you’re a part of this.

  Bastian: She is and will be throughout.

  Vick: Happy to do what needs to be done.

  Me: We need more research on the company to start.

  Vick: I’ll pull everything I have and begin in the morning.

  Bastian: We can meet next Wednesday. Sounds like there’s a Halloween party, so guess I get to see you both this weekend.

  Me: Guess so.

  Vick: YAS!

  * * *

  I walked out of my office and shut off the lights as I made my way to the elevators. A large sign hung right above the elevator buttons and it read:

  Halloween Frights and Costume Party

  This Saturday

  Meet at Farmland Haunted House

  Costume Party 10 p.m. at Stonewood Tower

  Dress to IMPRESS

  Jett Stonewood is giving away $1000 for best costume

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I grumbled as I stabbed the elevator door and then dialed Vick’s number.

  She ignored my call.

  I called again, and she sounded out of breath when she answered. “I’m a little busy.”

  “You were just texting. A little busy doing what?” My mind went right back to the pool in my gut, and I wondered if she was out of breath from doing shit with Stevie she should only be doing with me.

  “I told you I was on a date!” she whisper-yelled.

  “Oh, like Stevie gives a shit. He’d probably come if he knew you were on the phone with me.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Where are you?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, you at dinner or at his place already?”

  “I’m not a cheap date.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

&n
bsp; “We’ve never been, nor will we ever go, on a date.”

  “Fine,” I sighed and walked out of the elevators as they opened up. “I didn’t say you could book a haunted house for the party and offer a thousand-dollar prize.”

  “I know. Your brothers said I could.”

  “Those assholes—”

  “Know how to have fun. Now, is there something you actually need?”

  “Use common sense when you make your way home,” I grumbled and then winced at my words.

  “Steven”—she emphasized his name—“is a gentleman, Jett. He’ll make sure I get home safe if and when I want to go home.”

  “Let me know if the night’s as enjoyable as it is with me.”

  “Already is.”

  “Don’t lie, Pixie.”

  There was silence for a beat, and I knew I’d struck a chord. I heard a breath of defeat leave her. “I’m trying to enjoy this, Jett. Is that so bad?”

  “If you really need him to be happy, then no. It isn’t bad. I don’t know that you need him though.”

  “I need someone,” she whispered.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. Something about Victory Blakely was broken. I heard it in the brief whispers and glimpses of her reality she let me see. She hid it so well that she was the chameleon blending into everyone’s entertainment. I found myself drawn to those broken parts, the beautiful jagged edges she didn’t want the world to acknowledge. “All right, Pix. Make sure that someone deserves you.”

  I hung up. I let the idea of her go.

  Because I knew I didn’t deserve her.

  19

  Vick

  “Brey, you have to have some costume that will work better than that.”

  Full disclosure: I’ve dressed up year after year for Halloween. If I didn’t have a friend throwing a party, we found someone who did. If somebody didn’t have a costume, I conjured one up. If someone wasn’t excited, I hyped up the party.

  Halloween let you be someone else for the night. You could hide behind a mask or expose yourself with the mask. The possibilities were endless.

  “I’m a black cat.” Brey looked at me and shrugged.

  “You are wearing a black dress and ears! And I know for a fact that dress wasn’t purchased as a costume.”

  Brey smoothed back some of her long dark hair. She did that every time she was uncomfortable. “I just don’t want to wear anything weird when it’s a work party.”

  I slumped a little as I looked at all the costumes laid out on my bed. “I hate that everyone will toe the line because Jett is a tight ass and this is a work party.”

  She nodded and eyed my outfits like they were bombs. In her defense, most were extremely revealing or outrageous.

  “I’m being Tinker Bell,” I stated, and her eyes bulged. “Oh, come on, Brey. It’s not that bad.”

  “It’s a work party, Vick.”

  “You’re wearing my Catwoman leotard.”

  “Absolutely not.” She shook her head. “I’m way shorter and wider than you.”

  “You’ll look hot. Just try it on.”

  She sighed because she knew I wouldn’t let her out of at least trying it on. She snatched it and went to change as I slid out of my tank and jeans to shove on the green leafy bra that connected to a sequined corset and skirt. I had been smaller when I’d bought it two years ago. Now, I filled out the costume and was fully aware I was stepping over a work line.

  I wanted to.

  “Are Jax and Jaydon coming to pick us up?” I yelled to Brey in the bathroom.

  “Yep. They should be here in an hour.”

  “Katie?”

  Brey poked her head out and made a face. “Bastian is escorting her.”

  “‘Escorting’?” I repeated and scrunched my nose.

  “Her words, I swear.”

  “Weird,” I mumbled. Katie and Brey had been high school best friends. I stumbled into their friendship in college, but they knew each other much better than I did. They’d all grown up together with Brey living right next door to the Stonewood boys. Jaydon still donned the title of her best friend, and I liked to think I came in at a close-ish third after Katie.

  I loved them both but Katie had so many secrets, so many personalities, and a dark side that made her a moving target. I couldn’t always read her, and didn’t know if I wanted to. Some dark places were better left hidden, away from view.

  “So, does she know that Bastian is heading up Chicago’s Cosa Nostra?” I asked Brey because I knew if anyone could talk sense into Katie, it was her.

  “I should ask you the same thing,” Brey grumbled on the other side of the door.

  “Oh, care to elaborate on that comment?” I did my hair in front of the mirror, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. She probably knew I told Bastian I would help. The Stonewoods rarely kept things from one another, and she was a Stonewood now.

  Our conversation was cut off by the ringtone I loathed. Miranda sang about Mama’s broken heart, and I about threw my phone across the room.

  “Don’t you think you should answer?” Brey mumbled. It was the third time my mother had called while Brey was over.

  “You forget that my mother takes giving in as a weakness. If I answer, she’ll assume her strategy was effective and ring me twelve times in a row the next time she wants to get a hold of me.”

  “Your mom is not that bad,” Brey emphasized.

  That was true, and I saw the way Brey fidgeted while my phone kept ringing. So, I grabbed and silenced it. “She’s absolutely not that bad. We just don’t see eye to eye on some things. You know she’s extremely overprotective of me. She’s obsessed with telling me I shouldn’t be living in the city. Don’t you know how dangerous it is, Brey?”

  She laughed at my widened eyes. “I honestly wish I had parents who doted on me like yours do.”

  I cleared my throat, not knowing what to say but picking my words carefully. Aubrey had lost her mother in a house fire her father had started. She didn’t go visit him in prison, and they didn’t get along.

  My relationship with my parents was nowhere near that complicated. I grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry, best friend. You can call my parents any time.”

  She laughed and shrugged, “I have Jax’s parents. The Stonewood family is priceless.”

  “I bet.” After assessing myself in the mirror, I asked, “Do I look the part?”

  “The part of what? Tinker Bell in Peter Pan?”

  I scoffed. “No, do I look slutty enough to make all the boys look my way but professional enough to be at a work party?”

  She sighed. “Yes to the first, not so much to the second.”

  “Great! Exactly what I’m going for. Steven will die when he sees me,” I proclaimed.

  “He won’t be the only one,” she said. Then she asked, “Do you really care what Steven thinks?”

  “Of course,” I replied a little too quickly. “Why do you ask?”

  “I just …” she cleared her throat and smoothed a flyaway hair. “He’s a bit boring, Vick.”

  “Brey!”

  “I know. I’m not enjoying telling you, but it’s the truth.”

  I giggled at her discomfort. “That’s so rude. He’s not boring, he’s just not complicated. You, of all people. I wouldn’t have expected that coming from you.”

  “I know. I’m a bit bitchy today.”

  “Care to share?”

  “Not yet,” she sighed. “Soon. Just not yet.”

  I nodded and let it go. “So, it’s just him being boring you don’t like?”

  She winced. “You had to ask, didn’t you? Honestly, I think I’m starting to hate hearing him call you Vicky about as much as Katie does.”

  “It isn’t that bad,” I countered as I put on a little more eye makeup to match the green on my costume.

  “Not now. But imagine in a year or two, it might drive you nuts.”

  I shrugged and smoothed some of the leaves into place on my skirt. “He�
�s nice, and he wants to be married in a year or so. He told me on our date.”

  Brey wrinkled her nose at herself in the mirror next to me. “He told you that on your first date?”

  “To be fair, we’ve known each other for years, Brey.”

  “True.” She waved at her face. “Paint me, please.”

  I smiled because Brey never did her makeup when she was going somewhere with me. I took it as a compliment to my past life as a hair stylist and makeup artist during college.

  As she closed her eyes, she pointed to my leotard. “I don’t think I can wear this.”

  “Oh, you are wearing it. You will be jaw-dropping after I finish your makeup. We are going to win this costume contest.”

  “You are.” She cracked open one of her big green eyes. “Or Jett is going to drag you out of the party because of your inappropriate costume.”

  “Drag me?”

  “Yup.” She laughed a little.

  “Hold still. What’s funny?”

  “He’s going to drag you out and have his way with you.”

  “Oh, God. Please. That was a mistake that won’t be happening again. Nor do I want it to.” Even as the words left my lips, I knew they were a lie.

  “You don’t have to hide it from me. I’m married to one. I get it.”

  “Stonewood men, right? Except Jaydon.” I finished her eye shadow.

  “Ew. Definitely not Jaydon.” Brey almost gagged, and I knew it was genuine. He was as close to a brother as she could get.

  “Steven’s been perfect though. Seriously.” I sighed and sat down on the bed atop the glitter of my Victoria’s Secret flight attendant costume. That one was much too revealing even if it was one of my favorites. “He and I go way back. We were able to just comfortably talk and enjoy each other at dinner. He loves working with me, and oh my God, he loves the Stonewoods. Double dates would be amazing.”

  “Or kind of weird. He kind of sucks up to them.”

  I rolled my eyes. “They’re the Stonewoods. You don’t get it, but I was a little starstruck at one point too.”

  She sighed and sat down next to me. “That might be true. It doesn’t really matter if you like him and are comfortable with him though.”