“Dad, don’t!” I pleaded, praying that my voice would reach him through the video call. “Please come back and talk to me.”
Finally, the arguments died down and my father came back out into the living room, thankfully empty-handed.
But something else stunned me.
Tear tracks were running down my father’s weathered face, wetting his white beard.
“Dad—”
He collapsed into the couch as if all the wind had gone out of him, and buried his face in his hands. My mother sat beside him, wrapping her arms around him.
I wished so much that I was right there with them. As a child I cried all the time, and every time I did, my dad would gather me into his arms and envelope me against his barrel chest. That was the only way I would stop crying.
“My baby girl,” Dad said brokenly, his huge shoulders shaking in my mum’s hold. “Dear God, my baby girl. Thank Jesus you’re safe…”
I started tearing too. My father was strong and brash and larger than life, and I’d never seen him break down like this, not ever since we lost Nana.
“Come back home an’ we’ll talk.” He lifted his face, and my heart twisted when I saw the raw pain etched in his lines. His southern accent that he tried to hide was slipping out as well. “We still got everything a’ yours. Din’ touch a thing since you left.”
“I’ll make your favorite apple crumble,” Mum added, forcing a smile through her tears. “Every day, if you want.”
“I can’t,” I said softly. “I have to do this. I’ll take care of myself better, I promise.”
They said nothing, so I pleaded again. “Please trust me. I need to see this through.”
My parents remained deathly silent until my dad let out a harsh exhalation and scrubbed his big hands over his face.
“You said that Jemima James lady will be takin’ your side on this? She backin’ your account?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“OK,” he said quietly, coming to a decision. “Then you do what you need to. Now you give ‘em hell, you hear me? You take that bastard down and don’ stop ‘til you do. You give ‘em hell,” he repeated, fury and determination burning in his blue eyes.
I managed a watery smile. “Okay, Dad. I will. Promise.”
“So what do y’all think?” Cam clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Nice huh.”
Our new office space for Skyline Cap was finally done after months of renovation work that Cam had been overseeing with his interior designers.
In other words, it looked like Cam’s second home.
“Dude, did you kill all the trees in the Amazon for this?” I craned my neck to look around the atrium we were standing in.
It was large enough for over a hundred people, and circling its outer perimeter was a second-floor that held our personal offices and meeting rooms. More impressive was the fact that we were perched on the top of a building in Downtown Manhattan. How Cam got hold of this spot was beyond me, but hey, you can’t name a company Skyline Capital and not have it on the top of a skyscraper.
The interior looked expensive to match, all polished dark wood and glass and raw concrete—probably inspiration from one of those luxury men’s magazines that Cam got all his social cues from.
“What I like most,” I said, “has to be that dog.”
Ryland, Theo and I turned to look at the black-and-tan mutt chilling by Cam’s feet.
Yeah, Cam got himself a dog.
“What breed is it?” Theo asked. I knew he didn’t give a damn about it, just like he didn’t give a damn about anything, but I bet he was asking for Karin who had been bugging him for one.
“A pit bull Rottweiler cross,” Cam said, somehow managing to look both smug and uncertain. “I got her from the shelter last week.”
“Didn’t peg you for a dog guy,” Ryland remarked. “In fact I didn’t peg you for a pet guy at all. They take up way too much time.”
Cam exhaled. “I got her for PR. Everyone loves a good underdog story.”
The feeling—or lack thereof—between Cam and his dog was mutual. The dog shot him a cool, unimpressed look, but when she caught me making moony eyes at her, her face nearly split open with how wide she smiled.
I snickered. Figured that the one person Cam’s dog didn’t like was him. I already loved her.
“You do know that underdog doesn’t mean a literal dog, right?” I got on my haunches and whistled, and she came to me right away. “What’s her name?”
“Cerberus.”
Ryland threw his head back and laughed. “You named a girl dog Cerberus? What are you, twelve?”
Cam shot him an annoyed glance. “It’s badass.”
Theo smirked. “It’s a name a third-grader would choose.”
“Can we stick to the agenda here?” Cam gritted. “Which is the viewing of our office space for the first time? Why the hell is everyone more interested in a dog?”
“Well, obviously ‘cause it’s perfect,” I said, not willing to let up that quickly. “The dog I mean, but the decor?” I held my hand up and made a “meh” gesture. “It’s like you ate a year’s worth of Esquire magazines and threw up all over the place.”
Ryland snorted. “There was zero input from any of us on the interior, Lancaster. Personally I would’ve gone for something less showy and more classic.”
“With no due respect, that sounds fucking boring,” I replied, totally not backing Ryland up.
Ryland scowled. “Valentine. Any comments?”
Ha. As if he’d get any help there. Theo just looked disinterested by the whole thing as if it wasn’t worth his time at all.
“I don’t see the point of saying anything,” he said simply. “It’s all done.”
“Exactly.” Cam folded his arms, looking satisfied as hell. He was obviously having fun bossing us around. “We’re a new brand breaking free from the tired ways of management that’s centuries old. We need modern architecture to reflect that.”
I rolled my eyes. “We need entertainment. Where’s the pinball machine and Wii and the ping pong table? Where’s the basketball hoop for when we wanna let off steam?”
Theo raised a brow. “Are you here to play or work?”
“Speaking of which, who the fuck let this snake in here?” I scratched Cerberus vigorously behind her ears. She flopped over right away, wagging her tail with the goofiest smile on her face.
Yep, still got it. Girls loved me, it was a fact of life.
“Who’s a good girl?” I rubbed her belly and pushed her around on the floor. “You’re a good girl. You make a better dog than Valentine makes a human being, yes you do.”
Theo bristled and took one step towards me—which was what I was just waiting for—then Ryland had to spoil the fun by stepping in.
Like, literally stepping in between us like he was some soccer mum.
“Kids.” He raised his eyes to the ceiling. “If you’re done snapping at each other, I wanna take a look at our offices.”
I flipped Theo off before turning to walk ahead to the second floor. “Dibs on the biggest room.”
“They’re all the same size,” Cam called, sounding annoyed that I had stolen the lead in his presentation.
“Then the one with the best view.”
“It’s New York, asshat, there's no view, just billboards.”
“Fine, then the furthest room from Valentine’s.”
“Way ahead of you.”
Our glass offices were all side-by-side, and like Cam said, Theo’s and mine were on separate ends. Fine by me. Fucker and I did not get along.
My office was furnished in the same style as the rest of the office, which was to say it was very much Cam’s vibe, but honestly? It looked great. I had no complaints.
I found myself smiling quizzically as I strolled around the large room, then went to the floor-to-ceiling windows to look out at the city below. I still didn’t feel whatever it was Jemima loved about New York, but it wasn’t unpleasant either.
I headed back out. “Did you say soundproofed rooms?”
Cam acted like he didn’t hear me. “So basically Level 2 overlooks the main atrium where the action is happening.”
I leaned my forearms on the brushed metal railing and took in the rows of empty desks and computers on the office floor below us. Cerberus was rolling around in the center without a care in the world.
In just a month, this place would be filled with employees of Skyline Capital. People I’d be working with. People who had families that depended on this company for their livelihoods.
Damn.
“Credit where it’s due, Gabe. Your clients are already at our door wanting a share of future profits.” Ryland came out of his office, already armed with a glass of liquor and an open bottle. He raised it to me. “You secured us thirty million in initial investments, with more coming in via venture capital. Not fucking bad for a frat boy from Yale.”
I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. The gravity of this was starting to sink in.
“People can’t help but love me.” I took the bottle Ryland offered and tossed back a mouthful of whiskey before passing it to Cam.
Cam grinned, looking pleased as shit. “When was the last time we had a drink like this?”
Ryland frowned. “Damn, that’s gotta be high school. Back at the Beckett mansion, by the pool. We spent every Friday night there.”
“Good times,” Cam mused, handing the bottle to Theo who took it with a doubtful look. “We did dumb shit as kids, but those were good times.”
I said nothing to that, and neither did Theo. It was fucking transparent to us that Ryland and Cam were trying to bridge the animosity between Theo and I.
Theo finally exhaled, then reluctantly held the bottle out to me without drinking from it. I stared down his cold eyes for a whole ten seconds, and Cam and Ryland just stood there with their heads bouncing between Theo and me like they were watching the world’s most bitter psychic ping pong match.
Was it ever gonna be normal between Theo and me? One day, maybe, but for now emotions were too raw on either of our parts for us to just lay down our arms and kumbaya together. Theo had been my best friend for fuck’s sake, right before he betrayed us all those years ago. Some wounds needed time to heal—if ever.
But for now, I could take that fucking bottle. It was a step.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the whiskey from him, draining it in one go. Ryland and Cam looked like proud parents. Theo’s face was as unreadable as ever, but I knew I didn’t imagine it when I saw some of the tension leave him.
“There.” I planted the empty bottle on the floor. “Happy now?”
“Look at you both,” Ryland said approvingly. “You’re learning to play nice.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered. “Now we’re done with the tour, I need to talk to you guys about something.”
The three guys went silent at that. They knew I was talking about the elephant in the room.
They would have learned about the news from Lena by now. I’d been racking my brain about how best to say it, but fuck, I was just gonna come out with it. Lena deserved that much.
“I guess you’ve heard.” I folded my arms, leaning back against the railing. “About Kline.”
Ryland nodded, his expression going grim. “Allie told me last night, about how Kline attacked Lena.”
My jaw tightened at the reminder. “It’s not a one-off thing either. He’s been targeting women for years. Fuck knows how many he’s hurt.”
“How the hell did that happen under our noses?” Cam looked disturbed. “Why haven’t more folks heard about this?”
“Money,” Theo said. His demeanor was ice-cold—which meant he was pissed as hell. “He likely paid them off, and threatened them with lawyers or went after their families if they declined. I’ve met my fair share of these cunts in my line.”
I nodded once. “In the coming weeks, the news is gonna seriously blow up. More women are gonna come forward, and Jemima will be coming down on him with all she’s got. And when that happens, I need your public support on this. On a business level, and on a personal level. I want us to back the cause completely.”
“I’m in,” Ryland said readily, and Cam and Theo voiced their agreements.
I wasn’t certain they really got what I meant.
“Guys, by all in, I mean all in. You do not do business with anyone who has connections with this guy or supports him privately. You will cut him and his associates off, and make sure every one of our business partners do it too.” I folded my arms, looked each of them in the eye. “It’s not a small request. We’ll lose a significant percentage of our circle and our business.”
“You heard me the first time,” Ryland replied, leveling an even stare at me. “I said I’m in.”
The air had turned cold and angry, and I knew Ryland and Theo were thinking about Allie and Karin, and how furious and helpless they would be if their women had been hurt that way.
Knowing Cam, he was pissed that he hadn’t done more—and therein lay the problem. We all had been part of it, through our blindness and our deafness, whether we were aware of it or not.
Little else was said amongst us, but we knew what had to be done.
“Lena will be happy to know that,” I finally said, relieved that my friends had agreed to my request. “I‘ll send you guys a list of organizations we can work with on this.”
“Sounds good.”
“You may have also heard rumors about how Kline is my biological father.”
Theo didn’t deny it. “Is it true?”
“Unfortunately, yeah.” My jaw hardened. “Not that I’ll ever have anything to do with that motherfucker.”
The guys nodded grimly, but aside that there was no difference at all in the way they regarded me.
I told Lena before that I was surrounded by people who only gave a shit about what I was worth.
I had never been more glad to be proven wrong.
Ryland shifted his weight on his feet, rocking back and forth while trying to look casual. “So. You and Lena. I take it that the two of you have been talking.”
“Mmhmm.” I gave him the same casual look right back.
“Is it serious?” Cam asked straight to the point.
“Yep.”
“Good for you,” Theo said simply. “Karin thinks the world of her.”
And that was as far as we went on the subject. I would die for these guys and them for me—with the exception of Theo, though I’d maybe donate a kidney—but God forbid we spoke about our feelings.
The guys had shit to do afterwards, Cam on his hotel, Ryland to meet with the shareholders, Theo probably to do something illegal again. I wanted to look through our list of potential partners again, so I stayed in the new office.
It was crazy, honestly. It was really starting to hit me that this was a massive responsibility, and I needed to get my shit together more than ever.
Wanting to hear Lena’s voice again, I called her.
“Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
I eased my chair back and propped my shoes on the table. “What are you up to?”
“I’m in Jemima’s personal office. She just stepped out though.”
My brows shot up. “No kidding?”
“Yeah, she gave me access to be closer to the action.” Lena gave a short laugh. “Everyone here is so…polished. I feel like a kid next to them. It’s just so amazing.”
I thought she was amazing. “Tell me more.”
Lena happily started talki
ng about how she spent the day working with Jemima herself on what she now called Operation Nuclear, much to my pride.
“Your grandmother’s really intimidating,” she added. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to talk to her, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
“She’s sweet once you get to know her,” I grinned. “Besides, she already likes you. I can tell.”
“I’d be happy if she just forgot I even existed,” Lena sighed. “How’s the new office?”
“Pretty sweet place, mostly tall windows with the kind of raw-industrial interior that’s all over the interior design mags nowadays.” I grinned at her exclamations. “Cam really outdid himself, not that I’ll tell him that.”
“It’s really happening,” Lena mused. “You must be excited.”
“More apprehensive I guess, but also…kinda hopeful? It’s not gonna be easy—but yeah, I guess I feel weirdly excited by this. Like I can’t wait to get started.”
Lena gave an encouraging hum. “It’s your first time feeling this way, isn’t it?”
“It is.” I was surprised to realize that. “I guess this is my first time working on something and making it my own.”
I sat back in the chair, pondering how I was gonna do it over the coming few years. This respite was probably the last I was gonna have ever again.
“We’re not starting from ground zero though,” I admitted. “We have the privilege of connections and money.”
“Then use them,” Lena said gently. “Do good things with that privilege.”
“We will,” I said, feeling more convinced of this with every passing minute. “Damn, but this is pretty crazy, huh.”
“You’ll be amazing at this,” Lena said, not in a patronizing way, just matter-of-fact as if she could already see it happening.
“I want to see you,” I said, meaning it more than anything I’d ever said. “Come over.”
“Now?”
“Name me a better time.” I added with a grin, “Did I mention our offices have soundproofing?”
My meaning was clear, and Lena knew it too.
“I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Make that twenty. I want you. Bad.”
Lena gave a breathless laugh, and I could hear her already packing her things.
Charming (New York Heirs #3) Page 21